Fandom High Dormitories

Fear not, intrepid reservists, the cookies were back this week-- and a variety case or two of Vitamin Water, because dehydration was bad, mmmkay? The latter was courtesy of Kennedy, who looked like she’d put in a strenuous day already and was notably sans guinea pig, who’d been comfortably put up in the dorms since yesterday with plenty of water and food because someone’s Watcher had finally gotten the story of what’d happened in Bon Temps and ramped up the training agenda kind of brutally this week. She didn’t look tired, exactly, just... okay, a little bit tired.

“Last meeting of the term,” she noted with a creased-brow thinky-thoughts sort of expression and a touch of surprise. “Really snuck up on us, huh? We thought we’d sort of do a wrap-up thing this week, since it’s been kind of, uh... hectic lately, plus, finals. No big, just getting your thoughts on stuff you’d like to work on more for the fall semester, seeing if anyone wants to volunteer to do a show-and-tell kind of thing for everybody, stuff like that.”

“Talk about things that you were hoping to see while you were here, if there’s anything we missed out on, if there’s anything that we could have done better,” Zack twitched a wry little grin at that part. There was no way that you could possibly improve on the Katamari, okay? That had been awesome. “We’ll probably touch on things like map-making and stuff like that again next semester, because so many people have come and gone since the start of summer, it can’t hurt to get everyone better acquainted to the island again.”

Particularly in instances when large portions of the island happened to go missing, and people were stuck trying to get a positive ID on what was left.

“When you’re done talking, take it easy. Grab a partner and spar, or just run through your usual training exercises, or whatever you like. Keep an eye on one another, see if there’s anywhere that the people around you can help you along, or offer help if it looks like somebody is struggling. In the end, we’re all here to improve, right?”

“Or at least learn how not to suck,” Jak added. Look, he’d become comfortable with the fact that his role here was to point out the obvious crap Kennedy and Zack tended to forget. “If you don’t know how to shoot a gun, find someone who can shoot a gun. If you don’t know how to kick someone in the ass, find someone who does that. This isn’t difficult. You’ve all been in dangerous situations before, and I bet you’ve all sucked in them somehow. Taking care of that is what we’re supposed to do here.”

Life lessons from the mutant guy from Haven, kids. Listen good.

[OCD coming up, post is open!]

The area behind the dorms looked like a trashnado (that’d be a tornado made of trash) had swept through it: items ranging in size from beads to pencils to furniture and even a few fallen logs were strewn all over the place. Lined up near the group’s assembly area was a small collection of lumpy-looking balls big enough that if you wanted to roll one of them around (why would you want to do that?) you’d need both hands to push. Yes, it was weird, but if it was any consolation there were cookies. Of course there were cookies. This year, it wouldn’t be a reserves meeting without cookies. And -- for some possibly unknown reason -- Skittles. A lot of Skittles. And dorky hats for anyone who wanted one.

...when it came to the Skittles, Kennedy would probably smirk a lot and tell you to taste the rainbow, because she thought she was clever. As for the hats, she had nothing.

“So hopefully you guys are keeping up with training outside of meetings, but last week was stealth,” she began with a mildly odd look; it had been a creative interpretation of the exercise, hadn’t it? “This week we’re doing a strength training exercise.”

“Those ball things there,” Zack said, nodding toward the brightly-colored lumpy things, “stick to anything that’s smaller than they are, and they make that small stuff sticky, too. And as the ball grows bigger, bigger things will stick to it, so long as they’re still smaller than the junkball! So, if you were to roll them around and run over maybe a bucket or a bunch of thumbtacks or a cat, they’d stick!” There was a moment’s pause while Zack went back and thought about all of the words that he’d just said. “Don’t run over any cats.”

“Or small animals in general,” Kennedy added. “Please.”

Jak peered at both of them curiously. “Unless it seems like fun,” he added. No, Jak. No. “You never know when you’re going to wind up fighting something that’s the size of a small dog.” Life lessons from Haven, ladies and gentlemen. Listen carefully.

[Open!]

Today's meeting of the reserves was not being held in its usual place, no. People had been handwavily notified that the meeting was going to be held in the Danger Shop, and to meet there once the classes for the day were over so that they wouldn't be getting in anyone's way. It was kind of amazing how much stuff could be crammed into one room, wasn't it?

"Heya, guys!" Zack grinned and nodded to people as they filed in. "Today, we're going to be starting on practical runs of stuff that we've been talking about, all along. Unfamiliar and rough terrain, weapons that might be equally unfamiliar, stamina, agility, and that sort of thing."

"Which means," Kennedy contributed, no small amount of cheerful and eager herself, "welcome to the Fandom Gladiators triathlon, you guys. Not everybody's going to be awesome at every single stage of this thing, but that's kinda the point: figuring out what you need to work on, or what you want to get better at. So keep an eye out for that while you're on the course, and we'll be keeping an eye on it too."

"And try not to get killed." Look, Jak... tended to like it better when Torn handled the debriefing. "We've got guns. If you shoot yourselves in the foot, it's not our problem." Well... it technically was, but whatever. "We start training next week. And, uh..." Pause. "Good luck."

"Today," Arthur announced, looking fit and rested after his first night in a room that did not have an annoying desert noble in it. "We will be talking about the kind of inconveniences that Fandom likes to drop on us from the skies. Sure, poptarts or syrup may seem like a novelty, but when we're dealing with it in a combat situation it suddenly takes on an entirely new angle. Because of that, we are going to spend this week coming up with potential items of rain, and how to deal with them."

He was not going to allow any laughter in his reserves, and his expression made it clear that this was not funny. No, not even to you, newbies.

( Zack was not going to giggle. )

[OCD on the way! up, and it helps if I note that fact, self.]

"It's introductions time again," Zack said, launching right into his greeting the moment it looked like everyone who was going to show up for the Reserves meeting was there. This was in no small part due to the fact that he'd only actually met one of the new kids yet, and his wiggly puppy sense was tingling.

A lot.

"Every semester we seem to get a trickle in of new faces, so it can't hurt for all of us to stand up and share! We need names, your fighting experience and weapons proficiency, and what kind of other skills you might have that would come in handy in an invasion situation!"

A pause. A kind of squirmy sway from one foot to the other. Zack wanted to get started on that noooooow.

"You new guys have probably had the invasions mentioned to you at least once by now, I hope. If not, uh... Welcome to Fandom Island! That sort of thing is what we're here for! I'll go first! I'm Zack Fair, SOLDIER 2nd Class, so yes, I am a kid in the military, and I do have a pretty decent rank, too. My weapon of choice is a sword and materia- little round spheres that let me cast spells, like fireballs or healing. I have access to items that can heal a person in a pinch, too, which comes in really handy on the field. Okay! Somebody else's turn!"

People! Introductions! Yay!

[OCD is up, and once again, the reserves are open to anyone who feels compelled to stumble along to scope it all out. We love new faces, from fighters and those interested in becoming them!]