She smiles. "Ling's been bugging me to take off, too..."

"At least three months. Perhaps longer if you are satisfied with the quality of the new troops in your absence."

"That's a long time..."

"And how long have you been at war now?"

"Two years for this campaign... But I've been at some war or another pretty much since I exalted... Six years ago?"

"In my era, an active-duty officer would serve a maximum of eight months on the frontlines, and were required to take one month leave and serve a minimum of three months on rotation at headquarters before being sent out again."

"...I can see how that'd be a good idea for our officers once we have enough, but..."

She makes a face.

"I'm Exalted."

Another face.

"But also having a government built entirely on a couple hundred super powered assholes didn't go well last time."

She sighs.

"Not even if there were several thousand." Occlus lets her lips quirk in a hint of a smirk. "In war or governance, if your campaign depends on the efforts of a single person, your campaign has already failed. Build the habits that will carry you in the future now."

She hums, thinking. "I'm actually trying to build stuff to be proof against my death, but... I never feel like I have the time, to sit and wait and let things happen slowly and cautiously."

Pause.

"...So this is only kind of part of my official governance, since it's a secret, but - "

"I've had a lot more lives in between me and Luc's last one together. Like - I tend to reincarnate fast. It's been nearly seven hundred and seventy years since Silver Ambush - the First Age me's name after the Usurpation - died. And she lived for about seven hundred and fifty years from the Usurpation to her death, and she wasn't just moping in the backwoods somewhere, and as far as I know I'm the thirteenth me since her."

"I think she knew she might never see the overthrow of the Shogunate through, so she went to war, and she made amazing things for her future selves to use, and she kept notes. And - we don't lose. We don't stop. Every me tried to win, and gave their best, and did their damnedest to leave behind something for the next go around, even if it was just a cautionary tale."

"I don't want to be the one who falters. But... We've been trying for one and a half millennia. And no one's succeeded yet. So..."

She rubs at her face. "Maybe I'll have to be the one who tries something new."

"That would seem to be indicated."

"New resources helps, there."

"Indeed. It would behoove you, therefore, to take our advice seriously."

Sigh.

"I can afford three months off. I'll even trust all the diplomacy to Jubilee. Just - we'll see, after that."

"So we shall. That will do, for now."

Smile. "I guess you don't want me hovering, then?"

"It would be counterproductive."

"I'll let Luc' take me on some dates in other worlds, then."

"That seems like an excellent plan."

Laugh.

"Though if there's an emergency, I would like to be informed..."

"Naturally."

"Thanks."

"Have fun with your girlfriend," she says, smiling. "And don't worry about things here." She sends a fond look Occlus's way. "We have things well in hand."

"An advantage to alts over reincarnations. I can cheat and get a second me to do all my work without dying first," she says, teasingly.

She seems amused.

"That does help, yes. Helps even more in that you get to keep your Luc'."

Soft, fond smile. "Yeah. She's important."