[color=teal]“𝓞[i]h, thank God, I thought I was going to have to plead with you to take a break.”[/i][/color]

	𝓛ord Finnegan admitted before the forever squeamish Lord Christopher and Lord Walter would arrive. Lady Alyssana was masculine (the crash courses at the Institute still played well in his mind); once she began something, she could not simply stop herself. She simply, again, had such a driven nature that she had to finish something once it was started. However, the woman had her decency. She was from the noble class and could stop herself, if she so desired.

	There were women who laughed at her ambitious side. He thought them fools, like the audiences misunderstanding the humors of Shakespearean plays, and not the fools who played the fools themselves.

	She was sometimes seen as someone no man would want when compared to the lavishly dressed maiden counterparts. He believed it to be particularly brilliant that she could turn scraps into beautiful pieces of art. Other men wanted more from their women. The mechanical nature of her bronze wings may have given a clue to this, but even with such steam that he would love to rust with all the intricacies of the secret stardusts, the nervous irritabilities she often portrayed in other women was indescribable sometimes.

	It was not her, he was taught to believe, by all the teachings that he had learned while attending the Institute. It was them. He could read all of the pearls and diamonds of the other dames like name tags, but if the truth were to be told, they all read the same name. It was part of the reason why Le Parfum Operando was successful. It was just like the jewelers who made personalized watches. They had some rich way of glittering on the flirting wrists, but her personality sparkled in a way that was not needed for such luxurious fashions.

	It was the other women whose fashions grew in vain, and Lady Alysanna's whose fashion kept cheerful and steady. It was natural at most and exemplified the parts of her most women cared to hide with disguises and other masquerades, “Walter, don't squirm so much. You make hav...” He stopped himself, unable to finish his sentence. It was not every day that Walter was able to see Lord Christopher, and seeing Lord Christopher meant that Lady Alyssana was about. He felt like a spoiled rich kid, again, grasping at straws on how to connect with the people around him, “You might spill your tea.”

	Walter's whimsical mess was disastrous all the more as he sat panting in the back of his mind at some joke he could barely remember. His hand messed with one of his wrist watches, “Of course, I'm just so excited.” His excitement was a flaw, and it would probably be the death of him as it drained his energy as he aged. However, the sin was merely a missed mark he could not afford to correct. A chloroform perfume of sorts might be myth to help. “Thank you for joining us, Chris and Alyssana, especially, a-after this afternoon. It is such a pleasure.”