There's a Starman...

[iamjustvisiting]

Tommy stepped through the door into the Plaza. For some, it might be a shock to have a door lead somewhere unexpected or that it has never lead to before. He was far passed caring about so many things, or perhaps, it is the years of imprisonment that made any outside space welcome even when he had no idea where this was.
He watched the video of the man to inform him about the location with a frown. He seems arrogant to the alien. The information is welcome though and Tommy quickly looks over the brochures. They remind him of Holiday brochures for a trip. Was that what people thought ending up randomly on a planet was? A vacation?

It was hard to tear his eyes away from the paper to gaze at the people moving around. It was a pleasant spring day, on the warmer side, but Tommy still wore a suit and overcoat. Everything was always too cold for him given the planet he came from. His gaze turns up to the two suns and he frowns. They were messing with his vision which was well beyond the spectrum humans, or even their equipment could see.

The pamphlet is tossed on the table with a sigh. "What do you do when everything you wanted is gone?"

He wasn't talking to anyone, himself maybe. He's been wrestling with this question for nearly half a century. His whole purpose for leaving home, coming to Earth.. none of it mattered anymore. 

Comments

[sharpcompassion]

Spun glass is the first thing her mind conjures up, which is an exaggeration of course, but the smoothness and fine bones are striking. The otherworldliness, by contrast, makes her feel just a bit homesick. She gets a strong mental image of the Bifrost arced across the night sky on Asgard.

She blushes faintly, needing a moment to shake off the impressions, but her attitude toward him doesn't shift from soft concern. "I'm sure that can be arranged easily enough," she promises, and stands, picking up her bookbag. "Would you rather be away from people, at the edge of the plaza maybe?"

[iamjustvisiting]

He stands slowly as if he's old, though he isn't. The ache is there in his joints from gravity and sitting. "It doesn't matter."

He smiles faintly while waiting for her to lead the way. "Thank you."

Maybe here there will be a tiny bit of hope to find.

[sharpcompassion]

"Well," she says thoughtfully, "there is a place at the edge of the park that some of my people stayed in when we first arrived here. It's simple, but the staff are very kind."

She beckons him after her, picking her way through the grass until she reaches a slate path, then following it through a grove of well-manicured trees. It's anybody's guess how the grounds around the Nexus are maintained. Certainly she's never seen anyone trimming the trees or picking weeds, but it always looks like a park and not a wild place. They pass a pond full of carp as well, and she has to pause to watch them for just a few seconds--they're colorful, and a novelty to her--before turning up a walkway to a small hotel. It's three stories, the architecture designed to mimic an old world village, with dark beams and pale stucco under a tile roof.

"They serve breakfast and lunch in the dining room here, as well," she says. "If you're hungry at all. I might actually buy one of their coffee cakes to take home anyway."

[iamjustvisiting]

Tommy follows slowly and is easily distracted once they get into the area with the trees, but it is the pond that totally derails his mind. He's abandoned Fonn to go to the bank and stare at the water. Water was so precious and so abundant. He'd seen the ocean once but even small bodies of water like this pond hypnotized him. It was a combination of incredible sorrow and awestruck with the beauty of something he had never seen before arriving on Earth. On Anthea, it was rare to even see a full drop of water.

After a moment, he bends down touching the surface of the water. It was a divine experience for the alien to see so much water and he touched it with great reverence. Too distracted by the colors and the coolness on his skin, he's yet to remember he was with anyone, or that she might be waiting for him somewhere.