[ 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

Re: Wanna meet a rockstar? Yeah ya do.

[paperbacks]

"Ah, lovely day, isn't it? Do you mind if I smoke?" Tenpou doesn't bother to wait for an affirmative - there's already an unlit cigarette dangling from his lips as he searches through his pockets for a lighter. "With all the new cadets on base, the higher-ups have started enforcing the ban on indoor smoking... something about presenting a professional image." With his rumpled lab coat and unkempt, unwashed hair, Tenpou doesn't exactly exude an aura of professionalism. Although he's one of the PPDC's lead cryptozoological research scientists, sometimes his personal habits seem nearly as alien as those of the Kaiju he dissects. "I suppose they'll be enforcing all sorts of rules now. If anyone calls me 'sir,' I think I'll resign immediately."

Once he finds his lighter, he takes a long, deeply gratifying drag from the cigarette. Cheap local tobacco doesn't taste quite as good as his favorite brand from home, but even the PPDC isn't going to waste resources ferrying cigarettes from Hong Kong to appease one eccentric Chinese scientist. Besides, it's the nicotine that matters. When he opens his eyes, he seems marginally more alert and interested in his companion.

"Do I know you?" Tenpou asks, tilting his head to peer quizzically down at the other man through smudged, scratched glasses. He seems far too relaxed to be one of the cadets, most of whom are still anxiously milling outside the Shatterdome entrance, so he must be PPDC staff. "I'm not usually good with names and faces, but I have a feeling that I've seen you somewhere before... ah! You work in the cafeteria, right?"

[inurhead]

Usually the staff are better behaved than that, so it does get a look of surprise from Yancy. Not limited by the fact that this guy has possibly been living under a rock for the past 5 years, but then again if he's a white coat he's probably just been focused on anything and everything but the media. It's hard to imagine being that out of the loop. Then again, a quick glance over the man in question pegs him as someone who probably has trouble prying himself away from his work. The stinky guys are usually all in.

Yancy chuckles at the second question, amused rather than offended. That's literally never happened to him before on a base. He hasn't been mistaken for the guy who cleans the deep fryer since back in the days when he was that guy.

"If I did, the coffee would be better." He replies, gazing up through the leaves of the tree at the visible patches of sky. The dappled sunlight that makes it through doesn't ruin the cooling effect of the shade, it just makes Yancy squint a little as he's daydreaming.

[paperbacks]

"Hmm." Tenpou hoards information the same way he hoards old newspapers and moldy takeout containers, holding onto it for years until he's absolutely sure he won't need it again. But much like the old newspapers, disordered memories pile up under layers of dust and debris until recalling a particular fact - like, for instance, the name that goes with a strangely familiar face - requires the mental equivalent of an archaeological excavation. He inhales another lungful of smoke, watches the warm Southern Hemisphere sunlight dance over the grass, and waits for insight to strike. "Aha!"

Beaming like he expects to receive a prize, he ashes his cigarette and looks back to the man sitting on the ground. "Gipsy Danger!" Tenpou has spent hours reviewing the machine's technical specifications so he's familiar with its pilots, even if he sees them as replaceable spare parts, like AA batteries. "You're... Yancy Becket. Or Raleigh Becket. Ah, now I recognize your face from the records database. I'm Dr. Zhu Tianpeng, with the department of cryptozoology, but you can just call me Tenpou. It's easier to pronounce. You were the one who brought down Yamarashi... mm, yes, those were beautiful samples. I still have a few pieces preserved in my lab... next time, though, try not to damage the spinal cord."

[inurhead]

"Ranger Becket, Yancy." Yancy agrees when the scientist guesses his name mostly correctly this time. He doesn't think Tianpeng is that difficult of a name, actually, but if the man prefers Tenpou then he's not about to argue. He tucks it away into his memory for the next time he runs across the guy.

At the request that follows, his eyebrows go up a little and he shakes his head. Sorry, dude, he's not taking requests on how to kill kaiju. Come back when you have that diagrammed out, maybe. Not that kaiju behavior is predictable enough for diagrams to begin with. Yancy shrugs, mostly amused. "I'll see what I can do about that."

[paperbacks]

"Thank you. That would be most helpful!" Yancy's agreeable attitude is a welcome surprise after most of the other hotshot Rangers Tenpou has met. Most of them don't seem too interested in kaiju biology unless research and development has come up with a creative new way to kill the alien bastards. Personally, Tenpou is disappointed but not surprised that humanity's first encounter with an intelligent alien species immediately resulted in attempted genocide. Violence seems to be the nature of living organisms, whether they're bacteria or deep sea sponges or human beings or 2000 ton behemoths from another dimension. It's as if the defining quality of living things is the desire to live.

