Author's note: this follows Zebruh's act in pesterquest pretty closely at the beginning as it was originally planned to just be a more satisfying ending for his route, but got out of hand.

Also it includes and OC because I think we all know the protagonist of Pesterquest wouldn't have the guts to stand up to Zebruh

-Crys

Most young adults would say that parties like last night are the best part of being young. That too is what Sophie would say, that is, if it weren't for the fact she didn't remember anything that had happened that night, and by extension, during that party. Waking up, head pounding, she glanced around and found she was surrounded by thick metals walls coated in a cacophony of wires and buttons. Sophie examined the room she was in, wondering how she got here. Or even where here was. As pieces of her memory returned she recalled just enough to remind her of a particularly bitchy friend who ran off with a guy despite being Sophie's ride home. This friend was now unequivocally dead to her. And Sophie would have sent this friend a very long message about their relationship had she not been distracted by the large window to her left.

Blinking, her hungover mind tried to comprehend what she was looking at. Through the massive plate glass window she saw what looked to be an unfamiliar planet approaching. Very rapidly. She was in a spaceship. She wasn't sure how she got from a bar and not having a ride home to being in a spaceship, but Sophie immediately scrambled to brace herself instead of thinking too hard about it. She grabbed onto a nearby support beam and watched the planet's rapid approach. It was a dark dull gray with two vibrant pink and green moons, which Sophie would've found breathtaking had she not been completely terrified. She watched the ground draw closer, and started to doubt that holding onto a support beam would do her any damn good. However, she had no time to find anything else as her ship made contact with the ground, the impact sending her flying despite her best efforts. Despite parties being the best part of Sophie's life, the mornings after were most definitely the worst. This morning in particular felt like it would be the worst of all.

Sophie did not feel like moving for a very long time. She was sore, hungover, confused, and kind of just fed up with the situation. Not even the shrill beeps from the dash of the ship or the fact she wasn't even on Earth anymore made her want to get up. She just laid there, staring at the ceiling, processing all the information she'd absorbed about what was going on and deciding what her next move was. Eventually, she painfully pulled herself from the floor, or rather what had been the wall, of the ship. Thankfully most of the furniture seemed to be bolted in place, but there was still a god awful mess from the smaller items strewn about the cabin and the wires cascading from the walls like vines after being disconnected in the crash. Once again Sophie looked around, noting a small door on the ceiling of the ship. Not being fully in her right mind, Sophie opened the door, poking her head out into the new world and feeling slight relief that she didn't immediately suffocate or burst into flames. She admired the landscape, several bizarre looking blue buildings silhouetted by light orange sunlight peeking over the sound of a door opening distracted her from her thoughts and she turned to see a lanky figure stepping out of the closest building and staring up at her inquisitively. She stared back, and after a moment she broke the silence.

"Hey."

" Hi gorgeous ," the figure, a young man with gray skin, jet black hair, and horns, took a tentative step towards her ship, " Where did you come from? " He seemed far more curious than nervous, which made two of them, as Sophie pulled herself from the ship and jumped down, landing on the dirt a few feet below the hatch.

"Earth," Sophie dusted off her dress, which the alien eyed for a moment, taking note of the bright red color, before he focused more on her and how odd she looked. He took note of her pale skin and light hair, cocking his head as he continued speaking.

" Forgive me for being forward, but what color is your blood? "

Sophie looked at him.

"What color is your blood?" She asked, which seemed to confuse him.

" I am an indigo blood, see, just like here on my jacket ," he pointed to the symbol on his vest, taking a step towards Sophie as if to give her a better look, leaning so close he was only a few inches from her, " And you? "

"Red," Sophie answered, taking a step back. She wasn't entirely sure if this was a trick question, but also had no frame of reference on what the right answer was, and thus what she would even say if she lied.

" Lovely, red is my favorite color ," he grinned, " So unique and charming ," He stepped forward again, this time only being within arms reach. Scowling, she replied.

"Yeah, it's my favorite too," and moved to one side. He frowned and crossed his arms while Sophie just tried to change the subject, "Is this your yard?" She shuffled her feet and looked away from him, towards the wreckage.

" It is. ," he smirked playfully, " Is that your ship~? "

"No."

They stared at each other for a minute.

"I don't know where that came from to be honest."

