The halls of the hotel were surprisingly quiet as Vaggie headed towards the lobby. Too quiet. She wanted to make sure an event Charlie had planned later went perfectly, so she'd been doing perimeter checks just to make sure nothing unexpected popped up. So far, so goo—
She paused in both thought and step as green and white flashes of light came from beneath the door to the dining room she'd just passed. Someone had put up a 'Private Event' sign and wrapped the doorknobs with green chains, which seemed like overkill.
"What the…" she leaned closer, hearing two recognizable voices inside.
"It's too much too fast!" she heard Claire gasp.
"Then you control the pace," That was, unmistakably, Alastor, "It's not hard."
Vaggie pressed her ear fully against the door, expression changing from curious to horrified.
"That it's hard is why we're doing this!"
"Do you want me to stop?"
"No, no," she heard Claire assure him, "I can take it."
Pushing back from the door, Vaggie wrapped her arms around herself and quickly walked away, "That's disgusting."
Inside the dining room, Claire and Alastor stood facing each other in a pulsating swirl of white and green light emanating from their clasped hands. Alastor seemed the more comfortable of the two, ever present smile glimmering with each power burst, while Claire's eyes were closed in concentration, her hands tightening around his every time her lips pursed. Each pulse of light causing her to grit her teeth to try to contain it. He wasn't even trying to pull it, the moment her hands touched his this power of hers her rushed to him. Whatever was burning within her wanted to empower him. Was desperate to provide a boost. Trying to reign that in was like trying to contain an actual fire—how do you contain something that wants to be unleashed? The surge was intoxicating every time. It was probably even better for him; she could feel the increase his own magic received. Along with the slightest hint of hungry annoyance every time she was able to even slightly slow things down.
Finally, she pulled her hands away, taking a few shaky steps back, "Enough," she said, bracing herself against a nearby table and setting a hand on her forehead. "If we push it, I'm going to pass out."
Alastor watched her, straightening out the cuffs of his jacket and clasping his hands behind his back, microphone tucked into the crook of one elbow, "Knowing your limits is a start."
"Is it?" Claire shot back unhappily, giving her hands a bit of a glare, "I can still barely control it."
"We'll just have to keep up these little sessions until you can," Alastor replied nonchalantly as she picked up her gloves from the tabletop.
"Or until you take all my power, and I burn away?" Claire countered petulantly, pulling her gloves on.
Alastor eyed her a moment, then gave his microphone a twirl and headed for the door, "Sounds like a real 'whichever comes first' scenario. Can't wait to see how it plays out!" he drawled.
Claire gave her gloves another tug of frustration, annoyed at her own behavior. She might not be able to control her powers yet, but she should be able to control her own reactions. "Hey, before you go," she called out, causing him to stop by the door, "I found something during the Orkas investigation I think you should know."
"Oh?" Alastor turned politely to listen; head quirked.
"There's a group in the city who want to kill all the overlords," Claire told him, expression serious, "Orkas might've been a proof of concept to their followers."
"Sounds intriguing," Alastor said with open disinterest, waving a hand and turning to go once again, "Do let me know what you discover."
Claire took a few steps forward, "…you don't want to look into it yourself?"
Alastor shrugged, "Why would I? It sounds like you're doing a crackerjack job Girl-Friday-ing your way through everything as it is."
"But they're going after overlords—all overlords," Claire stressed.
Alastor didn't bother turning around this time, pulling the door open, "Aw, and you're worried they'll come after me?" his tone was so patronizing Claire folded her arms and glared after him, "Your concern is noted, but should they try anything, I'm sure I can handle it."
"That confidence seems misplaced when we don't know what they're actually capable of." Claire pointed out and would have continued, except Alastor closed the distance between them in half a second, setting the edge of his microphone under her chin to tilt her head up.
"But that's what you're doing, isn't it? Figuring it all out?" Alastor mocked, leaning in too close as Claire narrowed her eyes at him, "I'm confident you'll crack the case. Until then, I have other duties to attend to." he turned on his heel, suddenly walking away from her and clasping the microphone behind his back, pausing only to lean back through the door to say brightly, "Looking forward to the full report!"
Then he was gone.
"…you know I don't work for you, right?!" Claire called out after a moment of annoyed disbelief. While she didn't expect a response, when one still wasn't forthcoming it only annoyed her all over again and she stalked out of the dining room in the opposite direction.