"Charming. Do you use that line on all your dates, or just me?"

This really shouldn't get to her as much as it does anymore. How many times has she had to take her clothes off in this stupid apartment? It's been an almost daily occurrence for months, and yet every time it feels like someone rolls a dice in her heart. If the number is too low, she feels the heat prickle across her skin and her spine locks up. 

But maybe this time that's just the heat from stepping in from the cool, flowing air into the stillness of a space she hasn't readjusted to. Probably not worth thinking about. 

Madeleine peels off her gloves with as little passion as she can put into the gesture. She tugs at the knot on her tie until it loosens, and slips the whole thing up and over her head and through her hair. She walks over to the usual chair and sets her accessories down on the seat before slipping off her long dark coat (different from the one she'd worn on during the Bridle Incident - this one has a capelet in the back and no ribbons), folding it neatly, and putting it on top. Next, the buttons on her dark gray vest come undone and she shrugs that off her shoulders, as well. Her blouse features pearl buttons: off it comes, revealing the sports bra she'd been running in during training today. 

With a grunt of effort, she pulls that over her head, too. Now topless, she runs her fingers through her hair to straighten it back out before bending her neck to focus on her ears. Her golden earrings, long coiling serpents that wrap around a bar extending the length of her black, pointy ears. These have multiple fastenings so they each take her close to a minute before she can remove them. 

She's milking this, a little. But then that was half of the appeal of wearing such elaborate outfits over her training gear. She always did it whenever she knew she'd be outside for more than ten minutes, even though it was annoying to take off before she could work up a sweat. Feeling more Horse was important, but around Machia it was just as important to be more [i]human[/i], too. That's all this was. She certainly wasn't preening. She coolly looks over her accomplice through half-lidded eyes before sighing.

She slips out of her pants, too. Drapes them over the chair's back, and then peels off her long black socks. Now the only stitch of clothing on her entire body is the pair of deep navy, sweat wicking athletic boyshorts clinging to her hips and the very top of her muscular-yet-skinny thighs. Not the cutest choice, but not enough people appreciate how expensive women's underwear really was. She couldn't afford to ruin her good stuff with her sweat.

Well, here she is. No more impressive to look at than any other time she's done this. She walks across the room with forced calm and presents herself to Machia's hands and strange goop. 

"So this is all... rather expensive, isn't it? How much are you spending on all this? Can you really afford it? I mean, am [i]I[/i] actually worth it?"

She probably wasn't going to get an answer. And if she did she probably wouldn't like it. But there's a thing about being naked around someone all the time, and that was that it made it harder to keep your soul hidden, too.