[ 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

Re: Wanna meet a rockstar? Yeah ya do.

[protagerrant]

A lot of the cadets do end up milling around the entrance to the courtyard, warily eyeing each other and their surroundings for some kind of cue, unsure of this sudden freedom. Having been through it all before, Yuri looks comparatively cheerful as he walks through the doors, breathing in the fresh air deep as he pops his back and looks around. When he spots Yancy--someone that famous you don't mistake, even at a distance, and he'd technically seen him around the Alaska base even it'd never been up close--he strides over, letting out a low whistle once he gets close enough.

"Damn, that's nearly three full active Jaeger teams they've got stationed here now. I feel like precious cargo." It's only after a pause that he remembers to tack on the rest. "Sir."

[inurhead]

"We're counting on you to help us to victory." Yancy recites, remembering the propaganda from his own academy days. The 'sir' gets a nod, but no further comment. Unless these kids get really out of line, he's not interested in being a hardass anyway. He's just here to keep the perimeter.

[protagerrant]

Yuri grins at him, "Each cadet has the potential to turn the tides of war." A line right out of another recruitment pamphlet. He made a point of reading most of the stuff the PPDC put out; he liked to know how the organization he was working for liked to style itself.

He crossed his arms, head cocked curiously. "Are you going to be participating in the new, innovative drift program here, too?" Andrea had blown him off when he asked her, but maybe Yancy would give him a more straightforward answer.

[inurhead]

While Yancy doesn't feel the need to stand on ceremony, they're in a courtyard surrounded by others, including many of this kid's immediate superiors. The report won't come from him, but it can easily be filed by anyone standing around. So he quirks an eyebrow and gives his head a slight tilt, waiting for it. C'mon, kid. In three months no one will give a crap, but right now they're watching you.

[protagerrant]

Thankfully, Yuri catches on fast, mostly due to situations like this coming up many, many times. Sometimes it was deliberate; sometimes it wasn't. When you grow up directly opposed to authority, accepting it--or pretending to--didn't come easy. And he'd been free and clear of the of this kind of nit-picky the last three months he'd been at Alaska.

"Sir." He adds on. "Sorry, it's been awhile; I always forget what my sir-to-sentence ratio is supposed to be. Sir."

It was a miracle--or maybe just PPDC guidelines--that Yuri's superiors hadn't simply backhanded him every time he opened his mouth, truly.

[inurhead]

That gets a smile out of Yancy, who wasn't offended anyway. He just doesn't want to see the kid get written up in the first hour of his training. The answer is to go liberal with 'em when in doubt. No one ever gets written up for too much respect. The kid will figure it out, though. He's got a good uptake. Yancy nods again and responds like there wasn't a pause there anyway.

"There's been some discussion about that."

[protagerrant]

"I heard K-science was working on a formula for that, sir." Well, less k-science and more a couple fellow cadets who had dropped out of the Jaeger program after their three months to transfer over. They'd stayed up with Yuri after curfew a couple of times. They'd even come up with a solution, though hell if Yuri remembered it. Too jargony.

[inurhead]

He'd been talking about the training, actually, but Yancy snorts quietly at that response. This kid is funny, he's alright. Probably a brat. The smartasses always are. Not that that's inherently a bad thing anyway. Yancy happens to have a certain fondness for smartass kids.

"As long as they don't pull our guest lecture spot to make the announcement."

[protagerrant]

"Looking forward to delivering an inspirational speech, sir?" That was a little surprising. Given the sardonic quoting he did earlier, Yuri wouldn't have pegged him for it, but maybe he had other ideas.

[inurhead]

Honestly, the lecture would be business as usual but with a ice twist. A bunch of fresh faced cadets would be the audience, rather than a sea of daytime TV goers or a boardroom of thoroughly seasoned military and political figures.

Was Yancy looking forward to that? Yeah. Yeah, he was. It wasn't often he got a chance to have fun interacting with young men and women who were actually going to put the information to use. He shrugged, still grinning a little bit.

"Someone's got to do it."

[protagerrant]

Yuri wasn't exactly a fresh-faced cadet, but it was good to know that being bombed by the media practically 24/7 didn't have to make the pilots too jaded to be jazzed to talk about their work.

"I could use some bolstering form someone who's actually seen the inside of a Jaeger," he said mildly, mostly as filler. He didn't need much inspiration to destroy the kaiju so places like his home ton could really recover. "But sir--I was actually curious: are you going to be participating in the multi-partner drift program?"

[inurhead]

It wasn't that Yancy hadn't understood the question the first time so much as he'd attempted to give a non-answer that still happened to give some information the kid otherwise wouldn't be privvy to, but when it's asked so point blank it's tough to wriggle off the hook.

"We're on assignment here while Hydro Corinthian is on leave."

In short, he's not supposed to answer that kind of question. They can't exactly write him out demerits, but it's probably for the best not to get the cadets in over their heads. Anyway, it's certainly not part of his assignment, that much is true.

