Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ FF8 SeeD and the City (Series) ❯ Stylish You! ( Chapter 3 )

 

Disclaimer: All FF8 characters are courtesy of Squaresoft Enix

 

SeeD and the City:STYLISH YOU

 

“There are no ugly people, just very badly dressed ones…”

-Sharme Dephta, Editor-in-Chief of STYLISH YOU Magazine, 23AU Special Edition

 

- 30.05.01AU - Balamb Garden -

 

It all started with Sharme Dephta, the more frivolous of the two Card Club Diamonds. Her twin sister Priya had become SeeD in the past year, but Sharme had failed her SeeD Field Exam. Her problem: broken nails. Her upset at having her perfect manicure decimated while fighting a Cockatrice had cost her very valuable Conduct and Attitude points. However, just last week, she'd been seeing the word `OPPORTUNITY' written clearly in large gold capital letters across Selphie Tilmitt's forehead, so she decided to approach Selphie with the idea, after a GFC (Garden Festival Committee) meeting…

 

“Hey, Selph!”

 

“Hmm? S'up?”

 

Sharme and Selphie were pretty good friends, Sharme was one of the most enthusiastic members of the GFC. Anytime they had to stage anything -play, concert, variety show, whatever- Sharme would usually take care of the `costume department', being a clotheshorse and B-Garden's most devoted fashionista…

 

“I heard you're trying to raise funds to rebuild T-Garden.”

 

“Yeah, but it's reaaal hard work! People are sooo tight with their gils nowadays!”

 

“Well, a couple of weeks ago I sent a letter to the people of STYLISH YOU Magazine…”

 

“Wow! That's like my favourite mag!”

 

“Yeah! Mine too!” Sharme continued with her sales pitch, “So, like I suggested to them, how `bout havin' like, them doin' a feature on some SeeDs…” she gushed on, “…And they ACCEPTED!” The last word was squealed out.

 

“WOW! That would be sooo cooool! …” Selphie's sly mind quickly caught on Sharme's idea, “Sooo, who do they have in mind?” `Geez, I hope is not Quisty! I would have to, like, do some major, major, mondo major arm twisting… Wait a minute! Quisty's not even here!!! What am I thinkin'!?!'

 

“Oh! They don't care,” Sharme remarked casually, “as long as it's one of you guys… Y'know like Quistis or Rinoa oryou…”

 

The people at STYLISH YOU magazine had specially asked for Quistis Trepe, but Sharme being no idiot, negotiated for the other two knowing very well that the chance of getting Quistis was as high as minus zero. They'd also wanted one of those `hot' SeeD guys to appear in the photo shoot, specially the one who was the `knight' saying, `Our readers always love the bad boys! Specially if they're as hot looking as that knight!' Sharme agreed with the magazine editors. After taking a good look at Seifer Almasy she'd immediately forgiven him, `So…sue me for being superficial!'

 

“…They also asked for one of the guys… Like Almasy” she let it drop anyway, `If you don't try…'

 

“Nuh-uh! Irvy and Seify are on a mission with Quisty… Squally? Not a chance! …Ask Zell? Hmm…he might agree…with the right incentive…”

 

“They offered to pay a fee of 30,000 gil each per hour…”

 

“Really?” Selphie was nobody's fool, “I heard Seify was offered triple that fee by MY BISHOUNEN FIX…”

 

“WHAT?!? WHEN? How come nobody told me?” `Shit! With her luck, it was probably sold-out! She wondered if they would do a repri…'

 

“…And he still said `no' to their rep.”

 

Selphie, being Selphie had finally managed to corner Raijin -sans Fujin, of course- and gotten the whole story out of the big guy…

 

…

 

“Okay, Raj! Spill the goods!”

 

“Can't, ya know? Fuj might get upset, ya know?”

 

“Hey! I'm not tellin' if you aren't…” She winked at the big guy. Now that she'd taken a good look she thought he was kinda hunky…

 

“Can't, ya know?”

 

“So this magazine was some sorta cheap tabloid…”

 

“No way! MY BISHOUNEN FIX ain't no cheap tabloid, ya know? They offered Seif a hundred thousand gil per hour, ya know?…” Raijin closed his mouth when he realized what he was doing, “Hey! That was pretty sneaky, ya know?”

 

“Awww, Raj! Don't be such a party pooper! Let's hear the rest!” Selphie used her most persuasive voice, the one that made Irvy do cartwheels for her.

 

Nervously, Raijin looked to his left and then to his right, as if he feared that Fujin would suddenly materialize in front of him and kick him for being indiscreet.

 

“Yeah…ya know? I was there with Seif when their rep went to see him over at Ma Dincht's, ya know? Great cook, ya know?”

 

“And what happened next? Never mind Ma's cooking!” She knew that she had to keep Raijin on track or he'd completely go off topic. Everyone in Garden knew Raijin had become addicted to Ma Dincht's cooking.

 

“Good thing Ma Dincht was there, ya know? Or Seif would've cut the littl' guy down, ya know?”

 

“Hmm! I guess Matron must've known `bout it then…” Selphie knew that Ma usually gossiped with Matron at least once a day…

 

“Yeah…the littl' guy offered fifty thousand at first, ya know? But Seif kept quiet, ya knew? He was getting' all steamed up but he kinda controlled himself, ya know? Ma Dincht being there an' all, ya know?”

 

“I get it! So this rep guy thought Seify was just waiting for more gil, right?”

