fandomhigh | Public Service - On the Edge, Monday, Period 2

"Yo, class!" Today, Reno was making people meet in the Danger Shop, where the whole class was congregated in the desert, overlooking… well… it was probably meant to be a city. Mostly it just looked like somebody had taken the ruins of one city and then piled them up trying to make another one. "Welcome to Edge, or at least a simulation of Edge, a city that was built by pilin' up the wreckage of Midgar, that mess of ruins to the side, there."

So yeah, there was that.

"Edge is having a shitty decade, since a meteorite almost crushed those ruins at the middle and the life force of the planet ripped apart the rest of the city that was still standing, yo. Loss of life numbered in the millions, easy, and in the wake of it? Edge doesn't have much in the way of arable land, much in the way of water, orphanages, schools, hospitals or clinics, natural resources of any persuasion, unless you count ruins and friggin' sand, reliable defenses against the monsters that roam the ruins and the desert, transportation routes that are accessible to all…"

Reno cleared his throat a little and shrugged.

"Lots of shit. This class, primarily, is gonna be an offshoot of those 'day after doomsday' classes I taught before. Right here? Right here is your actual working model, your example of what it might look like after one kind of cataclysmic event, and what sort of work people need to do in order to pick up the pieces again, yo. Today we're just standing in a sim, looking at an example of the place, but over the course of the semester we're gonna be taking several trips there, contributing in one way or another to Edge's recovery. Public service, yo. And I'll be straight with you, here- it's probably gonna suck. There are still bodies in those ruins that ain't never gonna be recovered. The only proper highway they had was heading back into Midgar, and it got blown up in an attack on Edge a few years ago." By, you know, somebody. Reno wasn't saying who. "It's been over half a decade since Meteor came down, and the ground is only just getting to a point where it'll be able to grow plants in it again. You know. In the few scattered parts of it that ain't sand."

Reno gave a pointed look around. At the huge sprawling desert behind them that didn't seem to have any sort of end in sight.

"Your mission, rookies, is to brainstorm this week, and pick one thing that you as a class are going to provide for Edge by the end of the semester, yo. We'll be putting it to a vote. Then we're gonna spend the rest of the semester getting together what we need for that one thing. If it's something that needs to be built, I already arranged for a plot of land. Anything beyond that, you're gonna have to figure out fundraisers for, where you're gettin' the supplies to do the building, if we're gonna hire people in Edge to do the manual labor with us - they'll be tripping over themselves for a chance to work, even if the job is just temporary, yo."

Reno waved at the class with one hand.

"Any questions about Edge, get 'em off your chests now. That's what I'm here for. Those ruins in the middle there used to be my home. I know plenty about the topic. If you figure you've heard enough, then get to brainstorming, try and figure out what you all wanna do, bring your suggestions to the rest of the class, and then vote."

[OCD is up and this class is open for business!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"They are," Reno agreed, nodding. "I like that you guys are askin' questions that lead to sorting out which of those hasn't been met, yo."

"Well, there's no giant freezer to herd everyone into," Kathy said with a tremulous smile. "So I guess that means asking questions and listening to answers."

Reno gave her a reassuring smile, and then took a few steps closer so that he could lean in and speak in a voice only audible to Kathy and himself.

"It's okay to let yourself feel this, yo." He nodded out toward the ruins. "Between you an' me? I cried a few times, too. You can take a few minutes in the hall if you wanna be alone while you do it, though."

"Unless you're an infant or directly involved with a tragedy, crying is a useless and selfish response," Kathy mumbled, half-hoping Reno wouldn't hear. "It serves no purpose and fixes nothing."

Reno raised an eyebrow at that.

Yeah, he could read lips, anyway.

"It's emotional release, yo. Keeps you from overload. Does you cryin' hurt anyone else?"

Reno was going to have to shove an electromag-rod up someone's ass, wasn't he?

He and Nick could draw straws for it?

"It makes people around me feel bad," Kathy explained to her toes. "Turning the focus to me instead of where the true tragedy is."

She did manage to leave off how it was a sign of weakness; that much, at least, she could reject.

...Intellectually.

"... If you make your way out to somewhere that you can be alone, that's somehow turnin' the focus to you?"

Reno was not following your logic, kid.

Well...it's...shut up, Reno.

"It's still self-indulgent. I would be better off channeling that emotion into fixing things, rather than just crying about it. Crying never served any purpose."

"Then why did we evolve to do it?"

Come on, Kathy. Riddle him that?

"Why did we evolve appendixes?" Kathy answered back.

"We didn't. They're a leftover from an organ we didn't need after we climbed up on land and started walkin' on two feet. We're workin' on gettin' rid of 'em. Crying is still going strong," Reno replied, because no, he was not buying that bullshit. "And while it's easier to make some people cry than others, that's a reflection of the amount of shit they're conditioned to deal with."

He pointed at her.

"You're a high-school student. I don't think there's any reason why you should be in a place mentally or emotionally to be prepared to cope with Edge. Having an emotional reaction to what you're lookin' at down below means you're a properly-functioning human being with a sense of empathy. And Rookie, let me tell you, it took a long damn time for me to learn this the hard way, but empathy isn't a weakness, and it ain't self-indulgent. It's what makes humanity stronger as a species."

Game, set and match.

Kathy looked away at him, shoulders drooping. "I understand what you mean, but--but--I should still just be doing something, not crying like a worthless baby. It's not that I don't empathize, I just want my empathy to take the form of something meaningful, not self-indulgent tears. Tears don't solve problems, actions do."

No, she didn't sound like she was quoting anyone. Why did you ask?

"Any reason it can't be both?" Reno nodded out toward the city below them. "This is a sim. That's why I had us gather here today. Let people wrap their heads around this, let 'em have their emotional reactions, let it settle in. And here's the thing, whoever fed you that line about worthless babies is somebody who doesn't understand potential. Everyone starts life crying, Rookie. And then we grow into what we are, into people who have influence and opinions, who can care about more than whether we're hungry or we just shat ourselves."

Ugh, he was getting all philosophical, here.

"Be a baby for a few minutes. Let it out of your system instead of carrying it around. And then you can walk tall and do what you need to do without that lump of friggin' lead in your chest slowin' you down. That's why we do it, Kathy. Not because we're weak, but because it's a step on the way to makin' ourselves stronger."

That...that actually made a lot of sense, when he said it that way. Not that Kathy thought it was something she could articulate to her fa--to anyone, especially not if she was already crying, but it was good to think about anyway.

Might even help with some of the stuff she had rattling around inside her sometime.

"Can we go down there?" she asked. "Can we get closer than this? I'm not being ghoulish, I promise. I don't want to look--but I think I should see."

"Didn't think you were," Reno assured her, smiling faintly. He was pretty sure what he was saying was getting through, at least. That was reassuring. He'd have to make a point to remind her of it, while he was at it. "I got plans to take people down in a sim once you all get in your votes, probably next week sometime. Show people the ins and outs and the shit to keep an eye open for and the crap to avoid, yo. If you wanna make a run down just the two of us, without the classroom audience, we can arrange for that, too. After class or on the weekend or something?"

"After class?" Kathy asked. "I mean, I don't have anything after this and..."

And she wanted to get it out of her system now, while Reno's words still rang true and there was no one else to see her.

"I mean, if you think you can keep up," she added, giving him a wan smile. But it was a smile!

"You'll eat my dust," Reno teased, chuckling and clapping her on the shoulder. "Come to me after class, Rookie. I'll take you on the tour."

"I'm pretty sure I've had better offers?" Kathy said, turning to look back at the simulation. "But I'll be there."

Public Service - On the Edge, Monday, Period 2

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