Joe took long, rhythmic breaths, trying to steel himself. He knew this moment would come. He's seen it in dozens of movies, games, soap operas, and any other medium that tells a love story. In fact, this is inevitable in any relationship, and he has been secretly worried about it for some time. Some part of him had hoped that, as his girlfriend, she would defy expectations and avoid the incident altogether. However, there appear to be some cosmological constants from which not even Category III cosmic entities can escape. And, being tied to her, the man has no choice but to be dragged into it.
In other words, it's time for Joe to go clothes shopping with Maggie.
"Do I really need to be here?" he pleaded.
"Yes," she said firmly.
“But we could have stayed at home, tried something out in virtual reality and ordered it online instead of going to a physical store!”
"I thought about this problem. However, V-Life does not simulate the molecular structure of objects. Therefore, I think it is not suitable for this task."
"Is counting atoms really that important?" Joe shouted.
"I refuse to buy clothes that I won't wear, and I won't wear clothes that I don't feel comfortable in because it requires a satisfactory molecular structure."
The man sighed and shouted a few more times, but Maggie was right as always. Virtual reality tends to present idealized versions of goods and products. This is a common marketing tactic designed to lure people into buying something that is obviously not as good as advertised. This is especially true when it comes to food and clothing. It’s prudent and responsible to try these things before buying them. What bothers Joe the most, however, is that Maggie really doesn't need to go through this trouble.
"If you got tired of it, couldn't you use space magic to turn your clothes into something else?"
She's done this before. Several times in fact. That's how she ended up with her current fitted, shoulder-less dress with a knee-high slit at the waist. By the way, it looks absolutely gorgeous on her. In Jo's humble opinion, that outfit suited her so well that simply suggesting she wear something else felt almost criminal, almost sacrilegious. Granted, she looked pretty good in his pajamas a few days ago...but so far, the black dress was so much better.
"Do you believe that molecular transmutation is a simple feat?" the girl asked calmly.
"Uh... maybe? It doesn't sound easy when you put it like that, but you don't seem to struggle with it."
"That's just my 'poker face,' Joe," she said, using the quotes correctly this time. "It may not be apparent from my face how hard I'm working, but I can assure you it's been taxing. My current job is proving to be more energy-intensive than expected, so I have to conserve energy as much as possible. "
"Oh. I, uh, understand."
Joe didn't consider something so obvious and felt like a ham sandwich. Wait, no, actually that's not obvious at all. How did he know Maggie was buying clothes because she wanted to feel less tired? Oh, okay. This is yet another quirk to add to the list. At least he felt better about the outing now that he knew it had a real purpose. This, now that he thought about it, was rather sad in a way to have only one dress.
"Still, I'm not sure why I should go along." His voice was more questioning than complaining. "I hope you're not expecting me to pick out your clothes. I suck at fashion."
He's the kind of guy who wears the same old clothes year after year just because they're comfortable, even if they're tattered from wear and tear.
"Still, your opinion is very important to me." Maggie smiled softly. "The clothes I buy must meet your preferences as well as my own."
Joe "inspired" the little girl's current look. She didn't think much of it at first, but as she settled into her human vessel, she started to really like it. It looks really good on her growing up and she is very eager to see other cute designs. Creativity and imagination are things humans are good at, and they put a lot of creativity and imagination into art. That's why Maggie loves their work so much and she believes the fashion medium will be no different. She also realizes that her sense of beauty deviates greatly from the average person's, so Joe is there to make sure she doesn't buy something that others think is weird or crazy.
"And... I want to spend some time together like this."
The slightest blush appeared on her cheeks, and the sight made Joe's chest hurt so much he thought he was having a heart attack. Any complaints he might have had were drowned beneath an avalanche of vague feelings. He followed Maggie along the bustling streets to the nearest shopping mall, located on the 101st to 105th floors of a skyscraper not far from their home. It contains hundreds of commercial establishments selling a wide variety of goods and services, including furniture, travel packages, jewelry, electronics, home appliances, and custom-made kettles. Clothing stores feature prominently, and they are probably the most common type of store, covering a wide variety of styles and price ranges.
