"Rather tricky for one to admire the vista with you rudely rocking up and startling people, eh Robert?" Achille ribbed, pouncing into the conversation with a fluidity that had even the panther startled, leaning meditatively against the same, frighteningly nearby tree from which he had sprung. "Although, I must admit, it is quite a view. You realise this entire situation was modelled around the royal parklands, New Paris?" He queried, smiling genially, eyes quizzing the uncommunicative Susan.

"Forbid me for eavesdropping cheri, but I happened to be rather close-by." He chucked, as if his minor feat of espionage was merely a matter of convention, which for Achille, it possibly was.

"I agree cheri, the very fact that this was crafted by man does rob some of the splendour from the original. A copy, no matter how magnificently construed, is still a fake. Any forger would tell you that." His smile broke wider, his right hand delicately playing across the cracks, insect holes and tiny imperfections of the tree bark, as though it were a treasured possession, demanding a loving hand.

"Humanity has outdone nature, as we were destined to do. All of Sirius, mostly, is an illusion, an illusion crafted by the wonders of planetary terraforming. You took most of us, any of us, and placed us in a jungle without food, water, clothes, guns, ships, the neuralnet, any of those miniscule constructs with which we like to distract ourselves with, and we would perish. Our bodies, our minds, our cultures, can no longer cope with such conditioning. Sadly cheri, in a sense, none of us have ever seen 'the real thing', nor ever will".

"This biome is a more perfect illusion. If I, or..." He glanced minimalistically to his left, "...Robert, ordered it to rain, it would, and most spectacularly too". The day and night cycle; a mere magician's bluff involving the dome's external panelling. The atmospheric controls; essential. Without them the dome would consume all of it's internal carbon dioxide within a matter of weeks and the plants would perish. The only truly genuine entity is the sky; the hues you see above are the systems own, as are the stars..."

Achille descended on the bench to Susan's right, (he never 'sat' on anything), at a comfortable, conversationalist distance. Any escape from the dialogue was now irrevocably sabotaged.

"...And as we are, the Commonwealth. Cheri, we are humans, lawless, self-dependent humans at that; there is nothing more genuine than us. What is is the capitalists are always demanding? Wealth? Property? We possess both. The Coalition and the Communists? A sense of Comeradeship? We..." He twitched in Robert's general direction, "...Possess that too, at least in spirit. We rely, depend, upon our fraternal bonds. Isolate an animal from it's pack; it withers and dies, as does a grape when picked from the vine. But together? We have strength together cheri."

He crossed his legs.

"I have the honour of being a Burgundian cheri, but on my last sojourn up to Ill De France, I visited the aforementioned gardens and found myself... Immoderately demotivated. What we have here, is control. Compared with this, sole fundament, there is no greater truth."

Achille yawned, spreading his limbs.

"I'll believe you'll fit in well around here my dear. Wholeheartedly, welcome to the business."

"Illusions, lies, secrecy, what would we be without this I suppose? Beings that actually get together? Its in our nature sadly.. Not that I approve, but there isn't much we can do about that. They can be looked down on such ways, but perhaps they may not be that way.. Two sides of a coin. One may be horrifying, the other may be angelic as a strong example.."

Repeating in a quiet smooth voice.

"Fit in.. I don't fit in. Its not for me. There are very few people who I can trust myself around, I don't trust the universe in general. These lies, and secrets.."

Looking back over at the Leopard a little off. "Animals on the other hand.. They don't have the capacity to lie on the level we do.. Its a feeling of innocence, sometimes I think they are better than us.. being advanced is a burden to us all."

Glancing down at the ground, covering her face with her hands for a few seconds.

"Im sorry.. I tend to ramble, a bad habit I was never able to give up.. I don't talk, but when I do.." trailing off slowly.

"Admittedly the actualisation of such an order can be... frantic." Achille shrugged, staring peaceably at the river, as though searching for his words within it's recesses. "Divilitae et Unitas; not a simplistic concept to maintain. It's intriguing what you say about the irrationality of people cheri; if you look at our fraternity, you will find maniacs, egotists, geniuses all (in our own ways); possessors of property and affluence to varying degrees. Yet our intentions are ever conflicting..." His smile danced unfathomably, "...As it is between us, Robert."

"In division, there is unity. Often, the Commonwealth will only collaborate fully to work on a project which is seen as mutually benign, or grabs the common interest and skill sets. Our personal assets remain separate, true, but we find parity in our common differences. Logic reasons we should destroy each other, but no matter how hard - myself and my incurably incorrigible friend over here as an example - may struggle to destroy each other, we somehow (just) succeed in surviving each other, perhaps even growing from our pairings. By all reasoning we should distrust each other, and we do, but it's the necessities of existence which draw us close."

He sighed dimly, flicking a small stone into the waters, watching it skim boisterously over the waves before suddenly plopping out of sight, or any visible existance.

"As with all things, our flight in life is finite. Might as well milk it for all it's worth then, eh?"