Tyrael Songer brushed a lock of long silvery white-blond hair out of
his tanned face, frowning. The bright yellow and black school bus bounced
uncomfortably on the pocked road. His parents skipped incessantly causing
him much irritation. He wondered idly why his parents had thought he'd
like this small, trashed town out in the middle of nowhere after Cities.
There was nothing here and everyone was so old fashioned and different. He
hated it. It was so. medieval. Hadn't these people ever heard of hover
buses?
The bus stopped in front of Heart School. He was one of the first people to get off the bus. He didn't like sitting in the back as much as he'd used to. Arguments and childish bickering about how he was a "queer" outsider got old incredibly fast. Small children at their bounciest best were easier to stomach than teenagers with ancient attitude problems. He'd laughed in the face of the first person who'd asked him what his "major malfunction" was. He hadn't even heard the phrase before but it sounded like someone would've said it a long time ago. It certainly wasn't current.
He walked down the halls slowly, avoiding people as much as possible. They avoided him in turn. It was partially his fault he didn't have any friends here and he knew it. He hadn't enjoyed being shipped out of Cities and he'd taken it out on the backwater idiots who lived here. Of course, they'd gotten defensive and everything had gone downhill from there. For the most part they left him alone but that didn't mean he wasn't bother every now and then. And it didn't mean it didn't get lonely. It always got lonely.
He opened his locker carefully, suspicious of anything. The idiots had thought it would be pretty funny to try installing pranks in the lock- less lockers. Their mistake was using a mild one at first. Tear had grown up in Cities. There you either learned from your mistakes or you died of them. The thrill had been one of the best parts about living there. He missed it horribly.
He shoved in his backpack and pulled out his physics laptop and, after thinking about it for a moment, opened the slot for floppy discs. His player, in condensed form, fit perfectly and the earphones were small enough to shove into his pocket. He slammed his locker shut and trudged off to class. After all, one couldn't thrust hicks not to steal the thing. They certainly couldn't afford it.
-~*~-*-~*~-
The cool breeze felt good in the hot air. Tear lifted his head, allowing it to ruffle his long hair. A small, wistful smile spread across his face. He'd decided after very little deliberation to walk home today. It was a long walk but it was the perfect sort of fall weather that kept you from caring. Besides, it wasn't like anyone was waiting for him at home. His parents were in Osaka on business. Like always.
Haunting oldies music floated from his earphones and wrapped around his brain, caressing it and soothing his nerves. Back in Cities, he and his friends had been avid collectors of dying twenty-first century music. They hadn't really cared what language it was in. It was all good. Tear himself often preferred it in other languages. He liked the sort of mystical, unknown feel. Sure, he could always get a translator chip installed, but then the music wouldn't be the same anymore. Gekkou Yoko, a song sung by a voice actor for a character named Lumiale from a show or video game he couldn't even remember anymore was currently playing. The song was nice, haunting, and sounded sad.
He paused suddenly, hearing a loud screeching off to his left. At least, he presumed it was loud. He'd heard it over his earphones on full blast. Something pulled at him and his feet were moving without him thinking, moving him in the direction of the bright red-orange-yellow woods.
After much bumbling around (he really wasn't familiar with the whole forest thing; Cities didn't have that) he finally found the source. Caution stopped him in his tracks.
A long, slender black tube lay in front of him, cradled between two moss-covered logs. The screeching seemed to have something to do with the glowing red symbols that seemed vaguely familiar but unidentifiable on what he assumed was the top. He took a hesitant step forward, gaze pinned on the tube. He wanted to touch it, to see if the metal was actually as cold as it looked, but what was the old saying? Curiosity killed the cat? His mind seemed to make itself up for him. Thank god he wasn't a cat. The moment he touched the tube, he knew he'd done something wrong. There was a hiss and both flashing symbols and screeching disappeared. HE jumped back and looked around for a possible escape route.
Some weird sound drew his attention back to the tube, a cross between a clank and a hiss, and he watched, apprehension steadily heightening, as a crack appeared in the unrelenting black. Soft, cold smoke billowed out and drifted to the ground, spreading and settling, leaving the earth moist and dewy. Then the top slid to the side, seeming to disappear into the rest, and revealed whatever it held inside.
