Office #7, Tuesday

[raspberryturk]

So, Reno really hadn't been here at all this semester, with a couple of exceptions. It stood to reason, with him, that almost a week before his final class was probably a good time to make an attempt at that.

Not that there was a hell of a lot of paperwork to be done, what with all of the hard work finished with back in Edge. Tseng had been more or less off his case the whole semester, which was nothing shy of a miracle. They weren't exactly going to be able to start anything new next week, and how the hell did you even give a final exam about public service, anyway? So mostly he was in his office because it felt as though he should be in his office, and as for doing actual office work?

Did drinking coffee and flinging pencils up at the ceiling until they stuck up there count?

[OOC: Open office hours! Probably Reno's last for a long, long while.]

Comments

[raspberryturk]

"Good job," Reno said, with a little croon that was maybe just a tiny bit patronizing. It was a wonder he wasn't clapping his hands, really. Reno was behaving himself. "Now, second test question, pay close attention, here. Which one of those haven't you broken this semester?"

Trick question. This one wasn't multiple choice.

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

You know what Karina was terrible at? Faking submission. Of any sort. He was trying to pull shit like rank on her, or something, and all it did was irritate the crap out of her.

But since her instincts were shrieking 'DANGER, DANGER' at her, she wasn't going to go with her first thought, which was to roll her eyes at him.

Instead she shrugged. "We both know the answer is 'none of them'."

[raspberryturk]

Funny thing about him being the teacher and her being the student -- Reno did have rank, here. It was a good thing her danger senses were tingling, because he wouldn't have taken well to an eyeroll at all.

"You wanna tell me why that is?"

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

Karina actually had to take a few moments to think about that, since, really, it had happened a while ago and she'd thought she'd gotten off scot-free and unnoticed about it.

"You got turned into a bird or something," she said. "And it fell on me to teach the class. I knew basically what you wanted us to do, so I figured that I'd just pop over for a couple of minutes and see the sites before taking everyone else over."

She'd been nervous about teaching and so had wanted to be extra prepared for it, and that had meant getting a grasp on things before showing up.

"Anyway, turned out the sites had been trashed. I spent a while there getting an idea of how badly, then went and brought the class over for clean up rather than new work."

[raspberryturk]

"And you didn't think to bring somebody with you? You got classmates you could'a brought," Reno pointed out. "You got any idea why I might be upset with you right now?"

You know, for blatantly breaking the rules, and all?

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

"I didn't think about it," she said, keeping her voice mild with an effort. "And I figure you're mad because I broke the rules."

Obviously.

[raspberryturk]

Now Reno was rolling his eyes.

"Come on, Karina. You can do better than that, yo. Why do I have those rules in place, hm?"

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

"To keep us safe," she said grumpily.

Yeah, she'd guessed that.

[raspberryturk]

Hey, she was good at this game!

"So, you decided to ignore my rules because...?"

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

Because she wasn't actually an idiot, no matter how much he might think she was one right now.

"You weren't around," Karina said flatly. "Kathy didn't even show up for class that week and that meant I was in charge, since I'm one of your TAs. That meant it was up to me to do your job and check things out to make sure everyone else would be safe when we went over. So I went alone because it didn't occur to me to take one of the people I was supposed to be looking out for along with."

[raspberryturk]

"And you can't figure out why I might be pissed off at you about this?" Reno just raised an eyebrow. "Why it's doubly important my own gods-damned TAs follow the rules I set out? You wanna take the class to Edge, fine, but you all go together. I don't care if you're a pro fighter or a goddamn demigod, you follow my rules. Bein' TA doesn't make you the singular protector of everyone else in the class, that makes you someone responsible for makin' sure everyone is followin' the rules I laid out to make sure the whole class is safe, yourself included."

... Reno was beginning to understand how Tseng must feel dealing with him for so long.

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

"I was safe! Nothing got me and no one bugged and I didn't see a single monster," she snapped back. "I value my own skin!"

Her, uh, career choices did not make that immediately obvious, but she did.

"But I also did the job you gave me. Because it was what I was supposed to do!"

[raspberryturk]

Reno, slightly soggy Reno, was pushing himself to his feet now and planting his hands on the desk.

"The rules," he snarled, "are part of the job. You do the job, trust me, nobody on this goddamn island gets that better than I do, but if I set out parameters for you to do it inside of, I damn well expect them to be followed!"

Shit. Shit shit shit. When the hell had he become Tseng? He was going to do a lot of drinking tonight to make up for that realization.

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

"And I made sure they were followed by the class," Karina said, her temper flaring. "I kept them safe while acting in your place. Your goddamn rules didn't say anything about what a TA was supposed to do when you weren't around. So I used my own judgement and did the best I could and, you know what, it all worked out okay!"

[raspberryturk]

Deep breath, Reno. Deep breath. Reel that temper back a little.

"Rules," he said, loathing himself a little more for every syllable he kept saying, "aren't there for all the times you don't end up needing 'em. They're there for the exception, that one in a friggin' hundred where you do."

Tseng would be so proud that it finally sank in, at least. He leveled Karina with a look that said, in no uncertain terms, that he was angry. It wasn't a look he used often.

It was actually a kind of terrifying look, at that.

"So you're not gonna argue with me about how it all worked out. You're goin' on the detention list. There's no godsdamn point suspending you, since this class coming up is the last one. But if I'd found out about you going ahead of the group any earlier than now, we wouldn't even be havin' this discussion."

There wasn't even a 'yo' in there. Reno was maaaaad.

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

It was a terrifying look.

So much so that she took an involuntary step back before her eyes flashed and her chin came up defiantly.

"Fine," she said, absolutely zero apology in her voice. "Can I go now?"

Yeah, she had no regrets about what she did. None.

[raspberryturk]

"Out."

Reno did not actually trust himself to say more words, here. He was just pointing at the door, holding that angry, angry expression on his face.

And on the inside, he was crying a little. Friggin' hell, when did he start to channel Tseng, anyway?