It was three hours ago that I gave Nick his task, and it was now that it would be set in motion, according to him. After some enjoyable simulator action we were back to theoretic lessons, which Nick used on devising his plan. He was furiously writing things on his log, eager to complete the task he was given. For him, nothing that he spent his valuable neurons on was a problem, but the deep intricacies of the inner workings of our fellow fourteen year old recruits was an exception. Some were plain stupid and unpredictable, others were immoral or flawed and others were guided by nothing but emotions. Genetic engineering had changed the Pyuntian race a lot, but perfection was still an unachievable concept.

Sergeant Jeddle ended the class. We had a thirty minute window before another three-hour block of work would start, after which we would get free time and sleep.

Of course, while ending class, Jeddle scolded another student. Once again I wondered why they had sergeants drill us the way they did adult recruits- to me, it seemed ineffective and unnecessary in an environment not too unsimilar to a city’s public school.

I beckoned to Bardo to follow me after Nick, who was armed with a piece of conventional plasto-paper and his devilish stride. Torch was apparently in on his plan, as she walked with him. I eyed Bardo quizzically, but his shrug showed his similarly incomplete information. 

Behind us, I noticed Hitorin walking by. He snuck an obvious glance our way while pathing towards his quarters, but we quickly lost him as Nick and his valiant ally went through the school.

And crossed paths- almost too coincidentally!- with Aeyn “Ice”.

“Greetings, Ice gal. I am Nick and this is Torch, from your class.”

“We’re from the Psychology Brigade, hehe!”

I stood behind a corner about six strides away from them, unable to see them. Even from this distance I could swear that I heard Ice shrug. Her voice was cold and emotionless, though a hint of sass could be identified.

“Creep Brigade found a new member. I heard you meddle with other’s business. Go away.”

“We are not merely here to meddle with your business,” Nick defended. “With your reputation and self-nominated nickname of Ice, I wondered what your true self outside of this environment was like.”

“What?”

“With this purpose, I wanted to approach you from an unorthodox angle previously never experienced by you. I have written a sweet poem...”

Nick slowly turned to Torch and gave the most exaggerated and obvious wink experienced by sentient life since jokes were invented, leaving her baffled and with a raised eyebrow.

“...which I would like to recite to you.”

“Uuuhm… Dude? What the hell?”

“If you may allow me of course.”

Ice waited a bit before replying. I whispered to Bardo.

“She’s probably suppressing her laughter, hehehe.”

“Nick is a freaking beast.”

Finally, our target answered.

“S-sure...”

“Then, let me...” Nick cleared his throat. What he proceeded to narrate was the most professionally styled poem imaginable. It was a romanticized debate- an internal flow of logic outspoken! And all of it asked Aeyn rather intruding questions.

“Then if you suppress a laugh or two, why do you so hide your truth? The green eyed boy speaks to you, yet you dare not absolve his pursuit! The world around you broken by a screen- one you built for none to intervene! A writhing-”

“By all the world please stop!!”

I was cackling, this was glorious. Bardo looked dumbfounded. Ice let an emotion slip for the first time. I stopped myself from laughing though- we were interfering with other’s business, and what we had now bordered on bullying. It was not my intent to come to that, so I held my respect in.

“So what are you trying to say?! How long have you been stalking me? I’m going to my room.”

“We w-weren’t stalking you,” Torch started, taking a careful, disarming approach. Nick followed her up. “We were worried about the interaction between you and Hitorin. On all accounts it looks quite pathetic from any casual observer’s perspective. Toxic, maybe even.”

“Oh, so that’s who you meant with your poem thing. Also can you talk normally!? I have no idea what you mean.”

“I am, in fact, conversing normally.”

“What does conversing mean?!”

“You’re neurally hooked up to sophisticated translator software and a Pyuntian dictionary. I recommend-”

“I shouldn’t need that talking to other people my age! Nobody understands me! How do people even understand you?”

“No need to ad hominem me.”

“??!”

The conversation seemed to have been derailed. I wanted to intervene to follow up on Nick or to abort his mission, but it seemed that our new friend Torch was very apt for that task as well.
“We’re trying to understand you. We’re all hard to understand in our own ways,” she softly said. “And no matter who you are, you usually sit alone safe for Tophro, and you seem not to treat him like a friend.”

