caophd

[caophd]

“This game made me gay” “this character made me gay” my parents buying me the Bug Bungalow Bug Catching Kit is what made me gay.

It was him, officer.

[caophd]

“If we want to be big important scientists, you have to act the part.”

"i acted the part by earning my phd," ariel said, voice full of scolding. she usually wasn't too concerned with titles and accolades, but she didn't appreciate being told she had to act a certain way to be who she was. even if it was a joke. it was a joke, right? "believe it or not, there's not a personality test in the thesis process."

[caophd]

"You’re as tough as they come."

that was new. ariel had never been called tough before. stubborn, yes, but tough? ... it was new enough to make ariel suspicious. "thank... you?"

[caophd]

ariel turned, then took in the full view of dylan and their... situation. "um... okay." tucking the notebook in her hand into the waistband of her shorts, ariel stepped to dylan's side. frowning down at the contraption, her hands fluttered in confusion. "i don't actually know what your intentions were, here, i'm gonna be real honest."

* @caophd ⸺ closed interaction.

dylan looked around with their hands inconveniently full, the right holding a large bamboo stick tied with precarious ropes while the right one held a poorly makeshift bowl. and more ropes. they needed to fix the free end of the stick diagonally to the tree at their back, but to accomplish that on their own, they'd very much need to have a third hand, something not many humans were gifted with. so their eyes scanned their surroundings hopelessly and lay on the closest person to them. adrien? alien? ariel! yes, that was her name. “ hey! ariel, right? ” they called for her attention. “ could you help me out here? please? ”

[caophd]

ariel scrambled to her hands and knees, crawling to autumn's side. "okay, okay, keep calm," she hissed, heart thundering in her chest. the thrill of the chase lit in her chest. "there's no reason to think it might be dangerous. nothing we've seen on this island so far has been a predator. i'll..." ariel set her face in determination. "i'll go check it out."

"I really don't know," they admitted, their eyes glued on the place the slight rustling sound was coming from, "I haven't seen it yet." she admitted her voice a hushed whisper so as not to attract the... whatever it was...'s attention.

[caophd]

ariel shifted awkwardly, trying to seem her cool, unflappable self. like she was walking into a lab, not the beach of a deserted island. "i'm fine," she said, a frown forming. "you should worry about yourself. you don't do that enough."

Taking a deep breath and shaking himself off, Bran plastered his usual calm smile on his face, pushing his surprisingly intact glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Are you alright?"

[caophd]

{{task 002;;

census answers from ariel cao, phd.

where are you from and where did you live prior to the crash? do you have an accent from one of those locations?

"i'm from san francisco. i don't think i have an accent, but when i lived in switzerland, people sure thought i did. i definitely have an accent when i speak mandarin. apparently i pronounce certain words in a swiss accent, now. i have certain regrets about where i chose to go to school."

 do they have any distinctive scars, tattoos, or marks?

"it's not super distinctive-- like, i don't think my mom even knows i have it. but i have a scar on my side from taking a tumble down a hill. well, i say a tumble. it was more of a slide down a rockface. it used to be pretty big. it's almost gone now, though!"

were you flying with anyone? have you been able to find them alive?

"... yeah. yeah, i was. my old research partners. we were on a trip. it was my idea. my ... fault. bran's here! thank god. bran's here."

are you responsible for anyone other than yourself?

"i'm responsible for the scientific advancement of humanity. ... i probably shouldn't be trusted with much else."

what have you been able to find on the island?

"we found the outpost! it was very relieving to find a shower and a bed, but the most important discovery was the wildlife. did you know there have been multiple sightings of megafauna and dinosaur thought to be previously extinct? do you get how insane that is?"

everybody’s hiding something—a fear, a weakness, a strength, an unpopular opinion. what are you hiding right now?

"i'm afraid to leave. what will happen to the creatures here when we go? what will happen to us if the people who created this place don't want us talking? i know what the government did with the research we did, and i thought it was a necessary sacrifice. this would be a devastating loss. this would be-- this would be too much. they can't have it. i can't leave."

[caophd]

"he would like you a lot," ariel said, immediately. because it was true. ariel's father always knew a helper when he saw them, no matter what, and they were his favorite kind of people. it was why he'd fallen in love with her mother, after all, even though they came from practically different worlds.

"oh." she hadn't meant to make noah upset, hadn't considered that noah might think she meant reality, not the imagined world in ariel's own head. guilt and panic flood ariel when she saw the grief in noah's eyes. she was such an idiot; why was she always doing this? her hands fluttered in the air, useless, for a moment, before she reached out and wrapped her hand around noah's wrist.

