722/Splashdown: Solaire

Splashdown: Solaire
Date of Scene:	31 May 2017
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Summary needed
Cast of Characters:	271, Solaire

---

Keane (271) has posed:
    They call this part of Gotham 'Crime Alley,' even though the street signs and maps call it East Park Side. Police hardly bother in this area, and if you do see a uniform or plain-clothes detective walking the streets you can rest assured they're on their way to or from picking up an under-the-table payoff. That doesn't make it any less populated. Rents are cheap, dirt cheap, with many abandoned tenements where squatters' rights are enforced with baseball bats, knives, and the occasional .44. Some businesses still operate here, mostly the kind that don't have anything worth stealing but a few of the kind nobody would be stupid enough to steal from, if you catch the drift.

    It's a favorite haunt for drug dealers, which makes it a favorite haunt for hookers, muggers and worse. All of the above makes it an occasional haunt for capes and masks, usually punks trying to make a name for themselves. Punks who don't live long enough to do so.

Solaire has posed:
    There was probably eyes on the sky somewhere.. how often does a spaceborne object suddenly change trajectory and make a collision course. The time for the small stellar body's change in direction and rapid acceleration towards Earth were likely too fast for anyone to get any coverage yet. The skies have a star falling from the heavens, veering randomly. An impact with something in the sky winks it out for an instant before the flaring light resumes and heads closer and closer to 'Crime Alley' where it collides with the side of a tenement and burns down an outer wall and tumbles onto the street in a raging pile of flame. The bright sunlight flares and dims in gradients until just remnant fires burn on the asphault.
    Rising up from the flames is a quiet groan and flicker of light amongst the upturned dustcloud and smoke.

Keane (271) has posed:
    If there were eyes on the sky, then S.H.I.E.L.D. and S.W.O.R.D. would have strike and containment teams on standby. Radio telescopes in orbit would have tracked the object's approach and quinjets would have been waiting when it struck the outer atmosphere. Those personnel carriers would have followed the object in, maintaining constant radio contact with chopper teams closer to the ground. Civilians in the area would be evacuated, or evacuation might still be in-progress, and fire and hazmat containment teams would be waiting on the ground, and as soon as that burning mass struck a building sidewall the building wall would be struck with several varieties of foam designed to inhibit fire and wash away potentially radioactive particles.

    All of those things happen. The civilians still being hustled out of the area turn back and shield their eyes to watch the meteor or whatever it is crash down. The S.H.I.E.L.D. fire containment crews barely save the building, although they lose an entire outer wall.

    S.W.O.R.D. combat teams move in, setting up a combat perimeter around the entity that forms out of what should be a crater instead of a burning heap of slag, led by the hazmat containment team - a one-man or maybe rather a one-being squad that happens to be some kind of 8' tall apelike humanoid entirely encased in what looks like a bodysuit of black, fluid energy.

Solaire has posed:
    The groan and shining cones of light are followed by a few cricks and the sound of movement. The dustcloud sparks and flashes briefly in flame and is blown away by an equally brief rush of heat. From within the crater there's what looks like a person standing up, glowing eyes and hair shining brighter than the faint radiance of their skin and a dark bodysuit that seems to be in decent condition all considered. Their left hand is scratching at the side of their head and the right is held straight upwards, hand open. All in all his posture is relaxed and his gaze is slow to sweep everything present before him in quiet.

Keane (271) has posed:
    The people of Earth kind of freeze in place. The local residents aren't sure whether it's safer to continue evacuating or just stand still and hope not to be noticed. The S.H.I.E.L.D. emergency vehicles that put out the fires on the building are packing it in but remaining in place, on standby, their operators standing beside their vehicles to watch. The S.W.O.R.D. combat teams have their defensive perimeter established, portable kevlar-foam pylons in place to serve as cover.

    Only the alien with the clawed, beastlike hands and the hidden face steps forward and when he does he raises one of his hands in a gesture mimicking Solaire's. He doesn't make any attempt at verbal or telepathic communication, not that he could transmit telepathically, for now he just mimicks the other alien's body language.

Solaire has posed:
    There's a pause from Solaire as his gesture is returned, the head scratching stops and his left arm returns to a resting position. The raised hand lowers slowly downwards and he taps his lips with a pair of fingers, then makes a general projecting gesture, then another general gesture towards the one ... interacting with him. His expression seems puzzled, or the equivalent of.

Keane (271) has posed:
    "The dominant form of life on this planet is known as human," Keane answers the thought in Solaire's mind rather than the pantomime, his voice a deep, smooth bass. He lowers his raised hand and uses it to gesture around at the residents, the S.W.O.R.D. and S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. "Most engage in sonic and display-oriented communication styles. This variant is called, 'English.'"

