The morning sun glinted off the buildings of the city. Andren stretched, glancing over his shoulder as his mother wandered into the kitchen, before his attention returned to the window. He couldn’t get over the awe of such a place, even after living here for nearly five years. It was so different from his home, from the wood and stone buildings so many here described as something from ancient Earth. He and his mother shared a high-rise apartment near the outskirts of downtown, though they didn’t really live high. They were only on the sixth floor. That was plenty for him, though; he’d never been so high up before moving here.

Letheya mumbled something unintelligible as she shuffled back into her bedroom, the door closing behind her. Andren rolled his eyes a bit. He didn’t really like living with his mother, but it was the easiest thing for both of them. Neither was particularly popular on this world, and he was certain it was because they were so different from the vast majority of the inhabitants. Many of them were human, and cetans – normal, grey-shades cetans – were nearly as common. There were handfuls of secta or other aliens, though they weren’t nearly as common as humans and cetans. And then there was Andren and Letheya. A pair of cetans in shades of blue and green stood out more than even the weirdest alien around.

They weren’t poor, not by any means. Both he and his mother worked respectable jobs, and they had access to their considerable family wealth. But they didn’t flaunt it. Letheya worked as a research scientist at one of the tech centers, learning about and studying the rapidly improving and changing tech of the Union. She had a special affinity for just such a thing, and was perfect for the job. Andren, on the other hand, didn’t really have any interesting skills. He could shoot a bow and wield a sword, but that was useless here. He could read and write, and he understood the engineering that made building his hometown possible, but again, that was useless in this much more advanced city. He excelled at music and learning. The technology here made little sense to him, so trying to learn like his mother did only confused him. So, he taught. He was a teacher for young children here in the city, giving them the basics – reading, writing, and arithmetic. It satisfied him, at least, and kept him busy.

Music satisfied him even more. Music, to him, was life. It was his soul. He was an award-winning cellist and an award-winning composer. If he could have a job with his cello and his sheet music, he would do that in a heartbeat. He’d been pleased to find that here, while music could be piped directly into someone’s mind, it was also still common on these old instruments and various radios. He spent much of his free time either playing his cello, composing music, or listening to music.

Giving another stretch, he turned and headed into the kitchen. It was early, and he needed some coffee and a shower to wake himself. After pouring himself a mug of the black liquid, he headed into his bedroom. Though it was a Thursday morning, he didn’t have to work today; it was the middle of the summer. His students were on vacation, and he was as well. He would have to start preparing for the next school year in a few weeks, but for now, he had plenty of time to himself. He heard his mother leave for work, and headed for the shower.

After five years here in the city, Andren was used to being different. He was different in just about every way, when compared to other cetans around here. At six-foot-four, he was taller than most,  and his relatively slender frame gave him a bit of a lanky appearance. He wasn’t a big, strong man, but he had something of a swimmer’s build, though that was more from handling his cello than from swimming. His smooth skin was a shade of dark spruce green, a sort of greyish green mix that was green enough to make him stand out amongst a crowd of grey cetans, but was more grey than the forest green of his father. The countershading that ran from just beneath his chin to the underside of his flukes was a very pale shade of that spruce green, with just the slightest tinge of blue. Unlike so many of the male cetans around here, Andren had hair, or some, at least. He was bald down to the back of his head, right at the base of his skull, where his black hair was often pulled into a ponytail to reach just below his shoulder blades. Of everything, though, his eyes probably stood out the most; rather than green as most might expect, they were a shocking shade of blue, bright and clear, nearly the shade of sapphires.

Andren was a very quiet, very calm young man, counter to many of the more gregarious, excitable cetans he’d lived with both growing up and in the last five years. He was also a loner, keeping to himself much more and considering his mother to be his pod, rather than making any attempt to find one for himself. Working as a teacher was plenty of social interaction for him, he’d long decided. And on top of everything else, his manner of dress was significantly different from others. Most wore some sort of biosuit or other technologically advanced clothing; he rarely saw anyone in any sort of organic fabrics. He, though, tended to wear silk and cotton, tunics over long pants with a belt around the middle, in dark or sometimes bold colors often associated with his royal family.

Settling into his bedroom after his shower, he stretched out in the chair in front of his computer. This was about the extent of the technology he’d use, and before coming here, he’d never even seen a computer before. This, though, allowed him the opportunity to explore worlds he’d never been able to before, and it was through that computer that he found the world of lifecasting. He found several shows that he enjoyed, mostly those of either other musicians or sports players. He found one young woman, however, who caught his attention and kept it. He watched her ‘casting nearly religiously. She simply showed herself enjoying time out with friends, at the club, playing at the beach, swimming. It was all so carefree and comfortable to him, not to mention she was a very good looking woman.

He took to doing some lifecasting of his own, after a time, purchasing a small drone that could get some good shots of him. He rarely did any major shows; his were simply of him either playing his cello, or doing some composing. He didn’t have many watchers, but that never really bothered him. This really pushed the limits of his social interactions, so having just a few people watching worked fine for him. He enjoyed showing off with his music, though.


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