Futuristic Humans Are Space Orcs Main

[BittyBobcat]

Luca Graymin
Location: Spaceport | Interacting with no one​

With how much his body had been through by now, Gray would've thought it'd hurt more. The way he was breathing certainly seemed to indicate that something should be aching, and yet he felt nothing. More accurately, he felt only the rushing beat of his heart in his chest and the slapping of his feet against the tiled floor as colors blurred past and vague sounds of surprise and confusion met his ear.

He didn't know where he was running to. He wasn't sure it mattered. Somehow he managed to run at the same frantic pace he used to tear through the forests of Terra at to reach that damn lakeside, so an end goal—Gray decided—was unnecessary. All that mattered was he got as far as he could from that place and its needles and smells and sickness.

If he paid them mind, he could still see the remenants of the place on him. Though the clothes they had given him hung limply over his near-skeletal frame, the shirt's sleeves hadn't sunked far enough to cover the bruise on his inner elbow that flashed in the corner of his vision with his every step. Something wet and slimy that covered his mouth and nose while still letting air flow (albiet slowly) still lay exactly where they had placed it on his face. Every attempt to rip it off succeeded only in wetting his hands with the strange, clear material. He'd keep trying to tug it off if he could, but, even if the burn of its antisceptic scent in his nose was starting to produce a dangerous tickling in his throat, he didn't have the time for it.

Footsteps landing in a rhythm too frequent to be two-legged echoed behind him.

He forced his eyes to focus on the still-blurring colors around him. A myriad of creatures—feathered, scaled, covered in exoskeleton, and otherwise—passed with every second. He nearly tripped over a particularly short moth-like pair of them before he finally caught sight of something useful. A ship taking off.

It was bulkier than the others he'd seen, almost rectangular in shape, with a pair of round protrusions Gray could only assume were engines of some kind based on the blue fire streaming out of them. Between them the main body of the ship had a large door that hinged at the bottom and still hadn't quite finished the process of closing.

The entire vehicle had already risen off the ground a good five feet and counting, if he wanted to make it then he needed to speed up. An adrenaline-dulled pain shot up his side as if to warn him off the idea, but it served only as a reminder that he had to move quickly before his body gave out. With a force of effort that made his head swim, he closed the last handful of meters between him and the ship and jumped.

His breath caught from the fiery hot pain from something he was beginning to understand wasn't simply a cramp in his chest as he slammed into the door. His fingers, slippery from sweat, barely managed to curl around the edge of the door. Ribs burning, he shoved an arm up and over the still-shrinking gap and heaved himself in.

Another explosion of pain greeted him once he slid to the floor; there was no doubt that the adrenaline was wearing off now.

Ant
Location: Public transport ship | Interacting with Jet ( ScatheAriiasqDrayceon ) & Ogun ( ThatWhichShouldBe )​

Ant's leftmost antennae twitched with a twinge of concern as a muffled thump from within the airlock echoed through the transport. "I do hope that's simply unsecured equipment," he noted. "I would hate to get stuck in customs for a ship-louse infestation." He had planned for the trip out to take, at most, two cycles—it was only one planet over, after all—and, if his estimate were to prove wrong, the associates he was meeting up with might catch news of his old ship's exact fate and be far less keen on granting him a new one (in Ant's defense, it was an extremely cross glowleaf smuggler that had blown it up, not him).

But he was fine. It would be fine. Ant pulled his cloak a bit tighter. He'd saved himself cycles-worth of credits hiring cheap help here (even if the help was a bit strange), he could pay an extra fee if they deemed it necessary. They'd be off on whatever mission it was he had next (to be quite frank, he hadn't reviewed the details too well yet beyond noting that the last time he was on the planet they were sending him out to, he almost got his beak blasted off) in two in two shakes of a hatching egg.

He forced his feathers to relax, silently hoping that the crowd of people who hadn't yet had the time to wander off to their own private compartments would hide the fact that they were fluffed in the first place, and offered a cheerful perk of his antennae toward his two current crewmates. "In any case, I bought us two compartments toward the back, so unfortunately it may be a bit of time before we can actually get to them, but they should house the three of us comfortably."

 

[ScatheAriiasqDrayceon]

Jet
Location: Public transport ship | Interacting with Ant BittyBobcat )​

Danger.

Jet's ears swiveled, feathered tips bending at the edges as he strained to hear further.

Danger. Danger. Wrong.

An electric anxiety buzzed down his spine and flared his feathers. For a moment, the clatter of the hard plates lining his back interrupted the conversation of the boarding station. He clicked his mandibles, dipping his head in a sheepish apology.

There is something wrong.

While he waited for his passenger number to appear on the screen of the organizer, he busied himself with preening the tension from his wings. It helped only marginally, even if many of the smaller plumes were out of place.

Arii. An odd, rippling rumble slipped from his chest. They were fine. The ship was locked; they knew how to get around, and he'd only been gone a few hours.

Even still, he had to fight to keep the anxious clicking of his four mandibles from getting louder than socially acceptable as he boarded the transport. It helped to focus on not punting some of the smaller passengers, though it took him another precious few moments to locate his... employer.

Tall for an ornithentom, though only reaching around his hip in height, they were an... interesting thing. They looked stressed. Jet's ear flicked again, a broken piece of the vane hissing slightly with the motion.

After—presumably—the other of their party arrived, the ornithentom began speaking. Jet tried to look like they had his attention, but with his current lack of ocular dexterity, and his third check that he was in the right place, he mostly looked over the two's heads.

Click, click.

Ariiasq wasn't happy. Technically, that meant neither was Jet. His unending need to twitch his mandibles was growing quite annoying, though. He made a mental note to look over what part of his synthetic brain that habit came from and remove it.

The relaxed—almost drowsy—puff of Jet's feathers sleeked at the mention of their compartments. Conversation. Right.

"Ship-louse grow rarer every cycle. I'd hardly worry." His high, whispering voice rolled more from throat than tongue as he mimicked the sounds Common required of him.

Click, click.

