“C-can you take me with you?!”

Blank stares from all around the chrome room pin themselves on me, the slight glow to the singular eye on each being is somewhat hard to tell apart from the dull luminescence of blue neon lights scattered about the room. The blue glow somehow fills the area with light without the need for any actual light bulbs or the like. A bubbly groan (and I mean literally bubbly) to my side indicates the approach of another creature, a lankier alien-like figure slinking towards me. 

I continue to be in awe of their appearances as they move; their bodies look to be entirely composed of barely translucent slime and each person is one of all manners of different colours. They certainly move like slime too, bobbing and jiggling about, though it all seems to retain its form. Said form is somewhat human-like in shape albeit with much more varied proportions. They all typically have a longer and thinner neck than humans, thinner arms that gradually get larger closer to their hands, and legs that end in puddles, some near the ankles, others near the thighs. Most striking to me, however, is their hair which resembles either soapy foam or whipped cream, varying between each alien. I can’t get a good look at what the doctors around the operating table have for ‘hair’ though since their heads are nearly fully covered. Oh, right, operating table.

I woke up just a moment ago to find myself surrounded by about four of these aliens who appeared to be waiting for me to awaken; I even had a blanket draped over me and a pillow beneath my head. I was alarmed at first, but honestly, their appearances don’t really frighten me at all, they’re kinda cute-- Err, cool, actually. After they handed me a juice box that looked like it came straight off the shelf of a grocery store, they assured me I’d be sent home as soon as I wish to be. Hearing this, I began to calm down a bit until one of the doctors, wearing what looks like a doctor’s uniform made of completely smooth aluminium, handed me a pair of light steel rods with neon highlights. The rods were stuck together but pulling them apart revealed a scroll of sorts, and inside…was a lot. A contract, they called it. Should I opt out, I would be returned to Earth with no recollection of these events.

But something made me want to stay, made me want more.

The purple alien, their hair a lavender coloured whip cream that covers half their face while the other side of their head is…shaved? Would you call it shaved? The other side of their head was buzzed clean. Their outfit is also very different from the doctors’, and I’m guessing they don’t care much for modesty here, if that’s even a concept for them. Only their chest, elbows, pelvis, and knees are wrapped in steel with either gems or glowing bits and bobs adorning them. Their hand flies in front of me, taking my attention away from their interesting fashion.

“Yexlo. Mr. Yexlo, in human formalities,” he states in a voice that is somewhat deep and stern, yet with the faintest echo behind it. 

He stands there, completely still and firmly planted, waiting for me to respond. I reach up hesitantly and grab his hand. It’s…firm? A lot more solid than I would have expected, but still softer than a human’s hand. We shake, and as I pull my hand away I’m a bit surprised to find not a trace of slimy residue on it. That would explain why the floors aren’t a total mess around here. 

“You wouldn’t be the first to ask for passage or even shelter upon this ship, and you will not be the first with whom we agree to such conditions.”

The slime man sees my frown and seems to grimace. I think back to the contract… A lot of it seemed to be your typical legal mumbo jumbo, only for aliens so it sounded just the slightest bit off to me. Outside of that, though, the main point it tried to get across was my purpose for being here: to safely experiment and alter my body with consent before returning me home. According to the contract, I was scouted through a brain scanner that seeks specific types of people who would be interested in this thing. I’m guessing the contract is just a formality, but…

“Please don’t send me back!” I cry out, my pleading seems to work as guilt begins to creep onto Mr. Yexlo’s face. “My life back down there is miserable, there’s nothing for me to go back to!” 

Is that true? I’d never thought about it much before, but hearing myself say it, it sounds more real than anything I’d ever thought before. I take a moment to think as the slime man attempts to muster a reply, the gravity of what I’m asking weighing on both of us. It means leaving my parents behind. They look out for me, but…they’ve hurt me in a lot of ways too, even if they don’t know it. They get upset at me for wanting to do things and be things that make me happy, or actively prevent me from doing such things. I try not to think about those memories much, but in the face of this situation, hearing them in my head, yelling at me for being depressed, mocking and doubting me when I wanted to try new things… It all becomes too clear, almost like I’m reliving those moments. It hurts so much. So no, I don’t think I’m concerned about leaving my parents.

