The Day After Doomsday: Getting By In a Post-Apocalyptic World, Wednesday, Period 4

[raspberryturk]

"Rookies." It had been far too damn long since the last time Reno was standing in the Danger Shop, looking at a classroom full of kids he didn't know. It was kind of like coming home, and that much was apparent in his relaxed posture as he surveyed the group. All around them, the holographic landscape was a barren desert, the sky above them a sickly haze except for the giant burning rock hanging overhead, which managed to dwarf the moon by far. "Heh. Rookies."

Yes, this was his opening line. Hello, class.

"Look up there. That? That up there, is what brought my world as I knew it to a crashing stop. You wanna know what happens when a rock like that falls down from the sky?" He lifted his eyebrows pointedly as he looked at each and every student in his class, one by one. "No. No, you really don't. But you're in this class, so over the next few weeks, you're gonna learn anyway, yo. We watched that bad boy falling down on our heads for weeks, and there wasn't a godsdamned thing we could do to stop it, either. And believe me, we tried. The only reason I'm standing here right now is because the Planet tried even harder. We're gonna cover more than 'rocks fall, everyone dies' scenarios over this term, of course, but I figured, hey, probably not a bad way to catch your attention."

Thanks for that, Gaia.

"This week, we're gonna keep it light, yo. I'm not new to the island, but I'm new to all of you, and I want to know what the hell I'm working with this summer. So, you Rookies are gonna give me your names, tell me any experience you might have with the end of the world, or if you have none, tell me what it is you're hoping to get out of this class. And, if you were to look up in the sky and see that thing, and there was sweet fuck-all you could do to stop it, tell me how you would spend your last few weeks alive. I'm Reno. I'm here teaching this class because I lived that once or twice or... I lost count. And when I was faced with that one up there? First, I got pretty damn drunk. And then I tried to help evacuate what was left of Midgar, my world's biggest city, anyway."

On orders, sure, but that hardly mattered. When you were a Turk, you Did The Job.

"Your turn."

[Open!]

Comments

Sign In!

[raspberryturk]

Like the world is ending!

Re: Sign In!

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

Barry Ween

Re: Sign In!

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy Li

Lecture!

[raspberryturk]

The 'standing around staring at the giant sky fireball in the middle of a disgustingly polluted desert wasteland' portion of this class.

Re: Lecture!

[spin_kick_snap]

At first, it was hard to concentrate on what he professor was saying. Even his brilliant scarlet hair couldn't really compete with the burning rock in the sky. But then he started talking about the end of the world and that was a pretty compelling conversation topic.

Re: Lecture!

[not_every_mage]

The fireball in the sky reminded Anders of the engravings he'd seen of the last blight, when the darkspawn invaded. He felt a terror down in his bones that made it hard to concentrate on what Reno was saying.

Introductions!

[raspberryturk]

Who are you? What shit have you lived through? What do you want to learn in this class? You've got a week left to live... what do you do with it?

Reno's judging you all. But he's already got a minion for the semester all picked out from the bunch of you. Because that's how he rolls.

Re: Introductions!

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

Introductions? Again? Fine. Whatever.

"I'm Barry. I once knocked the Earth out of orbit and had to put it back in place. All I want to learn is how the teacher makes his hair in place. And if I have one week to fucking live I'm going to bust my fucking ass to safe the fucking planet or fucking die trying."

And because it seemed right...

"Yo."

Re: Introductions!

[raspberryturk]

Heh. Reno liked this little shithead already.

"See, that's what I like to hear," he replied. "A kid who causes shit, fixes it, and cares about the finer points of hairstyling."

Reno's hair was a thing of beauty and nobody could tell him otherwise. He'd beat you.

"How the hell did you manage to knock the planet outta whack, anyway?"

Re: Introductions!

[spin_kick_snap]

"I'm Kathy," she said when it was her turn, awkwardly tucking her hair behind her ear for something to do with her hands. She had no good answers for his questions, none. "I haven't lived through much of anything. I was too little to even remember 9/11 and that happened clear on the other side of the country from me."

Should she mention that there were sometimes gang fights in her neighborhood? Except, she hadn't even really seen those first-hand, either, just sometimes heard noises that could be cars backfiring but weren't and the wail of sirens.

"I guess I'd like to learn how to react in emergencies," she said finally. "Usefully, I mean, rather than just panicking and making everyone else's job that much more difficult. If I can help the people around me, so much the better."

And if she had a week to live...? "I'm not sure what I'd do, but getting drunk for the first time might be on that list." She shrugged and gave him a rueful smile. "More time than I'd like to admit would probably be taken up by huddling and crying. That's, umm, what I'm here to fix."

Re: Introductions!

[raspberryturk]

"Crying and huddling is pretty normal," Reno replied with a shrug. "And here's a good class to be taking if you're looking for what to do. A lot of time people spend panicking is because they never had anything in the first place, yo. A little training goes a long way to letting instinct kick in so you can do what needs to be done."

Re: Introductions!

[dauntless-four.livejournal.com]

"I'm Four," and if that name wasn't on the roster, well, Reno could figure out who he was by process of elimination, right? "My society tore itself apart a few generations back. What's left is holed up in the city I came from. I'm the first person to leave since then."

