letting kids fire artillery and calling it work

[ohgoodgrief]

Who: Yang, OTA!
What: An artillery exercise -- with a looooot of supervision, sorry kids -- for the student body!
Where: A big field outside of the Academy and the town.
When: Shortly before finals!
Warnings: Big cannons.

[Wen-li Yang was "convinced" (some might say manipulated) into a practical operation for the students: letting them fire huge cannons.

Originally, he was going to let them build their own. Then he did the research and realized one cannot simply construct artillery pieces with no experience. So he instead made a few phone calls back to the Navy, and got a set of lighter artillery pieces sent out. They're still bigger than most civilians have ever seen, which Yang thinks will pass muster.

Besides, they don't need to destroy fortifications at Verdun, they're blowing up wooden Potemkin village houses today.

Students are divided into teams of three. Each is given an artillery piece -- fixed on a turret, which can only cover the area away from the school and the town -- and has to hit targets that pop up. The wooden targets include wooden cut-outs of huge daemons, of demonic castles, and other scary, Nightfall-themed things. They also include buildings made to look like normal village houses and shops, which should not be fired on.

Yang, for his part, is standing back and watching. He's easy to approach in the command tent, where he has binoculars -- and a radio. And, of course, staff are on hand to help show people how to load the cannons, aim them, and fire them... but they have to do it themselves.]

Comments

[ohgoodgrief]

[Yang's suspicion is that it's an expectation of the worst: prepare as many people as they can, hope some work, and expect but not say that Nightfall may not be survivable. He's still too new at this to really trust the notion of seeing the future.

And he doesn't much like the side of him that expects a viper in every bush, and looks at authority as something to be distrusted.]

We should still be fighting the daemons. People need experience in how to handle daemons. It's not the end goal, in and of itself, though.

[Before Yang knows it, he's giving a speech. Sorry, Kano.]

But... we do need to learn more about them. How they think and operate.

And we need to work together, to learn what we can do. We have to get people reading out of the same playbook. I think we're doing okay at that. Not as well as I want us to, but we have everything from Italian plumbers to daemon contracted people to medieval knights. It's a miracle we're not at each others' throats.

[He sighs.] And... we need to remember why we're doing this. We all want to be alive to enjoy whatever comes after Nightfall, right?

[suddenlybees]

[ Preparation for the worst means accepting that everybody could die, and that's not something Kano can do. He can't even save the one or two people he loves the most, and that's not a good mindset to face Nightfall with. And, hmm... why Kano's here doesn't align exactly with why everybody else might be here, and that's not something he wants to voice either.

The end goal is surviving, no matter what. That requires sacrifice, the acceptance that people will die. High risk, high reward. He can't save everybody. ]

Hm~ I got it~ My resolve has been strengthened! [ The power of speeches, or something. No-good, very bad decisions, but he'll make them. ]

How lucky it is that we're all getting together, though, right? [ He taps at the side of his eyes, flashing red ] What do you think of them? The daemons in the school?

[ohgoodgrief]

[It's something Yang can guess only guess at. Why is Kano here? If he had to venture, because Michael is; he learned about the Contract.

He thinks about that, and he doesn't blink at all when Kano's eyes flash red. He meets his gaze with an even-keeled one.]

They're terrifyingly just like us. It makes it deceptive, sometimes -- how they seem to feel the same things we do, think in similar ways, and are also older, more powerful, and have experiences we can't fully comprehend.

But I don't really know what single individuals will do. I take them one at a time. As a group... I think they decided to throw their lot in with us. I won't ask, or judge, why they did. It's enough that they have.

[suddenlybees]

[ That's what he feels too, though the only daemon he really spends any appreciative time around is Michael, weird enough daemon as he is compared to most others already. ]

So you trust them, more than you don't. But the other way around wouldn't be the same, would it? If there were a human in line with the daemons, the daemons wouldn't trust them at all. The power imbalance would forbid it.

[ohgoodgrief]

You're right. They wouldn't have a reason to. Most daemons could kill your average human with ease. [Which Kano knows, and Yang knows he knows. Six, huh... awfully young.

Yang's brow furrows while he thinks about it.] Humans wouldn't be allowed to join the daemons as allies, I suspect. Most, at least, wouldn't. "Slaves" might be more accurate, if they'd tolerate that.

