Post

At a dockyard in Poreliscav, late in the evening. The flagship of the Svalbardian navy, the super heavy carrier SRN Failnaught, rocked peacefully in the tranquil water of the dock. Similarly, the city in the late hours of the day had a similarly whimsical feeling to it, as most people had already retreated to the comfort of indoors; and only a few still lurked in the winding streets of the town.
Off to the side of the dock, a small room containing a table and two chairs, seated in which were two people, still resisted the sleepy temptations the rest of the city had succumbed to. The man sitting on the left side of the room was Kinny Mcgalaway; an admiral of the Royal Svalbardian Navy and second-in-command to the chief of staff of the fleet. Opposite him was a woman training to become an admiral, Reyna Fadovsky. The two appeared to be engaged in some sort of card game involving betting chips, and looking at which side of the table the majority of the chips were on, Reyna would seem to be on a winning streak.
“That’s, what, your fourth win in a row against me? You know, they used to call me the master of blackjack; and now look at this!” Kinny indicated to the offending stash of chips on Reyna’s side of the table; his mouth was neutral but the outraged look in his pale-green eyes gave away his frustration - not that he was actually angry at his opponent, of course. There wasn’t any real money involved and the tone of his voice clearly indicated he was having a laugh.
“Well, I suppose I’ve beat you enough times tonight...” Reyna murmured, her big grey eyes peaking through her rose gold fringe.
“Doubt your chances to win a fifth game, do you?”
That sealed up any hesitation the admiral-in-training may have had inside her:
”Oh, it’s on - one last round, all in, and the loser has to do night watch.”
“Oh, it’s that serious is it? Alright then”
Mcgalaway thus dealt out two cards to each player one last time for the day. As Fadovosky picked her’s up, she had to suppress the urge to groan loudly: a ten and a five, making fifteen, one of the worst hands possible.
“Hit or stand, trainee?”
“Come on, hit me” No one was going to win on a fifteen; she had to take a chance. As she gingerly looked at the card she’d been dealt, she immediately noticed the number on top and didn’t take long to do the mental arithmetic. 10 + 5 + 7 =... 22. There could not have been a more perfect way to lose.
“For the love of Ophiuchus...”
“What’s the matter?”
“Bust on 22...”
“Ah ha! Victory at last!” To celebrate, Kinny stood up, knocking his chair over as he did so, and performed a weird and wonderful assortment of dance moves, all while Reyna looked at him with eyes devoid of every emotion but malcontent.
“Ok, that is definitely going in my cringe compilation, no doubt about it.”
“Don’t care, you’re still doing the whole night watch!”
“Oh sh- yeah I forgot about that, damnit...”
“Oh, and I’m talking all of these.” He then proceeded to grab all of Reyna’s chips and run off to a side room, presumably to go to sleep.
“Ugh... why do I make these kinds of bets?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Multiple hours later, a very tired, but more importantly bored to death Reyna was looking out over the dock at night. Her shift ended at 2 o’clock in the morning, and it was currently half twelve; however it seemed likely she wouldn’t finish the next ten minutes, let alone another hour and a half.
“Have to... keep wa- yawn tch, never know when an... intruder or vandal might try and... and... what are they supposed to do again?” Fadovsky fell back in her chair facing the window, looking up at the ceiling, then at the very low light still left on in the room, hoping to find in them some motivation to stay awake long enough to finish the shift.
“Is now, like, not a... good time to tell yawn Mcgallaway that I... didn’t get any... sleep last yawn night?”
As fate would have it, it wasn’t, as Kinny was already fast asleep, and now Reyna’s eyes slowly began to close
“No, I’ve got to stay... up; got to... stay...” but her body soon gave in to her mortal instincts, and she lay limp in her chair, fast asleep.