>>5976414Over small, delicate, and beautiful-ornate little cups of strangely-spiced southern tea, you fill Nicolette Testa in in the ‘engagement’, and the reason for its urgency, and for your visit.
“So you need to show up some smooth-talking merchant’s kid, and make a good impression?” Testa says, tapping her chin. “Hmm… Well, he might be richer, and taller, and better-looking than you—“
“WHAT?” you shout. “Says who?? Whose side are you ON?”
“I’m just making an educated guess,” Testa says, hiding a smirk behind a sip of her teacup. “Anyway, DESPITE all that, you’ve got ME as your stylist, so you have this in the bag. I can already envision it…”
Testa frames you with her fingers, close one eye and squinting the other as she imagiens you in some over-the-top outfit, no doubt.
“Nothing TOO ornate,” you say. “Just… Maybe a little more ‘every day human man’ formalwear?”
Testa stares at you blankly.
“You know what I mean!” you say, face hot with embarrassment. “Just… Something that a regular fully-human would wear when visiting his… His…”
“Mother and father-inlaw to-be?”
You pursue your lips and nod, quickly, still unable to say it.
“Alright, alright…. I think I get what you’re going for,” she says, appraising you for a moment before turning to Costella. “And how about you, Bride-to-Be Fanucci? Anything special in mind?”
“Bride-to-be….” Costella sighs happily, cupping her green-speckled cheeks. “Oh gee… I don’t know, m-maybe something with a big poofy skirt? A-and some… Ribbons?”
“Well you sure have the hips for it,” Testa says, a touch enviously, pouting at your… Fiancé’s… Hourglass figure. “I think we can make it work, yeah. Let me just take your measurements…”
“W-wait, you mean YOURSELF?” you ask, paling. “By hand?”
“Oh don’t be a baby,” Testa says, reaching out and tapping your nose. “You’ve been all up in my SOUL. This is just to know which direction your dress. And anyway, I’m a ~professional~.”
“Are you?” you ask.
“Better me than some strange halfling, right?”
"Stranger than YOU?"
"Oh shove it, Tips!"