Day After Doomsday, Thursday, Per 2

[geniuswithasmartphone]

The sim looked exactly the same as it had last week when the students entered the Danger Shop, right down to having Hardison sprawled on the stairs, poking at his laptop. "Hey, y'all," he said, nodding. "Pull up a patch of floor or wall or whatever, a'ight? Normally, the way things are gonna go, the first few minutes of each class is gonna be spent goin' over what y'all've accomplished last week an' then tellin' you a bit about the day's scenario. But this week's gonna be a little bit different cause I think it's kinda important that we make it really clear how this class is gonna work."

He ran a distracted hand over his head. "So, one of the keys of survival in any major situation is communication. It doesn't matter what the problem is, if there are other people around, you gotta find some way of communicatin' with them. You can't all be independent, lone wolves here, doin' your own thing with no interest in what anybody else is doin'. At the very least, there ain't enough supplies an' stuff for you to scavenge to support all your own little projects. Right now, as far as you know, you are it. If there are other people still alive, you don't know about 'em. They certainly ain't in any position to help you. Any person you lose is irreplaceable--not just from a warm an' fuzzy friendship standpoint, but from a manpower, survival standpoint. Whatever they know an' you don't is lost. That's one fewer person to fight off whatever's out there, or to help barricade the door, or do any other task that y'all decide is important to your survival. Any decision you make affects everyone, no matter how innocuous it seems, yo. Everybody's gotta work towards your survival cause otherwise the odds of y'all making this out alive drop. This means talkin' to one another, findin' ways to work together, an' discoverin' one another's strengths an' weaknesses."

Hardison wished he had Nate's gift for this. If he could make four of the most independent and recalcitrant thieves work together to pull off amazing cons, he'd easily be able to convince a class of teens to do so. "So, last week, I got a basic idea of what y'all were gonna do between that class an' this one. Let's see if we can figure out where a bit more communication could be useful. We got one student who made a cold room for all the perishable food so you wouldn't have to rely on the refrigerators. This student can also create fresh, clean water at will, so all your water supplies have been topped up. The rest of the week, they brought plants an' planters inside to see about makin' interior gardens to grow fresh food in. Then we got another student tryna find ways to purify the pool water to make it potable an also thinkin' about makin' a garden an worryin' about food. One student is tryna make your generators work more efficiently an' quietly, while makin' the most of the limited fuel you had left an' another is plannin' on makin' a radio to try to contact the outside world." Yes, he was deliberately not mentioning names or other identifying factors. "Most of you seemed to agree that we needed scouts an' had ideas for what they should do, but nobody was able to give me any more information than that. Buncha y'all thought the scouts should be volunteers, but nobody asked if anyone wanted to go outside. Some of you had lists of things to look for, but didn't know who to give 'em to. Some of you tried to tell me what you wanted other folks to do, but that's the one thing I can't help you with. I ain't in charge of what your classmates do or don't do. You want somethin' done by someone else, that's on you to find the right person an' ask. If they agree, you can come to me an' tell me what's what. Otherwise, nothin's gonna get done, because I'm only programmin' in tasks that I am specifically told to do by the individuals involved."

He clapped his hands and stood up. "So, unlike the way the rest of the class will be run, only 24 hours have elapsed between last class an' this one. Just enough time for y'all to hopefully realize that much of what you wanna do over the week will be better done if you maybe talk to other people." Though he wasn't going to make anyone talk if they didn't want to, just insisting that doing so would be a very good idea. "Let's see if maybe we can't get a little more organized this week, huh?"

Comments

Sign In

[geniuswithasmartphone]

With a buddy

Re: Sign In

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

Hanna Heller

Re: Sign In

[goforthe_optics]

Tali'Zorah

Listen to the Lecture

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Feel free to object, question, talk, whatever!

