Vera chimes the door to Talia's sleeping quarters. She keeps her finger held down on the button, and she rubs her eyes and mouth with the back of her other hand. Her glasses are in her satchel. "Talia. I hope you're not a 'heavy sleeper.'"
The pink-red creature stirs slightly, and makes some slight noises of disapproval at being awoken. Not enough to be heard of course, so with a sleepy half-efforted call, she barely manages to convey through the door to Vera; "Awake!" This doesn't mean she manages to get out of bed though, where she stretches out her frame - twice, the first time being interrupted by pushing against bedframes on both sides. If Vera really needs to get inside soon, she surely would have the ability to, Talia supposes.
Vera leans her head on the door and says into it, "I need to just show you around today. I was going to anyway maybe later, but the other researchers of this place insisted I did now, and the Town AI. Guess word's gone around about the cosmic lady who slammed on the dome." She closes her eyes and reels back, and she then steps out of the way of another resident of these hallways coming through. Wasn't he a chef?
Talia slinks out of bed just long enough to crack the door for Vera and then returns to lying down with her feet planted on top of the bedpost. She's this time taken to strip off her fancy getup before sleeping, instead adorning some very comfy looking pajamas. She's finally fresh again too, having showered before rinsing the clothes in said shower and leaving the pieces in any accessible corner of the room to dry. "I have spare clothes, don't worry. I'm not planning to scout the village in pajamas or soggy outfit." Her hair is clearly in need of a brush and there's some dampness in bed from both hair and tail not being completely dry after washing; she's slept in the humid outsides plenty of times though so it doesn't bother her at all.
She nods and sits in the same chair as last night, and she sighs while staring at the clothes. "If you prefer, we could arrange taking your garments to the laundromat sometime and, for now, you could pile the used clothes in a basket. But no matter. I look forward to walking around with you, and just know that I'm going to need some coffee today. I still feel tired from last night. How, then, does our caliber of lunch buffet sound to you?" She glosses over how she still had goosebumps and difficulty sleeping with the racing possibilities of this possible celestial of Talia with such unique abilities of teleportation. How it felt to be ripped out into the sky. "Do... You ever trim all that hair?"
The clothes seem to have no opinion of this suggestion, but Talia does stand up and pile them together fairly neatly as suggested. "Oh, that sounds like very good - I have a few sets of clothes I'd like to run through in that case. Sometimes I visit places that don't necessarily offer good opportunities to clean." She produces a hairbrush and gently sets to work on her hair.
"Ah, Buffets are always a curious thing since there's so many things and I don't always know what's meant to go together. Food can be so vastly different in places I visit - I'm by no means a picky eater though. But being given the chance to arrange a variety myself might lead to some peculiar combinations so I may need suggestions while we're there." A small yawn interrupts the brushing. "Oh, the hair? Yeah, it does get a bit of care on the rare occasions where it's practical to do so, but it's on and off quite fuzzy at times. If that's a service you offer though-" Her eyes run across the ends of her hair. "-maybe it could be in order."
"Well, for as long as we work together, you can expect to share my usual luxuries for things like sanitation, food, and whatever other luxuries. I was thinking we'd maybe talk about this partnership in a bit more detail, maybe put it in writing; however, I'd like to reiterate, your willingness to help us here in Town is what separates you from an issue instead." Vera removes her glasses and tablet from her sash and starts to take note of today's information. She squints at the LCD. "Even if you were a picky eater, we'd have found something for you to eat. There's someone I know who gets on request ink squid pasta. But I could advise what I'd order together, sure—just, well, I wouldn't let that discourage your choices. Perhaps it would be interesting to see your selection without my bias, for instance." Perhaps her diet is influenced by her species, for instance, which is a coarse way to gain insight before a real genetic test... "We could do your hair later, sure. I'm sure the salon would be delighted to work on a tail."
"You've already made your scientific stance on my peculiar ways clear, I know I'm a highly suspicious anomaly to your trained people. But that's okay, as long as you decide to be nice~" She bows, and giggles. Then, she begins to rummage several sets of clothes from her seemingly way too small pouch of magical capacity. Some variants and copies of her adventurer's outfit, a few more casual getups, one entirely clean that she intends to put on. "I promise I'll do what I can to be helpful and compensate for all this pampering and service... Oh, do maybe note that one or two of my clothes might be stained by things that don't react the way things do in this world. It shouldn't be a problem but I don't suggest just throwing them into a machine and leaving it unattended before testing it by hand in water."