He stepped forward, unable to help himself. Curiosity seemed to rule over self preservation in this matter. Inside was a young man, older than Tear but not my much, with long pitch black hair that shone white instead of blue, pale skin, and wearing some strange black outfit that looked like a cross between a harem girl's and a soldier's. He took another step forward which brought him almost knee to metal with the tube. "Hello?" he whispered, pulling his headphones down and staring at what he presumed to be an alien. Unless it was an escaped government experiment but he sincerely doubted that. Government was more cautious and whereas their dress sense wasn't great. It wasn't that strange.
There was no reply from the alien. Not even the slightest flicker of movement that showed it might've heard. He kneeled down next to the tube. "Any minute now you're going to jump out of there with super fast reflexes and kill me," he said a bit louder as he peered in with awe. The alien was certainly a piece of art. Perfect. Even the tattoo, barely visible under the gauzy material of his sleeve, of a dragon looked as if it belonged there.
He frowned and reached down to lightly touch the alien's cheek. It's eyelids flickered and Tear's hand was instantly against his own chest but they didn't open. The skin was soft, silky smooth. He wanted to lean forward and brush his lips over it but he wouldn't. There were some places that he drew the line when it came to aliens. Not that he'd ever met one before. He was making it up as he went. He wanted to wake it up though.
He leaned over the tube, hoping maybe there were some of those spiffy little symbols on the other side that he might touch and something might happen. No such luck. His gaze flickered back to the alien's face and the frown darkened. Impulsively, he poked it in the stomach. If it killed him, at least he could claim in the afterlife that he'd honest to god poked an alien. It didn't move. He considered leaving it but the urge to see it awake was too strong.
He stood up and looked around. Maybe if he hit it with a stick. No, it probably didn't react well to violence. He did it anyway. It sat up almost immediately and scared Tear half to death. He dropped the stick immediately. He really hadn't expected it to move. He had counted a bit too much on the fact that it hadn't reacted to anything yet.
The eyelids flickered open, eyes immediately locked on Tear's and he felt himself being swept into deep pools of obsidian black with swirls of red, blue, green, and purple in a way that reminded him of the Aurora Borealis. They were mesmerizing, drawing one further and further in, drawing Tear step by step closer, no matter how much he tried to fight it. Then it looked away and the spell was broken.
It stood up, somewhat stiffly, wincing. "Where am I?" it whispered. It was now officially a he. He had a nice voice, like black velvet, beautiful and smooth, caressing. The kind of voice that made you feel special just hearing it.
"New America," Tear muttered, backpedaling. Aliens were all nice and all but being that close and succumbing that easily to a thrall was not good.
The man looked at him again and his eyes narrowed with suspicion. "Who are you?"
Tear shrugged, not looking at him. He firmly focused his gaze on one of the logs by his feet as if there was something extremely interesting about them. There wasn't really. They were just logs. "Tyrael. Most call me Tear though."
"Tear? Szasla. A salty water that flows from one's eyes when they are sad?"
Tear blinked at the scientific attitude and stored the word szasla away in his memory for future reference. "Um. Yes."
"Are you sad?"
Tear shrugged again. "Isn't everyone at some point in time in life? Who are you?"
"Adryane."
"Adrian?"
"No," he sounded impatient and annoyed with the mistake. "Adryane. Aid-rayne."
"Fine. Adryane. Are you an alien?"
"Alien?" he rolled the word on his tongue and looked thoughtful. "No. Sierian."
Tear blinked. "Ah.?"
"From Sieri."
"And that is where?"
"Nolilya."
"I've never heard of it."
"It is not on your earth."
"An alien then." Tear nodded in satisfaction. Adryane seemed confused and a bit angry but didn't say anything. Smart him. "Are you going to take over the world?"
"Should I?"
"I don't know. It seems that what's the government's promoting aliens will do these days. I think they're feeling a bit insecure about their power."
"I'm not going to take over the world."
"Blow it up?"
"A waste of time and energy."
That sounded like an insult but Tear let it pass. After all, it was an alien. Had to give some lenience, no? "Destroy mankind?"
"No."
"The earth would be better off."
"I'm sorry for the earth then. I'm not wasting my time doing that either."
"Use us for experiments?"
"What for?"
"Tear shrugged. "That's what humans thought aliens were doing with us a long time ago and the craze kind of hasn't died down."
"You're too weak to use for experiments."
