"If that was a new activation power she has, it won't work now?"

The nurse is mortified when looking at Kyra. "Sorry sorry sorry I forgot, I just really hoped there was a way to help save people's lives!"

"That's good! And it gave her something to do, anyway."

Could she compose a dance to this? Very slow, getting slower and more complicated each time the note goes down. Maybe at the end, the complications are at the speed of the original dance, so it could loop like a shepherd tone?

Assuming she ever dances again.

A few days later, she can push the joystick on her new wheelchair to do a waltz, clumsy with the heavy heart-lung machine underneath and the pole with blood.

"Turn, turn, stop there."

Kyra sets the fan down. The costumes flutter in the breeze.

"Yeah."

The windows where Alia would normally be showing off herself have three new mannequins, with the flowiest clothes that she sells. The private dance surface for customers remains.

"That's all for today?"

"Right. I'll need help putting up instructions for the make-to-measure machine, but I want to see how a few customers do with it first. They might end up, uh, liking more to have me talk them through it entirely - more special behind-the-scenes."

"Do you want to sit with me in the workshop?"

"Sleeeep now. Gotta have lots of energy to reopen tomorrow."

Kiss. "I'll make it a table-saw day then." Alia doesn't like visiting the workshop when they have to wear ear protection, says it's like not even being in the room together anymore.

A woman shows up to Alia's store the following day, wanting one of the tighter kinds of dance outfit. She's mostly planning on using it to work out, but likes Alia's designs with the occasional flowy bits, and wants to buy something that's really flattering for her figure. She looks around, wanting to see if there's something appropriately form-fitting and tight on display anywhere.

Her clothes share all the tight parts - shoulders, hips, sleeves, bust, thighs - made of almost-cutting-edge synthetic fabrics with drywick panels in the sweatiest areas. The looser parts are either poplin (crisp) or twill (flowy). (She searched hard to find a matching set of fabrics, as they appear outdoors or in stage lighting, dry or sweaty, ironed or crumpled, and she still has to be careful about colors.)

The fit of the common underlayer can be adjusted, but the three mannequins all have it tight. On one, the shirt extends and flares into a mini-skirt and the pants legs have matching bell-bottoms. The next one has ruffles on the upper arms, and a cape. The third has floral-print tippets at the wrists with shorter strips hanging from the elbows and shoulders, and pom-poms engulfing the calves.

"For a workout, you'll probably want something that won't tangle, maybe this" the first mannequin "or this" an outfit on a hanger with no dangly bits but intricate embroidery of swirling lines. "And I assume you're not working out in a blacklight so you can ignore the back wall."

Alia surreptitiously looks the customer up and down. Is it clear what 'flattering for her figure' means? Asking aloud is awkward, but offering the wrong thing is worse.

"I'm really liking the look on the one outfit on the hanger. I think I'd be looking for something very similar. Are these free from any kind of flexibility constraints?"

The woman has a thin waist and small chest; she means something that makes her butt look nice, when she says "flattering".

"Yes, that one can be made with no flexibility constraints. The basic pieces always have, uh, you can do that if you want" with increased complexity and increased cost "but some of the crisper variations wouldn't look good if you curled up in a ball so I don't usually bother making them flexible."

A thin waist... with looser clothes, the old trick of a tight waist would work, so maybe something with a skirt? But the customer already passed over the one displayed with a skirt. The reverse trick is to make the buttocks tighter, so they look swelled up, but that makes the clothes look badly fitted and draws question to the wearer's taste.

Ah, but if she's going to be bending a lot while working out, maybe a design that conspicuously changes when stretches will do...

Alia backs along her rack, trailing a hand over each outfit until she finds the one she's thinking of. "What do you think of this? Sorry I can't pull it out for you, or demo it live, but I have a video." It's iridescent green with deep ridges down the back and legs, with deep blue in the creases. In the video, Alia stalks like a dinosaur. The color changes in patches as she bends and stretches open the folds. The shoulders and accompanying hat have spines tipped with goldenrod yellow. The front is flat and green in several thick bands loosely overlapping each other. "I can do it in any color at all with no extra charge since it needs color printing anyway."

