Fashion, Fame, And Trains! [Galaxmos]

    Was it normal in dreams, to have an observer off in the distance? Maybe. The concept had never crossed Michi's mind. And surely, it never would. Between the daze of sleep and the daze of being in a completely foreign place, she didn't even realize someone was approaching her. At least, until 'approaching' was no longer the correct word, as they no longer had any distance to remove between themselves!

    The surprise-voice sent a tingle down the girl's spine, as she debated between several reactions. As luck would have, she managed to pick the calmest one. Quickly rotating on the balls of her feet, the silver-haired girl came to stare at...

    A smoothie!

    Could she taste anything in a dream? While Michi was pretty sure the answer was no, it didn't stop her from accepting the drink. "Oh!" she managed, after a small delay. And then? "I-" stop the word-vomit from happening, fast! "-like your hair!" Mane? Hair? Both? What was it? What was she even looking at, as a whole? Yes, a smoothie. But also a... goat? Lion?

    Rhino-Unicorn?

    God, dreams were weird.

    "What's Terminus?" Obvious answer? Yes. Yes, this was absolutely her first time in Terminus. Then, there was a small hesitation as she looked at the smoothie that she had taken, "this isn't some Wonderland deal, where I'm gonna shrink if I drink this, right?" It was probably best to ask the question before she risked becoming ant-sized! Granted, in comparison to the kind stranger, she already seemed to be quite small. Maybe that was just more reason to be wary about shrinking!

    But, some manners wouldn't be forgotten! When provided with a first(?) name, the girl would know to respond in kind! "I'm Michiko," she started, before adding another portion of her manners that had been on a delay, "thank you for the drink!" It most definitely was a drink, that much she was sure.

    There was another nagging question in her mind, however. How long did she have to stand around until it wasn't considered rude to ask what a Galaxmos was? Because, human, he was definitely not! Was it considered rude in this dreamworld to ask the dream creature what species he classified as? Honestly, Michi had no idea how to handle a conversation in a place like this!

    This was probably the most ideal situation that Michi could have found herself in, really. Sure, a very tall mystery animal that talked was an overall weird situation. But at least he was nice! And gave her a smoothie! "I bet!" Hair care was no joke! Even though Michi's hair, at the moment, wasn't particularly long! "I used to have hair down to here," she motioned, tapping her hand against her upper thigh, "and it used a ton of shampoo." Of all the conversations 'people' could bond over, it would be hair products, right?

    Though, it was definitely easier to understand shampoo, over what she was currently processing. So, she'd give affirmative hums and head nods while the creature talked. This was a lot of worldbuilding for a dream. Crazy stuff! Despite just having been reassured this was no Wonderland, it certainly sounded like something out of a storybook! "I guess ant-people money wouldn't be as good as normal-people money," she commented quietly, before taking a small sip of the blueberry smoothie. "Oh," she added after a second, "this is good!"

    Smoothies were really the best way to integrate into alien societies, weren't they?

    Giving a nod, she'd follow Galaxmos to the bench, taking the chance to heavily take in the appearance of the stranger, hopefully with him noticing less. Maybe he was an astral lion. Rhino Lion? She needed to stop trying to figure out what animal he could be, when it was very clear that most creatures in the area didn't even fit an animal description.

    Sitting, and listening, seemed to be a good way of coming to terms with the idea that maybe this wasn't a dream. After all, the fabulous horse-lion-goat-rhino that gave her a smoothie told her that it wasn't! Who would question that logic, right? "I'm still not so sure that I'm not gonna wake up soon," she admitted, before taking another sip of the drink. Surely, Galaxmos could forgive a newbie for being a bit suspicious. Also, perhaps, for using 'dream' as a coping mechanism for 'mystery place full of monster things.'

    It was weird to have a dream that involved talking about others, though. "Students?" Didn't students have other things to be doing? Like studying and stuff? Sure, she supposed it would be a good place to escape from schoolwork if this place was real, but still! Either way, it didn't seem like this was a place that mattered much on the girl's life and career moves. This certainly wasn't Shibuya. Or Korea! "I'm a pop idol," the silverhaired girl stated, using one hand to press her index and thumb together to make a cutesy heart. "I was doing K-pop, but I'm transitioning to J-pop, so I can live in Japan." Amongst other reasons, surely.

    But, did any of that make sense to somebody who didn't seem to live in Japan? What had he called it, again? Digital World? "What do you do?" Did creatures here act like humans, and have jobs and educations? So far, it seemed possible!

    Just like it seemed entirely possible that she would accept a second blueberry smoothie. "I spent all day practicing, so I guess I fell asleep on the train," she admitted, looking toward the smoothie guy for a moment. Probably something else that wasn't human. "I'm not even sure how I ended up here." Probably by being so tired that she'd somehow taken the wrong train! How she'd gotten to a train that led her here was quite the mystery, though! For some reason, it just felt so hazy!

