Well, she likes them; she'll put then back if she can't find anything better than "plain". Tiny silver dragon silhouette on each middle finger, smaller than any but the most expert nail artists could do by hand?

Weak positive!

This suggests an experiment. If she fills in the dragons with details too small for the unaided human eye to make out, does the magic seem to notice one way or the other?

It doesn't care once they're really that small.

Well, if you could hack ultimate power with a microscope, somebody would have done it by now. Does the mild positive effect of the having the paint job at all increase if spread to the rest of her fingernails?

Yes, just a little.

How about flame designs instead of dragons? That still fits the theme in an abstract way, and she can make each one subtly different.

Almost the same, so close she can barely tell, but if she switches back and forth and pays close attention the flames are a tiny bit worse.

Back to dragon silhouettes, then. She's pretty proud of getting them to read as dragons that well at that size, even if she got to cheat on the manual-dexterity bit.

She should probably stop doing this and go to bed, she's got that photo shoot in the morning.

The photo shoot is surprisingly complicated for someone whose previous photography experience amounts to "aim a cellphone at it". They want her to try a lot of slight variations on the coconut skin idea, and then a lot of facial expressions, while they screw around with lights and suggest other additions, and they have to tell her not to eat the ice cream because it's fake ice cream that won't melt under the hot studio lights, she'll get her real ice cream after the shoot.

Margaret will coconut her skin in various ways, and learn to translate their words about expressions into subtle things to do with her face muscles, and hold the ice cream up to her mouth without actually getting any on her.

Eventually after about five thousand pictures she receives a few tubs of vegan ice cream and a check!

She will fly the vegan ice cream home to her freezer and then immediately head out again to a bike shop! The bike shop proprietor is a bit confused why someone who arrived on the wing wants a bike, but nods at "bike rides with schoolmates" and sells her a used three-speed and a can of blue spray-paint to make it match her scales. This eats a chunk of her pay, but only a chunk; she probably has enough left to afford a session with a style consultant.

Bike securely in her garage and a bowl of ice cream in hand, she checks out Elements of Style again. What does the world of magical girl style consulting look like?

There are a wide range of consultants, most of whom include photos of themselves in case you worry that an unseen style consultant might have a combover, and some of whom include pictures of girls they've styled. The price varies likewise, up to very expensive on the high end. If she'll take an amateur she can get half an hour for less than the bike.

She'd normally be wary about taking the advice of an inexperienced person on something she's not experienced with herself, but being able to perceive the magic's responses directly means they won't wander off into total wrongness together. Do any of the amateurs have reviews she can read?

Nelson really helped me patch my look!

Paula was a delight to work with and helped me get my third spell unlocked.

Now I can wear pants again! Thanks, Tori!

Margaret will look through the reviews, prioritizing reported competence over reported niceness but looking out for signs of total jerks, and end up on Nelson's booking page. Is he free at all tomorrow or Tuesday?

He has an open slot on his booking website Tuesday morning and another one from two to four!

She's not cutting class for this, but school lets out early enough that if she flies fast she can get to his studio for a 3:30.

Now she is his 3:30 appointment.

Then if nothing happens on Sunday beyond the new routine of cardio and target practice, and if nothing happens on Monday beyond the old routine of academics and robotics club, she will arrive at 3:30! With slightly tired wing muscles and wearing her backpack as a front-pack, but on time.

Nelson's there! "First thing," he says, smiling slightly, "lose the backpack if you can."

Margaret laughs and dumps it in a corner. "Oh, definitely. I just came here straight from school, I don't normally haul this much stuff."

"There's some anecdotal evidence that time spent in plainclothes can hurt you later even once you're dressed up. They only notice that in the very top tiers of professional magic, but they do claim to notice it - go to a family reunion and dress down to placate bigoted grandparents, have an off-day at work next Monday."

"Sounds like the sort of thing someone should do a study on. And I might save up for a nicer bag that works with the wings later, just in case I ever need to do lots of magic while carrying textbooks.

So, what else on my outfit needs the most work?"