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There is a strange woman sitting at one of the tables at the soup kitchen, writing at a desk. Both the non-volunteer adult and the expensive electronic device are very out of place.
Purples and Owls in Peace
Yeah.
There are enough tests that even as smart as Martin is, they'll want to break for lunch partway through.
She vaguely wishes she'd been able to discern more of a preference than "food is good," but at least at this point he's had enough to eat long enough that she can feed him an amount not specifically calibrated to not make him throw up.
Well. Technically yes.
(Poor kid.)
She tots up the results because she's supposed to, not because there's any chance that he didn't pass.
"They're going to want you to take some physical tests, too, that I'm not qualified to administer and that require equipment I don't have here, and they'll want to check you for the X-Gene."
She takes him across town to a testing facility where a very dubious proctor puts Martin through several obstacle courses and other physical tests.
limited-by-time
He is fearsomely dedicated to passing these tests. With a little creativity on some of the obstacle courses, and a very narrow margin of error on some of the physical tests, and the occasional box to stand on, he succeeds.
The proctor is surprised and impressed! Carlotta is smug. And then they want to draw a bit of blood for the gene testing.
And after that they can go out to dinner. Carlotta is attempting to feed him as many different kinds of things as possible in an attempt to elicit preferences without actually demanding them.
Poor kid.
She takes him home and starts pre-emptively subtly threatening some of the more egregious Battle School administrators. There have been Unpleasant Incidents in the past and she does not want a repeat with this child she has taken under her protection.
She leaves him alone where this is feasible, then.
A few days later: "Martin, the test results came in."
"Positive. Probably you won't manifest until puberty, but given the uncertainty about your actual age it's theoretically possible to have happen any time now."
"Battle School shuttle leaves in a few days. Is there--anything else you wanted to do on Earth, first?"
Awww.
She continues not to impose social interaction on him where unnecessary over the next few days.