" Uh. " He took a second to gather his thoughts again and quickly switched gears, " I'm Zebruh; what's your name gorgeous? "

"Sophie," she ran her hand over the edge of the ship trying to avoid looking at him, "Can I keep this here?" She asked before realizing that if he declined, she had no way of moving it.

" Of course. I love helping out lowbloods whenever I can. It's pretty lucky you crashed in my yard actually. I'm kind of a big low blood ally ."

"I don't know what a low blood is."

Zebruh looked up at her.

" Right. Of course, you're new, allow me to explain, please come inside ," Zebruh smiled at Sophie, putting an arm around her shoulder and leading her inside, which she allowed, albeit not happily as she considered trying to move out of his grip.

" You see on Alternia we have a hemospectrum that determines your caste, rust bloods like yourself are very low on the ladder, but indigo bloods like myself are very high up. That's why I spend my time trying to help lowbloods, because society treats them so unfairly ."

Sophie nodded, taking it in. She looked about the house, noticing other aliens doing work as well as a gray and white zebra glaring at her.

"Is that a Zebra?"

" Hmm? Oh yes he's my luscus. Don't pay him any mind ," he leaned over to whisper to Sophie, " He's very traditional and not a fan of lowbloods ."

"What?" Sophie stared at him.

" Does your kind not have lusii ?"

Sophie blinked incredulously, never having been referred to as "your kind" before and definitely not liking it.

" Anyway these are some of my guests ," he continued on as if nothing was wrong, " We do communal housework so everything is equal ," Zebruh smiled and Sophie just continued staring at him, slack jawed. Watching the other aliens, most of which seemed thin and tired, Sophie finally decided she was done letting this guy touch her and wormed her way out from under his arm. Zebruh huffed slightly, continuing his thought with a slightly annoyed tone, " Of course I do chores as well, and I don't even charge them to stay here ." Sophie looked at him, clearly unimpressed, but Zebruh didn't seem to be able to tell, " You could stay here if you wanted too ." he leered at her. Sophie blinked. While technically speaking a big house right next to her ship seemed like a good idea, this guy was clearly a creep.

"Maybe." she reluctantly replied.

" Oh you'll love it here, you can have your own room ," Zebruh beamed despite her half hearted response, " I'll make sure you get home cooked meals everyday and I'll take wonderful care of you ."

"Mmm," Sophie shuddered at the potential implications, but Zebruh seemed to lack enough self awareness to notice.
" Why don't I show you around ?"

"Alright," Sophie relented, and he went to take her hand to show her around the house, but she drew away. He rolled his eyes and continued.

He led her through room after room, each one the same bright blue of his vest with a bit of magenta tied in. The architecture was way different than anything Sophie had seen before. Everything was far more organic looking with very few sharp edges and lots of small details. It was definitely a lot to take in. The bright colors hurt Sophie's eyes a bit and she was so focused on everything around her that she hardly noticed that Zebruh was now holding her hand. The house was also a lot bigger than Sophie had anticipated, she must've crashed on the shallower edge of the house because there were so many sprawling hallways and large open rooms that Sophie's feet started to get tired before they had even seen everything.

She watched a line of molding where the wall met the ceiling as she walked. The way it spiraled and curled was fascinating to look at and every few inches there was a little glass accent that looked almost like an eye in the right light. She was so taken by the detail that she didn't even notice when Zebruh stopped and promptly walked into him.

" You look impressed ," Zebruh grinned, leaning into Sophie's personal space.

"Okay, it's pretty damn cool," Sophie admitted, unsure on whether it was a bad idea to feed this guy's ego. She glanced over at the door he was standing beside, it was blue and indistinguishable from every other blue door in the house, "Is this where I'd be staying if I stayed here?" She guessed.

