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 Posted: Sat Dec 15, 2007 10:07 am
[ THIS IS RLY VRY LATE. Pretend I posted this back when I was supposed to, kay? 8D]
» The First Meeting
Walking slowly through the grocery store, Bug couldn’t help but wonder why humans had so many choices for even the least important of foods. Seven brands of syrup, ten of oatmeal! He had no interest in counting just how different types of cereal boxes there were, but there was definitely a large number. They didn’t even have cereal on the Zurg home planet! Hmm…if there were so many choices, it must be good, right? Grabbing a box of Loops o’ Fruit, the green alien tossed it into the cart and continued on his way. Shopping was fun.
It had been a month, maybe more, since he had been stationed to live on Gaia. The Zurg hadn’t been thrilled at the prospect of “foreign learning,” or so his commander had called it. He was to live on Gaia, in accordance with as “normal” a Gaian lifestyle as possible, in order to learn more about the average Gaian. Their intelligence, or lack thereof, there weaknesses, and strengths. Gaia and the Zurg had reached a shaky neutrality, and just incase the matter of war reached them once again, well, the Zurg wanted to be prepared. The next time, they would attack the people, the very citizens, rather than…cows. Yes, Bug admitted, it had been a dumb mistake. But that wouldn’t happen again! Even though he had only been on the planet for a short amount of time, Bug had already reached one realization: Gaians were stupid. If these people were the prime of Gaian life, then Mother would have absolutely no trouble in conquering the puny little plan-
Just then, walking through an aisle filled with diapers and baby food, Bug’s com, hidden within the depths of his overly large coat (he still had not gotten used to the whole clothes idea), started to beep. He started, surprised at the sound. His commander usually only contacted him when he knew the risk of human eavesdropping was minimal. To be called upon in such a public place? It must be very important! Digging through the coat, Bug finally extracted his com. Flipping it open and expecting to see the green head and bulbous eyes of his commander, he instead saw…a human?
For a moment, the two merely stared at each other before Bug snarled, “How’d you get these com coordinates, human?” It was blasphemous, almost, for a human to interfere in Zurg business! The human on the other end smiled and look down at what Bug believed was a piece of paper. “You’re Mr….” He paused for a moment, as if unable to read a word that was printed up the paper. “Ah, here we are! Mr. ‘Bug,’ I presume?”
“That is the name you filthy humans may call me by, yes,” Bug answered. He didn’t like this human. Not at all. Not only did he know the Zurg’s com coordinates, but also his name! “What do you want?” He was trying his best to keep his voice down, as there was a woman at the other end of the aisle, but he’d never been the best with volume control.
Again, the man smiled. “Just know that I’m a representative from a very big, very important company. And we would like to do business with you.” A smirk appeared on his face after this comment. Of course, Bug was still unfamiliar with human expressions, so the smirk went unnoticed. “What company? And exactly what business?” Oh, Bug just knew that this was one of those scams that he had learned about in his preparation classes! “The company name isn’t important. We are a company that specializes in…genetic science. And that is what I have contacted you about: the raising of one of our experiments.”
Had Bug heard correctly? The Zurg did experiments, but not usually the kind you had to raise. “An experiment? A plant?” There was no way he was going to care for a Gaian plant. It was probably ugly and stank of rotting wurl. The man from the company chuckled. “No, I don’t think you quite understand. We only deal in child experiments.”
Bug did understand that. “A child? No! I was not stationed here to raise a human meat bag! My purpose on this pathetic planet is research and research only. What would my commander say if he foun-” The Zurg’s rant was interrupted. “Actually, we have already contacted your commander. Commander Naga, I believe he’s called? From what I gathered, he is delighted that you’re raising a child! Mentioned something about better understanding of Gai-” This time it was Bug’s turn to interrupt. “You’re lying, human! My commander would never willingly hand me over to such torture as raising a human child!”
“Again, I don’t think you quite understand. Contact your commander, hell, contact Mother. I don’t care. Just be here at this address tomorrow at approximately 8 AM. I’ve told you everything you need to know.” An address flashed briefly on the screen before it went dark. Bug left the grocery store quite angry.
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And he remained angry even after he had contacted his commander. The filthy human hadn’t been lying after all! His commander, in an extremely condescending manner, had told Bug none too gently of his new orders: to raise the child D-Corp (the commander had given him the company name) assigned to him with as much care as he would raise a Zurg child. He didn’t exactly say to love the child…just to raise it. And that’s all Bug was determined to do. The child was to be an extra part of his research . Nothing more.
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Bug arrived around 8 AM at the address the human had given him. Inside, he was greeted by the exact same human. “Mr. Bug, it’s nice to see you in per-…It’s so nice to see you! I assume you contacted your commander?” Bug dearly wished he could kill the human who was standing before him. “Yes,” he said darkly.
“If you’ll step over here, we’ll allow you to observe the child for a few minutes. Then you can meet him.” Bug was gladdened, if only a little, by the fact that the child was male. He had heard horror stories about human females.
However, when he did step over to look through the window into the room, he saw something very different than a human child playing with a tech in the room. The boy was covered in what looked like gray, downy feathers, his lower legs were scaled and his feet webbed, and he had small wings on his back. He did, however, have human-like arms, hands, and a fairly normal face. His hair was black and wild.
