Trash Panda

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Thanks! I had a good time with my family. My mom just got a new puppy, so we brought our dog with us for a play date this weekend ^^

Anyway, I'll hopefully be getting a post up soon! I just have to focus on getting a lot of work done on my project first

~Bonsoir~

Sorry for the delay! I was visiting my parents this weekend, so I didn't really write. I've also got a lot of work to do on my project this week, so I'll be squeezing in a post whenever I can! My next one will most likely be long, so I don't want to half ass it when I don't have much time.

New World Contention [AnnaWinters & Summer]

Azdrei’in wondered what purpose Artemis had in keeping the bunny if it wasn’t meant to be food. He assumed she was planning to use it for something, since she had bothered to catch it and bring it into her home. As he held it in his hand, the small creature began to squirm, so he set it back down in its container. He was curious to find out what it tasted like even though she didn’t see it as a food source. Having lived his entire life on a spaceship, he hadn’t yet had the opportunity to hunt for himself. He and the rest of the Lunvalgan people had been living off supplemental meals that had been created by nutrition scientists to replace the meat they would have eaten on Ashad’te. The instinct to kill and consume his own prey still existed inside of him though, and he was eager to eat fresh meat rather than bland, artificial stuff from a lab.

When the human said something about food, he turned away from the bunny and watched as she removed a few slabs of meat from another large container. They looked like they had been stored from a creature that had been killed in advance, probably a cow since she had told him that was an animal her kind ate. Whatever it was, the sight captured his attention, and his mouth watered as she placed the cuts of meat on the table.

He understood the concept of freezing something to preserve it, so while a few of the words Artemis used didn’t register, he knew she was explaining to him that she had frozen the food so it wouldn’t spoil. It was her next explanation that was more difficult for him to grasp. He stared at her as she said something about the bunny and then proceeded to show him a video of her with a hairy, four-legged animal like the one he had seen near the pile of bags in the ruins. The only common word between the two phrases she spoke was ‘pet,’ but he couldn’t tell exactly what it meant based on the context alone.

Perhaps she had seen the blankness of his stare, because he didn’t have to ask her before she went on to explain herself more in depth. He found it interesting that humans ate more than just meat. It answered the question he’d had about the dulled shape of their teeth. They didn’t just have to rip and tear into their food; they also had to grind plants like herbivores did. Their diets were obviously more diverse than that of his own people, who dined exclusively on other animals to survive, and as she told him that she ate vegetables most of the time, he wrinkled his nose with distaste.

“I don’t eat vegetables,” he spoke the last word slowly, finding it harder to pronounce than the others. “Vegetables… are bad. I eat meat.” He was unsure if he was using every word properly, but he felt like he’d strung enough of them together to get his point across. Besides, she had probably already guessed his palate of preference since she knew his kind hunted their food. He had just wanted to make sure she understood the dietary difference between them and practice her language again.

Her explanation that she didn’t kill her food either baffled him. From what his elders had told him, meat tasted the best when it was fresh and the animal was young. If one waited for an old creature to die before eating it, it would be a bland, stringy meal. Only scavengers did that. Lacking the word to say so, he substituted with “Human are not predator” and presented her with a vision of an aged beast on Ashad’te collapsing into the grass, where it was surrounded by a pack of lenphe: small, six-legged creatures with leathery blue skin and jagged teeth that scavenged the carcasses of dead animals.

When Artemis introduced the word ‘friend,’ Azdrei’in finally grasped the meaning of ‘pet’ as well. It seemed like humans formed bonds with other humans as well as with other creatures, differentiating the connections with two separate terms. The bunny was an animal she had become attached to. He looked at it again, mildly disappointed with the realization that she wouldn’t be happy if he turned her pet into his dinner. It was probably for the best though. He wanted his first hunt to be a challenge, so scooping a tiny animal out of a box would be too easy.

Then she brought up the fact that he hadn’t killed her, and he turned back to her somewhat cagily. Only because I did not have the chance, he corrected her silently. It was true that she didn’t kill—and that she was generally less violent than he’d expected a human to be—but he hadn’t let her live because he was planning to spare her. The smile on her face made him concerned that she had gotten the wrong idea since he hadn’t finished her off the instant he’d woken up.

