Chapter Text
The years have not been kind to the creature,
But then again, nothing else had, why would time be any exception.
He had to descend from the arctic eventually, once his coat grew too threadbare and the ice melted more and grew too treacherous to live on.
He supposed it was time to move on anyway, he had only stayed in the north so long since it was desolate and there were hardly any humans that went there. Even if he couldn’t die, he still felt pain, and being shot was never a pleasant experience, so he thought it better to avoid humans at all costs.
As he wandered southward he found himself fascinated by a world so vastly different from anything he could remember. The curiosity that years of abuse and neglect somehow never managed to smother leapt free in his cold breast.
After those first few rural northern towns he continued southward through the place he now knew was Canada, being welcomed by forest full of foreign and familiar flora and fauna that he had nearly forgotten the wonders of.
The arctic had been his exile.
The forest was home.
The animals and the trees welcomed him as one of their own. He sat amongst the fallen needles of the conifers and wondered if the belonging in his soul was what most humans might associate with family.
And then there were the people. The humans, eternally fascinating yet certainly dangerous, he avoided them however he could, watching from afar or investigating their abandoned places, sneaking glances at this world he’d never belong in.
He’d known logically that there must have been several human generations since he went into exile but he hadn’t been prepared to see the leaps and bounds in technology that had been made since he had last seen them.
The cities no longer bustled with foot traffic and horses but loud metal machines that roared as they sped down solid stone roads at unnatural speeds. Their buildings shone with light and colour unlike any the creature had ever seen.
He couldn’t get too close, of course, but he found a goldmine in exploring their abandoned creations.
He felt a kinship of a sort with them, these deserted dusty remnants of an older age, forgotten and left to decay alone, but overall they were the best way to study humanity. He scavenged their technology and materials, and read the writings and books they left behind.
He learned the stories of these places, the stories of this era, he learned that he himself had become quite the popular story over the years.
The captain had asked about giving his and his father’s story to his cousin so she could write a fictionalised retelling of it, but the creature never imagined it would get as popular as it did, although after reading a copy he could admit it was well deserved. Ms Shelley’s wordcrafting was excellent and the alterations were so well integrated that he forgot it was based on his own story at points.
As much as he loved the stories, his favourites by far were the thinkpieces. He found it fascinating how many humans made it their life’s work simply to think. He absorbed philosophy, media and literary theory like a sponge, fascinated by how the human’s propensity to thought bled into everything, from their religions to their entertainment and daily lives.
As the creature continued southward he saw more and more people. He avoided humans by passing around more rural communities, occasionally skirting the edge of larger cities if only to see them from afar. As the settlements got more plentiful, so too did their debris. By a certain point the creature was almost exclusively staying in these abandoned places rather than crafting his usual forest shelters.
It was a normal day, or, well, as close to a normal day as the creature had.
He was on the move again, wandering vaguely southward towards the next settlement, the next curiosity to investigate.
He carried a small bag of possessions with him as he walked. Mostly a collection of books from his previous pilfering escapades. He had discovered quickly that part of the whole never dying thing, he never truly needed to eat. Sure, hunger was painful, but the feeling faded over time.
His next mark was a dilapidated office building. The Frontward facing double doors and windows were replaced by planks but the back one still worked, and so the creature ducked inside.
The building seemed to be well built. Although there was a slight smell of burning in the air, the insulation held and the interior was nice and warm.
There were footprints in the musty carpet, not unheard of for a place like this, humans also seemed to enjoy venturing their own abandoned places as well, though the footprints were old, so they were probably gone by now.
The lobby was a large space, clearly once a centre of welcome for many, yet today it stood dark, dusted over and dotted with abnormally bright false plants.
Preferring to avoid resting in such an open room, the creature made his way up the cramped staircase to the second floor. How he missed the days of grand, large buildings he would never have to crouch in.
This floor was clearly an office floor, full of cubicles and box computers, he had seen a few like it, but never one with quite so much left behind. The creature wondered if this place was evacuated suddenly or something. Some of the desks still even had photos of the worker’s families, or other simple accessories.
Although the oddest thing, by far, was the light as he turned a corner.
Not sunlight, as it was well into the evening by now, but something artificial.
This place still somehow had power.
As he approached the creature could see where the light came from.
One of the box computers was somehow still on, after what had clearly been years since this place was abandoned. The screen shone with unnaturally white light, like the signs and streetlights the creature had seen from afar. Illuminated by the screen, the desk it sat on was relatively barren. Nothing but a simple keyboard, mouse and a strange sort of mask-like device.
The creature set his bag down and crouched down to the desk.
The machinery sighed with effort, almost as if it felt his presence.
Upon closer inspection, the device definitely seemed to be designed to fit around a human’s head, with the mask covering the eyes. Various sensors lined the inside of the device, and two lenses sat approximately where the wearer’s eyes would rest. It was connected to the computer by a sturdy black wire, further prodding revealed the device could extend, seemingly for bigger head sizes.
The creature glanced at the blank screen, and back at the device. He wondered what it did. He wondered if it’d fit one of his size.
Sitting on the floor before the desk, the creature lowered the device onto his head…
…
And the world erupted in colour.