expiationlogs | april catch-all!

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april catch-all!

Who: Claude & Various
Where: Around Aldrip!
What: Claude and his encounters around town.
Warnings: None anticipated! If you'd like to hop in on a log, however, please feel free to PM/DM me or hit me up on plurk (here!), and I'd be happy to whip up a starter for you, or you can just wildcard me in here! Claude will be going about his business exploring the new Aldrip, fumbling around with new technology, running the apothecary, training, riding his wyvern, etc., etc., so if any of those appeal, feel free to jump on in. :)

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[ Deception... and he says he's a politician who regularly stretches the truth. Toph is actually starting to get a picture here, largely because she is pretty familiar with how upper class society works, and it involves a whole lot of pretending to be someone you aren't. ]

Sure, they're small potatoes, [ she agrees, because Toph has thought that this whole time. ] But it sounds like they want you to learn something out of this.

[ Are they actually sincere in their rhetoric about rehabilitation???? She can't really credit that yet but this kind of sentencing makes her wonder if there's at least a drop of sincerity in there. Huh. ]

Not to get all sentimental on you, but do you actually like who you are when you're being a politician?

[ Trust Toph to ask straight out. ]

Hah!

[ The noise is louder and more forceful than Claude's smooth mellifluous voice, as though the laugh was simply punched out of him, sharp and genuinely amused. ]

You don't pull any punches, do you, Toph? [ He says, the humour glittering in his eyes reflected in his voice. God save him from precocious girls. They'll be the death of him. ]

I think the answer people want out of me is that no, it corrodes away at my soul. But...

[ He shrugs. The truth is, it's not that he likes who he is when he's being a politician, but he doesn't particularly like himself when he's being earnest. This is not the mark of any sort of deep self-loathing on his part either. What he is is largely ambivalent towards himself. Who he is, what he is, how he views himself is irrelevant, an aside; what he is is a means to an end, and he's never thought to question that. ]

I like to be useful. I like to make sure that I can turn the world in the right direction. If I'm lying to the Count to make sure some of his food stores get redirected to Ordelia lands because he thinks he'll get something out of it later, I like myself just fine. If I'm lying just to mollify a cad, I like myself less.

[ For all of his talks of duplicity, it's an honest answer. There is a certain satisfaction in the manipulation, the schemes, the wrapping of people around his pinky. It is not an emotion that speaks well of him, he's sure. ]

Lying in and of itself is less important than what the lie is, I think.

[ Toph's pretty satisfied with herself for making him laugh so loud and so sincerely, especially amid a conversation about how routinely Claude is acting a part to others. She settles back in her chair and finally returns to taking a sip of her iced tea while she listens. (A great future invention she is all about.)

She's not about to contradict his answer -- as a general rule, Toph finds it highly offensive when people question her about her capabilities and self-knowledge, so she's not about to turn that on someone else -- and, true to her word earlier, she doesn't find anything morally objectionable in what he's saying. Truthfully, Zuko and Aang would both have much easier times if they were more flexible about who they presented themselves as, rather than being the immutable, predictable, loveable idiots they are.

If that's what he has to do for his position, that's what he has to do. Toph mentally applauds him for finding a way to live with it that works for him, if anything.

But at the same time... ]

You don't need me to pull my punches, [ she answers with a slight smirk. That's how she shows respect. ] Anyway, you're right. It's not as simple as all lying is bad. I don't know what you're doing at home, but if it's helping people, who cares if it bends some rules?

But it is important that we have somewhere or someone we don't have to pretend for. When I was playing good little doll for my parents, I used to sneak out all the time to fight in earthbending tournaments. It was the one place I felt like I could be myself -- and I knew who that was: someone who loves fighting.

You sneak out to do anything just for yourself lately?

I would prefer you not pull your punches. Metaphorically speaking. Please pull your punches if you're about to pummel me with a pillar of Earth, [ Claude says archly, a little pleasantly surprised by Toph's pragmatic approach to the conversation. He knows several people feel that anything short of absolute, radical honesty is somehow an inherently evil thing to do. And yes, Claude will admit in the privacy of his own mind that he's taking advantage of his friends and comrades, that he's having people follow him that would never even tolerate him otherwise, that one day the veil will be pulled from his deceit and he'll pay for it dearly...

But that doesn't make it wrong. If he thought for a moment that he was doing the wrong thing, he'd lose his gumption. He has to believe he's doing the right thing to move forward and truly, he does; it's not as though he would have maintained this if not for war coming to his doorstep.

The corners of his eyes crease as he listens to Toph. A good little doll. He can hardly imagine it. ]

I fly, [ he says promptly. ] With Zafeera. That's who I've always been myself around.

[ Is only being yourself around an animal cheating? He doesn't particularly care. ]

But hold on, go back to that last bit. What do you mean, playing good little doll? Are you actually of noble birth too?

