[BL on note] Alien Paul [5000-character novel]

Genre

SF

Synopsis

Alien Paul

Suddenly, I turned around, and there stood an alien.

"Welcome."
It was the first time an alien had come to the cafe where I work part-time, and I could only manage such a mundane greeting on the spur of the moment.
It felt like a waste. After all, it was an actual alien.

The first alien I ever saw didn't look all that different from us humans (or perhaps I should call us Earthlings to match the alien) in terms of basic appearance. If anything, I think their style and aura were quite "good." Their back, standing there in silence, looked like that of a fashion model or something similar.
However, only their face, like a television screen with static running through it while channel surfing, never settled, and that was how I knew for sure that they were a different kind of creature.

Ever since a certain country's presidential office casually announced that "aliens exist" while distracting from their military intervention in another country, the population dynamics of visiting aliens on Earth have changed significantly, or so it seems.
Although, I never see any aliens in my local area, and I had thought that was only the case in a very small part of the city.

As I was secretly watching the alien sitting at the counter, they looked up and our eyes met. Probably, anyway.
Inside their eyes, sparkling light flickered.
It was awkward.
Even if they were rare, they were undoubtedly a customer, so it was rude to stare.

There is apparently a lot of controversy in the streets about how to deal with "aliens," fearing that the emergence of interaction with a being unlike any other will expose us to unprecedented threats.

I'm not well-versed in such public discourse, so I don't know the details.
It seems there are quite a few negative reactions, like people saying they are dangerous or scary.
That said, sitting here like this, they are no different from humans, or rather, Earthlings.

The alien ordered a cup of coffee and a chocolate cake.
When I served the plate with the chocolate cake, I saw their face, which was occasionally shining and constantly changing, reflected in the glossy jet-black glaze, and I thought it looked like outer space, a place I had never seen directly.

"Is my face strange?"

The alien said.
In perfectly normal Japanese. However, it was a voice that sounded like a patchwork of many human voices.

"I guess it goes without saying, it is strange, isn't it?"
The alien dropped their shoulders, looking dejected.
Even in that moment, chaotic images continued to switch on their shoulders.
"Well, um. You are an alien, right? I mean, in the sense that you are not an Earthling."
I felt my face turn red, thinking about what a strange way I was putting it.

"Yes, I am not an Earthling."
A voice like that of three young girls replied.

"I don't think you look like an Earthling, but... you're very beautiful."

I couldn't put my words together well, and I felt flustered.
It wasn't as if my feelings had transferred to them, but the alien smiled with a shy face.
Even though I say 'face,' it was something that never stopped moving, like a monitor or a mirage. Various images I had never seen before would float up and disappear, only to float up again. And occasionally, what would be inserted was a pitch-black space mixed with noise, and sparking light.

Even so, I knew they were "shy" because only their mouth remained unchanged.
Their thin lips, pressed together as if slightly nervous, trembled as the right side lifted slightly.
Thinking that even aliens could be shy, I found it somewhat amusing.

For some reason, they liked it, and since then, the alien began to come to the shop regularly.
They always appeared when I was standing in the shop alone and there were no other customers.
Their face was still like a broken television.
Recently, there are fewer opportunities to see a television itself, so that might not be an appropriate metaphor.

I couldn't call them 'Alien-san.'
That said, I didn't know if it was okay to ask for their name in the first place. While I was wondering how to address them, it remained that way.

"My species doesn't have a fixed face to begin with,"
they said again today, elegantly holding a coffee cup.

I had come to talk to them more often, as they were now someone I could call a regular.
While listening to stories about other stars in the universe they had visited—things I had never seen or heard of—as if they were adventure stories or fairy tales, the conversation turned to themself.
Come to think of it, they had never talked about themself before.

I can see the pattern of the coffee cup through his thin fingers, which are more numerous than my own. Strange animals stand still amidst the intricately intertwined vine patterns and horn designs.
The shop manager told me not to use this cup and saucer much, as they are apparently an expensive and valuable brand. But I can't help but want to use them for the coffee I serve him. I keep it a secret from the manager.
The contrast between the dark blue and milky white of the coffee cup suits him.

"For us, not having a face is, in a way, our face. When we are in our homeland, we don't need faces, but I suppose that's not the case on other planets."

There, like a television screen filled with static, someone's face appears with a buzz. It's a human face. I don't know who it is, but it has a somewhat artificial, distorted smile. Then, it melts away.

"So, it is considered our etiquette to try to wear a face that matches what is 'normal' for the people of the planet we are visiting. But I am quite bad at it. I just can't do it well."

His face looks down, and a dejected atmosphere seeps out.
When he relaxes his body, the inside of his face becomes that outer space I saw before—a black, swirling void. It's the same color as the chocolate cake glaze I served on his first day here. The same color as the coffee cup in my hand. Milky white glowing stars.

"But, I think it's beautiful."

He lifts his head up quickly, and feeling like I've said something terribly embarrassing, I look down instead.

"You said that before, too."
It looked like the stars inside his face had increased.
After that, he fell silent as well, and an uncomfortable atmosphere hung in the air.

"Um, customer... you are good at the Earth language."
"Ah, that is because I am using a function for that. In reality, I am still speaking the language of my home planet."

When he waves his hand in front of his face, I hear a low, clear sound without any noise, unlike the voice that sounded like a mix of various sounds.

"『Paul-pueroshu△■va-kire-ru-akuwa▼□◎Paul-stovar-kieru-mineria』"

I realized that this must be the alien's true voice.

Because of the unfamiliar pronunciation, I can't catch the words in some places. I blink, not understanding what is being said.
"Um, what was that just now...?"
"What do you think it was?"
The sound returns to normal.
Even if he asks me that, I have no idea.

