It always seethed under his skin, the constant reminder of it. 

The fact that he was Other.

“Twenty-third time’s the charm,” he said as he heaved his heavy slug body onto the desk chair. Typing with cybernetic fingers - instead of his natural flippers - was always such a hassle. Faking his humanity was the real reason he never found anyone.

NO ONE knew that much about what he was mixed with or what to do with him. The majority of his DNA was from a non-human race called a Myo-Colloid. It was what the Humans called them, because under study and research of their DNA structure and biology, it made it seem like their muscles were made of something close to a gel, or gelatin, the chemistry umbrella term being, ‘colloid’  and the prefix ‘myo’ meaning ‘of the muscle.’  So, beings like this who crossbred with Humans ended up producing weird-looking offspring, where most or half their body looked like it was made of something like a slug and were monotreme enough that their gamete system was ovum-based.   

Being a crossbred non-human came with complications. And he was tired of clueless doctors, needles, lab work, and online dating. He was a beast, he knew that. He’d never find his beauty, but what else was there to do on those lonely nights but keep searching? So that is what he did. 

… Swipe… Swipe… Swipe…

[YOU HAVE MATCHED WITH SIMA_SIMELONS]

[SEND MSG Y/N]

He clicked to actually read her profile and what he saw was that she was, in a way, like him. Other. Everything from her dark skin, prominent Adam's apple, stylishly customized wheelchair, and cannula cord under her nose. She was so ‘other’ and yet, she was proud of it?

It dawned on him for the first time that this was an option: pride, instead of shame.  

Slowly, he went back to the match page and clicked [Y].  He stared at the screen, his mind blank, intent to type a message to her, but not sure what to break the ice with.  There were so many options to go with.  Maybe he should start with a compliment,  something heartfelt with empathy.  

Nice wheels [SENT]

And then the anxiety set in.

Sliding from the desk chair, the mucus of his slug body left a trail over the cold stone floor of his ground-level apartment.  

“Tea. I’ll make tea. Anxiety flees in the presence of tea. Tea, tea, it’s all for me, all for me,” he sang to himself.  

He felt hope.  

He felt hope for the first time in too long. He was shaking. His mind raced with anxiety. What if she doesn’t like me either? Am I really so disgusting? he wondered to himself.

[BING!] The notification from his computer alerted and he gulped, sliding his way back to his desk. It was a reply from her! He opened it.  

Thanks! RideSoft does the best customs. Are you really a Myo-Colloid? I’ve always wanted to meet one. I find them the most beautiful of the Hybrid Races. 

Giggling from shock, he began to bioluminesce with joy.

__________

Hours of talking turned to days, and days turned to weeks. They eventually exchanged voice print identification clearance levels and started having private, encrypted conversations with each other with their own voices every night. He couldn’t believe his luck. 

One night, they had a very interesting voice chat that led to very interesting topics that most people on dating sites touch on almost immediately. It was during the brooding week of his estrus, which for Myo-Colloids was a period of a few days each month where they had to release the sterile eggs their bodies spent energy making at all times.  

In a way, it was similar to the way the seminal-based gamete system in fully human bodies are always making sperm and semen in the testicular sacs.  But with the Myo-Colloids, it was with eggs inside their bodies and it was intensely pleasant to experience. 

There were pleasure pulses and contracting waves of euphoria and ecstasy that inflated and deflated their bodies, as well as a kind of lubricant or arousal fluid, as it was called, that helped ease the ovum ejaculation that they called ‘dispersing’ that felt exactly similar if not a more intense version of what humans would call ‘an orgasm’.  

“So, I have been calling you by your screen name this whole time, do you think we can trust each other with our real names now? Or do you like to be called, Colloidal Beast?”

He exhaled the way he did when he was amused. It sounded like a small brush of wind into her ear. She enjoyed that sound more than anything. It meant he was happy; it meant he was smiling. 

