The age of the fallen beast

Previously

…This was, Aris supposed, the new normal. A world where the impossible had become… inconveniently mundane. He ran a hand through his hair, a sense of calm settling over him. He was a paleontologist. He studied the past. And for now, the past had finally, blessedly, stayed in the past. He picked up his book, ready to lose himself in the familiar, predictable world of ancient reptiles, a world where the only roars were in his imagination. And as he read, he could hear the faint, rhythmic whirring of Nibbles at work, a small, comforting sound in the quiet apartment, a sign that even in a world turned upside down, some things, some very small and determined things, could still be fixed.