Fuzzy, Kenji, Julie, Christina, Jimmy and Puppy - Saturday, July 28th, 2074 - Afternoon - Seattle Metroplex

After a few minutes of listening to Kenji wax philosophic about Goofus and Gallant and how Goofus was ultimately the better of the two, she awoke from the "dream" that was virtual reality. Her mouth ached dully, faintly, but that was all. She was ushered to the front to sign for her bill where the ork receptionist laid out the final cost.

"Just got to make your mark and we'll head out," said Kenji, "Didn't take long did it?"

"No, it didn't," said Fuzzy.

Fuzzy didn't find a mirror on the wall and so she decided to find one soon so she could see the work. Meanwhile, the ork receptionist plastered a smile on her face and sent Fuzzy the bill. Of course, she couldn't read the bill, but her eyes bulged at the cost.

"I don't have seven-hundred nuyen, Kenji!" she said, in shock and anger.

What Fuzzy had was five-hundred and fifty nuyen on the credstick. Five-hundred from Julian at the beginning of the school year and fifty of her own money from the barrens. It'd seemed like a fortune- all the money in the world, made better by the stipend that Julian promised her, which wasn't actually much despite seeming like all the money in the world at the time.

"The school is paying for it," said Kenji, in her ear, "It's fine. Just make your mark on the line."

Fuzzy's finger trembled at first, but with an effort of will, she steadied it. She didn't know what mark to make and so she just made an X. The receptionist looked dubious but she didn't really seem to care either.

"Oh, and some things to take with you," said the receptionist, "Here."

She got a complimentary bottle of toothpaste, a toothbrush, dental floss, and "Brushy's brushing tips" with a cartoon toothbrush with sunglasses which again she couldn't read. However, Brushy the cartoon toothbrush showed up as she stared at the booklet full of dental tips for too long.

"Brushing is cool!" said Brushy, in AR.

"Hey," said Kenji, "Get us some of those sugar free suckers. They're free."

Fuzzy looked to a large basket full of multi-colored suckers, their heads in plastic.

"These are free?" asked Fuzzy.

The receptionist nodded.

"Take as many as you like," she responded.

"As many as I like?" she repeated.

The receptionist nodded. Given permission and totally unwilling to turn down a free meal, Fuzzy shrugged and then dug both hands deeply into the basket where she withdrew dozens of sugar free suckers and stuffed them into the pockets of her hunting leathers.

"Umm..." said the receptionist, "I don't think..."

But Fuzzy was already walking away and seconds later she was out the door. There Kenji leaned up against the wall with Puppy in one of his hands. Fuzzy reached for him and they made the hand off.

"Got those suckers?" asked Kenji.

Fuzzy nodded and pulled a few from her coat pockets, both of which were plump with pilfered dentist office suckers. Kenji laughed.

"Fucking score!" he exclaimed, in delight, "Hell yeah."

The haircut and makeup were both much easier than the dental office trip. She didn't have much to work with seeing as her hair had seen a knife a little over a week before, but she ended up with a very short pixie cut and some light makeup applied by a machine that Kenji bought for Fuzzy. Apparently applying makeup to oneself was a lost art when a handheld machine could apply it in mere minutes.

"I really feel weird about these clothes," said Fuzzy.

Kenji spoke around the sugar free sucker tucked into one corner of his mouth. His third so far.

"Just pick something," said Kenji, "Anything."

She'd been reticent to wear anything that weren't her hunting leathers. Tops, jeans, shorts, dresses, all of it just didn't appeal to Fuzzy. Much of it, like the dresses, had plenty to grab onto in a fight and some of it was too tight to move in properly. Almost all of it looked too flimsy and it wouldn't block teeth or turn aside a blade like her leathers. Devil rat leather was remarkably tough, especially after being treated. Theoretically it could even take small arms fire, though Fuzzy obviously wasn't eager to test that.

Eventually with the help of both Kenji and an attendant at the clothing store, Fuzzy reluctantly emerged with a new outfit which basically satisfied everyone there. New blue jeans, a flannel jacket, a band t-shirt underneath and a black beanie.

"I'll get you to listen to the band later," said Kenji, "Concrete Dreams is old but solid. Anyway, what's important is that now you don't look like you're going to kill and skin a deer anymore."

"But that's what I want to do," said Fuzzy, "Winter will be here in a few more months."

Fuzzy checked herself out in the mirror and was basically satisfied. She'd finally donned the flannel after being shown that people used it for hunting and not just for wearing it around. It wasn't hunting flannel, but Fuzzy didn't know this.

Kenji sighed and shook his head.

"Normal people don't think or talk like that," said Kenji, "They have all enough food for the winter. And the corp kids never, ever think about having enough food for the winter. They never think about need at all."