It meant that maybe… he was even glowing for her. It made her heart beat faster, the thought of him glowing with mirth… The sound of the machine feeding air to her body increased its output when her heart started to beat faster.  

She had to remind herself to calm down or the caregiver would be alerted to her room and she didn’t want to explain the other voice on the phone to Colloidal Beast; He was so skittish, so hard for him to trust. She had just gained his trust; she didn’t want to spook him.

“It’s Ayler. What’s yours?”

“Nehalem. Ayler is a beautiful name.”

“Thank you. I like your name too, it sounds … like some delicatessen shop.”

Nehalem giggled. “Oh? Well. I’m flattered you think so sweet of me.”

“Don’t think I could have a sour thought of you if I tried with all my mind.”

“I’m not sure if I should take that as a challenge or not.”

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing, it was a poorly worded joke.”

“I’ve made you uncomfortable with my flattery again, haven’t I?”

“I’m not used to it.”

“But you’re so confident. You are so bold and defiant. I expect that compliments are laid down at your feet, proverbially speaking.”

“If they were, I'd run over them, not realizing they were sincere compliments. I live in the same world as you, Ayler. Wait, what world are you in? That Tender Hearts Website is Interstellar, you could be half the galaxy away.”

“I’m in the Milky Way Galaxy. You?”

“Andromeda. That’s not so bad. What’s a few light years for the sake of good company?”

“There is a cargo ship that is touching down planet side in a few weeks. If you had access to a GaleSpeed Class ship, would you want to meet me here? They are still trying to terraform a lot of planets here. Earth is the farthest along, but after so many millennia of damage done to it, it will take a few more centuries. But part of the  benefits of being hybrid is that I can go down with minimal risk because I am not as dependent upon the same things as humans are”

“Earth has gotten so political lately. I heard they are going to give the Planet to the Reformers out of Nebula Six Four Eight. There is a whole bidding war. With the Original species just dispersed to the stars…”

“Ohh, don’t say that word,” Ayler interrupted and sucked in a sharp breath.

“What word?”

“Disperse.”

“Why not? What’s wrong with it?”

“It... uhm. For Myo-Colloids, it means something else, and… I’m… just a little vulnerable to that right now.”

“What does it mean for Myo-Colloids?”

“Gamete expulsion,” Ayler said simply.

There was a pause as Nehalem tried to decipher what that meant exactly. “Oh! Ohhh, gods, fuck me. I… I mean… not that way, I mean… fuck, I’m sorry. That’s wow…”

Ayler exhaled his amusement. “Yes, exactly.”

A slight awkward pause, and the sound of Nehalem moving in her chair. “Now I’m thinking about it.”

“Yeah, that’s… unavoidable.  … didn't mean to make it an issue I… I was trying to not make it an issue and then… made it an issue. I’m so foolish.”

“Well, it was going to come up eventually.”

“That’s true.”

“How long has it been for you?”

“Since I - ? Well. It isn’t the same for me as it is for humans.  I... need to do it every month, it's part of my estrus cycle. I can’t not do it. But… if you mean with a partner… to mate.  I haven’t ever done it with another person, similar species or otherwise. It is not unusual, but the humans think it is.”

“And you are half-human right?”

Now they were in the thick of it. The first stages of show me yours I will show you mine, as it were. He took a deep breath. “More like a quarter or a third, really. I have a torso and face like a human. The rest is… kind of an amorphous blob with flippers… really. I rely a lot on cybernetic prosthetics.”

“So… how does… well, how would it work if you and I… you know… mated?”

The way she said the word ‘mated’ made Ayler’s mind space out a moment. He flushed with so much arousal fluid that he felt his eggs dropping down toward the slit of his hole. He sucked in another breath. “That is difficult to say, without knowing what the body I am mating with looks like… in that way. Are you ovum-based or seminal?”

“Seminal,” she said, a bit hesitant.

“I’m ovum-based.”

“So that answers that.”

