Coffee and Talks [Liltotto/Erchanhardt]

With a relaxed stride, she would arrive at a small cafe she would occasionally visit on days off, being pretty unpopulated and quiet making it the perfect place to relax at. Though she wasn't here to sit and chill, having arrived early for a specific time for a meeting she didn't expect to have.

She had heard that an Emperor of some sort was in town, but it wasn't until paying Helle one of her quick visits to drop off a small wellness package that she had met one of his men, or rather, women. From who she'd learn to be Rafaela, she got the better picture of who this 'Emperor' was, having recognized his name from the occasional bits Giselle would mention, in addition to his home location lining up pretty well.

Both suspicious and curious, to her shock she managed to get a casual meeting arranged. Definitely wouldn't expect that, but hey if it meant she got to learn more about the guy her caretaker decided to be kinda vague about her connection to, why not?

So she had settled down at an empty table with a coffee and a whole paper bag of pastries as she'd wait for the guy to show up, seeming awfully casual and calm for who she's about to meet.

It didn't surprise Erchanhardt to be sent a summons, given that he had come to the City of Lights on not only the pretense of diplomacy, but having brought the Sternritter Director back. That, however, was not what he had been invited to this particular outing for. Had it not been for a single name being mentioned, the Holy Roman Emperor doubted that he even would have met with this woman so casually. Then again, perhaps he would have. That was only right, after all, that he not forget his role as a leader of the people.

He stepped into the cafe with a remarkably relaxed atmosphere, despite his tremendous stature and generally commanding presence. He may have been Emperor, but that did not mean that he wished to be overbearing in all things. He took a seat at the chosen table, removing his sunglasses and offering a polite smile of greeting.

"I hope I have not kept you overlong, Miss Lamperd."

The Emporer hardly needed a big red target to point him out amongst the scarce few who frequented the shop, his figure alone catching her attention as she was eating a biscuit and scrolling through her phone, a hard swallow following her surprised gaze as he came to sit across from her.

"Not at all, sir," Even her tone was still a little taken aback, until she settled back to her typical demeanor, "Sorry bout that, just pics do not do you justice, you look way buffer in person," She'd give a chuckle with the lighthearted remark, "Kidding kidding, anyway, how's your days at the city been? Hope you and your men have found them well."

She wasn't going to immediately jump into the nitty gritty, might as well icebreak with the one guy she never would've expected to have a sitdown with.

"Well, thank you kindly, Miss Lamperd. My people are finding the City rather pleasant. The South Pacific at this time of year is quite a far cry from my capital, you know. The warm sea air does them wonders."

Of course, he knew that this sort of small talk was by no means what Liltotto had asked him here to discuss, but Erchanhardt was both a politician and a generally polite man. He saw no reason to simply move things right into serious discourse when there was more pleasant conversation to have first. Besides, the nature of this particular meeting meant that it would likely be ideal for him to get to know the woman.

"This is a lovely little corner of the city. For such a modern place, it is nice to see that there is still something more quaint. So many of the cities around the world have moved to a rather tacky sort of modernity in their architecture and city planning. Efficient, perhaps, but lacking in these sorts of pleasantries."

"Yeah, guess that's part of what motivated me to move in. Always liked being close to the sea, yknow? Brings me some comfort."

She had noticed she felt an awful lot more settled than previous since she moved here, apart from an anxiety-raising thing or two, it was a comfortable place to live and work for. She took another long sip of her drink, her eyes not seeming to leave the surprisingly kind looking man's face. She wasn't one to judge, but guys of his appearance were either pleasant or downright insufferable to interact with, and with great, unspoken relief, he seemed to be the former's sort. She'd expect so for a man of his respects and status, but you never know when it boiled down to personal interactions.

"Oh god, thank you," She'd say with a hint of exasperation, "Like, I ain't an architect or anything, but it's like the lot of them came together and were like, 'Shinier!' and 'Brighter!' and 'Taller!' and bah bah bah. Gets overwhelming after a while. Like, damn can't be quiet for five seconds? Must be blaring lights and sounds and whatnot all over the place, all the time, neverending..."

Her little rant would wane into a soft laugh, "Ahah, sorry. Guess I felt a bit stronger about that than initially thought. I suppose i'm the sort to thrive in calmer environments. Don't care much for efficiency at that point."

"The sea is certainly always welcome, and I feel blessed to have been raised near it."

