Anti-antithesis

Malls used to be huge mega projects that were designed to be the center of any community they were built in, but were also used as massive tax havens and money laundering schemes.

Today, malls are used in much the same manner as before, but were designed to be the center of capitalistic communities instead of social ones.

-An excerpt from The Revival of the Mall, 2052

We arrived at Prosperity Mall at around ten in the morning, giving us plenty of time to wander and explore before our appointment at Cafe Nobu Shite to both- I mean encourage our brother.

Morrigan was very excited to go, evident by the fact that she made all of our clothes to be somewhat matching casual clothing of jeans and t-shirts of various colors. Well, everyone but Outsider, as she adjusted her normally very revealing dress of black feathers into a very billowy, modest sundress of black feathers, matching Gimbal’s punk aesthetic, if only due to the matching color scheme.

Opal and Jill decided to rip off their sleeves, saying something about how the extra fabric was distracting, but Cari called them both out, saying that they just wanted to show off their arms. Jill caved first, agreeing almost instantly, while Opal refused to admit it. We decided to take Roger’s limo, Rache, as it had the greatest trunk space, in anticipation for the large shopping spree we might end up doing.

Roger and I were able to do a bit of research into the mall while waiting for Opal and Cari, so we knew that there were actually shops that interested everyone to some degree. And while sure, we could probably make anything we could buy, this was a trip to decompress, to actually spend money and enjoy the mall and our time.

The mall itself took up three floors of a mega building, the center of each having been removed to allow a solid view to the sky above. Each floor was a circle, with a single bridge connecting each half of the floor to the other, with escalators and elevators spaced evenly to allow free and easy access to every shop. The only headache was the fact that there was no direct parking access, as we had to park in a neighboring building’s garage and walk through a sky-bridge to get to it.

Entering the first floor, I was surprised by the number of people already here. Masses of people moving like a school of fish, rounding the floor around the food court in the dead center of the mall, which filled the space with a decent scent of fried foods and various spices.

Almost instantly, we split into three groups. Outsider, Gimbal, Yerlette, Jill, and Cari made their way to the third floor where the dress shop was located, with Yerlette having taken a shine to Gimbal, just as excited as Outsider to dress her up in various outfits. Roger, Cody, and Jim made their way to the second, as there were a few hobby shops that drew their eye. That left Morrigan, Alice, Leman, and I making our way to a shop that dealt in cyberware and other hardware.

We all agreed to meet back up at around two to get something to eat at the food court before our movie time at three. Jill was extremely excited to see this new movie in the theater as it was intended rather than pirated and played through our old shoddy setup.

“Sooo, Vickie,” Alice started, smirking at me,” are you suuure you don’t want to go dress shopping with your fiance and spend time with boring old me?”

I rolled my eyes as we walked past a kiosk selling aug texture packs. “I’m sure, Alice. Would I like to see Cari in various dresses and be dressed up in matching outfits? I won’t deny that, as it does sound interesting. But I am also interested in getting to know you, as all I know about you is that you are a mischievous lizard who is from a family of lawyers. Oh, and that you get excited when shooting big guns.” At that last thing, she did blush slightly, but shook it off quickly. “And while those things are interesting, that tells me very little about who you are as a person.”

Leman grunted in agreement as he paid for a pretzel, one that was made to be exaggeratedly, comically huge, it fit perfectly in his large hands. “Not to mention that you are a fighter, considering how you tried to fight off those Bestle goons.”

Alice huffed as she stole a bit of the pretzel. “Yeah, that’s fair enough, I suppose.” She popped it in her mouth and chewed before making a face as if she was insulted by the pretzel. “Beh, too dry. You should have gotten some cheese, Leman.”

Morrigan came to the rescue, producing a plastic bowl of bright yellow, hot melted cheese from… somewhere. Alice gasped in surprise as Leman gave her a bit more of the pretzel, holding the bowl at a height that she could easily dip it into.

<Did you just make that cheese?> I asked Morrigan through the Network.

She just smiled as we arrived at the cyberware shop.

It was a fascinating place, filled with different shelves and display cases of limbs and circuit boards and wires. There were two attendants milling around, one a bored looking man in his fifties manning the register, the other a young lady in her early twenties, currently giving a sales pitch to an older couple.

“... will be as if you never lost your hand at all. Full haptic feedback, mico-movement and stabilization control, not to mention…” and I tuned her out after scanning the hand with my scouts. It was a remarkable piece of tech, basically cutting edge if I was comparing it to my previous life’s knowledge. It was on par with Jill’s old limbs, with full neural conversion and micro-actuators, but the price on it was a bit higher than I would expect for simply a hand and wrist.

