[ open ] Welcome to Chile, Cadets.

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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

18+

[karearea]

After a text to her mum to say she's down to landline calls only and please could you print some photos of the whanau and snail mail them, Ngaio unpacks her hygiene things and hands over her suitcase, carry on bag, and the floppy hat she'd been carrying and fanning herself with. She's pouting furiously as she claims a bed and starts packing her Academy issue gear away, but despite the frown, her packing is neat and military, thanks to her time in Air Cadets.

Still, she waits until their senior officers are out of the room before she whines, "This is balls! My photos are on my phone - they let us keep our crap at Woodbourne."

[secondtry]

"It's three months," Mike answered from his bunk, lacing on the new boots and wiggling his feet around in them to start the breaking in process. At least combat boots felt natural on his feet. "And it's just a phone. You'll live. Unless you step in front of something heavy, anyway."

[karearea]

"Not just the phone: My pounamu," Ngaio protests. She'd tried to explain to Lt. Contreras how important the jade pendant she'd been wearing before was to her, mostly in disjointed rambling and awkward pauses to try and translate concepts that were fairly universally understood back home. Naturally, it hadn't gone well. "That's, like, discrimination. And our clo--"

She interrupts herself with a yawn, covering her mouth with the ditty bag she was about to put away. It's been a very long day.

[secondtry]

Mike took a breath and sighed it out, shaking his head. "It's not discrimination. It's conformity. We're not here to be us, we're here to be soldiers, and that means losing anything that makes us us instead of soldiers for a while. You're lucky this is PPDC. It's actually more lax here than military. US military, anyway," he said. "You're not getting your head shaved. You've just temporarily lost a few belongings that you're going to get back. Seriously, no matter the sentimental value? It's temporary."

He didn't make his tone sharp, but he wasn't exactly gentle with his words, either. Mike had been through this too much to think much about it.

[karearea]

"Sentimental value?" Ngaio repeated, incredulous. "Sorry for expecting a bit of respect for culture like you'd get in the New Zealand military."

At least, she was assuming. ATC had never said anything about her friend's whale bone pendant. And there'd been whole Maori Battalions in the World Wars; surely they'd been allowed to keep their taonga! (History class had focused on their formations and achievements, leaving Ngaio to invent these details for herself.)

She gave a disgruntled sigh as she put the ditty bag, one less indignant part of her mind going over how to take care of all this new gear. "Whatever. It's not gonna stop me from getting in the air."

[secondtry]

"Okay, cultural value, my apologies - but what I said still stands. You're not here to be you from your culture. You're here to fit into military culture. And that's great, work your ass off, get into the air. More pilots, the better," Mike said as he adjusted his boots a little more. Almost perfect. It'd just take a couple days for them to be ideal.

[karearea]

"Damn right," said Ngaio, happy to find something they could agree on; he was obviously never going to see sense about cultures coexisting (if by "sense" you meant "Ngaio's underinformed opinion", which she did). "There's way more birds than giant robots - seems like that'd mean more openings for pilots than Rangers too."

[secondtry]

"With any luck, I'll have you over my big, metal shoulders someday," he said with a grin. Yeah, he was typical - he wanted to be a pilot. He wanted to beat up kaiju, and he didn't see a reason to deny it.

[karearea]

Ngaio snorted. "Flying's just about the only way I can get over anyone's shoulders, metal or not."

It was one of the perils of being as petite as she was, another peril (and the other way to get over someone's shoulders) being that she was easy to pick up. On the other hand, it meant flying held a certain thrill for her that most pilots she knew were well over.

[secondtry]

Their thoughts, it seemed, ran along the same lines. "I'd offer to heave you over my shoulders, but if I've learned anything, it's that shorter people end up picked up more often than they want to be."

[karearea]

"Don't you forget it!"

Smiling, she packed away the rest of her things in her locker. They'd gotten off to a rocky start, but this kind of chatter was a good sign. They didn't have to be those awkward tense people in the same barrack, like when people she roomed with at national courses were fighting.

"Cadet Travers," she said, straightening. Look, military culture. "Ngaio." Hey, look, there might be other people with her surname around.

[secondtry]

"Cadet Traceur," he echoed. "Mike. I'm gonna have to practice your name a little. Probably one of those where people look at it written down and go, 'uhh...' So it's... um. N-gaio?"

That wasn't something natural to his American pronunciation, but he was giving it a stab, anyway.

[karearea]

"Ng," she pronounces carefully. "Like the end of 'sing'. Ngai-o."

