Chương 182: ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY: Needle & Wheedle

180 The man's name was Tuck, the woman's was Yinuo, and their coffee was the same color as the leather chair Alden sat in while they all had a casual conversation about recent events. The new Span, real estate, luxury tax rates—it was all over his head and very far outside his day-to-day worries. But the chatter of the three older Rabbits served to break up a long string of questions about him so that talking felt more natural than having one fell swoop of a personal interview would have.

How much time did he expect to spend on the Triplanets? No need to be specific, but was he planning one social trip or several? What were his priorities when it came to his appearance? And by the way, what did he usually wear in America? On Anesidora? What about at LeafSong? Did he like what the school had given him in his human care package? Why? Why not? Did he think he had a style? Did he want one?

"All right," said Tuck as he poured the last of the coffee into Alden's cup. The cufflinks on the shirt he wore under the striped jacket were small gold compasses.

"Even though you're not a cultural novice, you are a beginner when it comes to presenting yourself through your wardrobe. You're hoping to work on that so that you don't feel inappropriate and unprepared around Artonans, and you like for your clothes to be functional." He waited.

"Yes," said Alden.

"That sounds about right."

"That's a good thing," said Yinuo. They were all in Needle & Wheedle's seating area, and she was beside Gus on the sofa. The window behind them was still curtained, and no sound at all came in from the street.

"When you decide to play around with fashion…and you might want to sometime. Anesidora is probably the best place on Earth for having fun with how you dress. If you ever want to do that, we can help. But today you're buying clothes for the Triplanets, and those clothes won't be toys." Tuck nodded.

"When people come to us for help with their off-Earth wardrobe, they're usually coming to us because they need tools. Even though you're looking for something to wear for personal matters right now, it sounds like it would be ideal if you could also wear it on summonings. Just in case. We wouldn't give a surgeon a bat or a cricket player a scalpel.

"Showing up to a summons with an outfit that says the wrong thing can turn an event you would have enjoyed into a struggle. And none of us want to deal with that."

"If I get summoned, I want my clothes to blend in and say nothing," Alden said.

"Just…neutral. Making no waves." <<That's too advanced for you, >> said Gus, setting his own cup in its saucer.

"Only a master can make his clothes unreadable."

"He's right," Yinuo agreed, smiling at Alden's expression.

"Just think of how hard it would be to make a random group of humans think nothing about your appearance. And that's when you have a lifetime of experience backing you up. On the Artonas, as an alien, you will draw half of all eyes. Those eyes will guess things about you whether you want them to or not."

"We can help you present the image you want," said Tuck.

"But we do it by making sure the clothes say the right thing, not nothing. It's actually easier with the Artonans in some ways. Humans pay attention to symbols when we notice them, but when it comes to clothes, Artonans are always looking for meaning. Most of them do it with humans, too. So if you give them a message they recognize to work with, it will be received."

He walked over to a long set of shelves where lines of top hats and stacks of folded scarves were interrupted by more unusual accessories, and he put the coffee pot into a small cabinet.

"With that said, let's get down to it. You have a trip planned that you want clothes for. Who do you need to deal with on this trip? And what do you want them to think of you?" Alden thought about it. Priority was the healer. So that first. And he wanted to look appropriate when he was hanging out at the art'h house.

"We can put you in something more generic if you prefer not to say what your personal business is," Yinuo told him.

"But just so you know, we dress people for everything. If you want Artonans to give you more tips, if you want them to fire you without suspecting that being fired was your goal, if you're trying to look good for a wizard you like, or if your aim is to steal a job out from under another Rabbit's nose—it's all the same to us. Nobody's ever asked us to make an outfit for a murder, but I know the perfect fabric for that."

"I won't be murdering anyone I hope," Alden said.

"But that's good to know."

"The Rabbit man is always prepared," Gus murmured.

"For everything." Alden glanced over at him. He was enjoying one of the fabric swatch books while he joked about the murder.

"A friend has gone out of his way to get me an appointment with a healer," Alden said.

"I want to hit the right level of formality and show I'm grateful for the opportunity. I might also be meeting members of my friend's family for the first time. They're fairly important people. Um…I'll be wearing a commendation with this outfit. I was just going to use one of these instant embroidery packs I received recently, but if you're making the clothes from scratch…?"

"We can handle the embroidery," said Tuck.