Solaire has posed:
    There's further pause as his question is countered in the best way possible. Solaire gives a nasal sigh, steam shimmering out with his breath. "I guess so far the languages are not too different." he murmurs aloud, the sentiment is present mentally as well. "The local star told me something was on the third planet. Thusfar I am glad it was not old news." his eyes turn and glance over the combat teams.
    "I tried to land as softly as possible, decelerating was more difficult than I anticipated."

Keane (271) has posed:
    Keane emits a sound that's like laughter but not, maybe it's genuine laughter for his kind of being. "It's the prevalence of human air traffic, I've found," he answers with amusement in his tone. "Modifies atmospheric pressure at high altitudes. Completely skewed the calculations that took my people's best aeronautical engineers several decades to agree upon, as well." He raises one hand and makes a high pitched whistling sound as he brings the hand down, indicating an object falling at extremely high speed until his hand slaps the other hard.

Solaire has posed:
    Solaire gives a wince at the little pantomime and gives a slow gesture of acknowledgement. "It has also been a while since I was standing. The pull of a planet feels novel to experience again. Lost track of how long adrift, no day cycles to keep track of. Does anyone have a drink?" that question is enhanced with his right hand making a holding gesture, and drinking as well with a brow raised.

Keane (271) has posed:
    "I imagine they'll give you anything you ask for, if you dress it up in terms of mandatory sustenance," Keane says to the question of a drink as he looks over his shoulder at the S.W.O.R.D. tactical squads that are still formed up around the crash site, "but you should consider yourself an involuntary guest of these gentlemen if you aren't willing to, ah," he shrugs his shoulders, "well if you aren't willing to declare war upon the people of the Earth."

Solaire has posed:
    Solaire gives one more look to the defensive perimeter set up and rumbles in thought. "I would consider seeing how amusingly I could make that imagining go. But the thought that war is so popular off my world has somewhat dimmed the mood." he replies, "You make it sound the people on this planet are isolated and xenophobic. I still have no intention of stealing resources or anything of that nature, there is no reason for me to commit war against Earth."

Keane (271) has posed:
    Keane makes a little sound of, "Mm," as he considers that before he says, "I think it's rather more the consequence of bad experience than the product of simple inexperience and fear. At any rate, where they want you to go and where I need you to be to run a number of tests and obtain readings they'll want me to get from you and where I'll have the authority to get you a drink be it water or whiskey or sulfuric acid or whatever it is your kind drinks are all the same place." He shrugs again.

    "Most importantly," he adds, "we will be wanting to move a team in to take readings from and recover any remains of your vehicle to ensure the safety of the local population."

Solaire has posed:
    Solaire nods a couple of times to the explanation of bad experiences and information gathering. "Certainly, I will come along. It is not as though I have any other places to be." offering a small and amused sound. There's a couple words he isn't familiar with, he'll ask about those later. Or, perhaps one he'll ask now. "I do not understand what you mean by 'vehicle'. Everything I have on me is what I have brought." a brief turn to visually inspect himself leads to a nod and return of eye contact. "Nothing seems amiss."

Keane (271) has posed:
    Keane's own senses, the reason he's the only one actually here to serve as the biohazardous material collection team, can confirm that much even if it doesn't make a lot of sense even to his alien mind. "Step this way then," he gestures toward one of the combat barriers that's been erected, behind which a S.H.I.E.L.D. chopper has been sitting there, blades spinning at low power, the whole time. It's just been waiting for new orders.

    When Keane gestures the alien to move that way, one of the combat teams holsters and slings its weapons and moves up to make an escort group, evidently intending on searching Solaire before he boards the chopper and riding with him.

Solaire has posed:
    Solaire makes a slow advance to where indicated with a nod. Climbing up out of the crater is a small(comparatively) hop to the edge and striding over to the helicopter. "The star said strange metal things were present here that ferried people, I could not quite visualize it myself until now." he affirms with a nod. Searching him would reveal the entire package of Solaire and suit. And maybe a longing for sunscreen against those too close.

Keane (271) has posed:
    Keane stands by while the humans search Solaire, one of them glancing at the back of his hand as the skin visibly reddens in direct, close-up exposure to the heat and light put off by the alien. That agent glances at Keane and asks, "You going to be alright?" with real concern, but Keane raises one hand to wave off the question.

    Soon enough the group is climbing into the chopper, everyone provided with a radio headset and mic except Keane who, for some reason, seems to be able to communicate with the rest of the team anyway. When they ask him questions he answers them in a booming, amplified voice that's loud enough and pitched at a frequency that cuts through the noise of the helicopter's engines and the wind from the spinning blades. That voice doesn't even sound like the one he used down on the ground, as if he were producing tones artificially. Still doesn't explain how he hears anything without radio.