I was worried I'd be doomed to the pre-teen section but I did find a nice dress shop catering to the east Asian community with some suitably dainty sizes. And I was actually less worried for my safety in this larger town, I blended right in and when I was noticed I was a curiosity as the per capita Syxen population was far less on the big island, and most of them stationed in pods in the mountains awaiting an alert to go searching for a lost hiker. Some of them hadn't seen a person aside from their operator in five years.

Polly and Holly were out of radio range, so I couldn't ask if I should pick them up any outfits, not that either of them cared in the least to wear anything other than their standard floor uniforms, they'd wear anything I handed them I'm sure. But that wasn't the point, I wanted to take them shopping properly, for the first hand experience. Gisèle I wasn't worried about, she picked her own clothes now anyway. Still, shopping.

So I got a qi pao for myself to the delight of the owner of the shop to get a full set of measurements, I mean all Syxen shells are roughly identical within a narrow range. I'd learned from Polly to fuse my toes into socks when carrying excess mass so there was no stretching on the uniform. Holly would grow or shrink her legs up two 2mm in either direction. Same effect, visible toes still.

Anyway, I got a text from Jean-Tama that they'd landed and couldn't get a taxi for the life of them so they were on foot to the Assembly. I pinged back to check because I had been summoned to the Service Informatique building one block further inland... just past the Australian consulate with a military truck and four police vehicles parked out front. Soldiers and cops everywhere. No one paid me any mind but I was reminded that I'd buried my QR codes with my hair down and the dress. What the hell, the Defense Minister seemed to appreciate my forward stance and I'd already revealed myself as a stand in for a part as a James Bond villain's henchman. In for a penny, in for a pound as they say. I just hoped the High Court justice was at least indifferent.

That’s when Jean-Tama rounded the corner with a rolled up crêpe in hand half eaten, and Gisèle with a boba tea in hand, wearing sunglasses. She lifted the shades and with a huge smile saluted with the tea and offered a sip, “First trip on a plane!”

I took a sip and analogued it to pineapple/dragon fruit for her reference, “and yet you got to fly the Ghost before I did.”

“I managed to not get busted, even.”

Jean-Tama had been looking skeptically up at the building and not paying attention, then dropped his crêpe when he saw me and Holly plucked it out of the air on the way down, smugly handing it back to him after a bite. She pointed at the crêpe and asked if I'd take a bite so she could have an analogue for that too. I leaned over and wrapped my lips around the end and pulled some away to sample, looked up at Jean-Tama with a smug smile. He rolled his eyes and asked just how busted I thought we were.

I looked up at the building that ordinarily wouldn't feel so imposing and grimaced, "I don't know."

He put a hand around my waist and waved his other hand in front of the sensor to open the door. "All together then."