Dropout

Havoc didn't respond right away as most people would have. Instead he sat there, his mind and focus obviously elsewhere. Nix gave good advice - a good assessment of what he was like and how other people saw him - but there was no quick and easy answer. Manta Carlos didn't have a quick and easy option.

"The scouts," he finally said after almost two minutes of no doubt awkward silence. "Have to have something to deal with more extreme cases, wouldn't they? You hear stories of supernaturals being held captive. Someone has to deal with that, and you can't send mundane special forces in to deal with dragons and supernatural cults. So they must have something akin to special forces. Like a military analog, only focused on hostage retrieval."

Which was more or less exactly what he wanted.

"The only question is if I'm forced to do standard scouting like I would be with the police." Which would be an issue. "Scouts would like a record with the student council, correct?" Without even having to ask, Havoc was entirely sure Nix had a better idea of how job searching and references worked than he did.

Technically speaking, Havoc could have made the decision for himself. He had all the tools, and he'd never been the kind of person who relied on others for his decision making.

But after a year as roommates, he'd come to trust Nix's judgement in a way he rarely did for those without a military background. He had a good head on his shoulders, and he had far more experience in civilian manners. If he said it was perfect, then it probably was, and Havoc nodded immediately after Nix finished speaking.

"Thank you," Havoc said simply. "I'll look into it in the morning, and see if I can't put in my application immediately."

For all of Havoc's many flaws, laying about wasn't one of them. He wasn't going to sit down and worry about the details. He was simply going to go in, look up the information, and put in an application then and there.

Of course, it was only moments later that he realized at least one major implication.

"That would mean dropping out at some point," Havoc said. "We wouldn't be roommates anymore." Not unless Nix was planning to get an apartment off-campus, anyway. Nix still had two or three years to go in the best case scenario, where as Havoc was having a hard time imagining scout training being more than a year.

Havoc had arrived on the island with no social skills to speak of. He dealt with simple facts, not feelings, and he'd missed almost every social queue he dealt with.

He'd improved. He'd been on the island for more than a year, and a lot of that improvement could be credited to Nix's patience with him. He'd picked things up, and he could mostly fumble his way through the expected responses, even if most of them were not natural. So when Nix put his hand up, Havoc's brain said high five, and he followed through, albeit with a bit less enthusiasm than he might have otherwise.

"I'm sure you'll be fine," Havoc said, connecting Nix's repetition of cool with the likelihood that he was, in fact, bothered[ by the possibility of Havoc moving out. "I don't plan to die, and I don't believe that being a scout would be a particularly dangerous profession. Would finding a new roommate help things?"

Nix babbeled when he was anxious, a trait that Havoc knew enough to recognize now, even if Nix was the only person he knew who was like that.

But recognizing a behavior was not quite the same thing as knowing how to actually deal with the behavior, so Havoc simply stared a bit, trying to process what would be best to say. Words of comfort? An acknowledgement?

"You will do fine without me," Havoc repeated, his brows furrowing slightly in concentration. "It was good having you as a roommate, but I am confident you'll find a new roommate who will do things just as good as I ever did. Or better."

Havoc certainly didn't have an inflated sense of self worth.

"I will help search for a roommate, if that would help?" He doubted it would, but offering tended to go well.

Annoyed? Havoc paused for a moment, and then shook his head.

"I am not annoyed," Havoc said. "Simply concentrating. My father told me several times that I tended to look upset when I thought about things too hard - it's a habit I have not yet managed to break."

Another thing to work on, he supposed.

Especially if he was going to become a scout.

"I will do my best to keep you updated," Havoc said, giving him a small nod before turning away. He obviously considered the conversation done, his question answered. If he was bothered by the idea that he'd looked annoyed, he didn't show it any more than he showed anything else.