Okay, just to increase the readership of this tale a little, I have moved the rating from R to PG-13 for the time being. Hopefully someone other than MetaChi will read and review…*Sigh* The rating will go BACK to R when it is appropriate. Thank you!
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That had been years ago, a little less than five, actually, by Irken standards. However, since time on the planet I had landed on, which happens to be called Earth, is measured at a faster rate than on Irk, and something more like sixty years had passed.
Lightwing and I had exchanged our stories, which was the first thing about her that surprised my. Dae-uial, as a rule, tend to be secretive. She took a liking to me, though, and we quickly became close—or what qualifies as close by their standards. She took me under her wing for a while, helping me learn about the Earth, and it's many hazards. And once she figured I knew enough to get by—BAM!—she kicked me out. That didn't bother me, though. I traveled around, visiting more of the planet I had taken for my new home, and taking on lots of different personalities. Let me tell you, humans (the planet's inhabitants) are a weird bunch. I haven't been on this planet all that long, and already there have been three major wars, as well as a flurry of minor ones! I swear, if these people didn't reproduce so fast, they'd all be dead.
They are not very technologically advanced, either, though their knowledge IS developing rapidly. Actually, by Irken and Dae-uial standards, they are a backward bunch barely even worth considering sentient! I will say this for them, though. They are good at pampering themselves, and I mean GOOD. Just their different varieties of food, while radically different from Irken foods, were enough to make me want to linger back then, and since then I've become somewhat…addicted, an additional imperative for remaining.
Actually, on a whole, I rather like Earth, despite the relative and overall stupidity of the main species. There's a lot of freedom there, something you really don't find on Irk. And then there was the biological diversity! Simply amazing for a planet of its size, and a relative heaven for someone with a scientific mind like my own.
I think the thing I found I liked the best about the planet, though, were its 'cryptids,' the various creatures around the globe that were considered mythical by the recognized scientific community, but were obviously very real to the locals. To prevent myself from committing suicide out of sheer boredom, I had made it one of my goals to track down and classify all of the cryptids I could. I was doing fairly well, so far, if I do say so myself.
Not that the place didn't have its downfalls…mainly water. Ooh, that is definitely one of the most foul substances I've ever had the misfortune to encounter, and it's is all over the place on Earth. Luckily for me, Lightwing offered a bit of a solution to that one: a powder specially designed to counteract the effects of water in human liquids. Unfortunately, it wouldn't work against pure water, but that was okay with me. I had no need for the vile stuff in its pure form anyway.
Anyway, let's get back to the story. Wait, that was the story. So let's get back to the present! I was standing in a Barnes and Noble nearby my current home up in a suburb outside of New York City. I was browsing their occult/paranormal section; usually a safe enough occupation as almost no one else ever looked there, and I had been having trouble dealing with the overwhelming stupidity of humanity as a whole lately.
"I'll be in the comic book section, Dib," I heard some girl say to her brother over at the end of the aisle. "I'll come find you when I'm done." The kid sighed, and I glanced up at him. Weird hair.
"Yes, Gaz," he said resignedly as she walked off. I couldn't help but chuckle. He was being bossed around by his little sister…poor sap. I turned back to the meager shelf of books, skimming the titles. There was one called 'The Mothman Prophecies,' and I reached for it, not having any books on the West Virginian phenomenon yet. Someone else pulled it off the shelf before I could, though. It was the weird hair kid.
"Oh, I'm sorry," he said, amazingly polite. "Did you want this?" He offered me the book, but I managed to conjure up a smile from somewhere as I shook my head.
"No, thanks. There's another copy." I pulled it off the shelf.
"Did you see the movie?" Why was he talking to me? I sighed inwardly.
"Yeah. I bet this will be better though."
"I'm sure of it," he assured me. "They always are." I smiled again, a little more genuinely this time.
"Yeah, that's true." I turned away and looked over the books again, but there wasn't anything else I hadn't seen before. The boy emitted the sigh I could feel brewing in me.
"There's never anything good here," he said. I chuckled ruefully.
"This section is woefully lacking. It's almost depressing," I said softly. "What's your name, kid?" He looked surprised I had asked, and I got the feeling people rarely talked to him for this long at a time.
"I'm Dib," he said, looking up at me.
