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“And this human glamour isn’t rubbing the fact that you can hide in plain sight in our faces?”

I feared that a fight was about the break out after Ekan’s outcry, not really understanding what was happening.

Ozmo looked the same to me as they did when they’d come in to be one of the ORBIT candidates.

But if they did have a more natural form, I sure as hell didn’t care that they hadn’t shown it.

That was their prerogative and frankly no one else’s business.

Ozmo shrugged. “I just feel more comfortable in this form.”

“Some of us can’t change the way we look, olatsma.” This came from the person to my right, the last person at the table that had yet to introduce themselves to the group. “You have no idea how offensive it might be to some of us that you’re hiding behind your human mask.”

A rebuttal bubbled up through Ozmo’s throat, and judging by their pinched eyebrows, it was going to be something vile, so I intervened.

“Let’s not take out any aggressions on one another, okay?

If this is what Ozmo is comfortable portraying to us until they feel more comfortable, then we’re not going to badger them about it.

If they never feel comfortable shedding their skin, that’s fine too.

” I gave them a nod and a smile, hoping it eased a little bit of the anxiety that I knew must be hitting them over being the sudden center of attention.

Ozmo just nodded and folded their arms, tilting their head so their hair covered their eyes.

“Let’s continue, please.” I ushered with gusto.

“I am Wrage.” The person next to Ozmo bellowed, quick to change the subject. “I am of the petrylle species and I am very excited to be a part of the change ORBIT stands for.”

Wrage smiled and when he did, he showed off the fact that he had retractable incisors and canines. His skin was solid grey and appeared to be like smooth rock more than it resembled skin. Two tiny horns protruded just above his eyebrows as well, looking sharp but manageable.

I had to contain the rushing attraction that came barreling through my body when I looked at him.

Something about the carved out of rock looking muscles made my dick pulse.

Which was confusing because 1. I’d never found Orbs hot before, 2.

I was at the tail end of a very messy divorce and same-sex attraction was the last thing I needed on my plate and 3.

I was at fucking work and didn’t need every Orb species to know I had a boner.

God forbid they had some type of ability to smell my lust or something. I needed to somehow find that out.

“Thank you, Wrage.” I smiled, ignoring the waves of allure that seemed to come off him like cologne. “That means a lot.”

“My turn!”

A feminine voice drowned out the deeper ones that Wrage and I took turns giving. She was an ant compared to Wrage, already having a more petite frame in contrast to his muscled and stacked stature. She perked up in her seat, and all three of her pink eyes blinked in unison.

She had a third eye right above the space between her eyebrows on her forehead, a complete matching one to the pair that hung lower on her face.

Except this eye was tilted to the side unlike the other two, and it was lidded in a way that skin on both sides of the third eye met in the middle when she blinked.

“I’m Cresh and I’m a zoudd. Very happy to be here!” Cresh looked human other than the third eye and the color of her skin. It was a shade of slightly too pink, a darker hue of hot pink that while intense, seemed to belong amongst her other features. She always looked rosy and flushed.

The Orb that had been late, the pretty virces with the blonde ponytail, cleared her throat before speaking.

It sounded sort of like she was talking around water in her mouth while her skin was covered in blue and green scales of a multitude of hues.

The base of her skin was green, but her lips were solid blue, almost like she was wearing a bold lipstick.

“Hi, I’m Fanna. I’m a virces.” She glanced over in my direction. “Sorry again about being late.”

“No worries.” I shook my head, locking eyes with the final Orb that needed introducing.

She’d been the one that had critiqued Ozmo for looking human instead of being in their natural state. And I could see why she’d made the comment she had. There was no way that she could pass for a human. By far, she was the most inhuman looking out of all of them.

Her skin was void black, so black that one could get lost if they looked too long.

It was the color of unshakeable darkness and it was striking as much as it was beautiful.

The black hole effect that her skin held paired well with the white bone covering that made up her face.

It reminded me of Cubone, a Pokémon from the video game, card game, and anime series, but that’s because I was a Pokémon nerd through and through.

But where Cubone looked like they wore a bone mask, she just had bone where the skin on her face should have been.

You could see bone instead of the black skin down a section of her arms and a bit of her upper torso before her clothing covered up the rest. She had no visible ears.

I assumed there was some type of holes on either side, but you couldn’t tell because of how dark and vantablack her skin was.

She had no hair either, unlike all the other Orbs.

And her eyes were solid black except for the iris of her eyes, which both happened to be pink.

She was like a mannequin covered in bones come to life.

I actually thought she was the coolest looking out of all of them.

“I’m an ausserknoch,” She stated, her tone aloof and slightly prickly. “You can call me Zxe.”

“Excellent,” I tried to portray a happy and calm exterior, even though nerves over the rough way introductions had gone was eating away at my earlier excitement and replacing it with venomous doubt.

“Let’s go over a few things before we open up the floor to issues specific to ones your respective species are facing. ”

I held together a woven braid of hope that the rest of the meeting would be less antagonistic and filled with more bright future ribbons than the icebreaker would suggest.