" Only if you want to hun, this is my room ," he winked and Sophie immediately grimaced, " I guess low bloods can't take a joke ," he huffed and opened the door, " You can come inside if you'd like ." Sophie very much did not want to come inside, but as Zebruh expectantly watched her she realized he wasn't really asking. She sighed and stepped in his room.
Sophie looked around and was actually vaguely surprised. She was expecting posters of women in explicit positions or at the very least one of those dumbass body pillows, but she had to admit Zebruh's room was actually kind of cool. It had the same architecture style as the rest of the house and was decorated with more posters than Sophie had ever seen in one place. She guessed they were band posters, dozens of them layered over one another to such an extent she was sure there had to be some on the wall that were just no longer visible under the pile of others. The room also had a good deal of furniture, most of which Sophie could only guess the purpose of. The one thing she thought she recognized was a sort of computer, although it had the same organic vibes as the rest of the house. Really she only guessed it was a computer because there was a big, vaguely rectangular piece mounted on the wall that looked similar to a monitor and what looked to be a keyboard with completely unintelligible symbols on it. She also noticed some kind of storage shelf as well as an iron maiden with slime dripping from a hole in it. She wasn't going to ask about that one. Turning, Sophie took note of a pile of clothes and pillows in the corner of the room, which Zebruh sat on as she looked around. Honestly Sophie wasn't 100% sure if the pile was just where Zebruh kept his extra crap instead of putting it away or if this was some kind of bed considering the other things in the room were decidedly not a bed.

" Care to lay with me? We've been walking a while and I find laying on a pile is great for budding moirails and having feels jams ," he beckoned her in what he must have thought was an enticing manner.

"What the fuck does that even mean?" Sophie just looked at him.

" Right. Alien ," Zebruh huffed and stood up. He paused a moment as if considering something, then left the room, holding the door for her. Sophie quickly followed him back into the hallway, " You're welcome ," he pouted and Sophie looked back at him.

"Oh uh. Thanks."

" Well it hardly feels sincere now ."

"Sorry," Sophie sighed. Zebruh was really starting to get on her nerves.

" Well I don't suppose I can stay mad at my little mutant ," he moved closer to her, but she immediately moved back, going so far as to put a hand on his chest.

"Excuse me?"

" Hmm? Oh the mutant thing? Well that's just what you call someone who looks that different compared to Alternians. You shouldn't be so offended, consider it a pet name ."

"That's. I don't even know what to say to that. Could you please just call me by my name?" she scowled, putting a hand on her face.

" Oh darling, I never remember any of my guests' names, it's just too much work ," he tried to step closer again, but again Sophie ducked away from him.

"Not even the mutant alien?" she hissed.

" Oh you really are caught up on that aren't you ?"

"Zebruh It's really hard to not be caught up on that. That's the biggest insult I've gotten in a long time."
" Yes, but it wasn't an insult. It's hardly my fault if you take offence to it ," Zebruh turned away from her and crossed his arms and for just a moment she considered hitting him, but considering she still didn't know a damn thing about this planet she decided to hold back on assaulting someone. After a moment of silence Zebruh looked back at Sophie and, upon seeing how agitated she still looked, tried to change the subject, " Are you hungry darling ?"

Sophie sighed in resignation.

"Yeah, I'm kinda hungry."

" Wonderful ," Zebruh smiled at her, leading her back to the dining room, " Stay here for just a moment, ok ?"

"I promise," She forced a smile, but as soon as he was gone she rushed towards the door.

"Hey-!"

Sophie was suddenly jerked to a stop as someone grabbed her arm. She whipped around, coming face to face with one of Zebruh's guests. Sophie immediately tried to yank her arm free, but the alien's grip was far stronger than Sophie expected for the thin girl holding her.

"Quit squirming," she hissed quietly.

"I am not staying here another second. You all look half dead and Zebruh is awful."

"I know, I know, but just listen. You can't go out there you'll get killed," the alien hissed, before reluctantly letting Sophie go, "Anything that isn't alternian is fair game to be hunted down for sport out there and you're clearly not alternian."
"What?" Sophie blinked.

"Look, things suck here, but it's better than being out there, trust me."
Sophie looked over the alien girl before her. She was slightly bruised on her hands and knees from working constantly and looked exhausted.

"How can you say that? You look like you're about to pass out," Sophie ran her hand through her bangs, pulling them slightly as she processed what she was being told.

"It's not that bad," the girl sighed, rubbing her arm, "Zebruh may be a creep, but he keeps us safe."

"You sound like a nut case!"

"Even alternians can be hunted down if someone above you feels like it. If you want any chance of getting out of here you should just keep your head down and try to convince Zebruh to fix your ship," the girl sighed, gently putting a hand on Sophie's shoulder, "I always tell myself I can run away whenever I want to. He doesn't keep us here. I don't think he'd even notice if any one of us left, but until you understand what you're in for you really should stay."

