Unconventional Tactics, Tuesday, Period 2

[raspberryturk]

"Rookies!" Reno was looking pretty darn refreshed today as he walked into the classroom, yes. It was entirely possible that this had something to do with some time well-spent off the island, accomplishing not much of anything in particular, but doing it in good company. "Today, we're gonna talk a little about prevention of the big shit, yo. I know, I know, most of what hits the island is gonna hit it no matter what we do. We ain't gonna be able to stop every spaceship of honkin' aliens that flies into the atmosphere an' blows up the school, zoto."

He shrugged.

"Things like Vice-Principal Hades tryin' to turn the island into an extension of the underworld? How're we supposed to see that comin', right?" Except possibly for the fact that he was Hades and all, really! "But that don't mean that we should use that as an excuse to get stupid if somethin' is on its way that we can prevent, with a bit of thought or attention to detail, zoto. The island's last big zombie invasion could'a been avoided after that attack in the mall if only the teacher watchin' the portal the students came back through had stuck around a few minutes longer an' made damn sure that it went and closed all the way. Every telepath, psychic, and empath on the island spends a night tossin' and turnin' instead of sleepin' because they got a bad feeling? That's somethin' to pay attention to, yo. Fandom's given us warnings from time to time, and we still keep goin' on with our day like there ain't nothin' goin' on until we're in it up to our eyebrows, zoto."

And another shrug. By now, Reno was pacing lazily back and forth in front of the classroom.

"That don't just go for life here on the island, yo. You go home, you see hints of somethin' bigger, and you make a choice to either ignore it or help it along, you gotta live with the consequences. Fortunately, things here on Fandom usually turn out for the best. We ain't had many students die when the big shit hits. But it's happened. Bein' here don't mean some kinda automatic safeguard, just because the risk factor seems smaller at a glance. Dependin' on where you end up after you leave here, that risk factor may or may not get a whole shitload bigger. Danger is Danger, Rookies, no matter where you go."

A sigh, and he pulled a small green sphere from his pocket, and idly started tossing it back and forth from hand to hand. Anyone with any sense for the supernatural might recognize it as a channel for power, magical and ancient. Anyone without any sense for the supernatural would at least be able to tell that it was giving off a faint greenish glow between Reno's fingers. Thundaga Materia. Mostly there just to make certain that he still had people's attentions, yes.

"With the nature of the island bein' what it is, there are going to be things you run into that you won't necessarily recognize. Things that might look harmless that ain't, or things that look like a big friggin' deal that really are harmless. Today, the exercise is gonna be a simple one. Yes, again, zoto. We'll get into the more hands-on crap later on, as the semester progresses. Today, I want you to pair off. I got a list of hypotheticals for you to pick from, just to get you puttin' your brains to work, zoto. Pick one of 'em, and then talk about what you'd do if you were the one who tripped over it. Easy shit. Get to it."

[Open!]

Comments

Sign In

[raspberryturk]

Paying attention to detail.

Re: Sign In

[awakestheghosts]

Chloe Saunders

Re: Sign In

[intraspective]

Yamanaka Ino

Lecture

[raspberryturk]

Take notes, think on what Reno is saying, give one another dirty looks, or stare at the shiny thing in his hands.

Oooo, shiny thing.

Re: Lecture

[awakestheghosts]

Oh no doubt about it, this Rookie's Rookie was taking notes, but also staring at the thing that Reno was playing with. It was making her get that feeling she got when there was power around and she wasn't sure if that was good or bad.

Re: Lecture

[intraspective]

Materia! And and and oh, Ino was going to covet it.

And wonder if she was good enough to steal it from him. She'd give it back (no way would he let her even get out of the classroom with it, Ino guessed) but just getting her hands on it would be an interesting challenge.

... It probably said something that Ino was more focused on planning how to snag the Materia from him than, you know, the work.

Re: Lecture

[life_inshadow]

Tara listened closely, doodling what looked like the shiny thing in her notebook as she did. She'd have to try to do some research into glowy orb things at the Magic Box Thursday.

Re: Lecture

[talks-backwards.livejournal.com]

Shiny and small and was that a glow? Zatanna wasn't going to stop at the notes, she was going to sketch that thing. And of course, pay attention to the lecture.

Re: Lecture

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

Effy had no magical inkling, but there was something oddly drawing about it, and she was watching him rolling it around his palm. It was likely the glowiness alone that did that.

She would be paying more attention to his fidgeting than the lecture. With any luck, Reno wouldn't care too much.

