The Dark Mage

Chapter 14: Tanuki Society

  While the Selenese diplomat was secure and before the Tanuki parliament, Natalia and Buck got bored. And because Buck could see the curiosity in Natalia's eyes about the place of her ancestry, he thought he would ask her, "Even though I know we're just here until the diplomat can get support to annihilate the Valkyries, you mind if I show you around Sycamore city and the places that I used to hang around here?"

     Natalia's eyes widened with wonder that she got to spend some time with her fiancé in the country of her ancestry and answered, "Of course. I don't know much about this place and would be nice to have someone hold my paw-hand."

     Natalia and Buck then dressed as if they were going out on a date and started taking the elevator to the lobby of the hotel as Frank Sinatra's New York New York played faintly on a nearby radio. And outside the hotel were the well-paved streets of the most recent section of Sycamore city with its high rises and 80 floor buildings with their ornate art deco and art nuveau styles replacing the minimalist structures that came before. And the old, minimalist buildings were not simply replaced because people thought they were ugly but because the exposed steel and superstructure of their minimalist design made them degrade much faster than designs that came before and became structurally unsound prematurely and had to be demolished and rebuilt. And the many investors that invested in the construction of these minimalist buildings seeing the low upfront cost as promising for a good profit were angry at the loss they incurred from endless maintenance work on exposed steel and the buildings not lasting long enough to break even on investment. Afterwards, investors stopped investing in minimalism because it became so unprofitable that minimalism became a dead style in only a few years. Such is modern architecture in Tanuki society.

     Meanwhile, every Tanuki was well-dressed in semi-formal attire, including children. In fact, there were so many families that it was rare to see someone walking by themselves and unaware of what was going on around them. And along the children and men, women wore modest dresses down to the ankles of their digitigrade legs and had gloves on while carrying their purses strapped to their wastes. And then almost everyone wore hats with men wearing plain felt hats and women wearing all manner of designs. But because of the way Natalia was dressed without gloves, a hat, or dress down to her ankles but wearing pants, many of the Tanukis thought she was part of some tomboy subculture or a flapper.

     And when Buck and Natalia entered an old jazz parlor that he used to go to when he was a teenager, the Tanuki women looked at Natalia as if she were improper for asking for an alcoholic beverage, even if it was only a pint of beer to go with her food. Natalia then asked Buck, "Why are all the women looking at me like that?"

     Buck then noticed and said quietly, "Tanuki culture is very traditional. Typically, any woman getting a drink that isn't wine or fruity is seen as tomboyish. I know you don't mean anything by it, but some American things that are completely normal seem tomboyish here."

     Natalia was taken a little back by that and said, "I knew the culture here was very traditional, but I didn't know it went all the way down to having a pint while on our date. Is there anything else I should know about?"

     Buck stopped to think for a bit before answering. "Yes. You may want to find something that covers up all the way down to your ankles and may not want to wear pants unless you're a farm girl. You also may want to wear something other than boots even though I know good quality boots can be quite comfy."