At first, all I could decipher was many beings writhing on the floor below me, moving together as if one overall organism. As my eyes started to adjust to the scene, I was able to make out individuals and pairs and groups as their own separate entities apart from the whole. And they were all fucking; it was a full on, no holds barred, all out orgy happening in the central rotunda at the natural history museum.
In one section were a number of Greek statues in a loose circle, their white marble hands jacking off each others' white marble penises, their white marble mouths and tongues all over each others' white marble bodies.
In another area, a group of homo erectuses were enthusiastically gang banging what looked like a pioneer woman, her skirt pushed up and her top unbuttoned so her breasts were bared, her bonnet missing in the action, her whoops and hollers making it clear she was just as enthusiastic a participant.
A large lion was mounting a giraffe, which was crouching down so the big cat could reach, its neck craned back to watch the lion and cheer it on.
A dungeon of sorts was set up in one area of the rotunda, with many displays strapped to a variety of frames and apparatuses while other displays whipped and teased and beat them with a variety of implements. I have no idea where all of the devices came from, but I imagined a lot of it was brought in from the various exhibits around the museum. I supposed there would be a treasure trove of dungeon material in the museum, if you were creative enough. For example, one of the large crosses that now held a bound and gagged Viking (whose butt and thighs were being deeply reddened by a very determined-looking Samurai) looked very familiar, although I believe its use in the exhibit was somewhat different.
I could even make out a group of the tiny figures from the miniature Pompeii (before the eruption) exhibit going at it with a group of the tiny Indigenous figures from the miniature pre-colonial North American village exhibit, both groups having a fabulous time fucking each other senseless.
There was so much going on below me, so many weird and wonderful pairings and groupings, all I could do was stare in awe. I was completely enthralled and more than a little turned on. To be honest, my brain couldn't process much thought beyond "wow!" and "oh wow!" and "holy shit!" as I got wetter and wetter watching the ever changing scene below me. I don't know when Donna, the neanderthal that had led me there, left, but I definitely stood there staring for a long time because the next thing I knew, my watch alarm that let me know when it was 2:45 am, or 15 minutes until the end of the Living Hours, beeped on my wrist and jolted me out of my fixation. At that point, the displays downstairs were starting to detach themselves from each other and leave the rotunda with the various implements they had brought with them.
As I hurried to do my final Living Hour checks, the visuals of what I had just witnessed played through my head. I couldn't believe that this was what Ricardo and Peter and everyone else had been keeping from me all these months, and I couldn't understand why they didn't want me to see it. Did they think I would be offended (because I absolutely was not) and quit or something??
Either way, I couldn't wait to talk to Peter about it - I didn't think he would be mad at me for finally sneaking a peek, I mean, it had to happen eventually, right? And the thought that maybe he felt the same way that I did and we could actually use the rotunda ourselves, well, that idea got me so excited.
But I had no choice but to wait to talk to Peter; after watching the orgy for as long as I did and then having to rush through my checks, the Living Hours had come to an end. I wouldn't be able to talk to Peter until the following night. The rest of my shift dragged on, boring as ever, the museum silent as a tomb. I walked past Peter on his pedestal a few times, admiring how fearsome and imposing he looked while knowing how kind and caring he actually was. It drove me crazy having to wait to share my rotunda experience with him!
When I switched off with Ricardo the following morning, I did not tell him that I had broken his rule, of course. I wasn't sure it was a fireable offense, but I wasn't taking any chances, especially since he had made such a point about it. I just grabbed my things, had a quick chat, and then rushed off to count the hours until I could return that evening.
That night, the first few hours of my shift felt like a million years, I think I looked at the clock every 10 seconds or so. I definitely paced the entire museum several times over in order to try to make the time go faster. Finally, it was a few minutes to midnight, so I hurried over to Peter's exhibit to wait for him to wake up. I think I started talking before he was even fully conscious.
"Peter! Oh my god, I have to tell you. I know I wasn't supposed to, but then Donna said I should so I did and wow, just wow! It was amazing!! I can't believe that happens every night! The things I saw! Did you know-" I rambled excitedly until Peter cut me off.
"I know you went to the rotunda, I had several displays come up to me last night to tell me that they saw you ogling them over the bannister," he began, not sounding too pleased. "I wish you had come to me first, this is not how you should have found out about that."
My excitement dwindled a bit and was replaced by frustration. "I did come to you, I asked you so many times what was going on in there and you refused to tell me! What was I supposed to do, just ignore it forever? In retrospect, I think I knew for ages what was going on, it's not like anyone is super subtle about it. So when Donna nudged me towards -"
"Donna? Donna the neanderthal?" Peter cut me off again to ask.
"Yeah, that Donna, so when she-"
Peter let out a growl of exasperation. "Fucking Donna! Oh, it all makes so much sense now!"
I had had enough. "Number 1, do not cut me off again. That is rude and I will not put up with it. Number 2, why does Donna showing me the rotunda orgy make sense? Hardly any of this makes sense! You have refused to tell me anything for months, now you're angry at me for finding out for myself - which, hello! I work here, I should probably know what is going on - and I don't understand why! Why is it Ricardo's only rule that I don't know? Why have you been weird about it? Why was Donna so insistent that I know? Tell me everything right now or I'm-I'm going to quit!" I yelled up at him, glaring and jabbing a finger in his direction with every salient point. I hadn't really thought through my threat of quitting, I'm not sure I would have gone that far, but in the heat of the moment I needed something that would get his attention and get him to tell me what I wanted to know.
Peter looked down and shook his head, clearly debating something internally, taking a moment before responding. Then he settled to almost lie down so that he was on a better level for me.