Reno of the Turks (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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fandomhigh2014-07-16 08:40 am
raspberryturk) wrote in fandomhigh2014-07-16 08:40 am
Entry tags:
Everything's A Weapon, Wednesday, Period One
"Alright, rookies," Reno said, leaning back against what was, perhaps disappointingly, a classroom desk instead of anything fancy in the Danger Shop today, "while I understand that a lot of you probably want to hit things today, this class we're gonna be havin' a discussion, doing some critical thinking, yo. See, improvisation is kickass, but it requires a little more finesse than just 'grab the closest thing and swing' if you're lookin' to actually do some real damage, yo. There's the thing - if you're gonna be picking something up and using it to do something it wasn't intended to do, you're probably gonna hit a few snags. Some of you have already made an art form out of usin' strategy out there - I saw some firebombs, red-hot grill accessories, some creative use of a net, temporary weapons until you could pick up the ones bein' used against you, rock throwin'... and about five hundred umbrellas bein' swung about."
Reno spread his hands a little, wearing an 'eeeh?' face.
"What made the umbrellas so attractive? Was it the reach on 'em? You were all lucky last week I programmed in some quality ones. Most beach umbrellas are cheap plastic or thin metal and are flimsy as shit. The firebombs I can get behind, but you better know damn well what you're doin' when rigging up explosives, or if you're lucky you'll wake up in the ER missin' half your face. The net, I liked. And the rocks? Tried and goddamn true, yo. People have been hittin' each other with rocks since the dawn of friggin' time. Gotta admit, I'm surprised with a whole beach full of sand, nobody went for throwin' it in their eyes, but who the hell's to say that'll even work on an unfamiliar species, anyway?"
He made a gesture around the room.
"Today, no fighting, but we're still gonna do some hands-on, anyhow. Some show-and-tell, yo. You got ten minutes to find something around this classroom, or wherever in the school you can get in ten minutes, I don't friggin' care, that you'd use as a weapon in a pinch. I want you to bring it back here - obviously if you're takin' somethin' from another room you're gonna have to put it back where you found it, and stay the hell outta the teachers' offices for this one - and tell the class what you picked, why you picked it, and two ways that the object you picked up might lead to you gettin' your ass kicked anyhow if you play your cards wrong." A beat. "Oh, and the minions of the workshop are gonna be Kaylin and Kathy from now on, yo. Would'a announced that last class, but I had burgers to flip."
Or he'd forgotten. One of those.
[OOC: Open!]
Reno spread his hands a little, wearing an 'eeeh?' face.
"What made the umbrellas so attractive? Was it the reach on 'em? You were all lucky last week I programmed in some quality ones. Most beach umbrellas are cheap plastic or thin metal and are flimsy as shit. The firebombs I can get behind, but you better know damn well what you're doin' when rigging up explosives, or if you're lucky you'll wake up in the ER missin' half your face. The net, I liked. And the rocks? Tried and goddamn true, yo. People have been hittin' each other with rocks since the dawn of friggin' time. Gotta admit, I'm surprised with a whole beach full of sand, nobody went for throwin' it in their eyes, but who the hell's to say that'll even work on an unfamiliar species, anyway?"
He made a gesture around the room.
"Today, no fighting, but we're still gonna do some hands-on, anyhow. Some show-and-tell, yo. You got ten minutes to find something around this classroom, or wherever in the school you can get in ten minutes, I don't friggin' care, that you'd use as a weapon in a pinch. I want you to bring it back here - obviously if you're takin' somethin' from another room you're gonna have to put it back where you found it, and stay the hell outta the teachers' offices for this one - and tell the class what you picked, why you picked it, and two ways that the object you picked up might lead to you gettin' your ass kicked anyhow if you play your cards wrong." A beat. "Oh, and the minions of the workshop are gonna be Kaylin and Kathy from now on, yo. Would'a announced that last class, but I had burgers to flip."
Or he'd forgotten. One of those.
[OOC: Open!]
Re: Talk to the TAs!
"Yeah, I'm just not really feeling the violence today," she admitted, voice small. "I think I might have gotten too good at improvising weapons."
Re: Talk to the TAs!
"Wanna talk about it? You were pretty gung-ho about this before the weekend, yo. We still need to pick times for those self-defense classes I was offerin'."
Re: Talk to the TAs!
"This weekend I wasn't a very nice person," she said softly. "And, I mean, I know everyone's saying that we weren't ourselves and that it didn't count, but...I blinded someone. With liquid opium from an opium pipe."
Re: Talk to the TAs!
And then, recognizing that 'Ah' was probably not the most helpful thing he'd supplied to a student in some time, he added, "They at least have it comin' to 'em?"
Re: Talk to the TAs!
After, y'know, seducing him. For reasons.
Re: Talk to the TAs!
And for good reason, he wasn't going to suggest otherwise.
"You worried about what that means about you?"
Re: Talk to the TAs!
What was there to say? Everyone said that it didn't mean anything, that it wasn't her, but Kathy still felt plenty guilty over what she'd done and what she'd ordered others to do.
Re: Talk to the TAs!
"I know a thing or two about guilt," he noted, not unkindly, "and I actually chose to do the nightmare shit that I gotta live with. Doesn't make it suck less when the island takes it outta your control, yo."
Not so far as he could figure, anyway. He'd had ages to get used to Fandom pulling shit like this.
"This ain't the sort of thing you'd ever decide to do on your own, is it?"
Re: Talk to the TAs!
Re: Talk to the TAs!
"So, tell me, what are you gonna do to make sure that's not the person you become?"
Stay out of the opium trade, perhaps?
Re: Talk to the TAs!
"The problem is...right now, I think that there's no way in hell that I could become that person," Kathy said, so distressed she didn't even noticed her verbal slipup there. She'd said hell! Gasp! "But when I first showed up here, I never would have imagined I'd be running through Baltimore at thirty miles an hour playing vigilante. I'm starting to wonder if I actually know who I am, or if this is just who I am because I haven't had a chance to be anything but that yet."
Re: Talk to the TAs!
"Look, Kathy," he replied, "you're still young, right? Sixteen, seventeen? Something like that? It's a crazy-ass time, that, but it looks to me like you're on a good path, yo. You know a lot of the reason people do things they would never do before? They do it because they've been given the opportunity, yo. You're away from home on this little island, and you got these abilities that let you throw yourself headfirst at nasty shit and not even blink, and you made a choice about 'em. And that's the important thing, there, yo. You were given an opportunity, and you chose to take it."
He waved a hand after a moment of silence, pressing on.
"Difference between what you're doin' in your spare time and what happened over the weekend is that, while it maybe seems like you did, the island took away that choice on you, yo. There wasn't enough of you in there to speak up and stop what was goin' on. You might as well be watchin' a movie when you remember all of that, because whatever the hell else was going on, we were followin' somebody else's script, yo. Not the one we write ourselves every day when the island isn't bein' an ass. There might be parallels, but there was no real choice. A puppet can't blame herself for what her puppeteer made her do, yo."