 

[ThatWhichShouldBe]

Ogun
Location: Public transport ship | Interacting with Jet ( ScatheAriiasqDrayceon ) and Ant ( BittyBobcat )
​

The armor-clad being barely reacts to the thump, slightly moving his head to listen to it better. His implant starts calculations, estimating distance, magnitude of impact, trying to more clearly discern if it was something to be worried about. Ogun was used to many strange things at this point, his travels throughout the galaxy having shown him many things he could have never dreamed of. At some point, he just rather gave up on making sure everything made sense.

For the others with him, it was always a curious thing to be interacting with the one who designated himself 'Ogun'. As far as they could tell, he never left his armored shell, and if he did, it was only when he was alone. He rarely spoke, and even then his voice was always a synthesized thing, filtered through the speakers of his suit.

Ogun considers the circumstances, and shrugs. Ship-louse or unsecured cargo, it was best to take a look.

"I will investigate the noise."

 

[Tapfic]

Lan
Public Transport- Interacting with: Gray, BittyBobcat

Pointed ears twitched, perking upwards momentarily before swishing back down and settling. There had been a noise.
A noise.
A noise that Lan had not expected to hear while settling down into the ( somewhat comfortable? ) squeaking material of his personal compartment's seat while preparing to weather the annoyingly long journey to Alph'K.
The small frown tugged at his furred face, growing by the moment until he was far too bothered by the mysterious thump to sit. Tiny pricks of gold glared daggers from under furrowed brows, burning holes into the sliding door of his compartment until he had no choice but to stand and throw open the offending not-wall.

Fanged frown only tugged deeper as the mystery of what the fuck was that noise knocked against his skull like a hyperactive cartoon woodpecker- and it was fucking annoying.

Sure, it was probably nothing- some poor sap dropping a too heavy case of luggage onto their paw or tripping on a misplaced tail; but on the other hand it could have been not nothing. And if it was not nothing, what in the fuck was it?
The furry little man's attention had been strangled in the vice grip of a mysterious thump, and like a dog sniffing out some unsuspecting squirrel that had scurried it's way into the family garden- Lan followed it.

With unintentionally quiet padding paws, Lan stalked in the direction of the noise. Bared teeth and grumbled curses, pre-pissed-off and ready to chew someone out for tossing their luggage about. Despite nothing actually happening that directly effected him. The only reason he had any sort of problem now was because he lacked the ability to simply ignore things.

" Uh... Hey, enjoying your trip? " One of the flight hosts seemed to have caught sight of Lan's march as he headed towards the wretched source of the noise, a large person with what appeared to be mushrooms sprouting from the top most point of their head.

Lan did not want to be rude to this person. They were just doing their job, and he was willing to bet the guy wasn't being paid enough to deal with an irate lecture; but he couldn't just UN-annoy himself to act amiable towards whoever decided to strike up a conversation at whatever given moment. He'd get a hemorrhage doing that. Maybe.

So instead of being a reasonable dog-person and continuing the conversation; or politely declining- Lan sprinted. By the time he had realized this was an incredibly strange reaction to have to a friendly conversation; it was too late. Now he had to run because he had already started, and staying would be so awkward.

Lan turned thrice- dropping on all fours and pushing against the wall to make a clean spin, before he ducked under some person with long stork legs- pressed a button that opened a door and ducked into the room. The door shut behind him, and Lan released a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding. The social crisis had been adverted just as quickly as he had created it.

It wasn't until he turned, leaning against the wall and sliding to sit below the view of the small window; did he remember the noise ha had come to investigate. A thump that could have easily been the sound of some medium-sized creature passing out in the airlock.

Oh fuck. There was a medium sized creature passed out ( or maybe dead ) in this airlock.

 

[Walliver]

Novinha
Location: Public Transport
Interactions: Tapfic BittyBobcat


I am the ambassador of Proctor, a Tai’ De’ Evine, betrothed to “Teo’ Do’ Penta Wei”- son of Queen Tarana and heir to the throne. And I’m stuck on this transport ship. Well, not stuck. Far more free than I would be at home…

Novinha let out a low grumble, rubbing the space under her ears. It had already been such a long red moon cycle. By then, the red moon would be high in the sky of Proctor, painting the ground in colors of mahogany and crimson. She hadn’t slept in two red moon cycles, constantly up trying to solve the various problems of Proctor- and trying to appease her fiancé’s family. The royals were a demanding, obnoxious people that communicated solely through underhanded compliments and manipulation. Except for her betrothed. He seemed nice enough, if not for the fact that if they married, she would no longer be able to fulfill her duties as ambassador- seeing as being the future queen of Proctor would have her tied down to the planet.

He really was quite nice- never rude, always listening, gracious and honest. But it would never do. Novinha needed her freedom- more than she needed nitrogen, more than she needed sansiba pastries.

Her ears twitched at the sound of a thump, her eyes turning toward the back of the ship. She saw a small furry creature sprint past. Novinha shrugged. “Teis do-na cera da-kom hectonhect renai.”(1) She ran after them- though it was more of a walking pace for her. She ducked under a few low ceilings and walked directly into a door.

“Metani rena do etain…”(2) she grumbled to the offending passageway. Quickly scrambling to her feet, she peered into the small window of the airlock. Clearing her throat, she prepared her Common voice.

“Hullo? Do you need any help in there? Saw you sprint past and- is that fellow dead?”

—————
1: “Those without heart will suffer a hundred deaths.”- a phrase used to encourage Procterian children to help others.
2: “Your death will be mine” - a threat Novinha commonly uses to both friend and foe alike.

 

[Lunaria Silver]

Evelyn King
Location: In a Container in the Cargo Hold of a Public Transport
Interacting With: No one

Eve's escape ideas had all been terrible. She could see that now. They were poorly thought out and fueled by sheer desperation. Honestly, some of them bordered on ridiculous.