"This sounds like a nightmare," Sophie almost slumped to the floor, but the girl caught her arm.

"Please don't fall down," she looked around, "He'll be back soon and I don't want him thinking I scared you."
"That's reassuring," Sophie suddenly felt sick. She wondered for a moment if she could get away with just hiding in her ship forever, but decided it would probably be a bad idea.

"He really isn't that bad for an indigo blood," she smiled sheepishly.

"Remind me to never talk to another indigo blood ever then because I'm still debating facing whatever the fuck is out there over this."

The girl patted Sophie's back softly, trying to comfort her as much as possible before Zebruh returned. Once he was back in the room the girl ran off, although really Sophie didn't blame her.

" There you are gorgeous ," Zebruh smiled at her.

"Sophie," she quietly corrected, not looking at him. She clenched her fists, still frustrated and confused, as Zebruh looked at her.

" Why don't you come eat ?"

Sophie's shoulders slumped and she just nodded and followed him.

The dining table was massive, and easily the biggest table Sophie had ever seen. This made it all the more confusing when only two places at the table were set.

"Are we the only ones eating?" She cautiously asked. Zebruh rolled his eyes.

" They can eat later ," he frowned and Sophie noticed the return of the zebra from earlier. It glared daggers at her, clearly pissed that Sophie was making Zebruh distressed, " You know I'm sick of low bloods thinking I'm only good for handouts ."

"What?" Sophie looked at him.
" All these low bloods just take and take from me without giving back anything. I mean I get you don't have money, but money is hardly everything. I get constantly rejected by anyone in higher blood castes because I defend all of you, and yet what do you do for me? Nothing. You chastise me as if you know anything about being an ally. You're all perfectly content being nothing but useless freeloaders !"

"The fuck we are!" Sophie spoke before she thought about it, but she was too damn angry to give a shit, "You're the worst! I guarantee you not a single person in this whole house would be here if the alternative wasn't death. Fuck, I'm still considering going out there to face whatever death trap awaits me outside because you are the biggest fucking scum bag I've ever met!" Sophie shouted before she noticed Zebruh's luscus lowering it's head and dragging it's hooves on the floor. Sophie however, was seeing red and not about to stop talking, "Don't even think about it fucker, humans spit acid and I'll kill you both," Sophie jumped up on the table pointing at Zebruh as she continued, "You fucking suck. You're the worst person I've ever met and you even dress like an asshole. You look like a poor college student trying to make fun of a rich person. Nobody wears a dress vest with sneakers and jeans what the actual fuck!" Sophie pulled at her hair and shouted, "You call yourself an ally, but you can't even do that right!" Sophie looked around, noting the crowd of Zebruh's guests that had formed at her shouting. Upon recognizing the guest that had grabbed her earlier, Sophie pointed at her and gestured her over. The guest looked surprised, but very cautiously walked over, "Zebruh look at her! She's bruised and hungry! She fucking works here and you won't even feed her! I highly doubt you pay any of these people. All of them! All of them are in poor health and you're just ignoring it because you're a pretentious ass who gets off on the idea of being a savior but couldn't save yourself from a wet paper bag!" Sophie panted, finally having gotten everything out of her system. She looked at everyone staring at her, all dumbfounded. Sophie took a deep breath and stepped down from the table. Immediately all the lowbloods scrambled away from Zebruh and his luscus as fast as possible, but it hardly mattered as they were both focused solely on Sophie. When Zebruh finally did talk his voice was much quieter than it had been.

" Do you hate me .?"

That dumb question was enough to rile Sophie up all over again.
"What kind of damn question is that? Of course I fucking hate you you piece of shit-!" Sophie was cut off as Zebruh grabbed her, yanking her close and kissing her. For a split second Sophie was still, processing what the hell just happened before she snapped. She shoved Zebruh off of her, hopping backwards and then surging back towards him, rolling her shoulder into a solid punch square in the middle of the puzzled look on his stupid face. She was not known for being a big person or even a strong person, but she threw every ounce of her energy, weight, anger and frustration into that punch and only felt satisfied when she heard a deafening crack come from his face. Zebruh stumbled back, staring at Sophie as bright indigo blood started spilling from his nose.

