things we lost [open]

Horus · Jun 20, 2015

It had been... what, two weeks now?

The sand felt strange under his feet; the first time around, Yesterday hadn't exactly been focused on gathering data. He'd recorded all that had happened, but he was mainly focused on replaying what went down in the pod than he was paying attention to everything around him.

There were no beaches back home, or oceans or sand, or the seagulls that flew overhead. He missed the sound of machinery, the distant clicking of the machines and the cold, hollow echo of metal hallways. Wait... was he even programmed to miss things?

Yesterday shifted his weight from one foot to the other, his internal mechanisms balancing him out as the and moved under him. What a strange feeling. Unlike the others who dotted the beach - few and far between at this time of day - Yesterday wore a full length coat, tall boots, gloves, a scarf and had a transparent umbrella in hand. Humans wore this kind of stuff, didn't they?

But not here, apparently. They showed their skin here, something that he wouldn't do. He knew his skin was odd, slippery and ghostly white, while theirs came in every other colour and was soft and warm to the touch.

He stood there like some sort of bizarre, pale beacon. What was he supposed to do? Was he supposed to feel something? Did humans find his behaviour odd?

Poison-Star · Jun 20, 2015

Her art teacher had told her, "try drawing something other than birds, and no winged humans or angels either," Fine, she'd comply. Reluctantly. Avian walked the shoreline, a pail in one hand and the other ready to pluck a seashell from the sand at any moment. She figured she would gather some seashells, arrange them in a neat pattern, and draw that for her art teacher. They weren't birds, but they were on the beach, which was something Avian enjoyed.

Unlike all the other beach goers, she wore a polka dot sundress, sunhat, and flip flops. Despite her love of the beach, she never liked swim suits. They always made her feel too exposed. As she walked the shoreline, seagulls hopped alongside her, sometimes even bringing their own seashells to her. In fact, they had found more shells that he had! Then she spotted someone. A male standing further down the beach and staring off into oblivion. He stood out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of the beach goers.

The big coat, the big boots, and the big scarf made him look like he belonged in Alaska rather than a beach. Avian wondered how he hadn't gotten heat stroke in such suffocating clothes. Quite curious about this stranger, she carefully approached him like she would an endangered or rare bird. As she got nearer, she pondered for a moment, remembering that a lot of serial killers wore stuff like this in the movies. She wondered if she should still be going towards him, yet the seagulls didn't seem phased by him at all. As long as they were calm, that usually mean the person had good intentions.

"Hello," she said, "Why are you dressed for winter?"

Horus · Jun 21, 2015

@"Poison-Star"

He wanted to bend down and touch the water; maybe he could test the composition and glean some data from that. He wasn't sure why, in particular, or why he even needed it. The humans frolicked in the water and looked to be fine, so it wasn't necessarily dangerous. He just wanted information, to learn and blend in as quickly as possible.

A slight breeze ruffled by, causing the waves to go just a little choppy. He quickly recorded the curve and put it on a chart, storing it away in his data in case that was important. There was just so much to take in that he barely registered someone approaching until she spoke up.

She was as tall as he was even though his facial analysis system told him that she was probably a younger human. Her hair was also equally white, but it didn't give off the same luminescence. She asked him a question, and he immediately scoured his archives for the word.

There were certain things in the language that was just a given. He hadn't looked through a dictionary yet (because he had no idea that they existed) but there were certain words in English that were taken for granted and just never explained. He'd seen 'winter' once or twice, but he never found a definition.

"What's winter?" It was a good of a time to ask as any.

Poison-Star · Jun 21, 2015

Surely he was joking! What did he mean by "what's winter?" Avian cocked her head to one side in confusion. Her seagulls all cocked their heads as well, mimicking her. Now that she was closer to him, she noticed he looked a little off...He could almost be passed as a normal person if it weren't for his strangely colored purple eyes and wirey looking hair. And if it weren't for the fact he didn't seem to know the four basic seasons. Avian had to remind herself she was on an island full of strange people. For all she knew, he could be a dragon with short-term memory loss! Or he might even be a ghost that sunburns easily! On this island, anything was possible!

"Uh, winter is when everything gets cold," she explained awkwardly, "So basically, what I'm asking is, why are you dressed for cold weather? It's a nice day out so why all the heavy clothing?"

Avian didn't mean to pry. She simply wanted to make sure he wouldn't overheat.

Horus · Jun 22, 2015

@"Poison-Star"

Was that too much of an obvious question to ask? What if he'd already immediately gave himself away? How stupid of him, to ask what a 'winter' was. Now how would he worm his way out of this?

