Returning the Favour [Alastair, Sophie]

He took a sip of the Schwarzer Sturm and was pleasantly surprised, it was an acquired taste and certainly not one he had ever quite experienced before but not something completely intolerable. That didn't mean that Alastair would be in a rush to order the drink again, once was quite enough, but he could carry on with this one without looking uncomfortable - which had been his principal point of concern for the whole situation.

"Oh, I think we will be able to manage."

He took note of the subtle manner in which she had responded to his suggestion, focused upon his wellbeing rather than her own, and how it implied that she would be fine regardless. What a pair of portable radiators they were. The thought amused him enough to draw a wider smile to his lips.

As they headed outside, Alastair leading the way once more, he reached out with his own innate talent for reishi manipulation and began to gently heat the local area. Hopefully, it wouldn't offset the balance enough to make Sophie and her boiling blood uncomfortable, rather just make it pleasant for both of them. If she looked to be annoyed by it then he could dial it back and make do but, at the moment, this was based on the knowledge of something he knew little of.

"Looking out for others is nothing to be ashamed of, I certainly think it is admirable. That is a reason why I started down the path to join the Vandenreich, you know, to put my own strength to use for the greater good."

Whether it was arrogant of her to have said it or not, he fed into it a little and offered something more. Though he was loathed to publicly admit it for how pretentious it sounded, he was proud of his convictions and enjoyed her own willful admittance of such.

He supposed that he had started this ball rolling, both in terms of suggesting this date at all and in terms of engaging with a genuine topic of conversation, and so it was his duty to share something of himself first. As much as he might have enjoyed listening to Sophie chat away for hours on end, that was not fair on her and rather unrealistic. If he wanted to get to know her a little better, and Alastair was certainly of the opinion that he did, then he would have to coax it out bit by bit.

"I suppose the path had always been open to me, my parents are both prominent Quincy and that meant they always had ties with the organisation. I had been training for such a thing since I was old enough to be spiritually aware too, and by my early teens the offer was on the table but I was doing well enough learning from my family."

Taking a quick drink to calm his nerves, he mused that this was perhaps the most open he had been about his past life and - though it was hardly filled with dramatic revelations - he was not a natural sharer. Inwardly, he cursed equally his introverted self for struggling with this and his extroverted self for getting him into this. But the Sturm soon worked its magic, and he ventured onward without ceremony.

"The rumours of impending conflict is what spurred me into making the leap, I wanted to do my part and make the world a better place. That was something I could not achieve by myself, so enter the Vandenreich. Right in time for the fourth war to start, as you say."

Alastair found that he could not suppress the wry grin that had materialised on his face when she began talking at length, it felt so childish and unbecoming of him, and yet he had no desire to insult her by looking away or even hiding his expression. They were on a date, so best she knew that he was at least as interested in her and she was him.

"You are not a Quincy by blood? You could certainly have fooled me, with only what few ways I have seen your abilities to go on I might have presumed you to have been doing this all your life."

He sat back in his chair, a pleasantly quiet laugh escaping his lips before he could catch it, so he took another sip and continued.

"Though perhaps we might all learn faster when there are the burning coals of war beneath our feet. It made warriors of us all, for better or worse, and now we can look back and reminisce."

Was this a good pace for how the evening should progress? The night was still ever so young and yet he did not wish to overwhelm her. But his mouth was firing as fast as his head was, and he did not wish to stop it.

"Most certainly, dedication is admirable in itself and even more so when it produces results."

He was quick to assure her until the conversation took a different turn. Was it good to be compared to your date's brother? Was it also good that she didn't think they had much in common beyond a shared name and similar shade of hair? Generally, it probably wasn't. But he was paying more than enough attention to note the way that she stuck on the description of her brother, he should have deflected at this point rather than getting hung up on the issue but it did pique his interest.

"Curious how our paths crossed then, I cannot imagine there are a vast amount of crimson-haired Alastairs out there. One might even go as far as to call it fate, though I can say with no small amount of confidence that I do not often get called a 'punk'."

He mulled over the concept for a moment, imagining himself in a particularly garish outfit with the sides of his head saved to give him a mohawk, before beginning to imagine what this second Alastair looked like by merging that image with Sophie.

"Is he with the Vandenreich as well? Or did he not take to the Quincy lifestyle as you did?"

"How pragmatic of you. I certainly do not think that every facet of my life has been planned out in some grand celestial stratagem, but sometimes I am just thankful for a series of happy coincidences."

He took another sip, taking a moment afterwards to cast his gaze skyward. Fated or not, he would have to work out what came next on his own. There was never a map to navigating life, and he shared her sentiments regarding control and consequences. His expression softened as she spoke of her brother though, it was a shame that they were so distant even if they were so different.

"A Shinigami? Between your brother and yourself, you already have quite a diverse portfolio. As for me, I have two older sisters back in Germany: Bernadette and Hannah. I suppose they possess the blood to be Quincy, but that was the path that I chose so that they did not have to."

It had been a while since he had thought of his own family, truth be told. They lived a different life to him now, and hopefully an easier one because of his actions and the outcome of WW4, but it still gave him that distant pang of homesickness. Perhaps he would take a vacation after this Jefferson operation, pay a visit to the old estate.