Unconventional Tactics, Tuesday, Period 2

[raspberryturk]

"Yo, Rookies!" If Reno looked a little less mellow than usual, that was totally the imagination of everyone in the class. If he looked like he'd done up a few more buttons than usual on his shirt, too? Well, that much wasn't. Even Reno could respect when it was really freaking awkward to go around half-dressed in front of students who were practically his own age. "We've covered all kinds of fun fightin' crap already, and healin' and all of that, yo. So today we're gonna expand a little on that barricade thing we did the other week, and go into defenses as a whole."

Insert thoughtful pause while Reno struggles not to make a horribly off-color crack about 'protection,' here.

"In the sim where we we set up that barricade and faced off against them griffins, we were really just stratchin' the surface, yo. There are plenty of ways to keep invaders out, beyond just pilin' things up. It's true, some of the best-fortified places have way more time to set up those defenses than we do, yo. Can we really be expected to-" he choked on the word 'erect,' "set up a wall around the whole island or whatever? But there are things we can do. I know my girl Rikku's got experience with puttin' together patrol droids, which ain't a bad first step. Knowin' there's an enemy on the way and gatherin' info about 'em early on is a big help on the way to fendin' them off."

Deep breath. Press onward, Reno!

"Makin' yourself ha-difficult to find is another important step. Camo, magic or tech-based sight-shields, findin' your way into convenient little hidey-holes, they're all gonna save your ass when the heat is on, yo. And then, of course, comes the barricade stuff. The point ain't always to pile so much junk so high that it'll take 'em forever to get in. That kinda strategy don't work against an aerial enemy, does it? But the same idea applies, whether you're layin' out mines, electric fences, or lightin' your barricade on fire for one major last stand."

Okay! He was in the home stretch now! He could do this!

"Discussion class today, yo. Knowin' as much as you do about the island, how would you go about protectin' what you got? Where do your own strengths sit? Talk about what it is you can contribute to fortifyin' the island if somethin' big hits, whether it's early-warning, finding a place to hunker down that'll give you a tactical advantage, or just keepin' shit out."

[Open!]

Comments

Talk to Reno

[raspberryturk]

Who is sitting behind his desk, for once. Probably just to reiterate his 'I am the teacher, you are the students' standpoint at the moment.

It's really weird, balancing these things when you were classmates with some of your pupils just a year and a half before.

Re: Talk to Reno

[glacial_queen]

After class, Karla made her way over to Reno's desk. She had another note to give and apology to offer.

"Hey, uhh, Reno?" Karla said, standing awkwardly in front of his desk. "Do you have a minute? Maybe more than one?"

He was getting a special letter, too. Maybe. Did being a Rookie extend that far? Karla wasn't sure.

Re: Talk to Reno

[raspberryturk]

Being a Rookie extended as far as being a Rookie needed to extend, and Reno raised an eyebrow a little, glancing Karla's way, making special note of her general change in appearance, and remembering the last time he'd seen her drop weight so suddenly.

"Yo, Rookie. What's up?"

Huh.

Re: Talk to Reno

[glacial_queen]

"Well, I guess the first thing I should do is apologize for missing a few classes," Karla said, shuffling out a bit awkwardly. "I have a note--" she handed it over to him, "--but it's a week out of date. I came back to the island and got turned into an Arcerian cat for a week."

Which had been pretty nice while it lasted, actually.

"And...well, I have another letter for you, too," she said, fidgeting a little more. "If, umm, you want it. It's kind of long? And personal?"

Then realizing how that might sound, she hastily added, "From my sortof guardian. About me, not from me."

No teenage, fangirly love letters, Reno. Don't worry.

Re: Talk to Reno

[raspberryturk]

Which was an addendum that came much appreciated, really. Reno's eyebrow stayed up as he reached for the first letter, giving it a quick glance. Aha.

"Letters about you, huh? I got plenty of time for readin', yo. Better let me see it, huh?"

He was withholding statement on her reasons for missing class for just a moment, here. Shit happened, he understood, and the short letter that he had skimmed did, at least, explain a few other things, like her somewhat gaunt appearance.