3 Weeks Ago
Eve sat in front of a mirror, rubbing a bunch of different colored berries all over her body. She was coloring her skin red, purple, and blue in an elaborate series of stripes.
It was going to work. She had been planning this, and a republic ship had docked to deliver new arrivals. She would just tell them that that she was some kind of alien and they would just let her on the ship!
She grinned at her finished work in the mirror. It was so convincing.
.....
As it turned out, the Republic didn't think it was. They sent Eve away almost immediately. She wasn't sure what went wrong.
(The berries barely stained her skin at all, and the smell made it obvious that she was covered in berries.)

Eve still maintained that if the berries had been a little darker, that would have worked.

A month and a half ago
Eve knew what she was doing. At least, that's what she kept telling herself. Nobody was sure why the small ship had landed in the distance, and most were keeping their distance. Eve was inclined to do the same...but...it was so small. It couldn't possibly be heavily manned.
Eve could do this. armed with only her backpack and a wooden bat, Eve began the trek to the lone ship. She was having a hard time pretending that she wasn't terrified. Every step she took meant she was one step closer to what might be another ship just like the one that took her from home.
In some ways, she was excited by that. Maybe she'd have a chance for some revenge. Except for the fact that they had advanced weaponry, and she only had a baseball bat.
She brushed that thought away. Having doubts would do her no good. She had to act decisively.
When Eve finally made it to the ship, she found the entryway to it pretty quickly.
She started beating on the ship, and eventually the entryway opened, revealing a short alien with multiple sets of eyes. They seemed to be blinking at Eve rapidly, but Eve paid that no mind as she swung her bat at the head.
The alien fell to the ground in a heap, which relieved Eve. She hadn't really thought about it....but there had been a chance she'd be absolutely unable to knock out the alien.
Brushing away her brief concern that she had killed it, Eve dragged the alien into the ship and fumbled with the entry for a minute before she figured out how to close it.
Eve took some Terran flaxen rope from her pack and tied the alien up. It was a small ship, so it didn't take her long to find the controls.
Eve looked at the ship she was about to steal and grinned widely. Finally. Her plan had worked. She was gonna go home!
.....
So Eve didn't know how to pilot a ship, and the alien was less than helpful considering he was knocked out. She had touched something and the ship started blaring an alarm or something- she couldn't read what the prompts were saying to figure out what it said.
She also didn't stick around to find out.
Eve ran back to the village, crying angry tears along the way. She had been so close!

In Eve's defense, that plan had almost worked. But....she definitely didn't think it through.

An Unspecified Amount of Time Ago
Eve ran at a Republic ship, trying to force her way onto it. She was immediately hit by something that she could only imagine was akin to a taser. At least, based on the fact that the pain felt similar to being shocked.
By the time she got up, the ship was taking off. She was sore for a week and a half after that attack.

Plan after plan had failed

"I'll pay you if you take me to Earth!!!"
The republic member looked at Eve incredulously. "Pay me with what?"
After waiting on the translation to English, Eve had the good sense to look sheepish.
"....Space money???"

Eve started to give up hope at some point.

"Tell me that one person has made it home! Just one. Please..." But nobody could tell her anything. Or, at the very least, they weren't willing to tell her about anybody escaping.

The Native Terrans weren't overly fond of Eve, considering her a nuisance at best, and downright dangerous at worst. If she wasn't providing a valuable service, she believed that they would have run her out of town ages ago. (Whether or not that was actually true was up for debate. Nonetheless, Eve firmly believed that they wanted her gone.)
As time went on, Eve started to become as reckless as she was desperate.

As Eve sat in some kind of container, she couldn't help but blame herself for her current predicament. She was an idiot. All of her plans had been idiotic; fueled by fear and desperation instead of planned out logically.

Eve had decided to try her luck with another ship. It was a little bigger than the last one she had tried, and she didn't get so lucky with it. She had been easily captured and kept in some kind of prison bay, which was familiar to her.
They managed to get a few others, but after a few stops and several visits from random aliens, they were taken away. Eve wasn't an idiot. She could tell that, clearly, they were being sold. At least her captors weren't as cruel this time as the last ones had been.
Eve was alone again, until, eventually, another 'customer' came to see her. Eve wasn't a master at understanding alien expressions or body language, but she thought that this one seemed a little jumpier than the others.
Either way, he seemed happy with Eve, who by now had stopped screaming at the customers. This was only because they had started giving her less water to placate her. Eve was packaged into a large metal lined container and given to the alien. They put some bladders of water and some gross goo in the container with her. Eve couldn't really see inside the container, as they hadn't been kind enough to give her a light, but she could feel that the sides of it weren't really smooth.
If she had to guess, she'd say that the container had some kind of spoofing system to help it get through scanners. She understood enough to know that humans being taken off world was illegal.
The alien had taken the box and gone to what Eve assumed had to have been his ship.
Every time Eve would shout or scream or otherwise make too much noise, her container would be violently kicked or shaken. Eventually, she stopped making noises.
The ride was smooth for a time, until it suddenly wasn't. She could hear some commotion for a while until the ship came to some kind of a bumpy landing.
Eve still couldn't see, but she felt her container being carried and moved somewhere else. She thought for sure she was going to be let out, but she wasn't.

This led Eve to her current predicament. She had no idea how long she'd been in the container, but she knew she wasn't on the same ship where the alien had originally taken her. She also didn't know how long she was going to remain in the box, and she was starting to run out of provisions. She had been rationing them, but she was starting to worry that it wouldn't matter.
Everything seemed hopeless for her. She couldn't get out of the box, and whoever had bought her hadn't even bothered to check that she had enough food to survive. It was dark, and it was cold, and Eve was sure she was going to starve to death.
Having the hope of being let out ripped from her as it became apparent that she had only been moved proved to be a bit of a breaking point for Eve, and she began to quietly sob.

