A Day at the Costume Shop by Steve Zink ©1999 by Steve Zink -- all rights reserved

Jake had been making plans to go to the costume contest on the Saturday evening of the comic convention, because he was a huge fan of female comic characters and the tight costumes they wore. A lot of girls and women displayed their costumes on the floor of the convention throughout the weekend, but it was the contest that drew out the best. The year before, when Jake had made it to the show for the first time, he'd only had normal film for his camera, because he thought he'd be able to use his flash all the time. That worked fine for the floor, but the contestants were on a stage, a long way from the seat in which Jake had watched. His telephoto lens had made decent sized images, but they were way too dark for his liking.

For this year's show, Jake had invested in some high speed film that would give him good imagery with available light, and also allow high enough shutter speeds to use his telephoto without getting blurred subjects. This film would also allow him to photograph anybody on the convention floor without using a flash that might scare them. The year before there had been a few costumed characters that were risqué, to say the least, and Jake had lost some golden opportunities to picture them because of the flash. The few shots he'd managed to get under good lighting without the flash were real eye openers! The women had been pictured at angles that they hadn't expected, in costumes that revealed quite a bit!

The day before Jake was going to drive down to San Diego, he decided to try and find some sort of costume he could wear himself, and blend in a bit at the show. On the way out to his car, he checked his mailbox. Along with a couple of magazines which he'd throw in his bag for reading material to kill time in motels, and an assortment of bills from a credit card company and two of his utilities, he saw a medium sized brown envelope with his name and address on it, but no return address. It bulged as if something were inside it other than paper, and this intrigued Jake. He slid his finger under the envelope flap to open it while he walked out to his Celica, and found a small golden amulet or medallion on a matching chain. There was no letter accompanying it, so he wondered who might have sent it to him.

He couldn't see balling up the golden chain and sticking it in his pants pocket, so Jake did the obvious thing and flipped the chain up over his head. He centered the medallion over his chest, then tucked it under his T-shirt. Only the chain itself could be seen, and looked perfectly normal, which is why Jake put it there.

As he was waiting at a red light, Jake pulled the amulet out of his shirt to take a look at it. There was some kind of star within a circular field, and a lot of writing of some kind around the perimeter. It was like nothing Jake had ever seen before, and he had a passing thought that maybe one of his friends had bought or made a Klingon medal for him. This thought faded as the light changed, and when he started moving again, Jake stuffed the medallion back under his shirt, and completely forgot about it.

The three costume shops that Jake checked proved to be totally out of stock on anything comic book related. Clerks in each store told him that it really didn't have anything to do with the convention down in San Diego, it was just that they didn't tend to carry any of that stuff except around Halloween. Most of them told Jake to improvise, and build up something original using his own imagination. Jake hadn't planned on doing up anything worthy of the contest, but these guys made him think it may just work.

Jake wanted to work with black leather, and the best place he knew to get articles of clothing in that material was one of the adult book stores in town, that also had a large accessories section. It was only a short trip, and Jake found that there were very few other people in the shop at that time of the afternoon. Clerks literally drew to him like he was a magnet, but Jake told them he was looking for clothes ideas and would find someone if he needed help. He checked the magazine racks first, just to see if anything new had showed up since his last visit, but didn't see anything he needed.

The side room with the clothing in it was like a ghost town compared to the books section of the store. Jake saw row upon row of sexy clothes, most of which did not look like anything that would be worn outside a bedroom. He would have thought that clerks would be on hand to give sizing help and to get anything from the back room, but there wasn't a sign of any other living soul. The men's wear was along the back wall, so Jake had to stroll through the ladies wear to get to them.

The type of leathers and lace that he was passing was not the kind of thing he could ignore, so he whistled at a few of the garments he saw. One particular piece caught his eye, and Jake came to a stop. He was looking at a black fishnet and leather sleeveless body suit that had a built in boned corset, and breast cups that had to be at least big enough for a girl with HHH sized breasts.  The matching gloves were hanging alongside, and shaking his head, Jake muttered, "I wish I could see the person who could USE that sucker!"

In a flash, Jake's vision blacked out, and he felt dizzy. He remembered seeing a padded seat on the side of the aisle, and edged his way back to it. He plopped down on the seat, and felt like his body was on fire. He could feel something akin to his muscles flexing and contracting, but it almost seemed like bone and skin were changing also. The process actually worked too quickly for Jake to know what was happening, and by the time his eyes were registering light once again, Jake was a new man, or to be more precise, a brand new woman.

She stood up, and saw a mirror to one side. Stepping in front of the mirror, Jake saw the incredibly sculpted body with waist length black hair that would wear that fishnet and leather bodysuit. At that moment, Jake became Jacquie, and she knew precisely what she wanted to buy to make her costume contest entry. The golden medallion hung between her huge mounds, which were just barely enclosed by a white mesh tube top. The high cut white shorts she wore showed off her exquisitely shaped California-tanned legs, and there were white high heeled platform sandals on her feet.

Jacquie picked up her white leather purse and slung it over her left shoulder, then marched out to the floor on the books side. It was not difficult at all for her to get some attention, and one of the few female clerks in the store beat all the guys to her side. Jacquie told Marcie about the bodysuit she'd seen on the counter, and the younger girl oohed and ahhed, as she knew just what Jacquie was describing, and could picture in her mind what she'd look like in it.

Moments later, the grinning girl handed an open box to Jacquie. "Would you like to try it on?" she asked.

"Yes, dear, I'd like that very much," Jacquie replied, "and could you point me toward the dressing rooms?"

"I'll be glad to lead you to them, Ma'am. Please follow me."

A few moments later, Jacquie was alone in the dressing room, and got to work immediately. She stripped out of her whites, and slipped into black. A wicked grin formed on her incredible lips, making her near angelic face seem more like that of a demoness. The corset pulled in her already small waist even further, and her breasts were projecting out from her chest like mortar rounds. She had just finished pulling on the fishnet gloves, thinking how odd her white sandals would look, when Marcie knocked on her door.

"Ma'am? I've brought you a pair of black boots that I thought would go nicely with that bodysuit. Care to try them on? I made a guess that you were about a size 7."

Jacquie opened the door, at which point Marcie whistled, and told the young clerk, "Thank you, my dear. I was just thinking of how inappropriate my white sandals would look. And you guessed right!"

Jacquie sat and slipped her legs into a pair of black calfskin boots that zipped tightly around her legs, and came up to her mid thigh. There were five-inch stiletto heels under them, and they made Jacquie complete. Well, almost.

When she stepped out of the dressing room, Jacquie was facing almost the entire staff of the store. She bowed at the sound of the clapping, then asked if there were any black leather belts with hooks and D-rings she could add to her ensemble. She specifically asked Marcie to try and find her a black purse or other bag she could either carry or sling to the costume. While strutting to the cash resister, with her white garments stuffed in a bag, Jacquie also spotted a black domino mask, and added it to her basket. Jacquie had no need of a whip; she knew where there was one back at her house.

Needless to say, there was a bit of an uproar at the costume contest.

Jacquie's new career would involve her buying many costumes and accessories. Most were never seen outside of bedrooms.