The evening weather was the type many would probably consider rather dreary by all accounts. The scattered showers that had come and gone all day were rising to a pitch, and most people were scattering in the knowledge that the slight drizzle would become a downpour soon enough. Star Man knew from a certain birdie bearing wrist-mounted fans, though, that the rain would break around sunset or a bit later, which was just perfect for Star, since that was right when the new movie he'd been wanting to see would end. Astro Man and Galaxy Man had taken little convincing to cover his shift for one evening, allowing the cheerful Robot Master to start walking in the direction of the cinema. He hadn't had the time to switch out of his armor, but honestly for most robots it was easier to wear and deal with than human clothes... and in a dark theater, no one would be that bothered by it, right?

Star smiled in delight as the building came into sight, and he couldn't resist skipping part of the remaining way there. He'd been excited for this one for a while, although he'd had to put off watching it because of work. With how often he talked about it and begged them to re-watch the trailers with him, he supposed it honestly wasn't that surprising that his fellow space-themed Masters had been eager to have him go watch it and get things over with...

It had been a while since he'd been here- there were so many new movie posters! Star gave a tiny sqee of delight and quickly hopped up into a hover, floating over to the pictures to see them all. He needed to start planning on what movies to see the next time he visited, and everything looked so interesting-

tink

Star's head moved forward slightly and he blinked rapidly, reaching back and rubbing at his helmet. What was that?

tink tink tink

Something was hitting his armor? Frowning, Star spun gently in midair, looking around curiously. He hadn't been imagining that, right?

tink!

"Ow!" Star squeaked, hands moving to cover the star-shaped decal on his forehead. Once he'd seen the rock thrown, it was easy to trace it back to a gaggle of teenagers looking in his direction and barely muffling their laughter. "Hey!" Star huffed, lowering himself to float closer to the ground before gliding closer to them. "W-was that you?" Star asked, trying to keep the hurt out of his voice and failing rather decisively.

"Was what us?" A girl asked, blowing a bubble with her gum as another boy near the back of the group leaned down.

"W-well, I thought-" Star Man began, before the boy in back stood and chucked another rock at his face, causing Star to yelp in surprise and quickly cover his face with his hands. He lowered them to find the human teens laughing, and his face became red with embarrassment as he tried to hold back tears. "It was you! Stop that!" Star demanded, puffing out his cheeks.

One of the group, a brunet, snorted derisively. "Whaddya gonna do ta make us?"

Star huffed. "I'll-"

"What are you doing?" An older voice cut through, and the group- Star Man included- turned to see an older woman marching towards them. Star smiled slightly, glad that there was someone who might be able to control the human kids better than he could.

"H-hello, ma'am, I-" Star began, before he let out a small 'eep' and floated back to avoid the woman swinging a heavy purse between him and the teenagers with her free hand, the other gripping an umbrella tightly.

"How dare you threaten my children?" The woman snapped, the slight worry that had been on the faces of the small gang disappearing.

Star frowned in concern, holding up his hands to try and show he wasn't doing anything harmful. "I-I didn't... they were..."

The woman huffed, a few other people having turned towards them after her earlier exclamation. "What's something like you doing here anyways? They need your kind even for running a theater now?"

"I-" Star was leaning back now, frowning nervously. He didn't like engaging humans like this- it reminded him too much of before, when Dark had been reprogrammed and tricked them into... "I just wanted to watch a movie, but they..." Star mumbled, looking down. It wasn't his fault they threw things at him! He didn't do anything wrong!

"We don't need you things here!" A man's voice snapped from the crowd of people who'd gathered to gawk at the unwanted confrontation.

"Yeah, get out of here!"

"This place is for humans only!"

tink!

They threw another rock at him! "Stop-" Star began, before someone else in the crowd threw one heaver, this one hitting his armor with a louder clunk. Other people, caught in a mobbish fervor, soon followed the example and started throwing rocks and whatever other heavy objects they had on hand, others continuing to scream insults at the panicked robot. With the crowd boxing him in, he could barely move, and had to try and let the sturdier parts of his armor take the brunt of it.

A soda, of all things, sent him helmet off, and at that point Star couldn't take it anymore- and promptly burst into tears. "Fine!" Star exclaimed in a choked voice, grabbing his helmet as quickly as he could and maximizing his hover to send him over the heads of the crowd and safely to the other side. The abrupt strain on the ability caused it to give out once he was near the ground, and he stumbled slightly before breaking out into a run, wanting nothing more than to get as far away as possible.

He didn't really process ducking into the alley of a distant building or scaling the fire escape, only that he'd managed to find himself on the roof of a building with only a faint view of the cinema. Star sat at the edge of the building with a soft whimper, staring across the rooftops for a moment before drawing his knees to his chest and allowing himself to sob his heart out.

Naturally, the rain decided this was the best moment to start pouring in earnest.