journal
detritus
— 04/11/26
Charlie wasn’t sure what to think of the man upstairs.
He swore up and down he wasn’t one of the bird-people, but he smelled just like them. She would see them flying in the Dregs, with their giant wings and shining feathers. The junkrats always hid from the bird-people, as they were prone to stealing shiny things, just as the man upstairs was.
His name was Eury.
Charlie found him quite handsome, in a strange way. He had hair that shone like oil spilled on water, and eyes of a stunning bright yellow. His skin was translucently pale, and she desired to know just what that skin felt like under her fingers.
She caught him one day in the community kitchen, making himself some sort of concoction she butted in to see.
“Whatcha eating?”
“Leftovers from our lovely landlord, Mare!” He held out a bowl of steaming noodles.
She gasped in jealousy, then cringed. He MUST be a bird-man, she thought, who else would choose grubs for their soup?
She peered at him curiously, searching for the tell-tale feathers that sprout around their hairlines.
There was nothing.
He was staring silently, smiling at her.
She scrambled backwards.
“Still no feathers, hmm?” He mused, moving to sit at the thin fold-out table they had named ‘dining table.’ She sat across from him, trying to smother her disgust as he shoveled noodles and fat white grubs into his mouth.
“No,” she moped. “But I swear!” She watched him again, noting the points of his canines. Many people on Detritus had teeth like that, for a variety of genetics and modifications.
“It’s okay,” he waved his chopsticks in the air. “You’ll figure it out one day.”
“Figure out what?” She practically leapt across the table.
He let out a cawing laugh. “Ah, maybe if you get me a beer I’ll tell you?”
She narrowed her eyes. “Alright. But you better let me in on whatever secret it is that you’re hiding.” She went to the fridge, buzzing obnoxiously as it tried to keep cool, pulling two sweaty beers from its depths. She popped off the tops with the opener stuck haphazardly into the wall and strutted back over. “Here,” she held one out to him.
He smiled, satisfied.
She looked away, hoping to hide her blush, and moved to sit across from him again.
“You want to know my secret, but what’s yours?” He pushed. “We all know you’re a part of the Dregs Whalefall group. What are you hiding?” He sipped his beer.
Charlie related bits and bobs of her story to him, nothing too important.
One beer turned into three, and then five for him.
She hiccuped, groaned, and laid her head on the table.
“You haven’t told me anything.”
“You haven’t really told me anything either.”
She looked up, noticing the blush spreading from his cheeks and down his neck.
He reached out, taking her hand in his gloved one.
“Why don’t we go upstairs, Darling?”
She squeezed warm leather in response.
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