 

[ThatWhichShouldBe]

Ogun
Location: Public transport ship | Interacting with Evelyn ( Lunaria Silver ) , Jet ( ScatheAriiasqDrayceon ) and Ant ( BittyBobcat )
​

First off, check the hold. Make sure nothing had gotten loose. As the power-armored man clambers down into the cargo area, he freezes. His senses pick up... something. Yes, there it was again. That noise he'd been hearing. The rest of the crew and passengers might not have picked up on it, or thought it was nothing to worry about. But he could hear it very, very clearly indeed, with his cybernetic enhancements. The sound of a heartbeat in one of those containers, and more importantly, breathing. And now... Sobbing? Ogun starts moving faster, stomping over towards the crate. Before he thought it'd might have been the biosigns of another passenger he was picking up, or maybe some exotic xenofauna in shipment that had similar signs to a living thing. But the sobbing...

No, that was the last straw.

Ogun draws out a plasma knife, and taps on the container with a hand. He speaks Galactic Common in a synthesized voice, his voice clear and enunciated.

"Move away from this side of the container. I am going to cut it open."

And then he starts to cut an opening into the container, slowly and carefully. He speaks over his personal communications line to Jet and Ant, sending them a message on their devices as he does so.

"Ogun here. Discovered lifeform in a cargo container. Sapient life-form. Freeing now."

 

[Lunaria Silver]

Evelyn King
Location: Cargo Hold of a Public Transport Ship
Interacting With: Ogun ThatWhichShouldBe ​

Eve's mind was running away from her. She couldn't stop thinking about where she was going and what they wanted with her. She kept thinking back to her time on the ship that had taken her, and wondering if the person who bought her would be the same.

She could almost see the knives that used to cut into her, and hear the strange words that the aliens spoke. She could see the faces of the others who hadn't made it, and couldn't help wondering if she was going to end up just like them. She could almost see her friend's faces as they realized they'd probably never know what happened to her.
Eve could practically feel the walls closing in around her, and she was starting to have trouble breathing.

Intellectually, she understood that she needed to calm down, but she couldn't stop thinking about her circumstances.

Eve started to come to her senses when she started hearing heavy footsteps coming towards her. Her eyes widened and she clasped her hand over her mouth, half expecting the crate to start shaking. She inched herself as far away from the footsteps as she could, her back against the cold wall of the container.

If she could just stay quiet, maybe they'd leave her alone-

Eve started to hear a vaguely robotic voice speaking in what she recognizes as common. She picked up a few words. "....move.....side......cut.....open."

If she was in her right mind, she might have registered what that meant a little faster, but as she was, she couldn't put the pieces together. She watched with wide eyes as the plasma knife started to cut through the container.

When the container was opened, the light shining through was blinding to Eve. She could barely make out the shape of the person who opened it. She wasn't sure what they were, or what their intentions were, but they looked big. There was no way Eve would win in a fight, much less in her weakened state.

"Who are you?" Eve asked quietly in English, still squinting in the light that probably wasn't actually all that bright. Eve was half expecting some alien out to do god knows what with her. She was having a hard time considering any alternative.....but it was still nice to see some light again.

She could only imagine how much of a mess she looked, having been thrown around and malnourished the way she was.

 

[ScatheAriiasqDrayceon]

Jet
Location: Public transport ship cargo hold | Interacting with mostly Ogun ( ThatWhichShouldBe ) but also kinda Eve ( Lunaria Silver ) and Ant ( BittyBobcat ) by proximity
​

Jet was going to say something to his apparent-companion, but his attention was caught more by rhythmic, padded thumps, and a blur of something small, fuzzy, and long darting between his legs in a blur of brown and gold.

And by that time, the armored one was gone.

Jet's plating rattled, irritation mixing with the lingering anxiety from Arii's end of the implant. They weren't panicking, anymore, though. Fine. Okay, fine. His last excuse just vanished.

Jet tuned back into the world, the feathers along his ears fanning out a little more. Without him ignoring them, many things were made apparent to him.

One; he didn't want to touch the three in the airlock with a ten foot pole. He'd had his suspicions earlier, but now he was... around 60% sure that's what that was and wanted no part of it. Why they couldn't rent a personal compartment instead was beyond him, and poked a hole in his theory, but his other theory was a murder, and that he was going to leave to Ogun anyway, because starting a fight on a transport ship was not currently on his to-do list.

An ear swiveled.

Two; There was something in the cargo hold making a fair amount of noise... and also Ogan. Wasn't he supposed to be checking the airlock?

Three; Ogun had a heartbeat, which eliminated the theory that he was an android.

Four; he'd forgotten how loud the world was.

His ears flattened, swiveling to face the floor.

"I'm going to check—" his earpiece fizzled with a voice he only kind-of paid attention to—"the cargo hold." He quickly rerouted a sentence in his brain before he said something dumb. "It might be injured. The airlock might be of interest, though," he muttered mostly to Ant, but he also wasn't exactly expecting the Ornithentum to do much about it.

With that said, he turned quite immediately, tail raised, though the flexible tip remained straight. He didn't want to prick anyone by accident, though it paid to be prepared. He slipped past a door and turned the corner to get to the hold. It took barely anytime at all for him to arrive next to his current crewmate, careful not to bump him with a wing.

Carefully, he picked his way through the boxes until he located the one Ogan was standing next to, the top shorn off by a knife.

Jet uncurled his neck just enough to peer at the contents, unmoving blue eyes staring at the creature inside.

Human.

Completely undetectable to anyone but Jet, a cold shower raced down his back, and if it weren't for his extensive experience of keeping his feathers flat against his scales, he would have puffed up.

His eyes slid from the human to the box.

The tip of his tail curled, blue emerging out from under dark grey scales as a spine that looked quite a bit more like a needle than anything else slid out from its hiding place. It was more reflex than anything, and even without paying attention he kept it well clear of anyone until he could relax the muscles again. The blue vanished from sight in the same moment he ruffled his feathers.

The human was speaking.

Problem number one; he didn't know English.

Problem number two; translators for English weren't exactly easy to acquire.

One of his ears flicked.

The human was a little thing—debatably adult, and a little shorter than Arii was. He looked them up and down thrice—once for weapons, again for blood, and one last time just in case—and very quickly came to the conclusion that they didn't get much to eat.

