"Hey, Tamara, I'm home! How was your day?"

"Awesome, Jill! I'm done!"

"You're done? Both costumes?"

"Sure! Set down your stuff and come look!"

Jill set down her bag and took off her work shoes to join Tamara in her workroom. Jill's regular office job brought in a more regular income to the house than Tamara's costume-building gigs, but when Tamara landed a big one, it more than made up for the times when she had to shop for bargains at the grocery store. Besides, she got to do what she loved, and every so often, she had the spare time to work on a passion project like this one.

"Here we are," said Tamara, standing next to a long table. "All done, and just in time for the sci-fi convention next weekend."

Lying on the table were two form-fitting costumes. One was a black latex bodysuit, gloves and flat-soled shoes built in, with white and blue lines outlining its contours. The other was a hard jointed shell made of shiny red plastic, with attached glove pieces and wedge-soled boots. Little fake serial numbers and bar codes decorated it all over.

"Nice," said Jill, running her hand over the black rubber. "Thanks for not putting heels on mine."

"Well," said Tamara, "I know how they drive you nuts, and besides, I wanted to be your same height for once."

"And don't take this the wrong way," said Jill, "but I assumed they'd have a lot more parts and things on them, since they took so long to make."

"Oh, there's more here than meets the eye," said Tamara. "Lots of fun little extras."

Tamara jumped up to sit on the work table next to where Jill was standing. She dangled her legs from the edge and leaned close to Jill's ear.

"You want to see?"

Jill stroked Tamara's jawline with her fingers.

"You bet."

"Good." Tamara gave Jill a little peck on the cheek. "Meet me back here, and I'll give you the tour." She hopped down from the table, picked up the jointed plastic suit, and stepped into another room, leaving Jill alone in the workroom.

Well, why not, thought Jill. After all, the workroom had a good mirror, and she had the room to herself at the moment. She slipped out of her work clothes, rolled down her nylons, and pulled on the latex. It was easier to put on than Tamara's earlier work, and it was quite a bit more comfortable. She didn't need to do nearly as many of the little adjustments that costumes like this always needed, either, so she had a little time to admire the result in the mirror. With her short black bob hairdo and mostly pale skin, the costume made her look like some kind of future bounty hunter, especially if she added a utility belt and maybe a visor.

The door opened, and Tamara walked back into the workroom wearing her own costume. The hard plastic suit had windows in a few places, like the navel and the sides of her thighs, where her olive skin showed through against the bright cherry red, and a plastic plate curved around the back of her head and pushed up against her frizzy red-brown hair. Like Jill's, her costume moved more smoothly than any of her previous efforts, especially her earlier attempts at rigid armor. It looked like it was just a part of her body.

"How do you like it?" said Tamara.

"It's great!" said Jill. "It breathes way better, and it doesn't bind anywhere. It doesn't even have any of those little wrinkles that latex always gets, but it doesn't feel too tight either. I almost feel like I could wear this every day."

Jill stepped around the work table and laid a hand on Tamara's waist. "Of course, if you were asking me how I like your costume, I might have one or two comments."

Jill pulled Tamara against her. Tamara rubbed a palm against Jill's chest and chuckled.

"Before we get into that," said Tamara, "and believe me we're going to, I still need to show you a few of the extra little tricks I built in."

Tamara gently pushed away from Jill and reached up to the back of her neck, pressing and sliding something that Jill couldn't quite see. Then she raised her other hand to her chin, and her head jerked to one side a little, like she was working out a crick in her neck.

"Hey, Jill," said Tamara with a wink. "Catch."

Her arms jerked, and Jill instinctively put up her own arms to make a basket against her chest. It took Jill a few seconds to realize that she was holding Tamara's separated head in her grasp.

"Good reflexes," said Tamara, her voice slightly muffled in Jill's arms.

Jill turned Tamara's head over in her hands. Her neck ended in a red plastic cap, just as smooth and shiny as the rest of her suit. It sure hadn't been there when she'd seen the suit empty on the work table earlier. Jill looked over to where Tamara had been standing. Her body, from the neck down, was still there, leaning against the work table with one hand on her hip. Like her head, the bottom half of her neck ended in a red plastic stump.

"I mean," said Jill, after finally finding the words and turning Tamara's head the right way up, "I've got questions. Maybe I should start with, 'How the hell?'"

Tamara smiled. "If you want all the math, that would take more time than we have left in the day. For now, I'll just say that this is what took this project so long."

"I believe it," said Jill. She walked over to Tamara's body and looked for any other little switches. "Did you put in anything else?"

"Yeah, a few things," said Tamara. "Just set my head up on that shelf above my desk for now."

Jill did as Tamara asked, thinking how weird a sentence it was, as Tamara lifted her body up and sat on the work table.

"Come on over here and have a look," said Tamara, patting her hip. "I mean, not over here where my voice is. Man, this will take some getting used to."

"Yeah, I got it," said Jill, walking next to where Tamara's body was sitting.

"There's a little catch down here on my hip," said Tamara. "Press it down, then turn it clockwise until it clicks."

