OPEN POST; [RUFUS SHINRA / FFVII]

[corporative]

fancy stuff go here

TAG ME BINCHES

Comments

text—

[lapses]

My files.

[corporative]

[Valetine, sometimes even Rufus requires more context than two-word texts.]

Are we filling the blanks? Let's see: your files are... collecting dust.

[lapses]

[ he is doing alright so far. ]

Where?

[corporative]

[He's only so willing to play the "figure out the context with minimal information" game, though. He has better things to do with his time than to humor an ex-Turk.]

Better question -- why?

[lapses]

I need them.

[corporative]

Second verse, same as the first —- why?

Don’t make me pull all the weight around here.

[lapses]

[ ...... ]

I'm destroying them.

[corporative]

Is that so? Interesting, as they’re not yours to destroy.

[lapses]

Irrelevant.

[corporative]

No, actually. Fairly relevant.

I’m not the kind of man who hands over company property and legalese documents just for the sake of their destruction.

[lapses]

Do you have use for them?

[corporative]

They’re sealed.

What happened to you was unflattering, there’s no doubt about that. But that’s all the more reason why those files don’t leave this building.

What good are they to you destroyed, anyway?

[lapses]

They won't be at risk of leaving the building once destroyed.

[corporative]

You didn’t answer my question.

Why do you want them destroyed? They’re relics of the past.

[lapses]

They're my past.

[corporative]

Representative of it, maybe. But otherwise harmless, locked up tight behind security clearances.

Not hurting anyone. Leave them be.

[lapses]

I can't do that.

[corporative]

Why not?

[lapses]

I have my reasons.

[ none of which he cares to share. ]

[corporative]

Share them.

You have to sell it to me. Pretend you’re at the opposite end of a business deal, and tell me why I should care.

[lapses]

No.

[corporative]

Then my answer's the same.

[lapses]

[ guess he'll have to do this the hard way

read ✔ 22:47 ]

[corporative]

[No response. While normally a respite, from Vincent it's anything but.]

All right, then.

[He murmurs to himself, making certain to put in the call for a little tighter security for the night. Just in case.]

👀

[coraza]

rufus.

you're back too?

[corporative]

[It takes a moment for the reply to come through. As though the world is hasn’t really stopped for them in their time away from it, and the work goes on and on —- now, only weighted with the remembrance of something as surreal as a dream.]

You thought you’d leave without me? I wouldn’t make it that easy for you.

[coraza]

[god, and the same annoying arrogance, too. granted, perhaps cloud should have been grateful for it to some extent.]

i wouldn't have wanted to leave anyone behind, no matter who they are.

[sure, the hero. pfft.]

[corporative]

How noble of you. I’m flattered.

[Sure, the hero. But maybe that stretch of time in another world has made his repartee a little less edged like knives.]

Where did you find yourself when you woke up?

[coraza]

on my way to an inn. as if i had never left.
what about you?

[corporative]

In my office, as freshly coronated President as before.

[Coronated. Ha.]

It's like nothing's changed at all. Back to business as usual.

[Except it isn't that simple, is it.]

[coraza]

just as you wanted.
the changes aren't there, either.

and yet we remember that it happened.

[corporative]

Back to feeling like your normal self, then? That's good.

[And that isn't even sarcastic.]

That's right. And it leaves us with a problem, I think.

[coraza]

disoriented, but alright for the most part.

what's that?

text—

[probatum]

[ He pulled the short straw, but Reno definitely cheated and this will not be the end of it......... ]

There's been a slight mishap with your costume for the party, sir.

[corporative]

[If there’s one thing he’s perfected over the years, a sort of art that’s refined itself into the cold hard certainty of a diamond, it’s the ability to read in-between the lines. And there is not phrase more concerning, at times, than the nicely and strategically used “slight mishap.”]

What kind of mishap?

[probatum]

I don't suppose you are fond of fishnet, are you?

[corporative]

[The little “...”s that denote typing blink across Tseng’s screen for a few hefty seconds. Finally—]

I don’t recall fishnets being a part of the costume to begin with. This seems less like than a mishap and more like a change of plans.

[probatum]

[ Well. He's had a good life, hasn't he? Seen a lot, learned a lot, experienced plenty? ]

The person responsible for putting it together may have.... mistakenly chosen the wrong type, while ordering it.

They are being reprimanded as we speak.

[corporative]

[He’d never do that to you, Tseng. Far too valuable to sever over a mishap of fishnets and costume choices gone wrong.

His paycheck on the other hand, well.]

Before I instruct you on how thoroughly they need to be reprimanded, maybe you should inform me of what kind of costume requires a preemptive warning about fishnets?

[probatum]

The kind that was ordered as the 'female' type, sir.

[ He'll do his best to shield Elena from any real punishment, but really... ]

[corporative]

Well. While that would certainly turn some heads at the party, I'm not sure the consequences would be worth it.

[Can you imagine, though.]

Which means I'm down a costume. Are you going to help me put one together last-minute, Tseng?

[There's a question mark there, sure, but one might wonder if it's actually a question.]

[probatum]

I'm already looking through your closets as we speak, sir.

Do you want something terrifying, or something more refined? It would be quite easy to transform you into something of a blood sucker, as it were, but it may be a bit...campy.

[corporative]

And I thought all blood-suckers were supposed to be refined.

[Well, to a point. He supposes only the ones steeped in gothic horror, but there's something equally appealing about donning a high-collared cloak with deep crimson lining, and fake fangs to match.]

I think I could pull it off, campiness or otherwise, don't you?

[probatum]

You could pull off anything you wanted to.

I'll put together the pieces and leave them hanging on your wardrobe. It shouldn't take long.