heavensent

[scribe's notes]Word pairs marked with / in the center indicate words that have no easy analogue, so two words are used to more fully describe what is being said/heard. In the case this is being recorded in an auditory or other medium with the ability to display multiple streams of information at the same time and still be cognizant, please treat these pairs as one word. Thank you for your consideration.[/scribe's notes]

To a being of immense cosmic size/significance, one such as her was no mere outlier/outsider. One such as her would only be tolerated should they be localized/silenced. Which is why it was of utmost importance to be normal/regular. To "fit into the crowd". The crowd itself has morals/ideals of its own, hard to determine/intuit as the constantly shifting crowd of people that make it up. And if you disagree? Well, that's a hell/heaven of a lot of eyes on you.

"0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5" A simple exercise, breathe in on the even numbers, out on the odd. One taught to those given . A technique to silence/kill the inner self, to stem the flow in and out, to become unknowable/invisible. To say it was effective was an overstatement/falsehood, it merely helped in the development/creation of the processes, unique to each person by definition, according to their own mind/soul/spirit. Nero never thought she'd use the technique in the presence of someone else, much less for someone else's benefit. Probably because she [surrounded herself with]\[was surrounded by] those just as closed off and distant as her, focusing all their efforts into professionalism/duty to mask the fact they had no idea how to interact otherwise. Not that the technique would be very effective, but it would at least help to try.

"Zero, One, Two, Three, Four, Five" Tetsu repeated the activity. Afterwards, he let out a long sigh and said "Thanks Nero, it really helped." Nero was momentarily shocked, lowering her guard enough to let him lunge at her and... embrace her. Thankfully from this angle, he couldn't see her face.

They were seated on the steps to an abandoned parking garage for a nearby abandoned mall. An attempt by some company to "inject some new life into this old dusty town". You can probably guess how that went. They decided to see the view from the roof. 3 stories wasn't a lot, but it was enough to see over everything but the mid rises, giving it a pretty good vantage point over most of the town, for better or for worse.

"Where do you think I came from?" She asked while looking out over the just barely darkening town, not really expecting an answer... "I bet you think mars, maybe alpha centuri, or perhaps even another galaxy" She didn't even wait for a response. "Well I looked it up. Its nothing. Just one of the many stars and systems with a name composed of seemingly-random-but-actually-somehow-significant letters and numbers. I couldn't even point it out to you if it was dark like some poetic genius. I can't even find Sirius." At this point it couldn't even be called a conversation. "And all THIS" she gestured towards the groceries they had been carrying along, to the clothes on her back, to the area around them "Why? Why would you do this all for someone you just met? What, are you going to use me, wittingly or not, in a plan to do some heinous act to this society? Are you going to wait until I trust you enough to four-letter-word me?" She paused to take a breath.

Thankfully there was no one on the roof or the street below, not that her voice couldn't carry farther when it didn't need to and find its way into unwitting/unwilling ears. "Maybe I just li-, mayb-. Maybe I just appreciate you for who you are. Maybe I just, I dunno, want to do something nice in this life filled with void, nothingness, and the infinite cycle of pain. Maybe I just want a home." Tetsu was exhausted, Tetsu was tired. She could see it in his eyes, his shoulders, his speech. Yet still, he picked himself up and spoke up. "Maybe I don't want to kill you, maybe I don't want to kiss you. Is that all there is to humans? Is that all there is to aliens?" 

She didn't quite know how to respond/re- there it was again. Not that it was bad, just a thing of the old. And this wasn't the old anymore. It was quite simple, really, not much to say about it... Or was it? That little voice, not quite intrusive, not quite un-instusive. Maybe the old was better. Maybe the new is bad.

Tears welled up in Nero's eyes, she ran past Tetsu, trying to get somewhere, anywhere. She ran down the stair of the parking garage, and out into the empty street. She ran to get away from him, ran to get away from herself, ran to get the feelings out, ran to get the feelings to stop. She ran herself ragged, ran herself ruined, ran herself to death, ran herself to life, ran herself to heaven, ran herself to hell. When, finally out of breath, nearly vomiting, sorely parched, she found herself at peace. She looked around where she had ended up and realized she was inside a vast mall, nearly abandoned except for the few businesses that were going to survive outside a mall anyways. She realized she was alone.