Ziggy Stardust Nexus Album Release Party

[ziggyplayedguitar]

Why not in the Nexus had started all of this and now skekSa's bar had glitter and space themed drinks for the night, karaoke and a band playing for the release of a new album. Ziggy had decided this was the best course since so much of his family and friends couldn't go into his world to be there for his own party in his own world.

Of course, as with any good party this one was open to any who had stumbled into it and there were those directly invited as well. And flashy posters too. He was going through the ends of a sound check with the band when the bar opened.

There was a merch table, with the usual swag and new album to buy on CD and Vinyl, where they would be signing autographs and doing the whole meet and greet thing. Why not have fans in more than one universe? It had been a trip explaining this all to Mick. Weird and Gilly before dragging them through the portal. Ziggy still imagined there was going to be some crazy moments later in the night. They didn't even know he was an alien, or half alien anywway. All of this was going to blow their minds for sure.

After the show they had plans to spend the night just hanging out with drinking, karaoke, a DJ, and the usual bar fare. Ziggy had left Sa to the food and drink though he had put in a few requests for food his own species could eat.

Ziggy fussed with everything before heading backstage to drink and get dressed. About an hour after the bar opened they came out on stage and played through the whole album front to back plus a few from the previous.

[OOC: Feel free to mingle, karaoke, DJ, dancing, drinking, etc. Will post the band meet and greet below at the swag table as a top level. Any questions feel free to DM me here or on Discord.]

Comments

[hellomajortom]

Tom smiles and responds in Russian. "I don't think her mother would let me call her Thumbelina."

Tom laughs and nods. "From what I've seen so far she's going to be a handful like her sibling."

"I don't think Ziggy does either. The world needs those kinds of people sometimes." Tom sighs. "Especially when things are going wrong."

[ginger_firebird]

He laughs at the Russian and answers back in the language. It's nice talking in a language he doesn't have to think quite so hard in. "She doesn't appreciate the joke? No father can be expected to avoid making one at the expense of his children. It's a rite of passage."

Mantis claps his hands together. "Good! The more she fights back, the less you have to worry about her as she gets older."

"It makes you feel better watching people be themselves." He lifts his arms over his head to stretch in his seat. "I learned to embrace who and what I am because of Nyoka."

[hellomajortom]

Tom is comfortable speaking in Russian. His time as an astronaut, and especially now as a researcher, he often worked with other country's space agencies.

Tom takes a deep breath. "Not now, no. We've lost most of our children before they could survive outside. She's very nervous and worried. I'll be able to joke more later."

Tom nods in agreement. "It's a hard lesson to learn. I don't know much about you or your world."

It was an open invitation to talk more, and to ask questions if Mantis wanted. After all, this appeared to be a close friend of his future son in law.

[ginger_firebird]

Mantis grew up being made to speak it, so it's the language where he can cut loose a little more with and dip into some of the more flowery descriptions in life.

His shoulders slump a little learning that new information. "No wonder... She's a protective bear. That cub will never fully appreciate how much strength and fury will come down if anything ever threatened her." And it give him an idea of what to bring as a kind of welcome-to-the-world present for mother and child alike when that time comes, so he's going to use this knowledge for the greatest good.

"Mine is Earth, but I've learned quickly here that such a statement means absolutely nothing," He holds up one hand in a circle shape before putting it back down. "To a lot of people. Mine is full of worldwide government conspiracies and giant robotic war machines. I was actually a teenaged memeber of the KGB for the last seven or so years of the Cold War."

[hellomajortom]

"I've seen her get angry. It's the most terrifying things I've ever seen." Tom agreed with Mantis. Mama bear was definitely a force of nature.

Tom nods. "I've noticed that there are a variety of Earths. Ours is relatively average exceot that it is onbthe verge of environmental and political collapse."

[ginger_firebird]

"She loves you, you know. I'm sure you've heard it yourself, but she thinks the kindest words about you and has a lot of faith in your strength." A bit fairy-tale, really. "I've met a few women like that before I died. So many of them are terrors in their element. One before my time was even called Voyoveda because of her warlord tendencies."

"When is it not? The wars are endless where I come from. So much of the world needs conflicts to keep money flowing and then you have little ones like the sunflower who just want to make technology to make the world an actual better place. The one kind thing is that much more of the fighting is done with machines lately than people. In my day, you were face to face with your enemy."

[hellomajortom]

"I know." Tom nods. "Our minds have been bound together for years. There's no space for lies or separation. It was unnerving at first."

