Let's Dance!

[ziggyplayedguitar]

[Continued from here]

The celebration was supposed to be short, sweet and just a greeting. However, with Ziggy and his friends and the family friends all being incredibly social things continued on. He and Mick and pulled out the equipment from the spare room. It was turning into a party by the time it was late afternoon.

As it attracted more people Tom ordered food to be delivered from the plaza, because they would need it, though the Anthean food was still there for the more adventurous. Jack also started a small bonfire in the portable fire pit in yard as it was getting toward evening and would cool to something colder than most humans might find comfortable. It would be good for there to be a place to warm up if the dancing or whatever else went on wasn't enough. Tommy had also finally come from where ever he had spent his time earlier in the day with his wife who, unlike Aletayria, hadn't adopted any human features at all. They were both simply observing from the edges since Etainia had not seen other species, and very few humans. This was a startling situation.

Cords run out front, Mick and Ziggy both with guitars, they were ready to jam with Soundwave. It was sure to attract other people since they were more or less starting a concert on the front lawn of the tiny house not too distant from the edge of the plaza.


[OOC: This is open to anyone who is at the celebration or wishes to amble by. Party style thread... feel free to tag about and mingle.]

Comments

[itmeanstruth]

Okay, so the weird snake hallucination was a trickster named Loki. That was a relief. Minoru swore he was losing his mind for a second there. Which felt extremely weird because he also felt entirely too calm about it.

He felt too calm about everything, really.

Which meant that potion he’d gotten from Hermione was doing exactly what he wanted it to do.

Anyone looking for Minoru would find him sitting leisurely out in the grass, just pleasantly watching the jam session as it unfolded. From Ziggy to Mick to Soundwave and then some... It was... nice?

It was probably a good thing this effect would only last a few hours. Because this kind of calm would take a LOT of getting used to.

[iamjustvisiting]

Tommy had to deal with something and it left the tall woman to her own devices. She was wary and nervous, something that was rare for an Anthean who usually felt calm. Unlike Aletayria and Tommy who had human features, she had none and it made her feel even more othered around the people here.

A couple humans come toward her and she starts walking backwards away from them. Only she bumps into something in the grass, her long legs colliding awkwardly. She squeaks out a strained string of Anthean words when she turns to look at the human on the ground. Humanity is new to her and she doesn't default to English like her husband, she doesn't even know all the English words yet, more like an introductory conversational fluency.

[itmeanstruth]

Minoru was as surprised as she was, and stood up quickly. “Oh! Sorry!”

The potion hadn’t slowed his reaction time at all - but that part of Minoru was always relaxed. Any telepathic or empathic communication, though, he’d see how that fared now that he realized who had bumped into him.

He didn’t know exactly who, but he recognized the eyes. They matched Aletayria’s. And the words she spoke, he couldn’t understand them, but he knew they were Anthean. It sounded like what he’d heard from Ziggy and his family before.

“...You’re... Anthean?” He blinked a couple of times. “Aletayria’s family?”

[iamjustvisiting]

She is not loud like Ziggy but she's incredibly nervous in this situation. That may come across the empathy rather clearly.

Her eyes are almost lemon colored and not quite as pale but the rest of her features do have the elfin and elongated appearance.

She pauses when he speaks, blinking but not showing any other expression. "Yes."

Now that they are talking she is projecting her feelings. For her there is no familiarity with the human standards. The only one she has encountered is Tom and he is open to the mental sides of communication. The first thing that comes across is the distinct feeling she is still in the learning phases of English and struggling to bring together words.

"Thomas' wife." She looks very closely at him. She's feeling out his connections, touching around the edges of his presence. The name comes in Anthean but it has human sounds to it despite the higher register. "Etainia."

[itmeanstruth]

Minoru blinked. Newton's wife. He could feel her mind brushing against his, the way Ziggy and even Aletayria have done before, but it felt different. It felt weird.

"Minoru." he nodded, pointing at himself. "Ziggy's... friend? boyfriend? One of them?"

As soon as that slipped out, Minoru realized that it wasn't her that felt weird. It was him. It was the way he was processing everything around him... detached. Almost like... well, it was like Isamu, really. Which was incredibly weird! But he was strangely okay with it. (Or not, but he was okay with not being okay with it too, if that was even possible.)

"I'm sorry. I feel weird. I took something so I could watch the show and not get intoxicated."