A chastising click to no one in particular seeped from the back of his throat, though with his mouth closed it didn't quite look like he was the one who made it.

He used one of his primary arms (the only ones that could actually really reach his head) to gently turn his communicator off.

"Sapient?" He hummed quietly, well aware that there are some with hearing far better than his. He turned his head just enough to catch Ogan in his periphery. "So, I take it there will be no issue from you in getting them away from here?"

 

[ThatWhichShouldBe]

Ogun
Location: Public transport ship | Interacting with Jet ( ScatheAriiasqDrayceon ), Evelyn ( Lunaria Silver )
​

The armor-clad being shakes his head silently in response to Jet's question, reaching down towards Eve and picking her up gently, but firmly. What a surprise to find a trafficked human of all things. He knew slavery existed out in this galaxy, but well, finding your own race smuggled away was another thing entirely. He speaks in Common, though he does register Evelyn's question. English. Tsk.

"I am Ogun. He is Jet. We will be removing you from this situation shortly. Are you hungry?"

Ogun was prepared for a bit of a scuffle later. There was probably someone onboard whose job was to 'watch' the cargo, and things might get ugly. Thankfully, he was very, very good at ugly.

 

[BittyBobcat]

Luca Graymin
Location: Airlock | Interacting with Lan ( Tapfic ) & Novinha ( Walliver )​

Gray would've loved to take a breather. In fact, he was planning on taking one right where he lay on the metal floor (though this was less out of choice and more because he was relatively certain his entire body would revolt once he started moving again) before he heard the damning hiss of a door opening. He froze.

There was silence. A second passed. Two. Three. He was just considering the idea that maybe they hadn't registered his presence yet when something spoke. Given that he didn't know their language, keeping up with what was being said was difficult, but he recognized a handful of words. The minute they got to "death," he bolted upright... and then immediately regretted it as his possibly-broken-definitely-bruised ribs reminded him that he had jumped out of a moving space ship earlier that day.

Somehow, through the pain, he still managed to slide backward a few feet and out of arms' reach. Trying (and failing) not to wince, he glared at the to aliens in his best attempt at looking intimidating.

Unfortunately, being captive and continuously sick made that difficult. He was paler and scrawnier than he'd ever been on Terra, and by the uncomfortable heat he felt he was certain that his fever was painting his face red. Even the simple act of breathin hurt, he couldn't imagine actually fighting like this. His only hope was that the aliens didn'pt know humans well enough to pick up on any of the growing signs that he really couldn't hurt them if he tried.

On that chance, he bared his teeth and prayed they didn't notice the clear mask on his face.

Ant
Location: Cargo hold | Interacting with Ogun ( ThatWhichShouldBe ), Jet ( ScatheAriiasqDrayceon ), & Eve ( Lunaria Silver )​

Ant had not planned to be stopping a trafficking ring this morning, but—as an agent of the Republic—it was his job to ensure that such immoral things were dealt with swiftly... and, frankly, it sounded more interesting than reviewing his mission brief details for the entire cycle. "I'll be there in a tick. I don't figure I have to tell you this, but stay with them. Make sure they're safe."

Between the doctor and the mercenary, Ant was reasonably certain they could manage themselves for at least a little while. Long enough for him to catch the attention of a bird-legged attendant that he had to crane his neck to look at and inform them that it would be best to keep the cargo bay closed off from others looking to enter for the time being, at least.

The avian blinked at him.

Holding back an impatient grind of his beak, he flicked on his wrist-holo and pulled up his identification symbol. "On order of the Republic," he added, just in case it wasn't obvious enough.

 

[Archdemon]

Somewhere in the middle of Space....



An object was floating in space, the ends of its antenna blinking lights. The strange object gave out no signals as it was never designed to do so out of fear it would be intercepted. The main structure was circular in nature and too small to fit a humanoid inside it. On the outside is the fading image of a red sickle and hammer, probably due to the solar radiation.

The Satellite would be picked up on active scans as perhaps an anomaly. For now it just floats there eerily.

 

[Walliver]

Novinha
Location: Public Transport
Interactions: BittyBobcat

“Human!” Novinha exclaimed, all six eyes widening in shock. She looked around, searching for a button of some sort- not the red one, the other one. The one that might let her in to help the human stowaway. With deft fingers she found the button and opened the airlock door, then mustered up the more nasally tone necessary to speak a human language.

“Hello friend. I am Novinha Oathke, here to help.” she spoke in accented English, hand over her center heart. “I am a certified first aid provider and have assisted in many medical procedures. You can trust me.” she kept her voice low and placating, rifling through her pockets for her medical supplies. Novinha set out a roll of gauze, an emergency stimulant, several protein bars, several water bottles, and a bottle of general medicine.

“If you don’t feel like talking, you can point to what you need. Or if you are unable to talk, I am fluent in sign.” Novinha sat back, watching the stowaway.

 

[Tapfic]

Lan

Public Transport- Interacting with: Gray BittyBobcat , Novinha Walliver

“Hullo? Do you need any help in there? Saw you sprint past and- is that fellow dead?”

Lan's ears perked, before his head swivled to find the source of the concerned voice.

" Maybe? How the fuck should I kn-" the remark was cut by the man's short, high pitched scream when the apparently-not-dead person jerked upright like a newly woke corpse. With wide eyes and fur stood on end; Lan smacked a hand over his mouth, and hoped the airlock door was enough to keep anyone from hearing the embarassing yip.

It took moment more for Lan to process the thing's features. Largley bald skin, bipedal, with a simmilar facial structure to a short- furred Canire.

Just as Lan's dry sponge of a brain glitter glue-and toothpicked the puzzel pieces together, the person behind the airlock door (exitedly?) called the answer.

" Human!"

" A fuckin human???"

The man gaped at the wounded thing as it backed away from him and the person who entered the lock.
Oh.

Oh no.

This was not good.
Why was there a human on the public transport thing? Unless Lan had severely fallen behind in knowledge of current events; those bitches were still very much class three! And dangerous ones at that!
To top it all off, this one smelled like a hospital, and looked like it badly needed one.

