Play@YSDC

In the auditorium-
"Also not anymore," Craig said, lowering his head. "She was KIA yesterday. I'd only been seeing her for a few weeks, but still... I'm not giving up, though. I still believe in love. How about you?"

Major Jackson led the way around a corner and down another corridor to a pair of double doors at the end, which he opened. The three of them entered a large auditorium. A podium stood on a low stage at the far end of the room with a microphone atop it. A large screen, rolled up, was on the rear wall. There was a curtain, currently open, at the front of the stage. Hundreds of chairs arrayed in rows with aisles between them faced the podium. "This room is used for big assemblies with many people," said the major. "It's one of the possibilities. We could clear out the chairs to make room for a dance floor, get some buffet tables in here, and there's already a great A/V system for presentations. What do you think?"

"Sounds good," said Cynthia. "Do we have an actual dance floor because, like, they're made of special materials?"

In the auditorium-
"I think we can scrounge one up," said Major Jackson. "Dances have been held on the base before, but they're smaller affairs than what we're planning. I don't know if we have a dance floor big enough, but maybe we can combine multiple smaller floors. We'll need to check with the Quartermaster to see what we've got."

"And speakers?"

In the auditorium-
"Speakers won't be a problem," said Jackson. "The auditorium already has them for assemblies and the like, and the room has excellent acoustics. Of course, if we're going to have two parties simultaneously, we'll need a secondary room. Doesn't have to be as big as this one, as the second one will be for officers only, and there aren't as many. We'll also need a decent DJ for each party. Would you be any good at that?"

"I still don't know about having two parties at once," says Cynthia. "Unless we'll have another set of two parties tomorrow? I know you've probably got it all figured out but I wouldn't want more than half the men away from their stations or hung over tomorrow."

In the auditorium-
"Hangovers won't be an issue if we don't serve alcohol," said Jackson, "but I see your point. I've already decided to have the parties straddle two shifts, so that anyone on one of those shifts could go during the other one. Those on the third shift could choose either or stay for both. We'll still have enough people on duty in each shift that we won't be short-handed. If a dire emergency crops up that requires all base personnel, we'll just have to cut the parties short and reschedule them, but I'm not expecting anything like that. So far this morning hasn't been as bad as yesterday, so hopefully we're through the worst of it."

"Although..." started Airman Craig Davis, but he stopped when the major looked at him. "Nah, it's probably nothing to worry about."

"What isn't anything to worry about?" asks Cynthia, blinking her big eyes at him.

In the auditorium-
"Oh, I'm sure it's nothing, ma'am," said Craig, glancing over at the major. "Some of the guys are afraid that the Russians are going to nuke us, but they'd probably have done it already if they wanted to. They've got their own problems to worry about."

"Is it happening there as well?" asks Cynthia.

In the auditorium-
"Scuttlebutt is that it's happening everywhere, ma'am," said Craig. "Of course, that might just make the Russian government more unstable, and if they think we caused this..." The major frowned at him, and he shut his mouth.

Cynthia frowned, her forehead creasing cutely. "Why would they think that?" She tilts her pelvis towards him a little.

In the auditorium-
Craig grinned at Cynthia, goofily. "Well, things have been getting worse between us and Russia since Putin took over," he said. "The government there hates our guts and is liable to blame us on principle when things go wrong, especially when it's of this magnitude. I'm too young to remember the Soviet Union even existing, but the CO once said he missed the Cold War, because then at least everyone knew who the enemy is." He noticed the major's glare burning a hole through him and coughed. "But, um, it's nothing that needs to concern us. Either the Russians don't want to nuke us, or they're not capable of it under the circumstances, because we haven't been nuked."

"Shouldn't the world be allies by now?" asked Cynthia. "Are we working with the UK and Australia and things like that? Are all the other countries wiped out?" She paused, allowing tears to spring into her eyes. "I hadn't even thought about the rest of the world!"

In the auditorium-
"We should be, yes," said Craig, "but that's people for you. What's making the problem worse is that we can't communicate with each other any more. The Russkies don't know what we're doing, and we don't know what they're doing. There's still a lot of mistrust, and they could think we caused all this. In fact, the CO probably thinks-"

Major Jackson cleared his throat. "I think we've spent enough time on this," he said, looking over to Cynthia. "Besides, it's disturbing the young lady. Are you all right, Miss?"

OOC,[b]Cynthia[/b], please roll Psychology and Idea.

"Hmm?" asks Cynthia, feigning being distracted to buy some time as she processed the information as she quickly started piecing it all together. Unfortunately she was too distracted by her brainstorm to much notice those around her.

In the auditorium-
"You seemed upset," said the major. "All this talk about what's happened to the world must be too much. Perhaps we should change the subject."

It seemed to Cynthia that Craig had been about to say that the CO thought that the Russians were behind this before Major Jackson interrupted him, probably to stop him from saying precisely that. Craig had been on the verge of opening up a few times, but he didn't seem able to speak freely in front of the officer.

Cynthia nods. "Oh, what were we talking about before again?"

In the auditorium-
"We were discussing our plans for the parties this evening," said Major Jackson. "I was explaining that the parties will overlap two shifts, so that people can come no matter what shift they're on. I'm thinking we should start at 2000 hours - that's 8:00 PM - and wrap up by 0400. Shift change is at midnight."

"Sounds good to me," says Cynthia, slinking her arm through Craig's and giving Craig a poke in his muscular belly. "And if you are going to help me set this up then you're going to owe me a dance."