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Support Services: The Park, Friday after classes

"So it seems that we had a bit of a vegetable problem this week," Morgana said, snickering a bit at the memory. Hindsight had a way of making things seem much less frightening. "The lesson here, we believe, is that even the most innocent objects on the island could be turned into weapons or enemies if we are not watchful. Perhaps it might be a good idea to think of other things that seem innocent, but that could turn deadly? Is there anything we can do to prepare ourselves for strange and unexpected attacks? Besides helping others be armed at all times, at least.

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Oh, like the girls would have a meeting without there being food.

Sigh, the food.

Arthur dutifully failed to take some, and leaned against a nearby tree.

Karla, who never passed up a chance to eat, wandered over to Arthur. Of course she had a reason for approaching him--rare moments of kindness or not, Arthur still wasn't her first choice for idle conversation.

"Arthur," she said, giving him a small nod in greeting. "I was thinking--it might be a good idea to get our Reserves together. Give them an opportunity to practice together so when there's a real invasion, we're not tripping over one another."

Or getting startled when the magics started to fly.

"So have I. ~~My mun is just the most ambitious procrastinator known to man~~," Arthur agreed, thoughtfully. "Perhaps we should lay out some kind of track over the weekend. Pair up a support, magic and fighting member, talk them through it."

He frowned thoughtfully. "Once Merlin is back to normal, the leaders should meet, in any case."

~~Oh! Oh! Mine too! Ask her about her thesis sometime! Or--don't, really.~~

"That's probably a good idea," Karla said. "Just to get them all used to working together. And, yes, we should all meet up. Talk about where we want the Reserves to go. Maybe if we had a concrete goal--besides defend Fandom competently--the weekly meetings would be a little easier to plan for."

Yeah, she'd heard of the three-legged race and the resulting run by Zack.

Zack had earned that one, thank you.

"There isn't much of a concrete goal beyond that," he felt needed to be pointed out. "The reserves formed in the wake of the harpy attack to discuss the best plans of action to handle seperate kinds of invasions."

"Which is why I'm wondering if having one would make things easier," she explained patiently. "I'm not talking anything huge like turning them into an elite fighting force by the end of the year or anything, but I feel like if we as leaders hammered out the best way to respond to invasions then we'd be able to bring that back to the groups."

"Karla," Arthur said, sighing in a way that was patient for him, "The problem with Fandom invasions is that no two are alike. We can't focus on one single way without destroying our chances of fending off an invasion that is entirely contrary to our expectations. The most important thing is that our members remain as versatile as possible."

"I'm not talking about formations or anything," she said, clinging to 'patient' with teeth and fingernails. "More like, uh, response times," she said, going for the first thing she thought of. "How can we help our people respond as fast as possible? How can we make sure they're armed for whatever threat is occuring at the time? Are we responsible for the whole island or should we concentrate on just keeping the dorms safe? If it's the whole island, how can we get people to where they need to be without having us all clump up together?"

She raked her hair back from her eyes. "Even I can see that the tactics used to fight off the alligators were different than the tactics used to fight off the vegetables. And I can't even imagine what needed to be done to fight off the harpies, since your harpies are nothing like mine--but I'm guessing it was different than either. But, surely, having a basic game plan like, 'send our best fighters to protect the dorms with mages to back them up and then send out strike teams' can be put into effect regardless of whether we're fighting off harpies, vegetables, or giant gummi dinosaurs."

Arthur rolled his eyes lightly, pinching the bridge of his nose. "You are talking as if I haven't considered these points," he said. "What I'm saying is that focusing on any one strategy is a stupid idea. 'Send our best fighters to protect the dorms' is well enough until someone takes over the dorms for their own purposes, and then we're shit out of luck. If we are to focus on any teaching strategy at all, it is making sure everyone on the island is aware of one another, well-informed, and capable of reaching any number of potential safehouses depending on the need."

He hadn't gotten as far as he had by being a complete tactical idiot, thank you.

Karla knew that and even respected his tactical knowledge--when she wasn't thinking about how much fun it would be to kill him with her brain.

"I'm not trying to suggest that you hadn't thought of that," she gritted out. "I'm just--"

Karla cut herself off, took a step backwards, and just breathed for a moment. She just had to handle him the same way she would a Warlord Prince back home. It was possible Arthur would be the most useful part of Fandom for her. If she could learn to deal with him, she wouldn't have any problems with people back home.

