The Simulator

First flight assessment was the simulator and Dario found out fast that being good on paper and being good in the chair are two different countries with a hard border. The other third-years had two years of stick time. They flew like the simulator was a part of their body. Dario flew like a very smart person operating a machine, which is not the same thing, and the instructor's face told him so without a word. He came out of the pod with his ears burning. And that was when a girl he didn't know, who he would later learn was called Nyx and who was famous in the year for being the best and the rudest, leaned against the pod frame and said, you fly like you're scared of breaking it. Dario said he wasn't scared. Nyx said, then you fly like you're scared of being seen breaking it, which is worse, and that is fixable but only if you stop sitting alone at lunch like a tragedy.