[protagerrant]

Ah, well. Damn. Yuri wasn't all that psyched about the program himself--not that it was a bad idea, but Yuri had his reasons for not wanting a whole bunch of people in his head. He was pretty interested in how the media and the public would take it, though. The drift was getting to be a pretty glorified concept, after all.

"I gotcha, sir." Guess he'd just have to wait and find out.

[inurhead]

"You'll be briefed." Yancy promises, because that much he's sure will happen, as needed at least.

[protagerrant]

Yuri mentally tacked on the 'as needed' for himself. He didn't begrudge the PPDC their secrecy on what could turn out to be a pretty controversial program, but he'd never liked being led around, either.

Well, that line of conversation was closed, and he wasn't all that interested in talking about the weather. But it did occur to him that he hadn't so much as introduced himsf. "Right--sorry, sir. Cadet Lowell. Yuri."

[inurhead]

The ratio of cadets to jaeger pilots wasn't going to make remembering individual names easy, but Yancy had always found it helped in these types of situations. In fact, in nearly every situation, the ability to address someone by name had its advantages, especially in situations where tensions could arise. So Yancy glanced the kid over and tried to commit his face to memory, as he offered his own name in return.

"Ranger Becket." The first name wasn't necessary at this stage -and anyway, most people already knew it- so he left it off for the time being, trying to help give the kid a hint at how to address superior officers, assuming it was Yuri's first experience with doing so.

[protagerrant]

"I know, sir." Both Yancy's name and the proper address. "I was transferred over form Alaska."

He had debated the wisdom of telling people that; he wasn't quite sure of how much of the staff knew he had been transferred basically as punishment. If word got around it could make the next three months that much more difficult if any of the officers got a chip on their shoulder about it. Not to mention, the pool of people who would want to drift with a troublemaker was, in Yuri's experience, smaller. But that was probably a good thing, here.

There were plenty of benign reasons he could have been transferred, though, like inability to find a drift partner in Alaska--and that was technically true for him, too.

[inurhead]

It's definitely news to Yancy. He schools it away quickly, but for a second his face registers a hint of surprise. He thought he'd seen all there was to bother seeing at the academy, but transfers? They didn't used to transfer people. They used to toss people out on their ass. Even strong drift partners. He'd nearly learned that from experience himself. The kid was lucky to be here, then. Yancy could relate to that, even if seeking out a good drift partner had never been part of his worries.

Best not to call attention to that. Even if it was going to become a normal thing soon, it wasn't now. So even though the urge to chide the kid about his 'sir' problem was a lot stronger knowing he wasn't too new to handle a little ribbing, Yancy left it alone. Guys on their second chances didn't tend to need it anyway. Instead he nodded and glanced up inland, somewhere far into the distance. Had he ever talked to this kid in Alaska? Had they simply lived in the same little world and never crossed paths at all? The program there was set up differently. It wouldn't be a huge surprise. At least it gave him a response to work with that wouldn't cause the kid any undue attention if someone overheard.

"So did I."

[protagerrant]

"I know, sir, I saw you around a couple times." But never said hello. Back in Alaska, Yuri had made it a point to avoid superiors whenever possible: a decision that had probably kept him in the academy a lot longer. He had been too introspective, and reckless because of it.

He hadn't expected that to change, but... The transfer to Valparaiso had run him smack into some game-changing surprises. It was all, Yuri was sure, going to end in disaster, but the change in focus was oddly refreshing.

[inurhead]

Adjusting to authority was difficult for a lot of people, and even those with plenty of experience under their belts occasionally balked at it. Yancy knew that well, one if them was in his head on a regular basis. Avoiding the people you could learn from wasn't a great choice, but it was a human choice. At least the propaganda hadn't brainwashed the kid like it was supposed to. "It's a big 'dome."

[protagerrant]

He nods, no other reply ready. In public, the things a cadet and superior could talk about were pretty limited, and Yuri had never been one for talking about the weather.

"I plan on a longer tenure here than in Alaska, so I'll be seeing you around, sir." Probably a little too informal, once again, but he tried to sound a little more respectful on the follow-up. "Are you going to be doing any formal instructing?"

[inurhead]

"There's been some discussion of that." Yancy responds again. Wait and see, kid.

[protagerrant]

Man, so much hush-hush.

"Huh," Yuri says thoughtfully. Well, it wasn't an outright no, and he thought he'd heard something about the younger Becket bother doing informal spars in the kwoon combat room. Any chance to fight someone with that much experience, there was no way Yuri was going to pass it up. "If you are, I'll be sure to be a diligent student, sir." That was just a little cheeky--mostly because he was sincere, at its heart.

[inurhead]

"Good to hear." Yancy answers, also sincere. He's looking forward to getting to have more of a hand in these things when it works around his schedule. It pays to stay on your toes.

[protagerrant]

"'Til then," Yuri says, figuring he's about at his limit of 'sir-ing' for one conversation, especially a voluntary one. "I don't want to hold you up." Not that Yancy looked in a hurry. "Permission to be dismissed?"

The slight questioning tone was more because he really didn't remember when he was supposed to ask. Did it count when he was the one who started the conversation?