"What sports do you like?"

"Wow, that one's looking clever and interesting. More like this, please. ...In terms of sports, I like yoga, and do running, and also some amount of weightlifting? I also play volleyball once in a while, but I'm mostly just staying in shape."

Sounds boring but to each their own.

She has a similar outfit with narrower, even stripes all over in pink and yellow. (It was a proof of concept before she sculpted all the curves for the other one.)

If those don't work out, she has another option with a short vest and bright pants, but she won't point it out immediately to avoid overwhelming the customer with choices.

"Where do you go running?"

"I mostly run on at the gym, on a treadmill? I also occasionally enjoy running outdoors, but well... that's just the tiniest bit dangerous." She stretches a bit in her current outfit, showing off impressive flexibility in the shoulders, as she looks around a bit, before asking to try out something like the green and blue outfit with the ridge in the back.

Running on a treadmill is the worst. But at least all the clothing possibilities will look good in that environment.

She does not sneak any further looks at the customer's body.

"What colors are you thinking? The ridges and spines will be like the display model while you try it on, since those pieces need to be printed, but I can use any standard base color for the make-to-measure parts now, and of course print them however you like for the final take. As I said, for this outfit, all the printing is included at no extra cost." At both ends of the rack and several places on the walls, books of swatches hang with several dozen colors.

Next she can talk the customer through taking all the pieces out of their bins and laying them flat on the make-to-measure machine's infeed. And then Alia presses a few buttons to specify the outfit to make and that the seams should be easily removable. (The edges of each piece of fabric are sealed so they won't unravel even after many cycles of reassembly.)

"I don't have a treadmill, but the fitting area has a yoga mat and a kettlebell." And lots of mirrors of course, so that the customer can see herself from all angles.

"Honestly, I'm thinking mostly grey, with blue accents. I think grey clothes tend to be the most versatile." She points to a fairly light grey color, and a relatively dark blue contrasting against it. After the lightning-quick machines do the work, the customer changes in private before heading to the fitting area and exploring the flexibility and fit of the clothing.

Ideally, clothing shouldn't bunch or shift around, and she does a fair bit of bending and stretching to be sure everything stays in place. She also does a few rounds on the kettlebell. She's really pleased with the result; the way that it looks different as she's stretching is really adding some interest to the clothing.

"That's one outfit I'm absolutely getting. It's really flattering and makes me look nice, and the way that it looks different when I'm stretching myself is such a fantastic idea. I'm pretty sure this is a keeper already; I want to see more of your designs, just because I liked this one so well."

Then here's the one with the vest.

Also here's one with straight golden lines embroidered up the whole thing, which naturally draws attention to the places where a body isn't flat. It's designed to go with a hat like a head of ripe wheat, but skip that.

Or how about this one that has a long tapered hood that basically makes an arrow on the wearer's back pointing down, and matching sleeve pockets. The display model is already icy blue on gray.

Eventually, she tries out the one with the golden lines and the one shifting colors as she moves, makes a few adjustments to make it fit absolutely perfect, and walks off pleased with her new clothes courtesy of Alia. Tailors don't get too many customers on an average day, but it's an interesting and fascinating job that gets you in touch with people from all walks of life, and experimenting with clothes is interesting in its own way.

After another day on the job as a tailor, Alia gets loving care from a nurse, who helps make her life as easy as possible with her health issues. In particular, her massages help improve Aria's blood circulation, and she happily cleans off Alia and her things anytime she does something messy. Being a Magical Girl is incredibly dangerous, and most of them require constant care; but thomassia is wealthy, and more than happy to reward the sacrifices of the Magical Girls who help save the lives of many. She has just gently adjusted all of Alia's medical equipment and tubes to make her comfortable, and is now waiting attentively in a small room across from Alia's, ready to be there for Alia if she ever uses her nurse call button.