The Hallway is Our Runway (Route SPLIT: Suit Path)

Annabelle confidently requested, “Preset two, please.”

At the sound of her voice, the exoskeleton started playing music. The beats rolled on as panels shifted around her. Her pigtails collapsed and became the framework for a large feathery hat. The outer layer of her high-tops lifted to reveal the clear plastic platforms with a wind-up fish swimming inside. Wide-rimmed sunglasses lowered onto the eighteen-year old. She kept her face as stoic as possible, just like her character did. The final piece to her outfit was a cane that sprung off of her arm. On top of it was a small disco ball that sparkled against the convention lights. At the sight of the transformation, the crowd rushed back to her.

The small robot in the plastic cage was quite pleased, “Yes! Yes! Run away, you fools! Run away and tell everyone of the terror that is KILL-”

“Wow, that suit is amazing!” one of the employees said to Anna.

Anna spoke as low as she could, “Word.” The robot girl caught a glimpse of Janice burying her face into her hands. She chuckled internally, ‘Well, that’s probably what Jenny would have said if she spoke in that scene.’

“Does it have all of her costumes from the ep?” another one of the group asked.

“And more,” Anna replied, “Now, listen up and dance!” The girl pressed a button on her cane and the music picked up. The crowd complied, laying down their funkiest moves on the floor. Anna tried to join in but the preset was constricting her to certain movements. She opted to nod her head, back and forth to the beat.

As the song ended, Anna said coldly, “I’m off. Peace, y’all.”. She heard the cheers and encouragement from the crowd as she strutted away. Anna could have stayed with them for a while but the crowds probably wouldn’t hit their wing for another hour. With that in mind, Annabelle made her way to the main hall. She was hungry for the attention.

‘Grrrrlllllgggg!!!’

She probably should not have skipped breakfast.

Supposing that Electric Sheep had given her up-to-date notes on the exoskeleton, Annabelle assumed that she had thirteen working presets: her default outfit, the six from the episode “Victim of Fashion” and an additional six either inspired from the show or from various decades. There were two that Anna had personally banned from use on the convention floor, Preset Five and Seven. Preset Five was the ‘Birth of Venus’ swimsuit. Even though it would be fine for a beach, Annabelle was a little self-conscious. She didn’t want to reveal that much of her skin to the air conditioned halls. Preset Seven was banned on principal. It was based upon Jenny’s fashion catastrophe in the episode: puffy striped dress, polkadot tie and clown shoes. Annabelle strived to make the character look her best and, while the suit was faithful to the show, it was nothing but an insult to her.

So, that left her with eleven working presets. If she distributed showcasing each outfit equally across her first three hours, that meant that she would need to change every sixteen minutes. Annabelle didn’t really approve of that formula. Despite Xj9 being a machine; she was supposed to be spontaneous, impressionable, and sometimes out-of-control. All she needed to do was highlight her suit and direct people to the Electric Sheep booth. She could change outfits whenever she wanted.

Two hours had passed by and Anna feeling a little sluggish. She needed nourishment. The robot girl decided that she head over to a vendor after wowing the crowd in front of her. She was doing a pretty good job of it. Anna was currently in Preset Four: the Butterfly. Her pigtails were extended to resemble antennae and any excess material was used to assemble her wings. Anna couldn’t fly with them but they were set on a motor to simulate motion. She twirled gracefully, earning some more ‘ooh’s and ‘aah’s. Anna did her best to hold back a grin.

A childish voice called out, “Bzzzzztt. Wrrrrriir. Baaah!” Annabelle stopped her dance to find where the noise was coming from.

A few feet behind her audience, a small figure pranced around. Adorned in a white t-shirt and dark navy blue shorts, the supposed redhead kept their eyes focused to the sky where a miniaturized rendition of the Bebop was spinning right above them.

‘I’d hate to be a hypocrite,’ Anna thought to herself, ‘but aren’t they a little too young to know who ‘Radical Ed’ is? Also, isn’t flying drones inside a little dangerous?’

As if on cue, the Bebop drone made a beeline for Anna. The performer couldn’t react quickly enough. The model spaceship hit one of Anna’s antenna pigtails clean off. A corgi burst through the crowd, sniffing its way till it found the cleaved piece. ‘Ed’ was not too far away.

Keeping their distance from Anna, ‘Ed’ exclaimed, “Robot lady. Ed is out of practice with her piloting. Ed is sorry. Very sorry.” They hung their head low and started to cry. Transforming back into her default outfit, Anna was still visibly shaken but managed to stay in-character.

“No biggie,” she declared, “I just lost communications to about forty global networks. I just need to fix this before my mom finds out.”

“I think I can help with that.” A man in a wheelchair, dressed in a stylized western garb, approached the two of them. The man grabbed the still antennae-like pig tail and studied it. A toolkit popped out of the side of the wheelchair. The man got to work and within a minute, the pigtail collapsed back to its normal size.

“There you go,” the man explained, “Now, you gonna need to plug that back in yourself unfortunately.” Anna grimaced as he tapped his wheelchair. The performer questioned if she could actually install the pigtail back on her head effectively.

“Let Ed do it!” Without a moment to protest, ‘Ed’ grabbed the pig tail and hopped onto Anna. If it weren’t for the suit adjusting her movements, Anna swore she would have fallen back in shock. Now with ‘Ed’ uncomfortably close to her, the performer was able to get a good look at their face.

‘Wait a minute. This guy could be my age, if not older!’ Even though she was only eighteen, Anna could wrap her head around the prospect of someone the same age as her acting so irresponsible and juvenile. She could argue that they were just being the character but that way of thinking must have limits.

“Yay! Ed and weird old man put robot back together again!” The teen sang out and then scampered off, with their drone and corgi trailing behind.

“For the record, they are not with me,” the man gave Anna a business card that read, Fizzlestick’s Fun Gizmos. On the back, marked with a pen, was a room number of the convention floor.

The man continued, “Most of my work is in the east hall. Feel free to stop on by. I’d love to talk about the craftsmanship of your designs.”

‘Grrrrlllllgggg!!!’ Annabelle blushed at the sound of her stomach.

“Well, perhaps you ‘refuel’ before anything else. Right, ‘Jenny?’” he asked.

Annabelle nodded and said, “Thanks again!”

‘Okay, if anybody asks, I’m buying this for Tuck.’

‘Grrrrlllllgggg!!!’ Annabelle held her waist tighter.

‘And I recorded his stomach gurgling for sympathetic value.’

Annabelle looked at the line ahead of her. It would probably take five more minutes before she could place her order an additional five to receive it. While cosplayers were given special privileges to many things, there were some things one can’t cut corners on like food. She could have gone back to her booth and received a free meal but that would detract more from her total time on the convention floor. She could still advertise Electric Sheep while she was waiting in line.

Suddenly, the entire suit shook. Panels shifted around her. The exoskeleton was changing against her will! Anna tried to move but she was locked into the transformation position. A series of modified voices emanated from her speakers, “~l-lol p-pwned-d!~”