N-3270-R and Ryn:
First Encounter
Hallowdene was a beautiful town, even on a drizzly day. The rain made the greens and browns of the trees richer somehow - a deeper color that made his camera sockets tingle pleasantly. Nestor much preferred sunshine, of course, for obvious reasons: he was not only mainly powered by sunlight, but the world just seemed...warmer, somehow, when the sky was clear and the sun was shining.
Rain was lovely too, though he had to treat it with care. Water wasn't exactly good for electrically-ran beings such as himself. Sure, humans had a mild electrical current themselves, but they were sentient water, practically. Water didn't short them out like it did Intelligent Cybernetic Entities.
Regardless of all of that, he was lost again. He had gotten lost from Old York's walls and stumbled here into Hallowdene months ago, and yet he still couldn't figure out how to get to the battery bank in an efficient manner.
Fortunately, so long as he stayed away from the trees, he would get there eventually...the whole place was a giant circle. Less fortunately, his battery was getting awfully low, and his energy was depleting rather fast.
With an exhausted chuckle, Nestor sunk down onto the porch of a small, stone-and-wood cottage. They were almost all stone and wood - at least the newer ones. Some of the older buildings crafted from ruins had metal or concrete, but on the outer ring of the town? Primarily wood and stone. That's what they had the most of, and that was what they used.
Oh, his thoughts were wandering, as they always were. That's why he always ended up lost in the first place, he never paid attention to his surroundings-
"Eep!"
...What on earth was that?
Nestor turned from where he sat to gaze in the direction of the house door. He found it cracked open now, gently lit from within. No one was there that he could see, but clearly someone had been. With a huff of his hydraulics, he rose slowly to his feet, curiosity overriding his need to conserve energy.
"Hello?" Nestor took a step towards the door, fingers itching to reach for the handle. But before he could do that, a wild patch of black, untamed curls and the most beautiful eyes he'd ever seen peered around the corner of the door. They were deep brown, just like enstatite - and were very wide with surprise, shyness, and trepidation.
"H-hello-" The soft voice floated to him like a sunbeam, and for the first time in a long time, Nestor's mind went quiet. For some indeterminate amount of time he could only stand there, in the rain, staring at this small wonder of a human. She stared right back at him, and he witnessed the surprise fade from those bright eyes...replaced with confusion and concern.
"Um," she finally spoke, and the sound startled Nestor out of what felt like a daze. "Are you okay?"
Nestor felt his circuits tingle with what he decided was embarrassment. "Ah - yes - my name is Nestor! I'm...trying to find my way to the battery bank."
There was a pause, and then the door opened wider. The small human stepped out, peering up at him as she joined him on the porch. "I-I'm Ryn," she replied, her previous shyness seeming to fade away much like the clouds that were beginning to disburse overhead. "It's not far from here...I can show you?"
Without waiting for a reply, she trotted past him and started walking in the direction he had came. Feeling uncharacteristically flustered, Nestor could only shake himself and follow her short, swift stride. His longer legs quickly caught up with her with little effort, but he felt his central core racing regardless.
He didn't know much, he didn't often remember much. His memories were a mess and so was his sense of direction. But even so...her name was Ryn. And with the same certainty that he felt when he had first laid eyes on Hallowdene, with it's quiet joy and welcoming energy, he felt like he was going to remember the name of this human for a long, long time.