It means leaving my stuff behind. Things like my games, my collectables, my…my plushies. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I have quite a few more plushies than the average guy, though, that’s still not saying much. I’ve basically been hiding them from my parents since I was little or just using the old “sentimental value” argument, which worked well enough. It’s sad, but holding them always helped when I wasn’t feeling great. I think I’d miss those most of all, though, a lot of the games and anime merch would be missed too. In the end, though, I feel drawn to this decision despite missing those things.

It means leaving my friends behind. As if I haven’t admitted to enough sad sounding facts of my life as is, I’ll note that I don’t have many friends either. Maybe one friend keeps up with me from high school, and I have a few online friends who I met through online games. They all know me as Vivan Voidheart though, I always went with that name if I needed an easy alias, so it’s not like they really knew the real me though, right? I was always happier playing that game than doing basically anything outside of it, so they probably saw a side of me no one else really did. I think I really would miss those folks. Maybe this ship has internet access? From the way the contract is worded, it sounds like they’re always flying around earth, so that doesn’t seem like too far fetched of an idea. I can really only hope that’s the case, because I still want to go with these aliens instead of returning home. I’m a college dropout with no job, I never go out, and the only social contact I have is through an online game.

That’s that. I’m ready for a new life.

Looking around, I find Yexlo in a chair off to the side of the room, and not a doctor in sight. I must have blanked out for longer than I thought.

“What do you want?” I hear him say suddenly, presumably having been waiting for me to come to.

“H-huh? I just want to get away from my life--”

“No,” he cuts me off, standing up and slinking towards me once again. “What do you want from coming with us? Do you really think life will suddenly become better by abandoning your home to live with a species you know nothing about? Was your life down there really so bad?” 

Erk. Thinking about it, no. It doesn’t seem like the kind of life someone would be desperate to get away from. So why? Why do I want to get away from it? Why do I want to join this--well, I don’t even know if it’s a spaceship, but I would assume so--spaceship full of odd slime aliens? Before I can answer any of those questions about myself, though, something a bit more pressing brings itself to light in my mind.

 

“No, but if I’m causing so much trouble by asking it, why haven’t you just sent me back down to Earth yet?” 

The tall slime man raises a finger, about to give me an answer I hope, but he stops himself, his face making it seem like he’s conflicted about something.

“That’s not something to concern yourself with,” Mr. Yexlo says, turning to the side and pacing back and forth slowly as he continues. “We are not a hostile species, we truly wish for the most comfort possible while we research your species.”

“Are we really that interesting…? We’re just humans…” 

He stops and turns to me as I ask that, smiling ever so slightly. 

“Perhaps to the untrained eye.” He reaches out for my hand once again, helping me down from the table once I hesitantly grab hold. “But there is a reason we seek to change the human form.” 

Mr. Yexlo begins leading me out of the operating room, and I look down at myself to make sure none of my clothes were taken from me. Thankfully, I was left in my purple, baggy pajamas, so walking through the halls of the metallic ship isn’t too awkward. 

“You see, what makes humans interesting is not what we see, but rather, what we do not.” 

Oh boy, he’s getting whimsical on me. 

“What was once considered nonsense pseudoscience on our home world, thrives as we orbit yours. The closest equivalent humans have to it would be ‘alchemy.’”

 I perk up, my interest piqued, and the alien notices, his smile growing ever so slightly wider. 

“You have an interest in such things, Ms…?”

Huh? Miss? Do these aliens have some backwards understanding of gender? Even if that is the case, I don’t feel compelled to correct him, it’d probably invite too many questions I’m not interested in.

“Uhh, just call me Vi. All my friends do.” 

He nods, taking the two of us down a slowly curving hall of identical doors, all the same except for the colour of neon lights adorning them. 

“A-and yeah. Kinda. It’s not really a thing to humans, it’s mostly a fantasy thing.”

“Then, Vi, I would hope you choose to remember this trip, for it is the closest you will ever come to witnessing such scientific miracles.” 

Soon enough, we enter a door at the end of the hallway and come to another corridor, a long, single window forming its outer wall. I can confirm this is indeed a ship, because we’re currently looking out and viewing earth from far above. 

