Chapter Twenty-Five - Cottagecore Samurai Power-Couple

“Victorian is always in fashion.”

--Emoscythe Mordeath Noir, to the crowd of a fashion show she held at gunpoint, 2051

***

The thing that I was afraid would happen, of course, happened.

Lucy and Audrey started to get along.

Mostly I blamed Lucy’s charisma. While it was fine when she was trying to butter me up, it could be a tiny bit annoying to see her turn on the charm on others. Not that I was the jealous sort.

Actually, no, I was definitely the jealous sort. It was probably not my finest quality, but I wanted to keep Lucy all to myself sometimes. She wouldn’t want that, though. There was no keeping my bird in a cage, even if it was nice and gilded. So I stood on the sidelines as Lucy and Audrey talked.

“What about your own image?” Lucy asked. “You’re obviously the expert here, so I imagine that you spent some time on your own PR stuff.”

“I have, though... I think I might be something of a poorly shod cobbler. I haven’t had to put great effort into my own image in some time, and I think it’s due for an upgrade. Did you want to see my current costume?”

“Costume?” I asked. We were still just standing in the outer ring of the market, which was a little strange. I’d noticed that some people in security uniforms had cordoned off the area some ways away, redirecting traffic into the inner ring. Since most of the traffic all came from the same direction, it meant that the area we were in was a small pocket of quiet.

The VIP treatment felt a little whatever, but I couldn’t say it was bad. I didn’t need people clamouring over to take pics or bother us.

“Different samurai use different terms for it, but I always found costume to be the most accurate,” Audrey said. “It’s not just the gear you take with you into the field, but the look that you choose for yourself. It’s a costume because it’s a way of dress that reflects the work that you do, but unlike a uniform it places some importance on style and flare.”

Audrey opened her hand to the side and a small beam of light was projected onto her palm from the strap of her watch. It swirled for just a moment before turning into a gently spinning image of Emoscythe, or at least a rendering of her, in her full samurai getup.

It was the same style I’d seen her in already. A dark, gothic dress, with lots of lace and fancy trimmings. “This is my usual costume,” she said.

“Oh, pretty!” Lucy said. “Very, uh, is it a Victorian doll look? Kind of goth at the same time. The makeup is what gives that impression though.”

She nodded. “It’s... perhaps not a look that I would choose today.”

“It isn’t?” I asked. “After everything you said about image, I thought you’d be pretty keen on fixing your own.”

“As I said, I’m a poorly shod cobbler. Not that I’m not fond of my costume. I can’t see myself changing it now because I have history with it. It’s become part of how people recognize me. But when I first stepped out into the world as Emoscythe Mordeath Noir, I was much younger, less informed, less experienced, and I wanted very badly to project something. I think I succeeded in that, despite my shortcomings.”

“You were trying to look innocent but dangerous?” Lucy asked.

Audrey nodded. “Exactly so,” she said. “A young woman in an outdated dress should, by all means, seem innocent, but that same image of innocence had been co-opted by so many tropes that it is now a threat display. It’s one of those strange, somewhat counter-intuitive cultural things. I caught on to that early, and decided to centre my image around it.”

“And if you were to start over?” Lucy asked.

Audrey glanced at Lucy, but I had the impression she was looking past her. “I think, were I to start over, my image as a samurai would better reflect what I am now. Though... I suppose that’s foolish. Your initial image can hardly reflect who you will be, it can only be a reflection of who you are. But that’s not quite what you asked. If I were to choose now, I think my costume would look a lot more like the kind of dress I’m wearing now.”

I raised an eyebrow at that and looked her up and down real quick. “You’re dressed like a corpo,” I said.

“I’m dressed like a business woman,” she corrected, though I wasn’t sure I was wrong. “This image is more suitable to convince people in business that I’m willing and able to understand them. It’s not as intimidating as your own outfit, and it’s less likely to be dismissed as my own samurai costume. The way you appear will inform others on how to treat you.” She met my eyes and I felt myself rooted to the spot.

Audrey was a bit intense.

“Which is why you should decide on how you want to appear. We’ve been talking about it for some time, but I’ve yet to get anything on the most important factor in determining your image.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

She sniffed. “What you want, Miss Stray Cat.”

“Oh,” I said. I suppose I hadn’t really put that much thought into it, and it probably showed. Audrey looked at me expectantly for a long moment, and I could feel a kernel of stress building up in the pit of my stomach.

“Give her a minute to cook,” Lucy said, her voice pitched low. “In the meantime... we’re looking for, like, casual wear too. You know, things to wear around the house? Our place doesn’t really fit the aesthetic, but I’m really tempted to go all cottagecore myself. Get those housewife vibes going.”

Audrey successfully distracted, I took a moment to actually think. It was harder than I thought.

Do you need help?

I considered it, but then shook my head. Myalis would produce stuff for me with an eye for style no matter what, but if I asked for something more specific, she'd probably still twist things her way

So, what did I want?

I liked looking badass and cool, and I wasn’t sure I wanted that to change. Then again, how badass was I really? People didn’t take me as seriously as I wanted, sometimes. It led to me having to make examples.

If I’d rocked up the mayor the first time covered in skulls and dripping blood, maybe he wouldn’t have fucked around enough to find out.

At the same time, I didn’t want to be scary, did I? Maybe by reputation, because that was fine, but I didn’t want someone who’d never seen me before to be scared shitless on seeing me for the first time.

What did that even lead to? Was there a set of sliding scales of badassness and scariness that I needed to dial in?

“Alright,” I said. That caught both girl’s attention. “Look, I don’t have an exact thing in mind, but I kinda know what I want. More or less.”

“Go on,” Audrey said. Then she glanced around. “Or maybe hold onto that thought? Let’s go talk in my office upstairs. It’s a little more private. Lucy, if you wish to join us, you may, though you’re free to remain here to shop.”

Lucy grinned. “I’ll come with! I might have to put my foot down if you insist on Cat wearing nothing but a neon leotard or something.”

“That’s fair,” Audrey said.

I thought it was very much not fair. Did that mean she was considering the neon leotard idea? Because I was definitely not okay with that. If Audrey tried to put me in some sort of magical girl outfit, I was gonna go full gunslinger on her ass.

She didn’t hear my mental rant, so she happily led us through the market and to a side exit that unlocked when we approached. We went up a couple of floors, then through a rather long corridor that culminated into an office with a glass floor.

I stared down, somewhat worried about walking on glass, but Lucy seemed to think that it was fantastic and started to jump on the spot, as if testing the glass for cracks. “This is cool!” she said.

We had a pretty great view of the entire marketplace below from two stories up. “Can they see us?” I asked. I hadn’t looked up when I was down there, so I had no idea.

“No, it’s one-way glass,” Audrey said. “I like wearing skirts,” she added, as if that explained everything, which I suppose it did.

She had a large, imposing desk to one side of the room, as well as some plush seats, but she instead led us to the side where a couple of loveseats were positioned around a coffee table.

“Now, let’s hear what you came up with,” Audrey said as she sat and crossed her legs.

***