The room I’m met with is completely different from the rest of the ship. The most obvious difference is that the walls, while retaining the neon accents here and there, are a purplish black instead of the chromatic white coating everything else. The one exception is the corner of the room where the occupant’s bed lies, appearing to have that same chrome look. After that, it’s hard not to notice the plants growing everywhere around the room, out of pots sitting on tables or floating by the ceiling , running overtop of each other and even the computer to the side of the room. There’s only plants. There’s no room for anything else. Just. Plants.

“Take a seat anywhere you feel is comfortable, Vi.” Mr. Yexlo ushers me in a bit further before turning around and slinking back into the hallway. “I will seek out Ms. Nebluna. And if we’re lucky, it will be Nebula we find instead of Luna…” 

On that confusing note, the door between us shuts and a series of electronic noises, slightly different than the noises when the door opened, chime through the air. Air? Yeah, has to be air. Otherwise, how would I be breathing? I decide not to dwell on the inner workings of an advanced alien spaceship.

I pull up the chair closest to the table most densely populated with plants and take a seat. Honestly, I’m surprised at how well I’m taking this. Granted, thinking about it a bit more, I’ve always wanted something like this. Being teleported to a high fantasy world or transported into a video game, I’ve always been fascinated by stories of leaving your own world and making a life in a new one. Yet despite that, I still surprised myself when I blurted out that I wanted to join this ship. And then alchemy…and transformation? Thinking about it all put an odd tingling sensation in my gut, not a bad feeling at all, but one I’ve never really been able to understand--

“H-hey!” My hand comes flying up as I find a few of the plants have taken interest in me, their leaves and vines having been slowly inching towards me before I set up some boundaries. “You’re cool and all, but touching is off limits, okay?” 

The flora almost seems sad, drooping down a bit before receding to their previous positions. 

“...Am I talking with plants? Why am I talking with plants?” 

I shake my head before holding it in my hands, my elbows firmly planted on my knees. There are so many questions I want to ask but I don’t have the words for them; nor anybody to ask for that matter. Mr. Yexlo is really nice, father-like even after getting past the initial argument. Is that taking it a bit too far? I only just met him, yet I’m comparing him to being my dad? Maybe I simply don’t have a good point of reference for that, seeing as my own father wasn’t around much, and when he was it was to alleviate his own guilt at not being around by buying me stuff. It was nice but not the emotional support I feel I needed. Wait, what? What am I thinking? I’ve never thought about things like this before, let alone in such an introspective way. Maybe that’s where all these feelings I don’t understand are bubbling up from? It’s kind of scary in a way, almost like I’ve been hiding--

Someone’s behind me. I had turned the chair to face away from the desk of plants before sitting down, and now someone is behind me, staring at me, I can feel it. Don’t look. You’re not about to get eggs shoved down your throat by some horrifying alien creature. Just. Don’t. Look.

“Behind you!”

“Ahh!!” 

I spin around in time to witness a new slime rising up from under the table. They continue rising and rising until they’re about the same height as Mr. Yexlo, maybe even a bit taller. Their body isn’t a single colour like the rest of the slimes. Rather it’s a dark, spacy purple and a bright white, swirling around like…well, like space. Think almost akin to a bath bomb. Speaking of baths, their hair is the foamier type, but tied into a high ponytail with what looks like one of those round body scrubbers you use in the shower. The hair itself doesn’t go too much further than below their neck, while their bangs are almost covering their... eyes, plural? They have two eyes instead of one. Oh, and they’re completely nude. The sound of me slapping my hands over my eyes echoes through the room, followed by a high pitched giggle from the slime person.

“Oh, please, there’s nothing here to even be embarrassed by!” 

I’m starting to think my idea of these aliens having no modesty might be true. Spreading my fingers apart just a bit, I see the tall slime smiling at me and leaning forward, rolling their eyes. 

“Alright, alright, I’ll put something on. Silly humans…” 

They turn around and slither towards the most open wall in the room, that being one not completely obscured by plant life. I notice their legs end at their knees unlike Mr. Yexlo, who’s puddle starts at his ankles. Jeez, and they’re still just as tall as him too. I also notice puberty was much kinder to their hips than it was to mine-- That is an odd thought to have out of nowhere. Makes me feel like a creep, being jealous of someone else’s thighs… I don’t even know if these aliens have a puberty like we do!

I shake my head as the sound of beeps begins to echo through the room and, looking up at the wall, I see a grid of neon similar to the one from Mr. Yexlo’s clothing. After a series of melodious beeps, the slime spreads their arms wide and that same armour-like clothing begins to materialize around their body. Somehow it’s both more and less revealing than Mr. Yexlo’s, draping over more of their body, yet having more gaps and slits that reveal the slime underneath. They spin around and twirl towards me, smiling and sitting down on the floor to get closer to my eye level.

“So… hiya!” 

Their hand shoots up between us, and I reach up to shake it a bit less hesitantly than I did with Mr. Yexlo. Although, I probably should have been a bit more warry, considering the surprising speed at which they shake my hand, even making the chair below me begin to rattle from their intense enthusiasm. 