She starts the motions of exchanging clothes before realizing that maybe, this place doesn't appreciate such things as casually. "If you rather not be here when I put other clothes on, I can scoot into the bathroom for a bit."
She rolls her eyes, and she then notes some of the contents coming from the pouch with increasing interest and shaking hands. "Wait, please, I don't understand... You have been helpful—you'll continue to be—but let's start with your little bag holding all that. What kind of magic is that? Are you just creating these clothes from your bag? What is the cost of creating these?" Vera leaves her chair, and she steps forward before covering her eyes and walking blindly away to the door. "No, I won't look. The bathroom would be ideal, yeah. Just, please, don't let that bag go anywhere, Talia. Take it with you to the dining commons, in other words. I have to know more."
Again, there's the notion of an 'otherwordly' potential to Talia's abilities. Vera asks, "I won't need a spacesuit, right? You always go somewhere I can breathe and exist? Where are you going that causes stains on your shirt to be radioactive or something?"
"Nono, there's no exchange system or such going on. A thing that goes in is a thing that comes out. I can just keep a very large amount of things in there. There are no concerns to sorting, as long as I want a specific thing to come out, it is the thing I find in there. Else, it gives items back in roughly the order I put them in. And please, please don't mess with it or science on it. If it breaks, that could destroy souvenirs and memories of years of traveling and greatly set back my traveling abilities... Not to mention, the bag itself was a gift. I don't ever keep it out of my reach, and I will choose to leave this place if the option is handing over the bag for extensive research."
Talia sighs and gives a very stern gaze to Vera, realizes she's not looking and instead takes the pouch along with her clean change to the bathroom. Very swiftly, she's now adorned in a not overly cropped top of white and some pink-leaning pale pants. Definitely much subtler than her usual adornment; it makes her look almost plain despite the vivid hair and tail and ears. "I don't mean radioactive, just things that might fizz or become icky, and be unpleasant for a modern and sensitive machine. As I mentioned before, it would require a very targeted willpower for me to teleport to somewhere potentially inhospitable. Like the moon of this place. Never has my dimension hopping lead unexpectedly to an inherently harmful place."
Vera knows so many people in Town that'd take the opportunity for such a remarkable magical item being put under careful scrutiny. Still, a caveat is a caveat, and Vera needs to maintain her act as a new friend and not create some impression of a prison warden instead. She removes her hands from her sight with caution, scribbles details down on her device once more, and says, "Okay. So you have a storage container that somehow contains far more volume than the volume of said storage container, and you're asking me not to 'science' it... It's your request, and I'll honor that, Talia, however I still am curious what else I could learn about your bag and your history with it without taking it off of you. For instance, let's say you soaked the bag in a bucket of water. Would every possession inside the bag become wet despite the volume discrepancy? Or perhaps would the bag absorb all the water through the sides and many of the items wouldn't become wet? How many items are actually in there at the moment, anyway?"
Vera pops open the doorway to the room and walks backwards out to the hallway. She nods. "Oh, intriguing. You appear much less alien in that outfit. I appreciate the choice... Come along, Talia, I feel a headache coming on. Right, I do remember you mentioning that now. I'll make sure to let the people at the laundry know the special circumstances of your clothes, then, another time." As Vera and Talia walk down the halls, they enter a glossy white elevator.
"Oh, it's gotten soggy a few times. But it does mostly just accumulate the water that flows inside as a separately stored item. I could turn it upside down and pour out whatever liquids I want to no longer have inside it, probably. All other things generally keep to themselves in this stored state. Think of them like... Files in a computer, maybe. I saw you had these nifty folders when poking about and that's kinda what my bag does too. Considering I still remember the time I received the pouch and Annie- the previous owner cleared it out fully, I know most of the things in there still and it is, in fact, a large amount. There's probably some various bobs and ends and tools I've stashed in there haphazardly and forgotten about though. Maybe I'll need to consider entirely emptying it again sometime in the near-ish future just to take inventory and de-junk. In case it has capacity limits I'm not aware of."
Talia is realizing too that this endless loop of questions and answers will definitely go on for hours if allowed, and joins Vera with an eagerness and her pouch. Having taken a few elevators already in Town over the past days, she's fairly confident about it this time.
