More Than Just an Earthling

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Scarlett Sparks

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It would be an understatement to say that Rhea Nikara hated living on Earth. Everyone else here claimed they loved it in between rantings about the perfect world above them, but she was straight about her feelings. She hated it. She hated her stupid father, she hated having to help him with his business, she hated it. There was garbage and ruin everywhere, and the only people condemned to this vile place were criminals-and the descendants of criminals, like herself. This cruel world had caused her to be stone cold towards others. IT was better then letting herself be hurt over and over again. This wasteland that everyone else here called "home" was not her home, though it was all she knew. She was sure she was meant for something greater, and it made her aggravated that she was stuck on Earth.
Wednesday. The day was Wednesday. It was hard to keep track anymore, she just did the same thing every day, helping her father out with his "exotic" pet trade. The animals had never been exotic to her, but Earth-bound animals intrigued the other species that bought them. They sold well, yet Rhea never saw any of the money from them herself. Her father used them to "pay bills" as he called it. She pulled her long, messy brunette hair into a ponytail and slid on her combat boots as she exited her house-if you could call it that. It was an old portable classroom that was falling apart with a couple blankets and pillows thrown onto the floor for beds. The rain was pouring hard that day, completely drenching her the second she stepped outside. She cursed under her breath and ran through the rain to the storage vehicles with all the animals in it. The guys had just finished loading them up. She got into the passenger seat and her father drove it to his store, where the two began unloading the animals. Then, it was Rhea's job to set up the displays with the various animals-dogs, lions, birds, snakes, rats, vultures, cows, any kind of Earth animal you can think of. As she locked the last animal in place, she felt herself being shoved to the ground. She hit the gravel with an oomph! She looked up to see her father standing above her, shouting at her.
"I thought I told your worthless ass to finish loading the creates for the delivery first!" He had a cattle prod in his hand, which he proceeded to shock Rhea with. "The collector will be here any minute! Get your act together you stupid little slut! Just like your mother!" He threw the cattle prod down on top of her, the metal colliding harshly with her skin. She grabbed it and slowly pushed herself off the ground, shaking it off. She took a deep breath and headed over to the crates, loading up the animals. This person truly wanted the rarest of them... She thought as she helped the animals in. She noticed there was a stray baby cub that was scared to go in. She picked him up, the small animal nuzzling her hand. She smiled softly, carrying him into the large crate and setting him down. Before she could even turn around she heard a thud, her blue eyes instantly seeing nothing. "W-what's going on?!" She shouted as she heard the crate being locked. All of the animals began to scream and screech as they heard people moving around the crate. She pounded her hands against the walls, trying to get her voice to be heard over the other animals, but it was of no use. She was locked in. The crate began to be lifted and she knew there was no turning back. Her frail body slammed against the floor as it was lifted sharply off the ground. Everything was dark inside the crate and she felt as if she was suffocating.
 
VIUS
EUCHOSIE
[spoili]Age: 32
Appearance: 8 feet 10 inches tall. Four arms. Grey tinted skin. Short horns protruding from his hairline. Long feathered tail resemblant of a lion's. Pale gold eyes. Elongated canines protruding from his lower lip. Pointed ears. Short wavy black hair.[/spoili]



Vius never heavily concerned himself with the affairs of humans. Beyond his work in the pet trade, he didn't fool with them, Earthbound or otherwise. Of course, the Earthbound weren't exactly humans, as far as anyone was concerned. They held the same shape, but they were of a visibly lesser mental caliber than those from the colonies. They were more apt for survival than anything of true mental merit. And like all other creatures that he imported from Earth on his runs, Earthbound humans were little more than animals. Not that he ever often encountered them, oh no. They were... defensive. To say the least. Social pack animals. It made capturing them for sale elsewhere difficult. An Earthbound goes missing and the entire pack is sure to follow to look for it. It was just the way things were. And if it were up to Vius, they shouldn't have been taken from their miserable rock in the first place.

But it wasn't his place to decide the fate of the Earthbound. So he carried out his work without complaint, thankful to have a job that paid as well as it did. Euchosie labor was cheaper than human. And that was just the way things were. He lived comfortably, so it didn't much bother him. Though on rare occasion, the fact a human trapper would make twice as much as he did rubbed him the wrong way. Those moments were rare- few and in-between- so he never dwelt on it much.

He hurriedly prepared himself for the trip to Earth. It was just one stop on the long run he had ahead of him, poorly scheduled and paced out by the folks in charge of his runs. The coordinates of his destinations were already in place; he just had to go in, and pick up the creatures specified. Vius enjoyed trips like this. They were easy; he didn't have to go chasing down and tracking the animals, or disturb the habitat. Not that Earth was an easily disturbed area; it was a desolate, barren land-- what wasn't covered with ocean. But even the oceans were barren, and those too, were drying up. Earthbounds couldn't make use of it, without any functioning purification or desalination plants on the planet, and it was within easy access for the colonies to make use of. The only thing that really off put the balance of life on Earth was taking too many animals from any given area. The Earthbound were carnivores-- plants and other vegetation didn't grow on that planet anymore. Nothing fit for their consumption, that was. Foreign activity there now was all heavily government monitored to preserve the sanctity of the wildlife that still remained on the wretched planet. As for the Earthbound themselves, nobody much seemed to care what became of them.

