Five Days Darkness waits some time for most of the Exalts to clear out of the hangar.  By this time he finally (silently) accedes to Lyla's statement and breaks away from her, leading her away from the hangar and towards the ship elevator.  Lyla knows from her trips to the Enterprise this leads to the bridge, which means Five Days Darkness must have some business.

This business is short.

"XO Chambers,"  He addresses a Fire-Aspect who's been watching the bridge, "You have command."

"Sir?"  The woman salutes Five Days Darkness and then Lyla, worry etched all over her sharp face,  "... Yes sir."  Lyla's talked to Executive Officer Alice Chambers before; the woman usually has very good control over her emotions, and is quite good at reading people's signals.  She must notice something Lyla doesn't.  "She's in good hands, sir.  Don't worry."

"I'm not worried about you or the Enterprise."  Watching a four-armed man salute with two hands is a bit disorienting.  He then turns back to the elevator, pressing his thumb on a keypad that Lyla had noticed in the past but never seen used.  The back of the elevator opens, revealing a small suite.  There's a spartan bed, a desk, a long table with a holographic map of the Enterprise (most of it spattered with yellow and orange markings), and a holotable showing nearby ships and their positions relative to the Enterprise.

This must be where he lives.

Well, 'lives' implies he actually visits.  Lyla can see no evidence that the god has ever done anything but sit in the chair by the table.  It looks so clean it's practically antiseptic.

The god walks over to his chair and takes a seat.

"Sorry.  Make yourself at home,"  He gestures at the too-clean room, "I'm going to have to start drafting up reports for Core and Command soon.  Core will want them within the hour."

Lyla silently follows in Five Days Darkness' footsteps, doing what she said she would. Despite being tired, she can't tone away her curiousity. Upon entering the bridge she gives a salute, it being a bit lazy one, done out of sheer habit. Her attention is split to all the monitors and maps as well as to the view outside, while the two change those few words.

A small glint of amusement brightens her mind, when the strange unused button is pushed. Naturally she'd already tried a few times before to tamper with it, because someone dared her to, and who was she to say no to such a thing. The amusement is washed away with partial relief, that she had never actually succeded in it.

The small revealed suite somehow reminds her of her Vegas days. Except that her flat was far from clean, but furniture wise. At least it had space. She hesitates for a moment before stepping in, and then momentarily she just stands there dumbstruck.

Eventually she shrugs it off, and having had enough of hard seats for a day, she takes a seat on the bed, leaning on the wall behind it, whilst kicking her boots off. It all happens automatically in a tired haze, before she actually stops to think what she is doing.


"Umh. Do say if I'm being too much at home," she admits a tint of blush flushing her cheeks. "Anything I can help with?"

She obviously considers adding the formal "sir" to her lines, but they are lost on the way. No point.

His bed is actually pretty soft, with no lumps- in the manner of every mattress ever purchased, just before it's been slept in.  It's more of a decoration than anything else.

"There's a few things, yes," He says as he pulls a thin laptop and starts typing away, "You've been in and out of the fleet since the very first days.  Especially at Stone Place."  He looks over at her, face serious, "Lyla, anyone you think is due for a promotion?"

Of course, that's an open-ended question- she could probably think of a bunch.

"Specifically to the rank of Admiral.  Ah.  And let me know if you'd like any food or drink or other kind of refreshment."

"Icecold Vodka is always welcome, but other than that water is enough," Lyla answers promptly, before her brain manages to tackle the harder questions presented.

"Eh."

She hesitates and runs her fingers through her tangled up hair. Eventually she takes off the rubberband keeping together her brown hair, and shakes her head.

"Someone suitable to be an Admiral? To be responsible of a whole ship with a crew. Hard to say since we are all a just big bunches of mess trying to do our best barely capable of taking care of ourselves. Why an Admiral though, are you leaving your post or are you in need of a new one?"

It all comes out with serious concern, her brow furrowing once again.

"No, an Admiral is in charge of a group of ships.  A captain's in charge of a ship with crew.  Currently I an an Admiral of the Living Fleet, but also the Captain of the Enterprise."

He looks over at her, waving a hand.  A shot of cold vodka appears on the nightstand.  Since Five Days Darkness isn't a god of alcohol, Lyla knows she has to be in his sanctum:  his spiritual home.

"I'm afraid I won't be an admiral much longer.  I'll have to find a competent replacement and there's not much time to choose one.  I'm also perhaps not in the best mindset to choose rationally."

"Resting would help in that, but it seems you are not too keen on doing that," she notes while reaching for the glass and adding a mumbled:"Thank you."

"I'm honored to be asked of an opinion on such matter, but that being said, I don't think I know the others well enough to suggest anyone, apart from myself, Daniel and Jess. What I can do, is get information on almost everyone."

Lyla looks over at him, raises the shot and then downs it at one go.

"The three of us are not without a flaw that is a bit hazardous for such a title. Who do you have in mind then? And what will you do when you aren't an admiral anymore?"

There is something to his declaration, that makes Lyla cringe and her jaw tighten. She folds her arms on her chest and looks at him intensely.

