The Day After Doomsday: Getting By In a Post-Apocalyptic World - Period 2

[raspberryturk]

"You ain't gonna see it comin'," Reno announced, the moment the butt of the last student to enter the classroom hit the chair. "I don't care if you been watchin' it fallin' down on your heads for weeks, I don't care if you were warned on the news, I don't care if you're the reason it happened or if you put your life on the line to keep it from happenin' or if some kinda magic vision popped into your head an' showed you exactly what tomorrow was gonna look like, yo. I don't friggin' care."

Apparently, Reno's caring reserves were running on empty, today?

"When you're standin' there in the aftermath, lookin' over whatever's left and realizin' that everyone is dead or gonna be that way real damn soon? When you find yourself face-to-face with the actuality that everything you know ain't never gonna be the same again, you will not be ready."

He took a moment, giving the students in the classroom a significant look.

"I don't know how each of you is gonna take it, and a lot of that might depend on what it is you're faced with, yo. But lookin' at the examples I know? People when they're desperate ain't friendly creatures. I seen kids wanderin' the streets with sick little siblings to watch out for, no family to their name an' nobody in the world wantin' to help. Nobody can. They're all in the same friggin' situation. I seen people resort to looting, I seen the kinda shit that a panicked mob can do. I seen people just completely give up and wait for it, or get themselves killed in a panic."

There was a pause, then, while Reno grit his teeth and tried his damnedest to not feel so godsdamed human. Of all the subject matter that they tackled so far, this was the one that was hitting him closest to home.

Go figure.

"I saw people who had a whole lotta nothin' but their pride all their lives, let their brains turn off and cling damn hard to what they had, because that was all there was left for 'em in the world. But it was too damn big for 'em all at once. They couldn't just walk out there and face that they could never go home again, couldn't just step in and start pickin' up what they could. It took 'em a lot of time before they got to that, yo. Time an' work. Even the people who looked like they were doin' what had to get done, bit by bit? They weren't ready for it, either. Don't think for a moment that they were."

Deep breath.

"Another discussion class today. How do you think you'll react when you're standin' in the aftermath, and what do you think it'd take to snap you outta it? Talk about it if you feel comfortable with it, clam up if you don't, I ain't gonna judge. Practical crap like pissin' on rags to get drinkin' water, anyone can do. Talkin' about yourself can be damn near friggin' impossible. Just be damn respectful no matter what you think of what other people are sayin', because if I hear shit-talk about the person who admits they're gonna hide, I'll personally drag you outta the friggin' room and leave you there. Bein' afraid? That's the most sane damn response there is."

[Open!]

Comments

Discuss: Where's Your Head?

[raspberryturk]

Do you think it's going to really be on your shoulders, when the worst has just hit and the shock is still setting in? What might your first reaction be, and what do you think it's going to take to bring you back to yourself?

Will you ever come back to yourself?

Can you see yourself doing things in your desperation that you'd never think you had it in you? Good or bad? Things that would impress you, or things that would make now-you sick just thinking about it?

Re: Discuss: Where's Your Head?

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

"You have to stay alive," Quinn said, sitting up very straight. Only a slight scrunch around her nose betrayed her disgust at what she was imagining. "I'm sure you'd end up doing some pretty gross stuff, but what's the other choice? Lie down in the street and just die? You need more self-respect than that."

Repression: A grand Fabray family tradition.

Re: Discuss: Where's Your Head?

[intraspective]

"And what if you were part of the problem and reason that the world had gone that way?" Ino asked, her voice carefully curious and not combative--she wasn't looking for an argument. "Self-respect might be hard to come by after watchin' people starve 'cause of something that's partly your fault."

Re: Discuss: Where's Your Head?

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

"I don't imagine myself into that situation," Quinn answered slowly, also without heat. "I don't see how I'd end up in a situation where I'd be making people starve. If I thought I might, I'd rethink my career options."

Re: Discuss: Where's Your Head?

[intraspective]

"I like theories," Ino said, with a half shrug, as a way to explain her take on it. "It could be somethin' like a mistake even--being in the wrong place at the wrong time, you know? I think it'd be a lot harder to pick the pieces up if it were partly the fault of ourselves and it ain't pokin' at the whole situation to just assume none of us could or would have a hand in it."

Also, that made for a boring class in Ino's opinion. Uh, sorry Quinn?

Re: Discuss: Where's Your Head?

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

"Theories," Quinn repeated, seeming thoughtful about it. Well, this theory would make class a little more interesting, anyhow. "I think if you were at fault, it's even more important you find a way to go on. If you just give up, you're -- letting yourself be defined by the worst thing that's ever happened to you. You owe it to yourself to pick up as much as you can."

Re: Discuss: Where's Your Head?

[intraspective]

"You owe it to yourself, huh?" Ino asked, tilting her head. "Most people'd say that you'd owe it to others who you got stuck in that situation."

