"Thank you for coming back! I need your help. Do you make clothing as well as laundering it? How can I get myself a few sets of clothing that are more appropriate for my new surroundings?"

She doesn't actually see anything wrong with Opalyn's current clothing -- it suits quite well such an entity as Opalyn appears to be.  Dame Fleur would be happy to make more clothing in Opalyn's current style, even.

If Opalyn wants to disguise herself as a normal person, for some odd reason, hopefully not having to do with poor self-esteem, Dame Fleur can send up one of her subordinate seamstresses.  Quick ill-fitting disguise would take an hour; it'd be more like three days for Proper Real Clothes.  If Opalyn's planning to get any substantial body modifications done, maybe get those done before ordering nice clothes.

Opalyn is surprised! She's been getting a lot of funny looks around town, presumably about how few gears her clothing has, but maybe about her lack of body modifications?

What does Dame Fleur think most people will assume or conclude about Opalyn based on how she's dressed right now?

(Opalyn was dressed for packing up her old apartment back home. It could have been worse -- it could have been stained sweatpants and a ragged t-shirt with no bra -- luckily instead it was a fairly flattering pair of jeans and nice top.)

Opalyn looks like she just got here from another dimension.  Opalyn did, in fact, just get here from another dimension.  Dame Fleur is in favor of people looking like who and what they really are.

This is a compelling and appealing argument!

Are visitors from other dimensions common? Do people actually generate "just got here from another dimension" as a leading hypothesis? What kinds of things do people from other dimensions get up to, once they arrive here?

The sort of people who have fingers or the sort of people who have tentacles?  Either way, the answer is the same: they find themselves a job, or on rarer occasions turn individual bandit or city ruler.

It's not, like, common, but it's more common around Sparks like Doctor Disaster or Professor Predicament.  Fleur's great-granddad had tentacles.

All right! Opalyn will remain a Newcomer from Another Dimension, Finger-Having subtype. She'd like more clothes like the ones she's already wearing. Plus maybe a flattering dress in case she finds anybody good in the Romantic Potential pile.

Say more about potential body modifications? What kinds of modifications do people get? Opalyn sort of had the idea that people got prosthetics after terrible war injuries; she hadn't realized that opting into modifications was a reasonable thing to think about.

Has Opalyn noticed that nobody with money or a Spark's favor looks plain, appearance-wise?  There are some who make themselves pretty and some who make themselves monsters, but few people with power are content to look undistinguished.

She could also just go for larger boobs.  Some otherwise nice men are simple that way.

That is not a totally crazy idea! Opalyn always kind of wanted to do that!

Back in Opalyn's home dimension, that kind of body mod is expensive and painful and takes a while to heal from. What's it like here?

It takes a Spark who knows what they're doing -- which Doctor Disaster does, in virtue of being generally good at things that aren't objectively difficult for Sparks.  The nicer Sparks will zap you unconscious first, otherwise it'd be quite painful, yes.  It doesn't take long to heal if you wear a mechanical corset that repeatedly zaps you with speedier healing, though it might be distracting for a few days while that's going on.  (Naturally there are even faster ways to get people out of an operating room and onto a battlefield, if you're in a hurry, but it's not optimal.)

Opalyn is tempted! But now she's feeling incredibly vain. She hasn't even read all the staff reports about ways to improve the castle yet, her boss is missing and possibly getting brainwashed at this very moment, and she's contemplating making herself as pretty as possible? That can probably wait for three days.

Opalyn would like just one additional set of clothes then, and don't do the pretty dress yet, pending a decision on body mods.

Oh, and while Dame Fleur is still here, do any of the contraptions in this room clean clothing, or should Opalyn just send her clothes to the central laundry?

If anything in this room cleaned clothing, Dame Fleur would have it shot.

Of course Opalyn would never use a machine for laundry and will always send it to Dame Fleur!

And with that taken care of, she flops down again, thinking to take a nap.

But finds that she's very curious what's in the Romantic Possibility pile, and can't resist opening up just one.

She'll start with the Top-Ten-but-not-Top-Five pile. She'd like to preserve the chance there's something good to look forward to.

What's in there? What does this dimension have to offer?