At her question, he hesitated. While he was enjoying learning about her species, the fact remained that he was still under orders to kill every human he came across. His leaders hadn’t made any exceptions for humans who didn’t seem to have been affected by Strizin. Although, on the other hand, they may not have even been aware that there was at least one Earthling who was possibly immune to the virus. Absently, he touched the spot on his belt where he had kept his communication device. He would have informed the other Lunvalgans of his discovery if he’d still had it with him, but he had no idea where Artemis had put it. Until he got it back, he couldn’t tell anyone that he’d found a human who was still in good health and who didn’t act as savagely as they’d predicted.

“Human kill Lunvalgan,” he stated, stepping toward her slowly. He hadn’t wanted to tell her that he was still going to follow his orders so soon, but now that the subject had been brought up, he had to address it. “We are not too many,” he continued, attempting to describe their waning population on the ship, which was the reason why they were so careful to protect themselves. To clear up the point, he showed her a mental image of a large, nearly empty room with only a few of his people inside of it. “I kill human; human don’t kill Lunvalgan. Earth home.”

Stopping in front of her, he touched his finger to the side of her neck, tracing the tip of his claw against her fragile skin. He didn’t know enough of her language to continue discussing the topic, but he made up for the deficit by projecting feelings of distrust and urgency. He wanted her to understand that he didn’t think that he could let her live without repercussions. It was his duty to make sure that the rest of his people were safe on this new planet, and if anyone got hurt because he spared one human’s life, he would never forgive himself.

“You talk friend,” he said in a low tone, narrowing his eyes at her warily. “I don’t know not lie.” As he spoke, he held his hand against her throat and hovered warningly. The gesture was meant to intimidate, so she would know he hadn’t abandoned the thought of killing her, but a part of him was also curious to see how she would react. With his claws poised to dig into her flesh, he wanted to know if she would cower, become violent, or otherwise react to the confrontation.

New World Contention [AnnaWinters & Summer]

As Azdrei’in showed Artemis images of different aspects of his life, he paid attention to the words she spoke to describe each one, learning how humans referred to them. She threw a lot at him at once, but he was able to keep up easily enough. Like the rest of his kind, he was a rapid learner, absorbing new information and piecing it together with the limited context he had to understand it. He picked up on the way she strung multiple words together, memorizing the patterns of her speech and storing each word away in a mental bank from which he could draw it out again when he needed to reply to her. The language she spoke slowly became more complex as she introduced more terms other than things he could see or touch, but he was determined to grasp it, so he observed her closely.

He found it interesting that she compared his people to a type of six-legged creature on her own planet. Apparently the nuances of their society existed in other species as well. He watched the screen as she went on to give him examples of the jobs humans took up. Many of them reminded him of similar roles among Lunvalgans. His people also had physicians, teachers, scientists, mechanics, and other specialized workers. There were plenty of duties that needed to be taken care of on their ship, and every individual played a part in helping the craft run smoothly. There would be even more jobs to fill when they began colonizing the Earth.

He followed along as she described the nature of predatory animals with their prey, understanding the concept right away. It was interesting to him that humans had abandoned hunting as they’d evolved. His people had also developed methods of trapping and killing prey with tools, but that had never become their sole method of hunting. Instead, they had more of a hybrid between humans’ resourcefulness and other species’ basic tactics of stalking and pouncing.

“I hunt,” he spoke slowly, trying another attempt at her language. Alongside the statement, he sent her a memory he’d seen from one of his elders, one of a group of Lunvalgans chasing down an animal not so dissimilar from the antelope she had showed him. The creature in the vision had bluish hair though with white stripes that luminesced under the light of Ashad’te’s three moons. The group of Lunvalgans, who shared similar swirling patterns on their skin that glowed in the darkness, had separated the beast from its herd and drove it into a trap. Only when the animal had collapsed did they finally shoot it between the eyes at close range with a gun.

“No hurt antelope,” he explained, trying to convey that his people didn’t torture their prey when they hunted. When possible, they killed their food swiftly, so it wouldn’t suffer. The mercy they showed was both for the beast’s sake as well as for their own, since the meat tasted better when their prey hadn’t been panicked and fighting for its life before it died. To him, it seemed like a superior method over the way humans apparently slaughtered their food in masses. His people took what they needed one day at a time and left the other creatures to roam free when they weren’t needed to feed the Lunvalgan tribes.