Money was something Maggie didn't have a lot of money for at the time. She has yet to receive her first paycheck, although she has received a sizable stipend for completing some administrative work on behalf of the Supernatural Removal Agency. She didn't have enough money to buy those ridiculously expensive high-end brands, but she had no intention of browsing them. This girl doesn't like to waste resources and refuses to shell out hundreds of pounds for a piece of clothing just because it has a famous logo plastered on it. In other words, she won't buy clothes that are of poor quality or look ugly, so it's out of the question in the bargain section. Therefore, she aimed for a mid-range establishment that offered goods within an acceptable standard and price range, but also had a rich variety.
The clothing retailer is called Owe
, Owe
& Owe
. The store is much more spacious than most and has been touted in dozens of articles online as "the ultimate one-stop shop for discerning British fashionistas". Maggie browsed through their vast catalog and concluded that it fit her criteria perfectly. She has selected 37 suitable outfits from thousands of outfits. She didn't know why, but the thought of getting Joe's opinion on her choice excited her.
At this point, the man began to feel a little dizzy. The mall's colorful, eye-catching advertisements kept grabbing his attention and keeping his head spinning. The marketing materials here are much stronger than the sea of slogans and banners one usually sees on the sides of buildings. There were interactive holographic displays that called him by name, unreasonably charming salespeople touting free samples of a product, and mobile vending machines offering appetizers and snacks. He was almost glad that he now had almost no money, otherwise he might have spent it all.
"Hello, ma'am!" Welcome to Owe
, Owe
& Owe
!”
A cheerful, energetic voice pulled Joe out of his overstimulated torpor. Its owner was a lovely young woman wearing a plain white shirt and a frilly red miniskirt. Her name tag reads "Jelly," which may be a pseudonym that reflects her sweet and bubbly demeanor. She was speaking to Maggie, for she had succeeded in establishing that she was the principal customer, and Joe the companion.
"What can I do for you?" she offered her services.
"All I ask is the use of your dressing room."
Jerry was momentarily startled by the flat and serious tone. Although she was used to dealing with troublesome customers, this was the first time someone had been so cold to her right off the bat. It kind of hurt her feelings, especially since she was a little excited talking to Maggie. After all, it's not every day a brunette beauty like her walks into such an unpretentious store. Jerry tried not to let her shock and disappointment show as she sheepishly ushered the customer into the back dressing room.
"I'm sorry," Joe said as he walked by. "She didn't mean to be rude, she's just not from here."
Jelly seemed to perk up at these words. Maggie does look like a foreigner, so it's completely understandable that her attitude stems from differences in business culture. In fact, the girl was fully aware of the social contract she was expected to abide by when interacting with retail workers. However, she couldn't wait to start trying on the clothes, not wanting to waste time on small talk. It occurred to Joe that this might be so, and he reprimanded her sternly, repeating his mother's wise saying, "Courtesy is what makes a man good."
Maggie took this admonition to heart, like everything else she said to the man, and was more polite to other employees they encountered. They are all attractive men and women who dress similarly to Jelly, although none of them have as bubbly a personality as she does. One guy was particularly desperate for him, though that's probably why they put him in the avant-garde clothing section. There were many other customers in the store, but it wasn't spacious enough. Much of the store is taken up by a small army of mannequins - some of them automated - displaying the store's most popular products.
The dressing room in the back is quite exquisite. They all have traditional curtains that provide customers with privacy while changing, but there's more behind the curtains than just a small space with a large mirror and some hangers. Each powder room is equipped with Ve
do
t
o
™ product delivery system. Once customers decide what clothes to try on, they only need to enter the corresponding model and desired size. The machine then quickly renders the article they requested. Similarly, it can collect items and return them to its warehouse if a customer decides not to buy.