"Given who the commendation is from, though, on significant occasions you should probably plan in advance and have it done on the Triplanets. Or by your own hand if you can achieve good quality that way. Asking who did the stitching is a custom that can pop up from time to time."

"You already know about the commendation and who it's from." There was a groan in Alden's voice.

"Gossipy clients," said Yinuo.

"But even if they weren't gossips…everyone has seen you flying around on the General's disc. You were on the news!"

"With a stained shirt," said Tuck. He was holding a hand to his chest as if the thought gave him heartburn.

"We're going to ask you so many questions," Yinuo said, "and answering them will be fun! But first, the less fun one—your budget." Alden was relieved. He'd been concerned that this kind of shopping experience came with no discussion of prices until the bill was presented on a golden tray. And the conversation so far hadn't had many openings that invited him to say, "So what are you guys charging me?"

He'd already used his interface to look up the cost of bespoke tailoring in the regular world and then tried to imagine how that translated. Needle & Wheedle had no website. Tuck and Yinuo were both Rabbits. They both made clothes for wizards who were in a hurry, usually working together since they'd developed a business relationship solid enough for both of them to agree on complementary talent selection. Their magic would no doubt make the creation of custom clothes faster. Alden doubted it would make it cheaper.

"The consultation for people who were recommended by existing customers is free," Yinuo added.

"We're confident a busy young Rabbit will need us eventually, so don't feel like you can't leave today without buying something. Or like you have to spend a great deal of money. I can help you pick one nice accessory before you go, or you can have a whole wardrobe. It's all fine with us." Alden looked at Gus.

"How much would you spend on an outfit for the Triplanets?"

"Clothes are one of my hobbies," he answered with a shake of his head.

"You don't have to make them one of yours. But you're obviously concerned with making the right impression, and you seem to be finding yourself in 'fairly important' circles. Unless you have expensive tastes in materials, the cost of anything you have made by these two will mostly be the fee to pay for their knowledge, their spells, and their skills."

"If a client's budget is on the small side," Tuck said, "we spend less time with them, and we use our powers more lightly. Maybe they only get to see a couple of outfit options on themselves before finalizing." Hearing that was actually helpful. I'm buying expertise, magic, and time from two Avowed who do get summoned regularly. So if I want to work with them, I don't pay like I'm shopping, I decide if it's worth it to pay like I'm summoning. He'd never done anything like this.

But he did want really nice clothes for being around Stuart's family. And… it seemed like this might be fun. If he was going to do this, he wanted to do it right. He knew what he'd made per day on his own summons as a new B-rank Rabbit working overtime for LeafSong. If Alden had them exhaust their talents for him, he didn't know how much clothing that would provide, but the minimum fee had to be around what his own had been in February, right? Over twenty thousand dollars a day, he remembered.

Around seven thousand argold. Being an Avowed is still crazy. They were C-ranks, but there were two of them. And they had experience… What if I'm way off, and they charge ten times what I'm thinking? Everyone was waiting so patiently for him to state his budget. I do have Stuart to fall back on for advice, but having their perspective on human-specific concerns could be great. Let's do it.

"Is fifteen thousand argold a good starting place?" he asked.

"For the one outfit plus whatever else? Or am I way off?" Two days LeafSong fee. Plus more for materials and a side order of education.

"It's plenty," Tuck said easily.

"We'll take care of you today, have time for some finishing work tomorrow morning, and make sure you have everything you need to feel good about the trip on Monday. We might get halfway through an entire wardrobe for you for that amount or just the one outfit. It all depends on your choices."

"You did say there would be a lot of those." He was relieved that he'd named an appropriate amount to get the ball rolling and curious to find out what he looked like in clothes made just for him.

"I'm into choices these days." Not long after that, Gus went to buy everyone lunch, and Yinou left to raid stores for "any little extras" Alden might want to have that didn't need to be made from scratch. Apparently, everyone knew her, and it was normal for her to go collect things from shops all over the island, bring them here, and then take them back if they didn't suit her clients' moods.

While the two of them were gone, Tuck was helping Alden narrow down his style preferences while images of well-dressed men and Artonans walked the entire length of the shop's back wall, courtesy of a projector drone.

"Don't think you have to match current Artonan-favored styles to make an outfit a success. If someone wants to wear a kilt or a three-piece suit to the Triplanets, we can make modifications to ensure that comes across the way they want it to. It can even be a conversation starter if the clothes are eye-catching in the right way."

"An Avowed at LeafSong wore a French maid uniform with a ruffled apron."

