A Little Mouse, In Over Its Head [Claudia/Arlette/Eliane, Alastair]

Her laugh was so unexpected, so utterly disarming, that it was impossible for his smile not to stretch a little wider as he took notice of it. It felt truly genuine, like the briefest of cracks behind a perfect illusion, and that did lead Alastair to wonder how many people had actually made Claudia genuinely laugh before. Was it a short list, or did the hardnosed businesswoman have a softer underbelly? Perhaps it was a little of both?

"Please, Alastair will do just fine. At least when we are sharing the water."

He watched her as she approached, eventually turning to lean side-by-side with her on the edge. Rather quickly, his mind began to consider the potential thought of his companion. What exactly did she think about when she looked out over the city like this? Likely she had spent more than enough time up here appreciating the landscape already, so there had to be something that came after that. Perhaps it was something constructive, how best to expand it for the better, but how was he to really know? Perhaps he had seen the briefest glimpse underneath a mask, but that hardly gave him enough of a read to claim any knowledge of what she might be thinking.

"The City of Lights was a whole city made by Quincy, for Quincy. We have opened the doors to all races, but I think it is only a matter of time before expansion will need to be considered. Nothing too drastic, but there is always a need to grow to support those around you. Perhaps then you might find your opportunity..?"

Perhaps the two were business associates first, but in this moment they did not appear as such to Alastair. It was true, of course, that such individuals could share a meal or even a spell in the pool whilst still maintaining such a relationship. He did not deny that. But it marked a difference in how he saw this interaction specifically.

He had no desire to gain anything from her, nor did he have anything that she would particularly want in turn. So they had danced around social etiquette for as long as he thought appropriate, but perhaps now was a time to be more personal. She could have refused him, or just declined from reciprocating the gesture, which might have certainly suggested she thought differently; but instead she appeared to agree with that assessment.

“Of course, Claudia, I think we can manage that much.”

Perhaps it was the slightest hint of that aforementioned German accent that kicked in as his tongue wrapped around the letters of her name, but Alastair did not stop to correct himself. Still, his gaze was split between looking at Claudia and outwards across the city once more. Focused upon neither, though both remained within his line of sight.

“And I am sure the Vandenreich will be glad for your continued support in turn. We cannot build a better world alone, after all. A question of my own, though, as Alastair to Claudia. What do you see when you look out from your penthouse pool, basking as we are now in the setting sun?”

There was a literal answer, of course, and he did not deny her from simply taking that option but it was clear enough that there was something more to his question than that. He knew she was clever enough to know that, but perhaps this was his attempt at drawing further genuineness from someone so shamelessly enigmatic.

Alastair listened closely as Claudia spoke, for it did appear that she intended to take his question with a modicum of sincerity so he intended to return as such. Her first answers were lacklustre, not in the sense that they were disappointing answers in isolation but rather because they were lines that even he could have delivered on her behalf. But that final comment was what pulled him back from the cusp of failure.

A world filled with people who will forever stand in the way of peace.

It was dry, macabre if one considered the future even, but it was Claudia. Now came his retort, and he could pander to her whims in some futile attempt to curry favour but she already knew him well enough to know that he was no idle sycophant. She had teased her truth, his nature demanded that he respond with his own.

“Do you consider everyone to be an enemy of your peace unilaterally? Is anyone to be spared?” A brief laugh escaped his lips along with an exhale, one of surprise rather than indignation. “I suppose it humours me that we see the world so similarly, and yet so vastly different in the same stroke. For I see a world filled with people misguided by the hand of those they trust. They may one day stand in the way of peace, but they are also not beyond redemption. Each and every one can change for the better. I accept that some may not, but that is no excuse to let hope waver.”

There it was again, Alastair’s spark of noble naïveté amidst the dark canvas that Claudia wove so effortlessly. As she slunk down until little more than her head bobbed above the water, he stood taller than before as he straightened out his posture and let more of the water slide from his frame. They were an interesting contrast, he had been noting the signs in their conversation before dinner, but it was only now that they spoke as something more than business associates that he felt confident enough to consider pursuing it.

There was a tension to the air as Alastair voiced a dissenting opinion, not anything that could be called outward hostility but enough to affirm the clash between their convictions. But he paid it little heed in the heat of the moment. Honestly, he remained very much at her mercy and, when her enjoyment of him waned enough, he would no doubt know about it rather quickly.

“A little less dramatic than your initial comment suggested, but considerably more admirable. To be driven to such lengths to achieve a nobler goal.”

Her money was a powerful asset, her other resources more so, and yet her goal was something so much greater than that which she already had. That was what best justified a drive such as her own, yet Alastair was left with little clue what it actually was. He had his own motivation too, the ever growing mound of corpses that he stood upon. Those who had fallen before him to pave a path for today, even those who would fight alongside him for a better future, none were spared from that fate. But that was hardly a thought worth sharing now.

“What we hope for and what is realistic rarely align, and people are the greatest variable of all. What you and I see as preferable, others may call oppression. For we are not exactly an efficient species, blessed and cursed with unique natures that are always a different challenge to overcome, but that does not make us innately hopeless.”

Perhaps others would call him weak for choosing peace and diplomacy over violence, but to Alastair that was among his greatest of strengths. He was not terrifying powerful nor in possession of a startling intellect, he just kept trying to put his faith in people. As he was doing, unbeknownst of the apparent futilely, with Claudia.

“To struggle for struggling’s sake is a folly that many people make for themselves, as you say. They prostrate themselves before the altar of suffering in the belief that they are helping their cause when, in actuality, they are only propagating the lie.”

Claudia had been dismissive of her own situation, bringing it up only to influence her point, so Alastair avoided the topic as best he could. Comparatively, he had a most fortunate start in life. Sure, there had been trials and tribulations but he could hardly have called it ‘coming from nothing’. It was also comforting that Claudia appeared to be from a similar viewpoint as he on the matter of appropriate actions and choices. He had no reason to doubt her comments, and they did resonate with him, so they were only further reinforcing his own assumptions.

“I would offer a toast to being peculiar, then, were we still at the dining table. To seeking an end to this cycle of struggle and conflict. There are better paths, people just have to be guided towards them. Then they have no one to blame for their failings but themselves.”

Looking down at her now, as they now rested at vastly different levels, he did make some effort to lower himself back into the water though still remained quite considerably the taller member of the pair. An easy smile rested upon his lips, far easier than it had any business being given the company he was in and the day he had had.