"From the sound of the way it stores even liquids, I'd say that is a surprisingly apt analogy. Truly your bag is a kind of perfect physical index of trinkets and substances. Every other bag—or sash—is quaint in comparison." Vera shakes her sash and its contents as the doors slide open, and she leads Talia and her through the white, wide, polished clearing directly outside the pill-shaped elevator. "I'd like to learn about this Annie and—if that's acceptable to your conditions Talia—I'd be pleased to be invited to the task of you examining your bag's whole inventory. You have an immensely safe bedroom to engage in such a task, after all." To their sides are at least a dozen small buildings, no taller than a few floors each, and many with strange architecture like triangular outer walls and decorative touches like green and blue strips of artificial light. Vera points out a stubbier example of one building, and then a taller, oval one. "That's the Immigration and Departures Office. That one is the library. It was especially useful when educating and training for this job position. Are you much for reading?"
There's a slight lingering concern that some random objects in the pouch might simply be upsetting, chemically or practically or whatnot, for Vera and Town, so Talia simply appeases the suggestion with a bit of a shrug. Nothing that would explode when exposed to the air of this place, but... It's just a gut feeling, really. She covers with a slightly heightened but mostly genuine awe for the architecture of the surroundings. "I do read on occasion - There's, as fate has it, maybe a total of twelve different recurring scripts in the places I visit and I'm somewhat literate in most of them. I do on occasion come across places with entirely unfamiliar script or rarely even unfamiliar languages but it's never truly a barrier for whatever I am meant to experience. Don't think too deeply in that this means for the vastness of universes that aren't considered suitable for my fated travels. It hurts my head when I try."
Vera's eyes widen, and she drops her finger like a hot coal. "Twelve? You're contending for the world record at that. You'll have to take language tests for us sometime." She pauses for a moment. And they specifically head toward a path of shiny sidewalk over a constructed grassy hill. Passing by some more buildings. "You really might be ancient. No offense—the case would be either that or you're a child prodigy. And not to imply I haven't believed you. I'm just warming up to the evidence, which will hopefully be tested with your permission soon... Speaking of which, I'd like to see one of these universes you so claim. Our scientists and field researchers have uncovered possible means of teleportation explainable to magic or science, but dimensional leaps? You should talk to the Scientific Advancements Division sometime. Or simply take me." As they climb over the gentle slope, a columned pavilion with several seats adjacent to conveyer belts emerges. Food diagrams and posters are plastered anywhere beside closed doors.
Talia feels quite flattered, though truly 'somewhat literate' is about the extent of some of these languages. It's sweet, in a way, to have Vera come around to her peculiar ways after the initial defiance, though practical demonstrations of course would make it hard to deny things.
"I would be up to offer some insights in whatever manner you're thinking. Assuming it's not like. Dangerous. We could take some more trips sometime! After last time you seem a bit more in the right mindset so maybe we can find some entirely new places and not the forests of your planet." She giggles. "Just be prepared that you rely on me, entirely. I think you could have gotten back from that place. If we're in a different branch of reality, you're truly fucked until I pull you back here."
Talia scans the visuals of food and such, a fascination spreading across her face. It's a bit of a necessity that she be intrigued by unknown cuisine after all, as she depends on it very frequently.
"None of those aforementioned tests would be harmful, no," She says. She sits in the first open booth they come across, and she returns the glances of the nearby lunch crowd from other seats. She presses her hand to a small monitor built into the wall perpendicular to Talia and her and scrolls through the listings. The food menu and other settings. The offers are diverse as promised. A normal restaurant would go out of business from spreading themselves too thin. "What meal appeals to you? And, you know, I'm starting to believe I really should be worried. I'd like not to be stranded in some universe I don't belong in. Maybe we should just take a probe with you instead... Then again, I perhaps do not really have a reason to distrust you so far. And, in fact, I'd have travelled universes with something only slightly less glamorous and reliable than a big machine." A young girl walks up to Talia's side and touches then tugs her tail. Her father runs up and grabs the young girl's waist, and he says, "Sorry. This is embarrassing."
"What meal appeals to me? All of them, really. You can make a suggestion if you dare. Something good to represent your people~" Talia lets Vera handle her concerns about interdimensional travels in peace, and instead helps herself to some water. It's good quality hydration, of course, Town wouldn't have it any other way. The idea of going out alone with some technological gadget to accompany her seems silly; whatever readings it makes might be entirely incomprehensible and coming back with that would surely be a letdown for the team.
