Cosplay, NDAs, and Bonus Pay

"All due respect, sir, but I'm beginning to wonder if you've lost your mind."

In her time as Martín Marzán's main assistant, Ariel had learned quite a lot about the man. Well, that's not entirely true, she knew a lot about him since long before that, but that's another story for another time. The point is... Mars is someone who seems to always be scheming and always have a plan in mind, and his assistant as she is, Ariel is rather used to getting caught up in those plans.


What she's not used to is having to wear a ridiculously tight outfit, a wig, and a hat that for some reason has fake cat ears attached to it. It's a nice outfit, don't get her wrong, but it's just... The antithesis of everything Ariel is.

Ariel never wears heels higher than two inches because it would be a detriment to her job to do as much, but now here she is, wearing red pumps. Ariel never wears shirts or dresses, favouring pant suits in just about every shade of grey in existence — elegant, professional, and never flashy enough to stand out. This dress, however? It's the definition of flashy: tight, with a high slit, and coming paired with red opera gloves and a fluffy white boa. The enormous red hat only adds to how flashy it is. And, the wig? Long and wavy hair, a complete contrast with her usual slicked-back ponytails. At least she had convinced the makeup artist to keep the makeup as light as she likes, using San Francisco's heat as an excuse for that.

"Ha! Ari, if you're going to pretend to be Tuesday, you need to dress the part. Why? Do you not like it?"

Tuesday. The name of his character in UNOVR. Not subtle or discrete enough for Ariel's taste, but then again, she imagines most people wouldn't consider the etymology behind the word or how fond Mars is of things like those. It's only an obvious choice to those who know the man as well as she does.

"I don't really mind it, it's just different. But... is this really what Tuesday wears?"

"Not really." He chuckles from his seat in the suite's living room, looking up from the laptop he had set up on the coffee table. "It's what Tuesday would wear if she went to UNOVRCon, though."

Ariel can't help but quirk a brow, blue eyes meeting the amber ones of her employer. They had both agreed that there was no need for her to go through the annoyance of wearing coloured contact lenses.

"You're Tuesday, sir. Are you saying that this is what you would wear?"

As expected, he smirks, taking her words as a joke even if she had spoken dryly.

"Ha. If I could pull it off, sure. Nah, though... It's what people would imagine Tuesday would wear. The outfit looks like the one of this one NPC, C.L.A.W, but it has cat ears like Tuesday's. Her own version, if you will. I'll tell you more about it when you're on your way to the con."

"...You've given too much thought to this."

He always gives too much thought to everything. It's something she both admires and finds exasperating, especially when he does stupid things (like his little stunt at the lobby) despite his tendency to overthink.

"Of course I have, but that's the point. You won't have to act like C.L.A.W., you can just act as you think I would."

Out of all people in the world, his assistant is perhaps the only one who understands what he means by those words.