"Something markedly different from anything wizards would likely have seen on other humans, dramatic enough to draw attention and invite questions, associated with serving the wealthy so heavily that even the briefest, laziest attempt to look up the significance of the clothes would lead people to conclude she was hopeful to acquire job offers. She was certainly making an effort." Tuck paused, then said.

"How do you feel about jobs? Do you want wizards who see you in your new clothes to think you'd welcome their summons?"

"I do not." Alden wondered if Tuck would comment on that. He didn't.

"And you liked the red outfit we just saw while you were talking?"

"No, the color reminded me of a coat I bought once. That was a very different shopping experience…by the way, what about the clothes from the Rabbit's Wardrobe?"

"Wear them for the jobs they're designed for or because you want to take advantage of the nice little enchantments. Be aware that on their own, they're very recognizably work clothes to wizards who summon humans and to almost all Anesidorans. If you want to wear them without looking like a Rabbit hoping for a summons or a Ryeh-b't on a summons, then you'll need to work on them or use them as an under layer. How do you feel about color?"

"I like indigo blue, like my messenger bag." Alden jerked his head toward the table covered in fabric samples and boxes. He'd left the bag in a chair over there.

"But for clothes, I'm not picky. I don't usually wear neon. The red coat was uncomfortably red."

"Yes, that's not one of your flattering shades. You can wear other reds well, though. Later, we'll show you how you look in different colors." The questions kept coming. Tuck was updating Yinuo while Alden talked. Alden was learning a lot about his own tastes—things he would have known if anyone had ever asked him to think about them, but how often did people ask you to think about this kind of thing?

Until now, growing out of a pair of pants or admitting that his favorite t-shirt was approaching rag status had meant it was time to locate a replacement that fit his body well enough, and fit in with what everyone was wearing at school well enough, without costing too much. No fuss. There were clothes he kind of liked and clothes he didn't, and he never thought much about it after the decision to wear something had been made unless he realized he looked out of place or he felt physically uncomfortably.

Now, he was thinking about all of it. He wanted people to think he looked good when he was standing right in front of them having a conversation; he didn't want them to notice his outfit from across a street. When questioned about what good meant to him, he had to talk for a few minutes before he found the answer: appropriate for the setting, like he'd made an effort without agonizing, mature but not in a way that sucked life out of his appearance.

He liked when other peoples' clothes had an interesting detail or two that he wouldn't notice at a casual glance. He disliked conspicuous branding.

"That's recent," he told Tuck while runway models stomped across the wall wearing a collection that was going for a hybrid menswear/Artonanwear look.

"I never cared enough to pay attention to that kind of thing, but then I found out some Artonans spend a lot of time trying to figure out what we're telling them with words on clothes. Now I can't stop reading peoples' shirts and overanalyzing them." He wanted his clothes to be comfortable and easy to move in. He wanted hidden pockets to hide preserved objects in. He wanted to be cool on the Triplanets—temperature-wise. Gustavo heard that as he came through the door with their lunches.

"We all want that!"

"Being cool in that way isn't always doable, especially not on short notice or in every destination. But we try," said Tuck.

"Keep going." He didn't like loud patterns on himself. He thought he was probably in the early stages of developing a taste for magic jewelry. Every time he saw the green nonagon ring on his finger, he liked the look of it more and more. He didn't mention his auriad, obviously, but it was a contributing factor. When checking out wizards' stacks of rings and bracelets, he usually liked the wooden pieces best.

He was glad to hear that there were plenty of outfits he could wear that would be great on both worlds; he'd probably need to start taking advantage of that if he got summoned frequently. But when he had control over the situation, and his trips were planned, he would prefer a bifurcated wardrobe. Dedicated clothes for journeys to the Artonas. Once he made that decision, the fashion examples being projected onto the wall shifted to be even more Triplanetary. Robes looked so comfortable, but Alden preferred pants.

He liked that vest the Artonan walking through the park was wearing; it reminded him of one included in Stuart's belated message full of clothing examples. He liked most of those tunics except for the way they flared at the bottoms. He hated the necklines that made peoples' heads look like they were emerging from the top of a cabbage. Turtlenecks were fine. And, despite having shared several opinions that should render them unacceptable, he had a soft spot for Hawaiian shirts.

"All right," said Tuck, stylus lifting from the tablet he'd been sketching on for a while.

"Let's try some things on you."