Artemis’s following description of how humans were like a plague to their planet lined up with what he’d been told. It interested him that she viewed her own species that way though. There was no pride in the way she spoke of the other Earthlings, only condescension of their violent ways. He found the diversity of her kind fascinating though. Among the pictures she showed him, he saw some humans with fair skin and bright features like hers but also some with darker pigmentation that reminded him of his own people. However, even the darkest among humans were different because their coloring was a shade of brown rather than gray, and their eyes and hair matched. In contrast, Lunvalgans had dusky complexions with pale irises and white hair.

The videos she showed him of other species captured his attention, and he watched them with his head cocked slightly to the side, wondering if humans had encountered people from other planets in the past. However, when she spoke about something being untrue afterward, he concluded that the video hadn’t been real. Creating images like those on the screen were probably her kind’s method of telling stories, since they didn’t share tales telepathically like his people did.

He turned toward her when she explained the word ‘story,’ understanding it to mean an imaginary history. Lunvalgans had plenty of those as well, although they weren’t told using technological devices. Her example with a race of people with pointed ears entranced him, and he leaned toward the screen, intrigued by the way they spoke. The sounds were similar to his own language, and he almost felt like he was listening to a different dialect spoken by a high-pitched Lunvalgan.

When Artemis suddenly spoke in the language as he was hearing in the video, Azdrei’in turned back to her with a surprised expression. He hadn’t expected her to speak more than one tongue. “You are a captivating creature,” he mused in his own language, his pellucid eyes wandering over her smaller frame. Although he was still a little chagrined that a human had been able to knock him out, he was glad that he hadn’t killed this one right away. Earthlings may have been a violent species, but he was discovering that there was much more to them than just the wars they fought amongst themselves. He wouldn’t have learned that if he’d shot her among the cows.

Interest piqued, he reached out to take her by the wrist, lifting her arm to touch her light skin with his other hand. She was softer than his own people, more fragile. He felt like he could snap the limb if he applied enough pressure. However, he wasn’t cruel enough to experiment with the theory, so he let her go as he circled her once, taking in her lithe figure from every angle before he left her side to wander the room. He found the fake cat he’d seen in the picture, but he also found a living creature. There was a small, hairy animal inside a box-shaped container. He leaned over it, wondering if it was a source of food for her like the cows.

“Mouse prey?” he queried, turning back to Artemis and gesturing at the tiny creature. While he explored the Earth, he was going to have to eat at some point, and he was interested in finding out which animals made the best meals.

At the thought, he frowned. He was enjoying learning about humans and their planet, but he was getting sidetracked from his orders. He couldn’t stay here forever. He also wondered what Artemis would do if she knew that he hadn’t forgotten he was supposed to kill her. Would she become violent, as her people were known to do? That is a question best saved for later, he decided, reaching into the container to scoop the animal up with one hand. The hair on its body was exceptionally soft, and its pink nose twitched in a curious manner.

“Food?” he rephrased his question to make it clearer, idly trailing a clawed finger down the length of its back.

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Seems like that's what always happens xD

I may not write much this weekend because I'm visiting my parents, just so you know!

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Cas blinked in surprise when Iris blamed their situation on the moment he’d rescued her in the woods. Does she seriously think I’d be better off if she’d died? He thought in disbelief. He’d known that she had been feeling bad about what she’d done, but he hadn’t realized just how deeply her pain had cut her. To hear her say that it would have been better for her to have lost her life in the woods broke his heart, and he bit his lip, fighting the urge to hold her. As much as he wanted to, he was afraid of opening the door too wide and getting too close to her again. He knew himself well enough to predict that if he let himself be anything more than an acquaintance to her, he was going to fall just like he had when they’d first met.

“Don’t say that,” he murmured, leaving his hand placed on her arm. “Neither of us knows what would have happened if I hadn’t helped you. Something tells me your dad would have found a way to get what he wanted whether it was you who did the dirty work or someone else.” He shuddered, certain that it was true. There were plenty of other rebels around who would have been more than happy to kill him in Iris’s place. Her kind heart was the only reason why he hadn’t been assassinated while he was still in the capital. “In a way, I think it was a good thing you were involved, because you’re the only one who would have realized that what he was doing was wrong and helped me get away. I owe you my life just like you owed me yours.”

At the sound of Maisie’s voice, he looked up, relieved to see that the other woman had returned. He desperately wanted to console Iris, but it wasn’t his place to do so when they already had a history that they needed to forget. Her friend would be a better resource for her to rely on right now, so he didn’t inadvertently pour salt on fresh wounds.

