She walked further in, taking in the sights of the City. The sooner she got acclimated to the surroundings, the better. She didn’t want to give the impression of being a tourist. Furthermore, the closer she got to people, the better her chances of being lied to. She had no intention of coming back the way she came - it was too risky. Better to get out through one of the safer entrances/exits. She didn’t exactly have a plan for getting out of this place - all her energies was spent in getting here, but that was secondary. She’d figure something out later. It’d be easier to get out of this heavily fortified place than in. Just complete her business here and then leave.
The walls were a pale grey polished to a glimmering lusture that strangely enough, gave off a pale unvarnished glow. She decided to take a closer look and - WHOA! She was dirtier than expected! Apparently being left out in the wilderness didn’t do wonders for your complexion. Within the confines of an abandoned alley, she changed into cleaner spare clothes, wiped the excess dirt off her face, and decided to get some practice lines in. “Who’s a sweet smelling Girl? Yes, you are!” she asked, smiling at her reflection.
Then she started feeling uncomfortable, and looked away with a shuddering chill of revulsion resonating throughout her body. Even though the silver walls were perfectly still, they still gave off the sensation of being watched. She felt uneasy about doing herself up in front of them for some reason she couldn’t specificy.
She moved out of the alley that had once seemed so safe and inviting, feeling more relieved. Then she opened her compact mirror that’d been hanging on a hook outside her bag to pretty herself up and - there! There it was again! A flicker of a figure briefly appeared in the reflection, and was gone in an instant. She opened and closed it again, expecting another surprise, but none was forthcoming. It was like now that she knew something was going to happen, it went out of its way to prevent it from ever happening again.
With that minor distraction that would wind up bugging her for days out of the way, she went to work using whatever beauty products she’d brought with her. She made no extense to cover up the overwhelming musk that was emanating from her body. She took one last look in the circular reflection, satisfied with her appearance, and went out to accomplish her goal.
“Hello, kind sir! Would you be pleasant enough to comment on my fragrant aroma?”
As it turned out, getting people to lie the way she wanted was harder than expected. A bald guy said, “I’m sorry, I have to wash my hair.” And that was the most obvious one. Other borderline lies ranged from:
“I just remembered I have a Dental appointment.”
“I’d sooner kill myself first.”
“A flower by any other name would smell just as bad.”
“Is this my punishment?”
One particularly memorable guy said, “I have to knock out my wife’s teeth with a hammer.” She really hoped that last guy was lying. For the most part, the majority of the people opted for open honesty with their cries of “Get away from me!”
After an hour of no success, the busy intersection that had once seemed so prosperous had dwindled away to sparseness. The crowds of people had now vanished for mysterious, yet obvious reasons. Far off in the distance, a gang of curious children were coming close.
“It can’t be that bad. There’s no way anything smells that - oh crap!” the leader said, before turning around and retreating with the rest of them.
Great. Word of her stench had gotten around and was now serving as a warning from parents to punish their brats from wandering off before she could even make her mark. She’d already made more of an impression than intended, and hardly met anybody who’d lie about her smell.
“It’s not working. Why isn’t it working?!”
“It’s not working, because you keep expecting it to.”
She turned around in the direction of the voice, and saw a lean muscled guy with strange-looking gloves carrying what looked like a young child, but upon closer investigation, had a wrinkled and decrepit veiny body underneath.
“I got word you were around,” the Mystery Man said. “I understand you’ve been causing a bit of a ruckus. I figured we should talk.”
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