The dressing room had a pair of cushiony chairs and a beverage fridge full of three different kinds of water. The mirror showed Alden alternating views of his front, sides, and back while he stripped down to his underwear and re-dressed in a large jumpsuit that was made of numerous gray fabric strips in widths that ranged from vermicelli to linguini. Sympathy for Magic made him want to stare at it for a little too long. There was a knock on the door.

"Would you rather do it back here or out front?" Tuck's voice called.

"Here is fine," Alden called back. He was trying to be convenient, which turned out to be his first mistake of the day. When Tuck opened the door a minute later, he was carrying armfuls of the fabric swatches. He had to move them all for me. Gus poked his head around the door.

"Do you want me to go help Yinuo empty the shoe stores? Or do you want me here?"

"If you don't mind, a third opinion here would be awesome. But since you've introduced me to this whole thing now, I'm fine whenever you need to go."

"<<Good! >> I don't want to go. This is the fun part." He pointed at Alden.

"No giving up when the tickling starts. Straight face. You represent The Warren." Alden looked down at the jumpsuit.

"It's going to tickle?"

"Not that bad," said Tuck, hanging his own coat on a peg by the door and taking a seat in one of the chairs.

"If you think of anything at all you want to try out, just say so. I'll let you know when we're about a third of the way through your try-ons. That's when we really need to start narrowing to make sure you've got an outfit ready for Monday. We can play around and make some more things for you once that's sorted. Pardon the goggles." He put the steampunky goggles on his face and became considerably quirkier looking.

"These help me see if any of the strands are damaged. It's so annoying for a fit to be off by a millimeter because one of them decided not to join the party. Are you ready?"

"I'm ready." Alden turned back to the mirror and held his arms out slightly. He was curious to see the jumpsuit work. The effect it would have had been described, but he couldn't quite believe it would be as fully realistic as promised.

"Look at him holding nice and still with his arms out!" Gus said, sounding thrilled about it as he took his own seat.

"Everyone stands that way the first time." Tuck was looking from his tablet full of sketches and references to Alden and back again.

"I think it's the natural starting position for a man getting his first magical fitting. Let's make it a good one. Outfit One. Jatontan tunic—mid-thigh length, side split up to the hip. High-necked tank for an under layer with this one. Pants— straight legged, minimal volume." He pointed at Alden while he spoke. Or, more accurately, at the jumpsuit, which started moving all over like every individual strand had a mind of its own. Alden saw his own expression of astonishment in the mirror.

The strands slithered around one another and around him, forming the clothes as Tuck envisioned them and tickling like crazy, but in such a swift, unpredictable variety of spots that he just stood there unsure of which direction he wanted to flinch in. Outfitter—one of Tuck's skills. It would, according to him, "do things" to miscellaneous fabric strips, but it was designed to work with this special product for this specific purpose.

When Alden decided he liked something enough to buy it, Tuck would "set" it into the suit with the skill. Alden would take it off, and Tuck would carry the linguini to the room where the clothes-making actually happened. It would separate into the pieces he needed for a two-dimensional pattern. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. After the pattern was made, he'd return to Alden with the jumpsuit for whatever else they had time to design.

Yinuo would be turning the pattern into clothes with her own skills. Some details would be added. And then they'd have final fittings and adjustments just to make sure nothing was amiss. Alden watched the clothes make themselves around him.

"You guys!" he said as the strands crawled up his neck.

"This is so cool!" There were now multiple pieces where before there had been a single suit.

"It's instant clothes! Do you see this, Gus?" Gus was laughing.

"There," said Tuck, lowering the finger he'd been pointing.

"That's a starting place. Walk around. Take a good look at yourself. If you like the concept enough we'll keep refining it. If not, we'll try something new. If you're not sure, we'll work on it a little and then we can take a few pictures for you to come back to later."

"I can walk around?"

"You can walk around," he confirmed.

"Even while I'm making adjustments if you want. Whatever you feel like seeing, just say the word. I'll tell you if I think it's a bad idea, but you're the boss. And experimentation is encouraged." Alden looked at himself. The pieces were gray, and some of the details had to be imagined for now. But it was undeniably a set of clothes that had sprung into being because he said he thought he might like to see himself in something similar.

"It even fits right," he said in awe.

"Oh no it doesn't," said Tuck, rising from his seat.

"It fits well enough for you to get the idea."

"Really?" Alden checked out his profile.

"It seems pretty good."

"The difference between pretty good and perfect when it comes to clothes is the centimeter that looks like a kilometer." He stood behind Alden.