"Um, did you tell me your name, perhaps?"
When I ask timidly, he opens his eyes wide in surprise.

"Did you guess it?"
"I suppose... so."

The low voice is repeated as if whispering.

Unfortunately, it was too unfamiliar a language, so even though he told me his name, I have no idea what he actually said.
"Paul...?"
"『Paul○●roshu△■va-kire-ru-akuwa▼□◎Paul-stovar-★☆irumineria』"
"I'm sorry, I could only catch the part where 'Paul' appeared twice."
"Then, that will do. Paul is fine."
"...That will do?"
"It sounds like an Earthling's name, which is nice. 'Paul'."

Carefully returning the coffee cup to the saucer, the alien who called himself 'Paul' held out his slender hand with seven fingers toward me.

(...A handshake?)

Without grasping his intention, I shook his hand back almost as a reflex, and his branch-like fingers intertwined with mine.
While I was bewildered by the unfamiliar sensation, I noticed that our joined hands were vibrating slightly. My hand remained held until I realized that he was laughing.

"You are a bit too honest. You are defenseless and reckless."

"Reckless?"
"It's not good to take everything someone says at face value when you don't know their background, culture, or language."
His seven fingers suddenly open and release me.

"I suppose they don't teach you on Earth not to take too much interest in strangers. It's a peaceful planet."
The tone of his patched-together voice sounded somewhat pained.

"Paul-san."
"Yes."
"Why did you decide to come to Earth?"
"Why..."
"Oh, I'm sorry. Is this a delicate question?"
Since I don't have any alien acquaintances, I really don't know the ropes.

"It's fine. Well, to put it simply, it's for work."
A high-pitched voice and a heavy bass sound seem to intertwine alternately. Occasionally, static runs through it. Like a radio signal reaching from a distant land.

"For work, you say?"
"Yes, there are many things that only exist on this planet. We have been collecting such things for a long time. Because there are many people who want them."

I thought the recognition of aliens' existence was a recent thing. I wonder if there has been a trade-like relationship in secret in some circles.

"That's an amazing job."
"It's not particularly amazing... Ah, maybe it's faster if I show you."

Paul-san held up the cup and saucer as if to show them off to me, then slowly intertwined his seven fingers.
Just like he had intertwined them with my hand earlier.
And in an instant, both the cup and the saucer disappeared from his hands.

What remained was something like glittering sand dancing in the air. Even that disappeared, blown away by the movement of the air.

"Eh...?"

"You always served me with the same cup. I thought it was beautiful, and I grew fond of it."

"Where did the cup go...?"
"It is here now."

On his face as he said that, the pattern drawn on the cup appeared. The vines, the horns, and the milky white strange animals came to life as Paul-san's face right before my eyes, then seemed to vanish as if they were being scratched out.

"In this country's language, do you call it 'kamikakushi' (spirited away)? It might be easier to understand if you think of it as something like that."

While I was dumbfounded, his hand reached out again to try and hold mine. I instinctively brushed his hand away.
He shrugs his shoulders as if to say, 'Oh well.'

"Yes. It's better to have that much caution. You shouldn't make promises easily when you don't even know what is being said to you."

"Make promises easily, you say..."
Is he talking about that long string of words from earlier?
Was that not him telling me his name? If so, then what on earth was that?

“International agreements have become stricter than they used to be. If it’s just an ‘object,’ people might turn a blind eye, but when it comes to a living creature that exists as an individual, you can’t just take them away quietly. Because of human rights or something like that.”
“Take, away?”
“That’s why I have to get permission. Though, the fact that there’s no rule about what language to use when obtaining that permission is a loophole of sorts. Like just now.”

The alien’s words were repeated in a low, fluid voice.
I still didn’t understand the meaning. But,
“I have no intention of going anywhere but here,”
I replied in a trembling voice.

“That’s fine.”
His long fingers touched my head for a fleeting moment, as if brushing against it.

Just as a blinding light, like a flashbang, filled the shop for an instant, there was no one there anymore.
Even looking around, Paul the alien was gone.

“The bill for today, he skipped out on the check... wait!?”

Even after searching, there was no payment left for today’s bill either.

I couldn’t quite grasp what had almost happened to me.

“He did say something about being spirited away.”
If I had kept holding his hand like that.
Wouldn’t I have met the same fate as the cup?
Absorbed into him, I would have vanished from this planet. And then, I would have become glittering, dancing sand...

But, as for my immediate concern,
“Cup, what excuse am I going to give the manager?”
It all comes down to that.

Greetings

To those meeting me for the first time, and to those who aren’t.
Thank you for reading, this is Yonshida.

The theme for this BL on note is,

was the prompt.

Also, I was personally given the constraint that ‘the one standing there when I looked back was Paul the alien.’
*I couldn’t quite reach the hurdle of making it a full-blown sci-fi comedy.

The usual questions like ‘Is this really BL?’, and the fact that I only started writing it the day before the submission deadline (3/15), and other such things, I would like to summarize in a separate afterword article.

For those of you in the busy modern world who don’t have time to read the afterword article, I will do my best to express my creative intent in a single sentence: ‘A higher being tried to exploit a lower being as usual, but the target was unexpectedly innocent, which disarmed them and stopped them from doing any harm.’ It’s that classic fairy tale trope that has existed since ancient times. Like how Lord Thoth returned young Sisi from the underworld. ♪He saaaaved meeee♪

No, it was actually incredibly difficult this time and my pen stopped many times because, after all,

no regression or flashbacks

was the requirement. That was, well—it was difficult, wasn’t it.

*The header image was borrowed from Minna no Photo Gallery.