OC snippets

Space; in which Inis takes a walk.

A/N: Inis, the character featured here, uses she/they pronouns!! Please keep that in mind.

No beta because I'm EVIL and DASTARDLY mwahahaha

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Inis stood and watched as the sky's colors shifted, the iridescent melting pot of golds and reds and pinks slowly giving way to the dark emptiness of night.  Stars revealed themselves in great swathes, constellations and horoscopes rearing their heads against a pitch backdrop, filling a void with light and color.

Space was a beautiful thing. Beautiful in its emptiness and beautiful in its fullness. A container around life, an omnipresent dullness that fills the gaps between something-or-others like cheap wrapping paper clinging desperately to a shoddy Christmas gift. And to top it off, it always made quite a spectacle. Shining pinpricks of light making their way through countless miles of nothing setting the sky aflame in a brilliant, mystical show. Sometimes, Inis wondered if it was a joke by some higher god who made this universe, stars against a dark sky meant to mirror how bugs caught in a jar needed portholes to the outside to breathe.  Brilliant vestiges of the cosmos beaming down into the mason jar world that was existence.

But, at the same time, space is empty. It is vast and unrelenting and cruel in its ways. A cold, barren nothingness that encompasses and swallows all that can't find a way to escape it. To travel to space is to die in space. To die in nothing. Alone amongst the stars, a spectacle too far away for an audience to see. A spec of dust on a stage, caught for a moment in the spotlight.

Even in that, Inis still found innate beauty. Beauty in death, beauty in nothingness, beauty in an audience. Every aspect of this complex sea of stars and planets and galaxies unraveling before them more a marvel than the last. To be able to see it at all, to be a spec of dust in this endless universe, for that she was grateful.

It had been hours before she caught herself staring at the sky and managed to look away, focusing on the task at hand. She had climbed up to the top of this hill to find her bearings before realizing that she couldn't read stars for the life of her, and then realized how steep the hill she was on was. They had wandered away from the makeshift camp at the edge of the woods they had built for themself that night. Being lost is not a very pleasant thing in most cases, especially in the dead of night. Especially especially without a compass or map (they had neglected to bring theirs under the assumption a short trip to replenish foraged goods wouldn't leave them stranded 5 something miles away from their camp).

Slowly, she climbed down from her vantage point at the top of the hill, grass tickling her ankles as she shuffled down the steep hillside. They sighed as they made their way back onto flat ground, dusting themself off and feeling the new night-spawned dew soak into the edges of their socks. It was humid out tonight, and she was getting quite annoyed at having her hair hang limply down the back of her neck like a sad bath towel. As she fished a spool of string out from her pocket, she looked at the flats around her.

It was still spring, just barely on the cusp of summer. The few trees and shrubs she could see were a perky sort of green, a few giving way to brown at the edges where the new seasons heat had begun to eat away at them. The air outside was still cool enough to be comfortable (and for that they were infinitely thankful), and carried a welcoming sort of smell with it. Soil, fresh dew, and the remnants of a spring gone by.

Nimbly, she bit at the thread she was pulling away from the spool. She knew exactly how much she needed, and she had stopped at the exact length down to the millimeter. She recoiled a bit at the soundless snap the broken string gave and wound the loose thread back onto the spool, unceremoniously shoving it into her pocket. Still looking out aimlessly over the fields, they intently took a decent clump of their hair and began to tie the string around it, holding it in a comfortable slip knot. They shook their head around, ensuring the knots security. Like always, it held, leaving her long, dark hair in perfect suspension above her neck.

The cool, humid air brushed between her shoulder blades, chilling the sweat that had pooled there from her absentminded star-gaze.  She was reminded of how nice it was to have her hair up, to be able to have the small of her back exposed to the damp outers of night.

Maybe she should consider getting it cut.

Wordlessly, they began trekking off towards the forest. She'd be able to gather her bearings better if she were somewhere familiar. The woods were still a mile or two out from where they were, but if they started now they'd at least be back by sunrise. As she continued walking, the short ankle thin grass gave way to tall, thin stalks. Whispery green came up to the length of her chin, tickling her shoulders as she went.

After hours of walking (and covering her once pristine boots with a nice layer of mud), Inis had found her way to the edge of the wood. The dense tree cover shaded what little heat the night provided, cooling the air that blew out of it. Smells of bark and dead leaves wafted lazily out from the thicket, like an earthy new pie chilling on a windowsill. Wistfully, she shot one last glance at the the dark sky above her. Staring deep into the mesmerizing kaleidoscope of colors and lights dancing in the backlit safety of the night. The moon was full tonight, a plump white spotlight that cast eerie shadows across forest, thicket and field, inviting all to bathe in its rare once-a-month glory.

Forlornly, a single thought crossed her mind.
If Inis were to be a god, they would like to be a god of space. A being that embodies the beautiful hollowness of the true sky. A tantalizing creature of endless knowledge, vast and complex and yet utterly incomprehensible to those who seek to understand them. She doubted the opportunity to become a god would ever actually cross her, but it was a nice thought nonetheless.

Briskly, she entered the forest, leaving the night sky above her shrouded in tree cover and branches. Bushes and shrubberies grazed her feet, tugging at her pants and scraping her knees. The beckoning smell of life and wood was ever-present around them, and they breathed it in with complacent delight.

Best leave those thoughts behind her. Such a silly idea isn't worth the time of night.