fandomhigh | Flight and Flying, Period 5, Thursday 6/19

The students would likely notice something very unusual about the Danger Shop today as they arrived. Most notably that it was empty. There wasn't any kind of ship anywhere in sight. There was nothing. Just Murdock with his arms crossed over his chest, looking rather devious.

"And now for something completely different," he droned. "You," he pointed towards the class at large, "will choose your own ships today. I recommend you pick something you're most comfortable with. Because we're going to crash those babies," he grinned deviously.

"The first rule of piloting, is any landing you can walk away from is a good one. So that's what we're going to do. Your primary goal is to make sure you get out safe. If you can swing it without getting a single scratch, even better. Second to that is minimizing the amount of damage inflicted upon your craft. If you ever wind up crashing in hostile territory, you want your craft to be repairable. Or at the very least, have enough working parts so you can retro engineer something else to escape in."

"How you choose to crash them is completely up to you. You can experience engine failure, extensive damage from an enemy craft, or," he winked at Reno, "you can just fly straight into a mountain. Once done, the Danger Shop will provide each of you with an outcome statistic and survival probability." Of course, the safety protocols were in place, so nobody would actually suffer any injuries, but Murdock thought it might be amusing to let them sweat that a bit. Make the whole scenario just that more believable.

"Alrighty kids!" he slapped his hands together loudly, "Let's get our ships and let's crash like you've never crashed before. Oh, and I should add, you'd better crash sooner rather than later. Take too long, and the program will kick in and throw something random at ya. Or heck," he shrugged, "just wait for it and see what you get. Could be a fun challenge," he grinned.

(ocd-edy! ~~in a sec...~~)

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"True, but that wasn't the point." Murdock, unlike John, was not grinning. In fact, he looked rather annoyed. "I can understand being wary of wanting to crash, but as a pilot you've got to realize that it's a possiblity. If you were to crash, would you be able to handle it? Or would you panic and be unable to save yourself? And those who were with you?"

Glaring a bit, he wrapped his arms around himself and waited for John's response. He was half-tempted to make John do the run over.

"You said we could choose, so I chose not to," John replied, not at all concerned, crossing his arms. Murdock's glare was nothing compared to John's last flight instructor. "And this is far from real. In real life, I know how people get hurt in crashes and it's never expected and they don't get to see statistics after."

There was a certain logic there, but even so... "Sometimes you don't have that choice. Yes, this is isn't real, and no, there are no statistics afterwards. Just a little black box if you're lucky. It's not about knowing that people get hurt, it's about trying to minimize the damage when all else fails and there is no way to avoid the situation."

He continued to glare a bit, drumming his fingers against his arm. "You can't choose the easy way out in real life, John."

"It's not about easy," John replied. "I'm not playing 'choose my own death' here." He left out the part about knowing the intimate details of a crash someone in class had survived.

"That's not it either," he replied, a note of coldness slipping in. Murdock knew what it was like too. "It's testing your skills; pushing the limits of your ablities so you'll be better prepared if the need ever arises. In here, it's safe. As you said, not real. Isn't that preferable to the alternative?"

Dammit, yes. It sucked. It wasn't about dying, it was about living. Beating the odds and surviving. Why couldn't the kid see that?

John kept his arms crossed and shook his head. He wasn't budging.

The urge to bang his head on a wall was growning. But that wouldn't give the proper impression he was trying to make here. "Look, John," he sighed in frustration, "I know it's tough. Believe me, I know. You have no idea how much. The simple odds are that if you ever become a pilot, especially in any fighter applications, you will likely one day crash. Or at the very least, run a high risk of it. Even the best of pilots go down." That last was spoken in an eerily calm tone.

"It's simple numbers. The more often you go up, the greater the risk becomes. Sucks, but that's the truth."

"Uh huh," John said, already a pilot and already knowing the likelihood of crashing and just wanting to walk out before he couldn't hold back his temper any longer. "So, can I go now?"

"Yes," he growled. Murdock was also at his limits. "But I'll have to report you. You'll likely wind up with some form of detention if I can't think of something appropriate."

"Next week," he spoke coldly, "I'll expect you to participate as instructed and without the apparent attitude. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal," John replied, smiling fakely, turning on his heel and heading for the door.

Flight and Flying, Period 5, Thursday 6/19

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