[ It's the only logical conclusion. Commoner girls may be married off in business deals here and there, but rarely are they treated like porcelain dolls; they're off working in the fields, participating in the hunt, patrolling their lands. ]

[ Toph feels further validated by Claude agreeing she shouldn't pull her conversational punches, and she waves a careless hand to indicate agreement with the joke about literal earth punches. ]

Of course you fly, [ she returns dryly. She just cannot stop making friends with people who fly. ] Who's Zafeera? [ She's expecting this to be some kind of mythical animal companion already, based on her experience with Aang.

Then she wrinkles her nose at the question, but they are being honest and she likes him enough not to couch her response. She doesn't mind revealing to Claude that she can directly empathize with some of what he's saying. ]

Not exactly. I'm not a princess or anything. [ Her tone implies God forbid. ] But the Beifongs are the wealthiest and best-connected merchant family in the Earth Kingdom, and I'm my parents' only child. [ Toph lets out a gusty sigh, slumping a little and fiddling with the straw in her iced tea. Glumly: ] It's fine that I'm an earthbender, but it's not fine that I'm a kick-ass renowned master who goes cavorting around the world.

So... I kind of get what you're saying.

My wyvern. I raised her since she was just an egg. They're not common around here, but back where I'm from, they're everywhere -- not quite so common as horses, considering how difficult they are to handle, but just about. I'll introduce you two one day.

[ People around here seem to think Zafeera is exceptional. And she is, for a wyvern; with her ivory scales and impeccable breeding, she's truly a steed worthy of a prince. But none of that means anything to anyone here. Far from having entire batallions filled with wyvern warriors, they see her mere existence as extraordinary. It's puzzling.

Toph being the daughter of a noble, though... ]

I have to admit, Toph, I didn't expect that of you. And I can typically sniff out a noble as soon as I meet one. [ He flaps one hand. ] Noble, merchant -- once you have enough success, the difference is negligible. [ His lip curls into a half-smile. ] But I figure that that's precisely the sort of impression you'd like to give off.

[ Not unremarkable, no. Quite the contrary, She presents herself as remarkable, but not through wealth, not through the nature of her birth, but by virtue of her own achievements. It's a hope many children of nobility have, but few ever bring to fruition, corralled by their parents' wishes for them and the narrowness of a society that doesn't foster success in any realm but the one you were born to. ]

It sounds... stifling. I imagine that they would have far preferred for you to stay home and show off your social graces -- or to get married to some other merchant's son?

[ Toph has no idea what a wyvern is and doesn't feel compelled to ask, but she does look subtly agreeable and open as she responds, ] I'd like that. I've done a lot of flying, actually. [ Not that she necessarily enjoys it, but she loves Appa as much as the next Gaang member, and she trusts him absolutely. In that kind of context she doesn't mind flying even if she doesn't love it. ]

It is, so I'll take that as a compliment, [ she drawls, meaning his inability to sniff her out as a noble. Toph doesn't disagree that inherited titles aren't needed to count as a noble, she just wants to be clear that she's not inheriting anything more than money and a successful trading business.

To demonstrate that it is a deliberate, considered affect she puts across as he suspects, Toph straightens out of her slump and tucks her scraggly, loose hair properly back behind her ears and into her headband. Her voice turns measured and respectful, posture absolutely correct with her hands clasped calmly on the table surface. ] I couldn't be expected to run the family business myself, of course, [ she demures. ] Not in my condition. Father would select a husband for me.

[ The whole act breaks abruptly. ] So -- you know, I ran away, [ she shrugs, careless, like it was the only logical course of action and meant nothing to her. ]

What about you? You're obviously somebody if you're in a position to manipulate land owners.

Duke von Riegan, leader of the Leicester Alliance at your service, Lady Toph, [ Claude says, something a little sardonic in the twist of his lips. Even now, the title of Duke feels wrong, like he slipped into someone else's shoes only to find them a little too big for him. Duke is technically a lesser ranking than his true one to be sure, but he had never before had to seriously tackle the idea of leading an entire country, and after spending a lifetime as Prince Khalid, becoming Duke von Riegan in a world where he still felt he was learning its customs and culture had been... trying. ]

In another world, I may have well been one of those awful men your father had picked out for you. [ His tone slips, turned cheeky, still a little charmed by the little performance that Toph gave, prim and proper and ladylike and everything that Claude's had to put on himself in the past few years. (Maybe not the ladylike part, though certainly ladylike compared to Almyra's customs). They are, Claude realizes, more alike than they are dissimilar in many ways.

Claude had run too. ]

The Leicester Alliance is what my country is called, by the way. True to its name, it's ruled by a confederacy, though I'm the one at its head. [ He taps his fingers on the table in an uneasy rhythm, feeling comfortable enough to admit: ] Honestly, it's not a role I saw myself adopting. But my grandfather passed almost as soon as war broke out, and leaving Leicester's fate to the other nobles... well, I didn't believe that would be in anyone's best interest. So Duke von Riegan it was.

[ Some may think Claude wished to shirk his duties and run rampant, a joyful little lordling enjoying the blessings of his class. The truth is quite the opposite: Claude doesn't want to be Duke. He wants to be King. ]

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