He was even starting to sound like Isamu too.

[iamjustvisiting]

"Love?" She asks while feeling the quiet and calm emotions. The quiet is normal to her, like Newton who she loves.

A long moment of quiet passes between them as she thinks about what Minoru has told her. Antheans don't have a concept of intoxicated chemically but emotionally they do.

"You are new to Anthean company?" Etainia had spoken to Aletayria at length about Tom while preparing to reunite with a changed Thomas who was more human.

[itmeanstruth]

In another couple of hours, he’d feel completely different to Etania. And to himself again. But in the meantime, he answered that question far more easily than he ever had before.

“Yeah. Love.” He replied with a soft smile.

He bought the potion months ago, but hadn’t tried it until just now, in part because he was worried about what would happen to those feelings. Ziggy had said his presence could be addicting. Take that away, he worried, were there true feelings underneath? Yes. He knew that now, without a doubt.

“I’m new enough that Ziggy’s voice is really really overwhelming when he performs. It’s getting easier when I’m just with him, just him and me. But on stage, with the crowd, what he takes in and reflects back, I’m a mess.” He admitted. “I feel... too much.”

[iamjustvisiting]

"His heart is big." She tells Minoru. "His heart is made to heal."

She knew a lot about the prophecies that her husband had seen about the boy. She comes to sit beside him on the ground. Though he is human and she is uncertain his place in an interaction like Tom makes her more trusting.

"Antheans don't sing with their voice but..." She struggles from a moment with her words, something not in her expression but mood. "...our spirits. My Thomas is a person who writes artistic stories." She was looking for the word poet but didn't have the English for it. "His voice is the same. Emotion is communication and you feel more because your heart wants his spirit to speak to you. You are connected."

[itmeanstruth]

“His heart is big.” Minoru agreed with a gentle smile. It was, all things considered, his favorite part of Ziggy. He didn’t know Newton was a writer. He’d have to ask to read something some time.

Minoru paused that line of thinking abruptly - this potion really did make him think more like Isamu...

“Usually, it’s a wonderful thing to hear him in here, or for you, in here, I guess.” Minoru tapped his chest, and then further back where an Anthean heart was. “But when I went to his concert... his love, the love of the crowd, Ziggy’s like a mirror and magnifying glass all in one. I was... wasted. Drunk? Drugged?”

He tried to find a word for it that made sense to her.

“I was really really out of it. I said things I didn’t mean. I hurt people I cared about. I hurt Ziggy... and I was sick all night long and into the next morning. I want to listen to him when he plays his concerts. I want to be there. But I’m... scared that will happen again...”

It was why he bought the potion to take the edge off, he explained, showing her the bottle. It was why he probably felt strange to her - something he apologized for again.

[iamjustvisiting]

"You are both still children." Etainia didn't know that Minoru was a human adult. To her he looked Ziggy's age which was a teenager, not yet an adult.

"Our emotions are like the sun. When it first rises for you to see then you look away and it burns. The light is too much, but with time you can look at the light and see it's brilliance instead of fearing its brightness."

She looks at the bottle, peering intently at it because it looks strange. The energy radiating off of it is unusual.

"You are human. Your expectations of normal are alien or we are alien and the expectations will never meet our reality." As someone deeply spiritual she wasn't sure how she felt about blocking out another person's presence. Something about it felt inherent wrong but she wouldn't judge a human for choosing silence.

[itmeanstruth]

Even without the cultural error, Minoru wouldn’t have questioned it. To an Anthean, all humans were young by comparison.

He honestly wasn’t too sure what to make of dampening the presence via magic potion either. He’d apologized for it twice now, even though he wasn’t being criticized. He was calm, albeit mildly embarrassed.

“What do you do until then?” He asked softly.

He tried to explain that while he usually found the Anthean presence warm and inviting, a concert felt more like being an ant under a magnifying glass on a sunny day. It’s hard to appreciate its brilliance when you’re on fire.

[iamjustvisiting]

"We go to watch the sun everyday."

She listened to his explanation of the experience with the concerts. "I am not familiar with humans but working on mental and emotional speech could help."

[itmeanstruth]

Minoru could relate to that. The more he was around Ziggy, the easier that would become. They’d communicated on a deeper, Anthean level a couple of times - but only briefly, before it became too overwhelming for the human who was like a sponge to that kind of thing. If only...

“You mean learn to give it back, and not just take it in?”