“Well, all that means is…  we can reproduce our own young together if we want.”

“I am not fully human either. That could… incompatibleize things in that department.”

The silence that followed made her anxiety spike and her breathing machine did alert her caregiver, as she was wheezing in panic.  “Sorry I didn’t say something sooner. I just… Can I call you right back, my caregiver is here to give me my treatment.”

“Sure,” Ayler said. 

The call disconnected. He took off the headpiece and exhaled slowly. He needed to disperse but he didn't want to miss her calling back, not right when it was getting interesting. 

Nevertheless, he was going to disperse now. He couldn’t hold it back anymore. Not after hearing her voice, and the way she just so casually said the word ‘disperse’  without realizing its effect on him. Ambivalently grateful that he wasn’t on the phone with her at the moment, he reached up to get a pan he kept by his desk for just such occasions.  Moving off the chair, he exclaimed his pleasure as the eggs splattered in a gel-like fluid into the pan, his body glowed bright, throbbing from the exertion. 

Already, he felt another wave when he heard the ringing from his headphones. He groaned as he felt the pleasure pulses surge like electric charges across his body as he was squeezed by the electrochemicals of his estrus ushering another ejaculatory moment of exquisite ecstasy. 

“Ohhh, hold on, I’m almost there, I’m a-ahhh…yes~”   

Splaat Sploosh… Spluraaagle - POP 

One Giant, Sterile, Gelatinous Egg was now expelled from the hole, and he felt like he was going to turn into a confetti of spores and slime. He barely managed to push the pan out of the way and put the headset back on and slip his flippers into the cybernetic gloves to tap [ANSWER] on the pad. “Are you alright?”

He did his best to mask what he had just done from his voice, He kept the panting and heaving breath tied into a fist near the base of his throat,  he hoped he sounded convincingly calm.

“Yes. I feel horrible that I didn't say sooner about my species. Are you angry?”

“Uhm…  I don’t think anger is a feeling I am feeling right now.  More like curiosity? What species are you?”

“I’m half Hollow. But all I got was the brittle, bird-like bones with the heavy weight of a human body. It’s why I have the chair. If I try to walk, my bones are not strong enough to carry it. And I have wings, but my spine is only strong enough to support half my body at a time. So I can sit upright in a chair or lay down… but standing and walking, or flying, or anything that the Hollow Races are known for, I don’t have any of that. I am too human. Too… grounded to be as elegant and airy, celestial and beautiful as the Hallowed Races.”

There was a silence as Ayler was still trying to recover from the dispersing he'd had.  

“Ayler, are you still there?”

He startled, “Yes, I’m still here. I… I have heard of Hollows, but I have never really met one or know much about them. So I wasn’t expecting that answer, but I’m curious to know more?”

“Really?”

“Yeah, and I do want to meet you. I can send you a ship. We can meet on Earth. We can hang out, have dinner, maybe do some exploring for a few days. If we hit it off, then great, we can…. See where that goes. But if we don’t get along, I will pay for your ride home and you never have to see me again.”

“I don’t know. I wouldn’t want to put you through all that trouble.”

“How about this? To help you feel safe, I can give you the contact information of the  pilot of the ship I would send you and you can talk directly to him, and he can make the accommodations needed for you to have an enjoyable and safe trip to Earth.”

“You really want to meet me then?”

“I do. Even if it's just for your company. We don’t have to do any mating. I’m a very lonely being, Nehalem. That is not to manipulate you into saying yes, mind you. It is just a dismal fact that having the company of another being would be a welcome change no matter what me and that other being are doing. I… it can be years from now even. I know we just started talking and I… know I reek of… desperation and loneliness. I hope it's not too off-putting?”

“I’m not put off. I… let me think about it at least?”

“Take all the time you need.”

“Thanks. I do need to head to bed, I have Physical Therapy treatments all day tomorrow and I am not looking forward to it. But it does help with my health.”

“Of course, talk to you later. Good night, Nehalem”

“Good night, Ayler.”

