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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.
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autokinetic
He sends a concurring snort.
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?
Yeah, but only to go down the hall and pee. The corridor section doesn't let me out.
My room, a bathroom, and a bunch of doors that don't open.
autokinetic
Wow. They couldn't just own up about being shits and put you in the brig, huh?
Guess not.
autokinetic
When you turn eighteen they have to, legally, allow planetside leave and invite you to re-up, even if you or them determined that the leave at age twelve could go hang - what do they think they're doing? If they want you they shouldn't be antagonizing you when you're two years away from telling them all to fuck themselves and if they don't want you they could ice you now.
Ask them, he suggests. Except don't, 'cause then they'll know we were talking.
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.
Maybe they're trying to see if we're talking, he hypothesizes.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
Okay, he says, and pushes you're-such-a-good-friend.