“The name’s Nebluna, but you can call me Luna!” 

Ah, so this is her room, which means in a way I’m not greeting a total stranger. She finally releases my hand and smiles at me. 

“I’ll introduce you to Nebula later, but suffice to say, she’s excited to meet you too!” 

Alright, I’m confused. I tilt my head at her and she mimics my reaction before giggling. 

“Oh, this must be a new concept to you then! I’d heard there are people similar to us on your planet, but it’s not all that well known! Basically, Nebluna is two people, a system if you will, consisting of Nebula and me, Luna! We merged a long time ago, hence the two eyes!” She blinks each individually as if to emphasize her point. “To put it simply, one body, two people, and right now, Luna is in control! Like I said, Nebula will come later, but she’s excited to meet you!” 

Y’know, that’s not too hard of a concept to grasp.

“Uhh. Hi, Luna. You can call me Vi.” She smiles brightly at me and I smile awkwardly back. “Uhm. Mr. Yexlo dropped me off here, said he’d do everything he can to help me? Not entirely sure what that means.” 

I didn’t think it possible, but Luna’s smile only gets brighter, her eyes lighting up, only to roll them. “Mr. Yexlo? My word, that man, we don’t even use those kinds of things in our culture. That guy is so into human culture... Anyways! You’re one of us then!” 

There they go again, saying stuff like that.

“Is it really that rare to be interested in alchemy…?” 

The girl nearly bursts into laughter before catching herself, then me, leaning down and pulling me into a hug. It’s sudden and I just met her, but I don’t mind? Maybe I hadn’t gotten enough hugs as a kid or something. Either way, I bring my arms up slowly and awkwardly wrap them around her in return.

“Oh you sweet summer child, you have so much to learn!”

She lets go of me before roaming over to the computer covered in vines and leaves, starting it up and doing god knows what. It is some weird alien computer technology after all. This must be what it feels like to my parents when they ask for help logging into their email. From what little I can figure out, she seems to be looking through research of some kind. Before long she is moving back to me and asking me to scoot off her chair, which I do, watching her get to work with her plants. They don’t seem to react to her the same way they did me. Maybe that’s related to what Mr. Yexlo said about alchemy not having much of an effect on their species? 

The plants don’t react at all as she plucks leaves, snips vines, harvests berries (or what look like berries anyways), twisting the vines around one another, putting the leaves in a bowl and grinding them to a paste, cutting open the berries and letting their juices seep out over everything else. Everything seems to glow more and more as the process continues, finishing it off by pouring the fruity paste over the damp vines and shoving it into some kind of microwave-looking thing before pulling what looks like a wand out almost immediately. 

“Haha! Here we are! Oh, shoot. I probably should have asked you what you want to change into first, huh? Got a bit ahead of myself!” 

She twirls the wand made of plant life in her hand with a chuckle.

“W-wait, you’re just gonna transform me? Just like that? Should I be put under first or something?” 

Luna puts the wand down on the table and shakes her head with a smile. “No no no, this isn’t like human surgery or anything. There’s a reason we used to think this was pseudoscience, it’s almost magical the way it interacts with the human body! Completely painless, some have even said it felt really good!”

I don’t get it, but my heart only beats faster hearing that, and I think Luna can tell, smirking at me and tapping her fingers across her table.

“Yeah, the operating table ‘n stuff is really just a formality. Honestly, it’s kinda dumb considering it’s pretty similar to what humans depict being probed by an alien to look like, and visiting the doctor is scary enough as is from what we can tell!”

She’s right about that, the idea of doing this kind of thing in the confines of a private room, away from any kind of authority, it’s a lot more inviting than an operating room. 

“Anyways! What do you want to change about yourself?”

Despite talking about it and hearing about it since I awoke, the question itself strikes me like a riddle. The idea of changing entices me so much, yet I don’t even know what I want to change about myself! Luna can tell I’m struggling-- Wait, did her eyes just change from  white to purple?

“You poor thing, the answer must be buried under so much pain. Come sit with Nebula.” 

Oh, so this is Nebula then? Even her voice is different, somewhat deeper, but soft as well, caring almost. She pulls herself off her chair (an odd sight considering her legs are all thigh), then waddles over to her bed and sits on its edge, patting the spot by her side in an invitation for me to join her. Slowly and nervously, I walk over to her, sitting down on the smooth and soft bed. It’s a weird feeling for sure, but maybe it makes sense to not use cloth considering they’re made of slime.

“It’s, uhh, it’s nice to meet you, Nebula…?” 

She smiles down at me and rests her hand on my head, patting me for a moment. “The pleasure is all mine, Vi. I used to be just like you, you know? Feeling lost and unsure, pushing my feelings deep inside of myself so they wouldn’t bother anyone.” She moves her hands into her lap, looking down at herself. “Luna really helped me to find who I am, and I would be happy to help you find yourself.”

Finding myself…that’s not something I thought I needed, but the last hour or so has brought to light a lot of things I’d never thought about or questioned before.

“Would you like to be a girl, Vi?”