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"One cold tea coming up!" Alerts the conductor.
"Oh! Pom-pom.. I appreciate it." Castorice gladly takes the tea of the tray, and puts it into the custom made Pom-pom coaster on the table.
"Good to know!" They glance around, and seems curious. "If you don't mind.. where is Caelus?"
"He's preparing things for me in his room. It's my first time on the Astral Express after all, sooo... have that."
"You will love it here! It's a shame that the others are off the train. Although Dan Heng had spent like.. three or so years in a row on Amphoreus he doesn't seem to care for his health in the slightest.."
"Yep.. atleast I get to explore by myself! haha..." She laughs it off, awkwardly.
...
The small little rabbit thingy signs off by nodding an affirmative gesture.
...
The place really is as grand as Caelus told, a shame that she couldn't bring the rest of the Chrysos Heirs on as well. But Aglaea insisted on her going alone, as a sign of privacy. This was much to the dismay of all the members.
It's big, empty, and cozy. There's also a relic she's never seen before at the edge. And it seems to play a ton of music. It was currently shut, so she felt extra lonely.
"Whatcha looking at?" Her beloved husband pokes up from behind, rather unceremoniously.
"Are you done?"
"Well, of course. Nothing is hard for me when it comes to you my love."
She'd be lying if she said it didn't catch her slightly off guard. "Oh, um- I'm just looking at that thing with music coming out of it. What's this thing called?"
"This thing is called a gramophone. It requires a disc for it to play music, and they are quite hard to obtain. But we just blackmail Silver Wolf to make a disc version of our digital playlists."
"Oh- it's a cool contraption. Does the rest of the universe know about this?"
"Well, yes. It's popular everywhere. However, it's slowly becoming more and more obsolete by the day."
...
"We'd love to have one of these in Amphoreus!"
"I'm sure the people would love it."
...
He joins her near the starry window, alone by themselves. It's so inspiring to know that the world beyond the skies is so uncontrollably expansive that there's probably much more places like the Amphoreus residents.
Amphoreus seems so primitive when compared to the rest of the universe, especially against the constantly renewed Astral Express.
The fact that there were mechanical animals like trains and cars just showed how behind Amphoreus was. She didn't even know what a gramophone was.
And just like the many planets and locations, there were probably many types of people. And no person is born the same.
That does invoke quite a question, however.
"Who usually plays the gramophone? And what situation would call for it's use?"
"We usually use it for when one of us is alone in the main cart, but sometimes when we have a group activity we trust someone with it. Most of the time, it's March playing the thing."
"It must be lousy whenever she's in charge. Her personality has to be reflected on her music taste right? Like.. loud pop music for teenage girls?"
"Good guess! She seems to always not have enough of Sabrina Carpenter or Maroon 5, no offense. I'm just not a fan of the radio friendly music that she likes."
"And what about you? What do you play? Knowing you, probably everything."
"Well.. as long as it sounds good it's going on the gramophone. Charli XCX, Quadeca, Zara Larsson, Joyner Lucas, Green Day and even Nirvana. Anything, and I mean anything."
"That's a pretty unique strength! And what about the others? Even Pom-pom, but I'm not sure about them."
"Dan Heng doesn't like to listen to music, instead he usually just basks in the silence all by himself. If I had a guess, probably slower artists like Robin, Daniel Caesar and SZA. Himeko listens to older music made for more mature women as in Britney Spears, Celine Dion or Madonna. Mister Yang listens to old music, and I mean old, old. Opera music old."
"And for Pom-pom, they just listen to what we put on. They don't seem to mind. I guess that's what sitting on this train for centuries does to you."
"Astonishing technological advancement. It only makes me wonder what other items are behind the past. That being said, the boys back home would love it. They'd play the music till the sun explodes." She giggles at the thought.
"Really? Well, it only depends on what kind of music that they listen to. If it's something like AJR I'd be seriously mad, however."
"Phainon loves edgy, romantic music. He doesn't relate to them in the slightest but he seems to love crying to sleep listening to them. Examples include JvKE, Frank Ocean and Adele."
She grimaces, after thinking about her next candidate.
"Mydei, well, he loves to listen to that Metal stuff. It all sounds the same to me, anyways. I don't like them, it keeps me up at night. Megadeth, Sabaton, Rammstein all of that."
"And for Aglaea, she seems to like country music. No idea as to why, but it does seem to fit her just well. Morgan Wallen and Shaboozey to name a few."
"Well, I can't forget about you! What kind of music do you listen to?"
It made her feel slightly nervous, her taste might be unfavourable to him. It might be the wrong kind of music.
"A-ah, well. I-um, I would rather not say. I don't think you'd like my taste." She nervously laughs.
"What are you talking about?! Just let it out! Music doesn't have an objective right taste. Sure, maybe Suga is seen in a higher regard compared to artists like Drake but in the end what matters is your own taste. Look at me, I like all sorts of music but I dislike AJR in particular. Who knows! Maybe I'll pick up an artist or two from you."
He stands up and slowly kisses her on the forehead. It seems to soothe her, as intended. "There you go again, my dear. When you're with me you don't have to be so shy! Now, I'm just waiting on your call."
Those words seemed to give her the right amount of motivation.
"Well, i-um, I like indie musicians. They make me feel better. I like Arctic Monkeys and Radiohead in particular."
"Oh! Radiohead? Love them! What's to be ashamed about? They make some of the best music of all time."
"That's too far reaching, isn't it? Most people say they ar-"
He grumbles in annoyance. "Again, Castorice. Your own views matters the most. Their views don't quite matter."
Her mouth is left agape, but then she smiles towards those words. A large sense of warmth encompassing her.
Sometimes music is the only medicine the heart and soul needs. So don't let anyone tamper with it.