fandomhigh | The Day After Doomsday: Getting By In a Post-Apocalyptic World

"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!]

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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."

"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."

Quinn blinked. "So you'd just be doing whatever you were told to do?" she asked.

Really, a girl who followed Sue Sylvester around the way she did shouldn't seem so superior.

"Call it a different culture," she said, because it was. Ino's world was built on very different lines. "I ain't much of a stand on my own person, push comes to shove."

Though if it came to that, she'd go down kicking and fighting and clawing her way up in an attempt for survival. Ino was good at surviving, but a chain of command kept her stable.

Quinn considered that. "Well," she said graciously. "I guess not everybody can be a leader."

"Not everyone wants to lead," she said, keeping her voice mild. "Not everyone likes the same things. And for everyone who don't like to lead, that don't mean they can't."

Because Ino could, even if she knew it wasn't her strongest point.

Quinn privately thought that most people who said they didn't like to lead just knew they weren't any good at it, and she heard sour grapes in Ino's tone. Still, she didn't care enough to pick a fight about it in the middle of class.

"It seems to me like if we're after the apocalypse you need to do whatever you can do," she tried instead. "Since in this scenario, it's really not about what you like."

"And what side you've come down on," she answered, arching her eyebrows. "A victim or a perpetrator. That'd mean different things."

"Ugh, why do you keep acting like it's some kind of 50-50 shot?" Quinn said, giving into the urge to roll her eyes. "It's like .... 99 percent victim, 1 percent perpetrator. I'm not going to obsess about the 1 percent. Anyhow, same thing applies, you still owe it to yourself to do the best you can to keep moving."

"Keep moving," she repeated. "Even if everyone you love is dead? Everything you've worked for is gone? Start all over while dealing with severe depression, severe difficulties getting food enough to survive, water enough to survive, and still try and change things? That wouldn't be easy."

She wasn't going to raise her voice, no. Not when it was Reno's class and she was his TA.

"And your choice," Quinn said, going back to her initial point, "is what? Hate yourself, lie down, and just let yourself die? If you feel that way you might as well just find a shotgun and get it over with."

"A lot of people would," she replied. "Do you think that's a weak response?"

Quinn didn't have to think about this one. "Absolutely."

"Why?" Ino asked, just as quickly. "When they've got nothing left, ain't they doin' the rest of the world a favour?"

She didn't actually believe that: in fact, Ino in a fair bit of agreement with Quinn's side of the conversation than she was letting on.

"I agreed it was weak," Quinn answered. "And it probably is doing everybody else a favor. It's still the wrong thing to do."

"By whose standards?" Ino asked. "In some cultures, killing yourself is the only honourable solution under some circumstances."

"Why are we supposed to judge by the standards of people who aren't us and are wrong?" Quinn asked, with what was, for her, relatively mild scorn.

"Thinkin' outside the box," she said promptly. "And it ain't so rare a solution for some of the students in here."

Like, say, her.

No one ever forgot the story of Hatake Sakumo, if they were from Konoha.

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

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