fandomhigh | Unconventional Tactics, Tuesday, Period 2

"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!]

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Paying attention to detail.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

I feel oddly accomplished about this.

Chloe Saunders

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.

Yamanaka Ino

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.

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.

Kate Gregson

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]]

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

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

Effy Stonem

Tara Maclay

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.

"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.

Ben Skywalker

Kennedy

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.

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

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.

Jacob Black

Diana Hansen

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Unconventional Tactics, Tuesday, Period 2

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Lecture

Pair off and Discuss

The TAs

Reno

OOC

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