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

Nope, says Sue.

From:

autokinetic

Aww.

She disembarks with Howlett in a perfectly uninformed-looking manner.

From:

pythbox

Guess you're a surprise, he says cheerfully.

From:

autokinetic

Maybe they'll tell me to hang out in your room and pick a fight, she teases. That works so well.

She's given directions to quarters, which she funnels to Sue. That anywhere near you?

From:

pythbox

Maybe, he hazards.

Howlett receives entirely separate directions, but is commanded to first escort Aegis to her quarters.

From:

autokinetic

"I didn't get an escort in Tactical, why do I get one here? Do you even know your way around?" she asks Howlett.

From:

pythbox

"Nope," says Howlett.

From:

autokinetic

She snorts, and weaves her way through the tunnels. She's grown quite a bit, and they're too short to be comfortable for her or Howlett, let alone the tall soldier who gave them their instructions. "Who the hell built this place? The buggers?" she mutters.

Edited Date: 2013-03-01 03:02 am (UTC)

From:

pythbox

"Good question," says Howlett.

From:

autokinetic

Eventually they find their way to Aegis's assigned quarters.

From:

pythbox

"See you," says Howlett. "Or not."

And with that comforting pronouncement, off he goes.

From:

autokinetic

"Bye," says Aegis, and she arranges her login on her desk and waits for her class schedule to appear. Welp, here I am. No sign of you or a nasty old dude.

From:

pythbox

Yeah, he says. Haven't seen him all week.

From:

autokinetic

If I were them, Aegis said, and all I cared about was trying to get you to play the game again and not letting on about whatever secret, and I were a little stupid, I'd try cutting off your desk privileges, telling everyone not to talk to you, and giving you nothing at all to do but go play the game on the simulator.

From:

pythbox

Well, they cut me off all right, he says. I still get class shit, but nobody says a word to me.

From:

autokinetic

Are you going to classes? she asks.

From:

pythbox

Tutors, is his one-word answer. Not in the last week or so, now it just comes through my desk.

From:

autokinetic

They want you to save the world and their idea is solitary confinement. Smart, smart people, says Aegis derisively.

From:

pythbox

He sends a concurring snort.

From:

autokinetic

I'm going to ask somebody official where you might be located if they haven't put me in a room with you on purpose inside a week, and if they won't tell me, I'll see if I can pry it out of the computer system. Are you allowed out of your room at all?