Blunt. Probably honest but damn insulting. Tear wanted to hit him for it. "So what are you here for?"
"Observation."
"Of what?"
"Humans."
"Wouldn't that be a waste of your time as well?"
Adryane stared at him, face absolutely blank.
"Fine, fine, I'll deal. Why?"
"I can't tell you."
"Classified? Whatever. The less I know the less the government can pry out of me. Not that the actual possession of knowledge really matters to the sadistic freaks upstairs."
"You are disapproving of your government?"
"We don't see eye to eye, no."
"But they provide for you."
"Maybe others. Not me."
"You are royalty?"
Tear blinked. "You're in New America. There's no such thing as royalty. Hasn't been for nearly four hundred years now."
"No royalty?" Adryane sounded confused.
"No. You've got money, you've got advantage. You own major corporations, you've got major advantage. You own leading corporations, you are leading. As soon as my old man kicks the bucket, I'm leading."
"You are powerful then?"
Tear blinked. "Do I look powerful?"
"No."
"Good."
"You are?"
"I refuse to comment. Where are you staying during your. observations?"
Adryane thought about it for a moment. "Where are we?"
"Uh. Heart in Illinois."
"I would like to be where it's most populated."
"Do you want to stay in the country?"
"Excuse me?"
"Do you want to stay in New America."
"Preferably."
"Cities."
"Yes. There are many of those, I believe."
"Indeed. The largest is Cities. I used to live there."
"Why did you move?"
Tear pushed away from the tree and glanced at his watch. "It's going to get dark soon. I want to be home before it does. I suppose you can stay with me for now. I'll see what I can do about getting you to Cities. I'm not too keen on the government showing up at my doorstep looking for an alien and it will look bad for Songer Enterprises." Adryane stared at him and he rolled his eyes. "Is that thing heavy?" he pointed to the tube.
"Why?"
"Because. The less clues the government has to follow, the less likely they'll be able to trace it to me."
"Who says the government even knows I'm here?"
"No one but you don't get where I am without being cautious."
Adryane actually smiled here, dazzling and serene in a way that made you want to blush. "Where you don't want to be?"
Tear glared. "I didn't mean literally."
Adryane laughed and Tear looked away, annoyed. "Well, are you coming with me or not?"
"Yes," Adryane replied and picked up the tube as if it weighed nothing. Tear sighed and started walking. Something told him he was getting in way over his head.
The bus stopped in front of Heart School. He was one of the first people to get off the bus. He didn't like sitting in the back as much as he'd used to. Arguments and childish bickering about how he was a "queer" outsider got old incredibly fast. Small children at their bounciest best were easier to stomach than teenagers with ancient attitude problems. He'd laughed in the face of the first person who'd asked him what his "major malfunction" was. He hadn't even heard the phrase before but it sounded like someone would've said it a long time ago. It certainly wasn't current.
He walked down the halls slowly, avoiding people as much as possible. They avoided him in turn. It was partially his fault he didn't have any friends here and he knew it. He hadn't enjoyed being shipped out of Cities and he'd taken it out on the backwater idiots who lived here. Of course, they'd gotten defensive and everything had gone downhill from there. For the most part they left him alone but that didn't mean he wasn't bother every now and then. And it didn't mean it didn't get lonely. It always got lonely.
He opened his locker carefully, suspicious of anything. The idiots had thought it would be pretty funny to try installing pranks in the lock- less lockers. Their mistake was using a mild one at first. Tear had grown up in Cities. There you either learned from your mistakes or you died of them. The thrill had been one of the best parts about living there. He missed it horribly.
He shoved in his backpack and pulled out his physics laptop and, after thinking about it for a moment, opened the slot for floppy discs. His player, in condensed form, fit perfectly and the earphones were small enough to shove into his pocket. He slammed his locker shut and trudged off to class. After all, one couldn't thrust hicks not to steal the thing. They certainly couldn't afford it.
-~*~-*-~*~-
The cool breeze felt good in the hot air. Tear lifted his head, allowing it to ruffle his long hair. A small, wistful smile spread across his face. He'd decided after very little deliberation to walk home today. It was a long walk but it was the perfect sort of fall weather that kept you from caring. Besides, it wasn't like anyone was waiting for him at home. His parents were in Osaka on business. Like always.
