[Contains NBM/MBM stuff, etc, etc... This is part of a series, so take a look at those if you enjoy this]

Maintaining a top position in an emerging industry is no mean feat, especially when your business is as personal to the customer as mine. There's nothing like watching someone came in and casually browse shop shelves full of body parts, most of which are copies of mine, and then break themselves apart, sometimes exchanging their own parts for what I'm offering. It sounds kinda morbid, not gonna lie, but pretty much everyone who comes in finds this stuff a lot of fun. I guess its the the same as shoe shopping, but instead its a foot your trying on.

That's what I try my best to do anyway. I've got some very irritating pop music playing in the store, which can get very jarring if you're working there all day, but it helps get to people in a more... extroverted mood, shall I say? The vibe is bright and energetic, welcoming, just really open to anyone who wants to explore natural body magic - just like the customer I was talking to a few weeks back. She didn't have NBM, but she knew someone else who naturally did, so she came in out of curiosity. It happens quite often, surprisingly. I guess the internet doesn't have all the answers after all? Maybe people just want to come and see it to really believe it, how we 'work' and and of that. It was mid-morning and I had some inventory admin to sort out, so I handed her my head, to which she happily obliged, and let my body find another in my office.

"So, would you like to have a look around?"

"Absolutely! What should I look at first?"

"Hmm..." my lips pursed and I looked up at the customer from under her arm. "I'd say that the display sets are a good place to start. I try to make them replicate real life as much as possible."

"As real as being a human doll?" The girl sniggered as she started wondering towards the display just beyond the front aisle, a small set based on a kitchen countertop, showing off a number of different hands and tools one could potentially purchase.

"Well, doll isn't the best way of describing it. Basically, whatever you can imagine you can do with a doll, a wad of clay, or a pretty-much-magic sentient humanoid with too much time on her hands... then I can do it.!"

"That's probably a better description than what I can come up with. My friend is always doing all sorts of wacky stuff with her NBM. She usually calls me when she's cleaning her room, and all I can see in her room is a load of her body parts scattered all over the place. Then she'd open her closet, and 2 or 3 full bodies fall out in bits, some with clothes, some butt naked, and she's acting like it's the most normal thing in the world. She'd start trying on a pair of legs she hadn't seen for months, or something weird like that, like she'd just found some old photos whilst spring cleaning."

I giggled a little as I could relate to what she was describing; my bedroom looks like a bomb went off in a mannequin store.

"Yeah, I'm the same. It's just so much fun finding, and... well, playing with things you haven't seen in ages. Maybe human dolls is a good way of describing people with NBM?"

She giggled as she looked through the hands on display, stroking a couple along the tops and the palms. One gestured back, returning the favour to her by gently massaging the tips of her fingers. "This must have it's uses beyond cosplaying as Barbie?"

"Are you kidding? I honestly have no idea how I lived without NBM! Headache? Just take my head off, and I'm good. Can't reach something? I'll stretch my arm out a few feet and get it for you, or take it off all together. Sore feet? Got loads of spare pairs I can take off and on more easily than most of my shoes, so I keep most of them on my feet and just switch those when I'm getting changed."

"You're stretchy, like that guy from Fantastic 4?"

I don't know why, but I started to get all giddy at this point. "Yeah, but I don't use it much, nor do most modular people. I guess it's more fun being in pieces. Even though I pretty much made myself, I still don't know exactly how or why I can do what I do, or even what my limits are."

Her full focus came back to me under her arm, stepping back from the gentle hand and moved onto the next aisle. There were multiple heads dotted along each shelf next to various pieces -  hips, legs, arms, everything really - some of which welcomed her with a warm smile. "So, are all of these you?"

"Yep. There's nearly a dozen of me either in the shop or at home doing chores, simultaneously independent and part of me. It's super convenient to have somebody you can trust as much as yourself to keep check on things whilst you're in town running errands."

"Isn't that, like, really confusing though? Can really be in multiple places at once?"

I had to think for a moment before I told her one incident I had. "Well, long story short, I got distracted when I... well, one of me, was in town and I walked into a road and got hit by a car."

She stopped in her tracks in a gasp. "No! I'm so sorry! That must have been terrible!" Suddenly I was plonked onto a shelf to her left next to a dormant head of mine. I'm not sure if she was genuinely shocked or confused. "Are you... were you ok? Did it hurt? How, uh, what happened?"

I could only laugh at her over-the-top reaction. "I was and am still perfectly fine. The car in question was only going about 20, but it was enough to splatter me across its front and the road. I was absolutely fine, just a little shaken, and flattened, but apart from having to spend an hour scrapping my left arm out of the car's grill, I got put back together and went on with my day. The worst part was the poor guy's reaction; he must have thought he was hallucinating when my splattered face got scraped off the windshield by his wipers. Anyway, we made up and exchanged numbers, but that's a different story."

She bit her lip as my body came back from the office, having either finished the admin or got bored halfway through, obviously deciding to leave the head I keep in the office safe where it belongs. I surprise myself sometimes just how often a whole head can go missing.

"Oh, that's a bit disorientating!" She remarked as my body reached for my head on the shelf, "I hope you don't do that too often..."

Her phone started buzzing as I aligned and stuck myself back together. "Haha, I try not to." After a quick glance at her phone, she seemed engrossed as a flurry of fingers bashed out a message. I filled the awkward silence that was left as she finished her reply by repositioning a label that wasn't out of place.

"Ugh, I completely forgot about my nail appointment! I'm so sorry to cut this short, but I've got to go!"

"Hey, don't worry about it. I'm always here, no matter what!" We both chuckled a bit as she got her bearings and headed to towards the store front with me.

"Thanks, I'll definitely come back again. You don't really get a grip on how real all this stuff is over the internet." Guess I was right after all. "I might come back after I've had my nails done, if I get out of there at all. I'm so bad at. Choosing what I want, I spend way too long making decisions."

"Oh, you're not the only one, I can't decide what to wear half the time!" I looked at my own nails as I said that, admiring the subtle yet intricate silvery swirls on pale white, detailed with specks of glitter that was only noticeable at certain angles. She also admired them.

"Wow, yours are gorgeous! Are they a set pattern or did you have them custom made?"

"There was a place which did them for me, but they moved to a different city. I don't know how easily I could get them done by someone else though."

"Hmm, shame, I really do love them..."

She was about to fall out of the sliding doors as I realised that I hadn't even got her name, prompting me to stop her just before she left.

"Oh, it's Rebecca. I should've mentioned it earlier."

"Well, Rebecca, do you mind if you can come back later on today?"

"I'm pretty sure I can, why?"

Simply smirked as I presented her with my left hand, popping it off with my right, and handing it to her. She took it somewhat absent minded, not really understanding what I had just done until i gestured her to take my right hand too. "Like I said, it's difficult to get those nails done around here. Show your place mine and they should be able to do a close enough job."

Rebecca was clearly elated. Decision making was clearly not her strong suit, or perhaps she just liked my nails. "Oh wow, really? Are you sure?"

"Don't worry, I'm sure I'll cope for a few hours," I winked as I stepped back into the shop, "see ya later!" I waved with my handless arms as she thanked me again and walked onto her appointment, now a bit less flustered and stressed thanks to me. It's the little things that matter.