“Good idea,” he agreed with a yawn when she said they should get some sleep even though it was early. Honestly, he’d lost track of the time long, long ago. All he knew was that he was so exhausted, he was starting to develop a tremor. He had so little energy left that he could barely hold himself upright, and the thought of getting a full night of sleep was enticing.

When she mentioned her idea to get them past Ethan, he listened with interest, happy to know that she was still going to help them sneak through the gate even after they left. “I say that I’m willing to try anything at this point,” he expressed with a sigh and a shake of his head. “If you think that might work, then we should do it.” Turning back to Iris, he frowned concernedly and squeezed her arm. “Come on. You should get some sleep. You need it just as much as I do,” he coaxed her, hoping she would actually sleep when she went with her friend. They probably had a long and hard journey ahead of them tomorrow, and that meant they needed to build up the strength to handle it.

New World Contention [AnnaWinters & Summer]

Interestingly, it seemed like the human was even more excited about communicating with him than he was with her. As a smile appeared on Artemis’s face, Azdrei’in’s gaze dropped to her mouth, taking notice of the rounded shape of her teeth. On the outside, her species shared many similarities with Lunvalgans, but he was beginning to find more differences the more time he spent with her. Apparently, Earthlings lacked the predatory traits that helped his people survive. She didn’t have fangs and, upon sneaking a glance at her hands, he saw that she didn’t have claws either. Her skin looked more delicate than his as well.

It was a wonder to him that such a defenseless race had established themselves as the dominant species on this planet. It must have been their intelligence that set them apart rather than their ability to establish themselves as the strongest species. On Ashad’te, his ancestors had done the same thing, but they had still used their sharp ends to bring down prey to eat when they were hungry. The thought led him to ponder what humans ate if they didn’t have the same hunting tools as his kind did.

That was a question for another time though as Artemis responded to his inquiry about what the word ‘water’ meant. The look on her face when he shared a vision of his people’s planet amused him. Judging by her shocked expression, he guessed that humans didn’t communicate telepathically like Lunvalgans did, but she was still able to receive signals from him. That would make it easier for him to speak with her, at least. Even if she couldn’t answer the same way, he could send her images and impressions to clear up misunderstandings.

It was a pity that her species had been deemed too violent to cohabitate with. He leaned against the tall table while he watched her draw more pictures on her device. Despite their decision to commit mass genocide, his people weren’t unreasonable killers. They had only spread the disease to eliminate the human race because they’d feared that if they didn’t strike first, the Earthlings would have killed them as soon as they tried to land their ship. By proving themselves to be a savage species, the humans had brought their extinction upon themselves. He was just glad that this one wasn’t as quick to kill, so he could learn more about her kind before they were all gone.

He still kept a close eye on her, just in case she suddenly snapped and became hostile, but for the most part, he’d relaxed while she was preoccupied with speaking with him. His posture was mellow, with his shoulders down and back and his breathing slow and even. When he’d first landed on the planet, he hadn’t thought that he would spend his time interacting with one of the creatures he’d been sent to finish off, but he had wanted to learn as much about the Earth as he could. What better way to do that than by talking directly with one of the beings native to this world?

When another screen turned on nearby, he jumped, caught off guard by the sudden motion until he registered that Artemis had somehow connected it to the smaller device on the table. Human technology was different than what his people had developed, but it was advanced in its own way. Fascinated, he crossed the room to take a closer look at the larger screen, watching as the human’s drawings were replicated on it. The next one told a familiar narrative, seeming to depict Earthlings at war with one another while the natural world rumbled around them. It was the reason why the Eilix had decided they needed to die.

After the image was pulled down, he followed along as she presented a series of photos and videos to him that painted a picture of what had happened when his people had released Strizin over their planet. As the images flashed before his eyes, Azdrei’in shifted his weight uncomfortably. He understood that sending a plague had been a necessary evil, but it was easier to see it that way when he was removed from the virus’s direct effects. Watching the deterioration of Artemis’s family elicited a pang of dissonance inside of him. The pain she endured was the same pain his elders had experienced when they’d watched the people closest to them die back on Ashad’te.