Morrigan scowled at the tech in the shop, and I would bet anything that she was designing improvements on the spot. Leman was curious about an industrial catalog, taking interest in the various heavy duty machinery therein. Alice, on the other hand, made her way to the counter, waving at the bored man. “Heya, Alex. It me, your favorite mess.” she said.

The man, Alex, finally registered Alice after she finished her line. He scowled and rolled his eyes hard. “Ah, yes. My favorite mess.” He said with a slight Russian accent. He looked around and clocked the rest of us, raising his eyebrow. “Huh, well, considering you brought customers, that statement might actually be true, today.” He shook his head as he looked down to Alice. “So, is it safe to assume you actually finished your work this time? Or are you here to ask for more time?”

“ Heh, heh, heh!” Alice laughed while waggling her finger. “I am here to receive my reward, Alex. My friends being here hold no bearing on that.”

Alex scoffed as he pulled up an actual laptop from beneath the counter. He did some things on it before smirking at Alice. “Well now, colour me impressed. You finished the task within the time requirement this time. Give me a moment, the reward is in the back.” With that, he turned and entered a back room.

“Uh, Alice?” I started, causing her to spin to face me, her head tilted to the side slightly.

“Hmm? Oh! Did Cari not tell you?” Alice asked with some mirth in her tone. “I do Pen Testing requests on various corporations, power plants, and government projects. Sometimes its firewall testing, sometimes its bug testing, and very rarely its prototype testing. And, since I don’t need money, I negotiate hardware or rare collectables for my pay.”

Alex opened the door carrying a medium sized box. “And when she actually does the task on time, she does good work, too.” He placed the box on the counter as Alice’s eyes lit up. “And due to some twist of bad luck, I am her contact for said jobs.”

As Alice collected the box, she sniffed in mock outrage. “You get paid well for your services, Alex. Not to mention you were the one who taught me how to code in the first place.”

He threw his hands up in surrender. “And I still say that it was the worst way your mother could have cashed in her favor. I was expecting to do something crazy, not babysit.” He turned to face me. “Are you and yours going to buy something, or are you babysitting this one today?”

Morrigan was doing her best to remain silent, as I felt the annoyance roll off of her was thick, while Leman pointed towards the back room. “Is all you stock civilian models?”

Alex rolled his eyes. “Yes, big man. Not to mention, anything you would need would need to be custom ordered. Your arm is bigger than most industrial cybernetics I have seen.”

Leman chuffed in frustration as he turned to leave with Morrigan following suit. I shook my head at the two of them. “I suppose you could say we are babysitting Alice, but I would rather consider it as hanging out.”

Alex smirked at me, a glint in his eyes. “Shes gay, you know.”

“I know. Her girlfriend is my fiance” Was all I said as we left the shop. I could see through my scouts his eyes bug out as he tried to process my parting words while Alice simply laughed, clutching her box.

“Oh, man, Vickie!” she finally said as we made our way towards a different shop. “I mean, you’re not wrong, but to come out and say it? Stars, I wish I had that level of guts. You don’t even look embarrassed in the slightest.”

I raised my eyebrow at her, leveling an incredulous gaze at the lizardgirl. “What do you mean, you don’t have my guts? When we first met, you threatened that no one would find my corpse should I hurt Cari, and I am a Samurai.”

She wiped a tear from her eye. “Oh, Vickie. I only said that because I trust Cari, and she was introducing you to us. It took me months to warm up to Alex, even after mom introduced us. I really am a shy girl at heart, I just open up around those I trust. Speaking of,” I saw her shake herself, causing her tail to fade into view. It looked crocodilian in nature, especially considering how it dragged on the ground behind her. I did note that her skin remained the same smooth tanned color as before, but her eyes had shifted to reptilian in nature, while still retaining their soft brown tone “There, much better.”

“Huh. Not quite chameleon color shifting, as it looked like a film flowed up your tail instead.” Morrigan analysed.

“Correct!” Alice responded, patting her orange skirt. “It’s a part of my under suit, something that keeps me cool while also being able to hide me in an instant if I need to.”

Leman nodded in approval. “Crocodiles were Earth’s more perfect ambush predator, so adding such a stealth feature would only make it more perfect.”

Alice nodded enthusiastically. “You get it! Crocies were so cool and strong, but super goofy too. Have you ever seen an image of one from below the water line? Pure comedy.”

The conversation soon devolved into interesting animal facts, and the only reason I was able to stay in the conversation was to abuse my perception speed and the internet.

Synaptic did offer me an animal facts dream learning lesson for three points in order to tease me, and I was very tempted to buy it. Morrigan was, too, considering she used her own stipend of points to buy it herself.

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