Office #7, Monday Afternoon

[raspberryturk]

You know what Reno had missed? Reno had missed his office. The one with the chair on wheels, and all the little bits and pieces of whatever crap newspaper clippings he had felt like sticking up on the walls. Sure, the pictures were gone. They'd been packed away years ago and he hadn't gotten around to hanging them up again. But the wheelie-chair

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[jaegerbomber]

Herc had decided to stop by Reno's office and check him out, and would be leaning against the doorframe, slightly amused, with Max at his feet, watching Reno spin, until he got noticed.

[raspberryturk]

And one more spin, and then a cackle as Reno put his feet up on his desk.

What? He was teacher. He didn't have to be mature or anything.

"Hey," he said, like he hadn't actually just noticed the guy in the doorway. "Coast should be clear if you have something you wanna come in for, yo. No runnin' people - or their dogs - over while I'm on the job. Not unless they got it comin' to them, anyway."

He had few rules, but they were still pretty decent ones.

[jaegerbomber]

Herc had done something very similar the first time someone gave him an office with a desk chair, so he was not here to judge. "Herc Hansen," he said, coming in and offering his hand across the desk for a shake. "I'm around the corner," he explained, "and I believe you're teaching my boy." Not that Chuck shared his schedule with Herc or anything, but he'd figured it out.

At his feet, Max barked once, and Herc added, "And that would be Max."

[raspberryturk]

Reno straightened his posture, less to look more proper, and more to reach back to shake Herc's hand.

"Good to meet you, Herc. Max." Another nod down to the dog. Because, dog. Reno was more a ferret person, but he could appreciate a dog that looked as though its face had met a few walls in his lifetime. "And yeah, your kid's Chuck? Didn't know his old man was teachin' here, yo."

Good to know. Take care of the Hansen kid. His dad knew where Reno worked.

[jaegerbomber]

"Well, not exactly," Herc admitted. "We're from different places on the timeline, and apparently different realities, since I think I would remember shipping him off to boarding school in the middle of training. In retrospect it doesn't seem like the worst idea in the world." There were a few people in Alaska who probably would have thanked him. "But, y'know," Herc shrugged. "He's still my kid. Had to check you out. You understand."

[raspberryturk]

"I can respect it, anyway. The island's given me enough cracks at temporary parenthood that I can guess at why you're curious." Reno tilted his head. "Especially given the subject matter of the class, yo."

A class about doomsday sort of stood out on the roster a little.

[jaegerbomber]

"Where Chuck is from our apocalypse is already in progress," Herc said, grim. That they had successfully cancelled it when he was from he was withholding from anywhere squirrels might overhear. "That he'd sign up for your class is not surprising." Not terrifically helpful to the 'be like a normal teenager' thing, but there was only so far you could fight Chuck. "So what exactly are you teaching them in this class of yours?"

[raspberryturk]

"Last time I taught this same workshop, it was mostly a focus on basic survival skills in unforgiving environments," Reno shared, his attitude sobering a little as he drummed his fingers on his desk, once, thoughtfully. "This group works a little differently. An assignment I gave 'em last week to determine their critical thinking skills in a crisis situation turned into an hour long screaming match amongst a pack of kids who couldn't make up their goddamn minds."

Reno had gone home to a lot of rum that night.

"I'm rebuilding my syllabus at this point to include things like 'how the hell to not rip one another's eyeballs out while trying to come to a friggin' consensus,' but I still want to cover stuff like keeping a cool head under stress, and finding resources to live on where there don't seem to be any. This was never intended to be a class on grade-school teamwork skills."

[jaegerbomber]

Herc considered his response, then went with, "So I want to apologize for Chuck in advance, then."

[raspberryturk]

And Reno snorted a little at that. Yeah, that was not at all ominous.

"Yeah? Care to tell me why?"

This could be interesting.

[jaegerbomber]

"Chuck," Herc began, speaking slowly, "he's good in a fight, but he's not good at...teamwork, or getting along with other people, or thinking anyone other than himself might be right about anything ever. Or keeping a cool head, he's got the Hansen temper. Maybe I should have hugged him more, maybe I should have smacked him upside the head more, I don't know, but, you're in for it."

[raspberryturk]

"Ah." Reno nodded a little at that, pursing his lips in thought. "For what it's worth, I've dealt with my fair share of rookies like that over the years, yo. Egos too big for their heads, heads too big to fit through a door. Sounds like your world was up to some interesting trouble, goin' by what he said about giant monsters. He might he stubborn, but it's easy to tell he takes doing something about that pretty damn seriously."

[jaegerbomber]

"Kaiju," Herc corrected absently. "And yeah, that's the thing. Chuck, he thinks he's the only one who can save the world, and I just want him to be a bit of a normal kid before he gets thrown in the deep end, y'know? And then he goes and signs up for the apocalypse class," he sighed. "Anyway, he gets to be too much of a pain in the neck, I'll buy you a beer. I'll buy you several beers."

[raspberryturk]

"Kaiju," Reno echoed, shrugging. "Kaiju, Weapon, end result is the same. Huge-assed creatures ripping human civilization a new one. Either way, I won't turn down a beer or several, yo. We can exchange notes on giant city-smashers. Or talk about anything but, I'm good either way."

No, really. He was. It was difficult to find a conversation topic that Reno would avoid like the plague unless you actually knew some of the places he'd been.