Haunting oldies music floated from his earphones and wrapped around his brain, caressing it and soothing his nerves. Back in Cities, he and his friends had been avid collectors of dying twenty-first century music. They hadn't really cared what language it was in. It was all good. Tear himself often preferred it in other languages. He liked the sort of mystical, unknown feel. Sure, he could always get a translator chip installed, but then the music wouldn't be the same anymore. Gekkou Yoko, a song sung by a voice actor for a character named Lumiale from a show or video game he couldn't even remember anymore was currently playing. The song was nice, haunting, and sounded sad.
He paused suddenly, hearing a loud screeching off to his left. At least, he presumed it was loud. He'd heard it over his earphones on full blast. Something pulled at him and his feet were moving without him thinking, moving him in the direction of the bright red-orange-yellow woods.
After much bumbling around (he really wasn't familiar with the whole forest thing; Cities didn't have that) he finally found the source. Caution stopped him in his tracks.
A long, slender black tube lay in front of him, cradled between two moss-covered logs. The screeching seemed to have something to do with the glowing red symbols that seemed vaguely familiar but unidentifiable on what he assumed was the top. He took a hesitant step forward, gaze pinned on the tube. He wanted to touch it, to see if the metal was actually as cold as it looked, but what was the old saying? Curiosity killed the cat? His mind seemed to make itself up for him. Thank god he wasn't a cat. The moment he touched the tube, he knew he'd done something wrong. There was a hiss and both flashing symbols and screeching disappeared. HE jumped back and looked around for a possible escape route.
Some weird sound drew his attention back to the tube, a cross between a clank and a hiss, and he watched, apprehension steadily heightening, as a crack appeared in the unrelenting black. Soft, cold smoke billowed out and drifted to the ground, spreading and settling, leaving the earth moist and dewy. Then the top slid to the side, seeming to disappear into the rest, and revealed whatever it held inside.
He stepped forward, unable to help himself. Curiosity seemed to rule over self preservation in this matter. Inside was a young man, older than Tear but not my much, with long pitch black hair that shone white instead of blue, pale skin, and wearing some strange black outfit that looked like a cross between a harem girl's and a soldier's. He took another step forward which brought him almost knee to metal with the tube. "Hello?" he whispered, pulling his headphones down and staring at what he presumed to be an alien. Unless it was an escaped government experiment but he sincerely doubted that. Government was more cautious and whereas their dress sense wasn't great. It wasn't that strange.
There was no reply from the alien. Not even the slightest flicker of movement that showed it might've heard. He kneeled down next to the tube. "Any minute now you're going to jump out of there with super fast reflexes and kill me," he said a bit louder as he peered in with awe. The alien was certainly a piece of art. Perfect. Even the tattoo, barely visible under the gauzy material of his sleeve, of a dragon looked as if it belonged there.
He frowned and reached down to lightly touch the alien's cheek. It's eyelids flickered and Tear's hand was instantly against his own chest but they didn't open. The skin was soft, silky smooth. He wanted to lean forward and brush his lips over it but he wouldn't. There were some places that he drew the line when it came to aliens. Not that he'd ever met one before. He was making it up as he went. He wanted to wake it up though.
He leaned over the tube, hoping maybe there were some of those spiffy little symbols on the other side that he might touch and something might happen. No such luck. His gaze flickered back to the alien's face and the frown darkened. Impulsively, he poked it in the stomach. If it killed him, at least he could claim in the afterlife that he'd honest to god poked an alien. It didn't move. He considered leaving it but the urge to see it awake was too strong.
He stood up and looked around. Maybe if he hit it with a stick. No, it probably didn't react well to violence. He did it anyway. It sat up almost immediately and scared Tear half to death. He dropped the stick immediately. He really hadn't expected it to move. He had counted a bit too much on the fact that it hadn't reacted to anything yet.
The eyelids flickered open, eyes immediately locked on Tear's and he felt himself being swept into deep pools of obsidian black with swirls of red, blue, green, and purple in a way that reminded him of the Aurora Borealis. They were mesmerizing, drawing one further and further in, drawing Tear step by step closer, no matter how much he tried to fight it. Then it looked away and the spell was broken.
It stood up, somewhat stiffly, wincing. "Where am I?" it whispered. It was now officially a he. He had a nice voice, like black velvet, beautiful and smooth, caressing. The kind of voice that made you feel special just hearing it.