With equal parts concern and confusiom, his face scruntched. The lanky pale creature started talking to the sickly human. In the human luanguage. English must have been more popular a subject now than when had learned it some years ago; considering how fucking difficult it had been to find a tutor.

After a tense moment of waiting for the thing to lunge like the cornered animal it kind of was, Lan spoke. In english. Because when else was he gonna use this incredibly niche skill?

" It has a," Lan forgot the human equivilant for the jelly thing " ...muzzel on, i dont think it can eat. Or talk."

He stood slowley , stepping further from the human in the airlock- but not so far that he couldn't help if one of the aliens decided to try and murder the other.

 

[BittyBobcat]

Luca Graymin
Location: Airlock | Interacting with Lan ( Tapfic ) & Novinha ( Walliver )​

"You—" He began before being immediately interrupted by a cough and the accompanying wince as his hand involuntarily twitched toward his bruised side. "You speak English?" He managed, surprise winning over fear in his hoarse voice. The mask flexed strangely against his skin as he spoke, bulging outward and then coming back in to cling more tightly to his mouth just to be pushed off with another air bubble again.

Gray made no move toward the array of whatever the tall one—Novinha, apparently—laid out. "Why?" Given the chance, he would've been asking quite a bit more questions (who the hell are you, where am I, which human did you probably kidnap to learn English from and why), but talking was difficult enough with the slimy thing on his face stretching and pulling in odd places. The addition of a sharp pain in his ribs whenever he made the mistake of inhaling too fast—really, he might've worried that he'd been stabbed if it wasn't for the fact that he could see plainly he wasn't—dampened his curiousity to a point that he wasn't blurting questions (yet).

This, of course, didn't stop him from squinting at the shorter one like he was a yippy pomeranian that he wasn't quite sure would bite him or not. A muzzle? His hand reached unthinkingly to poke at the covering on his face. Is that what it was?

"I can talk," he said after a pause. "Obviously."

 

[Lunaria Silver]

Evelyn King
Location: Cargo Hold of a Public Transport Ship
Interacting With: Ogun ThatWhichShouldBe and Jet ScatheAriiasqDrayceon ​

Eve's eyes started to adjust to the light, allowing her to see her saviors/new captors more clearly. One of them, she assumed the one who had spoken due to the fact that the voice was somewhat robotic, was covered head to toe in some kind of power suit thing.

She hadn't even been sure of the presence of the second until he peered in the box. The glimpse she got of his unblinking eyes was terrifying enough. He started talking to the robot guy, Eve picking up very little of what was actually said. She could only guess at what he was talking about, but she thought she heard him say 'away'.

If possible, Eve's eyes widened further and she started shaking. She wanted to be out of the box, but these aliens couldn't have positive intentions for her. At best, they'd send her back to Terra. At worst....well. Having already seen some awful things in the greater universe, Eve couldn't even imagine what the worst possibility could be. It was hard to think of something worse than what her first captors had done, but she was sure it was possible.

Eve tried to scramble away when the armored one reached forward to grab her, but ultimately it achieved nothing. His armor wasn't exactly warm to the touch, causing Eve to shiver slightly. Eve started to struggle a bit until she saw the tall winged one more clearly.

'THAT'S A GIANT BIRD DEMON' Oh god. It's demons. Space demons- And Eve no longer had a store of holy water wherever she went.

The fact that Eve wasn't particularly religious did not affect her belief that holy water was efficient in banishing demons.

Eve was relieved that it was the armored one holding her and not the demon. She stopped struggling to keep it that way.

The one carrying her said some words in common that Eve didn't really recognize, but she did pick up 'Jet'...cause plane, removing...

And....hungry.

'Hungry???? Are they gonna eat me?!?!?'

"MY MEAT WOULDN'T BE VERY TENDER, I MOVE AROUND TOO MUCH! I'M SQUIRMY!" To further hone in her point, she started squirming around in the armored ones arms.

 

[ScatheAriiasqDrayceon]

Jet
Location: Public transport ship cargo hold | Interacting with mostly Ogun ( ThatWhichShouldBe ) and Eve ( Lunaria Silver )​

Jet was about to say something about Ogun, and out of the cargo hold, and humans, and was even halfway through opening his mouth to enunciate the difficult vowels clearer. Apparently that was not in the cards for him at the moment.

The human screeched an awful sound that had Jet recoiling, ears flattening so harshly against his head that it hurt. If it weren't for being quick and light (for his sizeclass), he would have tripped over a box, but he managed to save himself with a firm downstroke of now-unfolded wings. His claws, though, dug groves in the innocent package almost as deep as they were long.

As soon as he was stable, Jet shook his head back and forth, as if trying to dislodge the sound from his brain.

Jet didn't know what they just said, but Jet didn't even know humans were capable of such noise. Arii, certainly, had never raised their voice above conversational. Speaking of whom, his startle had apparently bounced back through his implant, and he had to bite down a hiss at the panic, panic. Worry. Panic. Arii was helpfully sending his way.

In the now-quiet cargo hold, Jet rattled the shafts of his feathers together, clicking his teeth. He turned his attention to Ogun. "Are you daft? You can't bring a human up to the passenger area!" The words, less a whisper and more a hiss that joined the odd sound of Jet's breath were all-but silent in the face of the cacophony humans were apparently capable of creating.

His tail flicked, tailspine once again flashing in the dim lighting. "Not in plain view, anyway."

Another rattle of his primaries has Jet bringing his left wing around. Ogun's previous words were drumming in the back of his head. Jet spread his alula, using the shorter pair of his arms to untie a satchel that had been hiding under the layers of his coverts. The only thing in it was a palm-sized (to him) fruit that he'd bought earlier at the market while meandering his way to the transport ship.

Laced with greens and purples, it was sweet-smelling (according to Arii), and oblong, a stem perched at the top making it reminiscent of a gourd.

Jet stepped down from the crate slowly, flattening everything from his feathers to his ears as he approached the human currently wriggling in Ogun's grip. He scoffed at his crewmate. "I don't think they quite like being held like that." His voice was back to a soft whisper. Calm.

