Chapter 14: Alien

A car drives down a road. As it stops at a read light. A mother turns, looking at it... thru the windows. Driving the car... a thing... something... impossible. Her eyes go wide 'transformed?' she thinks. Seeing the creature. It has pure white skin, lanky limbs, and its face... its covered in feathers. Wings, 8, 10... cover its head like a bibilicly acurate angle. WIth eyes inside the wings themselves. Inhuman, golden puples, within black disks. The feathers are all black, and grey, and under its hair, and feathers is a small human face, with only a nose, and a mouth. Surrounded by the 8-10 inch feathers, and wings, with eyes spread on the wings, even on the back of its head. Too many eyes. Small, in the feathers. She shakes at the creature. Its also tall, a bit too tall for the car, its arms long... and claws on its hands. Skin pale, white. She shakes, as the light changes, and the creature is out of view. She... never saw a transformed that looked like that. She shook in fear... and anxiety. It... it... was so inhuman, that thing. As she drove off, her thoughts were still trapped back at the intersection. What was that? What haunted her was how casual it had seemed. Like this being, this impossible, too-long, too-thin thing with golden pupils and wings that breathed, had been running errands. What if he was going to pick up groceries? Or visit a friend? Or head to therapy with the Narrative Foundation? It came in a Honda Civic with a bumper sticker.

Inside the car. Tanner Lance, 21 years old, sat. His senses so inhuman, his human memories... feel... unrelatable. He feels every feather shifting on his head. As his eyes see everything all around him. He is quite. As he presses on the petal, and drives. As he is careful, so careful with his movements. Knowing his arms can bend steel, thin, pale, cold limbs can block bullets. Transformation... was hell for him. He was a small-time webtoon artist. Made a lovely little story about a kid, a mother, and a alien that fell to earth, and fell in love with the mother. Acting as the kids new dad. Now... he is... that... alien. Its... merged with him now. He frowned... remembering... how... he hide in his room. As he screamed in pain. Blood... all over his bed... as his face... fell apart. Feathers... pain. He'd screamed so hard his neighbors had called the cops, as a devine, animalistic screach, so inhuman sounded, and could be heard for blocks.

He focuses on the moment. Focuses on driving. But... its hard. Esspecally when... the feathers move, and you feel alien feelings cover your face, and body. Still getting use to it... when he is busy, he can forget... but... he is driving... and its easy to feel it. Easy... to feel how... unconfrtable the car was. How... close his kneas were, and how he had to bend his head down to not hit the roof. He was too tall. His arms thin, cold, silver-white, too long. Hands... too... big. He wore a huge robe. Black in color. He was too tall... no clothes fit him. He had to pay for a robe on etsy for his size. Custom make it... and... it was... nothing special. Just... a robe. Eventually, he arrives at the building. As he looks back, and sees all his boxes. He... got evicted. He... needs a new place to live. Been driving around for weeks. Trying to buy, rent, something! Something... where... they did not care about... what he looked like. He stoped posting chapter updates... to his story. Comments asking where was he. He loves that story.

This place... a airbnb, one with two other transformed, and a human. Housing is hard. Even if he is in California, a place known to be friendly to transformed, even progressive. Its hard. He sent photos, he asked. He just... hoped they did not kick him out once he shown himself, and they saw him in person. He hopes... he will not need to sleep in his car tonight, or on the roof top of a building he climbed in the dead of night, to look at stars. He turned off his car, and exited. He went to the large house, rather well equiped. He read the lady's blog. She is a transformation theripist, and due to her job, she can aford such a large house. Becuase the narritive foundation pays well, and she opened the airbnb... as a side hussle, as the homeless transformed population... was rather large.

Eventually, Tanner exits. A being, 7′3 when standing at its tallest, but as it walks out. It slouches, as its half-bent legs make it shorter, with a more... agile footing. Its feet are hooves, similar to horses, but very... diffrent. Longer hoeves, claws inbetween the hoves that can grasp the ground. A thin layer of fur, that stops a few inches up. As the thin layer of black fur transitions into the smooth silver-grey skin. Legs bend like a werewolf, a thin, sharp, agile tail reaches down to its feet. Its body posture is permenently slouched over. As it wears a oversized grey cloak, covering its entire body, except for the hooves, and its face, and arms. Its arms extend out into humanoid hands. Larger then normal hands, with 3 fingers, and a thumb. The tumb as a extra joint. Its nails are black, and sharp. Its face... is... human. Almost feminine in shape, not masculine. But it has a human looking mouth, and nose. But... its feathers reach up where its eyes should be. With only its nose, and mouth visible with open skin. The rest of its head is covered in a layer of black feathers, with eyes in them. Longest feathers being 10 inches long. With some feathers with 2 or more eyes. All eyes looking around from all sides. Spread out like a biblically accurate angel.

He arrives at the door, and knocks. As the door slides open. The lady sees him, and recognizes him at a glance. But... Tanner... can feel the anxeity in her movements. His eyes focus on her. 8, or 10 or so. Focousing on her face, and movements. She sighs "Hi... you must be Tanner. I am Rachel." Rachel, human, reaches out, a little unsure to shake his hand. He does not accept the hand shake, and nods "He-llo... i am... Tann-ahr." He remembers that stupid little lisp, and vocal structure he gave... the creature in the novel. Its not made to speak english.

