Chapter 10
Chee
“Trove, this is not going to work!” Chee insisted, refusing to step into the dressing room. Or the advanced tech version of a dressing room.
Chee had brought a few outfits from Earth, just some of the most comfortable and durable ones.
She had donated the rest – which mostly had just been business casual clothes for work.
She wasn’t really big into fashion, not bothering to fight her body to look good anymore.
It didn’t matter if she tried to lose weight or put on shapewear or work out her butt or thighs or whatever.
Nothing was going to change the size of her hips, which really were big bones, completely heredity, and a gift from her mother that would only widen if she ever had kids.
The swell of her belly didn’t bother her, the smallness of her boobs didn’t bother her, but she hated how uneven her hips made her look.
Nothing would ever squeeze her hips closer, so she was just going to be happy wearing her jeans and baggy sweater that, at least, disguised their wideness.
So, seeing the clothing choices Trove chose made her terrified, because she knew her body was going to look terrible in them. She absolutely did not want to try them on. Even if it was done completely virtually.
Out here in space, clothing shops were trying to appeal to multiple different species.
Selling garments wasn’t as simple as small, medium, large.
Some species, like Rok, had four arms. Some species had wings.
Some had tails – and there was variation in size from super thin and whip-like, as Tanin had, or super thick and muscular.
Spikes, horns, humps. Scales that could rip lace and silk or skin that couldn’t handle metals like scales.
Sure, clothing stores on individual planets could do a small, medium, large system because they were all selling to approximately the same body type, but a space station did not have that luxury. So, they didn’t have a bunch of ready-made stock just sitting out.
Instead, what they had were consoles that customers could put in their approximate requirements – limb count, growth presence, etc. – and the system would then take the fashions they had and adjust them to that body type i.e. adding sleeves, adding holes, removing them.
The dressing rooms were mirrors that, like a phone filter, would scan her body and put the clothing she had chosen over her. Giving her a look at what she would look like. And only if she decided she liked it and clicked buy would the employees actually make her clothes.
What they had in the back were fabric and machines. Machines that would cut the fabric, close the seams, add the seals that would close the fabric around her – which aliens used in the place of things like zippers or buttons.
One drawback of this system was that she couldn’t tell how comfortable the clothing was before actually putting it on, but everything was perfectly tailored to her based on how she chose to make it look on her body in the changing rooms.
All of that was explained to her by Trove as he picked things for her to ‘try on’ before he took her to a changing room.
The room was about the same size as those on Earth with the large mirror that was what scanned and put the clothes on her body.
The big difference was that there was no privacy curtain or door because she didn’t have to undress for any part of the process.
“Trust me,” Trove insisted, chuckling as he stepped to the side, making sure he was out of the way of the mirror’s scanning range. “You’re going to look great.”
“This is a mistake,” Chee insisted, making a face, refusing to take that last step to the spot on the floor that indicated where the mirror would begin working.
“Come on,” Trove encouraged happily. “You’ll love it, I guarantee.”
“You can’t possibly guarantee that.”
“Want to bet?” He grinned wickedly, and she felt her heart skip a beat.
Which annoyed her immediately. What the hell was she doing? There was no way she was being charmed by a heartbreaker’s smile.
“Bet what?” She asked, crossing her arms over her chest. Not because he was making her angry by his insistence, but because she had reacted at all to that handsome face.
Trove hummed thoughtfully, mimicking her position, but far more playfully than she was depicting the stance. “What do you want from me?”
“What I want?”
“Sure. That’s how bets work, isn’t it? If you try these on and hate them, I’ll do whatever you want. But if you try them on and you love them – and I know you will – then you do whatever I want.”
“Within reason,” she added quickly.
“Of course. I’d never ask for more than you’d be willing to give.”
Chee stared him down, biting on her tongue, trying hard to resist. She didn’t have to do this. She didn’t have to indulge him or take this bet or anything. But he just looked so smug, like he was some fashion guru, that she wanted to prove him wrong.
After all, the bet wasn’t if he loved it, it was if she did. And she already knew she wouldn’t. So, this was an easy win.