As she moved on to pictures of herself, he gained some insight into the reason why she was so eager to speak with him. It looked like she had been alone since the virus had taken her relatives’ lives. He looked away from the screen to peer at her over his shoulder in quiet contemplation. If humans were social creatures like Lunvalgans, she must have been deprived of interacting with anyone else for quite some time. He did have to wonder why she seemed to have been immune to Strizin’s effects though. The virus was supposed to have killed off all Earthlings, and those who survived were supposed to become animalistic according to the biochemical engineers who had created it. Yet somehow Artemis seemed to have kept her wits intact.

Her next image coaxed him to turn back to the screen as she drew two figures that he recognized as male and female and proceeded to identify herself as the latter. The hesitation in her voice when she asked if he was male was humorous to him, and he chuckled. “Male,” he repeated, facing her and pressing his hand to his chest again in confirmation while a thin smile curved his lips upward.

Of all the details she could have focused on, it amused him that his gender was one of the first things she asked about. It seemed unimportant to him, since they didn’t belong to the same species. He did find her features visually appealing, particularly the exotic green color of her eyes, but she wasn’t a Lunvalgan. Therefore, it didn’t matter if she was a male or a female because to his kind, gender was only important in terms of mating, and he would only mate with the female that the Om’phaers—their fertility specialists—selected for him based on reproductive compatibility. It was what was normal for his people, especially since their ability to reproduce had been hindered by the disease that had destroyed their home planet.

As Artemis approached the large screen, he eyed her carefully, still watchful for any sudden movements. Up close, he noticed that she was slightly smaller than the average female Lunvalgan. Not by much, but he still stood about a head taller than her in close proximity. He followed her gesture toward the trees onscreen, then watched as the image transitioned to one of her with a small, fake animal. Her description of the simplified faces she drew clicked quickly. He understood that she was portraying positive and negative emotions.

As she explained in simple terms that she was happy when they talked, he found that he agreed. He was enjoying learning from her even though it wasn’t what he’d been sent to the Earth to do. It does not matter, he thought, justifying his breech in protocol. The rest of the colony will not join us until the planet is deemed safe, and that will not happen for a long time.

Watching her draw another picture, he laughed again when he realized the craft she had sketched was supposed to be his ship. The shape was vaguely similar, but it was apparent that she had never seen a Lunvalgan ship up close, if at all. He wasn’t entirely sure what she was trying to ask him by drawing the image, but he could tell that she was expressing interest in him, so he replied, “No,” and corrected her by projecting a mental image of the private craft he’d piloted when he’d come to her planet. The black vehicle was sleek with crescent-shaped wings and a body shaped like a water droplet that tapered at the nose.

Letting the image dissipate, he paused, tapping a digit against his thigh as he contemplated showing her more. It felt strange to him to tell a being that his leaders had labeled an enemy anything about his people, but she wouldn’t be alive much longer anyway. There was no reason to keep secrets when he was still under orders to kill her before the rest of the colony arrived.

Deciding to satisfy her curiosity, he conjured an image of the mothership, where he and the rest of his people had been living since before he’d been born. Along with the image, he expressed a warm, comfortable feeling in an attempt to convey that the ship had been his home. He showed her the various spaces his people had established on the craft for sleeping, eating, socializing, and even the area where he and the other Lunvalgans who had been assigned as warriors trained.

In their society, every career path was designated by the Om’phids, a group of specialists who were in charge of placing each Lunvalgan in a role best suited for him or her based on personal aptitudes. Those who scored highest in physical abilities such as strength and reflexes were often selected to be warriors: the members of their society who protected the masses from danger and who, once they settled into their new home planet, would be responsible for hunting down animals to feed them. He was unsure if humans had developed a similar process or not, so to explain it without words, he tilted his chin up and brushed his braided hair aside, revealing a black brand on the side of his neck. It was difficult to see against his dusky skin, but the mark didn’t have the same silvery tone as his natural complexion. It was a circle with the Lunvalgan symbol for warriors in the center. As he showed it to her, he impressed a sense of strength along with images of Lunvalgans firing laser guns at target dummies, rehearsing combat formations and piloting individual spaceships.

Letting his hand fall back down to his side so his hair covered the brand again, he envisioned the memory of his commander assigning him to be a member of the Yihai, a snapshot of his flight down to the Earth, and his exploration of the ruins he’d come across when he’d first landed, including his encounter with the hostile human and his discovery of her farm.

Afterward, he studied her face and focused on the structures he’d seen not too far from where she lived, sharing with her his curiosity about what they were in the hopes that she could tell him more about what he’d seen.