Re: Talk to Reno

[glacial_queen]

Karla handed the letter from Saetan over to Reno, trying not to look apprehensive. It was still sealed and Karla was getting rather twitchy about finding out what it said. 'Dite's reaction last night hadn't given her much to go on.

Though, really, Karla was rather twitchy for several reasons.

Re: Talk to Reno

[raspberryturk]

Reno took letter number two with the sort of self-control that was imperative for a Turk to exercise at even the best of times, and carefully puled it from the envelope and read it over, the corners of his mouth twitching a little as he did so.

Yeah, he could kind of see the issue, here. He could kind of relate with Karla's reasoning, as well. It made for an interesting spin on things, in Reno's mind.

"I ain't here to babysit you," he said, thoughtfully, pursing his lips as he folded up the letter and tucked it away inside of his jacket. "You're a big girl, zoto."

That did not mean that Karla was off the hook, no.

Re: Talk to Reno

[glacial_queen]

"Does it ask for that?" Karla asked, looking horrified. "Mother Night, I'll strangle him if it does."

Re: Talk to Reno

[raspberryturk]

"Nah," Reno said easily enough, patting at his chest to smooth out the fabric where the envelope was tucked away. "But I figured I better make sure you knew that. So. How about you tell me what happened, now that I got the quick an' dirty from your Uncle Saetan, huh?"

Well, not 'quick,' so much. But it did make for some interesting insights, there. And if she didn't know what was in the letter, that meant that Reno could try to round out the story some by asking questions.

It was a Turk thing. Sorry, Karla.

Re: Talk to Reno

[glacial_queen]

"When I was in Kaeleer?" Karla checked. Glancing around, she grabbed a chair and dragged it over to Reno's desk. Standing for a while got tiring. Oh, who was she kidding? Everything got tiring these days.

"The Sunday after Homecoming, I had a nightmare. Not just any old nightmare, a true one. It's one of my abilities; I can see the future--or the present, or the past--in dreams. My dream let me know that my best friend was in trouble, so I booked a portal home to see what I could do..."

It was a long story, explaining the safframate and some of Jaenelle's history with the drug, her decision to follow them, the long, hard trek through Askavi. She didn't falter until she began talking about Agio; the orphaned children, the coppery reek of blood, of stitching organs back into a body with only Craft as anesthesia. As awful and exhausting as Askavi had been, it was nothing compared to Agio.

"And then Khevin died," Karla finished simply. "And Jaenelle just...lost it. Too much strain, the safframate was still in her system, keeping her on edge. So she came outside and, well, killed them all. In less than a minute six thousand Jhinka were nothing more than wet rain."

Re: Talk to Reno

[raspberryturk]

Reno listened, and he listened intently, leaning back in his seat, eyes on the ceiling. Every now and then, he would glance her way when she said something worth making note of.

And then, finally, he spoke.

"If I could'a, I probably would'a done the same."

As Karla. As Jaenelle. As the people who took off after them. Pick one.

Re: Talk to Reno

[glacial_queen]

"I don't feel bad for anything I did," Karla said, a bit fiercely. "Except for sneaking out of the Keep and making people worry. But these people were dying. Other things, sure, maybe I pushed too hard or tried to do too much--" Edge didn't come to mind, no, really! "--but this time, I don't feel guilty. I paid the price; I still am. But it was a fair one. They didn't deserve what happened to them. The least I could do was try to make things right!"

Re: Talk to Reno

[raspberryturk]

"Hey, I ain't sayin' anything against what you did," Reno pointed out. "You saw the way I was lookin' when I came back here after a year in Edge, Rookie. I can sympathize."

Okay, for him, it was mostly a guilt thing. And not survivor's guilt so much as 'this is partly my fault' guilt. But still.

Re: Talk to Reno

[glacial_queen]

Karla nodded, settling back into her chair again. Well, sagging back in was a bit more accurate. "The problem is, I do that too often," she said quietly. "So now people get confused when I'm doing it because it's the right thing to do and when it's not. Hell's fire, I don't know where the line is anymore."

She sighed. "Like when I did that." She gave him a significant glance, so he'd know she meant Edge. "Did I have to wear myself down as much as I did? Probably not? But...the land needed so much help. Aer--the church couldn't do it alone. Why should I turn away when there's still more I can give?"

