Trash. Garbage. Rubbish. Litter. People don’t value these things. Why would they? It is deemed useless, and so they ignore it, letting it pile up and go to waste. Foolish. They should know better, whatever happened to being resourceful and using everything you can? Resourcefulness was in short supply these days though, too much excess and not enough appetite.
Tiv kept picking through the dump, loading notable items into their satchel slung around their waist. A bone here, a metal scrap there, and ooo, a detached hilt of what looks like a sword, maybe about a third of a meter in length, decently balanced with a curved edge. Sifting through enough discarded items gives you a sense of its past uses and nature. Tiv’s friends called them crazy, but they just didn’t appreciate the finer parts of life. Like dumpster diving.
Scrounging a few more remains, including such riveting items such as actual rivets, a broken comb, and a small and squat glass bottle, Tiv decided that was plenty for today. An incredible bounty, they were lucky to have been blessed with a haul this good. It was unusual for such exquisite items to find their way to this dump, as it bordered the slums of the city. As much as Tiv loved the people, they couldn’t usually afford luxury items, and they were much less able to let anything go to waste.
Tiv picked their way down the mound of trash and started making their way back to their hovel of a home. They passed the usuals, Seln was polishing the windows of her bakery while her husband Ralm was laying out pastries for the day. Funny how similar their names were, their relation must have been fated to be. They named one of their kids Walv, similar enough, but something drastic must have happened for their other kid to be named Kyrivik.
Following the path they came across Fhurs, whistling while being escorted by two official looking individuals. Probably was caught in the nude again as all he was wearing was a raggety loincloth that looked like Tiv had picked it out themself from the rubbish. Classic Fhurs, why couldn’t the man just live as he wanted, nude or not? Tiv didn’t understand it, but rules was rules, and rules had to exist. Just strange how they were enforced arbitrarily, as technically the dump was off-limits, but Tiv had been detained enough time for the officials to be fed up. It didn’t help that Tiv always escaped, but that was their fault for being so poor at their job.
Just a little bit farther and Tiv would reach their home. They had to pass Olar’s grave though. It was a small rock that Tiv had stuck to the street, wedged between the cobbles as well as glued with some of Tiv’s special adhesive. Many a person stubbed their toe on that rock as it was right in the walkway and blended into the ground. Why would a rock not fit in with other rocks? Olar would’ve loved it, he always loved watching people in pain. But not horrid pain, just inconvenient pain, like when someone got their finger caught in a zipper. Tiv went and tapped it with their toe, a small salute to the departed friend Tiv made every time they passed it.
Finally Tiv arrived, home sweet home. Hole sweet hole. Nothing quite beat the comfy nature of being surrounded by earth as Tiv crawled into a small hole in an alleyway, making their way into a space between buildings. A minor oversight, and one Tiv couldn’t wrap their head around how it was made. Just fill up all the space in the lot, but they couldn’t even do that, leaving a hidden burrow that was only accessible by a miniscule crawlspace.
Inside was a collection of Tiv’s favorite “junk”. The floor was covered in rags, giving it a nest-like feeling, while the walls were patterned with metal scraps that reflected sunlight from the ceiling where a small hole let it in, the rays bouncing off of glass shards that painted the room in various shades of reds and blues and greens, a beautiful sight straight out of a psychedelic trip. It was always changing as Tiv added, removed, and replaced the fixtures, occasionally polished and arranged them to spruce up their hovel.
Tiv got settled in, leaning their back against the wall as they unpacked their haul from the morning, setting some of it aside for later use. They started mentally planning how to add the new collection of shiny things to the walls while their hands worked on sorting everything by size, color, and brightness. They bit into a few of the trinkets, molding them into better shapes as they melted under Tiv’s spittle, letting out a small hissing sound.
The broken comb from earlier would make a fantastic set of new teeth. They always needed replacing, as Tiv loved to gnaw. They braced themselves, and started slowly shoving it into their upper jaw. Their gums started caving and molding to the comb, not a sharp pain but a dull aching as their body started incorporating the foreign object into their anatomy. After setting it, they continued sorting as their body slowly accepted it, and within a few minutes it had healed, adding several pin-like teeth to their smile.
Their body started aching shortly after that, hungry and needing sustenance, so they surveyed the walls and found several of the duller pieces of metal and glass and removed them, as they no longer brightened the abode as they used to. Not that they couldn’t be shined, but age wore at the shimmer of objects and sometimes it was just ready to move onto new things.
Having selected their meal, Tiv pulled up the rag they used as a shirt revealing a skeletal torso, ribs protruding like pews of a church, leading to the hollow apse that was their stomach, taking “your body as a temple” literally. Preparing to feast, Tiv took a deep breath and started slowly shoving the assorted bits of metal and glass into their stomach, their skin parting to accept the offering being made. It was a slow and painful process, sharper than adding their additional teeth.
Tiv sometimes hated feeding but everyone had to, it was just closer to a chore than a pleasure for them. After a few minutes, their body had fully incorporated the meal, their skin shining with a renewed luster, their body now tinted with a dull silvery sapphire hue. Satisfied, they pulled a cloth over their now slightly less frail body and prepared to rest.
What a successful morning.
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