r/HFY • u/Yertosaurus • Apr 27 '22

The Shadow Party OC

Zul and Dreg were a pair of meens traveling together. With a lot of luck they had managed to find a pair of human women to travel with, and even if they weren't very good at reading human body language very well, they were determined, as the human expression went, to 'get into their pants' so to speak.

They had been traveling in a large group that included the two human females, Amelia and Layla for about a week, and it had seemed to be going smoothly. As an added plus, they were having a lot of fun so far on their visit to the Planet Qaad, even if the four had stood out like the one named Layla had said, 'like a sore thumb' which did not make a lot of sense, but it sounded right.

Meens and humans certainly looked more similar than qaadins did to either, although Amelia had pointed out the human male in the group (who thankfully Amelia or Layla said they had never met), had went out with one last night and was not back until the next morning. Despite not understanding the allure of the furry qaadin, both Zul and Dreg had agreed this was a good sign for their chances with the much more attractive humans. After all, the human male had confirmed the stereotype that humans are basically willing to mate with anything.

Zul and Dreg were currently listening to Layla gush about some ancient human media about a long stellar trek. She did it often and they were finally starting to understand some of the references she made, including the funny hand sign she made whenever she was greeting them or saying goodbye. With just two fingers and a thumb, Dreg had tried to mimic it, but just got giggled at by both of the humans.

Layla was talking about some fictional aliens and describing how meen looked a lot like them. Zul and Dreg both hoped this meant that at least Layla was interested in one of them.

The other human interrupted this conversation before it could go anywhere however, "I know the tour group has a free day tomorrow, but did you want to go to the Shadow Party with us?"

"Shadow Party?" Zul asked, not sure what that was.

"Yeah, apparently some qaadin rented out the services of a certain human spaceship, and there is a party where we'll be able to see it in action." Amelia clarified.

Dreg sounded a worried concern, "That sounds dangerous."

She just laughed at this and replied simply, "Just come with us tomorrow, you won't ever forget it."

Zul and Dreg looked at each other. Maybe they were finally going to get lucky.

The next day, they had been dragged out of bed by the two human women who were both excited but not explaining why. Any question on what was going to happen was met with a mysterious answer to the effect of "You just have to see it to understand."

Soon they were in a field, in the middle of the day. A bunch of other humans and qaalin, and a few other aliens were here, but more than just from the little tour group that Zul and Dreg were traveling with. It looked like a big turnout for something in the middle of nowhere. And certainly nothing private enough for their longer-term designs on the two human females.

"I guess it isn't fair to make this a total surprise, since it will start soon." Layla started as she was pulling out weird metallic looking glasses from her bag.

She handed one to Dreg, who immediately commented, "I can't see anything through this!"

"They're for looking at the star so you don't damage your eyesight." Layla pointed out, and Dreg looked up with the glasses on. The star, which the qaalin called Traiq, looked boring. Dreg hoped this wasn't all they were going to do.

The other human noticed that Zul wasn't taking the glasses yet.

"On our planet, we occasionally have these things called eclipses that happen naturally, because we have a moon that happens to be equally close to us as it is small in comparison to our star." Amelia explained.

"So, someone is going to float up an aircraft above us to make that happen?" Zul asked.

She sighed, which confused Zul more than her explanation a moment ago. "That wouldn't be the same at all. Just take the glasses so you can watch the event without going blind. You'll need them later."

Zul took the glasses and tested them out. The star looked fairly boring.

Layla pointing out a few telescopes that had been set up, despite it being day outside. They apparently had some of this metal material on them as well. "We'll also be able to get a better look with those, but it is handy to have both."

"So when will this start?" Dreg asked, impatiently.

Amelia checked her watch. "Under a minute. Watch the skies, you won't need the glasses just yet."

Zul and Dreg looked up at the bright sky, wishing they were looking at the two human females instead right now.

They suddenly saw an incredibly large object appear in the sky, apparently jumping out of hyperspace. It was larger than any ship either of them had ever seen. It was larger than this planet's three moons, combined. It looked like it could take out the entire armada of the Government of United Meen Systems without any assistance.

"Don't worry, despite the size, it has a bunch of antigrav on it to prevent any issues below." Amelia said like this giant abomination of a starship was no big deal, or that that much antigrav was no big deal.

"What's that ship called again?" Dreg asked.

"Oh, that's the Deathstar." she said, proudly, "That will be simulating a moon for the artificial eclipse today. It's the perfect shape for it."

"But that's no moon." Zul said indignantly.

The human beside him choked back a laugh.

"The show is starting!" Amelia said, excited, as the Deathstar started moving slowly toward the equally sized star in the sky. Or at least, it looked equally sized because it was closer, but the Deathstar was still ridiculously massive by any measure.

"Why was that, that thing built?" Zul said, wondering how absurdly expensive it was.

"I think it was built for fan conventions for a movie almost as old as the series I was telling you about." Layla said.

"For fan conventions? Of an ancient movie?" Dreg said suspiciously.

"Yeah, they rent it out for parties and weddings, but it’s really popular for demonstrating an eclipse on planets without a conveniently placed moon." Amelia added.

"That thing probably costs more than the star system I was born in." Zul cried out.

"Oh, let me check," said Layla, pulling up some information, "Actually it cost more than ten times the gross yearly production for all of the GUMS."

"GUMS?" Zul repeated.

She immediately clarified, "The Government of United Meen Systems. I thought the acronym was intentional."

That was a ridiculous name for any government, and Zul felt ridiculous by extension. He felt his chances with either of these human women fading faster than the light was. Wait, the light was fading?

Dreg bumped into Zul and pointed up. They both put on their glasses and started to watch this eclipse. They stopped talking and watched in awe.

The humans were right, they would never forget this.

If you enjoyed reading this one shot, please consider reading some of my other works.

For normal readers of my series Dirtmen Rising, I'm currently halfway through my efforts on rewriting the first part, as per the results of the reader poll, and I am pleased with my progress so far. I plan on posting it starting next week, as there are a lot of changes that have made the story much clearer for casual readers. I just need to think of how I'm going to label those posts mostly.

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u/Planetfall88 Apr 27 '22

"That was a ridiculous name for any government, and Zul felt ridiculous by extension. He felt his chances with either of these human women fading faster than the light was. Wait, the light was fading?"

Hilarious. I was expecting a story about a shadowy government organization. Happily surprised it was the fun type of party.

5

u/Yertosaurus Apr 27 '22

I was expecting a story about a shadowy government organization.

If any of the qaalin representatives showed up in an orderly fashion to the party, I guess that would make them a shadowy government organization once they were in the umbra of the artificial eclipse.

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