The tone is beyond justified and Claude just appears as unruffled as he usually is when what he's said is countered. He listens again with a deliberately neutral look on his face, not due to a lack of thoughts or feelings (or without something between sympathy and empathy with what this brings to light) but because Jesper's explanations are more important here. There's history Claude couldn't have ever inferred from what he was told before, and so all of it is deemed paramount now. More context, more background: all of it working to shape a further level of understanding on his end.
"You're right, there's much about that I wouldn't understand beyond the surface of what you're telling me." First things first and in order of importance in his mind - to make sure Jesper understands none of that is up for debate. "That's all rather different from what I know, and having lived under all of that has to make this an extra level of terrible.
"If I can speak out of turn again," with a smile on the apologetic side, since it's rather apparent what he'd said before was as much as it's going to be this time, too, "what if the officials don't know about your abilities? Even if they know something is different about the bridge, it doesn't mean they've pinpointed it to you specifically as of right now. And if that's the case, we certainly don't want to volunteer that information to them if we treat the Free Cities as the enemy, as we should be doing. And I still won't be volunteering it either regardless of anything. If they decide to ask me in again my answers to them won't change."
All of this is walking a fine line to keep it as the well-intentioned advice it's meant to be and Claude's all too aware of that. It's part of the reason why he moves to lean back against the wall himself off to Jesper's side, careful to leave the other with an ample amount of personal space for whatever he needs. "As someone who's created plans upon plans with contingencies for each and every one of them, that plan I think of first when starting? I've found it's rarely the right one. But in the end, the only person whose opinion actually matters on that is your own. Just know you aren't alone for any of it, no matter what you choose."
no subject
"You're right, there's much about that I wouldn't understand beyond the surface of what you're telling me." First things first and in order of importance in his mind - to make sure Jesper understands none of that is up for debate. "That's all rather different from what I know, and having lived under all of that has to make this an extra level of terrible.
"If I can speak out of turn again," with a smile on the apologetic side, since it's rather apparent what he'd said before was as much as it's going to be this time, too, "what if the officials don't know about your abilities? Even if they know something is different about the bridge, it doesn't mean they've pinpointed it to you specifically as of right now. And if that's the case, we certainly don't want to volunteer that information to them if we treat the Free Cities as the enemy, as we should be doing. And I still won't be volunteering it either regardless of anything. If they decide to ask me in again my answers to them won't change."
All of this is walking a fine line to keep it as the well-intentioned advice it's meant to be and Claude's all too aware of that. It's part of the reason why he moves to lean back against the wall himself off to Jesper's side, careful to leave the other with an ample amount of personal space for whatever he needs. "As someone who's created plans upon plans with contingencies for each and every one of them, that plan I think of first when starting? I've found it's rarely the right one. But in the end, the only person whose opinion actually matters on that is your own. Just know you aren't alone for any of it, no matter what you choose."