[ 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

[secondtry]

"Must be a hell of a temperature shock, then," he said with a chuckle. "Lucky Vegas doesn't change a damn lot season to season. If deserts even have seasons, never quite been sure on that one myself." He rolled his shoulders, pushing one at a time into the sun-hot bench to ease his muscles. "Name's Mike. You?"

[spareheir]

"Kou Ichijo." Kou offers, remembering to say it in the right order and everything. He's been to Las Vegas a few times, but it's not all that much fun when you're a teenager and your father is in the other room. Still, he knows enough of it to realize it's a lively place.

He seems to take the friendly attitude as an invitation, and drops onto the bench as well to continue the conversation. "What did you do before this?"

[secondtry]

Interesting question. Not one he'd thought he'd be asked. "While I was in Vegas, I worked as a bouncer. ...Uh, security, if you don't know what a bouncer is. And I did a little car racing, but that kind of petered out faster than the club scene. Easier to spend time partying than digging up the money to keep a car in repair, y'know?"

But then he looked out over the space and lifted a shoulder in a shrug. "Before that, Alaska, and before that, military school. So yeah, I've done the whole routine more than once."

[spareheir]

Bouncer wasn't a familiar word, but the explanation Kou understood. Not so much with petered out, but he think he got the gist of that sentence anyway. What really caught him off guard about it was the mention of Alaska. His eyebrows shot up and he turned to face Mike more fully. "You've been to Anchorage?"

[secondtry]

The surprise surprised Mike, but he nodded. "Yeah. Graduated there, but took time off, which was probably a stupid idea on my part," he admitted with a tilt of his head, readily taking the blame, "so I ended up coming back to do the thing over again to catch up on what I missed. Didn't exactly follow developments while I was working."

[spareheir]

It was hard to imagine making it through the Academy and then leaving, but that was what Mike seemed to be saying. Kou contemplated it for a moment in silence. To do something like that, Mike must have had a reason. Even more so, he must have had a reason to come back after all. So, that was that. He was here just like the rest of them, ready to work hard and do his best. Right? "Welcome back."

[secondtry]

"Thanks," he smiled. "Figure it's gotta be easier the second time, right? Already knowing what to expect, anyway. Fair warning, though, I won't let you cheat off my coursework. ...As if you'd want to."

It probably wasn't a fair joke, but Mike knew that for more intellectual things, he wasn't one to count on. His memory had gone to hell. Most of it, anyway.

[spareheir]

"I'll have to use the backup plan. Tell me if you see anyone small with their nose in a book." Kou jokes back. He's not that big himself, actually. While he has an athletic guild and toned physique, he's only about 5'5". Pretty short compared to most of the staff and even many of the cadets around.

[secondtry]

Mike had about ten inches on the kid, so he'd noticed just how small Kou was in comparison, but he knew that height was one of those things people couldn't do anything about. Height wasn't a reason to push someone around, if there ever was a reason at all. "You see someone small with their nose in a book, you'll probably see me not too far away, honestly."

And not for the reasons he knew, or at least he thought, would be taken from that particular insinuation. But his reasons - well, they would become clear in time.

[spareheir]

Whatever Mike's reasons are, the more common implication makes Kou smile. He used to have a big guy to hang around with back at home, too. While Kou was popular enough that he didn't get picked on too frequently, having a big loveable oaf like Daisuke by his side had greatly improved his chances of never being stuffed into a cupboard.

The painful wave of homesickness engulfs him again for a short moment, but he's becoming familiar with this particular tightness in his chest. He does his best to shake it off, though if there's a distant expression on his face for a moment, can anyone really blame him?

"How about the short guy on the basketball court?" He asks. His tone is teasing, but there's a note of sincerity in his eyes. They're in this together, aren't they? All of them. Wouldn't it be great if they could count on one another for something like that?

There's a part of him that desperately wants to make a connection with someone anyway. He's thousands of miles away from home, speaking a foreign language, and his family isn't exactly thrilled with him. It feels like being adrift at sea, but worse, because he brought it on himself. He clears his throat to try and will away the sudden tightness there, and chokes out a nervous laugh. He's just kidding. Really. Kind of.

