A bold, pretty figure. A face you could recognise out of thousands instantly. That was her face, no, her everything. Sticking out not like a sore thumb, but more like a glowing thumb. No one else existed, but her.

“GIVE ME A SIGN GUYS! YOU’RE LOOKIN’ THIS WAY?”

Highly audible affirming noise was made.

“Alright then… YOU KNOW WHAT I’M FEELIN’ RIGHT NOW?”

You’d like to think that the crowd replied with “What?”, however you seriously couldn’t tell.

“I’M FEELING GENEROUS, THAT’S WHAT!”

She had eight total poppers hanging off her costume, two of which had rubber, dusty gloves coming out of them, however they acted more like extra appendages, waving, forming signs, and more, all while her arms were on her hips stoically.

“She looks so awesome! She does, doesn’t she Stress?”

Stress was more blown away by the overdone theatrics and her “popper manipulation”, however he understood that kinesis was probably the cause. Blown away nonetheless, he didn’t avert his gaze.

“ALRIGHT THEN! HAVE MY GENEROSITY!”

Her poppers all rose, fully straining the strings on all of them. Each one then all popped out their own hands, all with thin strips of paper in each. She violently spun at high speed, the poppers all becoming a blur, all as these strips started to fly out from all directions like a woodchipper. Despite the violent nature of it, she still shone so brightly. Nothing was stopping her, and nothing wanted to stop her.

“Gimme that!”

A disgusting voice could barely be heard by Stress over the crowd. A humanoid creature sprung from the crowd, carried by a wave of dense mud and gravel coming out of their large cone-shaped raincoat, consuming those beneath. Not only that, but several other odd assaults started appearing throughout the crowd. Flames, liquids, powders, and other items were all used, all for just getting one of these strips of paper. What could they even be? If it was money, depending on their circumstances, this behaviour could be feasible. But there wasn’t a clear way to confirm at this distance, also while trying to shield Urchiri from whatever the crowd threw out next.

“Trestiros.”

It happened to fast for Stress to notice, however just before any of the perpetrators got their hands on any of the strips, three tiny, condensed pellets of water shot directly at the mud guy, right in their cheek like a moderate punch times three. While not much, it was enough to send them crashing into the tiled floor. The others, who had seen what happened, quickly grabbed one of the strips each and retreated. After they did, someone ran out from a behind a large planter, right past Stress and into the crowd, however that wasn’t important to Stress.

“Are people serious this desperate? Damn, people really do crazy for famous people…”

“What does famous mean?”

“Well-known. For better, or for worse.”

“So you can be a famous even if you kill someone?”

“Some people are famous for that exact reason.”

“Wooooah. I mean, I don’t really wanna know about bad people though…”

“You’ve come this far, so you better not think to deeply, who know where you’ll be in puberty if you do…”

“What’s being in puberty?”

Stress sighed.

“I don’t really want to explain tha-“

GET A TICKET. THERE ARE FOUR LEFT. GO AND GET ONE.

It appeared again. Stress froze mid-sentence, due to it just “talking”, like usual. He looked up at the three tickets gracefully falling into the chaos below. Three tickets. Three? It mentioned four tickets. So, they’re tickets? Before he could wonder where the third ticket had gone…

“I got one! I got one!”

“You got wha-“

Urchiri was holding the missing ticket, despite the rest of them all being relatively high up in the air above the crowd. Stress wanted to question it, but the words in his head had already told him that this was the path to take. He just silently took the ticket from Urchiri’s hand to inspect it. It was indeed a ticket to tonight’s show at the Popper’s Dome, seats all the way at the top of the stadium, the furthest away from the stage, and the highest seats. Those details didn’t really matter that much to Stress, however he then looked back at Popster, bright as ever, but when he looked at her face…

Her eyes stared right at his.

It was subtle, so subtle that no one else in the crowd could notice, nor care, but noticeable. Her pupils were looking at him, only for another second or so, but they were onto him. But… why? He knew that it was all possible that he was caught up in some major sinister plot, but this did send signal that could imply as such. But despite that, she IS an idol, she could just be trying to see who got her tickets to make sure she’s at least a bit safe (The desperate folk earlier proved that danger).

“Stress? I want the floppy thingy!”

“The ticket? Yes, the ticket. If you want.”

