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@tseng

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un: shinra | text

[unionized]

Care to play a game with me, Tseng?

[nonvoting]

All right. What kind of game, sir?

[unionized]

The kind where you don't call me "sir".

The rules are simple enough. We take turns asking each other questions, and the first to lie takes a penalty.

[nonvoting]

Very well.

[ a pointed absence of "sir." :| ]

You should begin, since you suggested the game.

[unionized]

[Well, the bait's in the water. Now it's just a question of how long before he throws the hook. Or...however the metaphor goes, does he look like a person who goes fishing?]

A softball to start with, then. To get us warmed up.

How did you discover that restaurant we went to on my birthday?

[nonvoting]

I discovered it a month or so ago in the course of my regular rounds. I never visited with anyone, and it did not seem like the type of place one visits alone. When I was thinking of where to take you for your birthday, it seemed an obvious choice.

[ not only for its intimacy and the types of food and drink offered, but because bringing rufus there made it a place that tseng has only ever been with rufus. he does not include this as part of his response. ]

Speaking of your birthday, did you like your gift?

[unionized]

I liked all of my gifts. I think it goes without saying that you gave me several.

[But then, after a moment:]

The craftsmanship is flawless. It looks just like her.

[nonvoting]

I'm glad.

[ it's enough, to know it was something rufus enjoyed. ]

[unionized]

Do I have to wait until my next birthday to spend a day like that again?

[nonvoting]

[ this is not like truth or dare, where tseng gets to pass on certain questions, is it. ]

Not unless you want to.

[unionized]

[What's funny is, the answer to this question is very simple, and perfectly benign, and yet it still treads close enough to the thought that originated this little game at all that it gives him pause, even as he types it out.]

I don't want to wait.

[nonvoting]

Then don't.

[ there's something strange and tense in his gut as tseng stares down at his phone and then types his own question. ]

Do you want me to be part of "like that"?

[unionized]

Of course I do. What would be the point in doing it alone?

[...Oh. Wait.]

That one is rhetorical, if it wasn't obvious. No answer expected.

[nonvoting]

So noted.

[ it actually is a good thing rufus specified because tseng 100% would have answered. ]

[unionized]

I'm not surrendering one of my questions to whimsy turns of phrase. But this one isn't rhetorical.

We couldn't have done that in Midgar, could we?

[nonvoting]

No, I... imagine not.

[ too much risk to rufus, in midgar. at best, they could have had a meal in his private quarters, but even that would require care not to be spotted by anyone they didn't want gossiping. ]

[unionized]

When I first arrived here, on the beach, someone told me they thought of this place like a fresh start. A clean slate and anonymity, where anyone could be anything they wanted regardless of who they were before.

The way he said it, I thought it sounded like hell. Imagine wanting to be someone other than myself, after everything I've done to become what I am.

[nonvoting]

Has your stance changed, since then?

[unionized]

[...Fuck. He has to tell the truth, doesn't he — or end the game and lose it, which would have the same result as having told the truth anyway.]

I don't want to be anyone other than myself. And I am Shinra.

I just wonder if I killed what I was to become what I am. Or if it's only...buried somewhere, out of sight and out of mind.

[nonvoting]

[ rufus didn't... ask, technically, but— ]

For what it's worth, I think the latter.

[unionized]

If anyone would know where the bodies are buried, it's you.

If I weren't your boss, would your opinion of me change?

[nonvoting]

I've known you for a long time.

My opinion, no. It wasn't so long ago that you weren't my boss, and I still held you in high regard.

[ his feelings, on the other hand... tseng puts a tight lid on that thought before it takes root. ]

[unionized]

Every single follow-up that comes to mind is a question, and it's not my turn to ask.

I will point out that clarifying it's your opinion that wouldn't change begs the implication that something else would.

[nonvoting]

My reporting structure, for example.

[ ha ha... good save(?) ]

Is there anything else that you couldn't do in Midgar that you would like to do here?

[unionized]

Yes.

I want to eat Wutai food without concerns of making an international political statement.
I want to hear the results of that assessment I asked you for.

And I want

[...]

There are some things I want that I have no control over.