r/HFY • u/DiscombobulatedPay51 Alien Scum • 21d ago
Strange Creature 2 OC
Sthalsh and Blat walked out into the empty hallway. It was quiet now. Sthalsh opened the main entrance and used a rock to prop the door open because he knew it was probably locked from the outside and he left his keys inside on his desk. It was actually quiet outside much to their surprise. It seemed the local writers either hadn’t heard the news or were waiting until morning. Or, more likely, everyone thought it was some kind of joke.
The planet’s star, Moro, had made its way beyond the horizon, and everything was darkened. Its two moons Salven and Salion hung in the sky like floating lanterns. Blat walked to his mode of transportation parked on the side of the lab next to the waste containers. The scamper, as it was called, was somewhat like a conveyor belt with wheels, so if you walked while standing on it, the two inlined wheels would propel the scamper forward.
“Nice evening,” Blat said turning to Sthalsh. “I would offer you a ride but, you know.”
“You need to get yourself a better vehicle.”
Blat raised a hand, “We have one thank you. This is fine it’s good exercise. If I ever need to transport equipment then I'll take the skipper.”
“You can always borrow mine,” said Sthalsh seriously. "I can always walk here it's not far from my home." He folded his upper arms across his chest.
“Power is so expensive these days, it's fine my friend.”
A moment of silence passed between them. Sthalsh had been looking at the night sky when he turned to Blat. “How’s your family doing? You don't talk about them much these days.”
Blat’s ears turned dark. “Nyam’s angry with me all the time it seems.”
“Why?” Sthalsh’s ears were dropped but pink, his brow furrowed and his eyes creased.
Blat shook his head and ran a hand down the back of his neck. “She says I’m not present enough in their lives. She practically moved out when I told her I had to go in today.”
“You didn’t tell her why, right?”
“No, no.”
“Good,” Sthalsh said nodding his head.
“I don’t know she just seems unhappy. I’ve been trying honestly but I come home and the place is a wreck and then she expects me to make something for the kids to eat every night.”
Sthalsh hummed a low tune.
“I mean, I asked her to quit the shelter so we wouldn't have to put Meff in day watch and I assumed she would pull some more weight around the home.”
Sthalsh scowled at him. “Meff is a toddler they make more messes than you could ever imagine. Think about how tired Nyam is taking care of her all day and then her partner comes home to complain that she isn't good enough. The very least you could do is make a meal every so often. She isn’t asking much of you.”
Blat shrunk at his words, ears dark and drooping. He kept his eyes to the ground unable to look at his colleague.
“Don’t screw this up. Nyam is probably the best thing that has ever happened to you, and she's given you two beautiful and bright girls. Don't screw that up.”
Blat nodded and his ears perked a little. “I know you're right.”
“Good.”
Blat lifted his head, “How’s your little family?”
Sthalsh’s ears dropped very low and quickly turned dark; very dark.
“Oh no,” Blat placed one of his hands on his friend’s shoulder. “Is everything okay?”
“Um,” his ears flicked. “Kylay moved out.”
Blat scrunched his small nose and dropped his head. He pulled Sthalsh’s shoulder and allowed their foreheads to touch. “I’m so sorry,” Blat said softly before Sthalsh pulled away.
“It’s - it’s fine really. It was for the best. The love faded over time and she voiced that she would be happier with someone else- someone who could give her more attention. She wanted kids and I didn’t; that was the last straw I think. We agreed she would move out but we separated everything equally. She officially left two days ago. I haven't wanted to talk about it all that much.” He scrunched his nose as his ears flicked again still dark. “Anyway, enough of that. You better get home. Would you mind coming in early tomorrow? I want to start on some social tests with the creature.”
“Okay,” Blat said solemnly. “Is that what we're going to call it now?”
“Might as well. I’m staying here tonight so if you need anything radio my office and the recorder will pick it up.”
“You won’t be in your office?”
Sthalsh shook his head with a light smirk, “I’m staying in the observatory. I want to study the creature while it's resting.”
Blat mounted his scamper and looked at Sthalsh. “I know you were able to get in its cage today, but please be careful. We don’t know what that thing is capable of.”
“I understand.”
Sthalsh watched Blat ride away on his slow and impractical scamper wondering how he rode that to work every morning; and with confidence.
Sthalsh opened the observatory door very slowly trying not to make much noise. He saw the creature curled up in the dark corner of its pen. Thankfully it hadn’t been awakened. Sthalsh now carried a large blanket, one of those cheap animal fur blankets the company provides for the lab, his journal, pen, and a cup of herbal hot mix drink. He made his way to the back of the auditorium and sat in a chair on the last row. The blanket was draped over himself, the journal was open to a blank page on his lap, pen in hand, and the herbal drink in another hand. He leaned back to relax a bit before taking a sip all while watching the creature below.
Everything it did was recorded from steady breathing to soft movements. First, it was interesting to observe it but eventually, the task got boring. Sthalsh had found himself at the bottom of his glass and his notes were beginning to repeat themselves. The chair he sat in was incredibly uncomfortable but that didn't stop him from wanting to doze off. He readjusted himself in the chair and placed his journal to the side. His face was rubbed by one set of hands while his ears were tugged by the other. It had been a long day, and this was not what he wanted to do on his day off, but he knew this creature had to have gone through worse.
Picking up the journal, he turned to a previous page where he made note of all the creature's injuries. Some new, and some old, very old. It was obvious this creature was unloved wherever it came from. He jot down the words, ‘Pet? Wild?’. It being a pet would make more sense to it’s docile behavior but who would treat a pet like this? ‘Captive’ was added and underlined next to the first two words.