That description does get him laughing. "Her species is full of them. Though men and women are mostly equal, the social part of the society is run by females. Hiroki came to me because that's human tradition but I had to send him to my wife for interest in dating Ziggy."

Tom sighs heavily and looks down at the bubbles in the soda water. "It's not like that exactly. Thomas and Ziggy both have visions of the future. They know almost exact times on exact days that we'll hit the point of no return."

[ginger_firebird]

"I had someone like that. Still do, just on the other side of things. Not like a husband or a wife, but... He understood me. There were never questions of trust or motives." Mantis gets a little softer as he speaks.

"So that's it! I was wondering how gendered dynamics work in her society that she seemed to command so much control in the home. That's very common among older cultures. The women are keepers of money and magic and make the decisions that determine the future of their people. They don't give up that kind of power easily and goddesses have existed to reflect it."

Mantis leans in a bit closer to Tom and watches the man's drink as well. "Entropy is the natural state of all things. Balance is the ultimate craving of the universe, so it's inevitable that energy being spent will run out. People are afraid of that, though, and that's why they're so afraid of dying and losing what little they might gain. It's stupid. They hurt each other and act like fools trying to control the uncontrolable. MY friend, my Nyoka, he wanted to make the world his and meet pain with pain. I didn't believe in that the way he did, but he was the only person I knew I could trust, so I went with it."

[hellomajortom]

"I find it equally unnerving and comforting. The baby has started coming in now too."

Tom shook his head a little. "Not exactly. Their culture hasn't had money in centuries and visions are more common for males." Tom smiles at Mantis understanding. " The first and most important thing I've learned about her species is to abandon human concepts and history when I think about them. "

He took a drink from his soda. "I'm not sure their culture ever had a religion, but I know they have caused some of ours."

Tom shakes his head again. "I've seen a dead planet and the people who caused it to die. My view is completely different than humans who have only ever been buried in humanness."

He looks away from his drink. "Ziggy succeeds or my son will die, then my planet, and my species. It's like looking down the barrel of a gun you're pretty sure is loaded but there's no way to tell."

[ginger_firebird]

"Really? Oracles in the old stories tended to balance evenly on the gender divide, but you are right. Human concepts really only kind of compare to how they live. That might be why they kind of like me. I would fall into their idea of visions being for the men."

It's a lot to ponder and take in, but he's starting to properly wrap his head around how the Antheans work as a people.

"You're unique. A real Captain Kirk able to see a bigger picture than most humans could ever hope to accomplish. Maybe it'll be people like you that save my version of Earth from all the other humans living on it."

He tilts his head slightly more towards Tom. "Ziggy Stardust. I have a...slightly different perspective of that name and it's legacy than you do. He'll be remembered for all of ever if his legacy is going to have even half of the pull it has on my world."

[hellomajortom]

"The females have their own strengths. I've always seen it more as sexual dimorphism than a lack of balance.' Tom took a drink and nods. "I was immersed in their culture for almost two decades. My perspective on humanness and what it means to be a member of their species are different than anyone else here is going to have."

It was just a matter of time really and interest. The first two years he hadn't learned much about them aside from surface parts of their existence. Falling in love had seriously changed the game.

"I hope it's someone like me that saves my own Earth." Tom shakes his head. "I've run into multiple Earths on the verge of collapse. What that says isn't a pretty truth."

"I've got a new perspective on it myself recently." Tom admits. "If Thomas is right he'll either save our Earth from destruction or be the last martyr before everything implodes. I imagine he'll have a legacy either way."

[ginger_firebird]

"Twenty years... That ended up being two thirds of my living life. I don't think I missed a lot going to the other side in my early thirties, but it's a lot of time to become a new person, for good and for bad."

It's always love that makes people learn more about anything. Mantis can think of a few couples who blended entirely different worlds and lives back home. The strongest ones always started with the greatest differences.

"Keeping up a measure of hope isn't easy, but it's possible. When you give up on hope that something is going to go right, it's one less bit of force moving in the right direction. Then again, expecting the worse makes the victories a pleasant surprise."

"Thomas..." Mantis still remembers that man's face. He carries battle scars of all kinds. "I have to admit, as far as options go, going out like a bomb or ending up saving everything is a best-case scenario. It'll be a hell of a show no matter what happens."

