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 blad Lucy’s charisma. While it was fine when she was trying to butter 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 sotis. 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 so ti on your own PR stuff.”
“I have, though... I think I might be sothing of a poorly shod cobbler. I haven’t had to put great effort into my own image in so ti, and I think it’s due for an upgrade. Did you want to see my current costu?”
“Costu?” I asked. We were still just standing in the outer ring of the market, which was a little strange. I’d noticed that so people in security uniforms had cordoned off the area so ways away, redirecting traffic into the inner ring. Since most of the traffic all ca from the sa direction, it ant that the area we were in was a small pocket of quiet.
The VIP treatnt 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 costu 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 costu because it’s a way of dress that reflects the work that you do, but unlike a uniform it places so 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 mont before turning into a gently spinning image of Emoscythe, or at least a rendering of her, in her full samurai getup.
It was the sa style I’d seen her in already. A dark, gothic dress, with lots of lace and fancy trimmings. “This is my usual costu,” she said.
“Oh, pretty!” Lucy said. “Very, uh, is it a Victorian doll look? Kind of goth at the sa ti. 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 costu. I can’t see myself changing it now because I have history with it. It’s beco part of how people recognize . But when I first stepped out into the world as Emoscythe Mordeath Noir, I was much younger, less inford, less experienced, and I wanted very badly to project sothing. 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 ans, seem innocent, but that sa image of innocence had been co-opted by so many tropes that it is now a threat display. It’s one of those strange, sowhat 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 costu 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.
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“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 costu. The way you appear will inform others on how to treat you.” She t 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 so ti, 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 expectantly for a long mont, 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 anti... 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 mont 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 with an eye for style no matter what, but if I asked for sothing 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 as seriously as I wanted, sotis. It led to having to make examples.
If I’d rocked up the mayor the first ti covered in skulls and dripping blood, maybe he wouldn’t have fucked around enough to find out.
At the sa ti, I didn’t want to be scary, did I? Maybe by reputation, because that was fine, but I didn’t want soone who’d never seen before to be scared shitless on seeing for the first ti.
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 co with! I might have to put my foot down if you insist on Cat wearing nothing but a neon leotard or sothing.”
“That’s fair,” Audrey said.
I thought it was very much not fair. Did that an she was considering the neon leotard idea? Because I was definitely not okay with that. If Audrey tried to put in so sort of magical girl outfit, I was gonna go full gunslinger on her ass.
She didn’t hear my ntal 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, sowhat worried about walking on glass, but Lucy seed 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 so 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 ca up with,” Audrey said as she sat and crossed her legs.
***
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