#put your ray gun to my head; zircon | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

gmanwhore · 1 year ago

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…. What Zircon saw beyond the door sent surging electricity through every nerve in xir body.

A thin figure was seated in a comfortable armchair near the opposite wall, with an unlit cigarette in his left hand. He wore a sky blue suit, his hair reached his shoulders and was a vibrant, fiery orange-red. His face, brushed with brightly coloured makeup, was strangely symmetrical and bore a thoughtful expression as he stared somewhere into the distance; he looked more like a doll than a living being, except for his eyes, which were a greenish gray, and contained a hopeful spark, with one pupil visibly bigger than the other. Zircon’s eyes darted to golden circle glittering brightly in his forehead: xe had seen this being before.

Xe had looked at him in awe in faded photographs, watched holographic images of him sing the songs that inspired xir career through speakers, emulated him in the mirror with an imaginary guitar in xir hands for decades, worried that xe might be copying his style a bit too closely…

But it simply couldn’t be. Ziggy Stardust was dead. His body was discovered in xir own universe over a century ago, with no signs of damage but undeniably deceased, his ashes were scattered across the Milky Way galaxy, it was all public information, and the world of music mourned. Zircon had mourned with it, crying xirself to sleep at the thought that the greatest musician in the universe, quite possibly in the Multiverse, would never release another album again, xe’d never see xir idol live, that of all the beings in the universe, it had to be him.

And yet…

“You’ll be Zircon Moongazer, right? Kuria’s told me to expect you.”

Xe would know that voice, with the accent almost reminiscent of the one he often heard on Earth, anywhere. Zircon resisted the urge to pinch xirself; it couldn’t not be a dream, but xir own thumping hearts and the whirlwind of thoughts in xir mind could only be reality.

“Don’t be shy, you can come closer if you want.”

Zircon took a few nervous steps forward. Xe was only a meter or so away from him now. Ziggy got to his feet with a strange grace to his movement, dropping the still unlit cigarette into a nearby empty ashtray, and extended a faintly glittering hand for Zircon to shake. Even in his platform boots, he was considerably shorter than Zircon, who raised xir arm… and stopped, the excitement in xir fingers almost panic, almost painful.

“Go on!” Ziggy encouraged, with a nod.

Zircon reached out and grabbed the hand. Smooth. Smaller than xirs. Covered in a strange, soft powdery texture. Cold, but clearly not dead. Real. Undeniably alive.

The excited child in xir mind who had held that first record in xir hands with joyful tears in xir eyes broke loose, and xe shook his hand with all of the energy xe felt when xe had entered the room. Xe didn’t even notice the increasing speed in vigor with which xe moved xir hand up and down over the soaring feeling in xir chest. Ziggy Stardust was alive! Alive, and standing right in front of xir! Xe was shaking Ziggy Stardust’s hand! Xe was-

CRACK.

A little explosion of glittering space dust, like a tiny nebula, clouded Zircon’s vision for a couple of seconds.

Then, xir heart stopped.

Xe was still holding Ziggy’s hand, which had broken clean off at the elbow joint as Ziggy’s sky blue sleeve hung, loose and empty, from the elbow down. At the break, the arm seemed to be tightly packed full of that same multicolored glitter that was now settling everywhere including the floor, the armchair and the fronts of both Zircon’s and Ziggy’s clothes.

“Oh my stars! Holy crap! Mr Stardust I’m so sorry!”

Xe heard xir own voice break at squeaky, panicked peaks as xe yelled xir horrified apologies, but Ziggy only responded with a wide smile, revealing a set of slightly crooked teeth.

“No worries! Does that all the time.”

He took the left arm from Zircon’s hand with his right, nonchalantly inserting it back into his sleeve and twisting it slightly in place.

“Believe me, it’s gotten me in some way worse situations. I’ve learned to reinforce the fingers so I don’t accidentally slice them off playing guitar in the middle of a gig, but the elbow joints have always been a right piece of work. This body’s due for a replacement soon anyway.”

He tested the movement in his fingers, rolling them in sync in a single smooth motion as though strumming invisible guitar strings, despite the fact that, from what Zircon had just seen, there was not a bone nor a muscle in that hand.

“H…how?”

He chuckled.

“I get that question a lot. Kuria and the Starman Eternal say you’re a trustworthy fellow, so I guess I can spill the whole truth. I happen to be something called an Okkina. My kind don’t have physical bodies at birth, so we drift in space and gather the dust of fallen stars to build a form for ourselves. Aside from being proof of my remarkable lack of naming creativity, this body isn’t really ‘me’, but it does contain ‘me’, if that makes any sort of sense.”

Zircon nodded.

“If one body’s destroyed, or I just feel like moving on from it, I can just hop out and make myself a new one. Regeneration takes a little while, but… I suppose that clears up the whole ‘legally dead in your universe’ thing, eh? Now, does this mean I can hypothetically live forever? Well, not under normal circumstances, consciousness tends to drift apart around the sixth millennium, but I happened to have an encounter with one ‘Keeper of Strings’ during my travels, and, well… let’s just say the Starman Eternal allowed it, and you needn’t ever worry about losing me again!”

Zircon remained silent for a moment, taking it all in.

“Mr Stardust, that’s… incredible… I…”

“Oh, cut the ‘Mr Stardust’ formalities, just ‘Ziggy’s fine! I didn’t come here to recount my life story, given the fact that you likely know most of it already and can fill in the gaps with what I’ve told you just now. I came here because I love your music, and I’d like to propose… let’s call it a collaboration!”

This time, Zircon actually did pinch xirself in the side, prompting another chuckle from Ziggy.

“Of course, Mr Star- I mean, Ziggy! I’d love to hear all of your suggestions!!”

(I’ll finish this later, I still have ideas)

PJOHIOUGYVFKDTFGUIOG FBYTFTSD THIS IS WONDERFULLLL

#put your ray gun to my head; zircon

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