i command armies

[autokinetic]

Sue graduates from Tactical School a year early, he's barely fifteen. He's toned down the flirting - he treats Aegis completely platonically, in particular - and has cut down on the unhealthy amount of sleeping-with-everything-that-wants. And he's apparently, via his independent study, gotten far enough through the curriculum that they're nudging him along to Command.

They've given Sue a strange old man for a tutor, who appeared in his room and started a physical confrontation, which Sue won; Sue related this story to her with something between amusement and irritation.

And a quicker-than-average flurry of notes has been piling up in the psych data since about that time, according to the timestamps.

Aegis knows before they tell her that they're going to send her to Command early too. She's just barely fifteen herself when she gets another update of the psych files and sees that Sue's had - well, the files aren't terribly clear, some of the communication is happening via in-person conversation and memos that don't get stored in these folders, but Sue's had some kind of breakdown and the only things they can think of to get him out of it, get him back into shape to train and fight, are her friendship and Howlett. They have mixed feelings about both - Howlett's insubordination problem; their bewilderment that Aegis and Sue can be so close when "she's the one person he can't link!" - but they're desperate.

Bird? They don't talk as often over the long distance, just as there was a lull when he went to Tactical ahead of her; their schedules have nothing in common and their contexts less. But he knows her, and he can reach this far if he tries. And she wants to know what's wrong.

Comments

[autokinetic]

Aegis sits on the edge of his bed and goes on petting Ivy. "How in the world did this happen? Didn't this happen in a dream? You're a telepath, not a - dream-things-conjurer."

[pythbox]

"I exist," says Ivy. "I exist just like he dreamed me. And I remember all his dreams but I remember the Milliways ones different. I think it's a real place," she says, rubbing her cheek against Aegis's side.

[autokinetic]

"Okay, but if it's a real place that doesn't explain why you appeared now and not right when Sue - went there," Aegis says. "...Sue, can you even talk right now?"

[pythbox]

"Mmmm," says Sue. Ivy giggles.

[autokinetic]

"...Is this something more complicated than 'better than hugs?'" Aegis asks Ivy.

[pythbox]

"I'm his soul," says Ivy. "You're petting his soul. He can talk if he wants, but he'd rather just bask."

[autokinetic]

"I'm petting his soul," repeats Aegis. "...That's weird."

[pythbox]

"It's not weird, it's nice," says Ivy. "Gimme belly rubs."

She rolls over into Aegis's lap.

[autokinetic]

Aegis obliges, musing over the extreme bizarreness that is her life right now. Invaded bugger space via FTL communicators with old school friends! Read Russian novel! Gave best friend's soul bellyrubs!

"Okay, so," she says to Ivy, "how are you his soul, what does that mean?"

[pythbox]

"Means I mean things about him," she yawns. "And I'm part of him. And if you touch me it's like his whole mind is full of you."

[autokinetic]

"Are you going to exist for good? What if someone finds you, what if something happens to you?"

[pythbox]

"I can be really little, look," and she turns into a housefly and buzzes up to Sue's head and hides just behind his ear.

"But if she dies," Sue murmurs, "so do I."

[autokinetic]

"...Well, she'd better not do that, then," Aegis says.

[pythbox]

"Yep," he agrees, and Ivy zips back to Aegis's lap and becomes a fluffy whatever-it-was again.

[autokinetic]

"What in the world is this thing you're being? The avatar of the concept of huggableness?" Aegis asks, hugging Ivy.

[pythbox]

"It's a viscacha," she says. "I think they're related to rabbits. They're very fluffy."

[autokinetic]

"I can tell you're fluffy all right," says Aegis, and she buries her face in Ivy's fluff.

[pythbox]

"Mmmmmmmmmm," says Ivy, wriggling a little. "We loooooove you."

[autokinetic]

"You've said that a couple times now," murmurs Aegis.

[pythbox]

"It's true!" she says. "I'm a daemon, we're good at feelings. That's what that feeling is. We love you. You're the best person in the world."

[autokinetic]

"Thanks," murmurs Aegis, trailing her fingers through deep-pile fur.

[pythbox]

Sue nods several times, snuggling closer to both of them. Ivy closes her eyes and wriggles again.

[autokinetic]

"You're going to have to hide practically all the time," Aegis murmurs to Ivy. "There's no animals aboard the asteroid, even bugs. There's not even livestock in with the 'ponics except for some fish. The meat is from vats."

[pythbox]

Ivy nods her fluffy head.

[autokinetic]

Aegis yawns. "At some point I'm gonna have to stop petting you and go to sleep," she says.