"Want me to show you the difference?"

"Sure." The outfit started to slither again, just a little.

"You have shoulders that don't want to be done a disservice with a misplaced seam." The tunic's shoulders shifted minutely. Alden hadn't moved, but he had the impression that his posture had improved. His brows lifted.

"You have a waist that can be respected even if the outfit isn't formfitting." Another tiny adjustment around his torso.

"And for something like this…" Tuck gestured toward the tunic's hem.

"There are specific lengths that suit a person. I think this is a little long on you." A tweak here, a tug there, pants closing in around his ankles.

"What do you think?" Tuck asked. I think…this is an interesting new world I didn't expect to discover today. I think I have been missing out on seeing myself through a really neat lens. He smiled.

"I think I want to try on so many outfits."

Alden learned what he looked like. In twenty different necklines, in sleeves that scrunched or split or flapped. He tried out pants that had cuffs at the bottom that rose all the way to his knees and ones that looked similar to the style Ro-den and plenty of other wizards favored. Excess fabric was very much a thing when it came to wizard pants. These were loose from the waist to the cuffed ankles, with a lot of the excess ballooning outward at the bottom.

"I wore these so much on Thegund they feel familiar," he said, downing a small bottle of fizzy water that Gus had tossed him while he moved around in the current outfit. The pants were paired with a torso-hugging, long-sleeved shirt that had a neckline he particularly liked—a collar that rose up the back of the neck only, with the front opening in a shallow "V."

Completely uncovering the back of the neck could be read a lot of ways, but none of them were appropriate for introducing himself to someone he wanted to demonstrate respect and gratitude toward. But having the front open would be fine and a lot less annoying if he got hot. Neither Tuck nor Gus acted fazed by the Thegund mention. Not even for a second, not even a twitch. Gus was a counselor who saw every kind of drama that walked through the doors of the intake building, so that wasn't a surprise.

He was a professional at acting like your backstory was only one manageable part of your life. Tuck was just as unflappable in a slightly different way. He never pried, and he took Alden's words at face value. When Alden told them he was expecting to make multiple social visits to his wizard friend's house, nobody asked who the friend was or if Alden was sure about their relationship being casual enough for him to wear whatever he wanted when it was just the two of them hanging out.

Alden said he needed help looking like a respectable choice of companion in front of parents and siblings, and so that was what he got advice on. His appearance was Needle & Wheedle's business; everything unrelated to it was entirely his own. He thought that was why the whole shopping experience was feeling very adult.

"The trick to wearing garments associated with the wizard class as an Avowed is to make sure you're not wearing anything too close to the whole package," said Tuck.

"Right," said Alden.

"It's about not putting the fully-educated-wizard ensemble together. I like how comfortable the pants are, and I know these aren't even close to the most dramatic version. But I think I preferred the ones that were a little more toned down. What's next?" He got more and more into it. They turned on the sound system and gave him the controls, but he kept going back to the instrumental playlist that had been the first offered. It sounded like happy, classy people getting dressed.

When he liked a shape enough, Tuck would work on it for longer until they got the best version of it. Then it was thoroughly photographed and put in Alden's personal file, so that if he decided he wanted it, the look could be recreated more quickly. If Tuck was very familiar with a design or if he was looking at an image of it, he was better at pulling it together.

With limitless options, Alden was worried he'd never be able to settle on anything, but when he saw the piece he wanted the commendation on, he was sure of it right away.

"This is a definite yes," he said, indicating the topmost layer of the outfit that had just finished coming into being around him.

"Can I have one of these?"

"A pezyva like the one you chose from the video of the park on Artona III, modified with your preferred neckline, the asymmetry exaggerated slightly. Intriguing but not showy." He smiled at Alden in the mirror.

"Definitely yes. You can have one. You can have more than one if you want. It's a practical garment you'll get a lot of use out of, I imagine. Let's see what it looks like in different fabrics and then figure out what you'll wear it with." Fabrics turned out to be way more important than Alden had realized. He didn't know what ninety percent of the ones he got to feel and talk about with the two of them even were, and apparently you couldn't just make anything out of anything and have it look nice.

It was also time for them to discuss the budget again, because if he seriously wanted his pants to be made out of the silky stuff that magically chilled the air as it passed through, then he was going to need to get richer.

"We also don't have time to acquire that before Monday," said Tuck, taking the swatch away from him.

