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John Connor (johnbaum) wrote in omega_reality,

John snorted and shook his head. "No, what's more likely is that thinking will lead to people carting around laptop-sized paperweights. If you need to compress files, you're taking too many games and movies. Actually, you shouldn't even need that much." Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a spare thumb drive and tossed it to her before picking up the external. "It's sixteen gigs. You shouldn't need more than that for documents and photos, a handful of media files. Look, I know it hasn't been said outright, but think about it. We're mounting a rescue mission with these kind of survival tactics instead of prepping for an assault on some military installation? Where do you think we're going? They may not be saying so in as many words, but the training should answer that question. The time for research will be over when we leave. And any laptop or phone we take with us will likely be as useless where we're going as the ones we had on us were when we got to this dimension." He made a mental note to have a talk with Vance and Derek and Deeks about tech and prepping these people for what was coming, since it seemed it wasn't as obvious as it should have been even without being stated.

He looked at her closet, but found himself leaning against the door of it and shaking his head once more. "Slow down. There's being well prepared and then there's wasting time on too many details that you'll never need. You're flirting dangerously close to the latter. I get it. I do. The unknown is scary is hell and there are a lot of things you don't want to leave behind or do without. This is why Derek reacts the way he does to things. People take things for granted here, things they won't have the luxury of taking for granted when we leave. It's not really a fault. It's the life all of you know; it's familiar. But, hanging onto it is also likely to get people killed. As hard as it seems now, this still a vacation compared to what we're preparing to do. You can't just condense a life or an entire society into a couple bags and a head full of facts. It doesn't work that way."

He gestured toward her closet. "As for this, you have one bag. So, you can't plan for everything because it's just not possible. You plan for most important and hope that when the other shit happens, you're in an area where there's something you can use, you can blow something up, or you can run like hell. The things that go into your bag need to be necessities and tools. As far as clothes go? For you, I'd say take a light-weight long-sleeved shirt, a pair of slacks, and a dress that isn't too short and isn't too long. A pair of shoes that go with either. Brian wasn't wrong when he said we might end up in places where military clothes are a hindrance instead of a help. But, keep it minimal and versatile. And be prepared to lose anything you take, even then. Don't get attached to the tools because you still might have to give them up.

"Here's the thing. I'm not saying knowledge of these things won't help. But, that you're going about it the wrong way. Where are you getting the plastic cups for gas masks, for example? How effective can it be when conforming to the mouth and nose would likely crack the cup? What about eye protection? How durable are they? Is it just a matter of holding a mushroom to a wound? What kind of mushroom? Could you tell the safe kind from te poisonous kind in the wild? Would you know whether you're in a climate where they might grow? You can't memorize a bunch of nifty tricks and expect that you're prepared. It's not about knowing facts. It's about changing the way you think, the way you look at what's in your surroundings.

"Survival isn't about finding alternate ways to do everything modern technology and medicine can accomplish. It's about learning how to do without it. Period."