Chapter Text
It had been almost 5 years since they had left the tablet at the British Museum, none of them had been alive since then. Not until now. Had Octavius not known the fate that had befallen them the last time they had experienced a sunrise, he wouldn't be able to tell the difference between waking up years later and any other day. As he slowly came back to consciousness, he observed the world around him come to life once again.
The realization slowly dawned on him. The dioramas he had known years ago had been expanded, the few temples and courthouses of Rome’s past had been replaced with a sprawling cityscape. Long gone were the days of the singular forum, there were houses, shops, farms, and baths. The streets had been re-paved and re-routed to cover the whole area of their section of the exhibit. From what he could see, the wild west area had increased territory as well, adding a large field and a finished train track. It was certainly a change, but a welcome one to him. It was becoming difficult to function as an empire when they only had four buildings. None of them even had a proper home, so any and all growth of the territory he ruled was a pleasant affair.
He took it upon himself to begin wandering the streets, experiencing the closest thing to the real Rome he had since his past life. While he meandered, thoughts of his last night alive returned to him. He hadn't gotten to say goodbye to his people. They didn't even know what was coming to them. He had made the decision not to tell them assuming they likely wouldn't come back from this. The knowledge of upcoming, unavoidable death would only have filled the public’s last moments with anxiety and chaos. He only had their best interests at heart, he rationalized. This wouldn't stop the citizens of Rome from coming to their own conclusions about his real motives behind not informing them of their oncoming demise, but that was all in due time. For now, he was taking in the sights of the city.
This new version of Rome was much closer to the one he remembered, although his memories of his life before this had faded significantly with the deterioration of the tablet. His memories had always been somewhat vague, though not as unclear as some of the other Romans, who had been created only for the diorama and thus had almost no previous sense of self. He had been lucky in that regard, being put in charge let him experience the terror the other citizens were truly dealing with. He missed being able to remember his old life, the experiences were a comfort in times of uncertainty, knowing he had dealt with worse. Additionally, the loss of what scarce amount of memories of his family was becoming harder to cope with as the realization he was going to be alive again fully set in. His only real regret had not been being closer to his family, his daughter in particular. He had always been so busy with his political career, and a daughter was not given the same opportunities as a son would have, so he was hardly present in her childhood. By now, he could hardly recall what became of her after that. It was one of the few things he couldn't get an easy do-over of as a miniature figure.
Around him, the diorama figures were coming to life again and the city streets were filling with life and activity again. People appeared to briefly question what had happened, but then they seemed to carry on with their daily tasks with relative normalcy. Without the obvious change of scenery, he wondered if any of the citizens would have even noticed how much time went by. He felt some guilt about this, suddenly second-guessing his decision to forgo any mention of the tablet’s departure to them. He didn't have too much time to wallow in this as Larry was approaching him.
“Octavius, it's been a while,” he said. “How are you holding up?”
“Considering everything, I think I’m fairing well, how have you been these past years?”
“Busy, but I've missed you guys. The museum has been pretty empty without you all. I helped organize the diorama expansion if you hadn't guessed. We added some new areas in addition to the expansions.” He gestured vaguely to the northwest, “Over there is Constantinople, straight ahead is the American Progressive era, and to the right is the French Revolution. The Wild West hasn't moved, but it did expand,” he said pointing in its direction.
Octavius knew of none of these eras, but he made a note to try and communicate with them amicably to the best of his ability in the coming weeks. Before he could do any of that, he had to deal with the task of telling all of Rome about what happened to them. He thought the easiest way to do this was to organize a public address, so that everyone would be present, from the farmers to the senate members. This would take him a few days to coordinate, as he had to deal with scheduling as well as preparing what he would say. “Sorry for not telling you all you were going to die, I didn't think we'd come back,” wasn't exactly an easy thing to say to the people you had been in charge of for over half of a century.
A few nights later he had prepared his speech, and people were gathering in the forum to hear him make it. “there is no simple way of putting this,” he began. “As you may be aware by now, the tablet had been out of the museum for about 5 years before this. I was well aware of its removal but believed it in the people's best interests to keep the information to myself to avoid panic. now that it’s all over, it would be going against my morals to not inform you of this. In the time of the tablet's absence, it is clear that our city has been expanded to fit better for our community. in addition to this, there are new regions to explore and new people to create diplomatic relations with.”
There was a significant clamor from the crowd following his address, but after the initial shock had been absorbed, the crowd mostly dissolved, leaving Octavius standing at the podium alone. It could've gone worse, he thought.