"I agree that that plan--or even perhaps a single plan--isn't feasible," she said in her best female-soothing-male-temper voice. "But, training for different types of combatants might be good. What you have to think about when you're dealing with fliers as opposed to something that digs under ground. And preparing for the case when the dorm is taken over. We won't know exactly how, but figuring out ways to sneak out or practicing trying to rescue people in the dorms...that's got to be helpful. I'm sure you could think of a ton of maneuvers that are easily adaptable to that."

And, hey, at least she wasn't offering him books.

Arthur had grown up with Morgana; as such, he was fairly used to the idea of women thinking about killing him with their brain while they talked to him. It fell within the same range of skills that also, for example, covered his immunity to very large breasts.

Thank you, Morgana.

"That might be a good potential exercise for next week," he was forced to agree. "However, that's exactly what we've been trying to do - covering a number of possible tactical approaches to keep our members nimble. If the other reserves need some help with lining up on that, however... we'd be glad to discuss it."

Yeah, ignoring Karla's chest probably wasn't much of a hardship for him. Assuming he'd ever gotten around to noticing it in the first place.

"It would likely be easier to think of these things all talking together than by ourselves, a few at a time," Karla replied, trying not to be--or, at least, sound--offended by Arthur's cavalier assumption that he'd be able to waltz in and tell them all what to do and they'd be much better ideas than whatever they'd come up with on their own.

Mostly because it was probably true and Karla wasn't about to let her pride interfere with that.

"We can also then coordinate our meetings, instead of us all doing a hodgepodge of ideas at once. And by outlining some of the basic tactical possibilities for us to focus on, you'd be able to give those of us without your experience and knowledge a better idea where to go, even without you needing to hold our hands."

This is good practice for the future. You'll be dealing with Warlord Princes for the rest of your life. Just keep telling yourself it's practice...

He waited until she was finished before saying, kindly, "Karla, I'd say that would be the obvious goal of such a meeting. You don't need to sell it to me."

By the Darkness, she was going to bite him some day. And it would be glorious.

"I'd say that it would be only one goal of such a meeting, though perhaps getting through everything would take more than just a single meeting," she said, clinging to politeness even if it killed her, "mostly because I do believe that these training tactics lend themselves out to basic strategies for dealing with invasions that we could--but that doesn't matter now. The important thing is that we're agreed that we should meet as soon as Merlin is back to himself. Everything after that can be handled at the meeting."

And with a glance down at her plate and a slightly-forced smile up at Arthur, she said, "Well, since I think we're doe here and it appears my plate is empty, I think I'll run over and get a refill. I'll talk to you later, Arthur."

And if she was going to keep throwing basic, simplistic arguments he had already thought of - like any sane, thinking being would have thought of - at him, Arthur was going to wind up calling her a patronising moron and walking out on the whole thing, but that wouldn't be conducive to anything either.

Instead, he smiled back politely. "I'm sure we can figure out the amount of meetings once we do meet," he returned, "But I'll give Merlin your best regards and get back to it. Goodbye, Karla."

Priestly'd brought . . . a veggie platter.

What? He thought he was funny.

"Did you slay these yourself?" Morgana asked with a smirk. She had to admit, it was pretty funny.

"Just me and my knives," Priestly said proudly. "They didn't even explode."

Room 218 was just the home of tiny blonde girls who could pack away the food, it seemed, as Gabrielle was very happily doing her share of demolishing today's spread.

Because really, after smart vegetables, anything is possible.

"So, uh, here's a question. When does trying to prepare for everything get to be too much? I mean, if you're busy preparing, when are you ever just kinda living?"

"The other six days and twenty-three hours of the week?" Francine suggested with a grin. "I mean, you've got a point, but it's not like we're exactly Fort Hood, here."

"Okay, true. But if we're gonna sit here and imagine how to deal with anything that could turn deadly, we're gonna be here forever."

"That's true too," Francine granted him. "Maybe broad categories of stuff? Like, we can probably deal with most food that comes alive the same way we did the vegetables."

"The more fragile stuff, sure. But if we're getting carnivorous roast pig hearts or whole dead fishes, stabbing and stomping might not be quite enough to make them explode. . . ."

Francine would be going with "........."

And then "Possibly how to fight them might be something we should get together with the other Reserves on."

Priestly grinned. "Okay, true. Especially since I keep just thinking of what sides would probably go best with 'em."

Once they've pinged in!

Morgana was around, nibbling at a cookie and feeling very grateful that she wasn't a vegetarian.

Francine was here and... there was kind of a problem with cooking for Arthur: it kept her from enjoying the snacks to their fullest potential because she made so much darn food for lunch.

Really. A problem.

Which was why she was poking at a container of leftover pancakes instead. Shut up.

*does the happy Friday dance*

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Support Services: The Park, Friday after classes

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