And if you think that the last few days since the newbie picnic hadn't been Four trying to avoid having a nervous breakdown from all the change, well, you'd be wrong.

"I want to see what you know," he said, "and see if it's anything we can adapt to how we're living now. And if I had a week to live," he shrugged. "I don't know. I'm Dauntless: we're not afraid of death. I'd probably spend my time calming down those who are."

Re: Introductions!

[raspberryturk]

"Fair enough," Reno replied, intrigued more by Four's answer than his name. His real name wasn't Reno, either. Not that he passed that information around. "I'm curious what things are like out there, yo. Might give me a starting point, something to work with if we're tryin' to find parallels between your situation and the shit I've seen."

Re: Introductions!

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

"Pssst!" Joker hissed. "I get that that's what you want to be called and all, but ya gotta tell him your other name, too, so he can match you against the roster."

Re: Introductions!

[livebytherules.livejournal.com]

"Will West," he said once it was his turn. "And my world's heading towards a war that could obliterate Earth if things don't go well."

Which they might not considering he was supposed to be a major player or something.

"If I had a week left to live, I'd probably see if I could prolong that somehow. If I couldn't, I'd spend time with my friends."

Re: Introductions!

[raspberryturk]

Reno nodded a little, looking thoughtfully at Will.

"This war, what's it about? Governments with bugs up their asses about each other? Some kinda religious thing? Sounds like there are some pretty big weapons involved here, yo."

Re: Introductions!

[pulseof_life]

"I am Paddra Nsu-Yeul," she said quietly, smiling slightly when it was her turn. "Yeul is my first name."

She always found that it was best to clarify that, even though she didn't mind being called Paddra.

With a tilt of her head, Yeul considered the rest of the questions. "I have lived through pain, and wars, and destruction, and deaths--both my own and those of other people," she said, after a moment. "I do not know what I will learn from a class like this, nor do I know what I wish to learn from it."

It had been a paperwork error, okay?

"If I had a week to live, I would spend it as I usually do. Death comes to all of us in time. There is no need to panic about it."

Re: Introductions!

[jaegerborn.livejournal.com]

Ugh.

"I'm Chuck Hansen," Chuck said, sitting back way too far in his seat. "Couple years ago, giant monsters started appearing through a breach in the Pacific Ocean and started tearing shit up. I'm training to fight them, this class seemed like the least irrelevant of the bunch, and I wouldn't bloody well sit down and let myself get killed if I knew it was coming."

Re: Introductions!

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

"Jeff Moreau, but I go by Joker. I've never dealt with any end-of-the-world scenarios, because my universe doesn't do crap like that, but survival is never a bad skill to learn. Plus, there's a small but nonzero chance I could crash-land on a deserted planet someday." He frowned, realizing something. "...No, I lied, we do do end-of-the-world -- but I plan on never, ever visiting Tuchanka. And if I had a week left before a meteor hit, I'd spend it helping evacuate the planet."

Re: Introductions!

[not_every_mage]

"I'm Anders, I spent the last four years shut up in a tower because of the gifts I was born with, and I want to learn what to do if things ever get any worse," Anders said, when it was his turn. "And if I have a week to live, I'll spend the first six days and 23 hours fighting what's coming with my every breath -- and then the last hour getting as drunk as I can while I can still enjoy it."

Re: Introductions!

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

"My name's Eleanor Lamb," she began, "and I -- what I lived through wasn't the end of the world. I mean, not all of it."

She fidgeted a bit in her chair. "The colony we were in, it -- it was full of deranged splicers looking for a fix, and cult members looking for a Messiah. I did what I had to do, to get out of there."

That had mostly involved a pile of dead bodies. Maybe she shouldn't have started this story in class.

"A-anyway, that was a single city, not the world," she said. "I don't know what I ought to learn in this class. Perhaps how to shake it off and learn to move forward, once the world's no longer in peril. How to find some kind of normalcy. And if I only had a week ..."

She allowed herself a wry smile. "I ought to say something brave and heroic about how I'd try to stop it, but I don't ... know how to stop that thing, in the sky. And if I only have a week left, I want to live before I die. Go see India or Ireland. Maybe both."

Re: Introductions!

[justwantedfriends]

"Um, I'm Kira, and I've never lived through an end of the world type thing." Seriously, what the heck had her parents signed her up for? "I... hopefully won't have to deal with something like that in the future, but I guess it can't hurt to be prepared, right? If I only had a week, I'd probably gather my friends up for an epic road trip. You know, assuming the roads weren't like, closed or anything."

Talk to Reno!

[raspberryturk]

Yeah, he's gonna stick around after class for a bit, if anybody wants to talk to him about whatever.

Mostly, he's just glad to be back. He missed this stupid place.

Re: Talk to Reno!

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

"So what am I supposed to fucking do as a TA?" Barry said approaching Reno after class. "Because I'm no coffee fetcher."

Well he would. But he would whine about it.

OOC!

[raspberryturk]

I have my Turk back and I am never letting him leave ever again.

Ever. Again.