“Yay!”

She ran around in circles, holding it in both hands straight forward. She was having a blast. Stress, however, was thinking that now that he had this ticket, he could have a higher chance to find SanityShadxw1310; they were going to this event after all. But how was he going to find them in THIS crowd? He figured that he might as well try to find them if anything, if not, at least he’ll still see an idol performance in another world, something that was interesting in its own right.

“Urchiri.”

“Stress?”

“You wanna see this show?”

“YEAH!”

“Do I wanna see this show?”

“PROBABLY NO!”

“Well, you’re WRONG! LET’S GO!”

“WOOOOOOOOOOOOO SHINY WOMAN!”

“Uuuuuuh… YEAH!”

“YEAH!”

“Alright Poppy. You’re on soon.”

“Yeah OK! New clothes, redo makeup, wash my hair, stretches. Right?”

“Yeah yeah you got it. In terms of your costume, get her to help you with getting it all on properly. Same with anything else; if you need extra hands just ask her.”

The “her” in question? That same officer from earlier. The policepostwoman. She was stood right next to the star herself, in a room in the dome, obviously not accessible for most.

It was a room made for last minute prep for performers. The room had mirrors: large ones you’d see in a gym, and one’s that you’d imagine an actor or actress would sit at, or maybe more like a hairdresser’s mirror. Not only that, but this room’s centre also was filled by a basic sofa and coffee table set-up, fitness mats in one corner, more chairs and a water cooler in another, and a small toilet cubicle in the last one, bar the door’s corner. Hastily put together, for hasty procedures.

Popster first took off her costume, another clean one waiting until she’d finished everything else. She then went into the toilet cubicle to wash her hair, making sure no dust nor particle were trapped in her curling bangs. Once done in there, she got down onto the mats to do some warm-up exercises, although mainly just stretching. She then sat down in front of the smaller mirrors and applied all the make-up she needed to look how she does on stage. She finally had to put on the new costume…

“Maaaantaaaaa.”

“Yeeeeees, I gooooot it.”

The officer started to help Popster put on her costume, but not without some talk.

“Damn, that other costume’s fine. Honestly why are all the behind-the-scenes so extra all the time.”

“I’d gladly perform in that by the way. It’s just that Mr. Bucky Ducky and his subordinates are just obsessed with opportunities and whatnot. Don't you think it annoys me too?”

“I bet it does. Redoing all of stuff when you just did it maybe at least an hour ago for the street performance. Gruelling.”

“Perfect word to describe it honestly.”

“I’m assuming you’ve probably spoke up about this alread-“

“I haven’t. Mainly cause I know why this happens to me. It’s all about my image. To those high horse guys, if I am “tattered by slight imperfection”, I’ll be living in cardboard… potentially.”

“Sheesh… That’s such a stupid stretch though. No way it’s THAT important to be so perfect.”

“Trust me, I’d never want to put you through this in a million years, nor anything bad in general but that’s beside the point. I don’t think I really need to tell you…

The fans want perfection, so that’s what I need to portray. Sorry, but it’s true.”

 “Do you have any bags?”

“No, I don’t.”

“Alright. Can you stand with your arms wide please?”

Stress was in the middle of an inspection. Of course, he hadn’t been carrying any baggage with him this whole time due to him not thinking he’d need anything for dealing with Rudy. The guy who was inspecting him was grabbing a device from his belt that looked like goggles. After looking for a good three seconds, he then asked Stress…

“Are you this child’s guardian? You don’t look like a parent.”

“Uuuuhm…”

Stress didn’t really know how to answer that without it leaving a bad image in his head. However…

“Yes he is!”

Urchiri helped him out, intentionally or not.

“Alright then, however this ticket is for only one person, and we have two of you. Sorry but this child can’t come in alone either, it’s a potential risk we don’t want to take.”

“Oh ok then, shame. Urchiri, I don’t think we ca-“

“I could lend you one of mine. I got given an extra by some kind woman, but I really don’t need it.”

