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

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

[intraspective]

Ino glanced up from her scribblings and grinned a bit. "Sure," she said easily. "Pretty positive we can come up with somethin' to do with this list. Wanna start at the top, maybe, and work our way down?"

At least, that would serve unless they got side-tracked.

Re: Pair off and Discuss

[life_inshadow]

"Sure," Tara said, smiling and glancing down to read. "A wooden mask wants you to put it on. Um, I ... leave it where it is, put a shield around it, and bring somebody like Karla or Raven down to see if they can figure out what it is? It's usually bad to touch things that seem magic if you don't know what they are."

Re: Pair off and Discuss

[intraspective]

Ino looked a bit sheepish. "I might poke it with a stick or something," she admitted, "though I wouldn't be so reckless as to try and touch it with my skin, you know? And I'd call rather than leavin' it--I can't put any shields up so to keep other people 'way from it, I'd have to stick around."

Which put herself in theoretical danger but, eh, Ino didn't mind that.

Re: Pair off and Discuss

[life_inshadow]

"Calling would be a better idea anyhow," Tara said, equally sheepish. "If I put up a shield, somebody determined could break it, or maybe the mask could break it itself. It's way better to have someone stand guard."

She twirled her pen and added, "What do you think poking it with a stick could do?"

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

[momslilassassin]

Ben laughed. "But maybe it will drop delicious candy from the sky!" he said.

That never happened when you pushed the red button. Ever.

Re: Pair off and Discuss

[need-no-moon.livejournal.com]

"Don't make me regret all those missed opportunities," Jake protested. "I'll have to start setting off all the fire alarms around the school."

Re: Pair off and Discuss

[momslilassassin]

"Think we could pass it off as part of a class assignment?" Ben mused.

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

[oops-mbad.livejournal.com]

"Hey. Uh...I should probably mention I'm Raven's roommate." Diana said, a bit awkwardly. "I'm also fond of free will, so there's that." Speech done, Diana glanced at the list again. "Is it bad that my reaction to these is that it's time to investigate?"

Re: Pair off and Discuss

[talks-backwards.livejournal.com]

She wasn't sure if that was a good thing, or a bad thing. Zatanna decided she would see it as a good thing. "Uh, it doesn't make my life any less awkward", protested as she sighed; it only made it weirder than her big sister would side with her...arch-nemesis? Less favorite person? Zatanna wasn't even sure she didn't like Raven, but anyway, classes.

"Not at all", replied as she smiled a little. "I would do the same thing." Much to her dad's chagrin, but hey, you don't raise an adventurer and then don't allow her to explore. "Although, if it looks dangerous and interesting, then I would be extra careful."

Re: Pair off and Discuss

[oops-mbad.livejournal.com]

"Right." Diana said, nodding and would do no such thing. "If something weird is happening, isn't it better to at least get some idea of what's going on rather than just sit back and do nothing?"

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

[glacial_queen]

"So, what if we pretended that Professor Skywalker was off the island when we found them?" Karla suggested, turning towards Raven.

What? She knew her friend by now.

Re: Pair off and Discuss

[trigons_child]

"How did you know what I was thinking?" Raven said, then shook her head and blushed. "Lady Ghanima then. If any of these situations involve a threat to the island, than it is our responsibility to inform an adult about what is going on, or to bring a potentially dangerous item to them."

Re: Pair off and Discuss

[glacial_queen]

"Raven, there are very few times when your first thought isn't 'inform' Professor Skywalker," Karla said, winking. "It wasn't very hard to guess. Besides, when I'm thinking of an adult to tell something to, he's usually my first choice, too."

Granted, her thoughts didn't often trend towards 'Tell an adult,' but when they did, he was high up on the list. Next to Lady Ghanima, actually. And 'Dite.

"But what if Professor Skywalker and Lady Ghanima were among the faculty members acting all bizarre? In fact, what if all the faculty members are?"

Re: Pair off and Discuss

[trigons_child]

"I would use my gifts to see if I could determine if there was something affecting their behavior," Raven said. "If something were to act upon their emotions, I would surely sense it."

She paused, then added, "And you are still in trouble."

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.