[suddenlybees]

[ If Kano ever learned that Michael told Yang about the Contract, he would-- contemplate hurting him, for half a second, before realizing that yeah, Michael could kill him with ease without even lifting a finger if Kano were to turn against him someday. Ugh, daemons. Terrible. He hates that he's doing this. ]

Haha, I wonder why daemons would ever need slaves for? What humans have and can do that they don't and cannot~ If there's something like that, we might have leverage, huh?

[ohgoodgrief]

I'm not sure. Humans find reasons to be awful to each other without any real benefit to it. I imagine daemons can do the same. They probably don't need slaves, but they might want them. I don't think it's leverage I'd want.

[He shakes his head.] I'd rather be alive and not considered someone's property or pet, when all of this is through. And have all of us alive and free, too.

[suddenlybees]

But if you had to choose, which would it be? Alive and enslaved, or dead?

[ If it had to be one or the other... ]

[ohgoodgrief]

Hmm. That's a tough one.

[Yang... actually shrugs.] Probably dead. My faith in my ability to tolerate enslavement is low, and we all die eventually anyways.

But if it's all the same, I'd rather have it my way. What about you?

[suddenlybees]

Hm~ It'd be alive and enslaved, wouldn't it? Because at least one of those things can change, right?

[ If he's freed, great. If he dies, it's whatever. It can only go up from there. ]

[ohgoodgrief]

Hmm. You might be right.

I think I'd rather do everything I can to avoid those being the options, though.

[suddenlybees]

Then, let me turn the turret~

[ohgoodgrief]

That would in no way further my goal of not dying and not being enslaved, but I appreciate the logical gymnastics of the suggestion.

[suddenlybees]

Can you appreciate it enough to let me do it...

[ohgoodgrief]

Pension.

[suddenlybees]

I will pay you five thousand euros if you let me take a shot at the academy.

i am sorry he is such a nerd

[ohgoodgrief]

[Yang stares at him for a second.

Then he pulls out his phone, opens up his bank application, and flips down to an entry -- he actually manipulates the screen until it's not showing his bank account number -- and then shows Kano the latest entry for his last monthly paycheck:]

DIRECT DEPOSIT OPM-USN O-8 ACH #13967783B: $10,021.76

[He takes the phone away.]

I have convinced stupid old white men that I am worth ten thousand dollars a month, young Skywalker. Train under me, embrace the Dark Side, and you shall know true power.

oh my god i love him anyways

[suddenlybees]

What.

[ He almost leans too far forward and falls off the barrel wanting to make sure those numbers were really what he's seeing. ]</small. Can I? Be your TA or something, and then they'd have to pay me too??

[ohgoodgrief]

I'm actually paid by the U.S. Navy, not the school. It's some complicated thing where I work for the school and the Navy and I think some people in some office somewhere figure it out?

I'm not sure if high school students can be a TA, though... [He taps a finger against his chin.]

[suddenlybees]

[ Why is the Navy of another country paying him to--

He shakes his head, deciding not to ask. More important, is whether Kano can get any money out of this without having to put in very much work. ]

I'm sure high school students can be TAs? It's not so much about age than it is experience, right? Ah- maybe an internship position? A paid internship?

[ohgoodgrief]

[It has something to do with the Rune Guard companies. Yang doesn't fully understand the bureaucracy behind it.]

There might be laws. I can't arrange that through the Navy, you'd have to be eighteen and enlist.

Maybe ask the school? If you can get a TA position, I suppose I could. You'd have to do some work for me.

[suddenlybees]

[ He'll be seventeen in about a month's time, but he doubt he'd be able to survive all the way to eighteen. The school might be the quickest way to do this. ]

Hm, yep, I guess it'll have to be that~ But there'd be a lot more leverage if you went to the school and specifically requested me for the TA spot, don't you think?

[ohgoodgrief]

Hm... probably.

There is some work involved, and you'll have to do it or you won't get paid. Is that something you can handle?

[suddenlybees]

[ Hard work... Yang's terms are even stricter than Kano's daemon/fey contracts combined. ]

Yes. Alright.

[ohgoodgrief]

Great! Also, can you operate a scanner? And can you read Chinese?

[Run.]