    "What do humans do here?" Hopefully, Galaxmos was ready for a million questions. A first-timer would definitely be asking plenty! Especially once reality fully set in!

    With her hair under keen observation, the girl remained relatively still for a moment. A dream about hair braiding. Sure, she'd take it. Better than a nightmare, that was for certain. "Sure!" What was the worst that could happen? At least, if this strange animal managed to make a tangled mess, shorter hair was easier to comb. Though, it would quickly be apparent that there would be no need to fix her hair any time soon.

    "Bits?" While Michi felt that, perhaps, this was meant to make loads of sense, instead, she could only envision bits of objects. Like breadcrumbs! Not particularly helpful. "Bits of what?" Clearly, bits and data had not made a connection in her brain yet.

    None of this had made a connection, really. Maybe she needed caffeine instead of a smoothie. Still, no complaints on the smoothie, of course. No complaints on any free drinks or snacks, really! "They kind of are!" Michi realized, looking at her smoothie again. She hadn't been to a Jamba Juice in forever!

    Galaxmos' flair of showing off certainly didn't go unnoticed! Nor unappreciated. Michi was still trying to wrap her head around everything as best as she could, including the strange type of creature that she was spending time with! Any moment now, she would have to wake up. Really. This dream already felt way longer than the norm!

    "Well! Maybe I'm the first!" Surely not. More likely, she was utterly lost and in denial. Digital Worlds, or whatever, weren't real. That didn't make any sense!

    Now, a more dream-suitable reaction occurred with the interest in her career. Unfortunately, a bunch of questions thrown to a dazed teen probably didn't get absorbed as well as it should! "I've done a lot of songs," she answered, trying to think through the answers. Did she have answers? Did she have sleep? "A lot of my songs are with a group, but I've got a few that are solo," she tried to keep up, while pulling out her phone. Would any of her apps work? It was hard to say, when cellular data ran the human-phone-world. Still she tapped a purple square, and hoped for the best. "I think I should have some downloaded," she added, while her music library popped up. Success!

    "I only have the K-pop stuff on here, but this one's more poppy," she stated, while gesturing at song titles, "and this one's kind of an, ah," was this the right descriptor? "jazz?" Sure. Jazz worked. Either way, it looked like it was up to Galaxmos if anything stood out, or if he wanted to actually hear any of it at all!

    Now, an idol and a fashionista certainly seemed to make a suiting pair of friends, didn't they? Perhaps, too soon to actually verbalize that, but Michi thought of most nice people as friends! Even if this people wasn't a standard human type of people! "That sounds pretty great!" While Michi had no room to complain on her own privileges, Galaxmos sounded like he had quite the enjoyable hand dealt to him in life!

    Though, interest turned to awe with hair turning into clothes. "How'd you do that?" What a magic trick! Granted, it made sense if one remembered this was a dream! But, for just a moment, Michi forgot that little detail. Where could Galaxmos have hidden the shirt, to trade it out so flawlessly? Perhaps, he was more a magician than a fashionista!

    But as the conversation continued, Michi found herself repeating a new word. "Trailmon?" Of course she wouldn't understand it immediately. But, within a few clicks of the hamster wheel known as her brain, a dramatic frown graced her features. One of pure, ridiculous betrayal. "The train totally did laugh at me, didn't it?" Poor Michi. It hadn't been her imagination!

    Granted, the silver haired girl didn't have too long to pout about how rude a train had been. Instead, she zoned in on yet another word. "Heroes? Here?" Incredulous! Disbelief! Hands tightened on her smoothie, scrunching her nose while she tried to figure out how to construct her next sentence. "How are they heroes in a place like this?" Not really just a city per se. Maybe they stopped thieves or something! But... "Like, no offense or anything, but so many people are so big and fighty looking. Are the students that big, too?" Yes, Galaxmos. The big statement definitely referred to you. Fighty? Not so much. Astral Rhinocorn-lions drinking smoothies weren't really intimidating when visually compared to a giant dinosaur or guys with multiple wings and staves! Mostly because Galaxmos didn't seem to be carrying a weapon. But, she wasn't going to think too hard on it. Surely, if anyone tried hard enough, everything could be fighty looking.

    A model, though? Could Michi be a fabulous model? "What if I visited often?" After all, she still had her human world career ahead of her! But modeling would be great! Yet again, the girl forgot that this was a dream, and dreams were awfully difficult to return to on a whimsy! "Modelling would be so much fun."

    Bits of data. Oh, of course. She should have known. Somehow, magically. Who wouldn't be able to just know that a place like this would use bits of data? There was a long hum, while the girl processed. "I swear, it's like we're in a video game or something." Or a computer! Then again, computers could run a lot of video games. So, maybe the answer was both!