Vius didn't really know where he stood on the matter. It wasn't in his job description to worry about it, so he didn't. He'd heard conflicting stories regarding whether they fared better in captivity or in the wild. He certainly didn't like catching them; they cried too much. They were too much like children. It bothered him. But all the same, who was he to decide the fate of an entire species?

The trip itself didn't take long. His ship was state of the art, and it travelled fast. Within no time he'd taken off from the work base to the dustbowl planet. It was a trading outpost, where he landed. He could tell so by the colonial flags flown near the landing base just outside the settlement. Beyond the false grandeur of the landing strip, the settlement itself was a dump. Impressive, being built solely by the Earthbound, but a dump nonetheless. Come to claim his prize, Vius met with an Earthbound male --a tiny thing who couldn't even meet his shoulders-- who eagerly led him to a relatively large crate. The little thing babbled away in that pseudo tongue of his. Vius didn't understand their language. It was simple, guttural- a rapid series of the same noises over and over again.

Must've been someone's pet; trained to do business on Earth, with the way he expectantly held out his grubby little hands, waiting for his payment. His lack of limbs was sincerely something disturbing to Vius, who expected large scars in place of the missing set of arms below the first. He had no tail or horns to speak of. No tusks. There was nothing resemblant of his own body on the Earthbound. He pitied the thing, really. After the crate was dealt with, loaded up onto the ship, Vius paid the Earthbound with food and other basic necessities difficult to come by on Earth.

When all was said and done, the crate secured for transport, Vius was of to his next destination. He'd heard noise coming from the crate when he first laid eyes on it, but with nothing else in the ship with him, the noise that cam from within simply echoed obnoxiously loud off the walls. He set the ship on autopilot and went to investigate the contents of the crate. inside were the usual cages filled with various Earth animals, but a particular specimen had his eyes wide with surprise. A female Earthbound. "What? What are you doing in there?" He asked, kneeling down in front of the crate. The Earthbound was caged like the rest of the animals, so she posed no threat.


((Sorry this took so long, and I'm really sorry that this so ridiculously long. First posts are always longer than the rest. They'll be more manageable from now on.))
 
Rhea knew that there was no remind back know. After some pacing back and forth, she sat down in the crate, putting her face in her hands. Well, she was off Earth at least. Oh, how many times she has just wished to be off the horrid place. However, trapped in a shipping crate was not generally in her daydreams of leaving Earth. Her chest began to grow tight as she wondered what the new owner of these animals would do to her when they found her. The other species in the universe didn't partixularly take a liking to Humans, especially ones like her. Ones like me..... She thought once more, silently laughing. Because the other Humans were so much better, right? Because she was so horrible? No. She had done nothing wrong, she was simply a child of circumstance. Sometimes she even wished that she hadn't been born, rather than being stuck on the garbage dump called Earth. She was thin, frail, barely anything to her. She didn't generally get to eat much, and that was on good days. She used to hear stories as a child of people on Earth who could go to places where they could eat all that they wanted of anything they wanted for a reasonably cheap price. She used to dream of them when she was younger, but now realized how stupid the dream actually was. She sighed deeply, murmuring to herself, "Please, someone get me out of here...." Suddenly she heard the crate open and her head instantly shot up, staring at the alien in front of her. She had never really come in contact with one before. She stared at the person inteney, trying to pull as much information through her eyes as she could. When he spoke to her se jumped slightly, her eyes widening and her heart thumping in her chest. "I...." She cleared her throat and continued with mock confidence. "I work with the shipping crates, I was helping some of the animals in and the next thing I knew I was here." She got up quickly and walked so she was as close to the man as possible. "Please, let me out, I swear I'm harmless. if I have to spend one more minute in this crate I think I'll go insane." She bit her lip, desperately hoping this was a nice alien and wouldn't do something horrible to her.
 
Vius stared at the caged Earthbound for a long time. He'd expected more of a struggle on her end. Tears, yelling, begging, trying to escape. There was none of that, and it surprised him considerably. Poor thing must've been in shock. He clicked his tongue in response to seeing her, urging her to do something. He got his wish when she began to babble. The language was the same- the sounds came out in rapid succession, garbled gibberish. Talkative little thing. It was endearing, in a way. "I don't know what you want." He responded. His voice, even raised an octave as if talking to a child, rumbled deep from his chest. Even at a low volume, it carried. His tail wagged absentmindedly behind him, dragging against the floor. "You're not in the shipment order..." He mused, wondering if the other Earthbound from the area even knew she was missing.

Perhaps she'd been the spoils of a rivaling territory. Earthbound were territorial creatures. She certainly didn't appear in the best shape, so frail and tiny. The dusty wrappings that covered her hung off her frail form. The shoes on her feet --it was cute how they covered themselves with the absence of fur or scales-- were too big for her. He could see where her belly was distended from hunger. "Hmph. I don't know what to do with you." He hadn't enough fuel to take her back to Earth. The ship was well on its way to his next destination, where he'd pick up another shipment of creatures. brought a hand to his face, cupping his chin in it in thought. A hand from the lower set cradled his elbow, and the remaining of his free hands scratched at the back of his head.