Stress looked behind him. He saw a giant cocoon-like thing stood there, with a thickly wrapped appendage reaching out slightly with a ticket in its nub for a hand. Looking at it more, it looked more like a gigantic cast for the whole body, only with a small gap in the head area with stray black hairs poking out, but a glowing white eye that was clearly visible. Whoever this was had also wrapped up a horn shaped thing on their head too. Stress was starting to wonder if this person had just escaped a mental asylum, with the wrapping slightly resembling a strait jacket. He shouldn’t feel like he should question it though; this was another world after all, who knew what was normal?

“Oh, uhm thank you very much!”

“No proble- Hold on…”

They leaned in closer to look at Stress’s features. It felt condescending, like judgement.

“If you don’t mind, can I speak with you after we’re both done with the inspections?”

“Oh yeah, sure…”

“Nice! Go wait over at the stand over there.”

“Sure thing…”

Stress was very, very uneasy about this person. Their look, their gaze. It was unnerving, contrary to their cheery feminine voice. He figured he should deal with the problems one at a time.

Luckily that other free ticket was enough for the guy to let both Stress and Urchiri into the event, despite its obvious convenience. The guy also forced Urchiri to hand over her bottle as any form of Kinetic Tools were completely banned from the event for audience and performer safety. Understandable, considering what Stress had already seen them do. Despite a small outcry from Urchiri, he was keeping someone waiting…

“So, what were you going to speak about with me?”

“Well… uhm. Are you…

A human? Not a humanoid, a human.”

“Well, yes. I know that there ar-“

“SERIOUSLY!?”

This reaction shocked Stress. They quickly leaned it and started to slowly hop on the spot, then in a circle, even in all of that wrapping.

“Why are you… Huh?”

“I’m sorry, I just haven’t seen an actual human being in ages, it’s all been just humanoids everywhere, although I guess that includes myself too… hehe…”

“Alright then. So, humans are rare in this world, or they just don’t exist here?”

“I honestly don’t even know! There could be some cool colony of humanity somewhere in this world but hell I knew! I’m just so glad to find someone on the same page as me for once…”

“Same page? Wait so you’re human?”

“I wouldn’t say exactly. My flesh and bones definitely don’t feel the same, nor look it.”

“So, you were?”

“Mmmmm… Yeah… there isn’t really a point in hiding it since you’re human anyways.”

Urchiri could barely comprehend the conversation these two were having, not to say Stress was completely fine either. He knew that whatever was underneath that thick cloth, could possibly be a mutated human or otherwise (going off what they said) and he wasn’t prepared for that kind of sight. No one would openly go into public like this without good reason, so he wanted to find that reason. Not only that, but him getting held up here lost him time for looking for SanityShadxw1310.

He got out him phone, not realising he had no internet connection, to try to see if they had posted anything new. He realised his lack of internet after typing their name into the search engine and getting an infinite load time. He turned off his phone screen, seeing the wrapped-up person being nosey behind his back, looking directly at what he was typing.

“Hey, can you not be so nosey all the time, a lot of people hate that, me included.”

“Oh uhm ah urgh… Sorry… about that.”

“You okay?”

“Not really, I seriously need to go to the toilet. Enjoy the show though you two!”

“I will!” he said with a friendly wave.

Questions though. How many questions must Stress have NOW? Stress had figured that he should probably answer only the ones that were genuinely important to him in the moment more than dawdling on others for curiosity’s sake; it would lighten the load a little bit.

Seriously though, how convenient everything that’s happened so far at this dome had been. The free ticket from nowhere, the wrapped figure having a spare and being generous enough to hand it to me, AND that figure being knowledgeable about humans? He couldn’t have gotten luckier.

The crowd roared in excitement and anticipation. Barely an empty seat in sight. Lights all around, pointing directly at the centre of the dome where the circular stage lay. A 360-degree view of it all. The night sky above, stars scattered throughout. And from that stage, emerged the image of perfection herself.

“ARE Y’ALL DOING GREAT TONIGHT? I CERTAINLY AM!”

She smirked at the thousands of people who surrounded her, noise from all angles. Colours, sounds, shapes. They all mixed together into a demanding mass who must be satisfied. Colours. Dull comparatively to her. Even she knew how brightly she shone. The centre of attention, in a literal sense, and not a shred of anxiety.

Until a shock in her stomach emerged, though not due to pressure. This was something more sinister. The presence of something wicked. The purple glow in the corner of her eye, high up on the roofing of one of the stands, barely noticeable through everything happening. 

A sinister purple glow…