[hellomajortom]

"I know what you mean. I was 26 when the Stardust failed and my wife found me." Tom sighs and shakes his head. "It was a mess. I lived 20 years but I came home to only two weeks passing."

"I don't always have it but my kid never loses hope." Tom can't believe how positive Ziggy stays sometimes even when things crash down around him he could bounce back. "Expecting the worst also leads to addiction and self destruction."

That was a bit of experience on Tom's end. When he realized what was happening when he came home it had almost killed him. The comments starts a smile to a laugh.

"Ziggy would have it no other way than to cause a hell of a show." That was something that they could count on.

[ginger_firebird]

"I think I've heard of that phenomena when it comes to traveling through space, but it's only explored in science fiction back home. Major Tom, you have lived a strange life."

Mantis nods as solemnly as he can at that one. "You burn out quickly living like that. I know I suffered losing that ability to feel hope, but there were big and small things that made life a little more worth while. I held on to a good fiend for most of my life, even when we never saw each other."

Mantis laughs a little louder, feeling proud of himself.

"I can start fires without kindling, I admire anyone who can go out with a bang, regardless of the circumstances. Ziggy is the kind of person you want to see succeed."

[hellomajortom]

"It's the reverse of traditional time dilation. Usually Earth sees more time than the traveler. I still haven't figured out why it manifested the other way around." Tom chuckles at the comment about his life. 'You have no idea."

"Depression can kill a man quicker than anything else." Tom knew that was an exaggeration but it certainly felt that way.

"I hope he does, for all of our sakes." Tom agrees and then frowns. "All these positive emotions, the darkness does the same. If he fails and survives it he could take the whole thing down with him."

[ginger_firebird]

"Given that it was part of you meeting actual aliens, I'm willing to give it a pass. I don't know much about space science and the- The interdimensional things, but I do know that a lot of the rules we think work usually don't the moment we find something new."

Mantis leans foward a bit, holding on to the back of his seat for protection. "Humans are not designed to handle isolation. I don't think any species really can after a certain level of intelligence."

"I haven't seen him feeling a negative one thus far. He seems to be genuinely happy in this place and from the way Hiroki talks, they're living a life of roses and bright, contrasting patterns. Hrioki even asked me to be his best man at the wedding."

[hellomajortom]

"I know a good deal on the subject. Near as I can tell it has to do with their propulsion being gravity based." Black holes and high gravity time dilation was beyond Tom.

"Isolation was only part of it. I think constantly lying and suppressing what I know was worse than the loneliness." Mantis was right though. Isolation wasn't healthy. The institution he was in left just as many scars as anything else.

"That is the impact of the species." Tom tells him between sips. This was something he was very acquainted with. "When they are up everyone around them is high and hopeful. The other side is just as far into the darkness. Anger though..." Tom pauses trailing off for a second. ".. when they are angry they can start wars with their minds and emotions. It is a hold over from their own wars centuries ago."

[ginger_firebird]

"I have no idea what that means, but it sounds like something you can write a paper on if you ever come to understand it better."

Tom will feel a couple of pats on his shoulder, as if from an invisible hand. Mantis is holding onto the seat for nothing short of dear life at this point. He definitely drank a little too much, too fast. "Everyone needs someone else. Even if it's someone you want to see die slowly, you need someone to help justify existing."

He laughs a little. "Tommy gave me a peek of that. I like him, but I don't think he likes anyone that could charitably be described as human. He likes cats, though. The most broken of men tend to find the greatest of solace in animals. Wolf, Sniper Wolf, she loved wolves and their kin more than her memory of Big Boss, and I know she idolized that bastard."

[hellomajortom]

"I can't. Technology that alien would have me back in interrogations." That was the disappointing part of it. Tom tried again with an explanation. "Gravity propels their ships, the same way air pressure works for lift, the variable gravity propels the ship. The problem is that changes in gravity extreme enough to propel a ship alter how time flows. It is a very complex subject. I don't grasp all of it either."

"No man is an island? Sometimes you want to hug the other person on your island and others drop bombs on them." Tom said with a bit of a chuckle. It was an apt description.

"I've talked to him about cats before. If you can get him to, it is intriguing." Tom had an interest in Tommy because he was the only male Anthean he knew who had insight into humans. His opinions and thoughts have value to Tom who was navigating the space between the two species. "He doesn't just like them. He thinks they are kin. Apparently, there are things in their behaviors and motivations that mirror Antheans. He says the mind of a cat is something that an Anthean can understand intuitively and the opposite is also true."