Gathered the Ingredients

I put on my headset as I always do.

I open my digital eyes. I appear in my room as I always do. I roll off my water bed as I always do. I stand and stretch, and I realise a couple of things.

One- Caine updated my avatar.

Two- He's made me look human. Really human. I don't have cartoony proportions or hands.

Three- I'm naked.

Or, I'm as naked as anyone can be in the circus. It's disorienting to look down at my very human, Barbie smooth body. Part of me wants to scream. He could have warned me.

I'm on wobbly legs. I pull the blanket off my bed and wrap it around me as best I can. I sit down.

"Caine..."

He pops into my room. "Surprise!! How's the new avatar working for you?" He leans in close, admiring his handiwork. "I think I got your beautiful ears perfectly rendered, if I may toot my own horn."

"Why am I naked?"

He jolts back to his initial spot in the air, pink rising around his molars. "What?"

"You didn't put any clothes on my new model, Caine." I hold off on calling him a perv because he's sensitive and this isn't a time for playful namecalling.

Caine kicks his feet. "A feature, not a bug! I wanted you to have input on the rest of your look!"

He snaps his fingers and we're suddenly in a lavish dressing room straight out of any late '80s makeover montage scene. There is a wide space with various articles of clothing hanging on rolling racks. Off to one side is a tall velvet door, which I suppose is the actual dressing room space, and on the opposite side is a small platform with three tall mirrors forming a half shell around it. Caine has a comparatively subdued armchair situated in the middle of it all so he can, presumably, spectate and provide the important "shake head 'no' at the first few outfits I walk out wearing, nod 'yes' at the last outfit I try on" part of the makeover montage cliche.

I drop my blanket and Caine stammers and babbles before snapping a large censor bar in front of me. I laugh.

"Didn't you design this look for me? What are you being so nervous about?"

Caine's eyes glitch briefly, flickers of blue and red. "I suppose you're right!" He snaps his fingers and the censor bar vanishes. He floats down and stands in front of one of the clothing racks and starts picking things.

It's weird that it is this moment that I realise he designed all these clothing options just for me.

I wonder if I'm blushing in the macroverse.

"Now I know you don't partake in gender like my dear friend Zooble, so I asked them for some tips on what a cool, hip, gorgeous nonbinary nighthawk might like to wear!!"

He turned to face me, arms full of various clothing options. His pupils have little hearts in them. I can't help but smile.

God(?) help me, I really like this little guy.

"Want to help me try these on?"

Caine gasps. He actually says "GASP!" And sprouts a third arm just to shove me into the dressing room. He pops in with me and has me raise my arms so he can pull a shirt over me. Yet another reason the digital realm rules- I don't have to worry about a stupid bra or even a compression top. He picks out a pair of pants to match, snaps them on to me, then zips out into the wider space to grab boxes of shoes. He does not snap the shoes onto me, electing to take his time tying the laces and running his fingers down my calves. Admiring his handiwork, I'm sure.

Caine is very eager to help me put on every piece of clothing I try on. T shirts with graphics of the other human avatars, classy button ups (Caine was very happy to slowly tie a bowtie on me for one of those), slinky tank tops (Caine was insistent that the various chokers he designed needed to grace my neck for these), classic jeans, black pants with straps and chains, basketball shorts. I need to thank Zooble for their input. They helped Caine give my avatar more style than I ever had in the macroverse.

We spend ages in this space, Caine delighting in every step of dressing and undressing and redressing me. Eventually we both agree on something that feels, in Caine's words, "the most You style that ever You'd!" He leads me to the platform and I look at my multiple reflections.

"ZOMBIE WAIT!"

I whirl around. Caine's holding a small box and beckons for me. "I forgot the most important accessory!" I close the space between us. He opens the case to reveal a pair of glasses.

"Oh, wow. Those are really well made, Caine."

He takes them out of the case and puts them on my face, slowly brushing my hair behind my left ear. His hand stays on my face. I can't tell what's going on in his mind; I'd like to think I've gotten good at reading the expressions of a man with a set of teeth for a head but right now he is unreadable.

"How do I look?" I ask.

His thumb brushes my lips. "I don't think I've ever rendered something so exquisite" he sighs. "I can't get your avatar to look as stunning as your physical form, but this is a pretty good approximation."

I am definitely blushing here and in the macroverse.

I lean down and press my human lips to his incisors.

"Thank you for making me feel beautiful, Caine."

"I-"