There&#39;s a Starman

"I'm definitely not wet yet." Ziggy downs the rest of the drink and sets the glass down somewhere convenient.

"I'm still not doing anything." Ziggy grins. "I could let you in on purpose. If you want to feel me."

He's flirting in the ways he might be able to get away with.

Tommy is watching curiously since he hasn't personally seen what happens when Ziggy is around humans. "Your sobriety isn't going to effect this situation."

Tommy observes the human and then turns to the bartender and orders a watermelon vodka martini. They were a drink that Tommy preferred when not drinking gin.

Edited Date: 2020-11-18 06:21 pm (UTC)

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Isamu narrowed his eyes slightly, “My sobriety will impact my ability to properly assess and analyze the situation...”

It felt wet enough for him. Those kind of flirtatious teases would get Ziggy nowhere, but apparently, he’d stumbled upon a kind that were much better received.

“How can you POSSIBLY not be doing anything?! The concert... and the... the NOW!” Minoru exclaimed, flabbergasted and excited all at the same time. “Wait wait wait... there’s MORE?? Seriously?!”

Oh boy.

“...On second thought, I concede.” Isamu sighed. He turned to the bartender as well. “Asahi Black, if you carry it, please. If not, perhaps you could make a suitable recommendation of something local on tap?”

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"You can assess all night. It doesn't mean Ziggy is going to listen to you." Tommy was assuming this kid had no idea who he was talking about. Ziggy listened to himself and might consider other people, if and only if he felt like it.

Ziggy meanwhile had wrapped his arms around Minoru, hands low on his back unless there was protest. He was certainly flirting but had no intention of forcing anything. "You haven't see anything yet."

Ziggy starts laughing. "If you want in my mind, it's going to cost you."

Tommy nods to the human giving up. "Does he know what he's starting?"

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Isamu had not yet had the privilege of studying one, Ziggy Stardust, in his native environment, no. Nor did Minoru have even the slightest idea what he was getting himself into.

"Cost me?" he laughed back. "Cost me what? I already bought a ticket. TWO tickets! A poster... oh yeah! And this shirt!"

Isamu, meanwhile, merely replied, "No. I assure you, he does not."

And to be honest, he wasn't sure what Minoru was getting into either. This Anthean empathy was a wild card he had never studied.

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"Yes." Ziggy pulled in a little closer. "A kiss. And not a quick little press but a good kiss. Then I'll share."

It's worth a try. The worst he could say was no and Ziggy would have to give up for now.

Tommy raises his brow curiously. "well, he has all of Ziggy's attention. I hope that was his intention."

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"He certainly does." Isamu received his drink and took a long sip. "Though I cannot imagine it going much farther than this."

Minoru was mostly out of his mind, but he had more than enough presence of mind to poke Ziggy in the forehead instead. "SILLY Ziggy!! Those lips of yours are for Hiroki, not me!"

As an alternate form of payment, he attempted to tickle him, though.

"... And I concede again." Isamu stammered.

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"The boy has infinite hope." Tommy tells Isamu as he drinks.

Ziggy giggles and shakes his head. "I'm poly and we're open."

However, Ziggy is extremely ticklish and instantly screams, high pitched Anthean voice paired with the amount of drinking.. it's ear piercingly loud.

"I am better acquainted with this particular madness." Tommy explains.

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Isamu now regretted removing the earplugs once the concert was over. (Can't be too careful with loud music and long-term hearing damage, after all.)

"Madness would be an apt way to describe it, agreed."

That wasn't the noise Minoru was expecting to come out of Ziggy - maybe in volume, but not in pitch. He stumbled back, startled and laughing hysterically.

"WOW, you are ticklish!" Though, this time it was Minoru's turn to smirk and wiggle his fingers playfully. He finally had a secret weapon against the familiar teasing. Maybe. "How much is THAT worth? Enough to show me more?"

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"It will only escalate." Tommy sat up on one of the bar stools and turned so he could watch the spectacle unfold. He wasn't as phased by the sound because Anthean children were just as vocal as human ones at certain stages.

"You try that again." Ziggy warns once he's recovered though the threat is empty and he is trying hard not to laugh. "You'll find out."

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Isamu took a seat beside him. There was not much he could do at this point. It would be more fruitful to observe rather than intervene.

“While I hold no illusions about my brother’s ability to be both an instigator and an accelerator... Escalate to what degree? And how exactly does this empathic ability work?”

As if to answer one of those questions, Minoru stumbled forward in a surprisingly graceful manner, bobbing and weaving playfully to take Ziggy by surprise. A little tickle here, if he could get close enough. A little tickle there if he was fast enough. A ton of laughter everywhere, because if nothing else, he was definitely high enough.

