Metal that takes the light as slowly as it gives it back.
A man built out of polished metal, standing in a dry valley with his goggles down. One orange lens, no pupils behind it. Behind him the desert goes yellow all the way to the top of the frame, and the few trees in it look like they are holding their breath. Once per loop the light swells and the whole body takes it — chrome into gold and back — while the surface drifts a few millimetres, the way a liquid does when it is almost still. Nothing here is what it seems to be made of.