Pair off and Discuss

[raspberryturk]

Find yourself a partner, and discuss as many of these hypothetical situations as you want. What do you do if you stumble across any one of them? Do you try to handle this alone? Tell a friend? Walk away and let it be somebody else's problem? Feel free to let debate with your partner get as heated as you like, but keep it reasonable, Rookies. Reno is paying attention, after all.

• A simple wooden mask washes up on the shore. It doesn't look like much, but it seems to be calling out to you, a subtle pull just begging you to put it on.


• Some creepy little travelling salesman wanders down the causeway. He's got a lot of interesting items for sale. Like that monkey paw, there. The one that he insists will give you five wishes for only a nickel.


• It's a red button! You have no idea what it does, but it's sitting there, all tempting.


• In a ditch, you trip over some canisters of what looks like a strange green ooze. A few of them have leaked, and it looks like the flora around them has grown unnaturally large.


• Lights in the sky? Probably just a sattellite. Only, a few of them seem to be moving far faster than others, and the next day, you hear radio reports of strange patterns in fields where the grass or wheat or some other plant has been tamped down.


• The door to Special Collections in the library swings open. It looks especially inviting, today.


• One of the members of the faculty seems to be acting differently than usual. Decidedly off-balance, possibly more reckless than ever, possibly just eerily more reclusive and snappish. It just doesn't seem to sit right, somehow, no matter how much they insist that there's nothing amiss.


• This is that catch-all option. The one with that basic sense of 'something is about to happen' that lingers in the air just hours before something bad does happen.

Re: Pair off and Discuss

[intraspective]

Ino was... totally working on the assignment yes. That was what the scribbling in her notebook was.

Really.

Okay, maybe she was working on something else. But a partner, sure, she'd focus on the real assignment if she had a partner.

... For a little while.

Re: Pair off and Discuss

[life_inshadow]

"Want to work together?" Tara asked, since she was sitting pretty close to Ino anyhow and she was almost certain Ino didn't bite.

Mostly, she thought all the situations on the list read like starts of the kinds of movies where you spent half the time screaming at the characters.

Re: Pair off and Discuss

[awakestheghosts]

Chloe was making a list of all of these strange happenings as she looked around for a partner. Someone was very glad she had missed the zombie invasion that Reno talked about.

[[OOC: Warning for Extreme SP as Fiscal Year End = Busy Hell]]

Re: Pair off and Discuss

[brat-intraining.livejournal.com]

"Yo, Chloe." Oh, that would be Kennedy dropping into the next seat. "You wanna do this discussion time thing?"

Re: Pair off and Discuss

[momslilassassin]

Ben wondered what it said about his self-preservation instincts that all of these options sounded really appealing to him.

The last one, in particular, happened at least quarterly.

Re: Pair off and Discuss

[need-no-moon.livejournal.com]

"Doesn't everyone by now know that you shouldn't push the red button?" Jake asked and since Ben was closest to him, he got stuck with the remark.

Re: Pair off and Discuss

[oops-mbad.livejournal.com]

Diana glanced over the list and decided that it wasn't that bad a thing that all of those sounded like things she would go for or explore. Now she just needed a partner to creep out.

Re: Pair off and Discuss

[talks-backwards.livejournal.com]

Maybe that was why she had been tasked with being Zatanna's big sis? Because the girl knew she would pretty much go for any of those; after hearing the others Reno had told them about, it seemed like the list could only get less dangerous and more...odd.

"Hey~", called as she turned at Diana, wondering if she also knew about Raven and everything.

Ugh, of course she knows. If she hadn't been there, probably she had been informed of just who she had been stuck with.

Re: Pair off and Discuss

[trigons_child]

Raven's default answer to most of these would be to inform Professor Skywalker.

Sigh.

Re: Pair off and Discuss

[notmyownage]

Claudia wondered how many of the solutions would turn out to be "set it on fire".

She was in that kind of mood.

The TAs

[raspberryturk]

When they tag in, hopefully with an eye for the little details as well.

Re: The TAs

[awakestheghosts]

Chloe was indeed here and going over details in her notebook...

...as well as wondering what that thing in Reno's hand was.

Re: The TAs

[need-no-moon.livejournal.com]

Jake had an eye to detail... when it suited him. Okay, so most of the time he tended to fail at it, but if he really wanted to... Yeah.

Reno

[raspberryturk]

Who is quite content to make a casual attempt at contact juggling with his maxed-out Thundaga Materia. It's not going too well, but at least he's fast enough to catch it before it hits the floor each time he fumbles.

OOC

[raspberryturk]

This might actually be the shortest lecture in Reno's brief teaching history.

I feel oddly accomplished about this.