"i'm so sorry," ariel whispered. "i'm sure he's fine. we'll be home, soon, and you can see for yourself. do you have... is there anyone there? to take care of him?" ariel couldn't think of her own parents, home alone. she couldn't think about yeye, alone on saturday mornings. she couldn't think about what popo would think, if she and wai gong would still be in china-- she couldn't think about it, or she'd never think about anything else ever again.

she focused on noah, and the imagined world where her father was here with her, and forced herself to breathe. "do you have siblings? grandparents?"

her eyes, attentive and warm, roamed over ariel’s features, absorbing her little gestures and the way they changed while she considered the question. noah hadn’t intended for this to become so heavy, so personal, but sometimes things happened like that and they were willing to listen, it didn’t matter how sad it got, or how hard to process it became after all this time trying to ignore their own anxieties.  so noah listened, sharply but quietly, adverting her gaze from time to time to give ariel and her clear vulnerability the space they needed. then, at the giggle that came from her, noah smiled, unrestricted, their eyes glinting with a hint of mirth and fondness — ariel’s dad seemed … “ he sounds like a cool, lovely guy, ”    they voiced their thoughts, the smile on display small and gentle.    “ i think we would hit it off right away ”    they were a handyperson on their own, after all, and ariel’s dad appeared to be just like the perfect person for noah to partner up with.  the moment it was ariel’s turn to ask, though, their body went rigid for a second and their jaw clenched instinctively, breathing getting caught in the middle of her throat.    “ i … i don’t know, really. my dad— he’s very overprotective and— ”    a humourless laugh escaped them, something akin to a sob hidden in it. they tried to recover quickly, though, always used to be functional, to never let emotions interfere in their actions.    “ he doesn’t deal well with loss, so… i— i really hope he is keeping it together. ”   they knew he probably wasn’t, but theo was there and him, growing up by noah’s side with a father that was a mess half of the time, was a lot better at being okay, at being composed. a job that clearly didn’t appertain to him, but that both of them were forced to learn how to do since childhood.

[caophd]

"i watched it sometimes when i was little," ariel confirmed, then wrinkled her nose. "i didn't really get most of the jokes, though. my grandpa--"

she smiled, imagining the early mornings with her dad and yeye. how they would watch the same episodes over and over, ones that had started airing when they first moved to america. "my grandfather really liked it. my dad says andy griffith taught them english." gave them hope for a kinder country than the one that welcomed them, ariel didn't say, though she knew it to be true.

"they really liked MASH, too. dad stuff, you know."

Elizabeth moved onto the next one and changed the subject. "We can circle back to that. Your dad liked The Andy Griffith Show? Have you ever watched it?" She flashed her a smile. "It was a good show."

[caophd]

ariel crept to vala's side, careful not to smear her filth onto vala's freshly clean skin. "it's a bullet," ariel murmured, uselessly. obviously vala knew that, but the oddness of the arrival was so odd that she felt it had to be said. it was like seeing a moose in your department store; even if everyone else was already screaming, you just had to point it out.

"do you think... that's why there's no one on the island?" ariel asked, softly. if there had been some kind of struggle... no, it was better to be optimistic. "or maybe this is some kind of military base! that's good news, right? they don't just abandon fully functioning military bases."

"It's fine," they waved off the scientist's apologies, "I was plenty worse when I got in here." Vala's search in the bedside table reared a big nothing when they spotted a metallic glint from the corner of their eye. "Hello, hello." They murmured, crouching low and picking up the object off of the ground. A spent bullet casing. Just sat in the corner of a bedroom in an abandoned outpost. Why is this island so fucking weird? "Now, where the fuck did you come from?"

[caophd]

ariel was covered in the leaves and mud that came from tromping around in the forest for hours at a time. without the trappings of her usual research groups, it was impossible to research without getting herself down in the muck.

standing outside so she didn't track dirt through the shared space, she called gratefully back. "thank you!" taking her shoes off, she slipped into the facility, padding bare-foot on the concrete. "sorry for being so gross," ariel said, with a sheepish smile.

Their wet hair wrapped in an old shirt, Vala padded around the now cleaner concrete room. It was still a mess but better than the rest of the place. With only one bedroom, bathroom and kitchen, it was a tight squeeze, getting the whole group into the small facility, in the end sticking to only a few entering at a time. Easier to search without tripping over each other. They decided on quick rotational showers, making sure everyone got to take advantage of the working shower. "Seawater baths have nothing on an actual shower." They murmured, rummaging around the sparce bedroom. "Shower's free!", they called to whoever was next in line.

