View source for User:Sivle/The National Museum of Changed History Grand Opening

{{Universe|Paradise}}
{{my stories
|name=Sivle
|category=Sivle
}}

{{title
|name=The National Museum of Changed History Grand Opening
|author=Sivle
|user=Sivle}}

August 17, 2020
CHICAGO - The National Museum of Changed History has officially opened today, which is the first day when the entire world became Changed, according to estimates. Hart of Gold and WildOne headlined the opening ceremony, playing Strangers by Raj Ramayya. 

Several key people attended the grand opening, including former Congressman Phillip Sandrick, a badger who helped the U.S. government devise plans to prepare for the Change in the mid-2000s. “Looking back at it all, I couldn’t believe that we were able to Change the country, pun intended, but thanks to the help of several people, we succeeded.”

Among others, the museum has an exhibit detailing the work of activists and grassroots leaders, filled with transcripts and recordings of interviews. A few artifacts of note include the presentations of Carter, Rob, and Chirstopher (now Christiana) Matthias during Sandrick’s meeting back in 2003.

Said Christiana, currently a female Rottweiler, “It’s such an honour to have my early research now forever enshrined in a museum. It honestly feels a little weird that something I made is now part of history!” Chirstopher/Christiana Matthias is famous in the Changed community for early research and having four animal states and being TG.

The first exhibit details the history of the Change, and the challenges to document it. It includes the first Sleeping Sickness bracelets to “mark” individuals as Changed so that doctors would not accidentally harm them because of the individuals' new physiology, with Dr. Bryce Clay serving as the narrator for the exhibit. It also included interviews of the first Changed individuals who shared their experiences of being the first ones.

“This exhibit is great; it really captured the Changed who were suffering the sense of loneliness and confusion in those early years.” said Ray De Smet, a fox, also known as Number Two in the Changed community. “It’s a shame but not all that surprising Teri isn’t here.” 

Teri, a vixen, is famous for being the very first individual to have Changed, and also having a reclusive life because of that title. However, there are rumours that she’ll donate some personal items to the museum’s collection.

The biggest exhibit in the museum was dedicated to how the Change influenced and transformed the culture, and houses most of the museum’s collection. Artifacts include early prototypes of Furgonomics products, the severs that hosted the first Changed forums, the first draft of Portia Henderson’s Changed romance novel, and the camera that filmed the One Life to Live episode with Tiffany Tanner.

One part of the exhibit is dedicated to the infamous Changed convention of 2007, where so many Changed convened that it broke the Field, which prevented non-Changed from seeing the Changed as their true selves.

“There’s something ironic that a Field-destroying event was the first step in building the world’s trust and acceptance of us.” said Brittany Derringer, a con attendee. “Now everyone can witness how we brought down the Veil - and a breakfast banner!”

She particularly liked the exhibit on discrimation that the Changed community faced, including interviews from the Melton Eleven, eleven Changed who were kidnapped and placed in a makeshift zoo by Hugh Melton who saw them little more than animals, until he - now she - mysteriously disappeared when the Melton Eleven escaped. It is rumoured Helena (formerly Hugh) Melton married one of the Eleven; however the Eleven refused to confirm it.

The curation of interviews, photographs, recordings, and the like happened over the course of several years, with the help of a few individuals including Walter Lundh,  Robert “Rob” Hallman, Serena Frost, and Shiloh Watson, a Canadian raccoon, whose journalism equipment used to document the lives of Changed is also on display.

“Phil Graham once said that journalism is the first rough draft of history. In this case, I’m giving my contributions and assistance to the museum to help write the final copy.”

There is one question that remains: now that the whole world Changed, what will happen beyond 2020?

“It’ll just keep going, I bet,” said the museum owner, a stag who only wants to be known as JS. “We’ve already reached the limit, but considering that we’re living beings in a simulated universe within a post-Singularity cloud of computronium, what’s there to stop the ‘furry virus?’”

The museum is open from 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM every day of the week.

[[Category:Sivle]][[Category:Story]] [[Category:Paradise]] [[Category:Anthropomorphic]] [[Category:Non-TF story]]