"Why not? Everyone needs something."

"Except them," said Kenji, "They're so rich that they're beyond need. A new outfit is nothing to them. A hundred or even a thousand outfits is nothing to them. So if all you do is go out in the same leathers each and every time, you're going to get teased. They'll think you're poor."

"Am I though?"

"Yes, you are," said Kenji, "You've got free room and board for the school year which is a huge deal and apparently you get a little spending money from Julian. That's it. But if you can get your hands on some of that meat on the island you'll be less poor. Meat is expensive here in the city, especially for the good cuts. You start selling and maybe you'll get a few new outfits. Then maybe we get you some style. Maybe you could keep this one, but uh...People might mistake you for a lesbian though."

"What's a lesbian?" asked Fuzzy, her tone confused.

"Women who are attracted to other women,” answered Kenji, “You didn't spend much time with people in the barrens, huh?"

"Not really. Rat Man and the other kids mostly," answered Fuzzy, hotly, who both scowled and blushed, "And what is this hair? It's almost thick enough for someone to grab. That's dangerous."

She ran her fingers through it. She hadn't cut it in over a week so it had grown out, but now it had been "styled", whatever that meant.

"You could shave it off," joked Kenji.

"Okay,” said Fuzzy, immediately.

Fuzzy had tried to shave her head once, but she didn’t enjoy scraping her scalp with a knife. Infections in the barrens could be bad and medicine was expensive.

"We're not going to shave your head," said Kenji, deadpan, then more lightly, "At least not at first. Not until we nail down a style. Besides, it’s hard to be Fuzzy if you have no fuzz. We'll see about more clothes another day."

The last stop was the art museum. After a bribe, Puppy was recognized as a "service dog in training" for an extra ten nuyen which Kenji paid for, though he didn't pay for the ticket itself.

"Slot your credstick, kiddo," said Kenji.

She looked dubiously at Kenji, but she did so, imitating Kenji. She took the black credstick, which was shaped like a pencil with a readout of her balance a connection for what was essentially a USB port, she slotted her credstick and the nuyen "rolled" off her credstick as the numbers ticked down. She sighed heavily. Her balance was currently five-hundred and twenty-five nuyen. She didn't like that number to go down. It made her feel anxious.

"It's worth it," he said as they walked in. "Look up."

Fuzzy's mouth gaped open. Above her, suspended in the air on wires was an enormous tree that seemed to be devoid of its leaves, bark and roots. Unlike every other tree she’d ever seen, even at Blake Island where they were big instead of stunted like in the barrens, this one was on its side, but it didn’t lie on the ground.

"What is that?" she asked, amazed.

Kenji checked the augmented reality notes on it.

"It’s a plaster cast of a tree,” said Kenji.

"Why is it there?" she asked.

"Why is art anywhere?" he asked back.

They strode with Puppy, who napped in her arms. It'd been a big day for him after all. Again, Fuzzy felt a kinship with him. It'd been a big day for her too. So they stared at pictures of flowers for a while. Flowers were exceedingly rare in the barrens and tended to be small and scrubby, though still beautiful in the rare moments that she found them. The paintings of flowers here were gorgeous, with large petals unfurling, each of many different colors and shapes.

"You like flowers?" asked Kenji.

Fuzzy had stared at the pictures of flowers for no less than twenty minutes, and was brought out of her admiration with a small start. She smiled shyly, stroked Puppy’s head and shrugged.

"I don't know," she said, "I like the colors. Sometimes there were flowers in the barrens but they were never so bright and clean. Nothing was."

Kenji nodded in understanding.

"It's like that in the ACHE too," said Kenji, "I'll just be over here. Gonna wander for a bit."

Fuzzy spent even more time looking at those pictures. As the day grew later they wandered through their final exhibit. Literally so as it was meant to be walked through. They both came to the edge of where to stand and found the art and mirrors of themselves stretching out into infinity, lights suspended like colorful stars that grew smaller, and the reflections of themselves were cast in all directions. Fuzzy, awed, looked about in wonder. Kenji seemed pleased.

"You know, normally they can really only do this stuff in the matrix," he said, "Nice to see this in meat space."

"Meat space?" asked Fuzzy.

Her stomach growled. Kenji chuckled and she blushed.

"It's what one of my decker friends calls the real world,” said Kenji, and then added when he saw her confusion, “You know, people who work with computers. Anyway, come on. Let's get dinner."

