The socially awkward villain's furry superpower

“So, as long as you don’t go too far, you two can pick whatever you like, understand?” Sienna said.

Teddy nodded. She was good at following orders, and she had to show that she was the best, not only to reinforce the chain of command, but also to demonstrate the rules of conduct to her new sister.

"Understood, boss."

The shopkeeper took them to the same thrift store, where Teddy bought her super cool hoodie and the skirt from her outfit.

In fact, apart from underwear, she buys most of her clothes here.

The shop owner said secondhand underwear wasn't good, so they didn't buy any.

Teddy thought she should actually buy a few pairs. She figured there must be a way to use those old lady-style big underwear she'd seen as weapons, but the shopkeeper said no, so be it.

The owner had some things to look at, so he waved to them and left, leaving them in the shop.

Teddy turned around and looked at the rows of clothes racks, no two pieces of clothing were the same. "There are so many things to choose from."

“I think so too,” Tina replied. “Then let’s just wander around and pick out some clothes that look good to us, shall we?”

Teddy noticed that Tina spoke in a slightly roundabout way, but it wasn't a big problem.

She can usually understand what it means, and if she doesn't understand, she can guess. Xiong is very good at guessing things.

"Well, that's pretty much it."

She confirmed, "I really went to a lot of trouble to find this one." She tugged at her hoodie with a big bear pattern on the front.

“Then I probably won’t have to go through all that trouble to look for it,” Tina said.

Teddy blinked. What did that mean? "Look, skirts and things like that," he tried to change the subject.

Indeed, there was a clothes rack with quite a few dresses and other clothes hanging on it.

Tina walked over and gently ran her hand over a few pieces, as if feeling the texture of the fabric.

"I don't even know if I like dresses or not," she concluded.

"Hmm, I prefer shorts, but I'm a bear, so I'm not afraid of the cold."

Tina nodded. "Snowy owls aren't too afraid of the cold because we have wonderful downy feathers."

"Hmph, the feathers are like a piece of trash fur," Teddy said.

Tina glanced at her expressionlessly. "Does your fur allow you to fly?"

"Can you fly?" Teddy countered.

Tina snorted, walked past the first row of dresses, and then stopped at the second row.

The skirts in this row look more formal; some are brown, and others are light pastel.

How about these?

“You’ll look like a librarian if you wear this,” Teddy said.

"I think it's great. I bet I can find some nice shirts to match some of them. The outfit will look really smart."

Teddy shrugged.

She doesn't care how smart her clothes look; as long as they're comfortable, that's all that matters.

It turned out that shopping with Tina was quite a hassle.

She picks and chooses everything, grumbling and muttering to herself for ages before making any choice. Teddy's method of just grabbing whatever looks cool is much more efficient.

“So, Teddy, since you’ve been with the boss longer, can you tell me about Sister Sienna?” Tina asked after a while.

She was trying on several jackets, but they were all made for women much larger than her, and they looked particularly ridiculous on her.

“Yeah, sure,” Teddy said. “The eldest is pretty cool. She gets really excited and her speech gets a little mumbled. But I think she’s a little shy.”

Tina let out a low, frustrated sigh. "We need to help her correct this habit."

"Change it? The boss isn't doing anything wrong," Teddy said.

“I know there’s nothing wrong with her, but she seems to lack a bit of confidence. We can help her become better.”

Teddy glanced at her. "I don't quite understand what you mean. Boss is fine as he is now."

Tina shook her head. "Haven't you noticed that bosses don't want to do bad things?"

"I've discovered it."

“That’s because she lacks the confidence to do those things,” Tina said.

She sounded very confident in her ideas, but Teddy wasn't sure if he believed her.

"I don't know. The boss might just not want to do anything wrong."

“She’s a villain,” Tina emphasized. “Doing bad things is in her nature. She definitely wants to do them. I bet the only reason she doesn’t is because she’s shy. Can you imagine her giving an evil monologue?”

Teddy couldn't imagine it. "I don't think so. So if we want to help the boss become more confident... wait, how do we do that?"

Tina snorted, "I don't know either."

Teddy felt his shoulders slump. "But you just said you wanted to help."

“I didn’t say I knew everything. I’m not an expert,” Tina said. “I think we can fully support her, right?”

"For example, when she does something bad, you tell her she did something good? Not the kind of good that is the opposite of bad, but the kind of good that is... well, good that is right."

"This method might work. However, it seems to be a bit slow to show results."

"It's okay. The boss's plan isn't the kind that needs to be implemented quickly. I think she's playing the long game."

Tina hung one garment back on the hanger and then took down another. "Does she have a long-term plan?"

“Yes,” Teddy said.

What's the plan?

"I do not know."

Tina narrowed her eyes, and given that her eyes were already large, the narrowing was quite pronounced. "So that's a secret, long-term plan."

“Yeah, I think so,” Teddy agreed.

“That’s so cool,” Tina said.

Teddy nodded. It really was cool. She pointed to a shirt. "You should take this one."

Her new sister looked at the shirt for a while. "This color is too red, I don't even know if I like red."

"You should like red. Capitalists don't like this color. They have something called the 'Red Scare.' This color scares them."

“Are capitalists dangerous?” Tina asked.

Teddy nodded. "Oh, of course. Very dangerous. Even the boss said capitalism might be pretty bad."

“Well, since Sister Sienna has said so,” Tina took the shirt off the hanger. “But I plan to learn more about these capitalists myself. From what you've said, you seem quite afraid of them.”

“A little? They’ll steal your food, and they have some kind of ‘invisible hand’,” Teddy explained. “It’s scary.”

“I think I’ve picked out enough,” Tina said, tossing the shirt onto her pile of clothes.

According to Teddy's observation, she didn't pick out many clothes, just a few skirts, a few shirts, and a few other things.

For example, there were flannel pajamas, fluffy and fuzzy, and a white, puffy scarf made of some kind of fur.

Teddy helped her carry some things; after all, she was a bear, and bears are much stronger than owls.

Besides, Tina can't transform into an owl; her abilities are all about scheming, which is pretty boring.

They waited at the entrance for a while, with the woman behind the counter staring at them, but then the boss came and everything was fine again.

The shopkeeper paid for the clothes, after all, they lived in a terrible system where taxes and unreasonable monetary compensation still existed, and then the shopkeeper reached out and took their hands.

“Where are we going now, boss?” Teddy asked.

“I think we should take all this home. It’ll be perfect if you want to change clothes then,” Sienna said. “We’re going to see someone later. She’s treating, so you can eat as much as you want.”

"Really?" Teddy asked.

“Oh, of course,” Emily said. “She brought it up on her own, so she should at least pay for the meal.” The owner didn’t seem too happy, but Teddy didn’t seem to mind.

“Let’s go home then,” Teddy said. “I need to poop so I can make room for the food later.”

For some reason, the boss sighed heavily.