“Our ‘alchemy’ has little to no effect on our own species, yet when interacting with yours, it can have incredibly transformative effects of such varying degrees.” 

Mr. Yexlo would have had to recapture my attention, if not for my head immediately snapping back to look at him as he neared the end of his last statement. Said reaction solicits a content sigh as he closes his eye.

“You and I are not so different after all, Vi.”

After opening his eye, we spend a moment staring out over Earth before my brain catches up with his statement. 

“Eh? What do you mean?” 

He shakes his head, looking somewhat sad. “In due time, dear Vi. Even among my own race, people like us are rare. It is a wonder I even work on this ship and with this crew to begin with.” 

Is he talking about his interest in alchemy? He did say it was considered nonsense pseudoscience, so that might be why it’s so surprising to have all this. Still, is my passing interest in the subject really enough to warrant such a comment? I shake my head, looking back to Mr. Yexlo, who begins leading me around the ship once more. 

“There is only so much I can do for you given my authority under those who rule, but I will do all in my power to help you attain what it is you seek, even if you are yet to become aware of what that is.” 

For someone who seems to be pretty in charge around here, he sure is pretty vague in an old mentor sort of way. We take a turn into a similar hallway to the one with the operating room. However some of the doors here seem to be decorated, almost personalized. 

“I’ll take you to my superior’s room for the moment until I’ve figured out the most optimal solution to our situation. She is a very kind, if somewhat eccentric soul, but most importantly, she is like us--”

“And what exactly is that like?”

 

Mr. Yexlo stops dead in his tracks as the voice calls out to him, a figure approaching us from the other end of the hall. The figure is much more burly than any of the others I’ve seen up until now, and his gruff voice matches that. The bigger navy blue slime wears much more of the armour-like clothing than Mr. Yexlo. His hair is short, crawling down his face to form a beard. His hair is more like soapy foam than the smooth whipped cream of the slime still holding my hand. Oh. I gently pull my hand from Mr. Yexlo’s grasp. Somehow being seen by someone else suddenly makes me uncomfortable about it. Looking up to the slime man by my side, I see him with a much sterner face than before, even more so than when I first saw him.

“Captain Hizloken. This is our latest human arrival, who will be departing soon, I assure you. Vi here shares common interests with my goals and the goals of my superior, is what I meant by what I said.” His voice almost sounds angry, yet this Hizloken person doesn’t seem to notice or be phased by it.

“Ah, of course, Yexlo the Farmhand and the Plant Lord Nebluna.” 

I see Mr. Yexlo grimace at this, which amuses the captain. Then he turns to me. I’m scared. He’s no taller than Mr. Yexlo, yet I’m afraid for some reason. He has an aura to him I can’t explain, but it makes me uncomfortable, my whole body feeling stiff and frozen with discomfort from his glare alone. 

“Well, Vi, a pleasure to meet you, but I have better things to do than babysit.” He begins to walk past us, actually walking with a pair of legs instead of slithering like every other slime I’ve seen so far. “Enjoy your trip home, son.”

A chill runs down my spine. I already don’t like him. Not that that matters, he’s right, I’ll be going home soon, I won’t have to think about anyone here after that. The slime man next to me seems to relax, his slime going from tense to almost melty, as we hear the sound of the hallway door opening, then closing. 

“Please disregard the captain, Vi. He is, indeed, a total dickwad.” 

Pff--!! I can’t help but snort at that, which gets a chuckle out of the stressed slime. 

“Come, we have a friendlier face to greet.” 

That’s not saying much compared to the mug I’d just been introduced to, but I take his word for it, following him until we come across a door with some otherworldly potted plants on either side. They twist and curve in ways no plant should, all the while one grows blue while the other glows blue, a white aura surrounding both. Mr. Yexlo knocks on the door, sounding sort of like jello falling onto a plate, but he receives no response. With a sigh, he taps the side of his hip armour, and it begins to show a more intricate neon glow, like a keypad almost. After a few keystrokes, he holds out his hand. and something begins to materialize in it. As the slime man brandishes it I can see it’s a card key. He taps it against the door, which opens after a series of bleeps and bloops.