[caophd]

ariel shrugged. "it can be a lesbian if it wants, but it's not a lesbian." as if that was clearer.

blink. blink. " how do you know though ? it very well could be a lesbian. it can be anything it wants to be. "

[caophd]

"opie," ariel said, immediately, then drew back with a frown. "or maybe obie? i can never remember which one is from garfield and which one is from that old tv show my dad liked."

( open )

"Not quite sure whose this is, but am grateful someone packed something entertaining." It was a bit morbid to think anything beyond what she said, so she focused her gaze upon the tattered and worn out crossword puzzle book. "4 letters, Garfield's sidekick. I'm afraid I was never into comics. Care to guess?"

[caophd]

ariel sat up from her sleepy daze, eyes flying open. "was it the sloth?!?" she knew taking a nap was a bad idea.

"Did you hear something? Fuck... I swear I heard something..." they paused, "Maybe I'm getting paranoid..."

[caophd]

open

ariel hadn't left the outpost since they'd arrived. she'd meant to, meant to go back with a few of the others to let those left behind know what they'd found, but in the end she'd stayed. it wasn't the amenities that had changed her mind, though those certainly helped...

it was the beast. ariel hadn't gotten close enough yet to have a proper taxonomy, but ariel knew megafauna when she saw it. finally, all the doubt and recrimination had faded, because ariel had finally found the reason she was here.

she'd barely slept since they first saw it, had eaten even less. every moment was spent trying desperately to catch a glimpse of it in the trees. tonight, though, ariel wanted to get closer.

"i'll be fine," she said, as she tied her shoes. "the bioluminescent plants will be more than enough to light my way. i'll be back before sunrise; this isn't exactly my first rodeo."

[caophd]

ariel put her head in her hands, suddenly so tired that i felt impossible to hold herself up. through the loop of her fingers, she watched sand grains shift in the wind. everything was sand, always, it covered every inch of land ariel had seen in months.

she used to love the beach, ariel remembered, her stomach twisting. when was the last time she'd gone, before this trip? when was the last time she had visited her parents, packed up her mom's biggest bag with snacks and drinks, and gone for a drive?

she couldn't remember.

"my dad..." ariel tried her best to picture him here, amongst the other survivors. his glasses would have miraculously survived the crash, because he needed them even more every year. she couldn't imagine him hurt, or scared, but she could-- she could imagine her mom fussing over his rumpled clothes and the way his hair would have grown out, white roots even longer. she could imagine how kind his eyes would still be, the goofy grin he would gift everyone with.

"he would make sure everyone had a dry place to sleep, even if he had to build it himself. and he would always volunteer to make dinner, even though he had no idea what he was doing. probably even try to cook taro on a piece of metal from the crash," ariel said, giggling. "and he'd complain in cantonese the whole time, even though mom keeps reminding him he's the only one who speaks it--"

ariel stopped, and tried to remember all the cantonese she could, just to make the imagination a little stronger. it fell through, shattering on the shore between her feet. she wondered if she would ever have the chance to learn. if she would ever even hear it again.

she cleared her throat, trying not to cry, and turned to noah. as sad as she was, she had to admit she was the slightest bit curious about the other survivor. after all, they talked about themselves so very little, and ariel had never liked a mystery. "what about your family? you think they'd be okay?"

at first, noah didn’t really know what ariel was talking about. the topic seemed out of nowhere and confusion didn’t wait much to appear on their features, all furrowed brows and tight lips. but then, slowly and as noah remembered their own words, it started to make sense. and the understanding squeezed painfully at their heart. “ that sounds … ”  tragic? sad? like you’re being too hard on yourself? noah has never been good with words, that’s not the way they’re used to help, always being more muscle than brain. but they way ariel talked … it made something ache between their ribs, maybe because it was the first person that got personal with them since they ‘ landed ’ on this island, maybe because her talking about their parents made noah think about their own people back in san fran. whatever the reason, noah wanted to do something. anything.  “ i don’t know, mate, i think— ”  noah left out a puff of air and looked at the sky, squinting her eyes at the clear, cold light that hit them.  “ what do you think your father would be doing now? ”  they finally asked, hugging their knees to their chest before looking back at her.  “ i mean, if he were in your position? ”  they really didn’t know how to handle this, how to handle feelings, but they did know about fathers and they did know how to recognize when everything someone needed was to talk … even if they didn’t know it themselves.

[caophd]

☇✈ song zu'er ; simples ♡❞

☇ like or reblog ⋮ @art-nama

☇ don’t repost our edits