    If only these Terminus Smoothies could be found everywhere, though. "Gotta support local businesses, I guess," she shrugged after a moment. Local. Yes. Sure. That's what she would call it. Still not a real place, but why not consider it local to the dream place?

    No time to think about it, though! If this were a dream, it would have been destined to end! The silverhaired girl let out a squeak at the pinch, and jumped a tiny bit. Cheeks puffed, while the girl instinctively swatted at the 'attacking' hand. "Stranger things could happen!" Michi argued. Sure, they could. Like waking up on a train in a totally different world!

    Though, it made sense that someone with multiple ears would prefer gentle music, it hadn't actually crossed the girl's mind! Perhaps, because until today, she'd never met anyone with more than two! She'd have a thoughtful expression while the creature listened to the songs, and once he was free of listening? She'd immediately have to ask, "Do extra ears make the world super loud?" What else would they be there for? Fashion?

    ...Actually, considering who she was talking to, she wouldn't put it past him to have another set of ears for fashion's sake.

    Just like how this magic trick was totally for fashion's sake. The teen would nod her head and squint her eyes a little, trying to wrap her mind around the entire process. Digimon were weird. Space powers were weird. "I bet everyone wishes they could make stuff appear out of other things." Luckily, Michi had thought this statement through. Because wishing people could 'make things out of their hair' was actually a terrible idea and would probably create a lot of creepy, ultra itchy sweaters.

    At least she was reassured that the trains laughed at anyone, and not just dozing passengers. "An orb?" Pause. "Rookie?" Galaxmos, you just raised even more questions! "You saying that you're like, a baseball sometimes?" Was he a floating baseball? Did he roll? How did a galaxy lion-rhino relate to a baseball? Or a ping-pong ball? What if Galaxmos was ultra tiny sometimes? So many questions, so little time!

    Still, Michi was clearly having a hard time grasping how students could be heroes. What were they saving, cats from trees? Were cats behemoths in this world? That would make it hard to save cats from trees. And, it would need some sturdy trees.

    With the pat on the head, she looked thoughtfully over Galaxmos. Yes, large. No, not fighty. But strong? She guessed that made sense. Big things could definitely come off as strong, even if not fighty. Michi, however, was tiny and therefore not very strong! "What do you mean, partner, spirit, army?" Michi didn't know how to handle an army! She didn't want to join the military or anything! Digital or otherwise! And, well, 'spirit' was a concept that just went straight over her head. One could almost hear the 'woosh' of it passing overhead. Even though just moments prior he had mentioned people turning into digimon!

    If only she would make that connection! But, maybe it was because the sentence prior hadn't implied she would be dealing with whatever these words were! Could people turn into Digimon? Were they like werewolves? Full moon and all? Just wait until she could finish processing all this! There would be so many more questions!

    But, questions would shift to contracts, and the girl's blue eyes were absolutely sparkling at the thought. Modelling? Yes. Contracts? Surprisingly also yes! Michi was all about that business life! "I'm fine with all of that!" Measuring tapes and outfits? She couldn't even use sarcasm in pretending that it didn't sound like fun! "I've worn a ton of costumes, with the whole idol thing!" Which meant that Galaxmos had possibly found the least whiny person to drag through millions of clothes!

    "Just, no hair dye, alright?" Michi had a reputation to keep with her style, after all! And even temporary dye wouldn't easily come out of silver hair too easily! Wigs, however? Doable.

    Though, was it smart to go to the home of a strange creature? Well, he had bought her a couple smoothies! And, she was still pretty on-the-fence on if this was real life or a dream, so why not? "Sure!" A simple enough agreement! The teen stood up, ready to follow the Digimon to his home. "Do you live near here?" Were things generally in walking distance? She wasn't so sure how this place worked.

    "I think most colors are good, though a stylist once told me I looked good in blue." Probably since it would match her eyes! As far as allergies went, though? There was a hum, before shrugging and shaking her head, "nope, I can eat just about anything!" At this rate, though, if this wasn't a dream, Michi was going to have to exercise a ton to burn all of these calories!

    Of course, there was one more question to be asked. "What's a Vivi, though?"

    At this point, it was probably best that Michi had met Galaxmos before anyone else. Who else would actually put up with all of her uncertainties and disbelief? Or her confusion over how those little flecks were actually money! "They're not even coins?" How weird! Somehow, it felt like confetti or something more than money!

    "I could be in a dream or a video game," the silver haired girl chimed, with a wiggle of her finger. "VR can be very immersive!" Video games were powerful these days! "But I guess I could treat it more like I have finite lives and don't, like, test fall damage or something." Spoiler alert, the Digital World usually had fall damage!

