(Socks PoV)

I groaned as I opened my eyes. My head was still pounding with a vengeance, but at least my ankle hurt a little bit less.

I slowly sat up, looking at my surroundings. I was in some sort of medical room with white walls. A window behind me looked out on an interesting landscape, with rolling hills of some beige material that turned to taller green trees with vines, much like the ones I saw earlier but bigger. What looked like a half-built village was below.

I looked back at the room I was in. I noticed Meme was in here as well, looking at a screen on the wall that had a bunch of statistics or something on it.

"Meme...?" I mumbled. His head perked up a little bit, and he turned around.

Meme sighed. "Oh, thank goodness, you're not dead."

"I sure do feel like it," I replied with a small chuckle, rubbing my eyes as I said it. "Where are we?"

"This is MedBay. Little clinic I'm running," Meme replied simply.

I looked at him, confused.

"A clinic? You know, like a small hospital?" Meme queried, trying to help my apparent confusion.

"Oh. Right, yeah," I said.

"Are... you not from around here?"

I chuckled. "Guess you could say that."

"Where are you from, then?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you. From the ten minutes of experience I have with your species, I can already tell you guys are difficult to convince."

"Our species?" Now it was Meme's turn to be overly confused. "Are you not... human?"

I shrugged. "Currently, I'm human, but usually not."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I'd explain, but I'm more comfortable with the latter."

I heard the front door open, and I turned to see Meme's friend from earlier, Blaza, peeking in. He still had the eye-covering on, blocking his eyes still from my view.

He looked at me with a somewhat friendly, yet nervous smile. "I see you're awake."

"More or less," I replied with a shrug. I stood up from the bed, wincing as I accidentally put weight on my injured ankle, and turned to Meme. "I appreciate your hospitality, but I have to get going. Probably best if I at least find my ship before dark. If there's anything left of it."

"Woah, ship?" Blaza stated, confused, "Like a spaceship? Or like a boat ship?"

"Why would he come here in a boat and end up in the middle of the woods? There's no major bodies of water in the area!" Meme pointed out.

Blaza shrugged. "Hey, it's possible that someone's made a flying boat."

"That's just an airplane. "

"Oh, whatever."

"Please stop arguing, my head still hurts," I said calmly while growling slightly.

I cleared my throat. "Anyway, I'm not going to explain anything. I wasn't supposed to have prolonged contact with anyone I met, and I've been with you guys for probably too long. So I'm sorry, but goodbye."

I was on my way to the door when the headache came back again. I seethed as I fell to my knees, clutching the sides of my head with my hands.

Meme ran over to me, and put his hand on my shoulder. "Just... at least stay here until whatever injuries you have heal. You're in no shape to travel."

With a glance at Blaza, he added, "No matter what mode of transportation that is."

I hate to say it, but he's right.

I sighed. "Fine. But only until then. After that, I leave."

"Alright," Meme nodded, satisfied.

———

A day or two passed before Meme allowed me to go outside (or even really leave the bed) due to my injuries. They couldn't have been that bad, they mended quite quickly. And I heal very quickly, so that says something.

Blaza and Meme both kept me company during those days. Mostly Blaza, though. He was very curious about me, always asking me questions about who I was and where I was from. I'm still not entirely comfortable with revealing... well, almost all of that information, so I found ways around it and asked him about himself and this planet, Earth. He didn't question my quick changes of subject (at least out loud or to my face), and just went along and answered my queries.

Despite my orders to not get attached to anyone I meet, I like Blaza. He's very optimistic.

After a bit Meme walked in on an ongoing conversation I was having with him, a friendly debate actually related to Meme about why he was keeping me in here. He barely acknowledged what he heard about himself, and asked to check my ankle.

"Have you tried walking?" Meme asked me after feeling around the formerly swelled area of my ankle.

I shrugged. "You told me not to."

"That's fair," Meme chuckled, "Well, I give you permission to try."

Eager, I placed my feet on the floor and easily stood. I felt no pain in my ankle or otherwise.