Plan Ahead

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Most people had similar or at least complementary plans. Find out who was working on what and see if you couldn't work on it together. Get organized! If you want to build something, figure out where the best idea to get parts would be. If you want to scout, find other like-minded people and figure out the best way to get the lay of the land. Based on some people's actions last class, they have a lot more information on what's out there--information that could be the difference between life or death in the sim. Find out what that is. Have a plan and need help implementing it? Ask people!

Re: Plan Ahead

[sciclone]

"So the big priorities are water, food, scouting," Cosima said, summarizing the lecture. "And it sounds like water's covered. Should we split into a scouting team and a food team?"

It wasn't that she liked being bossy, but Hardison sounded a little desperate for someone to make some progress, here.

Re: Plan Ahead

[tigerundercover]

"I can be on a scouting team," Raven offered. "I've already gotten a look at what we're up against out there."

Re: Plan Ahead

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

"I'm willing to scout as soon as Raven has a pattern figured out," Hanna mentioned to Cosima. "I'm good with weapons. And faster than normal." She paused and added, "Jasper and I are working on making more weapons for hunting for food, if foraging in town isn't enough. Have you ever used one?"

Re: Plan Ahead

[tigerundercover]

"Alright," Raven said. "So I can get a look outside currently without drawing attention to myself -- or to the rest of us. I took a look last week, and this is what I saw." She proceeded to describe the creatures she'd seen through the window. "They seem to travel in small groups, from about three to seven, and aren't too concerned about attacking each other. They're about seven or eight feet tall, and pretty fast for their size. I'm pretty sure one pack was hunting in the Preserve, so I'd say it's safe to assume they're carnivorous, and they were pretty happy about attacking anything that moved. What I want to do is keep an eye on them to get a better idea of their behaviors, so I can work out a shape I can use to go out and check around the town, maybe bring back more supplies. Maybe I can even find a dead one of these things and work out how to kill them. Personally, I think we need way more information before we start sending more scouts out -- unless someone can turn invisible. From what I saw, not getting spotted as big and tasty by these things needs to be a priority for anyone going outside."

Re: Plan Ahead

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

Hanna frowned at all that, and said, "We can keep track of how close they are from the roof, maybe? Do you think trying to shoot them from there would be smart, or would it cause them to attack more?"

Re: Plan Ahead

[ihuntkillers.livejournal.com]

Jasper's nightmare had left him bleary and tired but he was there, pushing all that down and looking about as mundane as he could. He listened in on the things other people had to say, nodding and sniffling every so often.

"Should we try and gather something for defense?" he asked to anyone around him. "If there's creatures out there that aren't nice, I'd like to use something other than my hands."

He knew a fair bit about weaponry, knives specifically, but there didn't seem to be a nice butcher's block sitting around.

Re: Plan Ahead

[tigerundercover]

"Well, we've got those," Raven said, gesturing with her head.* "But if anyone knows how to make projectiles -- arrows maybe? -- that'd probably be good."

* from last week's post: "There were weapons, what looked to be the entire contents of both the weapons locker and sharpened, weaponized versions of the practice fare from the salle, laid out against [one wall]."

Re: Plan Ahead

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

Hanna had been listening to Jasper and Raven, and spoke up now. "I can make arrows. And bows, too. I just need the materials." She bit her lip. "And teach people how to use them, although slings would be easier to figure out quickly. But if anyone already knows archery, I can make them a bow if we get some wood materials."

Re: Plan Ahead

[goforthe_optics]

"We'll definitely need to coordinate our tech plans," Tali spoke up. "It will be helpful to have an idea of how much power we expect we'll need for basic necessities, communications, equipment . . . and find ways to minimize that as much as possible."

Make Your Choices

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Hardison is waiting with his laptop to input your decisions for the next week. When you're ready, come and tell him what you'd be doin inside the sim. If your plan involves other people, be specific about who is involved and what each person is doing. He's going to ask for as many details as possible to make it work--for example, if you want to leave the dorms, he'll ask how you intend to do so, since going through the front door involves dismantling a barricade, which could be disastrous for everyone else.

