Blood and Iron

Mall Daze

Madelina went to go shopping at the mall the next day. She didn't dare bring Inky with her.

She brought Sommerset with her on a long leash. Her parents were worried that someone would dare hurt their little princess, so they had Madelina bring Sommerset around with her in crowded public places. Like malls.

She was wearing a scarlet orange dress that had a peter pan collar, short sleeves, and lace trim. Her hair was up, for once, and tied in a yellow ribbon. She had her ballet flats with bows on.

She came across Miku in a baggy pikachu hoodie and galaxy patterned leggings reluctant to walk inside a Hot Topic, with an athletic, dark-skinned girl trying desperately to convince her to go in.

Allegra walked up to Madelina, and asked her if she could convince Miku to go in.

Madelina said "Why should I bother with a mallgoth store?" Allegra's patience was wearing thin. "We've been spending 5 minutes trying to coax her in, Madelina! You gotta help us!"

"Very well then," Madelina proceeded to yell at Miku from across the other end of the hall. "If you don't get into that Hot Topic right now, I'll send my dog after you!" Miku ran into the Hot Topic like a bat out of hell.

"You don't need to thank me, Allegra, it was nothing." Allegra was confused "So you like to intimidate others with your dog?" "Intimidation and protection are precisely why my parents make me drag Sommerset around everywhere." Sommerset started to tug on the leash, meaning he wanted to leave. Madelina and Allegra quickly exchanged goodbyes, and she left to go find a suitable fall dress.

All the clothing stores, it seemed, wanted to squeeze the very last bit of summer out before September. It was still fairly warm outside, too. But most of the collections were made of tank tops, crop tops, short shorts, leggings, and the like. And they were all in these desaturated earth tones, too. Madelina wouldn't have minded it so much if they were richer, but they just looked like sad shades of gray and poop-colored brown. This was mostly a problem with fast fashion brands, in the style of Forever 21. Madelina did find a few nice articles of clothing, but only a few, due to the aforementioned color problem and the fact that she took care to dress semi-modestly. Overmorrow, it would be the first day of the fair, so she made sure to buy a nice sun hat, too. But Madelina could find a single dress, mini or otherwise.

While she was on the hunt for a dress, Madelina met Roxanne. She was wearing a faded baby pink crop top that said "ASK ME ABOUT ME FEMINIST AGENDA" in bold, blocky, black letters. Roxanne was wearing capri pants with pastel colored medical supplies on them, a single ponytail, and black sneakers.

"Tell me, Roxanne, about your feminist agenda."said Madelina.

Roxanne didn't know what she was talking about until she looked at her own shirt.

"I don't know, destroying the patriarchy and becoming a CEO? I just have this because I think it's in a cute color."

"Not a very good reason to have such a political shirt. You might get yourself in trouble."

Roxanne, wanting to change the conversation, asked Madelina about the dog she had with her. "This is Sommerset." "Oooh! Can I pet him?" Sommerset growled at Roxanne when she put her hand close to his muzzle. Madelina shushed Sommerset and explained to Roxanne that Sommerset is essentially her bodyguard, and only allows her to pet him.

Roxanne and Madelina started to talk about clothes again, and how hard it was to find any they liked. Roxanne loved pastel colors, but they were an endangered species in a sea of drab earth tones. All the stores that sold clothes they both liked were online, and neither of them were very happy about it.

Madelina was starting to get gloomy about the current fashions, so Roxanne gave her a proposition to cheer her up. "How'd you like to come over to my house later?" Madelina wasn't overjoyed at this statement, but her mood lightened up. "I'd love to, so long as it doesn't surprise our parents." Roxanne had trouble containing her excitement.