________________

The weeks that followed got busy really fast and they hardly had time to talk to each other for more than a few hellos and minor updates. And Ayler had been having very intense dreams about her. He worked with the dispatched scientists that were terraforming Earth to be more habitable for returning species, and also habitable for the aliens who'd found the abandoned planet full of fumes and trash and pain. So, ultimately, in a matter of years, decades, or centuries - it was unknown -  they’d have a whole new earth, full of interspecies peace and intergalactic purpose of exploration and harmony. Some of his work took him to explore elaborate caves and cavern networks. He found them so fascinating and beautiful that one of his dreams involved ‘mating’ or being intimately close to it with Nehalem in one of those caves...

The stirring scrape of his cybernetic hands, giving way to the more natural slurping caress of his flippers suctioning on her skin reverberated through her pores into the hollow of her bones. Sending whistle sensations of lust levitating her libido and making everything taut and taste like tension and teasing…

… Constricting… contracting… cacophonous… with the cah-clum applause of her cardio cavities… echoing into the greater cavern they were fondling each other in. The wet warmth of him folded and wrinkled against the delicate, dry, taut of her skin. To have someone else touch him made so much pleasure ripple out inside him like small micro-dispersing bursts of intense pleasure. It felt like the wave and movement of her hand was splitting the large gelatinous ocean of his body open to make way for the pilgrimage of her probing fingers, and then her tongue, and other parts of her body. She was delicately dancing where angels feared to tread, as the expression went. Lucky for him, she was only part-angel. And lucky for her, he was an alien that didn’t mind being the one getting probed….

Ayler woke up to a simple message from Nehalem the next morning as he woke up and tried to shake the intense dream form his mind.

It said: Contact your pilot friend, I’ve thought about it. I think it would be cool to see Earth. What better guide than a scientist like you to show me all the cool places before they become tourist hot spots and way too expensive. I work as a part-time temp secretary for the Workers Union. I can’t afford much. Things on Andromeda are necessity-only economy-wise. So I get my needs met, but luxury is not something that is a common thing. I’d have to have a good reason to make a trip like this. Beyond meeting someone I like. But I may be able to make a case for the necessity of social needs, it is just a lot of red tape, as the expression goes.

Ayler didn’t understand the ‘red tape’ expression, but he went to work on contacting the pilot friend of his, Termitus. He was one of the few Humans that remained. He was an engineer that helped make prosthetics for Myo-Colloids and other Hybrid races to function better with bipedal-type tools and technology. He was raised among the Myo-Colloids and the medical world owed a lot of their research on the species to his journals and lived experience. 

After several emails back and forth, Termitus arranged to pick up Nehalem on the next sweep through the Andromeda Star System. It was a GaleSpeed Ship, designed by a HollowHive Corporation. It held a lot of Hollow BioTech modifications, but it was relatively small, practically a puddle jumper of a space canoe. Once the cryowave pulsed in the speakers and autopilot engaged, it was smooth sailing to Earth. 

Ayler woke up to see the alert of her incoming arrival from Termitus. It was a few weeks to wait. But what was a few weeks for the hope of meeting a beauty like Nehalem? Even if it was only this one time. He would do everything he could to make sure her experience with him, whatever they decided to do, was a pleasant one. After all, how often does someone like him get a chance at something beautiful? He spent his whole life feeling like a beast, hoping for a chance at love, or even just a little attention and affection, and now this woman from another galaxy, who was practically part angel, was making a risky journey across the stars just for the sake of his company.

Maybe dreams do come true if you keep trying and don't give up hope. Perhaps that is why so many old human tales talked about love coming from wishing on a star. It made Ayler smile as he looked up at the sky for the first time in a long time, hoping that he’d see one fall so he’d know his angel had landed planetside to see him. He began to bioluminesce with joy again as if he had a little starlight of his own.  

True connection is neither beast nor burden, only beauty.