Maggie immediately got busy and began trying on the 37 outfits she had selected in advance, as well as another 22 outfits that caught her eye in the store. At first, she wondered why the fitting rooms were at the very back, but later realized it was a subtle marketing plan to get customers to see the store's products. This girl won't complain, because some clothes look much better when you try them on in person than on the promotional materials. Of course, the opposite was also true, but she decided to try the disappointing ones anyway.
Joe, on the other hand, thought they all looked beautiful. Or rather, Maggie herself was so stunning that anything she wore was an instant sensation in his eyes. Seeing her try on all these different clothes, he once again admired her beautiful face and stylish figure. The whole process also went by surprisingly quickly. No matter how carefully chosen she was, Maggie only needed a minute to correct her mistake. The whole ceremony took almost two hours because there were so many costumes. Joe was having so much fun that he barely noticed the time flying by until his rumbling stomach told him it was lunch time.
However, his insistence that "they're all fine" doesn't solve the problem. Maggie can't afford all these clothes, and even if she could, she wouldn't buy them. She had to narrow her choices down to a few outfits for Joe to choose from. Girls are perfectly happy wearing any one of them, but otherwise have no particular preference. She doesn't have a favorite style or color—at least, not yet—so it's up to her boyfriend to decide what's essentially a sixty tie. easy to say, hard to do. As Joe himself has proven, he's rubbish when it comes to fashion. He doesn't know what's popular now, and he doesn't know about those things. Then he remembered that Maggie wasn't buying clothes to impress, but because she had no clothes. Therefore, he reconsidered these choices from a more practical point of view and decided that it was better to choose clothing suitable for each situation.
First, he decided to give the girl an extra set of everyday clothes. He chose a cream-yellow shoulderless shirt and a pair of skinny jeans. It was a nice outfit, but it paled in comparison to what she usually wore. When it comes to formal wear, he feels that appropriate formal attire is also appropriate. He picked out a short party dress with some modest jewelry underneath. The pure black color of the dress contrasted beautifully with her pale skin, although he felt it might be a little too much. There was plenty of cleavage, and the short skirt parted down the middle, exposing her legs above the thighs. It was provocative to say the least, but in Joe's opinion it was more tasteful than lewd.
The next outfit, on the other hand, borders on indecent. Still, it's not bad. Swimwear is meant to be revealing. So it's perfectly acceptable for Joe to suggest that Maggie buy a string bikini that she has her eye on. The girl showed off, blushing slightly but agreeing wholeheartedly. By the way, Joe felt lucky that he was sitting down when he first saw her dressed like that, otherwise things would have gotten a little...awkward. For better or worse, he didn't even consider that he couldn't hide the completely natural reaction in his pants from Maggie's keen gaze. The girl took this as a silent but sincere compliment and was a little embarrassed.
Next, Joe thought that if the girl decided to get into physical activity, she might need something athletic. In fact, it was almost inevitable, and she tried to experience it. He briefly thought back to AJ's tracksuit and immediately decided it was a crime to put someone as cute as Maggie in something so plain. So he suggested she wear a loose blue tracksuit that exposed her belly button, paired with a pair of matching shorts and running shoes. She was swaying so much that Joe felt a surge of energy come over him just looking at her.
Maggie could afford another outfit in her budget, but Joe couldn't think of anything else practical. He suggested they might as well buy something fun and a little silly, and she agreed. This girl has tried on all kinds of wacky outfits and they all fit her bill, so there are other options. There was one particularly gorgeous piece of clothing that a sane woman would never wear in public unless attending a cosplay convention. It's a red, white and blue superhero costume that includes a bodysuit with a star-shaped cleavage window, knee-high heeled boots, matching gloves, an orange belt and a barely visible eyepatch . Neither Joe nor Maggie are entirely sure what this hopelessly vague figure is, though the design practically screams "American." The little girl stumbled upon the luxurious garment last night while browsing the store catalog, which simply said "K". Answer: Original. The mysterious origins of the dress piqued her interest, so she was very pleased with her purchase. The man's repeated unconscious "compliments" were just the icing on the cake.
