Match and Kindling [Alastair, Arlette]

Listening to Arlette admit to having killed Eliane close to a dozen times was certainly unexpected. He wasn't naive enough to think that she had never killed anyone before, she gave off the impression of someone that had, but it was still jarring to imagine her doing so to someone he also knew. What he was seeing now, for perhaps the first time was Arlette without a filter. Without the shackles of her commitments to the Duvalier Group. It was nice to see her smile and laugh, but this was not a time when he could smile too.

"I have not had the pleasure of meeting your other colleagues, but I would hope that they are not like Eliane as a matter of principle."

Alastair was also not used to seeing that soft side of her either. It was like a different woman was sitting here before him and yet he had to admit that he liked this Arlette more. Honesty was a good colour on everyone, after all. So, after a few moments spent pondering again, he took a seat next to her and let out a heavy sigh.

"But Claudia does not strike me as the type of woman to take this lightly. I offered to help her myself, when I dared to think that you might have been kidnapped or the like, though I think this will only end in confrontation now."

"No, they're quite different from her. Different from me, too."

As Alastair sat down next to her, it struck Arlette in that moment that the main thought to cross her mind wasn't any potential threat to her safety, or the fact that even the subtle change in the couch's position made her hurt just a bit more. No, the first thought that crossed her mind was that she'd have liked to lean against him, but she banished that from her mind as if it hadn't ever been there to begin with. There were far more important matters to think about, and that was something she had no reason to consider.

"Claudia won't rest until I'm dead. I'm positive of that. She wouldn't give up her place in the world just for this revenge, but I wouldn't put it past her to lose millions, billions even, to take me out of the picture. I know too much."

"That much is easier to believe. You are unique after all, Arlette."

It was silly of him to say, and yet she had coaxed it out of him with little effort. Not that he meant it in a particularly forward way, but rather genuinely intending to imply that she was different from her sisters in a good way. He hadn't picked a spot on the couch that was pressed up against her, preferring to give her as much space as she seemed to need, but that did not mean he was so far away that she could not reach him either.

"I do not imagine Claudia is the type to handle betrayal well. She probably knows we're meeting now, or expects me to find you rather quickly. I suppose I will have to tender my resignation too if I have not already been ostracised."

Finally, the vestiges of emotion cracked across his lips as he laughed drily. This was not how he thought his week would end, and now he was back to square one on several fronts. His equipment had already been dispatched, but would it now be revoked and claimed back by the Duvalier Group? They would certainly try.

"I suppose so. Truth be told, I don't think my sisters would be any different if they'd lived as long as I have."

Arlette wasn't entirely convinced she was all that different from them, at least in terms of being able to come to this conclusion. Sure, they tended to be able to hang onto little bits and pieces of their personality, and they weren't entirely identical to when they came out of those tubes for the first time. But Arlette knew that they lost something every time they died and came back. Only she'd held onto every day of these past few years, and that let her understand the big picture in a way she didn't think they could.

"I don't imagine she thinks you're a threat. If anything, she expected you to come here. I knew that already. She knows where I live. But she had no hand in the construction of this city, and I handled the security with my own company. Even if she knows I'm here, this is one of the safest places on Earth."

"I imagine if Claudia thought I was a threat then I would not be here. Unless she thought there was more value to keeping me alive for now, which is also concerning."

Alastair probably should not have been as concerned as he was that Claudia had not taken the opportunity to try to remove him from the picture when he was on her turf and at her mercy. But there were some things that did not add up, and that was definitely one of them. Did she expect him to turn on her or had their relationship been misjudged?

"But what is the plan now? The Duvalier Group won't let you just live here, so do we just wait for them to try something? I am not thrilled at the prospect of living every day with that hanging over my head."

"She doesn't consider you a threat. If anything, she seems fond of you, in her own way. I don't think she's capable of anything like love, but she finds you endearing."

It was fairly appalling, if Arlette thought about it through a more human lens, but that was a way of thinking she'd only barely come to understand. It was foreign to her, and profoundly so at that, but that was what made her so dedicated to it. Being inhuman had taken up too much of her life already.

"She'll send one of my sisters soon. Not Eliane, I don't think. Probably not Wolfina, either. They'd do fine, but Antonetta is the most subtle. She does the best with bureaucracy without making noise."

She thought about it for a moment, then looked through her wallet and handed a picture to him. It was perhaps the closest to a keepsake that she had, and it had been given to her by Antonetta long ago. She wasn't even entirely certain if Antonetta would remember that, after so many lives. A group picture of the four of them, but only one of them seeming totally and genuinely happy to be there.

"That's her. The smallest of us."

"That is small comfort, to be seen as a plaything. But I suppose you have more experience of that than I do. Claudia has grand ambitions, and now I am wondering if they are akin to my own or something else entirely."

Seeing everything in a different light was certainly one way to warp his perception of the Duvalier Head. Replaying conversations in his head, thinking back to those innocent little oddities, there were things that he had chosen to overlook because he wanted to believe that she wished for a better world. Perhaps that was still true, but what world would she build with those bloodstained hands?

"So we're dealing with an agent in our midst then? What is she capable of?"

He took the little picture, studying it a little. He recognised two of the women, of course, though the others looked similar enough that it was easy to fill in the gaps. It was like an awkward family photo, he had been in several of those, where no one is exactly happy and there was always something going on behind the scenes. Was it worse that they looked more human like this? That he could genuinely believe they were sisters of some twisted variety?

"I can pull on some threads in the Todgestalten. Perhaps get her picked up before things get out of hand. Though I am loathed to believe that it will be so easy."

Offering the photo back to Arlette, he did wonder what could be done about them. Eliminating this Antonetta would only cause the problem to return, but what was the alternative?

"She's a fullbringer. Her cats mean the world to her, and she'll likely have one with her when she gets here. Whatever you do, don't let it seem distressed. Antonetta is manipulative, and she won't hesitate to use guilt to get what she wants. More than the rest of us, I think."

Sighing, Arlette looked at the photo for a moment longer, then tucked it away again before lighting a cigarette. They'd proven to make rather pleasant distractions from the pain that was her current existence, if nothing else, and her air filtration systems were more than sufficient to handle any issues.

"She'll be hard to find. But I'm confident in you all. I wouldn't have come here if I weren't. Claudia wants to see the world burn, nothing else. I don't want that."

She didn't know what she wanted, really. Well, that wasn't entirely true. She knew one thing, but it wasn't in reach. Finding something else was just part of being human, though.

"A Fullbringer with a fondness for cats? Were it anyone but one of your sisters then I would feel much safer knowing that was the spectrum of their abilities."

Alastair sank further into the sofa, letting his head hang back until he was looking up at the ceiling. This was all a lot to take in, and he had come here with expectations of something similar.

He wasn't exactly thrilled at Arlette's newfound interest in cigarettes, but, after all that she had been through, he could hardly blame her for taking to vices. Reida had done the same, and it was only in recent months that she had finally begun to make progress, so he would step in if this seemed to be getting worse because he cared about her health too.

"You said it yourself, this is the safest place for you to be right now. We'll put a stop to this, for the sake of the world and for you."

"Easily said, until she decides that you're the mouse."

Even Arlette didn't really understand the full intricacies of Antonetta's abilities. She'd never asked, and Claudia had always kept it on such a tight need to know basis that even her clearance hadn't been sufficient. Just one more way of keeping them all in line, she guessed, but she'd seen Antonetta in action enough to understand the broad strokes.

"Thank you. I'll do what I can to help. I've brought a great deal of funding with me, and my company here is entirely separate from the Duvalier Group. The Vandenreich has my full support."