Captain Lysander Fitzroy - A 32-year-old airship captain, thoroughly traveled. Lysander recently split amicably from his partner of five years, who decided to settle down in Paris. Known for his adventurous spirit, charming sense of humor, and a knack for navigating both the skies and romantic relationships with skill and finesse. Past partners have rated him highly for his wit, his adaptability, and his "creative problem-solving" in bedroom situations.

Handsome! Though his face looks a little bit like leather patchwork. Horrible military trauma?

What kinds of problems did he creatively solve in the bedroom, Opalyn would like to know?

She puts him in the maybe pile.

Rory "Rivet" Blackthorn, age 24.  He's had the sort of luck, both good and bad, that most young men his age only have in dreams and nightmares.  A few years ago in Wrenchton he pulled off the sort of heist that most kids can only fantasize about, picking up some scars and mutations to go with it, and decided to put all of that money into purchasing a single dream to live the rest of his days:  Moving to Little Damar where it's sorta peaceful, and paying off the local Spark to make it the official rule that the town guard looks the other way when Rivet sleeps on the streets, busks for a few bucks, or 'robs' a convenience store of a jar of jam.  He wants a lady who'll provide him a bed to come back to on one out of three days or so, but considers himself to have pretty high standards for the Sensible Woman in his life and is presently single.

It's okay for a woman to try to fix him up; so long as you understand that, to him, that 'fixing' thing is a game that ought to be good fun for both players even if one loses.

He's probably extremely charismatic in real life and therefore Opalyn should make sure never to meet him, because on paper this is obviously a terrible deal! Like many people, Opalyn had a phase when she enjoyed fixer-uppers but she's over it.

She tosses that packet to the left.

Next?

Dr. Thaddeus "Wintad" Winklemeyer, 48-year-old professor of theoretical metaphysics and part-time adventurer.  Retired, at least for now, after a particularly harrowing expedition to the Cursed Caverns of Krzzlvak.  Came to Little Damar in the company of a sad old lady with a terminal illness, mourned her for a year after she died, and is now back on the dating market.  The last words of his former companion included that she didn't want Wintad to be lonely and that he had always been very good to her in bed.  Can shoot a skeeter out of the air at fifty yards with the help of his cybernetic eyeball tweaker.

Opalyn is always interested in a potential partner's other partners. Why was this guy dating a sad old lady with a terminal illness? Opalyn is not sad or old or terminally ill. She realizes that none of these things are catching, exactly, but there was something about that dynamic that worked for him, and Opalyn is not that.

Also... imagine having that face over you in bed.

She doesn't have a good feeling about this, but she's still not calibrated on Little Damar so she puts him below the airship captain in the Maybe pile.

The Murchesons, identical triplets.  As brilliant as non-Sparks get, wealthy, charming and agreeable, said to be excellent in bed by the few women who are into being bedded by three guys at once.  They're single -- well, triple -- on account of having not yet found a woman who all three of them like well enough to settle down.

Oh HELL yeah. The odds of it actually working out are low, but what an experience to have. She hopes their first names don't rhyme.

She puts them in the Yes pile.

One more left in the Top-Ten-but-not-Top-Five pile! Opalyn has the same feeling as when she's going through a new pack of cards from the gaming store. Will she get a rare or a legendary, or just another common?

It is now obvious she never had any intention of napping.

Wilhelmina Hinterland, 29F.  A quadruple agent for three different countries -- through no fault of her own, it began with blackmail when she was only three years old.  She fled to Little Damar after executing, successfully, the only mission she ever gave herself.

Wilhelmina was born female, but has taken several different forms on different intelligence missions, and was put through unspeakable experiments that left her able to be attracted to any life form.  She'd cheerfully go male again for the right partner.

Extremely amenable to compromises of all kinds, if she otherwise gets what she wants.

Uh, Wilhelmina is pretty hot and probably doesn't have to go back to being male if she doesn't want to.

Opalyn does worry that she'll never get to know the real Wilhelmina, because maybe there is no such person under all the layers of subterfuge. However, it might be good to date her just to hear some stories of politics in other countries?

She could maybe also get that from Lysander the airship captain.

Opalyn wonders what Wilhelmina actually wants and won't compromise about. Intriguing.

Maybe pile.

And who is she kidding, she's not going to save the top five for later. These have been intriguing so far. Maybe Aqqord's machine actually works!

Who's the first one in the top five pile?

It's not Aqqord, right? Say it's not Aqqord.