New World Contention [AnnaWinters & Summer]

To Azdrei’in’s surprise, the Earthling responded to his question. Of course, he couldn’t understand what it had said, but just the fact that it had recognized that he’d spoken and attempted to reply was enough to make him stop and think. Logically, it made sense to him that a race that had the intelligence to build impressive structures would have their own language, but he hadn’t expected one to try to communicate with him without prompting. He’d thought they were all bloodthirsty savages who were quicker to fight than they were to talk. The being standing before him now was far different than the image he’d painted in his head. It didn’t even behave like the one that had charged at him not long ago.

As the Earthling gestured to itself and spoke again, he stared at it wordlessly, trying to process what it was doing. For the moment, he’d completely forgotten about his missing gear, too wrapped up in the strange scene before him to think about anything else. His crystalline eyes swept over it with quiet intrigue. Earthlings seemed to be somewhat diverse, perhaps even more so than his own kind. Unlike the being he’d shot, this one had even brighter features. Its hair was red, not brown, and it had colorful green irises. Upon closer inspection, he determined it was a female as well, based on its anatomical similarities with female Lunvalgans and the higher pitch of its voice.

It—or rather, she—picked up a piece of fabric, and he tensed, eyeing the object warily. By itself, the cloth didn’t look harmful, but if it had been doused in a chemical, it could be used as a weapon. “Come near me with that, and you will lose your arm,” he said dryly. He was aware that she couldn’t understand him, but the threat slipped out anyway. However, it turned out it wasn’t necessary when the Earthling demonstrated that the cloth was used to clean up water. He blinked and looked down at the table in front of him, on which the full cup she’d left for him had spilled when he’d hastily stood up. Apparently, her species wasn’t fond of messes.

When she tossed the rag onto the table, he carefully picked it up between two claws, lifting it to his nose to sniff just to make sure there was nothing dangerous about it before he risked touching it against his skin. Obliging her implied request, he bent over to wipe up the spilled water and then glanced up at her again when he saw her move in the corner of his eye. Interestingly, it seemed like she was still trying to communicate with him. He watched her gesture to the food on her plate, speak a word, and then do the same thing after indicating herself. Next, she drew his attention to a picture. Another word was spoken, then two more.

She is trying to teach me her language, he realized, his eyes widening slightly. He turned back to the plate, recalling the word she’d used to describe it, then looked at her again. She had indicated herself as well as other Earthlings when she’d used the word ‘human,’ and he guessed that was the term her species used to refer to themselves. They called themselves humans just like his people were Lunvalgans. In spite of himself, he felt a thrill of excitement at the prospect of understanding what the creature in front of him was saying. He had never encountered another being outside of his own race before, and since he’d thought Earthlings were barbarians, he hadn’t considered the possibility that he might speak with one like this. It was fascinating.

He tracked her with his gaze as she picked up another object and then retrieved something from a large, upright container, which she pushed toward him. Another word was spoken, this time with a raised inflection at the end. He presumed the context was different. A question, perhaps? In any case, he assumed the liquid in the sealed container was meant for him, and he cautiously stepped closer to examine it. Picking it up, he opened the top and smelled it, determining that the liquid was water. It didn’t seem contaminated, so he lifted it to his lips and took a small sip, tasting the drink on his tongue before he swallowed.

He was still baffled by the human’s actions. If she had been the one who had knocked him out, it would have made more sense if she’d taken the opportunity to kill him. Instead, she was treating him like a guest in her home, trying to make conversation and offering him food and drink. It was far from the way he’d expected her species to behave.

When she sat down, he relaxed slightly, less concerned about keeping track of her movements now that she was off her feet. He brought the water to his lips again and downed a larger swig while she toyed with the object she’d picked up earlier. In the back of his mind, he was aware of his orders to eliminate any Earthlings he came across, but technically his leaders hadn’t said he had to kill them right away. Surely he could indulge his curiosity a little before he finished this one off. What was the harm?