"I don't know why somebody felt the need to go get so many unrecommended samples from the shelves."

"Look, Alden," said Gus, passing him another one.

"This one changes color like a lizard." Gus got sent off to help Yinuo, but he wasn't gone for long. A couple of minutes after Tuck left to collect materials and create the patterns, the shopping team was back.

"Oh…wow…" said Alden, back in the clothes he'd arrived in to greet them at the door.

"Did you leave anything for the rest of the shoppers on the island?"

"A little!" said Yinuo, almost tripping over a plastic bag so large it dwarfed the other seven hanging around her arms.

"I saw the pictures, I followed along with your plans, and I'm so jealous I couldn't be here to watch every bit of it! You're going to look wonderful! How are you on sunglasses? Don't worry. I've got you plenty to try on. All that back and forth to the cube, the glare off the water. Let's take care of you." Gus and Gretchen were right behind her with even more bags.

So when you spend enough money all the stores come to you. Alden was staring at the wealth of stuff spread out before him.

"The goal," said Gus, who'd temporarily taken over in an advisory capacity while the tailors were in the back, "is to find the perfect things to have with you at all times. These are probably not the perfect things." He waved his arms over a collection of toiletries piled on top of the coffee table.

"But you have to try a few times before you know, and this can be a practice run. On the Triplanets, how do you wear your hair?" With dirt in it, typically.

"What's the easiest acceptable option?" Alden asked. Gus handed him a bottle of something called "Softly Salty." That wasn't quite enough of an answer, but he'd figure it out by reading the instructions on the back. There were so many other things to consider. Rows of shoes stood before him, fresh from their boxes. Shirts hung on racks so that he could browse through them at his leisure. Belts and hats and pajamas filled the sofa. All of it was in Alden's size. Like a pop-up store had appeared for a single person.

Everyone assured him he could take all of it or none of it or assign one of them to go on a hunt for whatever they might have forgotten. It was a mix of clothing that would work on the Triplanets and things he might want here on Earth. There was no need for his entire wardrobe to be bespoke.

"Yet!" Gus had said enthusiastically when Yinuo pointed that out. Apart from the shoes, Alden would need to select to match his new Triplanetary style, most of these things weren't necessities. But it was definitely something to see it all here in front of him, and Yinuo had thought of things that were too small to have made Alden's list of concerns yet and offered solutions. House socks. A package of wipes that would handle any emergency sweat situations when he wasn't able to shower.

A gum that would make your mouth taste like mint so strongly that other flavors didn't stand a chance… it was for helping people who loathed wevvi. He browsed, tried on a few things, and grabbed some silk pajamas that he just liked a lot before Tuck returned and took him back to the dressing room for another round of outfitting. The afternoon flew past from that point on. Clothes were appearing in the dressing room.

Yinuo was asking Alden to do everything short of jumping jacks to make sure he was happy with the movement of the custom pieces. Then, they were trying what felt like a hundred pairs of shoes on his feet. Then colors—were all the colors all right? He couldn't catch his breath. Gustavo and Gretchen had to head to work. There were so many more bags to look through. Where did they keep coming from? Who the heck was that lady who just let herself in the front door, took something from a shelf, and then disappeared?

Had the store been robbed? Oh look another pair of shoes! And then… there was calm. The skills that did the most necessary magics had been exhausted. The final adjustments to a couple of pieces would be made tomorrow. The mountains of clothes and products he had elected not to purchase were being folded and packaged away by Tuck while Yinou carefully displayed the few special outfits on mannequins.

Alden stood eating a pack of roasted almonds that he couldn't actually remember anyone giving him and stared at his new clothes. Right at the end, Tuck had said, "Maybe something custom for home, too? You should have something you feel completely confident in no matter where you are." So Alden had asked for jeans that fit perfectly, a pair of dark wash ones he'd probably wear more than anything else he'd bought. He'd requested a casual button-down shirt and a coat that would make his shoulders look awesome.

There they were on the mannequin. The jacket was a textured wool blend in a gray-green color. It was definitely nicer than his usual hoodie, and still relaxed enough to fit in at school when they were freed from the uniform requirement in January. Yinuo had shown him how to dress it up or down. The next mannequin was wearing a Triplanets-ready look. Nothing too fancy from a distance.