Before the intrusive girl can be yoinked away, she gets a playful whap of fuzzy tail in the face. "No worries. I know it's a majestic one." Still though, she lets it sit around her waist now instead of waving it about freely. Brushing it can be a bit of a chore so she'd rather not chance having an excessively feisty gremlin try to mess it up completely.
"...What I'm trying to get at, Ms. Starstrike, is that I think I'll take my chances in the name of going somewhere no man or woman has gone before. Just, please, stick close to me." She watches the father and young girl walk away, and then she taps the menu. Vera smirks. "You really are a game-changer. Even the chance is exciting beyond my wildest opportunities from before. Thank you, again, please. I'll help you to one of our best lunch platters, then, the 'Full English.'" She confirms a second order as well. She presses a knuckle to her cheek and chin and her other hand she types into her personal tablet. "Twelve languages, good lord... We have a Visitor's Center I could show you today. It's rather a museum."
A stuffed omelette with spinach, a coffee, and the Full English arrives on two plates through the adjacent conveyor system after only a couple minutes. Town would say it has mastered quick and tasty meals, but the threshold for perfection runs a deep course in the culinary world. Vera takes the coffee and taps sugar into it from an included vial.
"A Full English? What a peculiar name, but if it's one of your best I am excited. Just as much as for the other things you'd like to show me! This is quite a neat place overall, thank you for showing me around."
Talia allows Vera to take the foods off the conveyor belt as she doesn't want to accidentally snag someone else's meal in passing. This striking assortment of various meal ingredients spread on her plate achieves a curious head tilt, and the pink creature takes her fork to evaluate the various treats. "What an intriguing variety! I bet a lot of effort has gone into choosing what makes up the entire English." She samples the toast with beans. The sausage with the egg. The mushroom with the beans. The egg with toast. Most of the plate is consumed this way, in scientific pairwise exploration.
Vera nods, and she sips from her coffee. She hesitates after creating another cross section of her omelette, and she says, "I suppose it is nice to have a fresh, new member of Town. Of course, however; I wanted to—and it's my job anyway given the circumstances... Yeah, that meal's name has a strange etymology, doesn't it? I'm glad you like it. There's plenty more of that and any other meal you intend to feast on following that you stay here and we work together." She eats.
At one point, a passerby takes a picture of Talia on his phone. At another, a woman with a white lab coat and yellow nail polish asks Vera and Talia if she, Talia, is the 'magic visitor from space.' Vera says, "At least the sky. I'd request you please save the interviewing for me."
Talia is occupied with food in her mouth, so she cannot respond much to the comment at the time. It does amuse her though, and once she's free to speak again she can't help but mention. "It seems I've accumulated a bit of fame here already. I guess these people aren't used to strange creatures falling onto their roof on occasion? I'll try not to let it get to my head, hehe." The platter of meal is finished in a very reasonable amount of time, and now she's just nipping idly at her drink of water as her tail has once again made itself independent and is swishing about.
"And I do look forward to more meals, what I've had so far has been good. Thank you. I am ready to leave whenever you are." She looks around, and meets more eyes than an average person would in this situation. Talia isn't a shy one though, and doesn't mind the attention.
A bit of the omelette is left on her plate. "I gravitate to staying humble myself. I'd remorse being the celebrity. I'm even grateful my work contributes to the safety of my people without pinning me as one. A celebrity, that is." She slides the dirty dishes onto the conveyer belt, and Vera then stands up and says, "You're welcome, Talia. I'll lead you around the rest of the main circle and, afterward, any specific place you may find interesting before we head back. It's my only assignment today to tour Town with you and keep you company, so I hope that's fine." She glares at some of the passing faces of the diner, and she walks out ahead of Talia back to the sidewalk.
Out of the depths of her satchel, Talia produces a paper towel and wipes her mouth off. She then trots after Vera, but does allow herself to give a brief smile and wave on a heel turn while her partner isn't looking. "If that's what you prefer, then I do suppose it's a good thing. I get my fair fill of solitude and unfamiliarity as you might expect, so it is very tempting to take what greater attention I am being offered."