Dinner was had near the dock. It was just shy of six and there was a street vendor who made fresh hum bao, which Kenji told her it was pronounced bow, like the part of a ship. It was a sort of Chinese bun that could be filled with various types of food like meat, vegetables or even sweets. It was all soy of course, but Fuzzy thought it was amazing and of course she picked out the barbecued porks flavored bao. Kenji bought her one and a cola and against her better judgement she bought a baker's dozen of them for twenty nuyen, each a different flavor. This woke up puppy who she fed pieces of meat and crumbs. He wiggled excitedly and licked at her fingers.

"Big spender," said Kenji.

Fuzzy shrugged.

"I like what I like. It says a dozen, but there are thirteen. Why is that?" asked Fuzzy.

"Huh. Not sure," said Kenji, who responded seconds later with, "Apparently way back in the day people got...Pilloried? Not sure what that means. Okay, now I do. Sort of like the shame pole, but with more public abuse. It's to keep people from cheating people with food."

"I like that," said Fuzzy, "That makes sense. I saw someone kill another person over a box of cup of noodles once because he shorted him one out of the box."

It was so conversational in the way that she said it. Kenji pulled a face and nodded.

"I once saw two grown men kill each over a credstick with two nuyen on it," said Kenji, deadpan, “It’s hard out there. Maybe don't tell that story though. Not only will it blow your cover, but most people won't understand."

Before she could reply, a familiar voice called out to her.

"Your name is Courtney?" asked Sasha.

Fuzzy nearly dropped her box of dumplings, but held fast to Puppy as she fumbled, her back away from Sasha. She didn't look at Sasha immediately. Something about looking at her when not in her hunting leathers or school outfit made her feel flustered for some reason.

"Nah. I just gave her my burner comm," said Kenji, "You could say that we were slumming it together."

Sasha nodded and then her eyes lit up.

"Ooh, bao. I love meat buns," she said, then stopped, "Kenji, did you just wear that bruise around the plex all day?"

"Flaunted it," said Kenji, smugly.

Then Sasha looked to Fuzzy.

"And you're just hanging out with Fuzzy too? I mean, Fuzzy, he's a perv, right?" she asked, and laughed incredulously.

Fuzzy looked up to him and then turned around to face her. Sasha didn't fumble, but she did freeze. The blush that slowly crept across her face as she stared at Fuzzy tinged her cheeks. Her mouth made a small O before she schooled her features and cleared her throat one too many times to be seen as anything but awkward. Apparently Fuzzy looked completely different. New hair cut, new outfit and she even wore makeup.

Kenji elbowed Fuzzy and subtly cast his gaze over the docks. Her bodyguards were here of course, but unlike this morning where all of the students had gathered to leave, it was only Fuzzy, Kenji and Sasha here now. Everyone else was enjoying their Saturday night out. So it seemed like Sasha had come back for a reason. Perhaps it had something to do with the hint of color on Sasha's cheeks as she looked at Fuzzy.

Sasha, Kenji and Fuzzy all ate bao on the hour long boat ride back to school. Normally Fuzzy would be hesitant to share food when she was hungry, especially food that she'd paid for, but the food at the school was free and she couldn't eat all of the bao by herself. Having more than enough food, especially food this tasty, put her in such a good mood that she decided to share her box of now rapidly diminishing meat buns.

Though it was strange, as she and Sasha sat together. Her friend pointedly did not look at Fuzzy save for quick glances now and again. Fuzzy felt confused. She thought Sasha liked her.

It was nearly dark by the time they reached the island. Fuzzy gave Kenji back his commlink and she got hers back from him. She would think about what happened, gain perspective and discover if Kenji was a valuable ally or not. She could make snap decisions, and did trust her instincts, but the instincts she had weren't well developed for the city and her tour of the city helped her become aware of that. They would've headed straight back to the cabins for the day save for two figures on the shame pole, both familiar and tied together in a way that bound the two together while not leaving either out of sight.

"Oh shit, what now?" asked Kenji.

Julie and Christina were loosely tied to the shame pole together. The three approached them. Christina looked caught between bored and angry, but Julie looked as if she'd been crying. Her eyes were puffy and swollen and her nose, once runny, had simply stopped without being wiped. She looked absolutely miserable.

"I called Christina a racist name and that is my shame," said Julie, weakly.

"I called Julie a racist name and that is my shame," said Christina in a sing, song voice, "I really wish you'd stop sniveling."

"You started it," said Julie, weakly.

"Whatever," said Christina, "I really hope someone gets a picture of you. Not that I would, it's against the rules, but you deserve it."

Julie tried to turn her face away from the three, but could only do so much to conceal her pain. Christina looked reminiscent of an offended cat.

"You ate my day pass. I hope you suffer," said Christina, and then a little louder said, "That's what we're supposed to do on this stupid thing, right? Suffer? I hate this place..."

"I hate this place..." Julie echoed, quietly.

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