Anti-antithesis

Hey, Kittens! I am here at Prosperity Mall for its grand opening, ready to be a Menace to those deals! And while yes, this is a sponsored stream, I have been keeping tabs on this mall for months! It is a shame that Bo could not make it today, as there is a rage room that I am sure she would enjoy,

As for myself, I am looking forward to being out in public for the first time in a while. So! If any of you see something fun, you know how to point it out!

-Samurai Red Menace doing an IRL stream, 2057

Jill

I have walked through crowds many times before, in plenty of different locations and events. I have had to maintain awareness of my surroundings and check for threats in concerts that basically removed my ability to hear. I have had to track a target through the center of the Fog Party while smoke and spices filled the air. I have even had to listen for my que to take my shot from the other side of a conference hall. And not once did I feel anything but confident in myself.

Yet now, walking though Prosperity Mall with my… sisters, en route to a dress shop with the intent of feeling… girly? I was panicking internally pretty hard, to be honest.

Cari must have noticed my anxiety as she was doing her best to distract me with mundane conversation. What colors do I like, did you see that lady’s hat and other such nonsense. None of it worked as my mind was desperate to find a flaw, an enemy, a threat, something-

“Hey, Jill,” Gimbal grabbed my attention by waving in front of my face, “where are the exits to the sky bridge we entered from?”

I focused on that request, retracing our steps and organising the map of the building in my mind. “Four escalators between here and there, one elevator bank with three elevators, plus the emergency drop from the third floor down.” I said mechanically, meditatively.

“Okay. Now, how many cameras can you see that can see you?” she continued.

“Twenty two, but three of them are dummies or broken.” I responded, feeling my heart rate stabilize.

“Good. Finally, how many guards could touch you?” Gimbal asked while holding up a hand to Cari.

I smirked. “None.”

Gimbal nodded before turning to enter the dress shop ahead of the others, leaving Cari behind with her mouth open slightly in disbelief. I stretched fully, feeling my spine pop and the tension on my core release, and I sighed contently. “Thanks, Gimbal.” I muttered before wrapping an arm around Cari.

She shook her head as she placed a hand on her forehead. “Okay, that’s a new one for me.” she muttered as we walked in.

Yerlette, in her bright green blouse top and jeans, glanced my way. “Will you be able to handle this, Jill? If it is too much-”

I raised my hand to stop her. “No, this is something I have wanted to do for a while, going clothes shopping with my friends and sisters, to be something other than a weapon. And while the weapon mindset might have calmed me, this is something I want to do as a person.”

After a brief moment, she nodded before turning and pointing her fan towards a pure white sundress. “Madame? My sister here will try that one on first. Please pick out some sandals that go with it.”

Freezing Sands below, we were diving in headfirst. My smile tightened as Outsider grabbed a set of very lacy white underwear and passed it towards me. “This should go with the dress, Jill.” She said, her smile tinted with the barest hint of a smirk. “It may be useful for when you next take a paramour.”

Gimbal glanced at it before shaking her head. “Not white. The fabric is thick enough to hide any color, so go with black, as it matches her hair better.”

Opal took that opportunity to pass me a set of obsidian jewelry, smirking hard.

I felt my face heat up once more as I narrowed my eyes into a glare, causing Cari to giggle. I snatched the underwear as I made my way to a changing room, fully embracing my fate.

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Roger

The hobby shop was a great call by Cody, yet it might have also become my new vice. Models of various cars, tanks, ships, and mechs filled the shelves, with a massive selection of paints and brushes beckoning to be used. Figurines of Samurai, their tools, and even their homes filled another section, with a very adult section being hidden behind a thin curtain of beads, leaving very little to the imagination. Finally, the war gaming section was filled with not only physical plastic models, but also their STL files were on display.

Jim had gravitated towards the vehicles and artillery section, of course, while Cody had picked up a few models and figurines of various Samurai, including three of Blizzard, which I found the very fact that they were still being sold interesting. I also decided not to poke at Cody for buying figurines of what is essentially his dead mother-in-law, as I was contemplating ways to drag Victor and the rest of my family into crafting different armies of plastic to fight with.

While I was debating the pros and cons of picking the Egyptian robots over the plague god, I was also doing some more basic market research. Which Samurai had a bigger presence on the shelves, which company supplied what models, the price difference between the different vehicles compared to any buildings on sale, and many other similar comparisons. As I gathered not only the robots, but also a current rulebook set, I saw something that I think would make an interesting gift for Daliah.

At the checkout counter, Cody groaned heavily as he saw the pile I had grabbed. “Sands, Roger, really? If you want to throw money away, go buy stock in potatoes.”

I simply smirked as Jim placed an even bigger pile of aliens on the counter, one that had its base models suspiciously adjusted to look more like the antithesis over their older, more bug-like origins. “Is it hypocritical? A bit, but they are pretty fun mechanically.”

We both looked at Cody, the expectation in our gaze evident and heavy. “No, I am not buying an army, guys. If you want to spend weeks painting plastic figures and playing pretend war when we have an actual war to fight, go ahead. I will be content with my figures and models and Mesh work, thank you very much!” Cody said adamantly, paying for his pile and placing them into the hover cart we rented. “Now, I am heading to the games shop.” He said as he all but fled our gazes.