Ino kinda agreed with Quinn, when put that way, but agreeing wasn't the point of this at all.

Re: Discuss: Where's Your Head?

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

Quinn shrugged one shoulder. "Most people like running their mouths off about how much they care about everybody else, and then don't actually do anything. Focusing on myself would help me actually get things done."

She twisted a bit to see Ino more clearly. "Who would you be doing it for?" she asked. "Yourself, or everybody else."

Re: Discuss: Where's Your Head?

[intraspective]

"Depends," she admitted. "I'm better at followin' orders--if the chain of command ain't totally broken, I'd be doin' just fine no matter how the situation is."

Which was honest and true, yeah.

"If that command weren't there--it'd probably be lookin' out for me or whatever scraps of old command I can find."

Re: Discuss: Where's Your Head?

[intraspective]

"Depends on where I fell before everything," Ino murmured, toying with her pen. "There'd be a difference between having tried to stop it and failed, and having helped it along and have to deal with the consequences of what my actions wrought."

"I like to think I'd still want to survive. Givin' up and dying don't change anything."

Re: Discuss: Where's Your Head?

[onlykindofdead.livejournal.com]

Madison nodded. "I can't imagine not wanting to survive. But, I agree. A lot of it will depend on what, if any, role I had in it."

Re: Discuss: Where's Your Head?

[intraspective]

Ino gave Madison a tiny smile.

"Just so: there's a big difference between being a victim and being a perpetrator of the situation."

Re: Discuss: Where's Your Head?

[onlykindofdead.livejournal.com]

"Exactly," Madison agreed. "And if I tried to stop it and failed then I'd feel super guilty."

Re: Discuss: Where's Your Head?

[intraspective]

"And guilt can take a lot of forms," Ino replied. "It can mean you help more, but it can also mean you can't even make yourself get out of bed 'cause of it."

Re: Discuss: Where's Your Head?

[need-no-moon.livejournal.com]

Jake shrugged. "I'd be pissed," he said, because it was his default mood and easy to predict. "I don't know what'd snap me out of that, I guess having people around who are depending on you. That's got to be the most effective to make you pull your head together."

General you, somehow it was easier.

Re: Discuss: Where's Your Head?

[intraspective]

"What if they weren't depending on you?" Ino asked, because apparently she wanted to play Devil's Advocate today. "What if they blamed you for it? How do you think you'd react then?"

Re: Discuss: Where's Your Head?

[need-no-moon.livejournal.com]

Jake shrugged. "If they blamed me and wouldn't be able to be convinced? Doesn't seem like there's much point sticking around. I'd just go."

Re: Discuss: Where's Your Head?

[intraspective]

"What if it was your fault?" Ino asked softly. "And they had reason to hate you? Would you still leave them to deal with what you'd caused?"

Re: Discuss: Where's Your Head?

[need-no-moon.livejournal.com]

He wondered exactly what he'd have to do wrong to cause the end of the world.

"That doesn't seem fair," he said. "You've got to own up when you mess up, right?"

Re: Discuss: Where's Your Head?

[intraspective]

"What's fair when the world's broken and you're crushed with depression and guilt?" Ino wondered. "It's easy to say what you should do. But what people do wind up doin' tends to be somewhat different. None of us is perfect."

Re: Discuss: Where's Your Head?

[need-no-moon.livejournal.com]

"Sounds like an excuse," Jake pointed out. "Sounds to me like there's enough shit going on already that you don't need to add another pile of self loathing because you couldn't suck it up and face the consequences."

Re: Discuss: Where's Your Head?

[intraspective]

"You think it's that easy?" she challenged. "That everyone is capable of getting up like that? Someone who is so depressed about it that they can't get out of bed--you callin' that their fault that they can't fight their own demons enough to get up?"

Re: Discuss: Where's Your Head?

[eyesofahero.livejournal.com]

Cloud would panic. Heck, if Tifa hadn't been around to watch over him after Meteor and everything, he would have panicked.

Funny thing, from all the people on the room, Cloud had no idea of how to answer. He had just carried on, and somehow that didn't sound like a good answer.

Re: Discuss: Where's Your Head?

[awakestheghosts]

"I think that when it first happens, I might zone out for a little as I try to get my brain to deal with it all. After that, the instinct to survive would rise up and I would need to make myself function and survive no matter what I felt emotionally."

Re: Discuss: Where's Your Head?

[likethestore.livejournal.com]

K-Mart considered it slowly. "Well... considering I was nine years old, my first reaction was hiding. A lot of hiding. And scavenging from the store I was hiding in. But as for what it took to get my head back in the game... the burning dead bodies in the lawn and garden department. Seeing people I loved and a whole bunch of strangers end up that way over a couple months... it terrified me, but I was kinda determined not to go out the same way."