Was it possible to give an ant a mirror, so to speak? If Minoru could feel Anthean empathy so deeply, could he also project it back, the way Ziggy did? Probably not, but maybe there was a human equivalent?

[guitar_voodoo]

Catching a break while Soundwave and Ziggy took a short break between songs, Mick slung his guitar over his shoulder and came to talk to Minoru. The young bloke who he had met on arrival to the Nexus. Ziggy's parkour buddy who had tried a go on his guitar back on the Plaza. Scooting up to him the blond offered a wave.

"Hey, Minoru! Good to see you, mate. Enjoying the music? I can't believe Ziggy's giant alien robot buddy. He's massive--it's just mind-blowing. Did you find that when you got here?"

Because for a man out of time, Mick Ronno was still walking around wide-eyed at a lot of things. He sipped some of his soda and glanced around at the other guests. Aliens and humans alike. It was pretty surreal.

[itmeanstruth]

Minoru was still sitting on the grass. The potion had already hit its peak and was starting to taper off - something Minoru was judging based on the way his foot was moving aimlessly. It was the first movement for the sake of movement he’d done since it took effect. (Heck, he even skateboarded back here in the most direct and efficient way possible.)

It was an observation Isamu would have made, and that still felt completely weird to him.

“Hey!” He called out, still feeling the detached chill. “I’ve seen a few giant robot buddies, but that’s the first one I’ve seen him duet with. Sounded nice!”

He motioned Mick to come join him.

“Can I ask you something? How do you do it? Stand up there on that stage next to him while he performs and not go absolutely crazy?”

[guitar_voodoo]

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Its just---crazy and amazing all at the same time. This place is like some strange fantasy world but it's all real."

The guitarist came down to sit next to Minoru, offering him a friendly smile as he sipped on his soda. The young lad seemed to have something on his mind though. Then, the question came causing him to think a bit before answering. It was a good question and one Mick had often wondered himself.

"Well, to be honest I'm guessing it's some form of immunity since I'm with him a lot. On tour, backstage and being around him as a bandmate. The thing is--I've seen the crowd go crazy around him, as in really crazy. Once, we got banned from this hall because some fans went off their heads, ripping out the seats from the venue. It was bloody crazy. Just Zig--he sent them crazy."

Was it the Anthean empathy driving them crazy along with seeing their hero and the atmosphere? Mick had done some pretty crazy things on stage with Ziggy too.

"During the "Time" performance I got a bit crazy and sort of jumped on Zig after looking at him for a few moments. It was like some sort of strange energy connected with me as I jumped on his back and played guitar over his head. He went down in a ball and sort of yelled and sang at the same time. Bit hard to explain."

No, Mick. You're not that immune and you know it.

"Then, there was the time that he got down and licked my guitar. Pretty crazy stuff."

[itmeanstruth]

Tom had mentioned desensitization. Isamu had mentioned tolerance. The latter made Ziggy sound more like a drug, but that was kind of true.

“So, it does happen to the band...”

At the concert, Minoru was a mess - effectively high as a kite. And afterwards, he’d picked the Anthean up and carried him out to his dad’s car, which then turned into a much bigger mess than anyone wanted. They both hurt each other that night. He couldn’t let that happen again. He couldn’t do that to Ziggy.

But while the potion worked for watching Ziggy perform, talking to people while under its influence (even its waning influence) made him want to never, ever be on it while interacting with Ziggy... despite feeling strangely okay with it.

“Or at least you. But you care about him the same way I do. And then some additional ways...”

That observation came out far too easily.

[guitar_voodoo]

"Oh yeah, it does happen to us. Mostly between me and Zig because we perform closest on stage. Sometimes, Weird, the bassist, comes in and plays loud near us. It gets pretty intense."

As for everyone being affected by the weird alien empathy? Mick didn't even know Ziggy was an Anthean until he got told on the train that time. It blew his mind alright. Turning back to Minoru, the blond offered a polite smile and touched the other man's shoulder. He could tell the young man was close to Ziggy and that did warm his heart that his bandmate had such good friends within this new world.

"He's a really nice bloke and I--well, I love him. He's my world. I've known him for nearly three years now and I've never been able to tell him how I feel all that time. Not until recently anyway. Social stigmas and all that back on my world."

Yeah, those were tough.

"He told me you saved his life when he nearly died. That takes bravery and courage and you're a decent bloke, Minoru."