 

“Uh-uh, ya know? When he got to a hundred thousand Seif just left the room, ya know? I was kinda worried and I could see that Ma too, ya know? But the littl' rep guy, ya know? Looked kinda happy, ya know?”

 

“Humph! He probably thought that Seify would agree!” She could see it all in her head now. Seify had probably left the room to get Hyperion…

 

Raijin confirmed her hypothesis, “Yeah, Seif came back with Hyperion, ya know? He kinda showed it to the littl' rep guy, and said cool as anything, ya know? `Next time I see you here, I'm going to gut you open with my blade' ya know?”

 

“So… the rep guy left?”

 

“Uh-uh! Real quick, ya know?”

 

…

 

With what Seify got offered in mind, Selphie gazed pensively at Sharme and said, “They will have to do sooo much better than that if they want us to be in their mag…” She knew she was taking a risk, but the rewards would be a quicker rebuilding of Trabia Garden if she could manage it…

 

Sharme sighed dreamily, her mind still dwelling on the possibility of Almasy posing in the nude. Selphie's sharp green eyes narrowed and slapped her friend gently on the shoulder.

 

“Sharme! You pervert! Come back to reality!!! Like I'm talkin' to ya!”

 

“Huh?...Oh, yeah! …Sorry!”

 

“Yeah, riiight!” Selphie wasn't buying it, but she continued with her own pitch, “I might get Rinoa to agree posing with me if STYLISH YOU Were to make us a better offer…”

 

Sharme knew a good thing when she heard it, “What d'ya want? Just shoot…”

 

§

 

Less than a week later, Selphie, Rinoa and Sharme found themselves ensconced in the Presidential Suite of Balamb City most elegant hotel doing a photo-shoot for STYLISH YOU magazine. The magazine's chief photographer, Pietro Stieglitz, oversaw the entire shoot himself with the assistance of his pal Andreas Kooning. After all, they were doing the cover for the magazine's third year anniversary, and it had to be perfect. Sharme Dephta, who had suggested the provocative title of `Sorceress and SeeD Girl - Magic and Power', was asked to do the write-up piece. The offer had left the girl speechless with delight.

 

Selphie was ecstatic, the magazine had agreed to donate 15 percent of the proceeds generated by the sale of any issue that contained their images towards the reconstruction of Trabia Garden. Not being particularly stupid, Selphie had asked B-Garden's team of lawyers to read over the small writing in the contract. She'd also asked Mr. Kiros Seagull, Sir Laguna's personal legal advisor, to take a second look. They have all agreed that the terms offered by the magazine had been extremely generous… Selphie would never, ever, ever forget Rinoa's generosity in agreeing to do the photo-shoot, too bad Irvy and Seify were out doing their Field Exam with Quisty as their SeeD support…had they been included, `Wow! I bet I would've been able to negotiate much better terms!' In any case, it'd been a bitch just trying to convince Zelly-boy to make a small cameo appearance wearing his SeeD uniform. Geez! It'd taken a truckload of hot-dogs to get him to agree plus …one would've never thought it of Zelly-boy, but he was quite the pervert! He'd only said `yes' after overhearing the photographers talk about the “swimsuit edition” featuring her and Rinoa… ` -Humph-He's been hanging `round Irvy and Seify for tooo long! Those two have probably corrupted the poor boy!'

 

…

 

The experience had been both intense and exhausting. After the shoot, Selphie's respect for models, photographers and their hard working crew went up ten notches… She'd also been speechless when the photographers told her that she and Rinoa were to keep all the items they had worn for the photo-shoot! `Woo-hoo! We get to keep all these cool threads! Wait till Irvy sees me in this cuuute yellow dress…YES!' She could definitely get used to this bounty, but then she thought about all the hard work…and the experience of having her swimsuit taped to her breasts…nah! Once was more than enough…! Besides modelling and bomb-making seemed somehow …incompatible!

 

§

 

STYLISH YOU MAGAZINE

JULY 01 AU SPECIAL EDITION

 

`Sorceress and SeeD Girl'

`Magic and Power'

Special Article

By Insider

SeeD Cadet Sharme Dephta

 

(cover photo)

Headshot of Rinoa and Selphie:

Rinoa is looking up at Selphie

with her dark hair streaming down her shoulders.

Selphie has both her hands crossed over Rinoa's head,

she's looking straight into the camera

with a wink and a very flirty smile.

 

The magazine dedicated 20 glossy pages featuring Rinoa and Selphie wearing an assortment of the latest fashions. Zell's cameo with the girls made first page centrefold (one of many), where he was clad in his SeeD uniform with a hand around the waist each of bikini clad Selphie and Rinoa. The consensus was that Zell sported a very goofy smile on his face…

 

§

 

As was expected by the magazine's editorial board, it sold out the moment it hit the stands. They had wisely doubled the number in circulation, and it had still sold out. The magazine's big honchos had also been very satisfied with Sharme's style of writing…It suited the magazine's vision very much…

 

Sharme was offered a position as the magazine's Balamb City correspondent, a position she accepted with ecstatic happiness… and thus began a brilliant career…

 

As for Selphie and the others, they had no time to bask in their newfound celebrity status. Seifer, Irvine and Quistis had not reported back for days… So they had set out to look for them in Ragnarok. Another big worry was Rinoa, she had fainted a day after the photo-shoot screaming in a highly distraught tone, “No! Please, NO!” Rumours had it that both Matron and Ellone had been equally upset…

 

§

 

FINIS