Reinvention [Iris] [Morning]

"No answer, huh?" Selenus would say as he finished drawing on the dirt and began to clean the knife on the edge of his paw. If Miyuki were to look down at the dirt, she'd see a way-too-accurate dirt portrait of the horse demon Kumbhanda (Though, neither person present would know its actual name). It would remain tacit, but the doodle was the result of Selenus thinking about how life is fragile, and it can be stripped away from you before you can even process the fact that your time is up. "That makes two of us."

"Don't worry about it. It's not something you can honestly come up with on the spot." Selenus slid the knife back into its respective holster. "I should know. I've been trying to find the answer to that question for years now." The robot wolf would turn around and stand up on four legs, looking up at Miyuki for a brief moment, then returning his gaze to the river. "That one night, five years ago... it didn't happen immediately, but that's when my life started to spiral out of control. I don't know about you, but... yesterday's events were more of a painful reminder than a celebration for me."

Her eyes drifted down to the dirt and would stare at it continually without interruption. Though she listened to Selenus speak, no immediate reaction would be prompted from her. She only stared down at the demon in the dirt with the same look she had been left with following that question of his. Eventually she knelt down next to it, grabbing a nearby stick, and began to scribble in it herself. Unlike Selenus's her drawing was fairly sloppy -- her hand lightly trembling as she guided the stick from one point to the next. When she had finished what was left was a crude rendition of a towering, metallic creature clad in chains.

"Son of Man, you dare stand before me without bowing your heads? The immortal Beldr demands you lament. Lament for Beldr." She spoke in a hollow, sad tone. Her eyes, filled with sorrow and understanding, gazed at Selenus; the talkative, playful girl having fallen into a solemn silence.

Selenus watched in curiosity as Miyuki grabbed a stick and began to draw on the ground, using the dirt next to his doodle as her canvas. She drew an anthropomorphic figure, clad in chains and metal, almost like... a non-free robot; how ironic. But why was she drawing this? And why did her face look as if she'd just seen a baby animal get murdered in cold blood?


"FreSh mEaT?" A recording of that day would play back from Selenus's mouth, the sounds of the event still stored in his memory along with video data, which only Selenus could see. The sounds of people chattering and reacting would also play from his mouth, making clear that what Miyuki was hearing was simply a recording. "GiVe mE fOoD."

Selenus hastily stopped the playback.

Suddenly noticing that her attention now lied on him, he returned the gaze and spoke up. "I don't claim to know what you've seen, but I get the general gist. We don't have to talk about it if you don't want to..."

The girl sat in silence with the creature for some time. How long it was she couldn't remember. All she could recall was the feeling of melancholy in the air. She had come here to run away from her memories of that day, but in the end it seemed that no matter where she went she'd never be able to escape them; she'd never be able to forget the horrors she witnessed and experienced. Perhaps that was for the best, but even so, a part of her couldn't help but wish that her recollection of those events would simply disappear.

Eventually Miyuki decided it was time to go. Standing up and taking a few steps away from the creature, she'd turn around to face him and put on a half-hearted smile. "I should be heading out. Achelle's probably gonna have my head if I stick around here any longer. It's a special day for her, after all." She said before averting her eyes and walking away. "If we meet again let's do something more fun next time. Depressing shit like this isn't my cup of tea, ya dig?"

And with those parting words she was gone, and once again Selenus was alone.

It was funny, how quickly your opinion on someone could shift from one end of the opinion spectrum to another. In just a few short minutes, Miyuki had gone from a highly irritating yet in-all-technicalllity-innocent girl, to the most relatable person he'd seen or met in years. He was unsure just how long the two stayed there, admiring the river, but it was pretty clear that both individuals couldn't help but think about the events that took place five years and one day ago. Selenus often considered deleting every memory of that day from his mind, but always decided against it since there was one memory from that day he never wanted to forget or forget the context of: That unnamed little girl's smile.

Eventually, Miyuki would stand up and begin to take her leave and... smile? No, that wasn't a smile. He'd replayed that one memory over and over so much in his mind that the properties of a genuine smile were burned into his head now, and theye were not present here. However, he couldn't seem  to grasp what exactly the smile did show... was it sadness? Compassion? Loneliness? "Sure, let's just agree not to bring that day up again. See you around." He said that, but considering his conditions, he doubted that would be happening anytime soon.


...Why did that make him sad?