[itmeanstruth]

Minoru smiled softly. It wasn’t hard to be chill about that. “You know what the best thing about Ziggy is? He’s got enough love for all of us. And here’s always more to go around.”

He’d grown up in a world with a lot less social stigma regarding sexuality, and here in the Nexus, pretty much everything was fair game. There was even room for an alien hybrid and an asexual human to find some way to connect and care for each other.

“Nobody had seen him in weeks. I was worried about him. Jumped the fence and found him in bad shape...” He thought back to the overdose, or rather, drug binge of repeated overdoses. Tom minimized the danger, said his son was sturdier than that. But only when Mick framed it this way did Minoru think the former military man might have just been keeping everyone, including himself, calm. “Tom and Aletayria did the hard work. I just... he really said I saved his life?”

[guitar_voodoo]

Mick nodded. Minoru's words rang true because Ziggy was a loving kind of person who just took people under his wing because he cared. The guitarist knew that it must be hard being under constant pressure all the time from fans but Ziggy still found the energy to choose those close to him and care for them.

"Weeks? Bloody hell....I can't imagine it. I don't want to imagine it. Poor Zig on his own in that low place. But, yeah. He did say you saved his life."

The blond only wished he'd been there during this hard time in Ziggy's life. Instead, he was wrestling his own feelings for the singer, trying to figure out how to express himself, yet failing everytime. Ziggy could have died and he wasn't there. Yet, Minoru was.

"Thank you for---being there when I couldn't be, mate."

[itmeanstruth]

“Everyone just assumed he was working on material for the new album. Because I guess that’s what artists do when they get upset.” He sighed. He didn’t add that at least a few of the nurses had gossiped about Ziggy’s pain making a better album. But comments like that were what spurred him to pay Ziggy a visit.

“He was used to having to hide from everyone. I’m glad he doesn’t have to do that anymore.” Minoru glanced back at Mick just as grateful that he’d be there when Minoru couldn’t. “Not here, not even on tour.”

Yes, there was more than enough love for them both to share it.

[guitar_voodoo]

"I know how that goes. Ziggy used to have terrible moods swings off stage when he was writing or practicing. That usually boiled down to the Anthean side. The empathy coming off him. He--couldn't act on it and it was tearing him apart. I didn't even bloody know until I found out he wasn't human."

That part hurt the most. The fact that Mick performed with Ziggy, ate and drank and had no idea that he was hurting inside. The empathy he showed towards Mick--it was being deflected back and he didn't know how to deal with it. How could anyone deal with that?

"At least we don't have to pretend in this Nexus. Holding hands back home would get us abuse hurled at us or the media snapping it up and calling us horrid names. Two blokes aren't supposed to be together. Even if Ziggy does look like a girl."

The media were cutthroats back on Mick's world.

[itmeanstruth]

Minoru put an arm around Mick, pulling him in for a friendly hug.

“I’m sorry people from your world treat you like that.” Minoru sighed a little. “Where I come from, they say it used to be that way. In some places, it probably still is, but all the places Isamu and I have lived, you’d never know it.”

Granted, Minoru was also pretty oblivious when it came to sexual advances. But it was also pretty rare that he encountered blatant intolerance or discrimination. He was lucky, even privileged, to be born in a place and time like that. The Nexus wasn’t a refuge. Just another place to feel at home.

[guitar_voodoo]

Leaning into the hug, Mick patted Minoru's back and tried not to inhale his rather large and impressive hairdo. The spikes were something else and he really needed to ask how the lad got his hair in such an awesome style. Nodding, he knew that some places were more accepting than others; the Nexus being one of those, even though Mick had no idea what year it was here.

"It's ok, mate. We're used to dodging the media if we can, especially out on tour. If anyone says anything to start shit, I'll deck them in. Tom would too."

Space dad and his temper? Yeah, the media wouldn't stand a bloody chance. Mick could tell that Minoru was a kind young man and this pleased him that Ziggy could have such friends as him.

[itmeanstruth]

If it’s any consolation, that hair is rather fluffy - achieved with a comb and a quick burst of hairspray - not hardened with gel. No one is going to get impaled.

“Everybody talks. Doesn’t mean we have to listen to the bad stuff.” He laughed softly. “And if things get really rough, there’s always Isamu. They way he talks, they wouldn’t get a word in edgewise.”