So I came up with this a couple days ago and the idea wouldn't leave so I'm rolling with it! To be honest, I didn't set in any time in particular, but I suppose it's obvious I'm ignoring *ahem* certain events for the sake of this story. I hope it turned out alright. Enjoy!

Alright.

That was the house.

It had to be, right? There was no other house quite like it.

... Okay, that wasn't necessarily true. It looked normal enough, plain color scheme and regular dimensions, but... that didn't mean it was normal. A building was more defined by what it held than what it appeared to be. In this case, the contents defined the building itself as strange, alienating it from the rest of the neighborhood.

Well, that was something she'd had plenty of experience with. Though it wasn't as if her features were regular or her color scheme very plain.

Eh, it didn't matter.

The girl knew she was just stalling again.

Her darted between one side of the street and the other, searching frantically for any oncoming vehicles. There were none, nor would there be at this time of day. It was mid-afternoon on a fucking Wednesday, for God's sake. Everyone was either working or learning. Nobody was going to come speeding through a residential area.

Still, she made a frantic dash across the street.

She stopped on the sidewalk.

Should she... how should she go about this? Go up and greet them? Explain who she was? Or just ask to speak to this scientist guy directly?

That might seem rude.

The girl tapped her foot against the pavement, trying to think. She pulled the ratty old notebook from her pocket and clutched it to her chest. Would having it out seem more official? It might make her look a tad like a journalist. Historically, that didn't usually work out to her advantage. But somehow having it there provided an extraordinary sense of comfort. It was a shield of paper and ink to protect her from unwanted conversations, and sometimes assist in starting ones she did want.

Hopefully it would do the latter.

Okay. Come on. You look like a damn creep just standing in front of a strangers house. Well, in this case she was the stranger. She was as alien to them as they were to her. At least it was a mutual thing.

...She was stalling again.

Taking a deep breath, the woman slowly made her way towards the front door.

There was a knock at the door. Almost on instinct at this point, Morty's entire form tensed up. Being jumpy, once a simple product of anxiety, had become almost necessary at this point. At any moment, anything and everything could happen. With Rick, it probably would happen. It was just the norm.

After several moments, the boy relaxed a little. Nobody had kicked in the door, or screamed demanding for his grandfather, or shot a hole through the door...

Well, nothing habitually insane happened.

Morty sighed. Satisfied that it was safe to move, he stood up and made his way over towards the door. He stopped in front of it, waiting to see if they'd knock again, maybe even speak up. Though it seemed clear that nothing urgent was happening, that intense hesitance still lingered. It was irrational to wait, but part of him just... wanted to. If they really needed something, they'd knock again.

Nothing.

More nothing.

...Even more nothing.

Morty looked at the time display on his phone.

Knock.

There we go. Morty moved forward and pulled the door open.

Before him was a woman. The sight of her wasn't mind-boggling, she wasn't some alien or inter-dimensional being beyond the comprehension of man, but there was something inherently odd about her.

She seemed too lanky, her limbs incredibly thin and somehow too long for her. She practically swam in the jacket and sweatpants she wore. Over her breast was a notebook, a small thing worn with age and use. There were flecks of gold where lettering used to be. Above all this was a rather interesting set of facial features.

Her lips were spread out in a very wide smile, painfully wide. The smile of someone trying to hide their anxiety. Above this was a pair of mismatched eyes. One was a startling blue, the other a rich green. This combined with their strangely large size made them look almost inhuman. And to top it all off, she sported a mess of short, red hair that seemed to go in every which direction. She looked like a mad scientist.

"H-hi." She said.

"...Hi." Morty replied.

"Uhm... I... so I just...I just moved here a few weeks ago and I'm... "

She placed a hand over her face. This woman seemed to struggling with what to say.

Her face scrunched up. She sighed, putting her hand out.

"I'm... Iva."

"Nice to meet you, Iva, I'm Morty. M-Morty Smith."

"I've..." She paused. "It's nice to meet you, Morty."

He took her hand and shook it. It was bony, a bit cold, but certainly not the weirdest thing he'd touched.

"So what brings you here? You just introducing yourself to your new neighbors?"

Her eyes darted away. For a moment, she was quiet.

"Uh... not exactly."

"O-oh?"

Morty felt his shoulders tense back up.

"You see.. well..." Iva tapped her fingers against her notebook. "I-I... I'm... this might sound a little unrelated, but I write novels. Um, sci-fi. I heard that there was someone here who... was a scientist."

His shoulders tensed up more.

"Oh?"

"...Yeah. I was... I was hoping to maybe meet him. Get a little inspiration, you know?"

Morty didn't know what to do with that. Rick was a pretty secretive guy, and really abrasive to boot. He had no idea what his grandfather would make of this random woman asking him questions about his work.

It was obvious Iva could see the discomfort on Morty's face, because the next word out of her mouth was:

"Sorry."

Morty snapped out of his train of thought and looked back up at her.

"Huh?"

"I'm... I'm really sorry. This was weird. I'm being really invasive. I-I don't even know you... I-I'm sorry."

Without a single misstep, Iva turned around and began speed-walking in the opposite direction. Morty couldn't even get word in before she was across the street and heading out of ear-shot. All he could do without chasing after her was watch as she disappeared behind the street corner.

Part of him expected her to come back, but most of him knew she wasn't going to. After staring at nothing for a while, Morty closed the door and locked it.

Morty shook his head. The whole encounter was downright weird. Not batshit insane, but not exactly normal either. Just... a little off.

Even so, Morty felt Rick should know about it. People asking about him were usually never good news. He began walking towards the garage, wondering what explanation he'd have for this.

A/N: So here's chapter one! I don't know if this came out good or not, but I figured I'd give it a chance. Anyway, tell me what you think and I hope you all enjoyed. Thank you for reading!