things we lost [open]

@"Poison-Star"

Those birds were practically tripping over themselves to keep up with her. Did this particular human girl have the power to communicate with avian species? Well, her name seemed to indicate it, anyways. Either way, she looked like she knew where she was going and so he had to follow, having already agreed to do so.

Up ahead was a cluster of trees. Strange looking trees, but Yesterday had quickly learned that a variety of things came in many shapes and sizes on earth. He quickly tried to analyze them by their shape alone but found that he had no reference point.

His temperature sensors told him that the ambient air around them just got cooler as soon as they stepped into the shade. So humans liked to congregate in the shade on the beach, right?

"Thank you. I appreciate your efforts to find me sufficient protection from the sun."

@"Poison-Star"

Did he... say something incorrect?

Yesterday cocked his head to the side, his lips set in a straight line. There was no expression on his face, though internally he was attempting to work things out. What had he said? Was there something incorrect about his pronunciation, or maybe his context?

The gulls joined and created quite a din of shrieks and 'laughter', as far as birds could laugh, anyways. Huh, perhaps she did have persuasion over them after all. How curious.

Back to the task at hand, though.

That was a difficult question; he definitely wasn't from around here, but he was trying his hardest to blend in. "No, I am not." But he wasn't lying, right? He could be from another section of the earth. There were just so many that there was no way she may have guessed he wasn't from earth at all.

He hoped so, at least.

"I am from quite far away, in fact."

@"Poison-Star"

Huh? Now she was apologetic, when moments before she had been rather happy. Why were humans so neurotic? They were unpredictable at best, this being one of those times. She was young, too. He had to wonder how older humans reacted.

"There is no need." She hadn't offended him, but then again, being offended required some sort of emotional capacity and he didn't have that. It was easier to forgive anyways, or at least, so he heard.

But her question was... not good. Oh no. His face remained blank as it always was, but he was quickly trying to locate a place he shared traits with and found none.

"...far away." Yes. From outer space, damn it.

@"Poison-Star"

So very far away... Light years away, in fact, with no way to reach his so called home planet without some very, very advanced travel techniques that earth didn't have yet. He himself had never set foot on the planet that his creators came from; he was made and activated on the ship, and that's where he'd been his entire 12 years of existence.

"From... a very different country." His creators looked nothing like humans did, obvious by the fact that they attempted to make him look like one. Obviously they hadn't done a very good job. They knew humans thought smooth skin was beautiful, so they made him so smooth that water rolled off him without leaving a drop and dirt couldn't cling to his skin. They knew humans liked being pale, too, so they made him practically white.

However, his species thought bioluminescence was beautiful and the more the better so they made him glow.

Better to distract from himself. He pointed at one of the seagulls.

"Are these yours?"

@"Poison-Star"

So the birds were... feral. He did a quick search of the word in his database and found it associated with the word 'wild' and 'untamed'. So these weren't her birds, but birds that just decided to follow her. Loud, shrieking birds with high pitched voices and very large, yellow beaks.

Birds liked the girl. That was good to know, though he didn't have any idea when it would ever be useful.

"Mother... Goose..." His dictionary showed him a picture of a goose, but this girl looked absolutely nothing like one. Perhaps it was just metaphorical? Or maybe it was a name that could be associated with her. Humans were so strange.

"They don't call me anything else. Well, not except..." A pause, then he decided against it. The 'name' he'd been given by his creators was simply a sequence of sounds that no human tongue could imitate. "Yesterday." Just Yesterday, then.