[ open ] Welcome to Chile, Cadets.

[supportadmin]

Characters: ALL.
Location: Valparaíso Shatterdome, Chile.
Date/Time: February 15th-28th.
Summary: The first shipment of recruits into the new Jaeger Academy program arrive. Some are staggered throughout the month, but they all have the same basic greeting. Here you are, there's where you sleep, here's what you wear, get going.
Additional Notes: See here for additional information. For information on the current weather, check out this link.

The Shatterdome didn't look futuristic, swatches of metal and concrete transforming a portion of the harbor into five enormous bays. Nevermind that only two were currently in use. The stark greys stand out against the colorful face of the city, a hulking monolith that's been carved into the face of the city that had once upon a century been termed the Jewel of the Pacific.

Note: Players are welcome to start their own interactions outside of the three main prompted scenarios. Go wild!

Comments

ARRIVAL | OUTSIDE THE SHATTERDOME

[supportadmin]

A man somewhere in his thirties stands with a clipboard by the gates the bus dropped the recruits by, dressed in the PPDC uniform spotted throughout the Shatterdome. He adjusts his glasses, fighting to keep a more sunny disposition on the serious, neutral side of thins as he calls out to each person standing around with their suitcases, packs, or simply the clothes on their backs.

"Cadet, report! Name and age?" He keeps his questions simple, looking for names on his list before dismissing each cadet and indicating for them to wait off to the left of the entrance.

"You have approximately one hour before we take you useless lot of nobodies by your barracks and show you how not to die around the Shatterdome! Stay close, and don't get curious! Curious cadets are dead cadets."

He smiles at the end, and it's almost friendly. Meet Lt. Diego Contreras. He'll be with you for a while.

[spareheir]

Kou gives his name and age, then stands around with the others to wait. Well...they're off the bus at least. That particular misery is over. It's time to begin the intense training, then. In an hour, anyway. Until then, they'll just have to stand around and wait it seems like. Maybe it's alright to make conversation?

He turns to the cadet next to him and decides to give it a shot. "It's nice here, isn't it? It was winter at home."

[bushidork]

Sugane has been standing ramrod straight since Lt. Contreras appeared, so the sound of Kou's voice almost makes him jump out of his skin. When his heart rate slows down again, he manages to stammer out an answer.

"R-right. It's summer in this hemisphere."

It's not the smartest answer, but it's the best he has right now. All of this is kind of overwhelming, not so much because he doesn't know what to expect (he does), but more because it's finally starting to sink in that it's actually happening. Honestly, the heat isn't helping. He hasn't had nearly enough time to adjust from winter in Tachikawa to summer in Valparaiso.

[spareheir]

That's not stunning conversational skill, no, but it is a response. Kou will take it. He laughs cheerfully. "There was a snow delay at Narita. Mmm, the sunlight feels nice. To think that somewhere so peaceful was built to respond for combat."

[bushidork]

"It does sort of stand out, though." The Shatterdome doesn't exactly blend into the landscape at all. Sugane usually isn't the sort to give much thought to aesthetics, but even he can notice that. There must have been a huge outcry when the construction started. "There's no question where the city ends and the Shatterdome begins."

It made it easy to get into the mindset necessary to start training, but he still sort of hopes that things are a little less grim inside the walls of the building. Sober, maybe, and understated, but not grim like the outside of the building.

[counterattacked]

It's taking a while to get everything sorted out, but that's to be expected. Eren's standing a little restlessly to the side, hands in pockets to keep them still as he watches the others check in. Even before he'd had cause to dedicate himself to becoming a Ranger, he'd always imagined traveling the world, of seeing new and exotic places. Ever since he was a kid. So being here in Chile is a dream come true in more than one way. They're not here to sightsee, though, and he's not going to lose sight of that. No way.

He seems to shake himself out of something when he realizes he's being addressed. Tears his wide eyes away from the scenery and the proceedings to study the cadet next to him.

"I guess. It's pretty hot," humid, more like, which is probably worse. Spoiled by mild California weather all his life, Eren's never had to deal with very harsh winters. Or very harsh summers, for that matter. He tips his head toward Kou curiously.

"Where are you from?"

[spareheir]

It is humid, but so is Japan in the summer. Far worse than this. Kou smiles, and shrugs. He's jetlagged, boy is he jetlagged, but he's not bothered by the weather at all.

"Japan." He replies, assuming the other boy won't have heard of the town he's from, not with such an American accent. Though he'd be familiar with Tokyo most likely, which had been true once. Things had changed in Japan, just as they had elsewhere.

[counterattacked]

"Hey, really?" If he sounds surprised, it's because he is, though he really shouldn't be. He's not entirely terrible as far as geography is concerned—hanging out with Armin when he was younger meant collecting all sorts of miscellaneous knowledge through plain old osmosis—but he'll be better at capital cities and famous landmarks than smaller towns, for sure.

Japan, though, that's half a world away from everything he's ever known. It just drives home how much humanity has to pull together, now.

"What's it like?" He asks, then seems to realize this is a broad question. "Besides colder, I guess."

[inferiorcomplexes]

"It's not a very good Shatterdome if you expect us to die in it on the first day," Franziska says, a bit too loud to be a whisper. It may sound haughty, and that's because she is. She's also a bit nervous. She did not come here in the middle of nowhere, betrayed by her genetic predisposition to sweat from every pore on her body, to die on her first day.

[europeanunion]

"It's a figure of speech." Of dismissal or suspension or getting sent back. Though Leila can't deny that there's some form of truth in those words. With the always-ongoing Jaeger maintenance and repair, people running around, transport vehicles coming in and out and the various activities in the Shatterdome, it's a hazardous place nearly for everyone, most especially them who know so little about its inner workings. So it's more or less a warning to keep all of them in their place. As if the commanding tone isn't more than enough to do that.