"I thought about becoming a Ranger myself, actually... ahhh, but I failed out of the training program. Three times." Tenpou says it with a hint of perverse pride. "Apparently I'm not the sort they want in control of billion-dollar pieces of machinery, so I'm quite interested in the kind of people who are."

And that apology was for someone else I'll just...go. Y e p.

[inurhead]

That's a surprising set of statements. For a guy who's apparently interested in pilots, Tenpou sure does mistake them for kitchen staff sometimes. Not to mention flunking out but going back for seconds and then thirds. This guy is definitely not your average white coat. Most of them are trained to respond to him almost robotically, with a specific set of commands that have to do with squeezing information out of him. It's their jobs, so it's fine, but this conversation is unprecedented.

He should try to hook this guy up with Crazy. Er, Officer Zoe Hanji, that is. Yancy nods, as if what Tenpou just said weren't seriously Out There. "There's an even handful of us here." Of course, by the very nature of a handful as counted on the five fingers -and pilots often think of things in terms of fists, don't they?- there's no such thing as an even handful. But there are indeed five pilots currently stationed at the facility.

(no worries!)

[paperbacks]

"A handful, hm?" Tenpou considers this information, tapping ash from his cigarette. "Well, that's a smaller sample size than I'd like, but I suppose there's still research that could be done..." He's interested in Jaeger pilots the same way he's interested in Jaeger propulsion systems and Jaeger weaponry, with the difference being that Rangers can't be taken apart and put back together again to study how they work. Not that Tenpou hasn't thought about doing it anyway.

He crouches in front of Yancy to inspect him in greater detail, but the Ranger looks... quite average, really. As far as Tenpou is aware, there are no common physical features, physiological characteristics, personality traits or any other measurable attributes that can reliably determine whether a person will succeed as a Ranger. It's all so... unscientific. "Yes, I'm interested in Rangers. They're arguably the most important component of a Jaeger, but we don't have any idea how they work. If you really think about it, isn't Drift as strange and alien as anything that ever crawled out of the ocean?"

[inurhead]

"Feels like home to me," Yancy shrugs. Literally, sometimes. So much of his Drift experiences are shared childhood memories. The important things. The idea of the Drift striking someone as strange and alien is itself strange and alien to Yancy. That's never been the case with the Becket brothers. It's just never been a problem.

He shrugs. "There'll be more soon. The whole point of this place is to train as many as possible. But they're probably still not going to let you dissect any."

He's kidding. Really.

[paperbacks]

"Home.' He echoes the word without grasping its significance. He's aware, of course, that the most stable Ranger pairs are frequently siblings. A lifetime of shared experiences increases the likelihood that pilots will achieve the mental overlap needed to function as two halves of the same consciousness. But like most urban Chinese of his generation, Tenpou is an only child, and in all of his significant memories, he is alone. Other people move in and out of his life in the same way that flower petals scatter in the warm southern hemisphere wind. They are the background scenery of his mental landscape.

Tenpou knows this, but now, suddenly, it bothers him. It's a problem that demands further investigation. With an awkward smile, he stands back up. "I'm not sure I understand... but I am intrigued. Perhaps the Academy will produce enough Rangers that they'll be able to spare a few for testing."

He's kidding, too. Probably.

[inurhead]

The sudden intent to depart doesn't alarm Yancy in any way, or make him wonder if he said anything. He just assumes the guy's smoke break must be coming to an end, so he relaxes right back into his cozy spot on the tree trunk, blinking again to try and stay awake.

"It's like summer. Staying up late together and talking about everything. Watching the sky, dreaming about what's up there."

[paperbacks]

Tenpou has always assumed that most Rangers were simpleminded jocks whose brains were filled with testosterone and nonsense, but Yancy Becket is clearly no ordinary pilot. He has intriguing depths, like the sea or the blackness of space - depths that Tenpou can only puzzle at from afar. "But we know what's 'up there.' A lot of superheated hydrogen and cold empty space, with the occasional chunk of rock. That's why the Kaiju came as such a shock. We were so sure that we were alone in the universe..."

He drops his cigarette on the ground and snuffs it out beneath the sole of his sandal, smiling to himself. "But sometimes we're wrong about the things we think we know. Sleep well, Ranger Becket. Soon, you might not have a chance to."

[inurhead]

"If the Marshall gets on the horn come shake me awake and I'll letcha stick us with a needle once." Yancy jokes back, smiling as he finally does let his eyes drift closed. Hey, it's not like they need him around here to get things settled in today. It'll be fine. Presumably that us includes the other Becket brother rather than the royal we, but who's to say for sure?