She had had more than enough of this shit. Sophie turned and walked back towards the entrance of the house. She didn't care what was out there; she was not staying there another second.

"Alien, wait a second!" The same guest from before came running up to her.

"No. I'm leaving."

"You can't-"

"We've had this conversation already. I'm going."

"Ok, ok you can leave, but please don't go now," the guest tentatively put a hand on Sophie's shoulder, but wasn't about to try and hold her still.

"Look I get it, you're protecting me or whatever, but no," Sophie reached the door and opened it. A wave of sharp, blistering heat rolled over her, leaving her stunned and toasted in a split second. She choked and jumped back, falling to the floor in her hurry. The guest moved back as well, going so far to pull Sophie away from the door. The dim light that had been there when Sophie arrived had developed into a searing radiance. It was so bright she could barely see her ship a few feet past the door, her eyes watering as she tried. In the few seconds she'd been exposed to the sunlight she felt her skin burn. The alien girl hurried behind the door to close it. The room felt twenty degrees hotter in just the few seconds the door had been open and Sophie was so stunned she just sat there.

"Are you okay?" The girl tentatively asked.

"What the fuck was that?"
"It's day time."

"That's what day time here is like?"

"Yeah," she looked at the floor before offering a hand to Sophie, "Maybe he won't kick you out.?" She gave Sophie an awkward smile.

"Oh god I'm so screwed," she took the alien's hand and stood up, listening to the commotion from the dining room, "I'm so dead."

"I mean maybe not?" the girls looked at each other for a moment before the guest sighed, "Maybe he went to his room? Or y'know, he'll let you stay here because you can kill him if he says no?"

"Right," Sophie grimaced. The guest took a second before leading Sophie back to the dining room. Zebruh wasn't there, although there was a fairly big puddle of blood from where Zebruh had been standing, and apparently continued standing for a good minute or so before wandering off. A few guests were now trying to scrub blood from the floor, and turned to look at Sophie as she came back.
"How'd you like your first taste of Alternian sunlight?" One of the guests with yellow accents on her uniform and mismatched eyes looked up at Sophie. Sophie hadn't noticed until now, but the guest's uniforms had accent colors and symbols that all had varying colors from red to green. She looked back at the guest who had retrieved her, now noting that her color was red.

"It was kinda shitty," Sophie admitted, then looked down at the stain on the floor, "Can I help?"

"Yeah sure alien," the guest handed her a sponge and Sophie knelt down to clean.

"My name's Sophie," Sophie tried scrubbing at the floor, but blue blood was a lot more stubborn than red blood.

"Huh, kinda normal for an alien, I'm Maijan," the yellow guest smiled at her.

"And I'm Vimeda," the red guest added, kneeling to help clean as well.

"I think that was the coolest shit I've ever seen," Maijan grinned, "I've never seen a mutant hit an almost high blood like that before."
"Ok so the mutant thing is actually legit and not just some garbage Zebruh made up, good to know," Sophie huffed.

"What mutant thing?" Vimeda blinked.

"The fact anything that isn't a normal alternian is a mutant; I'm perfectly normal for a human."

"Oh, yeah," Maijan replied, "I mean I guess mutant also refers to blood color, but pretty much."

"If you guys all have different colored blood anyway, what blood color do mutants have?"

The nearby guests all pointed to Sophie's cherry red dress, "Of course." Sophie grumbled.

"So what are you gonna do now?" Maijan wrung her blue stained sponge into a container of water before continuing to scrub at the stain.

"I have no idea," Sophie admitted, nervously twirling a strand of hair around her finger, "I highly doubt Zebruh is gonna let me stay here."

"Who knows?" Maijan snickered, "I mean he's probably into getting fucked with like that."

"Ugh," Sophie huffed, "Actually." she trailed off and paused for a moment, "He does seem pretty desperate for attention."

"You're actually gonna be his kismesis?" Maijan paused her work to look at Sophie.

"I don't know what that means, but I'm going to say no. What I mean is I'm the only one in this house who can stand up to him, so maybe I can offer to try and teach him not to be an ass so he can get a date. I stay here to help and if I succeed you guys don't have to deal with him either."

All the alternians in the room turned to look at her incredulously.

"Good freaking luck."