The girl was surrounded by the white and grey birds with yellow beaks. He'd heard many names for them including 'gulls', 'seagulls', 'flying rats', so on and so forth. He didn't know which was accurate, so he refrained from calling them anything until he could figure it out. They all cocked their heads to the side when she did, which made him curious as to whether they were intelligent or not.

"Oh..." So it was when everything got cold. Okay, he could deal with that. Was it winter in a fridge? By that definition, probably.

He paused for another few moments, then shook his head. How was he supposed to explain this one away? "I... have a skin reaction to the sun?" Which meant he was uselessly shading himself with a transparent umbrella. Ha, maybe he should've said something else.

Poison-Star · Jun 22, 2015

"I... have a skin reaction to the sun?"

"Oh, sorry!" she said quickly, "I didn't know,"

Looking at his snow white hair, she wondered if he was an albino. She herself had white hair, but it was only dyed white. Although Avian could possibly pass as an albino. She never went down to the beach before coating herself heavily with sunscreen!

"So what's your name? I'm Avian! Nice to meet you!" she grinned at him and stuck out her hand for him to shake.

She'd usually walk past any strangers so as to avoid any social situations. But recently, she had been trying to be more outgoing around others. So as long as this guy wasn't going to bite her hand off, she figured he was a good person to practice being outgoing around.

Horus · Jun 22, 2015

@"Poison-Star"

Oh, she seemed to believe that, but now she seemed quite apologetic. He didn't mean for her to feel bad, really, but he just nodded along as if it were a normal thing. Yep, totally normal. Nothing odd about it. Just a weird skin reaction to the sun, though his head was more or less all exposed.

The human girl - she mentioned her name was Avian - stuck out her hand to him. Ah, he'd seen this one before. A human greeting! How interesting, but he supposed he was being convincing enough if she treated him like one of her species. He knew what to do this time around, though he hesitated a little as he reached out and grasped her smaller hand in his.

"My name is Yesterday." He'd seen it on the report, spotted over the official looking human's shoulder at the police station. He didn't know what it meant at the time, but the combination of letters and length made it sound like a name.

Poison-Star · Jun 23, 2015

"Yesterday...Yesterday..." Avian mumbled to herself as she shook his hand, "That's a neat name!"

She let her hand fall to her side again, the observed her seagull friends for a moment. They didn't seem bothered in the slightest by Yesterday. Instead, they curiously hopped around him, looking as if they were confused by him. It was almost like they couldn't figure out what he was. Maybe he really was a ghost who was sensitive to sunlight!

"What are you doing out here if you're so sensitive to the sun?" she asked, "I can find you some shade...um, only if you want,"

She knew some few shady spots on the beach that she would often sit at and draw.

Horus · Jun 23, 2015

@"Poison-Star"

It was a neat name? What did 'neat' mean? Wasn't it supposed to mean tidy? Humans had so many alternative meanings that it got very confusing, but he wouldn't ask this time around or else it'd make him look weirder than he probably already looked.

Yesterday eyed the strange birds that hopped curiously around him, occasionally wandering within a foot of him before skittering off and letting out a series of... shrieks. They were loud. He wondered if they were friendly, but they seemed to be the girl's pets and sometimes pets weren't... Apparently. Everything was theoretical at this point.

That was a good question, though.

"I... uh..." He stammered, unsure of what to say. He quickly pulled out generic phrases and vocabulary, processing it all in a blink of an eye. "I like the atmosphere."

Did that make sense? Probably not.

But it was too late to backpaddle now. Attempting to do so would blow his cover even more, and he nodded even though the sun was fine with him. "Yes, that would be ideal. Thank you."

Poison-Star · Jun 23, 2015

All his words seemed to be carefully chosen, so carefully chosen that he looked like he was worried about what words to use. However, Avian didn't find his stammering to awkward. She was once that kind of person: tripping over her own sentences and being so nervous around strangers that she'd say things she didn't mean.

Still, his carefully chosen words were very stiff. "ideal", "atmosphere", those weren't usually words people used on a day to day basis. So maybe he was a ghost with sensitive skin and...social issues?Either way, Avian smiled and nodded, then started to walk off to the shade.

"Okay, come on then!" she said.

All the gulls that were studying Yesterday now fluttered off with her, not wanting to be left behind. Avian headed up the beach, her eyes on a cluster of palm trees up ahead.

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things we lost [open]

Horus

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Horus

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