Jim and I chuckled as we paid for our overpriced plastic before we received a message from Bahamut, asking to grab him an army set of the more basic Guardsmen, followed by Vulkan and Rogal sending similar requests for their respective origin armies. Jim and I were able to hold back on laughing, just happy to have more people to play with, but we lost it when Baba Yaga sent a message, asking for an army set of Space Clowns.

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Victor

Alice, Morrigan, Leman, and I had a grand time exploring the first floor of the mall, as there were a number of interactive activities for us to enjoy, ranging from Mesh games to games of “skill” and luck, to an honest to Sands escape room, one that was actually difficult, well put together, and really fun for us to play around in. Morrigan and Leman had limited their processors, while I left my Scouts outside, allowing us to properly challenge ourselves while enjoying the puzzles.

The lore of the room had something to do with escaping a human experimentation lab, using Montero-Wistera imagery and playing up the science director, someone I learned was Desmond’s daughter through the logs that were written as clues, as a crazy bitch obsessed with ascending humanity to its next stage while subjugating every other “lesser” human to support her lifestyle. Was this accurate? Hell if I knew, as any and all files in the Family database associated with Montero-Wistera required Family Head level approval to access, and I thought that was unnecessary to enjoy this game.

Alice had surprisingly discovered the way to open the next room before we found the puzzle to get the code for the door, which caused Morrigan to fume in frustration as she had missed it entirely.

Once we exited the escape room, it was time to meet up for lunch. Much to my surprise, Cari’s group was the first ones to the food court, and they all were in very different clothes than what they left us in. Opal was now in a very fluffy brown coat that acted as a dress, wearing actual high heels as well. Yerlette was wearing a forest green pantsuit and blazer combo, her tail waving in happiness as she saw Alice. Outsider had changed from her feather sundress into a more form-hugging leather body suit with a short, red vest jacket and heeled combat boots, with Gimbal having abandoned her punk attire for a more… demure vibe, as she was wearing a white sundress with a large hat.

Cari had exchanged her jeans and t-shirt for a full-on gothic gown, with plenty of chains and tiny metal skulls for decorations, holding a lace parasol over her shoulder, while Jill… Sands, Jill was in a dress. It was simple, sure, as it was a one piece, long skirted affair, with long black gloves and actual jewelry, but it fit her extremely well. I took plenty of pictures with my Scouts for the family photo archive Buddy set up. I also stared at the three different carts of bags from various shops that they had with them.

The shock I felt at Jill’s attire changed rapidly to laughter at Roger and Jim’s haul of plastic crack armies. That laughter turned dangerous as I saw almost everyone else rush up to the same shop to buy their own armies, leaving Roger, Jim, Opal, Gimbal, Cody, and myself to watch the carts and order food. I asked Cari to get me a set of demons, which she vetoed hard, telling me that no lover of hers would be allowed to play Chaos. I relented and shifted my request to my back up choice of the green mushroom men, which elicited a bell of laughter from her.

In case you were curious, this was the single largest day of sales that shop has seen ever since it has opened. In fact, it was the largest day of sales any hobby shop in New Phoenix has seen. Synaptic cheerfully informed me once the bill was settled, showing me the final receipt and causing my heart rate to spike slightly at the amount of digits. I may be rich now, but six figures for this much plastic was a bit much.

Lunch was, unfortunately, a disappointing affair of greasy burgers, cheap “Chinese”, and poorly put together tacos. They tasted alright, and they were filling, but we all nitpicked the food and talked about how Buddy could improve upon them easily. The only bright spot was the cheesecake, which blew the rest of the meal out of the desert by a massive margin, to the point that we ordered a few to take home for later.

The movie was also a surprising event. It was well written, decently paced, and played by human actors! The scares were well telegraphed, yet always landed despite that fact, while the sets and story were meticulously detailed and grounded in the in-universe lore. I had to restrain a laugh when Leman growled at a void the characters were certain wasn’t empty. It was, but that was because the demon was on the ceiling, instead.

Exiting the theater, Opal stretched, giving Alice the opportunity to poke her side, which ended with Opal picking her up and holding Alice over her shoulder, having her tail pet.

“Alright, everyone.” Roger started, drawing our attention.” We have a little over an hour before we need to be at the bar. Those who want to head home to change,” A poll appeared in my augs,” Please select the first option. For the others who want to chill and wait for the first group, please press the second.”

To no one’s surprise, all of the women chose the first option, as a number of their outfits would be inappropriate for a bar, to say the least. No matter how much I enjoyed seeing Cari in this dress, I knew this was a sometimes outfit, and not a going to dinner one.

“The aye’s have it.” Roger said with a flourish. “Let’s head home and get changed. Then, we finish with dinner on Buddy’s card.”

That drew a round of soft laughter from everyone as we made our way back to Rache, a caravan of carts trailing behind us. Cari and I walked arm in arm as we stepped onto the sky bridge, with Opal still carrying Alice as Yerlette walked besides them. Outsider had decided to also carry Gimbal, who had tired herself considerably, apparently, as she was draped across Outsider’s neck. Cody, unfortunately, was doing his best not to notice the couples behind him, with Jill doing her best to distract him.

“Thank you for suggesting this, love.” I whispered to Cari, causing her to lean into me a bit more.

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