"Nice to meet you, Dib. I'm Alex," I said. "It's short for Alexandra." What? I have to keep a low profile, and most humans aren't typically named ZaiFae. Before he could respond, I pressed on. Sometimes, if you're too forward, it'll scare of the humans just as effectively as being silent and unresponsive. "So you into the paranormal?"
"Oh yeah! It's my life!" I smiled slightly. Not only did he not seem stupid, he was into the paranormal.
"I'm into the cryptozoological myself," I said, "but all the rest of the paranormal is cool too." He beamed up at me, and I couldn't help but feel a little more friendly towards him. I took the book out of his hands. "Let me buy this for you, and we can talk while we wait for your sister."
"What—? How did you know I had a—?"
"I heard you talking to her earlier," I said offhandedly, walking out of the aisle. He hurried to follow. Even on this planet I wasn't an easy person to keep up with. He began to protest, but I waved it off. "Don't worry about it Dib. It's rare to find someone with an interest in the paranormal!" I paid for both of the copies of the book, and we took a seat at one of the small tables lining one side of the wall and struck up a quick conversation. We hadn't been talking very long, though, when his sister approached, glowering at him and holding a bag of books.
"She's scary."
"I know."
"Come on Dib, we're leaving now."
"I'll see you around, Alex," he said, sighing as he stood. I scribbled an email address on the back of a paper bookmark and handed it to him.
"E-mail me," I said. "We'll get together some day." He pocketed it and nodded, waving his thanks as his sister dragged him out. I sat there a few minutes more, before standing up and leaving myself.
Apparently, Dib had a lot of free time on his hands, because I got and e-mail from him later that night.
"From: alienhunter24@paranoia.newsgroup.com
To: invaderzaifae@earthlink.net
Hey Alex,
It's Dib. You met me in Barnes and Noble today. Remember? I hope so. You said to send you an e-mail, so I did. I hope you get this; your handwriting was a little bit hard to decipher! Sorry if that's an insult, but it's true. Listen, d'you want to meet me in the park tomorrow, around four? There's something big I want to tell you, that I think you should know if you want to be friends with me. Let me know, okay?
Thanks,
=^= Dib =^=
P.S.—What's up with your e-mail address? It's freaky!"
I laughed a little as a read over his email. He was right about my handwriting! I had received many complaints about it over the years. I shook my head, and wondered what was so urgent for him to tell me.
His post-script brought me up short, but I shook it off as paranoia. He seemed avid, but he couldn't know. How to explain it, though? I set about writing my reply.
"From: invaderzaifae@earthlink.net
To: alienhunter24@paranoia.newsgroup.com
Hi Dib,
Yeah, this is my address. Congratulations figuring out my handwriting! That's no mean feat. 9.9
I'll meet you tomorrow, no problem, and I won't ask what you want to tell me, because you would have told me already, so it must be big. I'm bursting with excitement! See you tomorrow!
~*Alex*~
P.S.- I used to play that game 'Space Invaders' all the time, Zai is just a nonsense word that sounds cool, and Fae is another name for faeries. Combine it, and you get Invader ZaiFae!! It's an alias. *Nodnod*"
I hit the send button and sat back, watching as the window closed itself down. He had no reason to disbelieve what I told him about my address, and I saw no reason to worry that he would suspect anything. I shook my head. I was getting paranoid.
His reply didn't take long to come, but it was just a confirmation of time and place, and I shut down my computer after I read it.
Irkens as a rule don't need much sleep, so I passed most of the night with a transmission to Lightwing. She laughed over my sudden bout of fear of discovery, told me she was glad I was actually making a friend other than her, and let me know, in her own bitchy way, that she missed me. It was past midnight when we said our farewells, and I retired to my room to sleep.
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Shout out time!
MetaChi: Yeah, that's why it took so long to get it up—ZaiFae was having serious trouble working up the courage to write it down. But we managed it! ^.^ Heh, nah, Lightwing's more like lots of bark and even more bite, she just doesn't bite often. XD!! You know, when I first wrote this, that chapter had all sorts of hints in it that Lightwing and ZaiFae's meeting happened on July 3-4, 1947, *coughRoswellcough* but when ZF and I re-wrote the chappie, all our carefully crated hints went bye-bye. *Sigh* Oh well!
Review, please, will you folks? Thank you!