Lasca is frequently surprised by the reception he gets from his peers. He expects the same kind of poorly-hidden mockery he got from the other commanders at battle school, or the odd blend of pity and evaluation he got from the teachers, but instead, he's treated as... one of them.

Maybe it's because he's at Support, and his grades aren't spectacular enough to make it at all likely that he'll go on to Command. Maybe it's just that everyone is working their fingers to the bone and no one has time to remember that they were the best commander. Or maybe it's that all of the commanders with any right to brag are at Tactical now - and those left know they're all mock-worthy for one reason or another.

In any event, he's beginning to wonder why he was such a good toon leader, since he was such an awful commander. He'd say it was the jinx he didn't believe in, but he's not doing that well here, either, and none of the teams here are jinxed.

Not that Dragon was jinxed, anyway; his soldiers believed it and that made it true.

He wonders if part of the reason he was such a good toon leader was that his commander did most of the work of inspiring the soldiers, and he just had to be his commander's hands. One of his commander's hands. Forewarned is four-armed, after all.

He supposes that's why he was sent to Support, and not just failed out - he's good at acting in another's place, good at interpreting cryptic directions, good at inspiring others to be inspired by his commanders. And despite his only-average grades, he knows he'll get a commission, at the end of this. Probably off to the fleet that's in the comet shield, or wherever; he's not important enough to go out scouting for the Buggerworlds.

With a sigh, he gets up to go to the lounge and have some fruit drink, or maybe a cup of too-strong coffee. Everyone else in Blue will be there, and probably one or two from the other teams - and now that he's able to spend time with peers who don't hate him, he finds that he rather enjoys it.

He wonders if commanders at Battle School would do better if they were encouraged to socialize - maybe have the mess open all the time, just only serving fruit drink when it wasn't mealtime. Then he laughs at himself - those were children, after all, and they wouldn't appreciate that kind of thing.

The fact that he's only four years older than the youngest commanders escapes him entirely.