Aloe waited patiently in the dressing room, which was almost as big but certainly more decorated than the slaver's room-house. How weird it must be living in rooms instead of houses with all these tall buildings. She was forming an idea of how buildings had become this tall, but she wanted someone to answer her doubts about it rather than make blind guesses. Unfortunately, asking about construction and architecture to a tailor wasn't the best of ideas.
Trust was scarce, so as she waited in the dressing room – it even had a set of teapots although there wasn't a kettle to be seen anywhere – she paid close attention to her senses. Even with glamour on, she could detect trivial things like heartbeats, breathing, vitality, and even heat. Only she, Xochipilli, and the tailor were in the store, and Omar didn't seem to be doing anything to the child.
Her paranoia was at an all-time high, she knew that the tailor had no reason to do anything to Xochipilli, especially considering how he was looking at her with those disgusting lustful eyes, but it was better to be alert.
One thing that she noticed was that Omar had more vitality than a normal person should have. Not by much, only two mansworth, but that was already twice as much. Is this about the pills I've heard about and seen in the dream?
Before she could continue with that trail of thought, Omar pushed the door open as he carried a cart filled with clothing.
"I have brought you all the types of undergarments I have at my disposal with your sizes and that would combine well with your chosen dress. Feel free to try them. I will allow the… child to bring you the dress in a bit." With that, the man left the room and closed the door behind him.
"Alright, what do we have here?" Aloe mused as she closed onto the cart. "I recognize some pieces but others… how is this supposed to even be worn?"
She picked up a set of thin white undergarments that had a floral design and was a bit too transparent. Curiously enough, it looked like lace, the type one would use for tablecloths. She placed it in front of herself and looked at her reflection in the wall-wide mirror.
"Is this supposed to be lingerie?" Aloe frowned. "It's quite… something."
At first, she was going to say it was revealing, but all undergarments were revealing if worn with nothing else. The word she was seeking was… lusty. It was a simple set of white undergarments with some laces and a pattern that let the skin be shown with its intermittent holes, but all of that combined into a singularity that made the textile innately lustful.
Aloe inspected the room to check that no one was spying on her with her vitality sense, then took a deep breath before undressing. In all honesty, she didn't need undergarments considering her bark…
"Well, I guess I don't have bark skin with this form," she inspected her naked body, twirling and looking at her back in the mirror. There was a hint of seductiveness at how defined her spine was. "Anyhow, I wouldn't like to wear clothes without anything below, it would feel too… weird."
She didn't know the name of each piece, but after trying them all, she noticed that all were very comfortable. That or her body had grown too numb to the casual rubbing of clothes. Her senses were so increased that they took a one-hundred and eighty degrees turn and became numb from the simple sensory overload.
There was one piece that she didn't fully understand, though. It wasn't the bras, those ones she understood even if they had been a recent introduction to women's fashion, or at least it had been before her self-imposed exile. It was a piece that covered the whole torso and was made of cotton and linen that seemed to tie to the torso. She failed to understand the function of such a piece, it almost looked like a bath shirt, but those strings on the back to tie it made it different. Also, it was very rigid, which she didn't enjoy in the slightest.
In the end, Aloe found herself wearing a quite big piece of those laced undergarments that covered her bosom and nether areas. Did she need something so flamboyant? No. Did it look cute? Yes. She also liked the belt that piece had and considered it quite the intelligent design to make the cloth hold to the body. The contrast between the bright white of the fabric and her dark skin was also very delectable.
Beyond that, she wore a type of very thin and translucent white pants that reached up to her belly. More than pants, perhaps they were socks, but she wasn't sure about that. The reason why she chose them wasn't because they were particularly comfortable or cute, but because they hid her skin.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
The less skin she showed, the fewer opportunities someone had to discern her real self. Not that of Aloe Ayad – she was sure no one remained in the world to remember her name except one person – but of her inhuman self.
"I must ask Omar if he has gloves of the same material. These sock-pants are thin enough that they aren't cumbersome, but thick enough that my skin doesn't look like the texture of succulents."
A few minutes later, someone knocked on the door.
"You can come in," Aloe said as she recognized the small thrum of vitality as Xochipilli's.
She was welcomed by a child casually carrying a dress bigger than himself, but what she was delighted to see was his clothes.
