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

[iamjustvisiting]

She's confused for a moment, blinking quickly. "I thought he had more than one mate?"

Maybe she had read the humans and the hybrid wrong? It was a possibility. Etainia didn't have much experience with humans and could have been mistaken.

"The grief of an Anthean can go on for a substantial amount of time." She agrees and looks away. She still grieved for her children but now, at least, she could grieve with their father. She tried to turn away from her own emotions to focus on the human's experience.

"You were present in the moment with him. When he grieved you had no fear and wanted to feel with him." It wasn't exactly what she had meant earlier but it was a concept that would be helpful for the human in the long run. "Your hearts and spirits were there together. You didn't reject what he was feeling."

[itmeanstruth]

“He does. Well... I don’t know? I mean, there’s different types of love and aren’t mates, well, bound and connected completely? Um... in every way? He and I, I mean... that’s never going to be us. Not like that...”

He blushed softly. Even the potion could not prevent that.

Minoru cared deeply about Ziggy. Etainia could surely feel that. He would be his rock in the maelstrom, his light at the end of a tunnel, his partner in crime and his welcoming embrace. But Minoru being who he was, well...

“There’s... um... always going to be a point where I reject what he’s feeling.”

He paused for a moment, looking at the bottle that was still in his hand. He was speaking more to it now, and to himself, than to her.

“There’s always going to be a point where I reject what he’s feeling and this potion... it isn’t changing that. It can’t change that. Nothing’s ever going to change that, and Ziggy’s okay with that... so what am I afraid of?”

[iamjustvisiting]

"Yes, there are as many types of love as there are living things." Antheans understood that interactions between individuals were all personal and varied. To Etainia it was part of the beauty of the world. "Antheans bond to their mates."

She was in agreement and then that blush. She stared at Minoru and then covered her mouth in surprise. A truly human looking gesture after all the expressionless discussion. "oh... You think mates means you are mating? I do not know the human word for mates that are bonded."

A wave of excited agreement comes off the woman beside him. "I think that is what makes for a good mate. We are all different and there will be something we reject about the other. When we accept that as part of existing in the space and heart with another then there can be the kind of love needed to endure a long life."

[itmeanstruth]

Had Minoru not been so lost in thought, he might have noticed the very human expression coming from the most alien of Antheans he’d met so far. Or a grasping for the word ‘marriage.’ Probably for the best that he missed that one too, potion or no potion.

“But if we focus on the things we do accept, there’s no need to try to change what we reject. We find the place we fit in their heart and snuggle in... it’s safe there...”

[iamjustvisiting]

"Yes." She pauses for a moment and looks around like she's looking for someone. She is, Thomas, though she doesn't immediately see him and her eyes come back to Minoru. "Provided the willingness to accept is not dangerous."

[itmeanstruth]

“If loving Ziggy is dangerous, I guess I accept the danger.” He replied softly after a few moments of quiet thought.

He always did have a sideways view on judging risk.

The effects of the potion had reached their height and were just starting to fade. Minoru’s foot twitched absent-mindedly, the first honest need he’d had for movement in the last couple of hours.

[iamjustvisiting]

"I did not mean Ziggy, necessarily." Etainia looks down and sadness wells up in her presence.

"Thomas...." She starts and then stops and lingers in quiet for awhile. "The human Thomas accepted into his life beat him because he accepted her as she was."

She can feel the energy coming into the human and wonders if it is because he shares the quality with Ziggy, where sitting in stillness too long was not possible.

[itmeanstruth]

Minoru was quiet for a moment. “I didn’t know that... I’m sorry that happened.”

Not all humans were like that, but that seemed like such a selfish statement in context with the sadness Etainia was projecting. He’d heard bits and pieces from Ziggy too, about some of the trauma he’d endured at the hands of fans and former bandmates alike.

Truth be told, Minoru had been afraid of hurting him too. The potion was meant to fix that as well. And yet, with it, he just calmly accepted a far more important truth.

“I may not always say or do the right thing, but I’ll always do everything I can to heal, not hurt. And that’s for everyone. Not just Ziggy.”

That was true to his very core.

[iamjustvisiting]

"I thought Earth would be kind to him." She finally says a bit exasperated or disappointed, it is hard to tell with the lack of facial expressions.

Her mood lightens though when he speaks more. "Those traits will bring the hybrid stability. He will need it if he's going to succeed in the tasks ahead of him still."

She knew Ziggy would exist before now because Thomas had seen it though he didn't know how it would happen. He knew someone would come.