The brown, long-sleeved turtleneck didn't have that shiny quality that made him uncertain about the LeafSong turtlenecks, but when someone stood near him they might notice the occasional metallic burgundy thread in the fabric. The piece was intended to extend his clothing options. With the high neck, it could be worn just about anywhere, by itself, if either of his two new pezyvas were unavailable or inappropriate. The mannequin was wearing the shirt with a pair of pants in a desaturated dark red.

They were similar to Ro-den's in shape, but with the amount of blousing fabric toned down a couple of notches. And, finally, there was the outfit he'd wear on Monday. Pezyvas were vests as far as Alden's limited sartorial vocabulary was concerned. They were a sleeveless outer layer that opened in the front, and they didn't extend down to your ankles or anything, so—vests. One of the things that made the vest an Artonan pezyva was a closure that ran diagonally across the body, rather than straight up and down.

Another was the fact that the shape of it left the waist and hip on one of the wearer's sides free. You could carry pouches or tools you needed easy access to there without belting over the garment. The front of the other hip was concealed by the vest's two tails, which fell in triangular points over that thigh. Alden's pezyva was modified according to his preferences. They usually had no collar; his had one in the back that rose in a slight curve over his neck, with a "V" in the front.

It was the same shade of brown as the shirt on the other mannequin. He'd always thought he looked good in brown. Apparently, he did, but there were specific browns. This one would be his neutral extraterrestrial wardrobe color. The vest could have had all sorts of closures, but he'd chosen to have no visible one. Instead, he'd picked a very secure fastening strip. It was an enchanted product, but not too expensive.

And it allowed him to adjust the position of the two sides of the vest to suit his taste and the quirks of whatever he might wear underneath it. In the place on the chest where a button might have gone on some versions of the outfit, he could wear some kind of accessory pin. Or he could leave it empty and let the commendation be his only statement. The placement of the commendation was one of the only aspects of the whole process where Alden had had knowledge that outmatched the professionals'.

They had wanted to put it firmly on the front, just above the position where a logo or name tag might go on human clothes. But Alden had talked for entirely too long about placement with the nephew of the person who'd actually issued the commendation, so he was adamant that wrapping a larger piece of embroidery over the top of one shoulder was fine. The fact that the commendation was only partially visible from the front was balanced by the fact that it was also visible from the back.

The wrapping around of the symbol said it was very significant to him, and that was hardly a bad thing to say considering who it was from and who he'd be interacting with while he wore it.

"It's like I'm clothing myself with the honor," he'd explained to Tuck.

"As opposed to displaying it. It's a thing. I checked." They had trusted him to know his business once again and had put it there. The thread they'd used was almost the same color as the cloth. That was largely personal taste. He liked the way it looked, and since it covered the whole shoulder, there was no risk of it being too subtle. This pezyva could also be worn with the shirt and pants on the other mannequin because the goal had been to give him Triplanets pieces that all worked together.

But on Monday, he'd be wearing it with a pair of brown pants that looked like the joggers from LeafSong had gotten a fabric and fit upgrade. They were minimal enough not to detract from the vest, which he would be wearing with a lightweight shirt in a shade he thought of as "brown purple," though it had had some more elegant sounding name on the color chart. As an alternative, he had an indigo blue tank top he could use as an under layer when he wanted to wear the vest sleevelessly.

If he did that, he would end up with a triangle of blue showing just at the waist on one side, and his arms would be free to cool off. That was his personal favorite of all the options.

"This has a gorgeous hang to it," said Yinuo, running her hands over the front of the vest to fasten it around the mannequin and then touching the two points that came down sharply in the front, one slightly longer than the other.

"The softer pezyva we're finishing up for you tomorrow will have a beautiful drape, but I like that you wanted to try this more structured version."

"When it holds its shape like that," said Alden, "it reminds me a little of origami."

It was time for last touches. A table was set up in front of the Monday mannequin, with Artonan jewelry and belts and scents.

"Your clothes are conveying a lot of the things you want," said Yinou.

"Comfort and familiarity with the culture. Respectfulness. Confidence in yourself. The commendation is loaded with meanings that would be impossible to avoid even if we tried, and they're not meanings that tarnish you. That's for sure.

"But let's shape your message a little more. In the near future, you should collect some pieces that are the exact right thing for you. What we keep here in the shop isn't really personalized, they're just items we think will be useful to many Avowed." Alden looked through the accessories slowly, talking about what each one would imply to anyone who notice it. She'd curated them for him, so none of them were wrong…

but it did make him curious about what other things he could manage to signal with a simple ring or belt buckle.

