Welcome to Gaia! ::

Jadarite looked at the tablet, lips pressed thin, as Faustite's name flashed across it and the tone sounded. She waited one second. Two. Three.

She let a long, hissy breath out through her nose and rolled her eyes once at the sky before she accepted the call, so that when the camera caught her features, there was only the everyday level of annoyance in her features. One eyebrow was already raised, but that was a natural state for her.

He was her boss. Recent events, beyond just what had happened at her home, were making her rethink the amount of respect he had for her, but sighing in his face like she was a middle schooler who had been kicked out of a clique wasn't the kind of image she wanted to project to him.

She would still work for him. She would still work for the system until somebody saw her merit.

Which, meant the comment about asking her to lead had her blinking, but she was sure she'd misheard it.

She simply adjusted the tablet and said, "I'm available."

"To be fair, what went poorly was not your fault."

He'd handled Murikabushi properly by asking for help when he felt in over his head. It had been others who had shown up and made things worse, and then that tension had followed her into her apartment. She'd cooled her heels about what had happened there, about the wine. The drama with the brothers was none of her concern so she hadn't thought about it after they'd walked through her doors.

It was his other comment that had her freeze for a moment, and then her lips twitched.

So, she hadn't misheard.

After everything, after Alkmene, he was trying to get her to do more of his work without giving her any of the respect that was meant to come with that kind of responsibility.

If anything, the request confirmed some suspicions that had been lingering in her mind in recent weeks.

"Don't you have Eternals for that?" she asked, and she wasn't able to keep all of the middle school passive aggression out of her voice.

The screen blurred for a moment as Jadarite shifted her position.

"You have no influence?" she asked, her voice even. It wasn't the Generals who decided who rose through the ranks when it came to the final decision, but their recommendation had power.

"I'm not desperate for rank, but if you want me in a leadership position, being a Captain puts me at a disadvantage, human or no. You saw how Albite ignored what I said that night. You saw how he apologized to you instead of me when he made the wrong call. I know he's a wildcard regardless, but my point stands."

There were other complications, too. What would new recruits think when they came in and saw a Captain trying to order around Eternals? It would undermine the entire structure of the Negaverse.

"I won't lie and say that you don't have my curiosity," she said. It was the kind of assignment that could lead to her promotion, she was sure. "I would like to help where I can, but I also understand that such help might be limited when I can only give orders to the lowest of our ranks."

She wasn't sure that the clarifications made her feel better or worse about things. She didn't want some dummied down form of leadership. She didn't want quota spreadsheets and the rest of the paperwork with no power behind it.

That was what she was saying.

However, she certainly didn't want this Kamacite, who she didn't even know, to be the one taking an opportunity, however questionable, away from her fingertips. She nodded quickly when she heard the name, before Faustite could even go into the rest of his explanations.

"That's fine, then. I'll do my best, sir."

She slipped into formality to keep from voicing more concerns and having her General change his mind. Although, the confirmation that he was going away had her raising an eyebrow at the screen.

"When are you leaving?" she asked. "There was something I wanted to ask you about. I've found a potential recruit, a banking director who seemed interested."

It was a shame it would probably be out of line to tell Faustite that he was attractive, because that would be what it took to stop him from pacing so much that he would wear holes in his floor.

Of course her acceptance was concise. He'd addressed both her concerns and her requests, and it would have been inefficient to draw things out farther. She was still itching for another promotion, but for that it would be better to stay in Faustite's good graces rather than ranting at him for things that were technically outside of his control.

Her other request was of much more interest to her, now.

She was fine with this being a formal request, too. It saved her paperwork

"His name is Adam Bal," she told him. "A few years older than me. I would take him on as a subordinate, yes." Some of the others might be able to handle him, but she wanted him and she wasn't about to be coy about it. "He'd be a good fit for Infiltration, anyway. He's a director at a bank, as I said. I can send his credentials to you if you need them to make a decision, but anyone who can help the Negaverse access quality financial services would be helpful."

She'd put a link to those credentials and his contact information in her tablet, and she sent it over as he spoke.

"I came across him in my personal life, and he struck me as intelligent and driven. I mentioned our organization. Vaguely, nothing that would give us away if he was a plainclothes enemy, but he seemed curious, at which point I decided to bring it to you."

The confirmation of his trust was a plus, although Jadarite hoped that there was more to it, that he was truly writing those reports to the Sovereigns for her and not just stringing her along to eternal subordination. Not that it seemed like him, but she was getting impatient.

She'd just manage everything well for him, then, and see to it that Adam was as good of a recruit in person as he was on paper. If all that went well, surely nobody would disapprove of her writing her own promotion letter.

That would come in time, though. She saw no need to extend this conversation.

"Nothing more," she said.

Her tablet screen flickered and went black.