fandomhigh | Practical Crisis Problem Solving - Danger Shop, Tuesday, Period 3 (11am-12pm)

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Practical Crisis Problem Solving - Danger Shop, Tuesday, Period 3 (11am-12pm)

Oh look, still no exotic locations. The students walking through the Danger Shop doors found themselves in the library. Yes, that library. It was empty aside from the Doctor who was sitting on the collections desk, legs swinging over the edge. There were a few lamps on around the library and moonlight coming in the windows, suggesting it was late at night in here rather than 11am like it was outside.

Once everyone was gathered and the doors were closed, the Doctor leapt off the desk. "Sometimes," the Doctor started, pacing around in the well-lit areas, "you end up somewhere you're not expecting to be. Happens to me all the time. For some of you, even being here is somewhere you're not expecting to be. Wait. Sorry." He paused. "I forgot to say hello. Hello! Very rude of me. As I was saying, you don't always expect to walk head first into a problematic situation. Usually you won't be the only one there. Sometimes you'll be able to leave when others can't.

You have a choice." He looked around at them. "Fight or flight. You could take your leave, walk out and that's a perfectly reasonable solution to the problem. Of course, you'll be leaving everyone else to their own fate. Or you could always choose to stay, putting your life in immediate danger, but you could find out what's going on and help the people around you. Your choice. Make it now."

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After the Doctor waited an appropriate amount of time for anyone to leave, the Danger Shop doors closed again and disappeared into the simulation, leaving them in the shady library. "I regret to inform you that the choice you've made to stay has put you in imminent danger. The shadows may not be shadows." He fished a chicken drumstick out of his pocket and tossed it at a shadowy area near Special Collections. The flesh was stripped away in seconds. "You have the run of the school building (http://www.fandomhigh.net/maps/school.htm), though stay out of the shadows if you value your life. We're going to need power to make the building's lighting better - there's a generator on the third floor. We have fifty five minutes to survive, but we wouldn't normally know that. Plan like we're here for the long haul."

The smart thing would have been to leave, Cara was well aware of that. But if Richard or Kahlan were here neither of them would have done the smart thing, and Cara would have had to stay as well to keep them from getting killed.

And since she wouldn't be able to leave in the real world, she might as well stay now too.

"Is there a map? A sketch, leading us up to the third floor?" There were the pictograms out in the hall with You Are Here labeled on them, but affixed to the wall.

"I assume a generator does something to the lighting; who of us knows what to do with a generator?" James did not.

"Do we have any torches to light the way?" James, not being British, referred to the light powered by fire, not batteries.

"I've got the whole layout of the school memorized," Parker said. "Including the duct system." And the security system layout as well. It was part of what she did for fun -- figuring out the best way to handle theoretical break in jobs.

"The ducts." His eyes narrowed. "In the walls, yes? Good. We may need that. Hallways and stairs may be better, easier to light. Is this thing in all shadows?" he asked. For some reason, he felt a bond with her. "Do you know what a generator is? I do not." At least this class was good for having the boy thief admit to things beyond his ken.

"The generator provides power for the lights, heating, security systems... All of that stuff. I think the problem is we can't tell if it's in any given shadow," Parker said. "You might get lucky, but you might get ripped to shreds.

"If we had a steady supply of chicken bones..." He grabbed a chair and broke it, grabbing the long piece of wood that formed the back and leg. "Feeler stick. We need lights. Chair legs wrapped in cloth soaked in lamp oil. Only..." He looked around. "No lamps. Or oil. We need a steady flame, hand held." He searched around for something that could make torches or make light.

Imminent danger. Oh, what a surprise. But Alexander, who had expected such a turn, listened solemnly to exactly what sort of danger, or as much of it as was available, tense and ready.

...And then slightly paler after the tossing of the chicken bone. There might have been a small swallow, too, but it was okay. He could do this. While he was more accoustomed to moving through shadows to avoid being detected, it should be easy to just reverse that and stay out of them, right?

Oh, he hoped so. And now for a plan.

"Light," he announced obviously, looking around at the possibilities and maybe another brain to bounce off of. "We'll need plenty of light..."

"Third floor's easy enough to get to, assuming the windows aren't locked," Ben said, because sometimes he climbed buildings for fun. Weirdo, "and I'm pretty handy with electronics. The sun's not going to stay in one place, though, so I'm thinking time isn't exactly on our side here."

"Hmmm," Alexander nodded, taking the other boy's points into consideration. "That's a very good point. Can you get much light with electronics? I'm not too terribly familiar with them, I'm afraid, but I do realize that the suggestion of fire would be problematic. A flame is hardly steady in its light."

"The generator would provide a very steady light," Ben assured him. "It's the light that keeps the dorms illuminated."

Alexander nodded slowly. "That that's it, then," he said. "That seems like an easy solution."

But his eyes narrowed slightly.

Too easy....

Re: Stay

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Re: Stay

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Re: Stay

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Re: Stay

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Even though most of his instincts told him to leave, Peter knew that for one, it'd make him look like a jerk, and two, he evaluated the situation as if his classmates were the ones in danger. And since he liked most of his classmates, he couldn't just abandon them to any fate.

"So this week, instead of disintegration, we get angry pirahna shadows. At least this time there's something left to ship home to your family," he said.

"My vote is raiding the kitchen and then setting up in the Danger Shop," Peter said. "In there, we can simulate a wide open wintery plain with sunlight, no clouds, and no shade."

"That would be okay for us," Madison said. "But what about anyone else who is in the building? Besides, how does the Danger Shop have power without the generator?"

"We're not in a blackout," Peter pointed out. "We only need the generator to boost the power of the lights. Though I'm not even sure how that works since most bulbs don't work if you amp up the power beyond how much their filaments can take."

"I don't either but holing up in a Danger Shop simulation isn't a long term solution," Madison said. "And it's always possible the enemy will cut the power lines which would make the generator our only hope."

"If these things eat power lines, we're doomed generator or not," Peter said. "And really, my plan is to wait until daybreak and then we all get to flee the school. Sunshine means a lot less evil shadows."

Didi didn't love the way the choices had been presented -- in her experience, you normally got more choices, and with more nuances to them, than straight fight or flight.

But the Doctor hadn't asked for a dissertation on the pros and cons of either; he'd asked them to make a choice based on minimal information. She stayed, and tested how far she could go into the shadows without anything grabbing at her leg. Who knew: Maybe the dangers wouldn't be all that dangerous, if someone took the time to understand them.

Considering Madison wasn't terribly concerned about the whole dying thing, she stuck around and listened to the rest of the lecture.

Shadows that stripped away flesh were not what she expected but she could handle this. Maybe.

Jason wasn't the kind of person to run from trouble, especially if other people were in trouble too. That wasn't how Robins rolled. Of course, they didn't get a lot of flesh eating shadows in Gotham, so he was still at kind of a loss as to where to start to fight and/or get people to safety. For the moment, he was just going to slowly approach the shadows, to see how close he could get before he was in danger.

After her conversation with Peter, Madison was looking around for someone else who wanted to take action.

She watched Jason approaching the shadows and waited until he caught her eye, not wanting to startle him.

Jason stopped moving as he glanced over, and gave Madison a small smile. "I'm trying to find out of it likes shoe leather as much as chicken," he teased.

Helen shifted her arm into a brilliantly glowing light source. "This should be able to at least get us to the generator."

Of course Goose was going to stay, regardless of what danger faced him. He knew that he would never have the alternative to run from this type of situation back home.

Dru yowled and hopped up onto the nearest desk with a lamp to avoid being eaten.

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