"New America," Tear muttered, backpedaling. Aliens were all nice and all but being that close and succumbing that easily to a thrall was not good.
The man looked at him again and his eyes narrowed with suspicion. "Who are you?"
Tear shrugged, not looking at him. He firmly focused his gaze on one of the logs by his feet as if there was something extremely interesting about them. There wasn't really. They were just logs. "Tyrael. Most call me Tear though."
"Tear? Szasla. A salty water that flows from one's eyes when they are sad?"
Tear blinked at the scientific attitude and stored the word szasla away in his memory for future reference. "Um. Yes."
"Are you sad?"
Tear shrugged again. "Isn't everyone at some point in time in life? Who are you?"
"Adryane."
"Adrian?"
"No," he sounded impatient and annoyed with the mistake. "Adryane. Aid-rayne."
"Fine. Adryane. Are you an alien?"
"Alien?" he rolled the word on his tongue and looked thoughtful. "No. Sierian."
Tear blinked. "Ah.?"
"From Sieri."
"And that is where?"
"Nolilya."
"I've never heard of it."
"It is not on your earth."
"An alien then." Tear nodded in satisfaction. Adryane seemed confused and a bit angry but didn't say anything. Smart him. "Are you going to take over the world?"
"Should I?"
"I don't know. It seems that what's the government's promoting aliens will do these days. I think they're feeling a bit insecure about their power."
"I'm not going to take over the world."
"Blow it up?"
"A waste of time and energy."
That sounded like an insult but Tear let it pass. After all, it was an alien. Had to give some lenience, no? "Destroy mankind?"
"No."
"The earth would be better off."
"I'm sorry for the earth then. I'm not wasting my time doing that either."
"Use us for experiments?"
"What for?"
"Tear shrugged. "That's what humans thought aliens were doing with us a long time ago and the craze kind of hasn't died down."
"You're too weak to use for experiments."
Blunt. Probably honest but damn insulting. Tear wanted to hit him for it. "So what are you here for?"
"Observation."
"Of what?"
"Humans."
"Wouldn't that be a waste of your time as well?"
Adryane stared at him, face absolutely blank.
"Fine, fine, I'll deal. Why?"
"I can't tell you."
"Classified? Whatever. The less I know the less the government can pry out of me. Not that the actual possession of knowledge really matters to the sadistic freaks upstairs."
"You are disapproving of your government?"
"We don't see eye to eye, no."
"But they provide for you."
"Maybe others. Not me."
"You are royalty?"
Tear blinked. "You're in New America. There's no such thing as royalty. Hasn't been for nearly four hundred years now."
"No royalty?" Adryane sounded confused.
"No. You've got money, you've got advantage. You own major corporations, you've got major advantage. You own leading corporations, you are leading. As soon as my old man kicks the bucket, I'm leading."
"You are powerful then?"
Tear blinked. "Do I look powerful?"
"No."
"Good."
"You are?"
"I refuse to comment. Where are you staying during your. observations?"
Adryane thought about it for a moment. "Where are we?"
"Uh. Heart in Illinois."
"I would like to be where it's most populated."
"Do you want to stay in the country?"
"Excuse me?"
"Do you want to stay in New America."
"Preferably."
"Cities."
"Yes. There are many of those, I believe."
"Indeed. The largest is Cities. I used to live there."
"Why did you move?"
Tear pushed away from the tree and glanced at his watch. "It's going to get dark soon. I want to be home before it does. I suppose you can stay with me for now. I'll see what I can do about getting you to Cities. I'm not too keen on the government showing up at my doorstep looking for an alien and it will look bad for Songer Enterprises." Adryane stared at him and he rolled his eyes. "Is that thing heavy?" he pointed to the tube.
"Why?"
"Because. The less clues the government has to follow, the less likely they'll be able to trace it to me."
"Who says the government even knows I'm here?"
"No one but you don't get where I am without being cautious."
Adryane actually smiled here, dazzling and serene in a way that made you want to blush. "Where you don't want to be?"
Tear glared. "I didn't mean literally."
Adryane laughed and Tear looked away, annoyed. "Well, are you coming with me or not?"
"Yes," Adryane replied and picked up the tube as if it weighed nothing. Tear sighed and started walking. Something told him he was getting in way over his head.