fandomhigh | Rookiehood 101, Tuesday, Period 4

"Yo, Rookies!" Hark, was that the territorial call of the wild Reno in his natural habitat? Oh, it totally was. "Bit of a change of pace for you this week, yo. When this period ends, you're all on a mission, yo. This week, I ain't gonna be the teacher."

He smirked, and then set out on that slow, deliberate saunter of his, walking paces back and forth in front of the class.

"Half of you are. And half of you are gonna be the rookies. All you teachers? It's gonna be your job to look out for the rookies this week. Rookies? It's your job to be... rookies. Make like you don't know nothin'. Give your teacher a rough time, yo. Do whatever it is you figure rookies do."

He nodded at the board, where he'd scrawled out the names of the two groups.

"Today, just pair off, figure out what it is you're gonna be rookies at. You can teach and learn just about anything, but be prepared to tell me next week what it was you did and how it went, yo. Teachers? Word of advice? Just because you got some theoretical kinda power right now don't mean you get to abuse it. If you're gonna tell 'em to run laps around the island, you damn well better be prepared to run 'em too. And you better be better at it. They ain't gonna respect you if you don't come off as competent, yo. They're your rookies, so it's up to you to set an example, here."

He smirked, and then waved his hands at the class.

"Go on, get to it. Don't let me keep you waitin', yo."

[Open!]

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Reno cleared his throat. He had a memory like a thumbtack when it was something he felt like holding a grudge over.

"'I have no need for an employee who no longer wishes to be one,'" he recited. And then, a moment later, he shook his head. "Decided I was comin' here for booze and smut. Threw that in my face a few times, zoto. He don't know me half as well as he thinks he does, no more."

Reno had been drinking since he'd gotten here, yes. But it wasn't the sort of drinking that Tseng probably assumed it was, acting like an idiot in the bar, dancing on countertops.

"He said he'd have an answer for me the next day, an' never did. So... fuck it. I'll go back when I go back. Probably for Rude. Shit, for you even, Rookie. But not for Tseng. If that's the way he's gonna be, Tseng won't be gettin' dick from me."

So Tseng had been hurtful. Probably because he had been scared. His Turks kept slipping away. So he'd lashed out and convinced himself he didn't need any of them.

Elena wasn't sure who needed a hug more. All of them, possibly.

Elena was also suddenly wondering if this was why he'd been so harsh with her, last year, when she had stumbled into his office and poured out all of her feelings.

What a mess.

"I'm surprised at you," she said, finally. "You're a Turk, Reno. Nobody can take that from you. Not even Tseng. You're not going to let him, are you?"

... maybe appealing to his pride could help, instead of hurt.

That attempt warranted a weird little sideways look. Reno's eyebrows furrowed a bit while he worked that statement over in his mind a few times.

"Didn't let Rufus take it away. Ain't about to let Tseng do the same. But I ain't gonna keep killin' myself for this job, either. That'd just make me a damn fool."

A dead one, at that.

"That's what bein' a Turk is, lately. It's a job. It ain't savin' the world. It ain't chasin' down anybody who done us wrong. It ain't blind subservience and it ain't us bein' somebody. It's us runnin' around doin' chores for the highest bidder. It's a job."

Edited 2010-06-02 00:18 (UTC)

Elena took that in, wondering what to make of it. How she felt.

"I don't think he gets it," she said, finally. "I don't think he understands that the world won't end if he doesn't finish his paperwork. I wonder ..."

She bit her lip, working it out. "I wonder if he convinces himself it would, so he doesn't have to ... think about, what now."

"There's a lot of 'what now.' If he keeps doin' like he's doin', now is gonna pass him by and become then before he even knows what the hell hit him, yoto."

He shrugged.

"He said I wouldn't be easy to replace, but that I could be." And then he shook his head. "I'm willin' to bet he ain't even made the attempt yet. That would mean admittin' that shit's fallin' apart around him and ain't gonna stop until he changes something, yo."

"I think sometimes he'd rather lose everything than admit what's going on around him," she said. "Maybe he doesn't think he can change, so he's stalling. He's so frustrating."

Well, he was.

"Let me talk to him," she offered, again. "Consider it my rookie-duty for the week."

"Talk to him, then," Reno replied, with hardly any hesitation at all. "But do it knowin' that if I go back, I ain't gonna do so on my hands and knees. And that I do got other places to go, if Fandom don't work out."

He shrugged.

"I'd miss you an' Rude," he added, for good measure.

"I don't think you'd be rid of Rude so easily," she countered. "He might stow away in your luggage, next time you leave."

Yes. A very tall bald man would be easy to miss, that way.

"I'm surprised he ain't tried to, yet." Reno smirked. "Or teachin' a class or somethin' here so he can keep an eye on me, yo. He likes to pretend that he can keep me outta trouble."

It was wishful thinking. Possibly on Rude's part. Possibly on Reno's.

"If you were both here," Elena noted, "the island would catch on fire. And there would just be a shot of the two of you running away, while you shouted 'I didn't do it!'"

'Fire' was putting it mildly, all things considered.

"Just fire?"

Hey, Reno totally understood just how much trouble the two of them had the capacity to get into. They had made trouble into a sort of art form, over the years.

"Maybe that's why he hasn't come," she laughed. "Because you two would sink the island inside of two weeks."

Rookiehood 101, Tuesday, Period 4

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