Short intro practice

Davis watched the screen from behind his oak desk, elbow resting on the arm of his chair whilst he held a burning cigar lightly between his fingers. With his other hand he gently stroked the edge of the desk before him, its rough, worn surface suggesting that it had been in a similar position, somewhere else, many years before this moment. After a short while, he turned his head and sighed.

He mused to himself as he reached with his free hand to grab an almost empty glass of bourbon he had poored just moments earlier. Just moments earlier however he had been having a fairly good day, which - as fate often dictated - didn't last long.

The video came to a halt and the lights in the room automatically adjusted to an appropriate level, illuminating a large office area. On one side of the room, a wall of windows gave way to a sun-drenched arcipelligo where small boats hurried around the bay complex, ferrying various visitors and personel over the crystal blue water to the Anchor Port just beyond the horizon, outside of the enforced No-Fly Zone. On the two side walls sat large bookcases, holding various great works of fiction that had been written over the last few hundred years, a display that was compulsary in such a powerful mans throne room; most of them he'd never read and the few that he had were hardly classics. Before him sat a large and aged oak desk, showing its wear in scratch marks, dents and splinters. The desk was cluttered with various sheets of paper, coffee cups and multiple ashtrays. In the centre of the room a long glass coffee table dominated the natural wooden floor it rested upon. Two large leather sofas and accompanying glass side tables orbited the coffee table. Beyond this arrangement stood two large, oak doors that would take him to the world outside, a place full of people who he largely disapproved of and frequently avoided.

He lifted himself out of his chair and strode a few paces toward the window. His eyes glinted as they caught the sun, and he squinted to reduce the glare. At first he looked down on the bay, studying the hurried progression of the boats as they scooted from place to place. He followed one of the boats as it made its way over the horizon; he had always wanted to see if his vision was good enough to spot the Anchor Port from this distance. Alas, he had always failed. As he shifted his focus to look back down to the bay, he caught his reflection in the glass. He wasn't a tall man, and the little height he did possess stood with the posture of a person under great pressure, but without a care in the world. One hand was tucked into his trouser pocket, whilst his other partook in the pendulate action of lifting and dropping his cigar. He brought the cigar up to his aged, cracked lips and took a long draw, pausing for a few seconds and then roughly blowing the smoke onto the surface of the window. His collar was scruffy, his creased, white shirt undone at the top two buttons. As he followed his hand up, he saw an aged man who had not yet lived the years he felt he had experienced. His jaw was tight and sharp, his eyes heavy and his brow creased under the stress of leadership. He was a man who had seen and done much, and still had much more to see and do.

Right at this moment in time Davis Halm was lost in the images he saw before him. He was an observer, and not a participant, in the trivialities of everyday life and he very much liked it that way. He also liked being on the top floor of the ComSec Corporation Headquarters, far away from the increasingly busy hustle and bustle of the rest of the complex. Here he could think, plan, consider and - infrequently - solve the many problems that he was challenged with on a daily basis. Today the problem he faced was particularly challenging, and had quite successfully driven him to distraction.

He moved away from the windows and proceeded to tap some buttons on a remote on his desk. A transparent glass screen lowered from the centre of the room and rested just above the coffee table. The lights began to dip, eventually shutting off entirely, and the windows behind him phased to almost total darkness. He moved back round the desk and returned to sitting in the chair, as the screen flickered to life and the video began to replay.