Jedao himself is - not in his best headspace ever. Which means that in the hallways, he looks perfectly calm and put together, and almost never sweaty, messy-haired and grinning.
Jedao sees the first tilt, but chooses not to respond until Alec greets him explicitly, nodding and turning slightly in turn.
"Hm." He waves Alec along, down an extra flight of stairs to Fives' cabin, with its rows of bare bunks, the walls with a few names and far more numbers recorded, with sleek high-tech stasis crates from Deep Space Nine wedged here and there incongruously. It's private, and while Jedao wouldn't necessarily be against taking Alec into the odd sanctum of his own cabin, Fives is far more likely to be there, and not particularly want to be seen with his guard down - or as far down as it ever gets, anyway.
Jedao lets them in, and the door doesn't lock but it's whatever sturdy hull material Fives' galaxy uses, so it insulates sound well enough. Jedao invites Alec to sit on a bunk with a wave, while Jedao himself goes over to one of the lockers and sits down on the cold floor beside it, looking back at Alec while he goes through what appears to be an entirely routine procedure for bypassing the genetic biolock.
Alec follows willingly, and when they arrive, "Well It's appropriate anyway, I'll give you that," is what he has to say as he looks around very obviously. His memory is excellent and he recognizes some of the names and the numbers on the wall, doesn't recognize more, but wouldn't need them or his mental roster to know whose room this is.
He's always wondered why wardens don't change their rooms more often. Alec does not sit on the bunk, but folds his arms to make himself more compact as his only concession to the way his skin crawls.
"Something's going on with him. Something's been going on with him. I'm concerned someone may take advantage of it to demote him. I'm concerned he might deserve that if it comes to that." No sense dragging it out.
"Someone?" Jedao asks, utterly cordial. It's not - mostly - about being defensive with Alec. It's about Jedao keeping himself under control, when he knows how much of a weak spot Fives is for him, Fives' current troubles in particular.
"I won't do it," he says, just to state it, promptly but not thoughtlessly. Not can't, which most might say, but won't because: "It would take an inmate getting caught in the crossfire or setting their sights on him, and I don't have a short list just now, but it's happened before."
"You wouldn't have warned me," Jedao assumes. He fiddles with the lock a little longer, considering. It - alarms him, that Alec would list someone may take advantage before he might deserve it. He supposes there's an alternate reading based not on specific cause for concern that he'd be targeted, but a species of faith in Fives that even as on-edge as Fives currently is, he wouldn't crack without being hammered - more - when he knows what's at stake.
The lock pops open, and Jedao unloads the contents of the locker: brightly colored quilted wall hangings, with uneven hand-stitches where Jedao, still learning, patched them together. He starts hanging them up - not anywhere covering names or numbers, but on the remaining wall space and from the top bunks, filling the room with color and forbidden personality.
"I'm...aware. Of his recent -" All the words that come to mind feel like a betrayal to say: struggles, troubles, difficulties. "- state."
Alec does not reply to the assumption, not the least because it doesn't really matter. Jedao can believe him or not, and there's nothing Alec can do that he hasn't already done, so there it is. (He would not have warned anyone, if he came to the decision that he needed to take that step somehow.) He doesn't' have that faith in Fives not to break, although he'd wanted to; Fives, in his opinion, has already broken even though he can go further still. He's not surprised. He's seen so many break, including a few that only came unraveled after gaining freedom.
He waits, and he watches, and he does not comment on the wall hangings that aren't remotely regulation, that he wants to tell Jedao to hide as much as he wants to help him put them up.
"I don't know details. He won't say anything to me, and the last time I tried, he thought he could corner me into taking him apart." Which he's sure some people might say he had, but those people don't know him. "I haven't tried again. I don't think that's helpful."
Fives still takes the hangings down every time he comes back here. But sometimes he doesn't take them down until he's leaving. And if he didn't want Jedao to put them up again, he wouldn't always put them away in the same place.
He hates himself for having details, Jedao thinks, obscurely. Of course he didn't.
"Probably not," he agrees. "I've got...some ideas." Both about what's happening, and steps he can try to take. "But there's only so fast I can push and not get locked out."
Like Alec did. So there's just going to be a window, at least for a little while longer.
"So if you have suggestions, or that thing about a short list changes, I'd love to hear."
Alec knows it was partially his abruptness that got him ignored. He also thinks it was inevitable, in this anyway, for the same reason Alec catches himself treating like he would another transgenic if he's not paying attention to himself. Their similarities work for them in a crisis situation and against them everywhere else.
"My instincts are what worked on other soldiers I've known," he admits. "I haven't learned what kind of person Fives is outside of that. I had him lower on the priority list for that than I clearly should have."
"Things...accelerated recently." So not quite as much a mistake as it might have been.
"Even inside it - we ran into terrible trouble, sometimes, when I tried to treat him as a Kel. Things matched up right until they didn't, and the shock was worse, in some ways."
So Jedao understands that.
"I'm going to push - soon. There's a few places I think it could - be productive. But I have to get my own head on straight first or I'll fuck it all up."
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Jedao sees the first tilt, but chooses not to respond until Alec greets him explicitly, nodding and turning slightly in turn.
"Sure. Where?"
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"The quieter the better."
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Jedao lets them in, and the door doesn't lock but it's whatever sturdy hull material Fives' galaxy uses, so it insulates sound well enough. Jedao invites Alec to sit on a bunk with a wave, while Jedao himself goes over to one of the lockers and sits down on the cold floor beside it, looking back at Alec while he goes through what appears to be an entirely routine procedure for bypassing the genetic biolock.
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He's always wondered why wardens don't change their rooms more often. Alec does not sit on the bunk, but folds his arms to make himself more compact as his only concession to the way his skin crawls.
"Something's going on with him. Something's been going on with him. I'm concerned someone may take advantage of it to demote him. I'm concerned he might deserve that if it comes to that." No sense dragging it out.
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The lock pops open, and Jedao unloads the contents of the locker: brightly colored quilted wall hangings, with uneven hand-stitches where Jedao, still learning, patched them together. He starts hanging them up - not anywhere covering names or numbers, but on the remaining wall space and from the top bunks, filling the room with color and forbidden personality.
"I'm...aware. Of his recent -" All the words that come to mind feel like a betrayal to say: struggles, troubles, difficulties. "- state."
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He waits, and he watches, and he does not comment on the wall hangings that aren't remotely regulation, that he wants to tell Jedao to hide as much as he wants to help him put them up.
"I don't know details. He won't say anything to me, and the last time I tried, he thought he could corner me into taking him apart." Which he's sure some people might say he had, but those people don't know him. "I haven't tried again. I don't think that's helpful."
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He hates himself for having details, Jedao thinks, obscurely. Of course he didn't.
"Probably not," he agrees. "I've got...some ideas." Both about what's happening, and steps he can try to take. "But there's only so fast I can push and not get locked out."
Like Alec did. So there's just going to be a window, at least for a little while longer.
"So if you have suggestions, or that thing about a short list changes, I'd love to hear."
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"My instincts are what worked on other soldiers I've known," he admits. "I haven't learned what kind of person Fives is outside of that. I had him lower on the priority list for that than I clearly should have."
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"Even inside it - we ran into terrible trouble, sometimes, when I tried to treat him as a Kel. Things matched up right until they didn't, and the shock was worse, in some ways."
So Jedao understands that.
"I'm going to push - soon. There's a few places I think it could - be productive. But I have to get my own head on straight first or I'll fuck it all up."