“If I hate them, you owe me dinner at a nice restaurant.”
“Deal. And if you love them, then you’ll have fun with me for the rest of the day, no matter what I want to do. Within reason, of course.”
Chee looked him over carefully, but she couldn’t find anything wrong in what he was saying. So, after a few seconds of considering, she said-
“Fine. Deal. But you don’t get to take any pictures of anything, and you don’t get to laugh or judge me. You picked all these clothes, don’t forget that.”
“Oh, I certainly won’t,” he smirked. “Now, take off the sweater. It’s too baggy, the mirror is going to read your body as bigger than it is. And stand here.”
She pulled the beige sweater up and over her head, revealing the plain white shirt underneath. It was a simple tank top, and she hated wearing it alone, because it did nothing to disguise the way her hips immediately flared out.
But a deal was a deal and, handing the sweater over to Trove to hold, she stepped forward to the spot indicated on the floor. Steeling herself for what she was going to see, knowing without even looking that she was going to hate it.
The mirror’s edges glowed gold, with sparkles for affect, a light going around the edge in what was clearly a loading symbol as it took a second to scan her. She stood there, arms down, waiting with her head held high. She just had to survive this-
The mirror shimmered, and then her clothes were swapped. So quick and easy, so realistic appearing, she started in surprise. Then took a breath, already ready to disparage herself-
-only to have nothing waiting as she actually took a look.
The first outfit Trove had chosen included a skirt. Chee refused to wear skirts or shorts because those only seemed to make her already wide hips seem even bigger. She had especially never chosen a tight skirt, because she knew those would be worse.
Except the form fitting skirt somehow wasn’t worse?
Yes, her hips were still wide, that wasn’t something that could be disguised, but the midrise skirt in deep, navy blue that extended only to her knees, tight on her hips, didn’t accentuate them like she expected.
And it wasn’t just the skirt, but he’d also paired it with a shimmery, silken, white shirt with a loose, circular, cowl neckline that came down low on her shoulders that gave more of a concept of a bust than she actually had.
But it wasn’t just the clothes. He’d picked shoes.
He’d chosen accessories. And they were good!
They were cute! Strappy shoes in the same blue as her skirt, light golden chains at her wrists, one hanging across her right hip, hanging from her ears.
Nothing at her neck, the loose folds of the shirt was enough décor for that area, but the tiny flashes that did exist were just bright sparkles that seemed to decorate her body.
“Wha…” Chee hesitated, looking over herself again. Then understood all at once. “Oh, I get it. This is a trick mirror. It’s designed to make you look better, isn’t it?”
Trove laughed. “You think so?”
“It’s obvious. There’s no way I look good in that skirt.”
“Alright. Step aside.”
She happily did so, moving out of the circle on the floor. She was somehow surprised when Trove took her place, standing confidently in the circle. Immediately, her gaze darted to the mirror. No way, there was no way that-
It did! It showed him wearing the same outfit – tight skirt, loose shirt, golden accents.
And he looked absolutely terrible. His shoulders were too broad for that shirt style, his hips too narrow for that skirt, and it did nothing to change his orange skin tone that matched that orange jumpsuit, so the colors clashed horribly.
He looked terrible, and exactly like himself.
The reflection wasn’t thinner, it wasn’t blurred a bit to hide any imperfections, it wasn’t shaping the clothes to him to try to make them appear more flattering.
It looked bad on him, and the mirror let it look bad on him.
“I don’t think it’s my style. It makes my butt look flat,” he said dolefully, turning around to inspect his hind end. And he was right. Unlike her, his trim waist was made so pencil straight by the skirt, it really did seem to flatten his butt.
The mirror wasn’t exaggerating or enhancing his image. It was just letting him look ugly.
She could just imagine the stunned look on her face because he turned and grinned. Then, with a flourish, he stepped out of the way and swept his arm out, indicating for her to step forward.
More cautiously this time, sure she wasn’t going to see the same thing as before, she took the indicated place in front of the mirror. And again, the mirror thought about it for a second before adding the outfit back onto her body.