The above image was made with stable diffusion using the prompt 'beings wearing woven masks.'
Xero moved into the ground floor of Harlen's place and immediately began combing the neighborhood for colorful bits of glass and plastic with which to make her sculptures. She wore a mask that hid her Jala features when she went out, but everyone in the neighborhood quickly figured out that Harlen was harboring an extraterrestrial. A few days after they returned from Rio, Silver stopped by, finding them eating a simple dinner in the storefront that Xero now occupied. This was a surprise to Harlen, who had thought that Silver was done with him.
"So this is Xero the Jala," said Silver, walking in without knocking.
"You must be Silver," said Xero.
"I brought a peace offering," said Silver. "A bong loaded with hash."
Xero chuckled, a rare occurrence. "My kind does have a weakness for that," she said.
Harlen was less pleased. "Hold on," he said. "You've been avoiding me since I got back and now you just show up like we're old friends? What exactly are you trying to do here?"
"Isn't it obvious?" asked Silver. "I'm trying to say I'm sorry. Your trip was obviously a success and I tried to talk you out of it. So I was wrong."
"Go on," said Harlen.
"I'm out of my depth with you, okay," said Silver. "I thought you were like me, an unfit too smart for that Qualification, but now I don't know. Like, how the hell do you have a Jala roommate all of the sudden? Are you two together?"
"Please, sit down," said Xero, finishing the last of her meal. "Harlen and I are associates. Maybe even friends. He helped me get out of Brazil, and now we work for the same company."
"Work?" said Silver, sitting down. "But you're unfit."
"I'm under special permit," said Harlen. "The company assumes all liability for my actions for the duration of my employment."
"And they're paying you?" asked Silver.
"I have a corporate account," explained Harlen. "The government will probably suspend my financial assistance while I'm employed."
"Holy shit!" said Silver. "Do you know how many unfit try to do what you're doing and never get anywhere? I've been trying to do my bike business for years and I'm still trading work to Rex for hash and stolen chickens."
"I'll buy a bike from you for cold hard bits," said Harlen. "Electric with quantum harvester recharge. Spider tires. Plus a matching trailer. Got anything like that laying around?"
"Nothing with a quantum harvester," said Silver. "You'd have to order that yourself. But you're talking five or six thousand bits all total. Can you seriously afford that?"
Harlen grinned. "They're giving me eight hundred a week," he said. "All I have to do is run errands and stuff."
"Run errands?" asked Silver. "Is that code for some freaky sex thing?"
"Secret errands," said Harlen. "I'm unfit so no one pays attention to what I do."
"That's pretty cool," said Silver.
A large cloud of spicy smoke surrounded Xero. "In Rio, Harlen effectively thwarted security drones with improvised gas grenades," she said. "He's a capable agent. Much better than my last one."
"Your ... last one?" asked Harlen.
"Josephine, in Rio," said Xero. "She was excellent company but had no apatite for risk. She refused to carry out my escape plan."
"You know what I want to know is about Jala sex stuff," said Silver. "You never hear about it. So what's the deal?"
"Would you like to see my anatomy?" asked Xero. "I don't mind."
"Seriously?" asked Silver. "Okay."
Xero stood, shrugging off her robe, letting it fall to the floor, then turning once around slowly.
"But you're just like a person," said Silver. "No gills or anything."
"I don't have gills," said Xero, pulling her robe back on. "I do have sex from time to time, though our two species cannot reproduce together. And you have nothing to fear from me as far as Harlen is concerned."
"We're broken up," said Silver.
"You came in without knocking so I assumed otherwise," said Xero.
"Yeah, you should probably start knocking," said Harlen.
"On my homeworld, every house has a chime that rings when a visitor arrives," said Xero.
"Doorbells were once common here," said Harlen. "So were telephone cables. Want to hear about payphones?"
"Maybe later," said Silver.
"Right," said Harlen, feeling foolish. "I got shot with a drone dart and haven't quite been myself since. While I was under the influence, I had a whole experience and can't stop thinking about it."
"You haven't said anything," said Xero.
"I know," said Harlen. "I'm not even sure how to talk about it. It was like I was transported to this other world. First I was immersed in water, then I went to this little hut and interacted with beings wearing woven masks."
"Trippy," said Silver.
"These beings, did they say anything to you?" asked Xero.
"No, but they showed me things," said Harlen.
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