He enters. As one eye locks onto movement, too far for a normal human to notice. Sees a fairy... small, floating near a desk on the other side of the room, using a phone, like a TV. But looking at him from afar, unsure. As he can read the quarter of a inch wide expression with his hyper-detailed eyes. While another looks around for the second transformed in this house... not here in this room. He says "Sorry, about apercanc-ances. Its easy to scarar." She nods, and says "Its fine. Just... every transforrmed takes some getting use too. Human... instinct and all. Every new cilent i get, i need to redefine my body-language recognision, and empathy responses... its... a well documented effect. Like learning what... parts mean what emotions, and such. Its... well... whatever. Don't want to bore you with my work stuff. Lets give you a tour."

She gesters to the living room, large, big couches, with a open-concept, and a kittion. With one corner being a desk, with various small-scale stuff, where... that fairy is. She floats up, her wings buzzing like a bug. Not nice twinkle of a animation. She floats nearby. As Rachel says to the floating tiny lady, who... looks to be wearing barby clothes thats been resewn to be better. The size diffrence is surreal, 3-4 inches... and then him. She must be very... fragile. He says "Hel-o. Wha-t's your nameh." The little thing speaks, and the voice is as quite as a wisper, but is spoken into Rachel's ear. She says "Sorry, her name is Tessa. Her transforamtion... was into a D&D race... as you can see, its... caused her some issues." He nods "Understan-nd-able."

Tessa floats carefully, and buzzes around his head once. Saying "I hope im near your ears." He hears it, and says in response quietly "Yes... my ears are... weird holes in my neck. Not all that different from human ones in sensitivity." The little pretty fairy nods. As she buzzes nearby, just a bit away. As Rachel says "Well... anyway, kittion, and living room. You said in text you can nearly anything, a hyper-eater... able to eat even trash... thou... of course we won't do that. So... i think food should be handled." He nods, as she walks him, and they enter a hallway. "We... uh... have a werewolf living in the house. He is another D&D transformed, came from a campain. Thou, his specific varient of werewolf is manageable. That is his room, he is named Lex. He is out right now, drove his car to a forest to enjoy himself." She points. "That is laundry room, that is a storage cubbord. That is my office, and that is my bedroom. There is 3 bathrooms, and a large sauna. If you want to use it, you can."

He is quite, and says "You are raathner wenthly." She nods "Well... being a Transformed Theripist... is a very... well paying job. Beyond that... try to be careful about damaging things. You have a large frame, and im not sure how strong you are. But even if you do damage something, its fine. We all... need to adapt. Just... be extra careful around... Tessa..." He does not move his head much, and simply says "Yes, i will be carahful." He sees tessa behind him, buzzing near a wall, with those 4 bug wings. He does not need to move his head to look at things, not when he has 28 eyes, spread across a bundle of feathers, and wings that cover his head. His insticts... no longer even move his head as much. She gesters twoards his room. A extra large bed, with a dresser, and that is all. She says "I went thru the effort, and bought a very big bed for you. One sold by the narritive foundation for... large... forms like you."

He looks at the lady... he... feels... happy. He smiles. His feathers on his head angle up, and more of his eyes track her. Thou other ones track Tessa. He says "Thannk you... its... been a long time sen-ce.. anyone..." He stops speaking, and says "Than-k you...I will brin-g in my stuff." Walking out of the hallway. Soon, he opens the door, and his feathers shake with glee. As his eyes are all focused on the car, except for the ones on the back of his head, that stare blankly. His hands shake a little. He smiles wider. As... a mesh of threads are visible within his mouth.

He reaches into his care, careful to not dent the metal with grip strength. He tries to calm himself. Remembering clearly how he made his species hyper-emotional in his comic. How there feathers, eyes, and everything are used for emotion. But... not for humans to read... for there own kind to read. He shakes... remembering the last time he smiled like this... he can't... there is no memory of that... no one... in a while... has made him smile. He calms himself... he... does not know how they will react to... his emotions. How his body, and insticts express them. He calms, as he puts on a mask, aware of everything around him, as he carries the few boxes, and bags. All in one go. Despite them being rather heavy. He closes the doors, and walks back inside, and begins to set up. As he is left alone in that room.

He places the boxes on the floor. As he bends down with a ease that no human spine can matche. As he begins to move some stuff around. Pulling out a computer case, putting in aside. He notices how bare the room is, no place for his computer. He says "Need... des-ck." As he moves more stuff. He is quite. His footsteps are alwase nearly silent. He eventually finishes doing what he can, but two boxes sit with stuff inside. He grabs his drawing tablet slowly, as he moves, and lays on his bed. His legs fold in, as he lays down, belly to the bed.Tail under the robe. As he lays the tablet under his headdress of feathers, and eyes. As he turns on the tablet, and looks thru... the comic he wrote. He smiles... bitterly, at the sceans. He eventually arrives at the part where the mother... is nursing the creature to health, best she can, after it was hurt from its crash landing. Stranded. He moves to the scean, where the creatures eldrich face opens up, and shakes with joy, as the mother hugs it, after it saved them. His heart... hurts. He... the creature's mind... its within him, and... it misses them. He... misses them. Her laugth... everything. He... he was in love. Now... its gone.

He moves, turning off the tablet. He wants to throw it, destroy it... it... ruined him... both of them. It... took everything from both of them. His feathers open up, shaking, gravity begins to shift around him. Light distortions. His eyes glow. He tries to calm. Eventually... he does, as he focuses on... this house... this nice bed. As he lays like a raptor on it. He lifts up, and stands once more. He noticed... how little he speaks now. How little he acts. The creature in the comic... was slow moving, quite... anxious. He is that now... plus whatever is left of him that is human... just... reacting to this body, and world. He hates this.