watch me dance

[autokinetic]

Fractal makes commander. Bella doesn't replace him as toon leader - she's only eight and her commander still doesn't know how to use her - but Fractal's replacement, a vet traded in from Platypus who goes by Brighteyes for some reason, does. He spends a chunk of Flame's practice sessions every day putting Bella properly through her paces, and in their battles, he uses her like she was meant to be used: a dancing wildcard, too fast to hit, torpedoing herself into formations with laser precision and shooting from glorious whirling motion with the steadiest arm in school. Bella likes Brighteyes, and he tells her that when he makes commander he'll swap for her if he has to give up six soldiers to do it.

There is an announcement of a rules change: you are not allowed to perform the victory ritual without freezing or disabling all of the enemy.

This rule change is generally attributed to the antics of a Thomas "Sue" Sanderson, who coordinated his toon across the room without commander authorization and won the game before more than four soldiers, total, had been taken out.

It's a month shy of Bella's ninth birthday when Flame and Meerkat once again meet in the battle room.

"Freeze their mutie," Flame's commander tells everyone. "Don't look at me like that, Aegis." (People have occasionally started calling her this; she always picks it as her username or her space station name or whatever she's allowed to christen, and it's started to stick.) "You're not that kind of mutie, but theirs is. He can't do his hivemind shit once he's froze or he'll get iced. That's everyone's priority, clear?"

"Yessir," says each toon leader in unison.

They form up in the corridor.

Comments

[autokinetic]

Aegis sits. "Can I ask what this is about, sir?"

[pythbox]

"Psych profiles are an integral part of student evaluations in the Battle School system," he says. "Can you tell me something you've been doing differently lately that might have affected our ability to get a good profile on you?"

[autokinetic]

Oh, shit. Play dumb or come clean?

But nobody else notebooks like she does. They can't typically rely on that, can they?

"I'm not sure, sir. I don't know what methods you're using."

[pythbox]

He raises his eyebrows.

"Let's hear a guess."

[autokinetic]

"I think a lot of the other students took batteries of personality tests before they launched, but I was never set those tests, sir. I'm happy to sit them now if you'd like."

[pythbox]

"That may not be necessary," he says. "In fact, analysis of the diary function in students' desk accounts is usually a last resort, but in your case it is also the only resort. And now that you have stopped writing your entries in a readable format..." He trails off and shrugs.

[autokinetic]

"Ah," says Aegis.

There is a silence, and she says: "Sir, I wrote in English because I was not aware anyone was spending their time deciphering my notes to myself and the - I thought - minor risk that someone would decide to was worth the increased referenceability. If I start writing in English again, my diary will be less useful to me and less useful to you, because I'll know it's being read and I won't be able to work uncensored. But I am happy to take the standard psych tests or whatever the other students are doing, unless what the other students are doing something involving telepathy and that's why it hasn't been used for me before."

[pythbox]

"What the other students are doing is not an avenue that's open to you," he says. "But we still need to know how you're doing, mentally. You clearly know how you're doing mentally. I don't think it's going to be impossible to work something out here."

[autokinetic]

"If you have questions for me about how I'm doing, I can answer them," Aegis volunteers. "I just can't do my own processing in front of readers like that."

[pythbox]

"I don't suppose there's any chance you'll tell me why you stopped writing in English," he says dryly.

[autokinetic]

Aegis hesitates. She doesn't think they'd ice her for being able to hear Sue "knocking". But she's not sure.

"It's nothing about a change in my underlying psychology," she tries. "Sir."

[pythbox]

"So either you only just figured out that someone might be reading your journal, or you've had to do a lot of thinking recently about something you don't want us to know," he says. "And I don't think you only just figured that out."

[autokinetic]

"It's nothing about a change in my underlying psychology, sir," she repeats.

[pythbox]

He regards her in silence for a few seconds.

"Let's have a broad category," he says. "Is it political, military, or personal?"

[autokinetic]

"Personal, sir."

(If they don't know, maybe they don't monitor her conversations? Of course, he didn't explain about reading her journal until she'd deflected a few questions about them suddenly having trouble reading her psychology.)

[pythbox]

"Then you can keep it. Next question: what do you think of that worldbuilding game?"

[autokinetic]

"I - didn't know you watched it, sir, but I don't mind if you go on doing that, I'm proud of my little empire. I like the game."

[pythbox]

He smiles slightly.

"That game is meant to adapt gameplay to the interests of the particular child. Any theories on why it gave you an empire to build?"

[autokinetic]

"It's more interesting than what it was doing before," says Aegis. "I stopped playing before because it seemed like - space-filler. Reading was more fun, sir. And then when I found out you could bypass the giant - or at least me and Sue could, it didn't work for anyone else I helped - it got interesting again. Stuff I do lasts now. I know my birds and stuff aren't real people but I like them and I want them to have a nice place to not be real in." She pauses. "But I have no idea how the game knew I'd like that, so maybe it just guessed right on the first try."

[pythbox]

"Between you and me," he says, "no one knows how that game makes its guesses. But it's usually right."

[autokinetic]

"Me and Sue are also the only people with the same environment, I think," volunteers Aegis, "even though he doesn't want to do nearly as much with the animal-people, and that makes it more interesting too. And the game showed me where to find him when he was getting bullied a couple years ago. It must be very smart, sir."

[pythbox]

"Did it?" he says. "That's interesting. Tell me more about that."

[autokinetic]

"You didn't already know? It wasn't long after he showed up near my first village. Sue's avatar went idle and then the colors on its feathers changed, and it showed a path, and when I went there, he was there, getting beat on by a bunch of twelve-year-olds. There must be a report on this incident somewhere, sir, I took Sue straight to the infirmary and some of the twelve-year-olds probably went there eventually too."

[pythbox]

"The report didn't mention the game," he says. "That is interesting."

He smiles thoughtfully.

"What would you think of giving me weekly reports on what the game is doing and why you think it's doing it?"

[autokinetic]

"...I can do that, if you like, sir," she says. "Does the report mention that I closed my desk and ran straight there as though this were some kind of coincidence?"