He crouched down, just under eye-level for the human. A quiet chrr rolled more from teeth than throat to get the human's attention. Then, slowly, he slit the fruit down the middle with a foreclaw, using the tips of the bones to split it open and expose the pit inside.

The flesh of the fruit was mostly yellow and solid, though Jet reminded himself that Arii could eat it perfectly fine without cutting it (much to his exhaustion about the inevitable mess it left behind), so he offered it to the human as-is, extending one arm with the others kept close to his chest.

Slowly, carefully, he more hummed than spoke an "eat."

 

[Lunaria Silver]

Evelyn King
Location: Cargo Hold of a Public Transport Ship
Interacting With: Ogun ThatWhichShouldBe and Jet ScatheAriiasqDrayceon
​

Eve could see the demon start freaking out when she started yelling, and it occurred to her that maybe it hurt them. She gathered this from the fact that what she had previously thought to be horns of some variety flattened down when she yelled. They must have been ears. Eve stopped moving so as to not further upset them.

So maybe not a bird demon. Maybe a cat-bird demon. Which was arguably worse, but maybe regular water would work to keep them at bay. Cause cats.

The cat-bird demon started fussing at the armored man before crossing to him. They seemed to be regarding Eve as they said something about holding.

The cat-bird demon then crouched down and made a kind of, chrrr purring noise at Eve, grabbing her attention more completely. (It also further cemented the idea that this was a cat-bird space demon and not just a bird space demon.) Eve watched with wide, somewhat terrified eyes as the demon pulled some kind of fruit out of a pouch and began to use a claw to split the fruit thing open.

'That claw is terrifying-'

After the demon had finished, they stretched an arm out as if offering it to Eve. The sweet smell coming from the fruit reached Eve, and she couldn't help but want to snatch the fruit of the demon's hand.

She couldn't really believe her ears when she heard the demon tell her to eat. Her mind ran through all the possibilities for the demon's motives with this, and came up with a few.

1. They wanted to fatten her up before they ate her.
2. They wanted to poison her. (Which seemed a little silly because they wouldn't really need to if they wanted to kill her outright.)
3. The armored one hadn't said he was hungry. He had asked her if she was hungry.

Eve narrowed her eyes suspiciously, before her hunger won over. If they were trying to fatten her up before they ate her, she couldn't very well escape while malnourished. She could totally hansel and gretel this situation. Maybe.

And...if the armored man had only asked if she was hungry or said that she must have been hungry, then she felt more than a little embarassed.

Eve slowly and carefully reached out to take the fruit from the cat-bird demon and, after giving it a few smells to see if she could possibly detect some kind of alien poison, started to eat the fruit while warily watching the cat bird demon.

'I definitely need some holy water.'

 

[Walliver]

Novinha
Location: Public Transport
Interactions: BittyBobcat Tapfic


“A biohazard containment mask…interesting…”* Novinha hummed, clicking in the back of her throat. Humans were known to carry many diseases, although due to the nature of their work, most interplanetary ambassadors were inoculated against them. “It’s good news that you can speak, then you can tell me what’s bothering you. Likely sporting at least one-” she held up a single pale digit for emphasis. “Broken rib. You‘ve probably got some heavy bruising as well. Nothing we can’t fix.” she shook her head full of green tresses, wishing she had thought to pack more in her few pockets- or perhaps dressing in normal clothes instead of her ambassador’s dress.

Novinha turned to the Canire standing nearby. “Hello friend, would you mind grabbing my spare cloak from the compartment just down the hall?” she handed the wary creature her keycard, which was unnecessary to her considering her lockpicking abilities. “I believe I’m about to commit several violations of interplanetary integration code, but oh well…”

She began stuffing supplies back into her pockets, mumbling to herself. “What are they going to do? I’m one of the most influential ambassadors in this galaxy and the next. Not to mention that my betrothed is the future King of Proctor, having entire starfleets prepared to go to war for him…” she laughed, clicking and humming a little more. “Not to worry, you won’t have to spend your journey in this airlock, little stowaway.”



*The blue indicates that she is speaking in her own language, either Proctor Traditional or the barking language

 

[ThatWhichShouldBe]

Ogun
Location: Public transport ship | Interacting with Jet ( ScatheAriiasqDrayceon ), Evelyn ( Lunaria Silver ),
​

"Are you well enough to walk?"

The robotic-looking entity holds out a hand to help her up if she needs it, while he looks to Jet. He runs the numbers real quick, before nodding. It'd be a bit of a tight fit, but they could manage. For the time being, anyways. Ogun speaks again, his synthetic robot voice resounding firmly, with very little room for argument or debate as he looks to Jet. They couldn't just leave her on this ship alone, after all, and she needed a place to stay.

"She can have my room. I do not require a bed to sleep."

 

[ScatheAriiasqDrayceon]

Jet
Location: Public transport ship cargo hold | Interacting with mostly Ogun ( ThatWhichShouldBe ) and Eve ( Lunaria Silver )
​

Jet offered the human a pleased fluff of his feathers as they took the fruit. With that done, he backed off with another quiet chrr.

The moment of quiet was quickly ruined by his new crewmate.

As Ogun spoke, Jet's ears fell, the feathered ends twitching, unamused. A series of rolling clicks fell from a still-sealed maw as he straightened to his full height again, remembering a moment too late that Ogun was a mid-sized species of some sort and only came up to mid-arm. Thus Jet went from being comfortably eye-level with someone to looking down.

An ear flicked.

Regathering his patience as it tried to squirm away Jet repeated himself. "We cannot bring a human into the passenger hold in full view. I don't quite care who they go with, but starting a... panic on the passenger deck is going to get us caught by Ant." The concept sent an irate rattle down Jet's back, pointed plates clashing with a quiet—though sharp—sound. "Who, mind you, is an officer of the Republic. His entire job is to catch cases like these and ship them right off to Terra. So, unless you plan to poke holes in this hold and your personal compartment, we need a plan." He spoke quickly and firmly, though not unkindly.

