Bowsette: A New Life
Chapter 25
Shopping Spree
As he went out of the alley and headed inside the shop, Mario felt conflicted about all this. Sure, it was a nice gesture to not make him shell out for her dress, but Mario couldn't help but feel suspicious. 'What, did you think I'd be any different…' Mario's thoughts turned to recalling the words Bowsette had spoken just yesterday, before he had hijacked her Koopa Copter. '…just because I think you're hot?' Mario blushed, he knew that comment had just slipped out of the Queen so he knew it was the truth.
Mario stood there at the entrance of the shop lost in thought. Hot? Mario wasn't stupid or blind, plenty of girls he met along the way had flirted with him, but few had ever even really called him attractive before, not even Peach. Maybe that was the reason it just didn't work out between them; the princess just didn't find him attractive. Apparently though Bowsette not just found him attractive, but sexy? That would explain her behavior back at the bridge in the bowels of her castle at least.
"Hello! How can I… if it isn't Mario!" A male Toad in a nice suit jarred Mario out of his thoughts. Mario presented the gems to the Toad and stepped back. "Appraise these please." Mario simply waited as the jeweler looked them over. "150 coins per gem sir." Mario nodded. "That works for-a me!" Mario was glad but startled, 900 coins for such small gems? That dress must have cost hundreds of thousands of coins! Well, Bowsette was a filthy rich monarch after all. Mario takes the coins, which were almost the most he could possibly hold, and left to rejoin Bowsette.
As he left the jewelry store Mario almost started thinking about Bowsette's unintended confession again, but shook it off. If he kept her waiting Bowsette was liable to broil him alive. Still, thoughts of a sort not that one thinks about a long time enemy were starting to creep into his head. Quickly, Mario made his way back to the alley, only to find it empty… or so he thought. A familiar figure stepped out of the shadows.
"What took you so long? You better not have let that damned Toad cheat you!" Bowsette grumbled. "It's-a okay." Mario presented the spoils which Bowsette took with a huff. "Decent. Not enough, but decent." Bowsette noted. "How much was-a that dress anyway? Half a million?" Mario asked curious. Bowsette chuckled. "Add a few zeros Pasta Freak. About 5 million coins, and that's when my Great Great Grandmother got it." Bowsette had checked where the dress had come from. It was over 200 years old and had drained the Koopa Kingdom's coffers quite a bit.
Mario's eyes widened, he couldn't even guess how much that dress would be worth today, and here it was all ruined. Mario looked away guiltily, it was at least in part his fault, Bowsette had damaged such a priceless family heirloom protecting him, and then probably it took just as much damage during that disastrous Koopa Copter ride. "I'm-a sorry." Bowsette barked out a laugh. "About what? The dress?" Bowsette chuckled.
"It's just a dress." Bowsette said. If she were the "original" Bowsette she might have actually cared, but Bowser couldn't care less about some old dress. There probably was this thing down in the old Koopa vaults somewhere in her past life, but if so Bowser had never known about it. It would have been quite a bit different anyway. Bowsette had checked her new ancestry and old paintings and found that all the Queen Koopas had become much more humanlike but with various Koopa features after the accident. "Come on Mario, let's get going." Bowsette smirked. "Don't complain when I work you like a dog."
Casually Bowsette grabbed a full body Wanted Poster of herself off a bulletin board nearby and continued to walk along without giving much thought to her mustachioed tagalong. The people moved as fast as their feet would take them to avoid being near her as Bowsette would look into the windows of various clothing stores, scoff, and then move on. Most clothing stores in town were for Toads and thus wouldn't have anything suitable for even Mario, but apparently even the few human stores the two came across weren't up to snuff.
Eventually however, the two did come across a more fancy looking clothing shop. Bowsette looked over it with an inquisitive eye, but whether it was satisfactory or Bowsette was getting impatient Mario couldn't tell. In either case she just shrugged and went inside. Mario gulped as he went in, only Princess Peach and some other uber rich would probably be able to afford to shop here.
The attendant looked bored as the two strode inside, the place probably didn't get much business so the woman watching the place wasn't paying much attention. The Toad woman apparently noticed their entrance and spoke in a bored tone. "Hello… How can I he… eeek!" The attendant screeched in surprise as she looked at the customer just in front of the counter. "Yeah yeah it's me. Now get me a dress. Just like this one and made out of your most sturdy materials!" Bowsette demanded and held up her wanted poster.
The attendant stood there and stared terrified at the woman, but Bowsette was having none of it. "NOW!" Bowsette roared. The attendant jumped. "Ye… Yes Ma'am!" She grabbed her measuring tools. "This'll take a while. Don't go far." Bowsette said as an aside to Mario. Mario nodded and found a spot to take a seat, this might take hours if his sparse shopping trips with Peach were any indication.
As the attendant started taking measurements, Bowsette's mind quickly started to wander as boredom set in. 'Who could be behind all this?' Bowsette thought. There weren't many other villains that had wanted to kidnap Peach. If they did, they seemed to want her because she's the only person on the planet with a pure heart and could unseal some ancient evil or whatever. Bowser had the chance many times to use her for that purpose, but using Peach for that sort of thing never really appealed to him.
Besides, having ultimate power just made things too easy. Bowsette remembered what beating Mario was like when she was Bowser with the Star Rod. It was so near effortless Bowser let Mario get close to beating him before he used it just to have felt something. Deep down Bowser was almost glad when Mario got the Star Spirits, there was an actual challenge. Of course, give Mario a chance and he always took it to pull off a win. Bowser had always respected that about him.
"98 cm bust… 99 cm hips… 66 cm waist…" The attendant said to herself. The Toad woman had to get a ladder to perform all the measurements. "7 feet 9 inches tall… Wait, what? Holy sh…" She managed to stop herself. "And a lot of it is muscle… and she's so tall… this is going to take some work." The attendant double checked the measurements and got to making the clothes before Bowsette became impatient.