DJ Shuffle: The Fuck is This?

[dj-shuffle.livejournal.com]

[Since resuming programming, DJ Shuffle has been playing Christmas and winter music, from traditional to songs that he first heard listening to the Doctor Demento show back in New York. Once he's gathered his information and his thoughts, though, he cracks the mic and begins to talk, much more calmly than usual. If there was ever a chance to recognize his voice, this is it, as he sounds sedate and serious.]

So. I'm gonna assume that if you're listening to me, you've got power. Or a battery-powered radio tuned to me, and what does that say about your priorities? But if you're stranded out there and you hear this, call the studio line, I'll get help sent out to you.

See, I could be my usual flaming asshole and shit on everyone for not knowing this was coming and we weren't prepared and all that rot. But you know what? There's bigger fish to fry. We've learned a lesson from all this: the Deck's weather isn't as stable as we'd like to believe. Snowstorms in October are possible. An early spring heatwave might be possible. Town could end up flooded by massive rainfall. And we're not ready for that.

We paid for our unpreparedness in lives, ladies and gentlemen. While everyone at the castles was fine, there are reports of roofs caving in in Town, crushing people in their houses. And even those who made it out okay had dehyrdation and frostbite issues. I'm so not blaming anyone, not this time. What I want to ask the Deck is this: what can we do to prepare for next time? How can we create an effective disaster preparedness team? Can we effectively get a roster of every member of every Suit and account for them? Can we create centralized safe locations for disasters--schools, perhaps?

I know, this is probably something the High Cards are going to want to talk about. But here I am, and I'm not one. I want to know, what can we all as individuals do, next time the Deck goes weird on us all? Open forum for discussion, for everyone, rather than my usual schpiel.

Phone lines are open.

Comments

[dj-shuffle.livejournal.com]

Animal cruelty, Your Majesty? Tsk, and here I respected you. Are you here to berate me for how I make my points, or point out how inaccurate I was with my original statement?

[He'll keep the light tone until Elisha indicates which way to jump. Face cards are always great for listenership.]

[cipherspeak.livejournal.com]

I have to admit I wonder why you respect me but not some of the other Faces, but you can do that next week when we're - hopefully - back to our usual balmy October weather.

So I suppose I'll just point out that there's no way to be prepared for every possibility, and the only way to respond to every possibility when it occurs is to be flexible. That's what I tried to do with the Clubs. We always maintain an emergency surplus of supplies, and I'm proud that my people responded quickly and efficiently. We had people going out to check houses and bring people to safety as soon as it was safe to do so.

[Beyond that, there was really little they could do. And the same was true even if the Deck regularly got blizzards.]

[dj-shuffle.livejournal.com]

So. Um, your people. The Clubs. Do you think organizing surpluses and plans by Suit is the best idea, when you have families in town that are mixed-Suit? A Diamond dad and a Club mom, and their teenage Heart, for example. Who accounts for them? Or do they split up, and go with their Suit in case of emergency?

[This is a serious question, not mocking. He's got classmates who are in just such a situation.]

[cipherspeak.livejournal.com]

I think that organizing all supplies and plans through a collective is redundant, because we are a collective. And while I certainly think that people in Town need centralized locations to go to, just because a lady's husband is a Diamond and their son is a Heart doesn't mean we're going to turn them away from Club Castle. And I doubt sincerely that the Diamonds or the Hearts would turn them away, either.

Look, being split into Suits doesn't mean that we are also not one entity. There were Hearts and Spades who took sanctuary at Club Castle. There were Diamonds stranded at Spades. There were a few Clubs I know of who waited out the storm in Heart Castle. Do you think that Miss Merrick told them that no, they couldn't use candles or eat food from the Heart kitchens because they belonged to another Suit?

[dj-shuffle.livejournal.com]

And yet, you're proud that your people responded well. Why not just be proud that, as a whole Deck, we made it through well?

[cipherspeak.livejournal.com]

I am proud that the Deck made it through well. That doesn't mean I can't also be proud of the Clubs, does it? That I can't appreciate the efforts of the people I chose to join when I found the Deck as well the efforts of every member of the Deck?

Or do you feel that we shouldn't identify with smaller groups of people, and we should only identify with the whole? [If so, Teddy was going to be disappointed with life in general, because that certainly wasn't a Deck phenomena.] It's human nature to do so.