"Oh, how dapper you are!" The vegetable woman presses her hands together in euphoria.
Xochipilli was wearing a small black suit, though instead of the long trousers like the men in the streets wore, he had boyish short ones that only reached down to his knees. The suit jacket also had cutesy triangular flaps on the back, and the ribbon he wore on his neck only amplified that cuteness.
"Ah, I want to eat you!" She was fighting against her instincts and not tormenting the child with an endless session of cheek-pinching.
"I… uh…" Xochipilli blushed and closed his eyes. Then she raised his arms to show the dress. "Could you dress yourself first?"
Aloe giggled and rejoiced in the boy's shame. She took the dress from Xochipilli's hands, and she was surprised to find out that, indeed, the dress was very light. Makes sense, everything that should be cotton is Cottonpull instead, so the only thing holding it from flying away is the rest of the textiles that weigh it down.
Wearing such a big and ostentatious dress wasn't easy as there were many things in the middle, making it hard to wear it in the first place. But she could cheat a bit. Whilst not as flowing as water, Aloe had the ductility of clay and was able to push herself inside of the dress without so much as undoing a single button or knot.
"Done," she said to Xochipilli, who promptly turned to look at her. She added a twirl to show her skirt.
"Oh…" He was left agape.
"Without words?" Aloe teased him and he just nodded repeatedly. "I will need some footwear, though, I didn't account for this." She tapped the wooden floor with covered feet. Going back with the slaver's boots was of poor taste, an offense to such masterwork of tailoring.
"I will notify the tailor at once," Xochipilli bowed and left the room.
Aloe continued to twirl and looked at herself in the mirror. Without even noticing it, she found herself smiling at her looks. She had always felt uncomfortable with her attires, even if she had the most expensive and gorgeous ones free of expense thanks to her scribal position, she never felt like she had been up to them, actively done them a disservice by wearing them.
Not before long, Xochipilli and Omar barged into the room.
"The young one here told me you were quite striking – and I already imagined that – but seeing it in person… it is quite different," the tailor said with paused words. "I've brought a pair of satin slippers and ankle boots that I thought would fit with the dress, but I'm afraid I've only guessed your foot size."
Aloe nodded and tried the footwear she was given. Considering she had been barefoot for most of her life now, there wasn't any innate advantage to the boots, so she decided on the slippers in the end as they looked more fashionable with their green accents.
"Do you have some gloves? I'd like to have my hands covered. Better yet if they cover my arms too," she asked whilst trying the footwear.
"At once," Omar bowed and went to search for them. By the time she was done and selected the slippers, he was already back. "Please, try them."
He handed her a pair of arm-length silk gloves, which she promptly wore, and looked delightfully on her dark skin. They were translucent enough to hint at her dark skin, but opaque enough to hide its true texture. The dress' arms were also long enough that she only showed a small section of skin, hiding her true self as much as possible.
She still kept a rag on her head to hide the Aloe Veritas, but she had a better – more stylish – way to hide it than with just a cloth.
"Could someone handle me the parasol?" Aloe petitioned and soon the tailor brought it to her.
With a swift movement, she unfurled the mechanism, and the device opened like a roc – the famed flying monster of the desert – spreading its wings, even if she hadn't seen one in her life. Aloe put the parasol close to her to hide the top of her head and twirled around, the skirt lagging behind her.
"What do you think?" She asked them whilst clutching the handle.
"A paragon of fashion," Omar clapped at her display with calculated words.
Xochipilli, though, wasn't as reserved. "You are beautiful."
It was but a compliment spoken by a child, but something about it hit her deeply. Aloe looked at herself in the mirror with her attire finally complete. She saw a buxom and tall woman with lush hair and lovely clothing instead of just a step up from a child with bags under her eyes and a poor choice of clothing. A paragon of fashion like the tailor had said.
But beyond all else, beautiful.
"Are you alright, Aloe?" Xochipilli asked out of nowhere with palpable worry.
"Why shouldn't I, child?" She responded calmly.
"Because… you are crying," he answered.
The vegetable woman faced the mirror again and, sure enough, she was teary-eyed. Perhaps not all-out crying, but certainly now she became aware of her blurred version. She let out a silent whimper and a tear finally trickled down her cheek.
For the first time in her life, Aloe felt beautiful.