Darjeeling looked down into her cup of tea, staring at it with a slight frown as if it had just presented her with some bad news. Or potentially made a disappointing joke. The blonde took a deep inhale, soon looking up from the steaming, murky liquid to make eye-contact with the other blonde who sat opposite her in that small sun room. One of many in that hospital to allow patients to get a nice view of the outside while still of course being within spitting distance of an army of medical personnel to take care of them.
In Darjeeling's case, it was the most picturesque area she could conceive to interact with team mates and have talks with them given that she was one such patient who was restricted to hospital grounds. It had almost been a week, and while her healing was going well, the risk of her wound opening up again and causing severe blood loss was too great for her to even head home. Not to mention the internal damage that was still mending itself. She didn't like being restricted like this, forced into this position of perceived helplessness, but she had no choice.
Assam and Orange-Pekoe had the freedom to leave bestowed upon them a couple days ago, but they were both making the decision to remain behind with their commander until she too was in such a fit state. The sun room featured glass walls and a glass roof with a solid floor, being somewhat of a closed balcony. Darjeeling was sat on one of two settees, the two facing each other across the long axis of the room. To her right - and the opposite sofa's left - was the large floor-to-ceiling window view of a large chunk of Saint Gloriana's surface. It was certainly the appealing view, especially when compared to the drab and sterile white interior of the rest of that building which Darjeeling had become prisoner. Assam was sat beside Darjeeling on that settee, sipping her own tea while Orange-Pekoe opted to stand at her commander's right hand - tucked in the gap between the side of the settee and the window.
The orange-haired girl's hands were clasped together and hanging in front of herself, and she was also avoiding eye-contact with their visitor just as Assam was, and Darjeeling had been until now. The commander's eyes sharpened as they met the gaze of the one opposing them. There was Earl Grey, whose returning stare to Darjeeling was one of equal intensity. There was silence in the room for the longest time with the occasional sound of muffled seagulls beyond the windows of the enclosed balcony. It was as though the two commanders - current and prior - were having a staring contest. In a way they were, trying to see who would crack or blink first.
Earl Grey was an upperclassman to everyone else in the room. One year up of Darjeeling, and two of Orange-Pekoe and Assam. This potentially made the awkwardness of the two other crew members more warranted, especially given that Pekoe specifically had served under Earl Grey to begin with, and was somewhat a witness to the first incident which caused Earl Grey the loss of her leg and lead to Darjeeling's 'promotion' to her current rank. While the tone in the room was certainly thick and dense, neither Assam nor Orange-Pekoe quite knew what was bringing it up. All they knew for sure was that they should keep their mouths shut, and that's what they were quite happy to do for the moment.
"It's your own fault," Grey soon broke the silence.
Darjeeling squinted slightly as her brow furrowed, "How was I to anticipate that the safety systems would fail?"
The ex-commander shook her head, "Before that. If you hadn't gotten into that slaughter of one versus five, maybe you could have brought the game back. Instead you and your remaining forces played ring-around-the-roses with their flag tank and allowed their main force time to catch up. A poorer showing than Ooarai's barricade situation during their match," she ended before taking a sip of her own cup of tea.
Darjeeling's glare maintained, "Ooarai lost control of their tanks and were baited due to a failure to follow orders, they tried to end the match prematurely and fell into Pravda's bait trap. Early onset desperation is different from a justifiable attempt at clutching a victory. The bait we may have fallen for by Pravda was hardly as evasive as it was by design, it was merely bad luck that we were unable to eliminate it before the main force arrived."
"There is no luck in sensha-dou," Earl Grey was quick to reply. "Your shots failed to land," she glanced to Assam and back to Darjeeling again, "because your crews were lacking the proper morale. A failure to follow Saint Gloriana's prime principles is what lead to your downfall. 'Be elegant at all times and in all matters, act proper and ladylike no matter the circumstance.' Elegant and proper describes anything but your performances on the field. Something you should have rectified much sooner to ensure a clean, chivalrous victory."
The commander huffed, "I did all in my power to ensure that tensions were eased before the match. I think you'd agree that such a task is hardly easy considering how imaginations tend to run away with things, especially when similar events have come to fruition in the past." With that, Darjeeling allowed her gaze to drop to Earl Grey's prosthetic, before she let her eyes close for a moment while she enjoyed another few sips from her own teacup.
Ex-commander Grey twitched at that, her own brow furrowing as her head tilted downwards slightly. "I've taught you nothing, have I?" She asked simply, causing Darjeeling's eyes to open with a few blinks.
Her teacup then lowered back onto it's saucer held by her other hand. Eye-contact was maintained continually with her former commander as she requested "Assam, Pekoe, leave us for a moment please." A request that quickly gained the reply of eyes from both sides looking at her, before without a word her loader and gunner took their leave. Silence fell upon the room for a moment afterward before Darjeeling spoke once more, "You taught me too much."
