fandomhigh | Fandom High Welcome Picnic, Front Lawn of the School, All Day: Part I

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!event: welcome picnic

Fandom High Welcome Picnic, Front Lawn of the School, All Day: Part I

With all the rain the island had seen during the week, everyone had been hoping for a sudden turn to nice weather for the welcome picnic. But as the crew from the school started to set up for the picnic, the sky got darker and darker, and by the time everything was ready, it had started to steadily rain. As tempting as it was to move everything inside, there just wasn't anywhere in the school for so many people to gather at once, and since it was still comfortably warm outside, extra measures were taken to ensure that the picnic could go on as scheduled. Tents were set up to cover the information tables, the food, and most of the tables and chairs, and umbrellas had been gathered, ready for use by anyone who wanted more personal protection against the weather. It didn't look like the rain would be letting up any time soon.

[OCD is up! This is part one of the picnic, specifically for meeting siblings, roommates, and teachers. The rest of the picnic is happening here and here, in an effort to keep browsers from breaking for as long as possible. Since it's outside, the picnic is open to all students, teachers, and townies!]

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"Robots, I can live with," Reno mused. Wooden soldiers... sounded kind of weird, but it wasn't like there weren't monsters back home that were made of wood or anything. "Take what you can outta whatever the hell's left of home, an' get to some kinda checkpoint, maybe. Not that there are ever convenient points where you can stop an' camp out and just recharge when shit gets real, yo."

... Okay, maybe there were. And it was entirely possible that they glowed and had a big S floating over them.

But still.

"Leaves a handful leadin' up to that. What say we start 'em off light and work 'em up to the heavy stuff?"

"Something like...a toystore for the intro class?" Cindy asked thoughtfully. "We'll do the introductions and then send them out to see what they bring back for weapons?"

"Twisted," Reno mused after a moment of consideration. "I like that, yo."

Oh yeah, they were going to get along just fine.

"We can go from there to... I dunno. Day on the beach. See how they fare with beach umbrellas and stocked coolers an' junk. Against..." He pursed his lips. Odds were, none of their students would have any clue what a Sahagin was. So he'd just dumb it down. "Fish-men or somethin'."

"Fish-men are good," Cindy said, a wry smile on her face. "I can work with that. And a bar. Definitely some kind of bar or restaurant. We can see how many people decide to make Molotovs. And if anyone is brighter than that."

"See how many people would dice up their hands breakin' bottles against the bar," Reno snorted. "Good thing for Danger Shop safeties, yo. Last thing I need is to spend half the class castin' Cure and fillin' out paperwork."

"'Casting Cure?'" Cindy repeated, looking surprised. "You're a mage?"

"Close enough to pass around here, I guess," Reno replied with a shrug and a smirk. "I'm full of surprises, at least. But it ain't like I can go an' pull spells outta my ass, yo. I got a handful that I use now and then in battle, an' a few that I carry around just in case, and then mostly I just rely on potions an' whatever to get me by."

... He was kind of dumbing it down as he went. Several years of Fandom had taught him that most people wouldn't know Materia if he smacked them in the forehead with it.

"Huh." The idea of carrying around spells and potions was...intriguing, to say the least. Cindy had a few of Frau Totenkinder's spells in a portable form, but she had to pay a lot for the privilege. She idly wondered what Reno's price would be.

Something to think about further, she supposed.

"Shall we use zombies to attack the bar, then? The Caritas band goes feral?"

"That bunch is harmless enough, considerin' they're held together with duct tape an' a prayer," Reno chuckled. "Seems like a good scenario to me, yo. Especially for a third class."

Reno had no great love for zombies, and maybe a little trauma relating to them that he'd never in a million years admit to. Keeping the Caritas Zombie simulation fairly fluffy would mean that Reno wouldn't take to completely avoiding the place in favor of the Devil's Nest. But, for the sake of education...

"Where we wanna go from there? That's three outta seven, we'll probably wanna take it a little more serious for a few, yo."

"By the fourth class, they'll probably have figured out the point of the class and how it works," Cindy said with boundless optimism. "So we can afford to get a little more serious. How about a house or a dorm room or something? In case they're ever invaded and stuck at home?"

Reno's lips pursed almost imperceptibly as he thought back on the barricade that the surviving students had put up around the dorms, back when the zombies were running amok over the island. Not that he wanted the whole class to be about the shambling undead, because... Just no. But...

"Maybe we set it on the dorm grounds, then. It ain't like we never got invasions tryin' to take the place over, after all. Give 'em ten minutes inside a sim of the dorms to grab what they can, lock 'em outta the weapons locker, and set 'em loose on somethin' tryin' to overtake the building?"

"Do we ever want to have a class where they have to try to protect others?" Cindy asked. "Or one where they have to try to figure out impromptu first aid supplies, too?"

And now Reno took all of a half-second to think on that one.

"Hell yes. Both. Maybe at once. I did one class where the students had to piggyback a partner to safety, yo. We could probably adapt somethin' like that. Teamwork, you know? Groups of three or for or whatever. One person piggybackin', one person wounded, and another to cover their asses while they make an escape?"

"I like that," Cindy said, approvingly. "There's no way they're ever going to accept the necessity of learning to leave someone behind yet, so teaching them the best ways to try and get someone out is probably the best we can do."

There might have been the slightest hint of bitter resignation underlying that statement, if Reno was listening very closely.

Reno was a Turk. He was hardwired to listen closely, without ever looking as though he was paying attention in the least.

That said, maybe the reason he managed to pick out that slight hint was because he knew all too well what it felt like in the first place.

"Most never do learn. Don't matter what's at stake," he noted. Voice of experience. "Maybe we give 'em a few options for that one. Try an' run all the way out, or do first-aid on the field, or hide the wounded an' fight... Make it a free-for all, see how they deal with the options. Go from there."

And Cindy noticed that voice of experience and filed it away for further prodding at, if necessary.

"Maybe we could work that into the final?" Cindy suggested. "Have one class where they learn to piggyback or cover, then in the all-hell-breaks-loose scenario, they can pick what they do best?"

And then thinking of the students she'd taught before, she added, "What do you think about using powers? On the one hand, limiting the options that are available to them is kind of frustrating. On the other, we want them to get creative, right?"

Reno shrugged as he thought that one over, tapping the mouth of his water bottle to his lips a few times before speaking.

"Been my experience around here, more'n once, even, that when shit gets real, powers have been taken outta the picture entirely. Like in that maze, you know? An' somethin' one of my Rookies told me about another Fandom, too. Point here is to be able to improvise when the circumstances are pretty tight, yo."

A beat.

"But, that said, maybe we do set aside one class for powers, yo. I could round up a few low-level Materia, nothin' real serious, an' we could set 'em loose on the danger shop with powers. See how many of 'em light their own asses on fire."

... What? It would be funny.

Cindy hadn't been around much for the maze ~~go figure~~ and didn't have powers that could be shut off anyway, but that was good to know.

"Again with safety protocols to keep us from an overabundance of paperwork and potions," Cindy said with a wry smile. "On the other hand, it's a lot less likely for most of them to ever be in a situation where magic items were lying around for them to use. Hard to say."

Though the possibilities of that were pretty damn hilarious.

"Real hard to say, around here," Reno noted. "Back where I'm from, magic items do sit around, waitin' for someone to trip over 'em to use 'em. Never know how many other students might be in the same situation. Especially on the island, where a friggin' turtle shell can be lethal if you kick it over the right weekend, yo."

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Fandom High Welcome Picnic, Front Lawn of the School, All Day: Part I

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