[Tseng's Ancient cleans up nicely, and it doesn't suit her at all.
It's funny; the last time he'd seen her, she'd been out of costume, too — trying to remain inconspicuous beneath the armor and helmet of the drill team at his parade, and that disguise had almost worked for her better than this one does. There's a certain security to wearing armor; that dress, she wears like a cage.
He's familiar with that feeling, too. He remembers back when bowties felt like leashes, when they weren't doing double time as nooses. He remembers sitting stiff next to a father he was never good enough for, frantically going over table manners and silverware placements in his mind in the hopes of at least not making a mistake that would embarrass him. Then he learned how to wear style like he was going to battle in it, be it in boardrooms or on rooftops, and made the nooses expand to let him breathe rather than trying to struggle desperately through them.
Pretty and imprisoned. Oddly appropriate, for Aerith Gainsborough.
And whether she remembers that they're right on the cusp of agreeing to be allies or not, either way her life and care has always been a matter of Shinra's business, and he doesn't see any reason for that to change now.]
2
It's funny; the last time he'd seen her, she'd been out of costume, too — trying to remain inconspicuous beneath the armor and helmet of the drill team at his parade, and that disguise had almost worked for her better than this one does. There's a certain security to wearing armor; that dress, she wears like a cage.
He's familiar with that feeling, too. He remembers back when bowties felt like leashes, when they weren't doing double time as nooses. He remembers sitting stiff next to a father he was never good enough for, frantically going over table manners and silverware placements in his mind in the hopes of at least not making a mistake that would embarrass him. Then he learned how to wear style like he was going to battle in it, be it in boardrooms or on rooftops, and made the nooses expand to let him breathe rather than trying to struggle desperately through them.
Pretty and imprisoned. Oddly appropriate, for Aerith Gainsborough.
And whether she remembers that they're right on the cusp of agreeing to be allies or not, either way her life and care has always been a matter of Shinra's business, and he doesn't see any reason for that to change now.]
I'd skip the fruit gelée, if I were you.
[He says, easy and casual, as he corners her near one of the dessert tables.]
Unless you're so eager to get out of that dress that you're willing to let someone take it off you, that is.