Lively Ride [Lucy]

Since his ascent to power, Lucian had found that while a fancier, wealthier lifestyle lived up to the ideas one (or at least he) had about it, there were still things to be missed about being just another citizen in the lot. He was grateful for all the great food the white house provided, but he missed just ordering food from a restaurant like a normal person. He greatly enjoyed all the luxuries of global travel, but he would’ve liked to backpack around the world on a limited budget at least once in his life. Indeed, a rich man had a lot of things to envy from those below him.


A tightly packed and highly uncomfortable president made his way vertically through the vehicle, looking for any seats that look like they might be about to be unoccupied. He was about to give up hope when, suddenly, at the very back he found an open seat. To his weary legs, it was almost like finding an oasis in the middle of the Sahara desert. The man never sat down quicker in his entire life.

“I’m afraid ‘quiet’ and ‘public transport’ in the same sentence is a bit of an oxymoron.” He half-mindedly replied to the mumbling of his newfound seat neighbor. Still a peculiar sight to the politician, but thankfully his standards of what was bizarre and what wasn’t had raised severely since he’d come to Junction.

Well, Lucian certainly wasn’t expecting such a literal response, much less one delivered in such a nonchalant manner. And what was with that squinting? Geez, if his commentary was unwelcome he should’ve just said so, no need to be passive-aggressive. Though then again, with the massive culture gap that Junction had no way of fixing, for all Lucian knew squinting was just a form greeting among this person’s people. Still… something about that simple action, combined with the odd evenness of the voice in which he replied and the… well, simply put… gothic appearance of not only his body but also his outfit unsettled Lucian to a degree, made him feel… unwelcome, even if involuntarily so. Concerned and self-conscious that he might’ve been making his seat neighbor uncomfortable, Lucian would opt to leave the conversational chain at that and keep to himself. Soon enough the tram ride would be over and he would be free from the awkwardness.

Hm? My, this was unexpected as well. “Nothing’s worrying me in particular; you just didn’t seem to really want to talk, is all. Unless I misinterpreted what your squinting was supposed to mean, in which case I apologize.” Maybe he hadn’t been overthinking it in the end? As he’d already found out, it was sometimes hard to tell what was going on during interspecies conversations, not only in regards to the other species-member’s actions and reactions, but sometimes even with one’s own. Nonsensical in premise and on paper, but very much understandable once conversations had actually begun, especially this conversation; not that Lucian claimed to know what this person was like or what they’d been through or how they got along with people, but at plain sight the first thing that came to his mind upon seeing him was not that he was a very sociable fellow.

Oh, so it was a matter of eyesight? At that realization, Lucian couldn’t help but let out a small sigh of relief; he really was worried he’d somehow offended the young alien. “Oh? Well… now I feel a bit silly.” A lighthearted chuckle escaped from the man’s lips as he pushed up his own glasses by their bridge, now suddenly self-conscious about their existence. “I was afraid your squinting was a sign of silent judging. Well, at least among my own people that is a very common gesticulation. Perhaps I should try not to project as much.” No matter how much the president thought he’d gotten alien socialization down pat, there would always be another new species in his life ready and rearing to prove him wrong, wouldn’t there? He should probably know better at this point, in all honesty.

Well, with that out of the way and it having been made clear that the man wasn’t opposed to a bit of small talk; Lucian guessed introductions were in order. Almost instinctively, Lucian wanted to reach in for a handshake, but ultimately refrained for the same reasons why now he refrained from assuming what specific body language meant. “I’m Lucian Clarke. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Lucian couldn’t help but release a small, sympathetic chuckle. “True, but often times it’s not subtlety that people want, just the guise and pretext of subtlety.” He would’ve been a hypocrite if he said he wasn’t occasionally guilty of this himself, though he did recognize that it was a habit best rid of. “At the very least it’s certainly better than being outright insulted, wouldn’t you say?” Even if bad will was perceived and obvious, subtlety… or, well, forced subtlety still managed to save people some degree of aggression.

“So, where’s the tram taking you?” Getting past the general introduction was always the hardest part of getting to meet new people. People never really know what questions to ask first or what topics are safe to bring up, so they resort to the safest, most mundane topics available. Thankfully for Lucian, this was one of the rare occasions where the obvious question to ask lead to many an interesting opportunity for conversation.

“Right, right.” Lucian nodded solemnly as he listened. Communication overall in Junction seemed to be subject to hi-jinks, even with those miraculous translators involved. There was just so much complexity and depth to the mere act of speaking – let alone advanced languages and maybe even non-verbal languages and their variants – that would never really transcend their people of origin, unfortunately. Passive-Aggressiveness seemed to be a universal manner of dealing with others though, and to be fair, the idea itself was something anything with a mind could relate to, verbal or not.

“Ah, I see.” Even though it wasn’t really something remarkable at all, it was thought-provoking to the man when put under the context of Junction. Most likely that eternal whimsy of a multiversal city would wear off eventually, but Lucian planned to enjoy it for as long as it was still there. “It’s kind of curious, coming to a place outside of your own reality and seeing so much that’s similar to what you knew, wouldn’t you say? At least, it certainly was for me.” For all he knew the concept of a market could have been completely foreign to Onyx prior to his arrival on Junction, but just like passive-aggressiveness the general concept of boring, daily life remained throughout the cosmos, he assumed.

“Oh, speak of the devil.” He commented as the digital display at the top of the tram doors read “COMMERCIAL WARD – NEXT STOP.” “My, these are much faster than the ones back home.”

Lucian stood up and adjusted his suit. “This happens to be my stop too, but I’ll probably be heading off somewhere else, unless you plan to restock on supplies at the cinema.” He laughed lightheartedly. “Thank you for the talk.”

Despite the fantastical nature of this jumping city, we often forget that normal moments such as these still exist within life. After all, we're all people just the same. Except gnomes, they don't count.

The Gears of Fate are ever turning.



Onyx of the Devil and Lucian of the Aeon have established a bond...