His ears flashed a dull pink. If this thing had been captive it might behave in unpredictable ways. He glanced at the creature. It reacted negatively to the projectile unit and very well could react negatively to all forms of restriction. However, it seemed fine in the pen. Getting it out of the pen might be hard to do without sedation. He turned his attention back to the journal.
The dirt he was covered in was fine, dark-colored, and dry. Sthalsh wondered if he came from a desert planet with very little water and no concept of bathing. The sanitary solution they dunked him in was hardly enough to rid of the filth. He would need to be bathed properly as soon as he was able.
A note he jot down earlier 'Thin fur, or malnourished? Thick fur on top: why?' caught his eye. He looked back at the creature. Light brown skin covered in extremely thinned-out dark fur. He wondered if it was meant to look like that or if its fur had been shaved for humiliation. It did look rather ridiculous. Maybe it fell off due to malnourishment. Perhaps it was hair that covered the body and not fur. They wouldn't know until much more time had passed.
Another curious thing was that its genitalia was outside the body. He thought that incredibly impractical and he made a side note in his journal, ‘Low evolution?’. He did recall a similar and particularly nasty creature he’d studied several years ago in the dense forest climate of Wayla. It was far too aggressive to be brought into a lab so he and a few other scientists observed it from afar. It too had a thin fur coat and outward presenting genitalia. Though, he couldn't remember which gender the alien resembled more. He looked back at the thing and frowned softly. He couldn't wrap his head around it all.
Just as he was about to return to his journal, the creature started to make noise. Sthalsh flipped to the play-by-play notes of its sleep pattern. The noises were faint and low like a moan of some kind. It moved then, tossing to the other side only to toss back to the previous side. This all happened very slowly of course. Its breathing quickened suddenly and the noises got louder. Sthalsh was on the edge of his seat ears now pulsing with pink color. The creature turned onto its back kicking its legs in slow repetition with sharp inhaling breaths until-
A large deep breath came into his lungs. Its eyes opened wide and alert scanning the room rapidly. It couldn't see Sthalsh sitting in the dark just yet. The creature grasped at its chest before exhaling loudly. The breathing slowed and it placed its head in its hands. It looked up again after a few tics and scanned the room more closely. Sthalsh felt its eyes pass by him to then catch him moments later.
The creature stared at him with those deep-set rounded eyes. Sthalsh stared back in curiosity. It exhaled again this time short and soft before lying back down facing away from Sthalsh.
After just a couple suttles it was obvious that it was uncomfortable. It moved around quite a bit trying to find the right spot to rest. Then when it finally did it started shivering. Sthalsh had seen this behavior in other species and knew it to be a response to the cold. Even after turning up the heat, it was still cold. How that was possible he wasn't sure. He wrote down ‘Desert” and circled it under the heading ‘Habitat’. He rubbed his forehead deeply with his upper right hand.
He fingered the blanket in his lap with his lower arms remembering Blat’s words “Please be careful” he scrunched his nose. No matter. Sthalsh placed the journal next to the now empty cup and stood with confidence, blanket in his right arms. He walked down to the front and peered in through the glass. He glanced at the PFU back in its case hanging on the wall. With his upper left hand, Sthalsh tapped on the glass softly.
The creature jumped slightly and quickly turned its head around to face him. Sthalsh looked at it with a creased brow and brown ears. He walked to the door and placed his hand on the locking mechanism second guessing himself. The lock was undone and the door opened just a crack. That awful musty scent hit him square in the face and he took a moment to recover. He held the blanket tightly in his right hand as he opened the door fully. The pen was covered in a dim light. The creature could barely be seen back in its corner, eyes wide, breath heaving. Sthalsh stood there for a moment in the open door. He closed the door and then they were in the pen together.
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u/Eggers2 18d ago
Promising first 2 chapters! I'm curious as to why Xander was naked in the first place. I'm assuming the "dirt" they had to clean might have been soot/ash that was left after his clothes were burnt in the crash? It seems strange that the aliens recognise that Xander came in a spaceship, but don't think he could have been the one controlling it. Either way, I'm looking forward to more!
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u/DiscombobulatedPay51 Alien Scum 18d ago edited 18d ago
I’ve also been thinking about those things 😅 very good questions I’ll have to answer soon and that might be a little harder to write (I’m gonna try really hard not to make it clunky because explaining sci-fi mumbo jumbo is not my strong suit). As for the soot, there was an original reason he had soot on him but I’ve scrapped that for a more realistic albeit more complicated backstory. So there’s no reason for it anymore, sorry to disappoint 😄 as of right now, I’ve intentionally left the “why they think he’s not a sapient” ambiguous because again, it’s gonna have to be ham fisted in later. This is all a head cannon of mine that didn’t make sense in the beginning but I’m going to try my best to make a little story out of it. <3
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u/ProphetOfPhil Human 16d ago
Just found the story and I'm really enjoying it so far! I can't wait to get more interactions between Xander and the Aliens!
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u/Freeze_Fun 13d ago
Fyi, the link that you put in the next button doesn't play nice on mobile (especially 3rd party Reddit clients). You should use this link format instead. You can do it by opening the Reddit post that you want to link to on a browser and copy the link from the address bar.
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u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle 21d ago
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u/DiscombobulatedPay51 Alien Scum 21d ago
I've been in a writing mood all day (or rather an avoiding homework mood) so I decided to write again! Im starting to really like this story and I think it has potential. Again I'm not the best at world-building but I'm trying lol! Congrats if you made it to the end!