“That…that’s not a human,” Bug said, continuing to look at the child on the other side of the glass. “Mmm, yes. I was going to tell you yesterday, but I decided a surprise would be better.” The smile widened again. “His name is Lewis. He has flamingo DNA, so that accounts for the feathers, wings, and those legs of his. He’s an extremely happy and obedient child. He does anything you tell him, which sounds nice, but his own sense of judgment seems to be absent. He will perform even the most drastic of orders, without any thought of his own safety. Understandably, we are worried about his well-being as grows older, specifically when the other children realize his…weakness. We hope placing him with a Zurg parent will instill some amount of hesitation in anyone who would like to harm him.”
Bug listened to the man. Maybe this wouldn’t be quite as bad as he’d first though? A child who was completely obedient would be a breeze to raise! Right? “What’s a flamingo?” No doubt some terrible human animal. “It’s a bird. It lives around water and feeds entirely off of aquatic creatures. Expect a drastic color change as Lewis ages. That’s his “chick” colors right now.” There was another pause. Seeing that Bug didn’t have any other questions, the man asked, “Are you ready to meet him?”
“Yes. Not that I have a choice in the matter, anyway.” The man tapped on the glass twice and Bug saw the tech inside settle the boy into one of the chairs. “Through here.” And they stepped through the door.
Lewis was sitting patiently in the chain, swinging his odd shaped feet back and forth. His gray eyes widened when he saw the alien enter the room, but he did nothing more than that. “Lewis, I would like you to meet Mr. Bug. Can you say ‘hi’ to him,” the tech that was seated beside Lewis in another chair said. “Hiii, Mista Bug!” The flamingo child grinned up at the Zurg and Bug couldn’t help but to be amused. “You can go up to him if you like.”
Lewis hopped out of the chair, his feet making a sharp slap! upon the tile floor. He walked awkwardly over to the alien. “Hello, Lewis,” Bug said, finally breaking his silence. He held a green hand out the child and Lewis, completely trusting, placed his own hand into it. From behind Lewis, the tech spoke again. “Lewis, you’ll be going home with Mr. Bug today. Isn’t that exciting?” Even though he had just met Bug two seconds prior, Lewis beamed up at the alien and squealed. “YES!”
This was the beginning of a beautiful business relationship.
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Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 2:24 pm
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Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2008 10:30 am
[Back Log from before Lewis gets sick.]
» ABC's & 123's
Slamming his clenched fist into the table, Bug swiveled around in the chair to glare at the boy. How would he ever be able to finish this data report if the boy was making enough noise to wake the dead? Oh, great, now he had picked up a human saying. His commander needed this report within the next few days, or it would be considered late. If it was late, bad things would follow, none of which the Zurg had any blasting time for right now!
Failing to notice his parent's glare, Lewis continued to run around the room, arms outstretched. He was an airplane! Or a big bird! Or Superman! He hadn't quite decided what exactly he was pretending to be yet, so he varied between engine noises, loud shrikes, and Supermanly phrases. He had tried to get Bug to play with him, but he was too busy playing with his beepy thing. So to compensate for playing by himself, he had to be extra loud, right?
Deciding that it was futile to keep working, Bug laid his data recorder onto the table. He'd finish the report after the child went to bed, even if it meant staying up all night. Staying in the good with the commander was far more important than sleep. Either way, the Zurg wasn't exactly sure he could take too much more of Lewis's pretending. What exactly was he anyway? A superhero and his avian sidekick aboard an about-to-crash aero-thing?
Pausing his running, Lewis turned towards Bug. "Are ya finished? Can we play now?" Maybe he would say yes! Granted, the aleen usually said no, but he'd said yes a few times before. He'd already thought of a game they could play! Bug could be Lex...Ruther? Yeah, that sounded right. Since Bug was bald, he would be the perfect Lex Ruther.
"No, no, we're going to do something else," Bug said, swiveling around in his chair again to pick up a small stack of papers. He'd been meaning to get Lewis to do these worksheets for a few days now, but it always so hard to squeeze things like that into a schedule. "Come sit at the chair beside me and I'll show you what we're going to do."
His curiosity piqued, the flamingo child immediately did as he was told. Was the aleen going to finally show him his beepy thing? That would be the best! However, his momentary glee over that soon vanished when Bug placed a piece of paper in front of him with pictures on it. "What is this for," he asked and turned towards the Zurg, his black curls bouncing.
"This is what we're going to do," Bug replied. "I'm going to tell you what the letters and pictures mean. All you have to do is repeat after me and then color the picture in with these markers." The Zurg reached across the table to the large box of deluxe markers and dragged them closer to the child. "Do you understand?"
Nodding, Lewis reached into the box of markers and withdrew a green one.
"Alright. The first one is A. A for alligator. A."
After repeating what the aleen had said, Lewis attacked the paper with the marker. Coloring was fun!
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Some time later, all of the worksheets were...finished. If you could call scribbles that looked akin to something that a monkey would do "finished." At least he had kept quiet and cooperated the whole time - which actually wasn't rare with Lewis, but it was still nice. The boy had had particular fun on the numbers worksheet, especially once they had reached the "Four Flamingos" part. Bug almost regretted telling him "that's what you are." He had nearly made a hole in the worksheet.
Inspecting the marker marks that littered his hands and arms, Lewis grinned. Now he was pretty like the colorings he had made, too! "Do ya like 'em," he asked, holding his multi-colored hands up for Bug to see.
"I think it's time for a bath, then bed." There was still a long night to be had.
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ABC - DEF - GHI
JKL - MNO - PQR
STU - VWX - YZ
Numbers
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Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2008 2:08 pm
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Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2008 2:10 pm
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Posted: Sun Jun 07, 2009 7:30 am
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