[secondtry]

Mike's answer was an understanding smile. He got what it was Kou was saying, and he answered, "I'm decent with basketball."

It appealed to what he'd always done: stand up for others. He didn't know how many fights he'd started, or finished, because of people thinking that they were more important or had more right to exist than someone else, but the idea of continuing to do it here? He'd already made up his mind that he would. But here was a guy who was asking for it, it seemed like. Asking for Mike's assistance just in case people did get stupid.

That was an affirmative that it was easy to give.

"I'm better with squirt gun fights, but I'm decent with basketball," he said, "so sure. I'll be on your team."

[spareheir]

Kou's posture relaxes at the positive response. It's unbelievably good to hear. They're mostly strangers here, so it's nice to have the thought of team spirit to fall back on.

His face brightens, less pale and uncomfortable than he's been the entire time they've been here so far. Suddenly, the topic really is basketball. Kou grins and nods, and starts chattering more enthsiastically at Mike.

"I can drive right past all the tall guys, you know?" There are a few rare instances where being short can be kind of awesome, after all. Even on the basketball court.

[secondtry]

He smiled. "Doesn't surprise me. It's a matter of point of view. You see openings they don't." It wasn't a slight against his height. It was a fact. "Every height's got their advantage, especially when it comes to things like that - and you'll find it's easier for you to do some moves in fighting than it would be for others, too. You'll master throws faster."

[spareheir]

"Throws, huh?" Kou contemplates that for a moment. He's never thrown anyone in his life, but the thought of giving it a try makes him feel a little giddy. Maybe fighting will be fun.

[secondtry]

"Oh yeah," he nodded. "Easier for shorter people than taller. Strength doesn't have as much to do with it as center of gravity, and if you play basketball, you're already used to lowering your center of gravity for pivots and keeping the ball, dodging steals and all that."

[spareheir]

He's great at all of those things, it's true. Easily the best in the whole school, though he'd have to admit begrudgingly if asked that it wasn't exactly hard to top the school in these things. His team at home was woefully indifferent to developing their own skills.

"Scoring is harder, but accuracy makes up the difference." He decides, grinning. He doesn't often reflect on his size and the advantages or disadvantages that it has aside from formal situations, but the thought that there are so many advantages isn't unpleasant.

[secondtry]

"Accuracy will be important, too. A miss is an opening that a kaiju won't hesitate to take advantage of. Gotta learn to make every hit count." Okay, maybe, he thought, he would be better at teaching than he'd thought, even if he really wanted to be the one out there doing the punching. Just, for some reason, he really dreaded finding someone he was compatible with, even if he wanted it just as much.

[spareheir]

"That's true." Kou agreed easily, starting to drift into another daydream by the look of things. He gazed into the distance. "Did you get to try it?"

[secondtry]

Mike smiled. "Got in the simulators a few times. Single-person. Only got downed my first time in, but single-pilot simulations are unreliable at best." He knew that. The real test was two-person, facing things as a pair, and he'd never made it quite that far.

[spareheir]

That sounded a little disappointing. Cool, but not what they were here for. Kou frowned a little at the thought of doing all of the training and work only to stop one step before getting to try the greatest technology humankind had at the moment out. It's kind of a shame. "Hmm. What do you think you're looking for in a partner? They'll tell us, won't they?"

It's a small, nagging worry now. When he'd thought Daisuke was coming along he'd had no reservations at all. Of course they'd have a good connection. They did practically everything together. He knew that big oaf like an extra limb or something. But here they're surrounded by strangers. What if no one connects with him?

[secondtry]

"It's..."

It was weird, that's what it was. He took a breath and let it out slowly as he tried to put sense to the flurry of thoughts that the thought of a drift partner brought up. "Me, personally? I'm not sure. I've always kind of thought of it as one of those things that you'll know when you see it, but that sounds a little weird and... soul-mate-y, but that's kind of what a drift partner is," Mike said, knowing very well that his last sentence didn't follow any rule of any grammar anywhere on the planet. "But the way I see it, or the way I think it should be, anyway, is... complementary. And that's with an E, not an I. As in, somebody who balances you out. For me, that'd mean somebody with more brains than I've got, because I'd be the brawn, and I kind of operate on instinct."