"Gosh. Quite a convenient world this is." She keeps trying things on, increasingly impressed. "You're good at this."

"It's not just me that's good at this, I'm using the knowledge and design and experience of tons of other designers, too!" She walks back, throwing in a few ruffled shirts and a leather-looking "pirate jacket" into Sable's changing room. "I'll throw in a fancy, tight, red dress next. Unless there's some other design you had in mind?"

"That sounds great!"

She twirls. And then twirls some more. "Wow. I love how swishy this skirt is!"

"Yes, it has, like, wind tunnel testing and things! Really awesome." She leaves Sable to try out various clothing combinations for a while, before throwing a slinky red dress closely fit to Sable's current figure through the changing room's hatch. "And finally, something that'll make you look really stunning, for when you really want to look like a bombshell."

She tries the dress on and her jaw drops.

"I—"

There are no words. She hasn't gotten her hair handled yet, but... she feels more like herself over this past session trying on clothes than she has in years. 

A little sniffle escapes her. She keeps grinning, even as a tear spills down her cheek.

"I can also get you some creams, and sunscreen, and various toiletries, deodorants, perfumes? I think that it's an easy thing to forget the importance of the cosmetics, as well. Not just the clothes you have on, but also a proper beauty routine. It makes you look even better, no matter how fantastic you already look. I... I think that you've found a very good place to start, at least."

She nods. "Thank you. I'd appreciate your help with all of that. I know I'm not in a starting position I'd appreciate, but you're making a world of difference. Probably going to handle electrolysis tomorrow, along with maybe getting my hair dyed, if there are options that won't mess up my curls."

"Oh, yes, there are plenty such options! They're doing nano-something hair dyes, these days. Hmm. Which address do I ship all the clothes, and all my beauty items, to? This is probably enough that it's worth paying one of the porter robots to carry all these clothes, but I'd need to know where to send them."

"Eep. Um. Need to get one of those."

She pulls out her phone and starts fiddling with apartment hunting.

She won't be able to rent anywhere larger than, like, 600 square feet. And all the cheapest units are on the 30th floor, or the 35th floor, in that general region. And they're all in complexes that barely have gyms and maybe a library that's just or two of those quiet reading nooks, with the bookshelves, let alone "real" common areas. And the bathrooms have those claustrophobic shower cabinets, where you're almost touching the glass if you spread out your arms.

That's the kind of place you live in, when you're on basic income in thomassia, while still having enough money left over for your other needs. But, well. Apartment hunting is at least a painless process; she won't have to think about deposits or dealing with landlords or anything else.

Wow. This world is actually a good place.

Are any of them a short walk from the beach or the harbor or the marina?

Yes, a few! They're not looking out on the beach, but there is one that's 4 or 5 blocks away, a few more 6 or 7 blocks out. And they're 500 square feet. But they are in Sable's basic income budget.

Amazing. She takes one of the further ones. 

"Got an address now."

And she gives it to the tailor.

A keycard gets downloaded to Sable's phone. She gets a message regarding her new apartment. "For security reasons, in case of software or hardware failure, please note that a physical key is also placed within the unit itself. Please keep it readily available in case it proves necessary during an emergency evacuation."

The tailor nods, waiting for one of the stronger porter-bots to carry all the things Sable just bought, as she prepares to load it with the wide variety of items that Sable has purchased. "Oh! Another piece of advice: you should try the softening cream. It helps with chafing or itching, and makes you feel less pressure on any body parts that you're, ahem, pushing together. It just makes things more comfortable."

"Ooh, sounds handy. Thank you."

And then, when the bot has carried everything off, "I will definitely be back when things grow in more properly. Thank you very much."

"You're welcome! Good luck is what I would say... but you don't need to be lucky when the new treatments are all working this well. You haven't even started on my makeup routine yet, and you're already a cutie!"

Goodness she blushes at that.

"Awwww.... Thank you."

And then off she goes to find supper on her way to her new home. She catches the subway to her new neighborhood, then looks to see what little cafes and bakeries are in the area. 

Well, there's one bakery where everything is extra-cute. With like, cat cupcakes, and strawberry-covered cakes. And there's this cafe with a historical theme, that's supposed to take place during the time when famous philosophers met there to change the world. There are old-timey newspapers and furniture that looks like it'd be used by an 1800s aristocrat.

Oh she adores the cute one. She'll settle there and have a cup of cocoa. Is there a dumpling place in convenient delivery range?

Thanks to the new robots, just about anywhere is convenient delivery range (they're able to use subways to travel even faster, in fact). All the cafes and bakeries, let you bring outside food. There's nothing stopping Sable from just getting some dumplings as she's enjoying the cocoa.

Dumplings it is. Meanwhile, she'll book things for tomorrow. Can she book her electrolysis appointment? What about a hairstylist? 

She can do both at the same place, even! Sable would notice that the standard electrolysis sessions all take 8 hours, which. Uhh. Is a lot of time for one session?

Um. That's definitely unusual. Well. It's apparently usual here? Do they do the whole body at once? Do they have a way to make it not take repeat sessions? Plausibly she won't know until tomorrow.

The dumplings sure are tasty, though.

After booking that and finishing hereal, she heads off toward her new apartment.

There's the same kind of elevator lobby as Sable saw last time, with many elevators inside of pillars taking her directly to her room. It's on floor 31, too low for the best views and too high up to get a good look at the ground, but why should that matter?

Anyway, the apartment is brilliantly designed to feel as spacious as possible, with a huge main room and an all-glass wall, together with a king-size bed and a very open-feeling bathroom. It kind of seems like thomassians are paranoid about claustrophobia, and try making all their apartments as claustrophobia-friendly as possible.

The apartment is amazing. She twirls around in it for a moment, savoring the space. Does it have a kitchen, or do most people eat out? Presumably she has packages of clothes to hang up in.the closet, unless the robots are quite clever and did that too.