That piqued one of Earl Grey's eyebrows as she tilted her head up once again to look straight-on at her prior sub-commander. However, she did not speak herself yet, instead allowing the other to continue.
"You taught me how to command in an elegant way, how to inspire troops. You shared your own experiences with battling various other schools and what their plans of attack and strategies tended to be. You told me where everything on the school campus was and even where your favorite places to go on the ship proper were. You even taught me how to easily braid and unbraid my own hair with this style," she said as she gestured her teacup to the aforementioned styling feature. "You're even arguably the main reason why I was accepted into the tea garden, and undoubtedly I would not be the commander here and now if it weren't for you."
Earl Grey was quick to speak up, "I took you under my wing as an apprentice, you're a good friend and I could tell you needed a bit of a push to start going places. Clearly I was right, how is that teaching you too much?"
"There's a difference between showing someone the ropes and molding them into a successor. You're the only reason I went as far as to do sensha-dou and end up as commander in your place, not to mention I got a more concentrated taste of the 'Earl Grey' style rather than the normal 'Saint Gloriana' style of directing one's self." The girl was almost scolding her prior commander at this stage.
Earl Grey's glare redoubled in intensity at first, but soon died down a tad, as if she was unsure of herself. "So what if I imparted some of my own habits on you or influenced you one way or the other? Are you going to blame me for your defeat and what happened to you and the crew as a result?" She said, still maintaining her own cool somewhat well, but the uncertainly creeping into her eyes was also starting to make its way to her voice.
"If you had to deal with all of the pre-match anxiety you would have had a similar outcome regardless. You hid your fear well through most of the battle but at the very end I could see it in your eyes. You probably didn't know at the time just how bad your injuries were going to be, but when you realized we were getting bombarded and the safety systems weren't working, and the shells kept on coming, I saw you crack before the hull did." Darjeeling said gravely, her eyes piercing daggers into those of the other commander as she refused to break contact.
Earl Grey swallowed, trying to give the same steadfast glare in return the best she could, but she was quickly coming to realize what she was getting at, and what this whole meeting was leading up to. "Are you going to leave me hanging here?"
"I want you to admit it," Darjeeling nearly cut her off to say - her stare as intense as ever. "You know just as well as I what your error was then, and how you passed it on to me without even trying to correct it."
That caught the woman off-guard, her eyebrows both getting thrown upwards slightly as her eyes widened and a dumbfounded expression washed over her for the moment. She swallowed and took a breath, "I take it you mean the whole 'emotional management' thing..." She mumbled and tapered off, eyes glancing to the side of the current commander's head.
"Yes the whole 'emotional management thing'," she repeated in an almost mocking tone. "For someone trying to set me up to be your successor, you certainly made sure that I inherited your fatal flaw without any way to counter it." Still, Darjeeling's gaze was locked securely to Earl Grey's face.
Earl Grey's brow furrowed once more, "I thought you were stronger than me! I didn't think I would shift something like that onto you, you seemed like you were just taking all I knew and made it better in your own way. Regardless, if I would've had more time, how do you know I wouldn't have gone over that with you?" She said with a considerable lack of confidence as her gaze fully left Darjeeling - her eyes looking down towards her fake leg before taking an interest in the tiled floor.
"I suppose we both have room for improvement then," She said simply, perhaps even with a tinge of kindness to her voice. Darjeeling didn't have any interest in just guilting Earl Grey, that would've been rude and pointless. Instead, this conversation was intended to help Darjeeling face the underlying problem she knew she had. By confronting Earl Grey, she was confronting herself. Her time in the hospital both alone in bed and in her own head was enough for her to realize that. At least with the help of that mysterious Russian plague doctor...
Going for another sip of her now nearly-empty teacup, Darjeeling wouldn't have noticed the rising gaze of Earl Grey once more. At least not for a moment. Lowering the now empty cup onto her saucer once more, Darjeeling would have greeted Earl Grey this time with a smile. "I know you've been getting better with things," Darjeeling continued, "Now as an apology, maybe you can help me get to where you are now, and I can help you get further."
Earl Grey seemed to have some degree of confusion on her face at first, though in time she may have come to understand Darjeeling's motive. Regardless, the commander had fully planned to use her own prior commander as a stepping stone - and a rather large one at that - to help her tackle her obvious issue. There was a key difference Darjeeling had over Earl Grey which made a full recovery, physical and mental, both attainable and required - Darjeeling was still able to participate in the sport once she was healed. This gave her an opportunity to bounce back that Earl Grey never had, and by god would she take it up in stride. Not just for her own gain, but on behalf of her former commander as well.