[After the ill-fated interdiction of Claude Sherman's forces, Luana is resting in the medical ward, which is not surprising since a decent chunk of her torso was recently removed. Suddenly, A TOGO appears!] [Mini start] * Luana is laying down, dressed in a hospital gown with a thin blanket over her lower half. She's staring at the ceiling pretty intently. Never know when those things will do something tricksy! * Togo frowns as he walks in and takes a seat next to Luana's bed. "How're you holding up?" * Luana sighs quietly. "I'm okay. I guess. 'Everyone acts like a moron sometimes,' right?" She turns her head away from Togo. I was going to use the term 'tactical misjudgement', but that works too. I'm not here to beat you up over it, though... you're damn well beat up already. I want to make sure you know *why* it was the wrong way to do things. * Luana faces Togo again. "I was so worried about Jamie... but that was so -stupid-! I turned my back to the enemy!" * Togo pauses. "Okay, two things." First, concern for your teammate is never stupid. The impulse of wanting to protect her was the right one... it's just the way you went about it was all wrong. * Luana reaches up a hand to cover her face, then halfway up pauses and lets out a little, "Ow." Second, your mistake wasn't... okay, turning your back on the enemy is always bad, but that wasn't the big thing. * Togo tilts his head. "You're in no condition to mope. Doctor's orders." *smirk* * Luana smiles slightly. "Liar. What was the big mistake?" Let's simplify the scenerio. Just you, Jamie and gauntlet girl. Gauntlet girl pops up, seriously wounds Jamie. She's KO'd and badly injured. Obviously, you want to do what you can to patch Jamie up so she doesn't get worse or die. But if you get put down right next to her, you're both dead, right? Right. Now, if this were a military unit, and we had a dedicated corpsman whose job was to evacuate the wounded, or we had sufficient numbers that we could afford to spare you, what you did might not have been so bad. ... aside from the 'turning your back on the girl with the torso-hole-punching-gauntlet' thing. If... in the scenario, if I couldn't win fast enough and Jamie died... would it be my fault? Well, you'd probably feel like it was. I've been in that situation, and I still feel guilty about a few of them years later. But you would've been making the right move given the circumstances. The key is maximizing the odds of her survival. When I can move around, do you think we could... um, naturally it's not my decision to make or anything, but I'd like to... study tactics and things? So I know what to do next time. Maybe, occasionally, ignoring the battle and patching up someone's wounds is the right move. But in the vast majority of situations, it's best to make sure you're alive to help before you help. * Luana nods. * Togo grins. "First off, you get to make suggestions. I get to reject them if I want, but you get to make them." *more serious* "Secondly, that was one of two things I wanted to work on with you." What's the other? Well, first off, we're going to be doing a lot more tactical training. That means some reading... Sun Tzu, Clausewitz, some basic infantry tactics... and a lot more training sim time. A *lot* more training sim time. And no more sheep. Ohthankgod. I did do a little bit of tactical reading with Dr Kerner, but to be honest, it took up a lot of my free time and I, um.... ended up reading other things instead, sometimes. Don't be. I used the sheep because I wanted to use something a bit silly so the fundimental 'get it right or you get zapped' wasn't too scary. We're going to be going scary from now on. * Luana gives him her very best Serious face. "Sir. I had a nightmare about were-sheep. It was fairly scary." ... okay, so maybe we will keep using sheep. *grins* * Luana grins back. ...Thank you for talking to me about this, sir. I swear I'll do better if similar situations occur. So, um, how'd you get us away from the bad guys? I wish I could have seen it. No problem. Remember that, for all your training, you're still damn new at this. I expect you to make mistakes; I also expect you not to repeat them. Yes, sir. * Togo shrugs. "I pulled out a bandolier of grenades and threatened to blow them and us up if they didn't walk away. They didn't want to lose any more people, and they'd done what they came for, so they walked away." Would you have really done it, sir? * Togo tilts his head. "Of course not. I'm not quite ready to die yet, old and decrepit thought I may be." No way, sir! You're -awesome-! I'm -so- glad you're my guardian and not someone else's! * Luana starts trying to sit up and falls back down. "Ow. Need to stop moving." * Togo chuckles. "That's just because I'm not insane and don't try to traumatize you." ... too much. My parents weren't trying to traumatize me, and I liked Dr. Kerner a lot, but you're-! Filled with guns? * Luana stops and blushes. "Sorry. I got kind of excited." We'll chalk it up to the pain meds. * Luana shakes her head slightly. "No, just...." She turns away as her blush gets deeper. "You're the -best-." Dunno about that, but I try my damndest. (And you need to give Keiko one of your coats!) * Luana 's face is a fairly embarassing shade of red. (Ask, and ye shall receive. =P) * Togo doesn't notice, for obvious reasons beyond general obliviousness. (Man, blind people. What's up with that? *is shot by everyone else in the channel*) But don't put me up for sainthood just yet, kid. I make mistakes just like everyone else; it's just that I've been around so long I've already made most of them. * Luana nods slightly. (Ha. Fun idea: Togo teaches the psychic how to blind fight!) (Lu has blind fighting! This does Keiko no good whatsoever!) (I didn't realize Lu had it!) (I think I started out with it) (... but it doesn't help psychics anyway.) But back to the point... second thing was that I want to start diversifying your combat options a bit. * Luana turns back to him. "How so?" Well, first off... how many fireballs can you throw without getting tired? ...A lot? So you haven't reached the upper limit. Okay, that's good. Um, sparking them doesn't wear me out, just throwing them... at least twenty. (Do Luana's fireballs take EP, or are they just a special attack?) (I took BE for the defect point, so the TK is 2 EP each time.) (She has 75 EP.) (Ah, ok) (I have to head out in ten minutes.) * Togo nods. "Okay, that gives us a good base to work off of. In addition to getting you used to using your fire more in combat, I want to work on giving you additional ways to use it." (Almost done. =P) (Kaaay) Okay. (!! Gasoline filled water balloons! XD) A couple of things come to mind... first is a directed fire explosion, like a grenade. Something with some burst so you can hit multiple targets. I can try? I've never attempted to do anything like that. We'll work on it. Maybe it'll work, maybe it won't, but it'll give you more options in a fight. Right. The other thing... *grins* How would you like to shoot firey bullets? (Keiko could toss the balloons!) (Combo attack!) * Luana 's eyes light up. Er, not literally. "Yes! Yes yes, yes please!" Thought you'd like that. We'll start experimenting once you get healthy. Thank you! I'll be the best ward ever, just... firey bullets! Eee! (Okay, I gotta go.) * Togo stands up and ruffles Luana's hair. "I remember when I was young and every new way to blow shit up was a thing of wonder... ah, to be young again." * Luana giggles and grins up at him. [End]