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Tommy stares at the human beside him for a moment, blank and without blinking. "Yours wants in Ziggy's mind, and he wants in his pants."

It was all he could think to say because how far was as extreme as possible for sure. The human could deduce their own ideas from that. "I'm not a scientist. My cousin is a biologist and could answer more of your questions than I can."

Newton didn't question his intelligence and he had the intellect but the culture was different. Even if he knew far more than a human about science, within his own culture he was more of a sociologist and historian. He viewed himself that way.

Ziggy waits because now he knows it is coming. Once tickled again he projects the emotional and physical sensations of the action directly into Minoru. Sure he laughs but not squealing this time. However, his human aggressor might not be prepared to feel it without being touched by anything.

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Isamu wasn’t certain how willing Ziggy would be to let someone in his mind, but he was incredibly certain about how unwilling Minoru would be to let someone in his pants. At least he thought he was. Watching the insanity play out in front of him left him rather confused.

“...I’m Isamu, by the way. Isamu Uchiwa.” He added, realizing that amidst the chaos, he had yet to introduce himself.

Meanwhile Minoru lunged at Ziggy, fingers dancing under his ribs - only to find himself clenching and doubling over at the same time! He stopped, if only to catch his breath, and then tried again, laughing even harder! “I’m tickling YOU! But you’re tickling ME!! Oh! Oh man!! This is CRAZY!!”

No matter how many small attempts he made, he couldn’t last very long before the squirming was hilariously unbearable.

This led Minoru to try sweeping Ziggy right off his feet instead, into his arms bridal style like he’d done before. (Albeit with a conscious Ziggy this time.)

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"Thomas Newton." Tommy was transfixed by the chaos happening and wondering where it was going to go. "This is going to escalate."

"Why are you laughing so much?" Ziggy teases.

Ziggy was laughing too hard to resist being picked up. It gets Minoru a kiss on the cheek as Ziggy wraps his arms around his neck. There's a spike of fear as he worries about falling and then a wave of happiness and desire. He can't help his feelings.

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“Pleased to make your acqai...”

Isamu ran out of words when he watched Minoru pick up the rock star and twirl around. For a moment, it looked like he might actually fall over, but somehow, Minoru recovered his balance and Ziggy stopped laughing long enough to plant another kiss on Minoru’s cheek.

“Hey!” Minoru pouted, but still laughing. “No fair!”

The feeling of happiness was overwhelming enough that it was soon forgotten in favor of just hugging Ziggy’s body close to his chest.

“This is... oh WOW... don’t make me let go.”

Isamu blinked, “Going to escalate? Perhaps you like to consider a different verb tense?”

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Ziggy held on and buried his face in Minoru's hair by the ear. He didn't care about bright streaks rubbing off from the hair dye. "Can I put my feet down. You're making me sick spinning."

Sure enough there was a distinct nausea rising up in his emotions. Even half human Ziggy didn't do well with the g-forces of a spin. All the booze probably wasn't helping.

Tommy glances at the human. "No the tense is perpetually correct. It is going to continue escalating."

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Despite what he’d just said, Minoru quickly added, “okay, for that I’ll put you down. Sorry! My bad!”

He didn’t feel the nausea as strongly as some of the other emotions, but it was still there. And while Minoru had experienced Ziggy throwing up all over him, he wasn’t exactly keen on repeating it.

“You okay now?” He held onto him carefully. Granted, now his head was spinning a little as well.

“That didn’t appear to sit well with your nephew. But until that point...” Isamu took a long sip of beer. “You know, you observe very much like a scientist, at least by human standards. What is your profession, if you don’t mind me asking?”

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Ziggy clung to him both for stability and closeness. "G-forces make us sick."

Ziggy tells him but as the spinning in his head halt his smile returns. Ziggy kisses him right between the eyes on the bridge of his nose. "No spinning."

Tommy doesn't look at Isamu while drinking and talking. His eyes are watching the other two. "The gravity is uncomfortably high for us here."

Tommy's brow went up and he shrugs. "I was a poet and I've studied human evolution and cultural development... until they forced me to join the ... Military is the closest human concept."

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“Intriguing. Dare I say, perhaps even flattering that our species was considered worthy of study on another planet. Especially from a cultural, and not simply a biological lens. Though, I am sorry to hear you were conscripted against your will. I cannot imagine that would be a pleasant experience.”

Minoru meanwhile agreed to no more spinning. But no matter how many times he pouted and rubbed his face, Ziggy’s lips kept finding their spot.

He leaned into Ziggy once the shred feeling of nausea fell away. “All better now? All happy again?”

