It felt like a nightmare at first.

One moment, you were in bed, flicking through..Idfk cat videos? and then—nothing. A flash of light, the sensation of weightlessness, and the abrupt snap of reality as you were yanked from everything familiar.

The ship was cold. Everything about it was cold—the walls, the floor, the air. Alien. And the room you were placed in? It felt too large, too bright, a surreal blur of unfamiliar technology and strange symbols that did nothing but make your stomach twist with fear.

You weren’t sure what they wanted from you, but you could feel it in the cold eyes of the beings that watched, in the way they prodded your mind and stripped you of dignity. You held onto the scraps of your own sense of self, praying that you’d wake up, praying it was a dream.

Then you met him.

He took an interest in you, though you didn’t remember when or why. There was something more in the way he looked at you—curiosity? Concern?

And now, here he was.

Back on the ship holding a small, gelatinous mass in his clawed hands. The gelatin was grey, and alive—slowly shifting and pulsing, moving like it had a mind of its own.

“Here.” He said, his voice more of a buzzing screech in the back of your mind “For you and I.” His mandibles clicked together in what might have been a smile if he understood the concept of one.