Set the Stage

Gloomy light filtered through the clouds on this particular afternoon. Briar Yu had just finished washing the dishes used for lunch and placed them on the drying rack when he heard a familiar sound from out the window. Glancing out, he noticed the mail truck leaving.


A bit of elation ran through him, but he quelled the feeling down and shook his head to himself. He shouldn't count on things just yet. But still...


He REALLY hoped that there was mail in the mailbox today.


Throwing the towel onto the edge of the sink, he walked briskly towards the door of his apartment, grabbing his keys off the coffee table as he passed it, giving them a little toss upwards and snagging them out of the air with a happy note in the atmosphere as he turned the handle of the door.


He made his way to the mailboxes, took a few seconds to separate the correct key from the rest of the keys, and opened his mailbox to find a single envelope in it.


He knew from the soft green hue of the letter that it was exactly what he was waiting for. Taking it, he returned inside and went to his room, where he grabbed a letter opener and then flopped into his bed, disturbing its other occupant in a pet's basket that was placed in the corner beside his pillow.


The "pet" in question slithered towards his shoulder as he opened his letter. "Mail from Xeena?"


"Indeed. I've been waiting for this. It's probably the last physical letter I'll be receiving in a while, since going to the academy might mean I would have to resort to email."  Briar smiled and reached over to pet the talking snake. Kaliyamon was a lovely little digimon with an icy-pale-blue complexion, and she was, by all means, something he had to keep away from prying eyes. There are no snakes that look like her "species" and as all people know, snakes do not talk. But she was content to just bath in sunlight in his room during the daytime when he went out and then pester him when he's home.


"How is she?" Kaliyamon asked, not bothering to try and skim through the neatly written Chinese text.


"She's well. Look, there's actually a photo here." Briar dropped the letter to his side and picked up the envelope again. From it, he withdrew a photograph of a girl in a skating rink, balancing on one skate as she was skating around the rink.


"It looks like she added violet highlights in her hair since the last picture she sent you." Kaliyamon noted.


"Yes, indeed. Speaking of which..."


"You might want to touch up on yours soon." To emphasize her point, Kaliyamon tried to slither through Briar's hair. It was a bit long for a guy, but he liked it that way, and fading red highlights adorned the midnight black.


"I'll be doing that in a bit. Definitely need to not go to the Academy with faded highlights. Or should I just take out the highlights completely?"


"Keep them in. I distinguishes you."


Briar could only chuckle at that. "I'm afraid that I don't need just highlights to distinguish myself from others. The shine on a stage is not from just the costume and appearance."


"No. One scale is pretty, but I'm not pretty with just one scale." Kaliyamon stood up a bit and moved back and forth in the manner that a snake would as she flaunted her scales a bit. Briar laughed and sat up from the bed. Petting her, he replied:"You'll always be the prettiest snake, because you're also pretty with words. Come on, let's get these highlights touched up and then make sure we've packed everything."


Human and digimon went about to do the last round of tasks needed before getting ready to leave for the airport. Briar also placed one last letter into the mailbox to be sent to China. It's not like he wouldn't be hearing from Xeena for a long time. It's just that, physical letters always felt better than emails. (And Xeena almost always left stickers on her letters, and sometimes a scent of perfume, since she often wrote letters after a skating recital.)


Kaliyamon patiently waited by the suitcase as she watched her partner pack away the rest of his clothes. Among the items, she noticed two particular items.


"You're bringing those costumes with you?"


"Well...They kind of insisted on giving them to be as parting gifts..." By "they" he meant his two best friends that were in charge of a lot of the costumes for their school plays. "They told me to use them for Halloween or something..."


Kaliyamon looked at the two costumes. Both were Western-European costumes that did not connect up with his culture. "The black and silver one might be for Halloween, but the white and green one looks more like it's for Christmas or something." She stated. "And I don't even think we celebrate those holidays in the Digital World..."


"Where there will be humans, there will be a certain amount of tradition kept. You'd be surprised at all the little sentimental things we do for holidays."


"And for parting gifts."


"Yes, and for parting gifts." Briar patted Kaliyamon on the head again. She hissed contentedly at the attention and rubbed her head into his palm. "Don't forget your D-port now."


"Of course. Thank you." He zipped up the suitcase and swiped the green phone-like item off of his desk. "Just let me make a call to mom and dad, and then say goodbye to our neighbors, before heading out."


He had been living alone in the apartment for a year now, but it wasn't lonely, really. There were other really nice people around him...People from China who made friends with his parents. His mom and dad moved to California last year due to convenience for their jobs, but Briar decided that he wanted to stay in Michigan, since he only had one year of high school left, and then who knows where he'd be going to college?


Although...


The Digimon Academy sure wasn't something he had expected. But it sat well with him and he decided it was a fine idea.


Having said his goodbyes, Briar stepped back into the apartment and asked Kaliyamon: "Ready to go?"


"No one is ready too be stuffed into that stuffy little thing." She pouted and glanced at the D-port.


"Safety first." Briar sighed.


"I know. Bt why can't they make these things more comfortable?" She slithered up to him, preparing to be stored away in the device for traveling.


"I wish I knew. I'll ask about it at the appropriate time. Maybe something could be done about it. I kind of refuse to believe that technology is so limited. After all...just what we can do with it now already makes it bigger on the inside. Why not make it even bigger then?" He finds the right application on the port and stored Kaliymon into the device. Looking at her through the screen, he asked:"Ready to rock the stage?"


"As soon as I'm out of this thing." The cramped digimon grumbled. "Let's go."


Briar did one last check about the place, grabbed his stuff, flicked off the lights, and closed the door to lock it.  As he was locking the door, he muttered to no-one in particular: "It's funny how small the stage is from afar, but how big it is when you stand on it."


"Isn't that how the world feels? It's a small world, after all." A giggling voice replied from his D-port.


"I wonder if the same holds true for the Digital World then."


"You'll be fine. The world is your stage, no matter where you go."


"Thanks. Spotlight on you, Kali." He laughed and threw his keys into his pockets. "Next  Act...Digimon Academy."