The Earthbound was too noisy to leave by herself in the crate, so he made the decision to pull her cage out. He wouldn't dare let her out of the cage; it was un-telling what sort of chaos she'd cause. Earthbounds were worse than children, as far as getting into trouble went. He wouldn't risk the creature making a mess of his ship, or hurting herself on anything. The cage itself, with just her inside, was incredibly light for Vius, and it was nothing for him to carry the cage to the front of the ship with him, setting it down beside his seat up front. It took up a good amount of room, having to be spaced away from everything so that her thin little hands couldn't reach out and touch anything. "There. Now you're not all by yourself in the dark. Better?"
 
Rhea kept herself from saying much else when she realized he didn't understand her. She studied him as he thought, his form a strange form of beautiful that she hasn't quite encountered before. The animals on Earth had always bored her, but when she got to see people from other places she tried to catch small glimpses. She wanted to know what th rest of the world looked like. She tried not to dwell on it though, since she assumed she would never get to leave Earth. As he began taking her cage out of the crate she let out a deep breath, a smile brightening up her features. She didn't usually smile like this at people, since Humans were just rude and cruel to each other anyways. But she figured that the more polite she was the better she would be treated. She hoped, at least. More stories of when she was younger, people politely conversing and doing nice things for each other. The thought astounded her more and more as she grew older. As he set her down and she realized that he wasn't going to release her from the cage, her smile disappeared into a confused expression as she looked down at the door of the cage ad back up at him. "Better?" She asked, feeling slightly offended that he was treating her like some kind of house pet. Her voice raised in pitch slightly as she continued. "I-I guess but.... Why are you leaving me in here? What are you planning to do with me?" She tugged desperately on the door to the cage, feeling more trapped now than she had been before. She looked back up at him, her heart racing and her eyes pleading as she tried to figure out what his motives and thoughts were.
 
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Vius glanced down at the Earthbound, not entirely sure what was her problem now. No, he knew. It was stupid to think otherwise. She wanted out. But that wasn't happening; he wasn't letting an animal loose on his ship to make a mess of things. She could very easily hurt herself or break something, and it wasn't a risk he was willing to take. Safety aside, he simply didn't know what else to do with her aside from let her sit there. He'd never entertained the idea of owning an earthbound before; he hadn't the slightest idea what they were good for as pets, other than showcasing them. But there was a lot of science and genetics and breeding behind that- and it was too costly for him to even want to wrap his head around. This one hardly looked fit to be a showcase human. Too scrawny, too dirty, too talkative. Certainly cute enough to make a good pet, but a pet Vius didn't know how to deal with.

When she started banging on the door in frustration, Vius slapped his hand against the top of the crate. "Stop that! You're not coming out right now." He was stern with her, his voice nowhere near as soft as it'd been. He didn't want to be harsh with her, but he certainly didn't want to hear that dreadful banging for the entirety of the trip. It was best to let her know early on what was and wasn't allowed. His expression shifted from stern to apologetic seeing the look on her face, but he regained his composure. Earthbound were like children. A firm hand would go a long way. Of course, so would a few gestures of kindness too. He set his ship on autopilot for a moment and left to find something to keep the earthbound occupied for the time being. He had little in the way of anything for her to play with or anything that she would understand. She likely couldn't even read, even if she was capable of learning how.

Vius returned with a heavy blanket in his hands. He fed it to her through the bars of her cage in hopes she'd take it and either go to sleep or would see it as an apology for yelling. "I don't have anything else for you. Be good and you'll come out soon."




((Sorry this took so long, I really am. And I also apologize that there's hardly anything to work with. I'll get better as soon as I get into the swing of things again, I promise.))[/hr]
 
She jumped as he hit the cage, suddenly stopping as she looked at him in surprise. She swore she felt her heart stop for a moment, remembering that the person in front of her could be very dangerous. She knew nothing about him. She bit her lip nervously and nodded, mumbling an apology for banging on the bars. She glanced around as he left, wondering what exactly he was doing. She was truly frightened of what he would do with her. Would he sell her? Keep her perhaps? she was worried with what kind of a person he would be to her. She sighed, hating her father for putting her in this position. He never had cares about her safety. When the stranger came back and handed her a blanket, she was surprised. She smiled softly and accepted it from him. It was a small guesture, but a kind one. For th moment being, it seemed as if he wasn't planning on hurting her.

"Thank you," she said, wrapping it around herself. She had been cold on the ship, the thin and scrappy clothes she had on didn't hold up to any kind of cold temperature. Plus, on Earth the temperatures had grown so hot that whatever temperature or was on the ship felt freezing to her. The blanket helped more than she had thought. She stuck her hand between the bars, offering it for him to shake. It was one of the few parts of human culture left. "My name is Rhea Nikara."



((It's alright really, I understand, no problem at all.))
 
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