savetheearth | Plot: Come on, Locke - meet a visiting spaceman.

Who: Geoff Benwick and OPEN (to Locke City characters in the main log; phone-in thread is open to all).
When: June 1st-4th, afternoons.
Where: By Locke's City Hall.
What: One of Locke's visitors from beyond the atmosphere would like to make acquaintances of some of the city's other less-mundane occupants.

[Geoff had given his directions vaguely to the handful who'd been involved in cleaning up yesterday. He said he'd be by City Hall, starting at two, and that's where he is - close to one of the front walls, a ways from the door, dressed, as usual, for a proper impression. He's wearing a copy of the same suit he's been seen in already. As there's no need for them, he hasn't left a trace of his wings visible.

The suit, his look otherwise, and that aura he radiates have still caught eyes, and a couple of crowds of fans that it looks like the third of those things has already gotten him. He's turned away a reporter, or someone who professed to be a reporter, once. Asking nicely seems to have gotten him enough space to scan for the people who he might be looking for, eventually.

Speaking of which - anyone who does seem to be looking for him or heading his way with any kind of intent will get a wave over, a polite beam.

Either he'll wait for them to take their signal or he'll close some of the distance, and confirm they are who he thinks they are with an innocuous-enough greeting:]

Good afternoon!

What brings you here?

[OOC: If your character cannot, would refuse to, or just plain wouldn't meet with Geoff in person but you'd still like him to speak with them, you may have them call in if you like.

Remember that speaking with Geoff directly 1. leaves a person under the influence of a supernatural "charm" effect which makes him seem trustworthy by default, and 2. grants eligibility for a plot Echo.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"So you don't mind sharing where you came from?" is Lyall's first question, and not one he's sure he'll get an answer for. The second is possibly more likely: "And what brought Earth to your attention?"

There is a short look around - why will hear them, has anyone stepped closer since they last checked, but they haven't - and while he doesn't lower his voice at his next words, it is clear that they are meant for Lyall, and Lyall only. "A planet a good distance away, and vastly different from yours, though it is hard for me to explain the differences while using your language." He sounds genuinely sorry at that last part, expressing that he would love to tell Lyall more but that it really is not possible. "That has made coming here even more interesting, to see such a vastly different place."

"And our attention was at first turned towards your planet because it had sentient life. That there were abnormalities was something that we found out about only after we had started already looking into it."

"Are we so rare that we stood out in your notice?" Lyall wonders, pleased and a little surprised to get an answer at all, though disappointed at the lack of direct information. Are there so few other worlds with sentient life out there? "You seem to have done a fair enough job of imitating us, anyhow. I certainly don't imagine you actually look and sound like this, on your own world, if it's so different from ours."

"You indeed are. There are only a limited number of planets which could support life, and the chance of life at this level is much lower still." He looks a bit surprised at the words about his looks, though. "I look like this normally, even though I sound very differently back home due to the language."

" ... really?" Lyall resists the urge to look him over again, but it's hard. Instead he comments, looking very surprised, "But you look exactly like a human would. This can't be the only viable form for intelligent life out there. I had-- I had been certain that another species on another planet entirely would have developed different in some fashion, and this way you look now was altered, to interact with us." After all, the other alien was doing plenty of altering, and with portable equipment to boot, so he knows it's doable.

"I-- am sorry for the assumption, if it was wrong," he finishes. But it sure does seem like a reasonable one to make. What would the odds be like for an alien species developing so exactly like Earth's, right down to the scent? And then the odds of that one species going to Earth? Infinitesimal, he's sure.

"That is a question that is equally mysterious to us as it is to you. It seems very illogical to only have this specific form of sentient life out there, doesn't it?" His tone is apologetic in the way of a man who is just as frustrated himself by the matter as he assumes the other person to be. "It's a logical assumption to make that there would be differences, so no need to apologize."

"Now I want to ask boring biological questions," Lyall admits with a little laugh. "Do you keep your brain in the same place? Your lungs? Do you also have an appendix, or have you evolved to no longer bother with it?" See? Here come the boring biological questions, with an air of a man who might as well be taking notes, even if he doesn't actually have a notebook out. Yet, anyway.

He pauses, reins himself in, and adds sheepishly, "You don't have to answer those. It's just part of what I do for a living, so I tend to think anatomy and biology first, before anything else."

Geoff blinks, though he's clearly following the string of questions. "Our brains are typically housed here," he says, gesturing toward his head, "and our lungs are in our chests. As for an appendix... I don't believe I know what that is."

He lowers his hands, pleasant as he goes on. "The manipulation of genetics is commonplace, on my planet, to promote good health. It's possible that was a victim of our science."

"Exactly the same," Lyall marvels. "Aside from the appendix. It really doesn't do much in humans, anymore, just a bit of work for the immune system." He shakes his head. "Amazing. And definitely strange. Have you had any scientists looking into our similarities, and what differences we might have?"

"One good reason to remove it." It's a passing comment before he turns to the question about the scientists. "We had to wait until after contact; a lack of samples from your side." He suddenly frowns, thoughtful. "Tiny would surely have been a part of such research, if not for his defection from our side."

"Yes, there is that. Whoever he was, he made a bit of a mess of things." That comes out dryly, because understatement of the year, okay. That was a huge mess. But then, Victorian werewolves were supposedly pretty good at understatement. "What made him change allegiances like that? Have you determined his reason for it?"

"A wish for power, we assume. He must have figured that there was more power in his reach, even if only in a small area, than he could ever hope to achieve on our planet. It's a terrible corrupting force, that." It's the most likely reason, really, the best one that he can give.

Plot: Come on, Locke - meet a visiting spaceman.

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