Meme raised his eyebrows, slightly surprised. "That healed incredibly quickly."

Under his breath he added, "Maybe I overestimated the damage..."

Blaza smiled, and patted my shoulder. "Good to see you walking."

"You're still taller than me, though," I joked, elbowing him slightly.

Blaza laughed. "Yes. And it should stay that way, unfortunately for you."

Little did he know my real form was maybe four inches taller than him. And there was no chance I could keep my identity incognito forever.

Meme beckoned for us to follow him out. "Come on, guys. Blaza, let's take Socks to meet the others."

Blaza nodded, walking away from me while telling me to come on (even though I heard Meme just fine). I obliged, following the two humans out the door.

Heat hit my face as I exited MedBay. My feet sank into the material of the ground below me, seemingly tiny, ground-up beige rocks. A slight breeze brushed past me, blowing some of the light material along. I saw a group waiting at the bottom of the hill. Meme and Blaza led me down a flight of steps that encircled the hill until we were standing in front of them.

It was a fairly modicum group of humans, only about six of them standing there. There was a girl with long hair dyed pastel variations of rainbow colors. It was half tied up in a white hairtie. Next to her was a man that wore a red hoodie and had eyes a bit like Meme's outfit did, only they were taller, the scleras slightly tinted yellow. Messy black hair slightly hid curious green eyes. Standing next to him was a humanoid with a feral-like appearance. Green scales replaced skin, and a long reptilian tail curled at his feet. Despite his casual appearance, something about him made him look intimidating even to me. Then there were two kids, one with a suit and top hat and the other with messy brown hair and a blue t-shirt. The brown-haired one was standing close to a man in a white lab coat. Strangely, he had some kind of yellow mask on his face, green eyes peeking through the clear eyeholes.

Strange bunch. But who am I to judge? I wear rainbow socks without shoes everywhere I go.

"Socks, these are our friends," Meme explained to me, motioning to the group. "The girl is Ally, the dinosaur furry with the hoodie is Dino, British gas man over there is Laff, the child simp is Nadwe, the other kid is Muffin, and Mr Krabs over there is Tbh."

Both Nadwe (the one I assumed was Nadwe, I'm not exactly sure what Meme means by "simp") and Dino gave Meme some variation of an annoyed gesture when he introduced them the way he did. I assumed they most likely didn't introduce themselves that way. The others, however, gave me friendly waves (or laughed at Nadwe and Dino's annoyance).

Although Tbh gave me a mistrustful side glance. I tried to appear friendly to him, but made a mental note to keep an eye on him.

"From what he's told Blaza and I," Meme continued, "He's from space."

"Great introduction you got there," I muttered under my breath, crossing my arms. I cleared my throat, speaking up. "What he's trying to say is... well, yes, I'm from space, but I crash landed here and I'm now stranded on this planet with no way back home. So. Hello."

After my explanation, I noticed Muffin glancing from me to Laff, who tilted his head in intrigue as I spoke, with uncertainty.

"You're from space, you say?" Laff asked, seemingly curious. His voice had a kind of accent to it. Familiar, in a way. I don't know where I've heard it before. "What planet, may I ask?"

"Oh, you guys surely haven't heard of it, it's far from this system," I pointed out.

"I don't mind," Laff shrugged, "I'm just curious. You know, whole planet we may have not even discovered yet. We're bound to ask questions."

I thought for a moment before responding. I'm stuck here and these humans don't seem to be much of a threat. What could I lose? "Xero."

"System?"

"Chronic."

"Interesting," Laff remarked, seeming to observe me for a moment.

The moment was broken when Meme spoke up, clearing his throat as he turned to Blaza. "Hey, Blaza, care to show him around? We're gonna go take care of some things for a bit."

"Alright," Blaza shrugged. He grinned at me. "Come on, it'll be fun."

I gave Laff another glance before turning back to smile at Blaza, following him away from the group.

—-

Eyyy rewrite

1620 words