Nathaniel stared at the bedside clock. [i]1:47[/i]. He thought briefly about how strange it seemed to enumerate each moment in the day, to give time quantity, to give it [i]thinginess[/i]. After a few minutes of further pondering about the matter, he decided that it would be better left to philosophers and such. He was a mathematician, somebody who dealt with things far less abstract than nebulous philosophical concepts. [i]1:51[/i]. Why would an alien bother coming to Earth? Presumably, if a civilization had the technology to travel between star systems in a timely manner, then they could probably just observe us from somewhere far enough away to avoid detection by the myriad of satellites in low-Earth orbit. Detection could be disastrous, if the Earthlings got a good enough look at you.

That train of thought trailed off as Nathaniel drifted back to sleep. The clock dutifully kept time as he slept, as that's all it knew how to do. About forty minutes later he woke up. [i]2:31[/i]. He cursed into his pillow when he saw the time. He needed to get moving if he wanted to get to the meeting place in time. He picked up his belongings and hurried down to the main lobby of the hotel. He quickly checked out, although the person at the desk in the main lobby barely acknowledged his existence as he dd so, and then he ran out to his car. It was about 2:45 AM at this point, and he estimated that it would take him about ten minutes to get to Central Park from the hotel, if he was lucky. He didn't trust his luck, unfortunately, and groaned as he realized that he was most likely not going to be there in time. As it turned out, he was right to not trust his luck, as he seemed to hit every single red light. He parked his car and then started to run towards where he thought the tennis courts in Central Park would be. He had only been there once before, but fortunately, he found his way to the tennis courts. He took a seat on one of the benches on the side of the court and checked his phone, it was 2:58. Nathaniel breathed a sigh of relief, he would not be late for whatever it was that was going to happen here.

He looked up from his phone and took a look around. There were some other people here, one of which was dressed quite strangely, as if one had taken random items out of someone's wardrobe and thrown them on somebody, and then on top of that threw on a shawl that certainly didn't match, but covered the individual's face. If there was anyone that would be an alien here, it would most likely be that person. If not, then at the very least their tastes in clothing were alien. A couple people were talking to the oddly dressed individual, although he couldn't quite make out what they were talking about, not that he was really trying to. After a moment the strangely dressed individual removed the shawl, and Nathaniel's eyes widened slightly at what he saw. Either this was an elaborate hoax, or this really was an alien, as its face certainly didn't look human. Even if it wasn't a hoax he wanted to stay around to see what happened. Nathaniel picked up his backpack and walked a bit closer towards the awkwardly dressed...thing. As he did so he saw it gestured towards what he could only assume was its ship, which was certainly unlike anything of earthly make. Somebody holding a plant barged past him and started to babble to the alien; apparently the plant the man was holding meant something to him, as he had even named it. While the appearance of the alien intrigued him, the behavior of this man was certainly out of this world.

This would be a night to remember, regardless of how this meeting shaped up.