The demeanor of the woman across from him was almost jarring, in a way. Erchanhardt would have expected many things from someone who had known of him through Giselle, but for her to be so earnest and pleasant was not what he would have anticipated. It almost made him wish to ask how that might have occurred, but he was not nearly so rude as to think that was an appropriate question to ask.

"Efficiency and the like are worthwhile pursuits, certainly, but it seems as though there is a need to eschew anything but the most absolute necessity. Minimalism was not exactly a mistake, but I think that there is a near worship of it that should be taken into consideration. And that is, of course, to say nothing of the way that nature has become almost a second thought."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm not sayin' we should just stick to huts and live in the dirt, but there's gotta be some balance. Stayed in a high rise one time for a job and I sure as hell felt like a caged animal stuck in the sky. So yeah, I stayed in a high rise one time."

Though Lil was casual and relaxed, occasionally eating from her bag of purchased pastries, she didn't forget the point of this interaction one bit, and she could already tell the man had his wonderings of her and her relation to Giselle. She doubted the two heard much about each other from the woman, but that was just Giselle - kinda funky and cryptic at times, almost unnecessarily, but then again it probably didn't make sense to someone as straightforward as she.

"Well, I certainly didn't give the Emperor himself a prod just for a friendly chat 'bout modern architecture, as nice as it is, so lemmie just get to the point," she'd lean back in her seat, "Dunno how much you may know about me, but I definitely know a bit about you from Giselle. Pretty surface level shit, but I figured it was the perfect time to check you out, and probably let you know I exist. I am her kid, after all."

She didn't have a gauge for how much of a drop that would've been, so she'd briefly add in that same calm tone, "Adopted. Actually, first parents adopted me too, now that I think about it. No idea where I actually came from, but it definitely wasn't from anybody who actually raised me."

She kept tight lipped about those recent revelations - even if she could be more open about it, conversation felt like it'd spiral into weird territory with those details alone.

The idea that this pleasant woman was Giselle's child even if adopted, was something that Erchanhardt found earnestly difficult to parse. He understood quite well the idea of nature and nurture, and he would be lying if he said that he believed his own daughter was anything like himself, either.

"Personally, I would like to hope that I am known for more than simply being something of a long term rivalry with Giselle. But there is a certain degree of pride that I take in how she and I have interacted over the years."

If nothing else, Erchanhardt was fairly confident that he had handled those particular matters roughly as well as anyone might have expected. Removing her from the equation had never been much of an option, and from an ethical standpoint, he ultimately preferred the path he had walked.

"You seem quite unlike her, if I may be so blunt. Not to say such a thing as if it is an insult, of course."

"Nah, hardly. We definitely operate on completely different spectrums," She'd shrug, "I guess it was figured that she was the best fit to manage me at a young age, even if she was pretty... Yknow, back then. My powers were a lot more... I'm gonna say unstable, and she sure as hell was the least likely to die. Certainly never agreed with or copied any of her choices in the past, but she definitely taught me well in her own odd way. She's held genuine affection for me even back then, though how she is currently is definitely more tolerable to deal with."

Eating a sweet, she would then go on, "But this is the first time i'm even hearing of a rivalry specifically. She definitely had a level of angst at times, but didn't really divulge. Absolutely full of quirks when she gets in the mood."

Weaving her fingers together and looking directly at him once more, she'd blink, "So, what exactly is your relationship with Giselle?"

The idea of perspective in this instance was rather remarkably fascinating, if only because he was fairly impressed that even Liltotto seemed keenly aware of exactly how her adoptive parent was. Well, that made Erchanhardt's part in this conversation much easier, certainly.

"When I was a much younger man, there were tales of an accursed forest in the south, home to a quite vile witch who made a mockery of the dead and from whose domain there was no escape. I think I need not tell you the identity of that witch, given this conversation. I will simply say that I went south to handle the matter, as the Duke of the area. It was both my responsibility and, frankly, a matter of personal pride and prestige."

Briefly ordering a cup of coffee for himself, Erchanhardt smiled faintly to himself, though not on any account of the memory being a particularly pleasant one. He supposed it was simply when he'd begun to grow into a man.

"Quite obviously, neither of us was victorious in that particular campaign. But she and I have certainly crossed each other's paths many times since then. There is a certain sense of familiarity that comes with a person being such a constant in one's life."