As she turned the screen of her device toward him, he set his water down and looked it over with a hint of amusement. The human had resorted to drawing pictures to communicate with him. His eyes flicked up to her face when she vocalized a few more words, using her drawings and gestures to conclude that she was talking about what had happened in the structure where she’d hit him in the back of the head. Absently, he touched the spot that hurt, understanding that she had attacked him because she had seen his gun and fought back to protect herself. It was a reasonable response, since he had been about to kill her if she hadn’t stopped him. Although it was mildly irritating that an Earthling had gotten the best of him in a fight, he supposed it had been a good thing in hindsight. If he’d shot her right away, he wouldn’t have had the chance to learn more about her kind, which was turning out to be more docile than he’d thought.

The human said the same word about herself again and then pointed a finger at him, speaking with the same raised inflection she had earlier. Now he was certain it meant she was asking a question. He processed briefly before it clicked in his head. A name. She had given him hers and was now asking for his. Eager to try talking to her again, he pressed a hand flat against his chest and replied: “Azdrei’in.”

Gaining confidence in the exchange, he decided to take it a step further. Pointing at her, he tested a few human words on his tongue, “You… Artemis?” He made sure to inflect his voice the same way she had when she asked him a question. The short phrase sounded different when he spoke it, colored with an accent because of the way he was used to pronouncing words, but he was pleased that he was able to recreate the sounds she had made. Now that he knew they were capable of communicating, he wanted to find out more about her people.

But first, it was smarter to start small. He picked up the container of water again. The human had used a word when she’d passed it to him, but he wasn’t entirely sure if she had been referring to the liquid or the clear unit that held it. To find out, he held it up and mimicked the word inquisitively: “Water?” However, he supposed it was still difficult to tell what it meant, and he frowned, perplexed. Earthlings looked quite similar to Lunvalgans. Perhaps they could exchange information the same way his kind did?

Experimenting with his theory, he decided to try approaching his question from a different angle. Reaching out to her telepathically, he created a vision of a river from Ashad’te in his mind’s eye and presented it to her while he repeated out loud in her language, “Water?”

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Same xD One of my friends used to be my motivation buddy, but he stopped working out with me because we both lost our motivation at the same time, so I need another haha

Their relationship is going to look a lot different for sure! It was really lighthearted at the beginning, but the next time, they'll have a strong foundation after overcoming challenges together ^^

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

“Things can’t go back to the way they were before. That’s true,” Cas agreed, being logical. He wasn’t going to make her any false promises that everything would be perfectly fine again, because that would just cause more problems later on. “But you still stopped your dad from killing me, and you’re helping me get home. You don’t have to undo the past to fix a mistake, Iris. Just the fact that you’re trying is enough.” And he meant it. No matter what had happened before, he was sincere in his appreciation of everything she was doing for him now. At first, he hadn’t believed that she was actually helping him, then he’d been confused when he’d realized she was really sneaking him out of Tongsen. Today, he’d come to the conclusion that she genuinely regretted bringing him here in the first place and was doing her best to make up for what she’d done.

Seeing the tears form in her eyes, he gently squeezed her arm in a comforting gesture. The part of him that still longed to rekindle what they’d had in the capital tempted him to gather her up in an embrace, but he restrained himself. To hug her right now would be like offering a false promise without words, and he couldn’t do that to her. They were never going to be able to be as close as they once were, so he didn’t move, trying to sooth her in a more platonic manner than he wanted to on the inside. He had to remember that it was for the best that he maintained some boundaries between them, so they could eventually part ways without painfully breaking another bond.

His resolve wavered at her following question though. “I can say it because it’s true,” he said stubbornly, holding her gaze until she looked away. “If you were a bad person, you wouldn’t be feeling like this right now. A bad person wouldn’t care who they hurt, but you obviously do. Like I said, nobody’s perfect. Good people make mistakes too. Sometimes you think you’re doing the right thing, and you find out later on that it wasn’t the right choice. That doesn’t make you horrible, it makes you… well, human.” As he spoke, he absentmindedly stroked her arm without realizing what he was doing. The gesture was so natural with her that it was almost a reflex.

Pausing briefly, he reflected on how ironic it was that he was saying some of these things to her. It was advice he knew to be true but often found difficult to believe, himself. Of all people, he knew what it was like to beat himself up over minor mistakes. It didn’t help that his father only perpetuated the habit by accepting nothing less than perfection from him when he helped out with kingly duties. He understood in his head that mistakes were a normal part of life, but in his heart, he always regretted it whenever they happened. He also knew that meant that a few honest words probably weren’t going to make Iris feel much better. It was hard to argue with emotions.

“You may not believe me, but that’s what I think,” he finished firmly.