"There may not be enough time to get that kind of information,"  He says wearily, "I'm not sure who I have as an idea but it should be someone we trust.  I'll have to remain captain of the Enterprise, in this I don't have much of a choice, which means whoever gets appointed becomes my superior."

He taps away at the keyboard some more.  It's awkward, given his number of hands.  You'd expect him to be a much better typist but they just get in the way.

"When Lucifer called my commanding skills into question in the middle of the flight deck, he put doubt in the minds of my pilots.  He did this right in front of Brahe, right after slugging him in the face."  One of his hands reaches up to rub his forehead, "Brahe has been calling for a change of government through all the back channels.  Specifically he wants to establish an Admiralty, a Board of Admirals, which is something we've been considering but haven't implemented.  Right now I'm in command of most of the fleet.  But you can bet your ass that the moment the Last Refuge hears about this... 'debacle'... Brahe will make a very good and reasonable point about creating the Admiralty to avoid things like this in the future.

Then we'll have perhaps five admirals, seven if we count in people like General Sunipa.  Of those, I can count on Sunipa and Battles and myself.  The other four will include a demon General and three of our up-and-coming politician-admirals, meaning they'll be in Brahe's pocket.  Those four will pressure and I'll be removed.  The alternative is to resign now, put someone a bit more palatable in my place, and try to head off this coup before it can even start."

He glances over at her.  "Sorry to bore you with politics.  The worst part is I'm not even sure Brahe is wrong about this.  But I am, of course, worried and upset."

"It's alright. Politics is just not my strong suite," she gives a small sight, before pushing herself up and walking to his table.

"Daniel really wasn't himself earlier. Usually he wouldn't bring his opinion out that violently. If he was able to control himself, he'd be perfect as a leader and 110 percent worthy of trust. He'd need a strong second in command. But he dislikes politics almost as much as I do. On the other hand I can tolerate the scheming and backstabbing, it being all too familiar to me."

She rests her backside to the edge of the table.

"If you need a temporary solution, just choose me or anyone who can handle it all for a while. I just have bad experiences with publicity, unlike my brother."

"No, he wasn't.  I don't know Lucifer particularly well outside of the battlefield, but I know despite his opinions he's not one to explode on a fellow compatriot out in public.  He'd wait until much later,"  Five Days Darkness says wryly.  "And I don't think he has the makings of a good admiral.  He's a front-line fighter and should be kept there.  A good admiral knows when to sit back, when to, and possibly when to let people die.  Lucifer can't accept that, and to be blunt he probably shouldn't accept it.  That's what makes him effective in his current role."

He drums twenty fingers on the desk, one of his hands close to her.

"I'd rather not inflict the Admiralty Board on you Lyla, not unless you'd really like to give being my superior a try."

Lyla nods in agreement to his judgement about Daniel.

"Right you are, I know Daniel like a brother. Also I think he is content where he is right now. Forcing him to sit behind a desk would drive him crazy."

She leans a bit back, laying her other hand accidentally on his. It's a soft careless touch after which she moves her hand on the table, a bit surprised herself by the coincidental touch.

"Now that...sounds awful lot like a dare. I never back down from one. Besides I'd be more worried on the board as well, instead of being your superior."

Apparently the one shot of vodka was working its way rather well through her layer of tiredness and sadness, pushing out the jesting tone in her voice.

"How soon do you have to announce your replacement? Now? In few hours? Tomorrow? Because currently I think a much better option is to have a shot of vodka and try to rest that head of yours. When's the last time you even did that?"

The she realizes what has escaped her mouth and she smiles vaguely apologetically:"Sorry about that...and I'm not even the one who hit her head."

"As much as I'd find hatt interesting, I don't think it'd be right for you either.  You've done a lot of amazing work for the fleet.  I think your talents would be wasted behind a desk."  He leans back on his chair, though not moving his hands away.

"If I want to get the jump on Brahe I have to tender my resignation and appoint a successor within an hour."

He summons himself a drink.  Water, it seems.

"Last time I slept?  Nine years, I think."

"You just don't want me to be on top," Lyla smirks kindly. "Resting is much more than sleeping. It's talking nonsense, focusing on something completely random, doing something that you love, something that gives you respite. Sometimes when I can't get my mind to be at ease or need to think something through, I go to dance at Jolie's club. In example that is."

She raises her other foot on the table edge to lean her chin on her knee. Lyla tugs her scarf tighter around herself, sliding her fingers on the back of his hand, his warmth feeling almost scorching in comparison to her ice cold fingers.

"If you want someone savvy politics and outside of these circles appoint my brother or Sayeed of the ifrit. Unfortunately they are not military savvy, or at least my brother isn't," she continues professionally, while a hint of blush lurks it's way to her cheeks.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:35, Thu 27 Oct 2016.

"... Yes, that'd be six years," Five Days Darkness tells her, "When the Enterprise was getting a refit."

He finally looks at her hand, then back at her, raising an eyebrow.  He doesn't withdraw his own hand.  "I don't know Sayeed, but the Ifrit would certainly be happy to put someone on the Admiralty Board.  The Elementals have felt underrepresented in the Living Fleet.  I could perhaps put in a word with them.  I'm sure they'd respond to me quickly."