autokinetic | i command armies

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

pythbox

They're kind of doing the 'well if there was a big secret, we wouldn't tell you jack about it' thing.

From:

autokinetic

Assholes.

From:

pythbox

Tell me about it.

From:

autokinetic

Tell you what? You know more than I do. Have you got guesses?

From:

pythbox

Not really. Whatever it is, Old Guy is in it big. I think he's mad at me for kicking his ass that one time.

From:

autokinetic

Then why'd he even start the fight?

From:

pythbox

Well, that's just it, says Sue. I think it was supposed to be some kind of psychological thing, to keep me off balance or something. I think he was supposed to win. But instead I wiped the floor with him. So now he's pissed off.

From:

autokinetic

That's idiotic. If he's supposed to win, they should've made sure he was able to.

From:

pythbox

I think I was better than they were expecting, he says smugly.

From:

autokinetic

You been getting in unconventional forms of practice they can't track or something?

From:

pythbox

Nope. So I guess they're just not paying attention.

From:

autokinetic

That's... that's even stupider than I expect from the people we're talking about, here. There has to be some other explanation. Was the guy even particularly good? Was it close? Could they have some reason to think you wouldn't kick his ass when provoked?

From:

pythbox

Well, he's old? hazards Sue. And he tried to fake me out a couple times, like he was hurt too bad to keep fighting, but man, I know when I've hurt somebody too bad to keep fighting. He was good, I'll give him that. But I think he was expecting me to hold back on him, and I didn't.

From:

autokinetic

Huh. What's he like? Besides old and irritable and cagey?

From:

pythbox

Old, says Sue. And irritable. And cagey. Well, not really irritable - he tries to act like he's my 'enemy', but that's fucked, he's obviously here to teach me. That's part of what's weird about all this. Why the fuck are they giving me this nasty old fart as a teacher, and why the fuck is he dressing it up like his job is to make my life hell?

From:

autokinetic

Dunno. Maybe he'll be less cagey if I meet him? Am I likely to do that, given they'll have to put you and me in a room since they don't know we can link?

From:

pythbox

Who even knows, sighs Sue.

From:

autokinetic

Wonder if they'll bunk us again or put me someplace else.

From:

pythbox

I hope they bunk us again, except then the nasty old fart would be waking you up at all hours too.

From:

autokinetic

He wakes you up? In the middle of the space-night? Why, what for?

From:

pythbox

Your guess is as good as mine. Probably better.

From:

autokinetic

What does he try to do, though, is he calling you to - read things, do things, talk to people...?

From:

pythbox

Anything. Sometimes he just stares at me for a while, or says something about how the enemy ever waits, and then lets me go back to sleep. He hasn't done it since I quit, but it hasn't been that long, so I don't know if it's just not time yet in his nasty old fart schedule.

From:

autokinetic

Well, we'll see if I can run interference. Let him read my psych file if he wants it and decide what to do from there, they're less confused about me than they are about you, they have a few years of me reading my own mind and laying it all out in English for them.