"I'm here to offer you an option. Rather than going back to a Home that isn't yours anymore, and which might not even want you back." It might have seemed like he was going to attempt to deliver a long winded political speech to convince her of his pure intentions, but no such move was made. Instead he glanced back at the door and then quickly stated something else.
"Can we go outside? I can't remember the last time I enjoyed the sun. If you're thirsty or hungry, please let me know. I'm sure something can be prepared for you." Preemptively, he would stand up. Taking a wild guess that her response would be a positive one and that the conversation they were having could continue outside.
Ambre stood up, following Keller's initiative, and moved towards the exit. She made sure to let Keller go first. "I would talk with the guards first. What exactly are you offering?"
As she was walking alongside Keller to the door, she couldn't help but ask him to continue. He didn't explain himself at all.
When they stepped outside the room he approached the guards and seemed to indicate that they would be stepping outside for a few moments. Keller had put a little distance between himself and Ambre at this point, so the only audible phrase she would pick up on had something to do with fresh air. Once they'd begun to walk towards the exit, he turned back to her and remembered that she'd asked him something. "I need experienced pilots to bolster a planetary militia, for the moment I'm here on behalf of the recently formed Crimean state. A Bretonian protectorate in Exeter, formerly Omega 49. I know a fair few of those words will sound immensely displeasing to you." Eventually they were outside, strolling across a tiled path between fields of green and with trees on either side. Keller seemed to be enjoying himself and perhaps holding back a full smile. "At the moment your only choice is to be repatriated and face what comes. But at least this way you can actually choose, and do whatever else it is you'd like to do after being given your freedom. You can come with me and then run away for all I care, just don't get funneled down a predetermined path by a few fat bastards. Lemonade?" They joined a small line near a booth that sold various refreshing beverages, and he seemed quite intent on what he wanted.
"Oui, gladly." she said as she joined the line alongside Keller.
She clearly wasn't used to sunlight, and had to squint frequently as her eyes weren't adapting very well. She was as pale as the moon, telling untold stories of what conditions the Bretonians subjected her to. She took the time to process what the man just said.
"So you're offering me to serve Bretonians in an Omega system instead of returning home? You realise how ridiculous that is, right? I owe nothing to the Bretonians, especially after what I had to go through. I'd be more than inclined to shoot down their ships than listen to their orders." she said as she started her rant. To Keller's dismay, her flow of words become quicker and her accent returned to its full form as she got more invested in her words.
"Why would I choose serving these barbarians over returning home to my family?"
Her hastened response with a foreign accent seemed to prompt some kind of a reaction from him, he broke eye contact, smiled but also simultaneously seemed to lose focus on the situation. It was as if whatever recollection that occurred in response to this nuance hurt him. He was nonetheless able to quickly snap out of it. "Yes, I'm sure you'd love to go back to your family. And in truth I'd be happy to enable that. The truth of the situation is that you'll likely spend the rest of your life in jail, having passionately committed several war-crimes. As it turns out, vaporizing hapless fools with your antimatter cannon is quite barbaric." He smiled at the stall attendant and placed their order for two lemonades, nodding his head when asked about ice and sugar, oddly enough he asked for a smaller quantity of salt in his own glass. After receiving both glasses, he would promptly hand Ambre hers. "I also did not ask for you to serve Bretonia. I specifically said that I needed pilots. I am neither a Bretonian citizen nor do I presently serve Her Majesty's armed forces. I'm a privateer. For now. And if you choose to come with me, I can arrange for your freedom. Even if my present benefactors don't approve.. there's a lot of ways someone can go missing. If I can pull enough strings, I'll even bring your family to you." He seemed brutally honest, and was perhaps almost equally as ruthless as her when it came to active service. And his physique seemed to suggest that, at least typically, did not waste his time sipping lemonade under the sun like this on a regular basis.
She stopped and stood there, looking at him. Her eyes widened slightly. "That's now considered a war crime?" The realisation seems to have finally hit her as she spaced out for a second, quickly coming back to her senses. If the Council were to court her over that, she'd most likely either end up in a guillotine or rot in prison forever, much like she did in Bretonia. "You're not joking, are you? What will you even gain from this?"
The glass of lemonade sat in her hand, still untouched, but Keller could notice that the liquid began moving a bit - her hands started trembling ever so mildly.
He seemed indifferent to her sudden change in composure, at least visibly speaking. He didn't respond to her question of whether or not he was joking, he felt his silence and blank expression was a sufficient enough response. Choosing instead to prioritize more useful explanation. "In the short term, I'll gain a pilot with plentiful combat experience. And over time you'll be able to whip our other bomber pilots into shape. Personally though, there's not much I stand to gain from recruiting you." As a small gesture of compassion, he would reach out and take a firm grasp of her currently trembling hand, steadying it before letting go. "It's also worth mentioning that if you do come to Exeter with me, there's really nothing I can do to keep you there. You could at any point choose to leave and go wherever it is someone like you has left to go. But if you do stay, you have my word that I'll fight to give you a place that you can call Home again, even if it isn't the one you're used to." With that said he seemed to focus on taking small sips of his ice cold drink, enjoying the contrast between the warmth of the weather and the coolness of the beverage.
Ambre was genuinely startled as the man took her hand, half surprised and half expecting something very bad to happen next, as experience in Bretonia has shown her. Her entire body tensed up. She withdrew her hand after a while, still holding the glass, and tried to move the topic along, pretending as if that didn't happen.
"This sounds too good to be true. I don't understand why would you ask for recruits while giving them the option to leave immediately?" Ambre asked. She wasn't sure whether to trust this Rheinlander - why would they allow him to pull stuff like this? Yet, he was also one of the first ones who would actually show compassion during her stay in Bretonia.
She took the first sip of the lemonade, the cool drink helping ease the tension in her mind. If only she wasn't a prisoner, she would've been happy to enjoy this moment.
He still seemed to be indifferent on his exterior, having not expressed much in the way of emotion throughout this conversation, except for when the warmth of the sun had forced him to smile briefly. He did seem to hesitate before answering, almost as if he didn't want to say what he'd say next. "I'm trying to show you kindness. Captivity isn't a fun experience, I've been trained to endure it. But it can still be enough to test the strength of your sanity. If despite that you choose to misuse that attempt, as is your right. Then you can. And both you and I will just have to live with it." It was essentially an invitation to betray him and run once she'd been granted freedom, it was not the smartest invitation to offer and that explained his hesitation adequately enough. "You were a good soldier, you don't deserve to be put down like a dog by a bunch of cowards. If I can spare you that, it's enough." Once more he'd turn back to his drink, trying to relish the few moments he had left to be idle like this. His tone made it clear was that the time for Ambre to decide was now.
His explanation didn't make much sense to Ambre. She didn't receive any sort of empathy for the past few years, and was forced to live in a cutthroat environment where no-one was willing to help one another. The concept of aid, or even empathy, seemed almost foreign to her. She stood there silently for a good few seconds, thinking of what to do. The way Keller ended his sentence urged her to hasten her response.
"Oui. Fine. I'll come with you. I find it hard to believe you, but I wouldn't want to stay with the Bretonians or the Council any longer." she said hesitantly after turning back towards Keller. She clearly wasn't comfortable with the thought just based on her intonation alone.