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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.
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autokinetic
autokinetic
She paints a path; they go.
In the room, she says: "I need to know what you can do. I'm not spying. I'm not gonna tell Brighteyes or anyone. I just need to know for me."
In the room, she says: "I need to know what you can do. I'm not spying. I'm not gonna tell Brighteyes or anyone. I just need to know for me."
"...Okay," says Sue. "What do you mean, what I can do?"
autokinetic
"To me, with your power, through my shield. I felt something and I'm not supposed to get anything and I have to know what I'm wrong about and how bad."
"So... do you want me to try pushing you again?" he asks hesitantly.
"Okay," he says. "I call it 'pushing' because it feels like," he lets go of one handhold and reaches out and puts a gentle pressure on her arm, "that, but with my mind. What I was trying in that battle, I wasn't pushing anything at you, I was just... pushing, like high-fiving somebody in the corridor when you walk by. Most people, when I push like that, they feel it, and they can push back if they want. You, it's like I try to push and there's a glass wall—I don't see it until I try, but I can't touch you, I just touch the wall instead."
autokinetic
"...But I felt something, there. Were you doing that before? When I rescued you from those boys...?"
"Yeah," he says, "when I was crying, before I said anything, I was shoving like hell on that wall, trying to tell you what was wrong. It didn't budge."
autokinetic
"And I didn't get anything then." She frowns, chewing her lip. "And you felt it the same way both times? Maybe I can just... feel the wall, now, feel it shaking if you push it."
"Maybe so," Sue agrees. "You wanna try?"
autokinetic
"I guess."
(She doesn't, she's afraid, but she's more afraid of not knowing and being surprised.)
(She doesn't, she's afraid, but she's more afraid of not knowing and being surprised.)
He shrugs, and 'pushes'.
autokinetic
"I can't feel anything this time," she murmurs. "What about on your end?"
"Same as before," he says. "You're a wall. Can't touch you."
autokinetic
She relaxes fractionally. She closes her eyes and remembers a bird with candle-flame wings, laughing with her, her friend -
"Try again?"
"Try again?"
'Nudge'.
autokinetic
She flinches.
"I can control it," she says. "It's like - you're knocking, but I don't have to listen." She swallows. "But knocking isn't all you do, is it, you have some kind of hivemindy thing, that's why I was supposed to get you first of everything."
"I can control it," she says. "It's like - you're knocking, but I don't have to listen." She swallows. "But knocking isn't all you do, is it, you have some kind of hivemindy thing, that's why I was supposed to get you first of everything."
"Yeah," he says. "Okay. You remember I said, when I push at people, they can push back? I call that linking."
His free hand describes a back-and-forth line in the air, connecting two imaginary points.
"I can push stuff—I hit that one guy with pain, mostly, but I don't just yell what I'm feeling at my toon, that'd be stupid. I link them all, and I show them what I'm seeing and how I'm moving, and they show me the same stuff back," his hand now draws the spokes of a wheel, always returning to the same hub, "and then I tell them what I want us to do, and we do it."
His free hand describes a back-and-forth line in the air, connecting two imaginary points.
"I can push stuff—I hit that one guy with pain, mostly, but I don't just yell what I'm feeling at my toon, that'd be stupid. I link them all, and I show them what I'm seeing and how I'm moving, and they show me the same stuff back," his hand now draws the spokes of a wheel, always returning to the same hub, "and then I tell them what I want us to do, and we do it."
"It's basically talking, but faster," he says with a shrug. "And there's some stuff that doesn't do too good in words—I can have my toon halfway across the room before somebody else would've been done saying 'split, bounce off the north wall, and form up on the east face of that star', because I just push the trajectory and they get it right away."
autokinetic
"But you could push whatever you wanted once they were linked up. And I bet that bully didn't invite you in..."
"Sure," he says. "I can push whatever I want at anybody who isn't a wall like you. And if I want I can get up in your face and scream nasty things about your mother with my own two lungs." He grins. "Except you'd kick my ass right across the battleroom. That was great, the way you shut me down in that battle."
autokinetic
"Got froze for it, though," she snickers. "Did you just send the whole toon on an Aegis-hunt or something?" She shakes her head. "But the guy didn't act like you just screamed at him. Him and his friends started it, I don't blame you, but it didn't sound like you were just shouting at him."
"Well, yeah," he says. "Shouting senses is different from shouting words. I've had some of my guys push it to me when they got a bump in practice, just to see, and it's like... I don't feel it like my own body is hurting where they hurt, same as I don't see it like my own eyes are getting what they see, but it still feels like hurt, or looks like seeing. It's just separate from what I'm getting as me."
autokinetic
"That sounds so strange. And can you do it to me, or does the wall stop you?"