    Denial could be a pretty powerful thing, clearly.

    But at least she was trying to understand the workings of the made-up world and its made-up denizens, right? It was probably the best way to get her to come around to the idea that the place was real!

    "You should hear me after practice then. I get a ton of aches and creaks!" No, that probably meant Galaxmos wouldn't want to hear her! There would be a lot of old-people-esque groaning involved with that! As relaxing as the 'audiophile' might think it was, it would probably get really annoying after a few thousand knee-clicks!

    Still, the girl seemed to be doing decently at grasping this whole 'making things out of practically nothing' thing that Galaxmos had going for him! "Can you make super cute mittens?" Why mittens? Why now? And why for a girl who didn't generally experience weather that required mittens?

    These were the true questions of life, but Michi still needed to ask everything. "So, like, you make clothes and hurt people?" Weird combo, really. "Do you have to hurt people often?" Hopefully, the answer was no. Otherwise, she might have some qualms about getting into a vehicle with the galaxy goat-rhino.

    It was probably best that for the moment, she still wasn't convinced of the reality of this place. Otherwise, maybe she'd also realize just what dangers she could be in!

    But there was no time for danger when alien animals turned into space basketballs! There was a gasp of surprise, while Michi leaned closer to look at the rookie. "That is so weird." Pause. "No offense!" She'd just never seen an animal turn into a totally non-animal object-type-thing before! How could this be real?

    Real or not, the girl would still lean away to give Galaxmos space for his return to the form she was more familiar with. "Why'd they refuse him?" Was it common practice to refuse partners? The idol still wasn't really sure what she was wrapping her head around. There was just so much! But, she would try her best! "Can you get a new partner, if you want?" Surely, it was more complex than that.

    Like, something with a super tough ritual that may or may not be akin to summoning powerful demons and not dying while trying.

    "I don't think I really have a strong affinity for anything," the girl hummed, tilting her head a bit, but otherwise staying relatively still for measurement sake. "Unless you count the whole singing and dancing thing." That didn't seem much like an affinity, though, did it? Especially not when compared to fire.

    That was to assume that Michi even belonged in this world to have a partner or a spirit.

    "I'm not a fan of armies," she admitted, still cooperating with her assessments to the best of her ability. Which, was pretty easy since she wasn't actually being asked to do anything! "Are armies for wars, like where I'm from?" Was that all that an army was used for? Michi didn't really know, even for the human world. It was never a topic that particularly interested her!

    It was a relief there wouldn't be heavy makeup or hair alterations though! Which Galaxmos would surely know of, even with the tiniest of sighs that escaped Michi's lungs. And more relief that they wouldn't be walking far. Or, at all really. But, in the clouds? Was this a metaphor like someone's head being in the clouds?

    Somehow, even dense-moment Michi knew that it wasn't.

    But now, they were onto the topic of the Vivi that had been thus-far well-spoken of! "Anthropomorphic fox," the blue eyed girl repeated, slowly. "Like, she's a furry?" Michi, they're not actually humans! That could be considered rude! But she was, probably, actually fur-covered.

    Despite being almost entirely expected at this point in the dream sequence, flying cars still caught the girl by surprise. "From the clouds," she quietly confirmed, with a nod. Expect everything in this place, she supposed.

    Not wanting to waste anyone's time, the girl would follow the fashionista into the vehicle, taking a spot in the back seat. Roomy! "It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Vivi." If she'd done introductions outside, she would have bowed! But, cars made bowing a less than ideal greeting, so she'd just have to be extra friendly instead!

    Trying not to stare too long at the fox, Michi would just flash a smile. "Thank you!" It was really a fox. A legitimate, talking fox. Oh, this was still so weird. How could one girl cope with this? How did other humans believe this was real?

    It seemed to be down to business now, though! Did contracts matter much between worlds? "I have a contract about music in Shibuya," the girl stated, "but it's only for songs that I produce to sell through their label." Surely, that wouldn't conflict with a modeling or clothing-related one, right? Otherwise, issues may arise! It had been a lot of work to get on that label!

    "I don't really have a guardian. My parents are in Korea." Well, that probably made things a bit easier on that regard! Probably. "If they have to acknowledge something, it can only really be done through e-mail or fax." Was that a thing in the Digital World? Could files be sent to the human world? Michi really didn't know how anything worked! "Or snail mail, if you're daring." And, if you had the patience for postal workers to deliver things to a different country entirely! If the mail ever even made it!

    Didn't Galaxmos know it was rude to ask a lady her age, though? Contract-wise, it was important anyway, and Michi totally understood that. "Seventeen." Then, a pause with a cheeky inquiry of, "how old are you?" Sure, he was asking for business, but Michi had every right to try to make a mysterious digital monster give her an age range! Every single right!