After giving her name and age to the person she assumes will be their divisional officer (or whatever the PPDC equivalent of that rank is), she offers a slight smile to the girl who spoke out. "To some extent, at least."

[inferiorcomplexes]

"I know that. It doesn't make things less foolish. They could have said something substantial but no," says the girl whonstarted this entire conversation on nothing substantial.

She states her name and age. Franziska von Karma. Eighteen. Will definitely explore all the dangerous nooks and crannies of the Shatterdome on her free time.

She doesn't offer a smile back, because she's friendlier that way. "Is this your first time in a Shatterdome?"

[europeanunion]

"But it wouldn't be as intimidating now, would it?" Straight to the point with no sugarcoating. That's always been her experience back at the college and that seems to spill over here. Of course, it may not always work with some of the students (like this girl here; she seems the type who would have "insubordination" as her middle name) but there will always be a handful it can be effective to.

Leila nods, falling into place behind her. "It is. But the place I came from wasn't all that different. You?"

[boomerangarrow]

Kate gives her a strange look. "You don't actually believe that do you?" She thought it was incredibly obvious they were just trying to scare them into compliance. Kind of unnecessarily if you ask her, obviously nobody who made it this far wants to get sent away this early.

[inferiorcomplexes]

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Honestly, must she explain everything?

"It could be a threat, it could be real. If it's the former, then it's a foolish statement to waste one's breath on. If it's the latter, then it's even more foolish and this place should be shut down." She crosses her arms on her chest.

[boomerangarrow]

"Ever think you're over using that word?" The only time she's heard somebody use a word to that extent was the Russian mafia in the bad side of town. And really, they just littered everything with 'bro'.

"Anyway, people who smile like that after death threats don't actually mean them."

[inurhead]

"That almost never happens." Someone responds from the shade of a nearby tree. Not to say the possibility isn't there, because hey, it's heavy equipment. All over the place. Industrial accidents have been happening since right around the beginning of industry. But generally speaking, people have enough self-preservation skills to listen to the heads up from the safety instructors when they arrive.

[inferiorcomplexes]

"It better not happen," she says to tthe tree who she does not recognize at all. "I know people who could shut this place down." And she does, She's met some of them before, when she used to follow her father and brother to work. That was years ago. So she's not close with those people at all. Her threat is about as effective as saying that you'd die in a Shatterdome on the first day of training.

[inurhead]

Well. That's impressive insubordination. Yancy isn't surprised by Cadets misplacing a 'sir' here and there or screwing up a salute, but they generally don't talk to him like that. If any staff happens to catch wind of that, this particular cadet is in for some serious upbraiding. Yancy quirks a brow, tilts his head a little. Add a 'sir' to that, kid. You can do it. It'll at least spare you KP on the first day if you get caught back talking but you remember the 'sir.' He'll wait.

[boomerangarrow]

She takes off her sunglasses before answering. "Kate Bishop. Twenty." If he keeps his questions simple and straight forward, Kate will do just the same with him. But she can't help rolling her eyes at his threat. She didn't have any desire to get thrown out this early in the program.

[supportadmin]

He looked down his list, checking off in a column and making a brief note as he did so. "Glad to have you aboard, Cadet Bishop. Captain Zhang should be along in twenty. At your ease to the left of the door until then."

His tone didn't appear hurried, for all he was technically ushering her off. Lt. Contreras was taking his task seriously, keeping an eye out for the interactions of the younger subset of cadets. If he was going to be living with them, he might as well start figuring them out early as he could. Teenagers. What had he done to get signed up for that duty?

With no one else immediately behind Kate (most having checked in already), it was her call to stay or go as she pleased.

[boomerangarrow]

She can respect a guy who does his job properly. Even if it seems as menial as checking off the new recruits and waving them off to their new rooms for the coming months. There had to be more to it then that though.

And well, this guy's done checking people in, so it's not like she'd be disturbing him from his job if she chatted with him. "So what are your duties, sir?" It's strange calling people that, but rules are rules. And it's not like it's particularly difficult to follow that one.

[inurhead]

"Hell of a greeting." Remarks a man who isn't a cadet at all, from a few feet away under a nice, shady tree. He remembers the routine, but it's not intimidating now. Besides, the cadets all seem to be checked in now. He's not interrupting anything important.

[supportadmin]

Contreras stands at attention, saluting Yancy as he tucks the clipboard under an arm. "Sir." He holds the salute, waiting for any further address. Yancy Becket is someone he wouldn't mind getting a good look at - Diego respected the kind of attitude both the Becket brothers were known to have. If he could have gotten away with it, he'd have loved to be about as laid back as they could outside of their calls to duty out on the Pacific Rim.

[inurhead]

Yancy returned and dropped the salute, not bothering to get up from his cozy spot under the tree. He also gave his favorite command, so the dude wouldn't stand there all day like there was a rod up his spine. "Relax, Lieutenent. Actually, you been here long?"

[reengineered]

Lucy arrives, looking wary at first, but determined once the group starts stirring, once names start being called. She has nothing in her possession besides the clothes on her back, no photos, nothing important. Just herself. Well, and a small notepad, a pencil, and a strong sense of doubt. She's here, isn't she? She made it. So now all she has to do is work her ass off.

When she's called, she hands over a slip of paper with her name and age clearly printed, then raises a hand to sign both to the man. It's unusual, yes, but hopefully it's acceptable. She doesn't expect the place to conform to her lack of speaking, and she knew full well it would be a challenge if she got in, but now's the moment. Now's when she has to start proving that she has what it takes.

Her relief is visible on her face when she's granted the free hour. Now to resist the temptation to explore...