Public Service - On the Edge, Monday, Period 2

[raspberryturk]

"So, I'm bettin' a few of you had pretty memorable weekends," Reno said, nodding at his students from the Fandom side of the portal. "I wish that meant I could just let you loose in a room full of goddamn puppies, but we got work to do, yo. See, I got this shipment of building supplies in for us, enough for both sites, and they're heavy as hell, between the pipes and the water tanks and the digging equipment, because yes, we're gonna have to dig if we wanna pull this off. Water lives underground, we can't filter it if we don't, yo."

Helpful, Reno. Your students probably had no clue where water lived.

"So, here's hopin' you dressed for some hard labor today, because that's totally what you're all in for. C'mon, yo."

And without any more preamble, he led his students through the portal.

[Open class!]

Comments

Log In!

[raspberryturk]

Aww, hard work?

Re: Log In!

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy Li

Re: Log In!

[not_every_mage]

Anders

Re: Log In!

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

Barry Ween

Lecture!

[raspberryturk]

Of course, on the other side of the portal, the students were, in fact, met with a large pile of building supplies - pipes, water tanks, crates of who-only-knew-what and more besides.

Oh, and eleven huge, yellow birds, who were all cooing and nuzzling and making 'kweh' sounds at one another. Not far from where they were tethered, there was a bucket brimming over with relatively fresh vegetables, that one or two of the birds were eyeing hungrily.

"Guess I should've mentioned," Reno added, "that since fuel to run shit like forklifts comes friggin' expensive, I rented out a flock of chocobo to help us with hauling. We don't have horses here on Gaia, so these big guys are our beasts of burden."

He walked up to one that was easily as tall at the shoulder as he was altogether, and reached a hand out to pat it on the beak before handing him something that... kind of looked like a carrot, anyway. It burbled merrily as it ate, and then attempted to nuzzle its beak into his armpit.

"These ones are bred in a farm near Kalm, and they'll do pretty much anything you ask 'em to without complaint, for just a few pats on the beak and some greens. You can ride 'em after hitching 'em up to their cargo if you're feeling daring, or just lead 'em by the reins, but make sure you've got greens to reward 'em with. Last thing you want is a nine-foot chicken tryin' to eat your hair. Probably."

Maybe you did want that. Who was Reno to judge?

Re: Lecture!

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

Barry just stood and stared at the birds for a few moments.

Really?

"Why do I suddenly have the urge for fried chicken?" he quipped.

He might regret saying that.

Re: Lecture!

[dauntless-four.livejournal.com]

Four glanced up at the...giant chicken thing...and just shook his head. Because why would his week start making sense?

Re: Lecture!

[wildandbrave]

Cosette did not actually squee at the sight of the chocobos.

Not out loud, anyway.

Her facial expression was the absolute definition of squee, though.

Play With Th-- Er, Haul Things

[raspberryturk]

You have a chocobo each, and stuff to move. Pick one site or the other - the one in the Square or the one by the ruins, and get to loading up the carts that the birds are hitched up to.

Don't forget the greens, and the beak-pattings, and probably some mandatory cuddling thrown in for good measure. Hell, even Reno's sneaking a few of those with a big blue one, the only non-yellow bird there, when he thinks nobody's looking.

Yes, Reno has his own chocobo. No, he's not ashamed of that fact.

Re: Play With Th-- Er, Haul Things

[not_every_mage]

Anders' bird seemed to think his ponytail was far more enticing than any amount of greens. He wasn't yanking hard, but he was yanking often.

It was, Anders decided, almost endearing, and made for an excellent way to occupy himself. There was no way for him to worry about Karl when he was also loading up a cart in the ruins, dodging the beak of a six-foot yellow bird, and occasionally pausing for furtive chocobo snuggles.

Re: Play With Th-- Er, Haul Things

[dauntless-four.livejournal.com]

Four was trying to tire himself out by doing as much physical labor as he could take, which meant his poor chocobo wasn't getting to do much.

You have your coping mechanisms, Four had his.

Re: Play With Th-- Er, Haul Things

[wildandbrave]

Not only was Cosette's chocobo getting as many greens as she thought stretched the bounds of reason for it to eat, it got all the attention and praise in the world.

All of it.

. . . could you ride one of these? Because now she wanted to. Well. Not right now, but she wanted to.

Re: Play With Th-- Er, Haul Things

[notamascot]

They were even bigger than horses! Good gods! And they had sharp beaky things! And sharp claw things!

And they totally freaked Kaylin out.

She threw some greens at hers from a distance. "Nice... giant scary bird thing."

They did have feathers, though, so that was something.

"Can they fly?" That would make the scariness worthwhile.

Talk to the TAs!

[raspberryturk]

When they tag in, wark.

Re: Talk to the TAs!

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy was only too happy to throw herself right into the hard work today. After her goodbye to her sister, that stupid gremlin bite, oh heck, after the whole weekend, she really needed something mindless to do that would wear her out.

She was sticking to the Square today. No need to compromise her emotional state anymore than she absolutely had to.

Re: Talk to the TAs!

[not_every_mage]

"I managed to talk to your sister for a good ten minutes without mentioning anything to do with being a mage," Anders informed her, when he wandered over to the square near the end of class. "I'm impressed with myself."

His mood wasn't entirely as light as the conversation starter might suggest, but it was something he'd been wanting to tell Kathy since Friday. It could take precedence.

Re: Talk to the TAs!

[spin_kick_snap]

Good, because it would somehow be terribly unfair if Anders was cheerful while Kathy was miserable. Ordinarily, such a petty feeling would horrify Kathy, but she was giving herself a pass to be miserable today.

"Was it because she spent the entire ten minutes hitting on you?" Kathy asked, trying to work up a smile for him. "Cause if so, I'm less impressed."

Talk to Reno!

[raspberryturk]

And his big blue bird. It seems pretty familiar with him. And that's because he is the crazy man who paid to have his own bird portalled in from Spira.

... Just don't ask him its name.

Re: Talk to Reno!

[dauntless-four.livejournal.com]

Four lingered after class, clearly conflicted.

Finally he squared his shoulders and approached Reno. "You spoke with my mother."

Re: Talk to Reno!

[raspberryturk]

Reno was kind of waiting for this. He looked at Four thoughtfully, and then tied his chocobo's reins to a nearby bit of wreckage and gave a nod.

"She stopped by my office, yeah," he agreed. "I'm guessin' she found you?"

Reno listened to the radio. Of course Reno knew she found him. She'd neglected to mention that 'as good as dead' actually meant 'everyone THOUGHT she was dead.'

OOC!

[raspberryturk]

Wark! Kewh! Roo-ki-roo!

Re: OOC!

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

... Did I put 'Log In' instead of 'Sign In?'

Yes. Yes I did.

DON'T LOOK AT MY SHAME.

Re: OOC!

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

Totally watching your shame. Totally.

Which I wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't commented about it. You're own fault now!

Re: OOC!

[wildandbrave]

Thanks for reminding me that I've always wanted a chocobo.

*GOES OFF TO SOB OVER IMPOSSIBLE DREAMS*

Re: OOC!

[raspberryturk]

YOU'RE WELCOME.

*SOBS WITH YOU*