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

"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!]

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"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."

"So, you come from a place that's got a space program to speak of, huh?" Reno nodded a little, looking impressed. "When we got to deal with that rock, our world had one untested rocket. That's it. So we tried to run it up into that fucker to see if that'd fix it."

... No dice. Thanks again, Avalanche.

Joker stared at Reno, and then looked up at Meteor. "One rocket? Like, a single, primitive, 'just trying to get to space' rocket, with no mass effect? Against that? I mean, I can't get a good idea of the size, just looking at it, but that's dozens, if not hundreds, of cubic kilometers of rock!!! I mean, it's just basic physics -- a rocket's not gonna do jack squat!"

He stared at it thoughtfully. "How fast was it going, anyway?"

"What, the meteor?" Reno shrugged his shoulders. "Hell if I know. My job was whatever they needed me for at the time. Tracking how fast the giant space rock was going in kilometers per hour was someone else's job, yo."

He'd had important things to do. Like beat up Avalanche assholes using an electrified stick.

"Well, I didn't mean exactly -- I just was kind of wondering if we could have stopped it. I mean, not right now, obviously, when you've only got a few seconds left, but back when it was first detected."

"Maybe," Reno mused, tilting his head thoughtfully at the kid. "There aren't any databases left back home, but I got a few friends I can ask back that way, see if anyone knows the size and speed of something like that bad boy up there."

Because, seriously, Reno's interest at the time had been less about the Meteor, and more about drinking until he was over Sector Seven, and fantasizing about beating in Cloud's stupid face.

Joker waved him off. "Nah, not important. I mean, if something like this happens? I'm not exactly going to be involved in the solution. I'm just a pilot."

Reno had a little smirk for Joker at that.

"It was a ShinRa pilot who tried to get the space program off the ground in the first place," he shared. "Didn't work, but there ya go. 'Just a pilot' doesn't mean shit. You never know what you'll find yourself in the middle of, yo."

Joker smirked right back. "Nice effort, but you really don't need to give me a pep talk. I'm the best damn pilot in the galaxy, and when disaster strikes I'll be doing my thing. When I said 'just', I meant I'm not the guy who'd be calculating how many ships we need to push the rock."

"You figured that was a pep talk?" Reno smirked and shook his head. "Guy who was pushing our space program was let go from the company in shame. Got all wrapped up in the end of the world because he went on a revenge binge against the guys who fired him and cut his funding. And he was an asshole. But he was an asshole who helped save the world, even after all the terrorism shit he got wrapped up in."

Reno didn't really do pep talks.

"Nah, I wasn't giving you a pep talk. I just meant, you don't know that. When all hell breaks loose, you gotta be ready to do whatever you can do. What did you think the point of this class was?"

"Well, no, you're right, that's kind of what I thought -- when all hell breaks loose, you've gotta do everything you can," Joker acknowledged. "And I'm pretty unprepared, there."

"So," Reno said simply, still smirking, "welcome to the class, rookie."

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

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