Jill ran her hand over Tamara's buttock and along her thigh with a smile. "Down here? What's it feel like?"

Tamara giggled. "You're adorable, you."

"Yeah, I know." Jill found the catch, pressed, and turned. There was a click.

"Now lift up on my leg and pull it toward you."

Jill cradled Tamara's leg and held on as she stepped back. The leg came away with another click, leaving a spherical gap in Tamara's hip where her butt cheek had been.

Jill rubbed her fingers inside the socket, and she was rewarded by a little shudder from Tamara above the desk. Jill hung Tamara's leg over her shoulder, rubbing her cheek against Tamara's thigh where it showed through the window in the plastic, and turned to face Tamara's head.

"Just how many pieces can come off you?"

"It depends on how creative we can get," said Tamara. "Go ahead and set that down just outside the door, will you?"

Jill opened the door from the workroom. Out in the hall, she found another matching leg, but this one was in royal blue instead of red, and there wasn't a window on the thigh with olive skin showing through. She set down the red leg and picked up the blue one, bringing it in to show Tamara.

"What's this?" said Jill. "Have you been doing some Frankenstein stuff while I've been at work?"

"No, there's no actual flesh in there," said Tamara. "Just hand it over, and I'll move on to what I gave you." Tamara clapped her hands and held them out.

"Well, that's more like it," said Jill, tossing the leg into Tamara's waiting arms. "Why didn't you say so sooner?"

Tamara clicked her new blue leg into place, stood from the table, and patted it where she had been sitting. "Have a seat, Jill. The doctor will see you now."

While Jill eagerly hopped up onto the edge of the work table, Tamara felt around in a drawer of her desk and retrieved a metal ruler. She stepped up next to Jill and sat in her lap. Jill reached up to Tamara's neck and rubbed the flat cap on top, almost automatically.

"First things first," said Tamara. "You and I should be on an even playing field."

Tamara raised the ruler to Jill's neck and pressed the edge against the base of the costume's latex collar. Jill felt the metal ruler gliding into her neck and on through, like spreading butter on bread, and she felt Tamara's armored fingers cradling her head from behind.

When the cold metal was clear from her neck, Jill felt Tamara lift off of her lap, and her perspective swam across the room. She was definitely still sitting on the table, but she was also definitely moving toward the shelf where Tamara's head sat. The room spun around her, and suddenly, she could see Tamara's head beside her, Tamara's body in front of her, and her own headless body on the table in the middle of the room. She reached up to feel where her head should have been, and she saw her own fingers exploring the new latex surface on top of her neck.

"Wow," said Jill. "This is wild. No little switches for me, huh?"

"Nope," said Tamara, speaking softly right next to Jill on the shelf. "Your suit can just be divided, with any rigid thin edge. An actual blade should work, but we shouldn't risk actually cutting the suit, so it's better to use thin but dull edges. Like this."

Tamara sat down on the table next to Jill. Jill watched as Tamara pressed the edge of the ruler against her waist and passed it all the way through, lifting her torso off of her waist and holding it in her lap. Tamara held onto Jill's torso with one hand, gently stroking her abdomen, and she rested the other on top of Jill's hips and drummed her fingers. And neither of them had a head on their shoulders at the time. It was a lot for Jill to get used to, but she looked forward to the opportunity.

Jill turned her torso around in Tamara's grip, pivoting around behind her and feeling around her waist. She found another catch just below Tamara's ribcage. When she pressed and turned it, there was another click, and Tamara's torso lifted off of her midriff, leaving another spherical socket beneath her torso. She set Tamara's torso down in her own latex lap and found another catch just above Tamara's hips. This one released Tamara's midriff, a sphere of red plastic with Tamara's belly button poking out of it, which Jill held in her arms.

"It's a good thing these suits are so comfortable," said Jill. "Because I intend to keep wearing it for as long as possible."

"Good," said Tamara. "Because we're just getting started." She raised her voice and called out. "All right! We're ready!"

The door to the workroom opened, and somebody entered. She was dressed all in hard blue plastic, with one red leg. She held a small metal rod in one hand, with a black rubber bulb at one end. Her face and hair were made of solid plastic, but they looked just like Tamara's.

"Hello, you two," she said. "Looks like you're having fun."

"Yes, I believe we are," said Tamara.

"Okay, what?" said Jill. "You cloned yourself?"

"Sort of," said Tamara. Her blue duplicate took her head from the shelf and handed it to her, and then she pressed the rod's bulb against Jill's torso just beneath her right arm. When she pulled the rod away, a black tendril drew out from Jill's body and formed into another arm. As Tamara reattached her head, her torso still resting on top of Jill's legs, the blue copy repeated her procedure on Jill's torso three more times, once more on the right and twice on the left.

Tamara took her spherical midriff from Jill and reassembled herself. While the blue copy sat on the table and played footsie with Jill's legs, Tamara lifted Jill's torso into her arms and wrapped Jill's six arms around herself.

"You want to see what I can do next?"