After helping Maggie pick out some clothes, Joe was in the mood to do some shopping on his own. Since a man came into his life, he had been out and about a lot more, so he decided to buy a new jacket. His old one didn't fit him anymore and he definitely needed one. Supercity Dave-156 is located in the equatorial region of the Earth, so the climate is stable year-round, but the weather can still get cold from time to time. Especially on the lower streets, where there is no hope of sunlight reaching. It took him less than three minutes to find and buy the nearest brown baggy jacket that fit him. Maggie thinks her own shopping methods are effective, but Joe's methods tell her she still has a lot to learn.
After they picked, bought, and had same-day delivery to their door, the couple silently agreed to extend their impromptu date with a visit to the food court. They had a great time discussing the latest soap developments over traditional fish and chips, although Maggie insisted that Joe get a very large one. Her plan to make him fatter was still in motion, but progress was slow. He has been sustained almost entirely by Noot-Goop his whole life, which has left him with a small stomach and an underdeveloped digestive system, making it difficult for him to eat much. His body had to adapt to his new diet before he started to gain weight, which took quite a while.
Joe's biggest concern is that he will eventually need to undergo a strict exercise regime to ensure he builds muscle rather than fat. Like other men, he found regular physical exercise highly unpleasant. He will still do it when the time comes, because he knows Maggie only wants what's best for him. That and the whole thing was more or less his idea. Thankfully, he is now friends with AJ and Officer Maloney. Those two were in good shape, and he figured they wouldn't mind helping him out when the time came.
Speaking of their psychic roommate, Maggie had a particularly troublesome task for her that day. The girl apparently hid a fist-sized rock with her name on it somewhere in a local park, and Agent Johnson couldn't return to the apartment until she found it. In addition, she was prohibited from asking for help from her commando teammates or using any machines or electronic devices to aid her in her mission. This included the elevator, which meant she had to go downstairs and then climb over a hundred flights of stairs. The bonus was that there was no time limit, but if she couldn't find the rock before dark, she would have to sleep somewhere else.
Joe knew nothing about any of this because when he woke up that morning AJ was gone. If he had known her situation, he would have told Maggie not to push the psychic too hard. Because he's unaware, he can enjoy dates and greasy lunches without reservation. Later, the two of them began discussing going to a small beach resort not far from Dave-156, where the girl could put her new swimsuit to good use. She hadn't completely submerged herself in water before, and she was eager to observe some fish and algae in their natural environment, so the idea appealed to her. Seeing her excitement convinced Joe again that he had made the right decision in letting her buy that bikini.
However, in retrospect, he also realizes that he may have overlooked an aspect of the costume. Something so basic that people rarely think about it when picking out outfits. The topic was a bit sensitive and best discussed in private rather than over fish and chips in the food court, but Joe decided to bring it up anyway. It would be best to move it while the two of them were still near the store.
"Hmm... Maggie?" he said sharply.
"Yes, Joe?" she smiled expectantly.
"Don't get me wrong, but you're not supposed to buy something... you know," he leaned over and whispered, "something unspeakable."
"I've come to think these things are unnecessary," she said bluntly.
"Wait...so...you've always been a commando?"
Maggie tilted her head and made her blinking motion.
"Go out without underwear. Phrase. Informal. Don't wear underwear," she said flatly. "That's accurate, yes."
Joe closed his eyes, put his hands together, took a deep breath, and shuffled uncomfortably in his seat.
"Maggie. You need to wear underwear," he said quietly but firmly.
"It's moot because I have complete control over my body's functions."
"It's not about function. Or fashion. It's basic etiquette, okay? Especially if you're going to be walking around in skirts and dresses."
The swirling dimples in the girl's irises flashed.
"I understand. Would you like to accompany me to buy underwear?"
"I totally refuse."
If that unruly "compliment" on his jeans is any indication, that was a bar too high for Joe at that point in time