"What if I have something made out of my birth tree?" he asked.

"What does that say?" She lifted an eyebrow.

"I don't actually know that one. We have a symbology expert we call when people have a question like that. But he's a wizard, and it's expensive. Unless you've got a piece of your tree to use right now, you might just want to wait and ask your friend."

"I'll do that." There was no need to take advantage of all of the supplies arrayed before him. Just a couple of right things…

"This," he said finally, pointing at a brooch that would go on his vest.

"And these."

"The senva seed for a pocket offering," she said, opening the jar that held the scrambled dandelion-looking things.

"We'll put them in a pouch with the 'gratitude' logogram on it. How many do you want?"

"A dozen."

"That's a lot. You might not even meet a wizard who uses them for anything. Pocket offerings can get a bit stale while you wait for the opportunity to give them away."

"I know one," said Alden, the familiar basil smell of Stuart's preferred cushioning spell filling his nose now that the lid was off the jar. Without further comment, she tucked them into a leather pouch, then she reached for the brooch and a box to put it in.

"Good choices," she said. The brooch was a piece of driftwood carved into a symbol that combined the logograms for happiness and rest. The driftwood represented long travel, so Needle & Wheedle carried various accessories made from it, since Avowed on the Artonas were definitely travelers. Wearing the pin would tell everyone that Alden wasn't hoping they'd offer him work. It had the side benefit of matching up well with his visit to the mind healer. He was happy to have her help and hopeful for better rest.

"Simple," said Yinuo.

"Sophisticated. Done!" She tapped the box that had the driftwood jewelry in it.

"Are you satisfied with everything? Any last requests?" He looked at the outfits on the mannequins and the bags that held the store-bought extras. Needle & Wheedle now had a file on him. Future appointments would be easier according to Gus, because he would grow into his sense of style now that it had been allowed to see the light. And he wouldn't have to learn how the process worked from scratch. He had been assured that Tuck was even better at tuxedoes.

"I'm drawing a blank," said Alden, looking back at Yinuo.

"I think I wanted to ask you guys for a few more things, but now my brain is fried."

"You had to make a million choices in just a few hours. It's tired." She walked over to the mannequin in the coat and jeans and started stripping it.

"It will all hit you at some point. You'll open your closet and realize how you the things you bought today are, and you'll be glad we made you try on forty pairs of leather boots."

"I'm sure it was twice that many. My feet are now boot-shaped."

"Think of how fast it would be next time if that were true!" She looked back at him.

"We'll deliver all of this to your dorm so you don't have to carry it. Do you have plans for tonight?"

"Not really. I missed the first year dinner slot at the cafeteria, so I'll probably grab something before I head back to campus." She held up the coat.

"Want to look handsome while you do it?"

I like this. Alden sat outside a restaurant, at the last table they'd had available. It was getting dark, so he'd taken off his new sunglasses and set them beside the basket of bread that had come with his mezze platter. The glasses were dark green. Just a color he'd selected because he liked it, and a style that had been recommended by Yinuo because she was taking his face shape and his preference for "chill, beachy ones" into account. I like that everything I'm wearing had so much thought put into it.

He'd been carefully studying what every other person around him was dressed in. Variety and bold choices weren't lacking in Apex. There was a woman in a coat that had light-up sleeves, and there was a man wearing a lot of something that looked like alligator skin. A simple black dress. A neon orange windbreaker. A pair of pants that looked like they'd been picked up from the Triplanets and then decorated with a bunch of straps.

Alden didn't think he'd be drawing attention for his sense of fashion, and he was glad of that. But if someone did happen to look his way, then it was satisfying to feel like he'd taken some control over what they saw. And if nobody looked his way, he was quite happy sitting here enjoying all the little unimportant things that were only for him. The buttons he'd chosen out of way too many possible options. The fact that instead of a tag, his own name was inside the bespoke coat, shirt, and jeans.

The extra pockets they'd managed to hide for him everywhere, most of them with closures secure enough to guarantee any entrusted items didn't get lost even if someone hung him upside down and shook him. The day had been so far outside his normal. But I think it was really good. I think it's something I'm allowed to enjoy. He requested to-go packaging from one of the server carts this place used and boxed up all the food he hadn't finished, then he grabbed his bag and headed out.

When he made it back to the dorm, Lexi and Haoyu were both out. Alden hung his new clothes up carefully, climbed into his loft bed for the first time in what felt like forever, and fell asleep before either of them made it back.