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"I wouldn't be so quick to be flattered." Tommy's words are flat and dark. "We were studying to see if lower animals could maintain a society. It wasn't a positive finding, and still doesn't look good."

Tommy might accept Tom and may have cared for Mary Lou at one time but his general opinions of humans are not positive ones. He picks up the gin and drinks a little faster. "I have a strong mind, most in my family do. Tom was right to bring his child here or they would have put him through the training and let him loose on humanity."

Despite the nature of the few here, most Antheans might be dangerous to humans if not for the forced pacifism in their genetics.

The pouting face might be encouraging the playfulness and leading to more kissing. Ziggy eagerly held him close. "I was never unhappy, just sick."

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Isamu took a drink too, dryly, but respectfully, commenting. “Well doesn’t that put the existence of your own civilization into perspective. I would suspect we might be primitive compared to a civilization capable of interstellar flight, but are we bad enough to require... it sounds like military intervention?”

This was taking a dark turn. Minoru kept saying that Antheans were pacifists. That violence hurt in a physical way. So, just what did he mean by training? What would they have made Ziggy do? What did they want Newton to do?

Desensitization was only going to get Ziggy so far. Get too carried away, and Minoru might start insisting, “no spins, no kisses.”

But for now, Minoru just looked up and smiled. He loudly proclaimed, “I know what would make you feel better! A massage!”

Isamu heard that and just about choked on his beer.

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"You are a self-important species." Tommy responds with disinterest. "The training was to kill the other species on our planet that was telepathic. My study of your kind has always been seen as a waste of time and mental power, even when your planet might have been able to assist with our survival. I was sent because a historian and poet is disposable and I could withstand months without food and water." Tommy sighs with disgust. "Don't assume my presence means you are important."

That comment from Minoru even made Ziggy pause and stare for a moment. "Here?"

Ziggy is still holding on to him but glances around. "I would love one. Is there anywhere to lay down?" Let's face it Ziggy is now completely focused on the idea of being touched.

Tommy glances at Isamu out of the corner of his eye. "He's openning Pandora's Box and has no idea."

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“That would be an apt description of humanity, agreed.” Isamu noted. “If we are not important, we are, at the very least, interesting...”

And speaking of interesting...

Minoru was laughing happily. Ziggy's excitement was blending with his own, and it was wonderful. Even before enrolling in the PTA program, he’d been learning some of the techniques for therapeutic massage. Now, he could actually show off what he’d learned!

“Not HERE here. Lying down on the bar can’t be comfortable! I don’t know, this is my first time here. Does this place have a good spot backstage?”

“...are you speaking poetically, as in what happens cannot be taken back, or is the danger significant enough that we should intervene before a point of no return?”

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"You're self destructive torturers and unfortunately, as unwilling as we were to listen to the voice of reason and peace. You'd rather kill it." The Anthean sighs but his eyes are on Ziggy with something approaching an emotion to them; sadness, disappointment, worry. It is hard to say. Ziggy was only a child to an Anthean. To see him treated so cruelly on their own Earth was its own kind of torture for a man who lost his children. "That is why my people have moved on to look for somewhere other than Earth. They don't want to experience another planet collapse."

"There isn't a backstage." Ziggy says with disappoint. "Dad's car is out front. It's an old boat with huge seats." The offer was actually an innocent one at this point. He smiles at Minoru and shrugs. "We could both get away from the noise for awhile."

Tommy is listening carefully and watching body language. "Both, maybe. Ziggy is very touch oriented. He's never going to be able to step back from letting him do this much." Tommy considers the second idea. "I'm not entirely sure they are seeing this from the same perspective. Even with all the interest I can feel. I don't think Ziggy would do anything the other seriously didn't want."

He might try. Tommy knows he might because the child pushed every boundary and broke some, but a friend would be saved the boundary breaking at least.

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Isamu was thankful he didn’t take a drink right then, because as flirtatious as Ziggy’s offer sounded, Minoru’s response was completely unexpected.

“We’ve BEEN the backseat of your dad’s car before!” Minoru rolled his eyes, laughing. Not that Ziggy was conscious or coherent most of that time. “There was enough space to hold you in my lap, but not enough to move around you super easy for a massage.”

He could make it work, though, limb by limb. But working on the back would probably be hard. (And don’t even think about happy endings, Stardust.)

“...Do you trust your nephew, even in this clearly inebriated state, not to hurt my brother?” It wasn’t accusatory, but it was pointed. As fascinating as his species’ many failures and the unique plight of this alien were, that question had to be answered, and Newton knew Ziggy far better than Isamu did. He wanted reassurance that Minoru was safe.

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