Jet's wings rustled as he settled himself again.

His wings.

Both ears perked apparently without reason to the spectators.

"I can take them." He hummed. "I can hide them under a wing—fake a wing-strain from fumbling over a box. You can meet Ant and call it a false alarm; a Ketap beast thought as a Canire for a brief moment, and I'll drop them off in your quarters." His tail was twisting back and forth on the floor, almost a visual of his thoughts working.

"No inciting panics. No holdups. No problems... so long as you can lie well?" At this, Jet twisted his head to look Ogun up and down almost in the same manner he did the human.

His ear flicked again.

 

[Tapfic]

Lan
Public Transportation- Interacting with: Novinha Walliver , Gray BittyBobcat

"I can talk," The human paused "Obviously."

Lan looked shocked at this development. Though to his credit, he shook the wide eyed expression off as soon as he had obtained it.

" But you have shit on your mouth? " Curiosity killed the cat, but since the Canire species was more dog-ish in nature; surely Lan would be fine. Seeing the human very much rubbed Lan's fur in the direction of pathetic rather than dangerous; he stepped forward- closer to the probobly-not-dangerous human, and bent at the knees before sniffing the air.

Whatever the mask was- it smelled like... Stuff. What sort of stuff, Lan had no idea. With no semblance of an answer obtained, Lan's face scrunched in wary distaste.

“Hello friend, would you mind grabbing my spare cloak from the compartment just down the hall?” Tall-Lanky-and Pale was talking to him now, asking him to do things. “I believe I’m about to commit several violations of interplanetary integration code, but oh well…”

" Are you just not listening to yourself talk, or does being a massive dumbass come naturally to you? " Lan bit his reply, taking the key card on instinct " You can't just- just keep a whole ass human, do you know what their mouths do? " Hypocritical coming from a member of the species known for heart-attack spit.

" What kind of ass-backwards deadhead would get themself mixed up in this needlessly dangerous bullshit with no foreseeable conclusion in sight in the firstplace? " Lan grumbled largely to himself in common, before stalking away- card in hand.

A few moments later, he scampered back grumbling curses; cloak tossed over his arm. Answering the very question he had posed moments before.

 

[Archdemon]

Cockpit of the Transport Ship...

As the ship floated in space on the way to its destination, one of the Navigation guides gets pinged by something in their current flight path. If it was space debris or an asteroid it wouldn't be an issue since they're constantly moving. However what's strange is the lack of any speed or trajectory, it's just stationary. Which is unfortunate, it would mean that the ship would have to be late due to restarting a new flight path. This is less about the distance but finding a path that calculates any objects passing by and minimalizing the risk.

Still the strangeness of this anomaly made them curious so they made an active scan. From the data various things are gathered, firstly is that this anomaly is electronically active. Second is that there is no distress signal being sent out or any signals at all. Thirdly it lacks any data signature to I.D. it. A hell of a big unknown. Any other information would have to be scanned at a closer range.

The alien flagged down its captain and gave them the sitrep. Asking whether or not they should stop and recalibrate a new flight path or check out the anomaly. The captain order a closer look, it might be space junk or perhaps an escape pod. It should checked out, and if deemed unsafe or junk then the ship moves along as it was.

 

[Lunaria Silver]

Evelyn King
Location: Cargo Hold of a Public Transport Ship
Interacting With: Ogun ThatWhichShouldBe and Jet ScatheAriiasqDrayceon
​

Eve continued eating the fruit, not taking her eyes off the cat-bird demon. At least until the robot guy said something about walk, and held out a hand to Eve. She eyed that warily too, before deciding that it would be in her best interest to walk. She'd rather not be held, anyway. So she used his offered hand to get down and stood.

Eve scanned the room as though looking for an escape while munching the fruit. Her attention was also drawn once again to the cat-bird demon, as he seemed to be coming up with some kind of a plan.

For her?

"What the hell are you saying cat-bird demon?" Eve asked, staring. "I'm gonna spray you with holy water." Eve turned her head to look at the robot man, narrowing her eyes. "You're not off the hook either. Are you like....one of those stormtroopers?" To be honest, Eve was just rambling.

"If you guys take me back to Terra I'm gonna...." Eve paused, thinking. ".....jump off the ship? Kick your shins?" Eve looked back at the cat-bird demon. "Do you even have shins?"

 

[BittyBobcat]

Gray
Location: Airlock | Interacting with Lan ( Tapfic ) & Novinha ( Walliver )​

He glared at the shorter alien as they took a step closer. His muscles (what was left of them, anyway) tensed despite the pain.

"But you have shit on your mouth?"

For completely non-broken-rib-related reasons, Gray didn't dignify that with a response, instead choosing to press his back against the wall behind him so he could avoid feeling like something was violently exploding in his lungs for daring to use muscles anywhere near the break.

“It’s good news that you can speak, then you can tell me what’s bothering you. Likely sporting at least one broken rib. You‘ve probably got some heavy bruising as well. Nothing we can’t fix. .. I believe I’m about to commit several violations of interplanetary integration code, but oh well…”

This earned yet another glare. If any of his brothers were there, they might've told him that his face would get stuck like that if he kept this up, but—at the misfortune of any aliens capable of reading human facial expressions—his brothers were very much absent.

He watched the shorter alien leave out of the corner of his eye, only half listening to his rant in favor of keeping his focus on Novinha. She (She? Did aliens even have a concept of gender?) seemed far more interested in him than the other. He had long since learned to be cautious of that, something that wasn't helped by the fact that she started talking to herself in a language he couldn't understand.

“Not to worry, you won’t have to spend your journey in this airlock, little stowaway.”

Gray sat up as straight as he could manage (which, he realized with a wince, wasn't very straight) and craned his neck to look her in the eye. "Why would you help me?" She could very well lie. There would be absolutely nothing stopping her. All in all, there was scarcely a point in asking considering he had no choice regardless of what her answer was.

He asked anyway. For what little peace of mind it could give.