Ice was silent for a bit. It occurred to me that I should’ve asked Nick to stream his vision to me, but it was kind of late to ask that now.

“He’s just weird,” Ice said. “But he’s nice, I guess. I kind of… Everyone expects me to act and be cold. And it’s real fun to see him be so silly just to get my attention.”

“Isn’t it arrogant to take such a perspective on someone’s genuine efforts, no matter how stupid?”

“Are you calling me arrogant?!”

“It wasn’t a personal insult. Merely food for thought. We can only observe and approach- it would be out of our league to tell you what to do and who to be.”

That stopped the conversation. Ice seemed- expectedly- very overwhelmed. Nick’s plan was very direct and blunt, and it appeared to work.

“Thanks then, I guess. I’ll see.”

The girl with the brown-white hair turned and stepped away, likely in a straight line to her quarters. The sound of a high-five shortly after marked the cue to come out of hiding. Torch was brightly smiling, and Nick was in thought.

“Woohoo! It’s really cool to learn so many people’s stories!” Torch exclaimed. Bardo replied after playfully placing his fist on Torch’s scalp. “What were you two thinking?! This was very uuuh… Direct. When I said that you should be more direct, Nick, I didn’t mean this!”

I wanted to get a word in, but Nick was first.

“Indeed, in retrospect, I wonder how moral it was to go this far.”

“Moral?”

“Nobody asked for my interference, nor had I a special right to. Furthermore, I dragged Torch person into this.”

“I’m a person now?”

“Correct.”

While Lenn shot piercing death glares Nick’s way, ricocheting off his immovable shield, I pondered the question.

“Of course,” Bardo said. “We did what was right, and everyone’s out of this better! I bet we made them better friends by giving them a shot of reality.”

“But it is still not within our place, technically,” I followed. Bardo puzzlingly shrugged at me.

“We didn’t know if things would end up better, nor did we stand still to calculate it. What we did was self-righteousness, and that is an aspect of moral arrogance.”

I thought of Caenya and her frustration with what happened in the city. In her case, the stakes were a lot higher, and she didn’t have to interact with the parties involved there on a daily basis unlike us. She didn’t get involved, and no harm was done in the end. Was that the best way?

“Arrogance? Call it whatever!” Bardo slapped his hands together and menacingly eyed me. He and Torch had a knack for doing that.

“In the end, it worked! Who cares why or how!”

I had to smile at that notion, and it even had me laugh.

“Sure. Sure, why not. We’re apparently the new Creep Detectives after all.”

Bardo grinned widely, unexpectedly pridefully, and Torch leapt at me and shook me around.

“Too close, too close!”

“Aawwh, come on! Nick, then!”

Torch proceeded to replicate her previous aggressive personal-space invasion on Nick, who reacted similarly to a wooden plank. His response took a full eight heartbeats to pop out. Torch seemed to enjoy torturing him all the same.

“Uuuuh...”

“Anyways!”

Torch turned to me again.

“But what exactly was up with Ice anyway? I don’t fully understand how you just noticed that they were both keeping something in! They’re not your friends, are they?”

“They aren’t. It turned out Tophro had difficulty expressing himself honestly and directly, while Aeyn seemed to be acting her role as cold Ice queen. Which I think is true, seeing her reaction to you and Nick. As for how I knew...”

I turned to Bardo, and tried to attack him using his own deadly glare.

“Maybe it was a lucky guess, and it worked!”

“What are you looking at me like that for?”

“Never mind...”

We walked back to our quarters to take a rest. I was a dedicated coffee drinker, and I sat on my bed with Nick sitting above me on his own.

“So interfering with someone’s business is arrogant?” He theorized.

“No. Interfering and changing someone’s business is, I think. In a simplified situation- say, someone in public loses their footing- it is only moral to assist them, because its obvious. In a more subtle scenario, same applies. Say, they drop something. A lot of people will notice, but only a few will call them back. But in our case… I think we’re interfering too much. It’s too personal.”
“So there are no hard borders to define it by?”

“Yeah. I guess it’s that simple.”