Once they're on somewhat more open ground Talia stretches out impressively, her already somewhat trim top showing off a good bit of her tummy in the process. Her build is truly nothing too spectacular in any direction. A small bit lean, a small bit toned, minorly marked by her curiosity for foreign food being humored quite often. "How busy are you on a day to day basis, anyhow? It seems you're quite committed to the cause."
Vera shrugs. "I must admit that it makes sense in your context. Still, you would not wish to build on people's expectations and then fail to deliver. Town residents don't leave often, and therefore the past is never far from the memory of everyone around." She points her hand to a large white staircase leading up to a strangely cylindrical instalment on the edge of the grassy hill sidewalks in this area. Vera says, "That's the 'Visitor Center.' It's intended to be a museum, like an audio and physical medium to learn about the Town's founders and principles." They pass it and walk onto the sprawling white tile of the main town area once again, however. Some taller or wider buildings are in this area. One spirals most of the way to the dome. Vera says, "I am busy often. My job as a field researcher is what I enjoy doing most, so my mandatory vacation time is the least of my intrigue—speaking of which, we are in the entertainment sector. It hosts some of the conveniences I need, such as that clothing department and its laundromat, so I come here sometimes. That spire is the virtual reality pavilion."
"Well, usually I don't put too much concern into maybe missing my mark, as one day I'll be gone forever anyhow... But I do suppose I'm some amount of stuck with these people for a longer time so I won't jeopardize it too soon!" The imposing architecture captivates the creature, and awkwardly almost trips over some stone border while looking up along the taller construction. "I'll be sure to check out the museum soon, then. Context seems good to have. For now, how about that trim of fur? I realize I really didn't have to leave my dirty clothes behind, but you really can be quite convincing... Virtual Reality? Curious! I would very much assume something with that name to be magical in nature but you really aren't the type to. So, what is it?" Talia's head is tilted in slight confusion as she observes the tower.
"Yeah, well, I'm here forever. If you betray someone's inflated expectations, I would hope that I am not caught in the crossfire." She starts walking to the left set of the buildings relative to where they came in from, the set closer to the center of the plateau Town resides on. "It is okay to worry about the dirty clothes later. We are approaching the hairstylist anyway, and she may be occupied with your tail... Oh, and the visitor center should be good later too, sure. As for virtual reality: I suppose you would call it a technological marvel. We have the most advanced and specific simulations anywhere in the world thanks to our leading team of computer scientists, team of neurologists, and our budget for it. Unfortunately, so much interest in making a fake interactive reality to enjoy is because Town majority wants to simulate danger or action in their peaceful everyday. There are more varieties of simulations as well." She leads Talia through the entrance of the hairstylist unceremoniously. The door slides closed behind them. The room is somewhat narrow; only about eight seats and mirrors are past the front desk. The attendant has a bright curled swab of green hair, and she smiles at the sight of Talia and waves at her. And Vera simply continues, "I only utilized the simulations when requested to. For instance, I was asked to train my skills in some set simulations for my work outside Town... You can tell her what you'd like to do for you."
Talia mostly nods and hums along as Vera explains this technological marvel. She doesn't quite get it. "I... Supposed we can look at it sometime when we're not occupied. I'm sure it's neat once I get to figure it out!"
She slinks down into the first free chair, after a brief hesitation to see if the stylist disapproves of her actions. She makes sure the tail slinks nicely out the back of the chair. "Hi hello! I'm Talia. I've head you can offer a bit of freshening on the haircut department, and I'm quite in business for that. Mostly I need just a cleanup of the ends and the likes, it's been sooo long and you don't want to know what all it's been through. If you have some ideas for shaping it up though, feel free to take a bit more. But no more than... A third, unless you're a good negotiator."
"It would be worth your time to investigate, I agree, whether you attend the pavilion for your entertainment or for a training simulation."
The hair stylist rubs her hands together with an almost devious energy, then, and whips a comb and thin scissors from the drawer in front of Talia. She tugs and fluffs the space creature's hair, and it dances between different pink silhouettes in the mirror.
"I know it dear, I can tell! I'll trim all these ends for you—I'll give you a style that you'll love, it'll accent you so much—unless you really wanted to look more regal or casual than wild? Because you look wild, girl. I've been looking forward to doing your hair the moment you landed on the roof! How do you feel about highlights?"
Vera shrugs and slumps into a chair within earshot. Alexandra always said Vera fashioned her hair 'too safely'.