Re: Make Your Choices

[ihuntkillers.livejournal.com]

"Looks like I'm gonna be taking charge of defense and training." Not his top choice but he'd make due. "Make sure everyone's armed and making sure everyone who is armed isn't going to stab a friendly or try and shake hands with a blade."

Hopefully that only happened on television.

"Be a good distraction for some people too."

Re: Make Your Choices

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

Hanna had come back with a few backpacks for Raven from her scavenging through the dorms, rubber-bands (the huge kind), some leather goods that could be cut up for making slings or helping with the bows, glue, string, some emergency rope, a good number of electronics (that she'd passed off to Cecil) and candles (that she'd passed off to Tali).

Then she went over to Hardison, and told him what she'd found and who she'd given it to.

"Tali and I are going to look into making a fire on the roof, and making it safe to cook up there, to conserve power, or if we can't get the power connected," she started. "Raven's said she thinks she should scout out patterns of our attackers' movements first before any of the rest of us leave to scout, and I have to agree with her. We're hoping that what we've found means Cecil can put together a radio set of some kind to either get a signal out, or stay in contact with Raven." What else? "Jasper and I are setting some basic trip wires at the doors, in order to help with the barriers in case someone makes it through, and once we have a pattern to avoid, we'll go out and set more traps out in the forest." She took a breath. "I'll be giving the first slings I make to Cosima and Cecil, since they don't have weapons training. Easiest to start that way. I'm making a bow for myself, and an extra, to teach Jasper on. He's gone hunting before so if and when we find it's okay to go out to the Preserve, we'll go out together to get food, or scavenge through the town."

"Oh, and Cecil said he heard there's tunnels under the town, which woudl make it much easier to get around-- especially if the attacker-insects haven't found them yet. So we're going to try to figure out a way to get across to the school, and into the library, to see if we can't get to some plans. I was thinking of some kind of zipline, but... I could shoot an arrow over there, dragging a line," Hanna said carefully. "But from the roof, I can't tell yet if there's a good place to attach it. I may have to try a few times, once I have the bows made, and see if it can even reach and stick well enough to hold my weight. If it does, I think I could climb it back up once I'm done, hand-over-hand, but I'm not sure anyone else could, so I want to try that by myself, first." She frowned a little and added, "Assuming we're sure that the school isn't full of those things.

"So that would be later in the week, after we get the fire dealt with, weapons made, Raven figures out the patterns, and we see how the electronics progress," she concluded. "If Raven finds some recognizable patterns, Jasper and I will be going out to get food. Oh! And firewood. Better to get that before we need it, rather than trying to burn furniture that has plastic or toxic components."

Hanna gave him a worried look. "Did I forget anything?"

Talk to the TA

[geniuswithasmartphone]

No, really, it's a good idea.

Re: Talk to the TA

[tigerundercover]

Raven had been reasonably sure Hardison was going to have them all die and start over, today, so she was fine with the "it's only been 24 hours" thing.

Though she was a little put out that it meant she didn't have the intel she told him she was going to gather, yet.

Talk to Hardison

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Especially if you have any questions or concerns to bring up!

Re: Talk to Hardison

[wandering-stone.livejournal.com]

Jones had no questions. She possibly had concerns but she was content with showing up at Hardison's class to provide any assistance she could to her "buddy."

Hardison wasn't asking for help of course, and Jones hadn't been invited but Jones took her responsibilities seriously.

Re: Talk to Hardison

[sciclone]

"The AI was incredibly cool," Cosima told Hardison after class, since she'd heard radio and greetings were for other people. "It's smart enough that it got insulted when I asked if it was like Siri."

She didn't have much idea exactly how smart JARVIS was, no.

OOC

[geniuswithasmartphone]

No ending the world!

...Even if that is the premise of the class.

Re: OOC

[that_oldsaying]

But, but what if someone wishes for the end of the world?!

Re: OOC

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

So, what might Hanna find on a reconn through the dorm, looking for walkie-talkies, backpacks, more weaspons, possibly really large rubber bands for sling-shots? Any radio parts in a particular place to give to Cecil?