Even back home where she's not the only Ngaio in town, she's so used to people butchering it that she'd be pretty satisfied with nio, really, but he seems keen to learn it properly, which is nice.

[secondtry]

Going quiet for a few moments, Mike tried to put it together in his head before trying again. "Ng-ai-o? Man, my head and my mouth aren't used to there not being a vowel in those letters. Ng. Nnn-g. I'll get it."

[karearea]

Ngaio laughed, though not unkindly. "Yeah, you work on that, bro. Once you've got the ng going, you open up to the ai, I reckon."

Unsure of another way to explain the ng sound in the first place, she shrugged. But it sounded like he was on his way.

She straightened, finally finished putting her things away (and with some half-conscious ideas of what would need what kind of sprucing up for the inevitable inspections, too), and yawned. "Guess they'll be wanting us back for the tour soon."

[inurhead]

After watching the new cadets arrive Yancy had made a trip back to his quarters to grab some papers he was supposed to be over. On the way there the barracks had been mostly empty, but by the time he was headed back down they were teeming with new blood. He wasn't about to get caught sneaking into cadet barracks, but it wouldn't hurt to give this particular surly cadet a reassurance from the doorway.

"You don't have time to use it the first couple months anyway."

He'd know. He went through the program himself a few years back.

[karearea]

"That's what they said at Senior Leaders Course," Ngaio replied, uncoiling her new uniform belt to inspect the buckle. No doubt their commanding officers would want to see some nice shiny belt buckles. "Sure, it was a few days, not a few months, but we scrounged up some time."

Having assessed the belt buckle, she glances up. Her eyes widen with recognition and panic, and she immediately sits up straighter.

"Sir."

sorry for taking a day to get back to ya! also hi.

[inurhead]

If Yancy is offended by the insubordination it doesn't show at all. He shrugs, thinking the matter over for a minute.

"There's a copy shop a few blocks away. You should hit it up on Sunday, make some prints."

sorry for taking a week /)_(\

[karearea]

His lack of reaction doesn't help her mortification at all. How does she know he isn't someone who'll write her up for it later, or mention it to her more direct superiors? Ngaio barely relaxes her posture as she puts the belt into her locker (0/10 experience, would not recommend), and then stands up at attention, salutes, and holds it.

"My phone's already in lockup, sir. But I asked my mum to send me some prints from home.

"Thanks, though, sir," she adds, trying to rally. She does appreciate the thought! "You know this place well, sir?"

welcome back

[inurhead]

"Got here about a week ago." Yancy shrugs. He did have some time after arriving to settle in and attend briefings before the cadets were sent down, though. So he knows where to fax, Fedex, Western Union, and drop off dry cleaning. Not that they'll need to. There's laundry facilities on base.

"You'll know it better than I do soon, if you use your free time well."

[karearea]

"I'll definitely try, sir," Ngaio says, though she's actually seriously considering using her free time after the base tour to catch up on sleep. She can't sleep on planes and didn't have much more luck napping on her layovers. "The base is way bigger than the Defense Force bases I've been on, and the city looked pretty big."

It's not exactly hard for a town to look big to her - she's been in a couple of cities that were bigger than Valparaiso - but she hadn't been to those much.

[inurhead]

"They all do at first." He responds. Hopefully it comes off as reassuring, because it's supposed to. As soon as you find a favorite coffee shop or a bench to watch the harbor from, the worst of the battle is over. She'll be alright.

[karearea]

It does, a bit - without having read the Ranger bios the way some of her friends and family do, she's leaped to the conclusion he's from a much bigger town than she is. (Let's be fair now: There are schools with more people than her hometown.)

"Thank you, sir."

Her arm's starting to ache a little. She's held long salutes before, but never after thirty-some hours in transit.

[inurhead]

When did she throw that salute? Maybe he needs to go take a nap. Actually, a nap sounds amazing...

Yancy acknowledges the salute with one of his own so the kid can drop hers, and nods at her response. She's cute. He probably shouldn't stick around and chat if he doesn't want to cause trouble. He can't help tossing her a smile, anyway. It's good to see some lively ones coming in. They can use more spirited pilots and staff members.

"See ya around."

[karearea]

Ngaio relaxes to seated at ease and tentatively smiles back. Wow, he's not a snob like she'd thought the Rangers would be.

"You too, sir," she replies. She hadn't been expecting much contact with the Rangers until, say, she passed her Jumphawk training, and even then she'd thought they'd just be voices in the earpiece to each other. However initially mortifying, she kind of likes the idea of running into the Rangers around the 'dome like this.