Re: Talk to Reno

[raspberryturk]

"Could'a done it in fits and starts," Reno noted, pursing his lips a little. "Somethin' tells me that Aerith," of course he knew who it had been. Kinda scoffed about the Ancient to this very day, but that was neither here nor there, "wasn't about to be choosy about how fast you did what you were doin'."

You know, just tossing that out there.

"There's a difference between turnin' away, and takin' a breather when you need one, Rookie. It's an important line to learn, yo."

Re: Talk to Reno

[glacial_queen]

"I wasn't sure how long you'd let me stay," Karla admitted quietly. "I had to do it all at once to be certain I did as much as I can."

Though if she hadn't exhausted herself at once, maybe they wouldn't have been so eager to get her home. And that didn't help in any of the other scenarios when she'd exhausted herself.

Re: Talk to Reno

[raspberryturk]

Reno frowned just to hear it.

"You saw Edge," he said, his one tone going surprisingly quiet, especially for Reno. "You think we were in any position to turn help away when we got it right there, Rookie? Elena and I were friggin' terrified that you were gonna drain yourself dry. But then, one of the reasons we didn't interrupt was because we were scared you wouldn't come back to finish the job, either."

And he said that with no small amount of guilt in his voice, true. It had been selfish of them to let her keep pushing. But then, neither of them had known just how far she'd go, and they'd both had no idea just what effect it would have to interrupt, either.

"You didn't owe us nothin', yoto."

Re: Talk to Reno

[glacial_queen]

"You said anything about owing?" Karla asked, honestly confused. "I'm a Queen. I can feel the land. Who could turn away from that? Especially when it wasn't just the land in need, it was the people, too? I'd go back and keep helping if you'll let me, too."

Re: Talk to Reno

[raspberryturk]

Which got the tiniest twitch of a smile out of Reno.

"I'll mention that to Elena, sometime," he noted. Obviously, they weren't going to even consider that right now. But, hey, someday? "So long as you understand we'd be watchin' you this time like a pair of friggin' condors, makin' sure you know where to draw the line."

And that was what it boiled down to. Where is the line drawn?

Re: Talk to Reno

[glacial_queen]

And that was where Karla came up blank. Right now, her line was 'as far as I can go without breaking my Sapphire.' And that was unhealthy. Especially since it was all tangled up in guilt and fear and pain.

"I understand," Karla said. "But I want to get to the point where I don't have to be watched. I don't want to be a...a...burden!"

Re: Talk to Reno

[raspberryturk]

Reno's eyebrows raised a little at that, and he reached up a hand to scratch at his scalp for a moment. Oh, man.

"... I don't think there's any danger of that happening, Rookie. You just gotta learn to take a step back. Where would you start to worry, if it was someone you cared for doin' all the same?"

Re: Talk to Reno

[glacial_queen]

Karla frowned. "I worry when anyone does anything," she confessed. "But since getting wrapped up and gauze and treated like glass makes me want to bite something..."

Re: Talk to Reno

[raspberryturk]

"The line," Reno said simply, "is the same place for you as you would draw it for anyone, yo. Can you put someone else in your shoes? Picture someone you love pushin' themselves until there's nothin' left?"

Yes, this from the guy who'd buried himself under a overpass with some of Rude's best explosives in a long-shot effort to stop three crazies on motorbikes... That hadn't worked anyhow.

Re: Talk to Reno

[glacial_queen]

"Jaenelle--she's my best friend in the world, in any world--pushes herself further and harder than I do," Karla admitted. "Sometimes, it's all I can do to keep up. I mean, I can't really. I'll never be able to keep up with her; she's too strong, too powerful. But, with everything that's happened to her, she doesn't give up. She pushes herself to the last. And even if I can't go as far as she can or do as much as she can, how can I give up if she doesn't?"

Karla had the worst role-model ever.

Re: Talk to Reno

[raspberryturk]

Reno's eyebrows, they twitched upwards.

"Sounds to me like you'll give up before she does, because you'll be too busy bein' dead to be helpful," he noted. Because damn it, he was Reno, and he didn't need no stinkin' honesty day to be painfully blunt. "The amount of dead people who've ever helped me out, I can count on one hand, Rookie, and you ain't no Ancient, hangin' around churches."