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Tweak says, "I am the Lizard King!"

_claudia_d (_claudia_d) wrote in omega_reality,
@ 2013-01-20 07:34:00

Entry tags:

*complete, 2013 01, character: claudia donovan, character: john connor

RP: Claudia/John
Who: Claudia/John
When: Sunday 1-20-13
Where: Claudia's room
Summary: The art of versatility.

Claudia's email to John last week was to set a date for this Sunday for him to help her pack. She knew, with the brownies, she wouldn't be up for anything but food last Sunday, and since not everyone got mellow - rather pissy instead - she was glad she'd done it that way.

The closet door was open, where she kept all of her unassigned clothes. She had her bag unpacked and in neat piles on the bed - regulation clothes, laptop, toiletries, the things Derek had them put in there. It made her itchy to even have it out of the bag, even though she had to take things out to put things back in. But that's usually when Murphy struck, and she could see herself carrying it all in her arms as she fled, dropping socks and underwear behind her like a trail of breadcrumbs.

"John, hi! Good to see you! Get in here and help me get my bag back together before the air raid siren goes off." Claudia practically yanked John through the doorway of the bedroom. "Eric is... somewhere. I know he wants to learn this, too. I'll pass on all the pearly wisdom you impart on me."

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johnbaum
2013-01-22 01:32 am UTC (link)

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."

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_claudia_d
2013-01-25 03:02 pm UTC (link)

Claudia caught the thumb drive. "You would know more about the research department than me. I was thinking that whatever programs you had on the laptops would be needed to either continue the research or run the dimension-hopping machine, and both those things would be connected to this dimension's software, period. It would really suck to have to reinvent the TARDIS otherwise."

Claudia eyed her closet while listening to John. "So, what? Do I only want to learn what Derek teaches us? That doesn't seem right. G.I. Joe said that knowing is half the battle, and arming myself with knowledge that might prove useful is bonus in my book. Doesn't mean it'll be used, but if we end up like on Apollo 13 and 'We've got to find a way to make this fit into the hole for this using nothing but that', it'll give us one more possibility to throw out there," she said.

"Tell me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like you're saying we can prepare until we're blue in the face but it actually doesn't mean anything." Claudia frowned. "Unless we're dropped in the jungle or a desert for a few weeks with nothing but our bag, we won't get it, and even then it'd be just a tiny little bit. Both of us know there's not some magic guarantee that things will be all right, but I at least want to be able to say that I did everything I could to survive and help before I croak."

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johnbaum
2013-01-25 04:57 pm UTC (link)

"Since I just told you I wasn't saying knowledge like this wouldn't help, yes, you're wrong," John stated bluntly. "I'm not saying don't prepare. I'm saying be smart about it. Look, I have no idea who G.I. Joe is or what he has to do with NASA, but there's another part to what he said: knowing is half the battle. Survival isn't about what you know, but how you think. Derek and I come from the same world, but different circumstances. There were years between my father's death and when Derek was able to join us, years in which we lived on different fronts, in different circumstances. So, our specific knowledge is different. But, we share a similar way of thinking because that's what survival is: a way of thinking."

He crossed over to where she sat and squatted down in front of her, elbows resting on his knees as he spoke. "The thing is, you can't prepare for everything. It's impossible. It's like chess," he explained. "You want to be able to think three moves ahead in order to stay on top of your opponent. But, if you start trying to see five, ten, twenty moves ahead, there are too many permutations and you're left guessing more than actually planning. Start at the beginning. Take what Derek's teaching you and expand on it. Consider what other applications the things he's teaching you can have. Go through the things in your possession and consider every use you can put them too. These are the things you're taking with you. The things you're as close to guaranteed to have available as you'll get. Then you think about what things you don't have but that could be useful when combined with what you do have. Then, what you could use with those. Then, and only then, if you have time and resources, do you start thinking of things you don't have, may or may not get, and don't serve any purpose in conjunction with what you have.

"It's like the tech. You're thinking like someone who's used to having things at her disposal. And that's fine. It's good...if you're living in a world where it's a given you can get it." And he wasn't going to ask what a tardis was. It was either something in her world or another pop culture reference he'd never get. "But, when we don't know what we'll encounter, tying the machine's operation to the tenuous availability of a laptop would be ill-advised. And if we have a working machine, the research is done. Mission accomplished. There's nothing left to do."

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_claudia_d
2013-01-25 05:49 pm UTC (link)

Claudia sighed. "My brain will probably explode from so many 'what ifs' anyway. It really is difficult to change a way of thinking, especially since I'm still in remedial English class." She gave him a rueful smile. "Thanks for this. You've not only given me a place to start, but a place to stop. Obsessing is not good. You're so busy doing it, you forget what's right in front of you."

Claudia opened her arms. "Can I get a hug, Mr. Sanity Saver?"

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johnbaum
2013-01-25 08:44 pm UTC (link)

"Possibly," John agreed, grinning. "You'll get there, Claudia. It's new and it's hard. But, you're smart and you're trying. And you've got people around to help. You'll get there. It's the way this works. Those who know teach those who don't and everyone's chances improve just a little."

Standing up, he rolled his eyes good-naturedly and then leaned over to give her a hug. "Girls and hugging. It's like an addiction," he teased. Straightening again, he nodded toward the piles on the bed. "Now, back to work, you. Let's see how impressive your bag packing skills are."

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