fandomhigh | Rookiehood 101, Tuesday, Period 4

When Reno stepped into the classroom today, he was... dressed somewhat unusually. It wasn't that he wasn't wearing his usual suit, mind. It was more that his white button-down was now in a remarkable state of tie-dye, and there were multicolored ferret-footprints up and down his jacket. Not to mention the random blue streaks in his hair, and the technicolor ferret that was ravaging the contents of the wastepaper basket over in the corner.

Perhaps surprisingly, he was grinning.

"Yo, Rookies!" Mako, the ferret in the basket, honked counterpoint to Reno's greeting. "This week, I'm gonna talk a little about that chip you might have sittin' on your shoulder when you step into a new situation, yo. You know the one, I'm thinkin'. It's that little voice in the back of your head that makes you damn sure that you're gonna get in there, and you're gonna be better than anyone else who ever did the job, and how dare whoever is sittin' three ranks above you not take the job as seriously as you do when you only been around for like a week, and they've been there for freakin' ever, yo."

He gave Elena a pointed look at that, his grin not wavering in the least.

"Some Rookies learn to lose that chip a bit slower'n others, but when they figure it out, they do a damn good job of it, yo. See, thing is, there ain't nothin' the matter with wantin' to do a good job. But when you get past the point of doin' the job, and you get into a place where you're sacrificing yourself for it, you've just stopped being whatever it is you're trying to prove you are... And you've started bein' a damn fool."

He shifted his weight a bit, almost uncomfortably, and then he leaned back against his desk, arms crossing over his chest.

"When you do what you're doin', make sure it's for the right damn reasons. Ain't gonna impress nobody by shuttin' yourself off just to prove you're better, yo. So this week, we're going to do a nice, simple assignment. No syrup, no Jell-o, no feathers even though they were funny as hell. Just talk about what you think the difference is between doin' the job for the sake of doin' what needs to be done, and doin' it because you got somethin' to prove."

A pause, and then he pulled a gold coin out of his pocket and flipped it. "Makita, you won the coin toss, yo. Go stand by Elena, there, Rookie. Maybe see if she knows anything about how to get ducks outta a kitchen while you're at it, yoto."

[Open!]

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"That's a lot of faith to put in your superiors," Squall snorted. "It's better to rely on yourself."

"I didn't say that it was always justified faith, but it is their job," Karla pointed out. "And if you're trying to prove yourself so much that you're putting yourself in danger, then they'd better be the kind of superiors who'll do that job. Otherwise you're a fool twice over."

"No, your superiors' job is to tell you what to do and trust that it'll get done," Squall replied. "If you make them baby-sit you, too, you're wasting time they could be spending on more important things."

Sometimes, Squall was a major dick.

"Not at Rookie stage," Karla countered, ignoring his dickishness for now. "The whole reason you're a Rookie is because you're new, wet behind the ears, green as grass, blah blah blah insert-preferred-term-here. You've got potential, but no experience to back that up. If your superiors aren't watching out for you, then they're practically squandering resourced. It's after you've got some experience that they can practice hands-off. Because, by then, you either know your limits or you're a liability."

Squall blinked at her. Right, he'd forgotten that the class was supposed to be about rookies, and rookies still needed training.

Which meant that Karla was right, and by all rights, Squall should apologize to her.

"...Whatever."

Rookiehood 101, Tuesday, Period 4

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