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]

Maybe I can steer the conversation around if they don't let me see you for long enough that it makes sense for me to ask. Of course, maybe they'll cut me off, maybe the faction which doesn't think I'll do any good is in charge here and they just plan to put me in classes and not in contact with you at all.

[pythbox]

Maybe they're trying to see if we're talking, he hypothesizes.

[autokinetic]

...I hope not.

[pythbox]

Me too.

[autokinetic]

You probably wanna look up the effects of solitary confinement - it's a more reasonable thing for you to do than me - and fake them? Aegis suggests.

[pythbox]

They might be able to tell, he says. And then if I got them for real I could be extra fucked.

[autokinetic]

I don't... think you should wind up with them for real, since I can keep you company. It shouldn't be that much about people being physically there, should it?

[pythbox]

Don't know, he says, with a shorthand shrug.

[autokinetic]

It'd make sense for you to look it up either way, you don't necessarily have to fake it just because you read about it, she points out.

[pythbox]

I think... I wouldn't look it up unless you suggested it, or I was going to fake it. So I shouldn't.

[autokinetic]

Ooh. Okay. Pause. Even if I couldn't talk to you, I might look up that - well, and a lot of unrelated stuff, like, legal stuff - if I got a suspicious answer after asking for you. So I might do that.

[pythbox]

Okay, says Sue.

[autokinetic]

She receives a message with her core class schedule and a list of electives she qualifies for that don't conflict, and she picks two electives and says, Apparently I have class in ten minutes, and this place is a maze, I'm gonna start looking for it now.

[pythbox]

Have fun, he says wryly.

[autokinetic]

I probably will. And - hey - if I'm literally the only person you can talk to? Don't not-talk-to-me if you need company, I don't want you to actually go nuts, I can be a little scattered in class now and then.

[pythbox]

Okay, he says, and pushes you're-such-a-good-friend.

[autokinetic]

I try. You're the only bird I have, you know.

She finds her way to class. They're gonna teach me the simulator. Neat.

[pythbox]

I bet you'll love it.

[autokinetic]

A few minutes later, Aegis reports, I do. I really, really do.

[pythbox]

Told you so.

[autokinetic]

Aegis keeps Sue up-to-date on her various activities to keep him company as best she can. When she's got downtime - there's nowhere to fly here; the docking bay is kept depressurized and the airlock has gravity - she digs deep and forces herself open enough to share hugs and feelings, because she can't help but think that touch-starvation could not be good for her Sue and pure verbal chat might not help.

After a week has gone by, she asks her xenobio teacher (that elective being offered here, too): "Excuse me, I have a friend who goes here but I haven't seen him. Can you tell me where he is? He goes by Sue, but he might be in the system as Thomas Sanderson."

[pythbox]

"I'm sorry," the teacher says politely, "I can't offer you that kind of information."

[autokinetic]

"At Tactical the system was set up to let us find each other," Aegis says, affecting polite puzzlement. "I'm not going to bother him when he's got other things to do, or anything, but my desk messages aren't going through." (This is true, she sent one and it bounced.)

[pythbox]

"This isn't Tactical," says the teacher.

[autokinetic]

"Yes," says Aegis. "I'm aware of that. But I think there is something wrong with the internal desk messaging system, and the automatic repair request apparently didn't reach anyone either, and so I want to find my friend another way. I know he's here. If you can't help me, can you tell me who can?"