Welcome to Gaia! ::

“You’ll still have to –answer- to me if I ask I’m afraid…” He said letting the tease drop from his face. “But…not to work for ANYONE, well, anyone short of…” He stopped, there was something beyond Beryl but did he have a name for it, for ‘her’?

“Short of the power behind the dark Kingdom, You’d need to be, you’d need to be ready for General at least.” He said seriously. He very much meant it. “No one can make you take a team if you are, or even if you are captain. But you won’t…” He came to a stop with his thought train again, started afresh. “If you’re a captain you report to every general who asks, if you… if you proved you could handle General.” He gave a very hard look, like he could peel away every young part of Ever that stood between him and that responsibility and power.

“If you could show you were ready for that, then you’d only answer to the General queens and myself, not work for…answer to, the only time you’d work ‘for’ me, is if you’d still be part of Veritas. I think, you’d still be good at it, but I don’t know that you –want- that.”

The light squeeze of Ever’s hand lessened, releasing him if he wanted it, like an escape clause. “It wasn’t an offer.” He said firmly and turned his gaze away, weary enough that his shoulders sagged again.

“Probably saner.” He added arching an eyebrow. Somehow, promoting Ever to general seemed more a move of desperation than reason. But that, honestly was born not so much of a lack if faith in his wit, so much as It was knowing him as a tobacco addicted booze swilling hopeless and yet infectious ‘mooch’.

“…Yeah, trust me, it wasn’t an offer.” He said and heaved a heavy breath. Let him be offended by that, better that than so many other things. At least he could admit that assessment was more than a little unfair given how many other people had made it to General with other things Zac might have condemned.

The hand over Ever’s tightened again in a squeeze. “…So, out of uniform…knowing I’ll have a lot more to do…” He let the question hang unspoken between them.

“You know at least I’m not a fan of, pawing at each other in uniform, I’m not offended. I’m not sure if I should consider ‘Queen’s Gambit to still be a team unless someone takes it with the old title. No different from when I was part of ‘Team Enterprise’. He mused quietly. “… Veritas and the war room will always be an open door though.”

He very much wanted a topic change, but the only thing he could thing of was…
“Thank you for –not- breaking my bed, despite concerted effort to do so…I should, tell you I’m graduating soon, thanks to summer classes. I have to find a place, I’ll let you know?” It was not an invitation, maybe that was surprising but the idea of keeping a ‘personal’ space was still a precious thing, regardless of whatever intangible chains bound them.

One more thoughtful pause before he spoke again. “Did I tell you what Hiro found about Birhan?”

“I” He started and paused, he could have made excuse, busy with trying to avoid the queen or draw the queen’s attention to the Man who sat blowing lazy grey curls towards the celling. “I figured you needed some space. I thought you were mad at me after the last mission… so after you asked for the info I just put out feelers for it…Hiro came by with some but then everything kind of went to s**t. I got the summons, hid notes for you and Sabine and…” He waved a hand.

“Stupid assumptions on my part…yes?” He turned to glance at Ever, uncertain, hesitant. Wouldn’t anyone be if they’d potentially made another colossal goof?

“He’s pretty sure he found a consistent patrol area for her, if we’re really lucky it might even be close to her house, we could find out who she really is, there would be a sort of karma in that.” He mused and pulled one foot onto the bed to rest his chin on his knee.

“Yeah I got a map with Hiro’s notes and my older ones on it. Their color-coded as best I could so you’ll get the best read on where she’s been most consistently. He started to get up for it and blinked at the change of topic, never mind the ‘augh’ that punctuated it.

He finished getting up and fussed with the booby trap on his drawer to retrieve the map. “What would you like to do?” He asked, as soon as he had safely disarmed it and fished out the well-abused paper. “One of those clubs? “ He handed over the map and took back his seat.

“I hadn’t really thought about it honestly…” He admitted and rubbed the back of his neck. “Maybe a movie? Nothing with scales in it though…” It was a halfhearted attempt at a joke. Going to an actual theater, even one of the ones that showed re-runs for about half the normal ticket price sounded like an excellent bout of ‘normal’ that he could really use. Yes he had duties and yes there was a great deal of preparation to do but if he didn’t stop staring at his notebooks and remember that there was more to the world than half encrypted notations he might very well come truly unhinged.

“I haven’t a clue what’s out though, if you’re interested we could just pick a title and hope for the best.”

“What did you have in mind?” He countered. He wasn’t exactly ‘mister celebration’, his personal celebration over becoming a General had involved Castor and a Nail Gun, and in a few ways he regretted that, the fact he’d lost his temper, the mess and, well that he hadn’t finished the job. If he had… Linarite might still be with them. Hell she might have been a General Queen along side Tanzanite, at the least, she might have been proud of him.

He rubbed the back of his neck and leaned back, then shifted where he was sitting so he could at least make an angle against the wall. “We don’t have to do anything, I just… figured you liked seeing star wars so you might enjoy that too, and I wouldn’t be fighting with a crappy tape player for dialog.”