[itmeanstruth]

Earth was terribly unkind to Newton, which went without saying. Earth wasn't always very kind to Ziggy either. Neither were the Antheans, honestly. It made Minoru's heart hurt to think about the scattered bits of Ziggy's past that the Anthean had shared with him.

Still, he survived. And maybe, with the people who loved him by his side, he could do more than that. He could thrive. And stop an extinction event from happening.

"He's going to save the world, isn't he." Minoru looked back to the stage with a flicker of hope.

[iamjustvisiting]

"More than the world." She follows his gaze to the stage letting the child's emotions sink in. "Thomas saw that he would come before he left Anthea. He will save your planet, both of our people, hope, peace, love. If he fails it will doom us all."

She spoke with the flat, emotionless certainty that Antheans had when something was seen. Though she knew, like Newton, Ziggy might fail due to humans. "They told me your people have already tried to kill him."

[itmeanstruth]

There was a certainty to her voice, a sense of gravity that both sat on Minoru's shoulders and passed right through him all at the same time.

"I know he was attacked, at least a couple of times. He... hasn't spoke about it much." Minoru didn't dwell on that very often, so honestly, he didn't ask. But the past came back, sometimes. "But it's left scars. Some you can see, and others you can't..."

He turned back to Etainia. "What can we do to help him?"

[iamjustvisiting]

"It will continue to happen. Your people have always attacked ours. The attacks starting before anyone is sure of our nature as not human."

She was speaking of the past experiences but then sighs. "The same would have happened to the human if a different group of Antheans had found him adrift."

She was talking about Tom of course. She knew his story, many Antheans did now. "I'm unsure. Perhaps nothing can change the path because his failure is already here."

She knew what Newton had seen in the people here and frowned. "Hopelessness is not the way of a hybrid. He will keep going until he is successful or that choice is taken from him."

Etainia hasn't looked at Minoru again. Her eyes glazed over as if she's dreaming or looking far into the distance.

[itmeanstruth]

Were it not for the potion still working its magic, he probably would have been on his feet in the middle of that explanation. He knew Antheans could see visions the past and the future, things and places where other Antheans had been. He knew those visions were why Ziggy had come to earth in the first place, why he played, recorded and toured.

“What do you mean his failure is already here?” He asked, hints of worry breaking through the calm. “The future can always be changed by what we do in the present. By the choices we make or don’t make. I believe in that like I believe in Ziggy.”

He made no comment on hopelessness and hybrids - though he had certainly seen Ziggy in the throes of it. What he was seeing now, though, was an Anthean staring into something that may or may not be there...

“What are you seeing?” He asked cautiously.

[iamjustvisiting]

She suddenly stiffened when she realized she may have said too much.

"I can't see the way choices change things like Thomas. I don't want to alter things too much because I could be the cause of the failure as much as preventing it with my words." She back pedaled a little on her openness. "It is enough for you to know that the signs are here. Sign enough that one without seeing into the future can notice."

Her point was that the human could notice it too if he paid attention and was astute enough. When staring it takes a few breaths for her attention to come back to the human beside her. "I am not seeing. I am hearing. Thomas, but also all the people and the shifts in the Nexus. The sounds are distracting but worth listening to."

[itmeanstruth]

It was the first point that Minoru missed so far.

“The signs are clear? I don’t know what you mean. What signs?” Minoru asked. He was still outwardly calm, but other emotions were starting to show through. He tapped both feet on the ground.

Perhaps it was time to go find Isamu, wherever he’d gotten to. He was astute enough to already know. He was collaborating with Dr Malcolm on a study on extinction events, though Minoru didn’t know much about it (or the seven or eight other projects Isamu had in flight at any one time).

[iamjustvisiting]

"Yes, they are. You must learn to see more than you do." She was becoming exceedingly cryptic due to the worry that perhaps she may have said something she shouldn't.

Etainia's tension slowly became palatable in her presence even if Thomas was mentally reassuring her that it would be alright.

[itmeanstruth]

Minoru could feel her clamming up, and in return he felt a bit guilty. He was worried about what Ziggy was facing, wanted to help but didn’t know how. And having never even been to Ziggy’s world, and lacking Isamu’s references, he didn’t know what signs to even look for. But asking would only make Etainia feel worse.

(He’d see Ziggy’s earth multiple times within the coming months, as he joined the band on various stops in their tours. But at the moment, he had no idea.)

“I... I should go...” he stood, bowing politely.

[iamjustvisiting]

She felt his desire to leave and understood. She should speak with Thomas as well to ensure she hadn't said too much.

"Until we meet again." She watched him carefully but there's some sadness there.