To Hell and Back (Hellworlder pirates)

Ch 64 Prophet of Fire

Prophet of Fire

The ship was surprisingly quiet today, and Alwen soon realized that was because most of the crew were off visiting home and family. Or getting into trouble in Noctis. Alwen had spent a couple hours wandering the ship trying to find Alice, but to no avail. She had been too distraught to do much on the day she returned with the Captain, and the hangover did not help. But now that it was the next day and she had a hit of nutrients from an IV bag, she was ready to start fixing whatever she had messed up. And that had to start with Alice.

She had to be there for the first Terran who had befriended her and stood up for her when she didn't take the mark. Alice had been there for her throughout her whole stay aboard the Astaroth, and she couldn't actually imagine how she had gotten through life before making such a good friend. She had other friends, Limey, the twins, Bachir, and the Bosun, but Alice was her first. And she felt like she owed it to her to be there for whatever she was going through, even if she had been the one to start it. Bros before hoes as Limey said.

But Alwen couldn't be there for Alice if she couldn't find her. Darn sneaky cats.

She eventually found Isabela and Gabriel working out in the ships gym and decided that they were her best shot at tracking down Alice.

"Bones, heard you had an adventure with the cap'n" Isabela shouted from across the room as soon as she saw Alwen.

"Yeah, we went to New-Mombasa"

"Oof, rough place, anyone give you trouble?" she asked as she did anther rep with her medicine ball.

"No, people took one look at us and turned the other way." Alwen said casually as she walked in.

"Shame, street fights are always a blast in that city. You've missed two days of training, go change and I'll spot you" Gabriel said as he finished his stretches.

Knowing that it wasn't a request Alwen went into the girls changing room and changed into a set of gym shorts Isabela had given her. A few minutes later she was out of the room and ready for whatever fresh hell awaited her. As she walked by one of the full-length mirrors she stopped to fully appreciate what she saw before her. No longer were her limbs thin and soft looking, now her arms were corded with muscles. Her shoulder muscles had grown enough to bump her up a shirt size or two, and she would never be able to fit into the tight leggings she had worn back on Torwen on her days off. She lifted up her shirt to marvel at her abdomen , while Torweni had six definitive 'packs' they were a little different to a how a Terrans looked.

"Really helps drive home how alien you are" Gabe remarked as he walked beside her.

"What do you mean?"

"Well before you just looked like a purple human with bone ridges on your cheeks, you could have just been someone in a costume and makeup. But now that we've put some actual muscle on you we can see a lot of the ways your different. They're not too different from ours, but just enough to give some a feeling of the uncanny valley." He explained.

Alwen rolled her shoulders "I still don't understand this 'uncanny valley'. Why would you have an instinct for recognizing something that looks really human, but isn't?"

"Don't ask me, at least you're a real living person, so the effect isn't that bad."

Alwen chose to ignore how he was saying she looked weird for looking like herself and continued to marvel at her image in the mirror. "Hard to think that's me looking back, almost looks like a whole different person."