[As nice as you. They've never...been a creature of that sort. One cannot afford to be, in a world where life after life is snatched away, where your kind is beaten and robbed and left for dead for the blue tint of your skin. Drifters do not linger. They wander because it is safer than growing attached, and risking everything for the sake of those attachments.]
[But somewhere along the line, a small girl gives them a flower clip, so they can feel a little less alone. So they can feel powerful. A lady with too many eyes and deep violet skin asks about their favorite sort of food, over and over again, and grows frustrated when she cannot make something they call their favorite - because they have never had one. A man gives them a surgical mask to shelter from the worst of the elements that will inevitably consume them. A man splits a coconut and calls them homie and grins when they spread a tigershark pelt across the sand. A skeleton reacts with undeniable concern and regret, when their illness flares through no fault of his own.]
[Allies, mostly. Others...]
[Friends?]
[Those they must protect. Those they owe.]
friend
[The word has always felt an imposition. A curse. Because friend means loss and loss is easy to bear, when one knows well enough to not get attached. They have had practice, in that regard. But there is no severing the bond once it is formed. There is only holding that thick pink cloak in your gloved hands and pulling the thick cream fur edging its collar tight around yourself.]
no subject
[But somewhere along the line, a small girl gives them a flower clip, so they can feel a little less alone. So they can feel powerful. A lady with too many eyes and deep violet skin asks about their favorite sort of food, over and over again, and grows frustrated when she cannot make something they call their favorite - because they have never had one. A man gives them a surgical mask to shelter from the worst of the elements that will inevitably consume them. A man splits a coconut and calls them homie and grins when they spread a tigershark pelt across the sand. A skeleton reacts with undeniable concern and regret, when their illness flares through no fault of his own.]
[Allies, mostly. Others...]
[Friends?]
[Those they must protect. Those they owe.]
friend
[The word has always felt an imposition. A curse. Because friend means loss and loss is easy to bear, when one knows well enough to not get attached. They have had practice, in that regard. But there is no severing the bond once it is formed. There is only holding that thick pink cloak in your gloved hands and pulling the thick cream fur edging its collar tight around yourself.]
[It was much too big for them.]
never had one