[ 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

[heliokleptic]

Luke blinks, attention torn between the flip and the offered view. After a confused moment he decides to respond to the view, since Kou had played the flip off so casually he almost felt like it would be weird to treat that as... weird.

"The best view, huh? I'll take your word for it." Luke hadn't exactly been checking out the other options, and he wouldn't say this view is particularly spectacular... but there was a sizable slice of sky above the grey buildings.

He smiles though. He always felt nervous meeting new people, lately, but he was glad this guy was apparently friendly, and didn't seem to know who he was. "I guess we're lucky we got here so early, huh?"

[spareheir]

They are lucky. Lucky they have the potential, lucky they made it through the preliminary and secondary exams, and lucky to be in a new country and a world full of new possibilities. It's enough to set aside the real reasons for being there at the moment and try to look on the sunny side of the situation. It's a big deal. Not everyone gets to try their hand at training to be a jaeger pilot. Kou nods, agreeing politely.

"It's lucky," he echoes, and glances out the window again. "To be on the ground floor of something so important, that's special."

[heliokleptic]

Huh.. he was right. He hadn't been thinking that way at all, but it was true. There weren't that many people at the academy, there were only a few shatterdomes all over the world. The chances of him becoming a ranger still felt abysmally low, but it couldn't be denied that they were here, that they were closer than most of the population would ever, ever be.

For a moment Luke feels small, not in the way he usually does, where he can't help but remind himself of how much of his life he'd wasted in selfish ignorance, but small because he's realized that everything else is huge, and great, and he was a part of it.

It's enough to fluster him into an awkward laugh.

"Y-Yeah, I guess you're right. A month or two ago... I never would've imagined it. Life can change pretty fast."

[spareheir]

That comment hits a little too close to home, for very different reasons. The sparkle goes out of Kou's eyes, and for a moment his expression falls. He catches himself at it and quickly schools his face into something more neutral, but the cheer from a moment ago seems to be gone. He glances out the window and nods, eyes drifting away past the skyline.

"There's a chance to do something right, here."

[heliokleptic]

"Uh... are you okay?"

The question springs out automatically, and Luke has to bite back an automatic apology. He doesn't know if he did anything wrong yet, but it was obvious this guy's mood had taken a sudden nose dive. Was it something he said?

[spareheir]

The question pulls Kou back from his thoughts a little, and makes him blink. Oh. He wasn't doing a good job of setting his concerns aside. That could be a problem. He needed to reign it in.

Kou shook his head, willed the smile back onto his face. Not quite as bright, but there. Close enough. "Yes. I guess I got homesick for a moment. It's farther than I've been alone before."

[heliokleptic]

((oocly, i just noticed that Kou is in the under 18 barracks while Luke is in the over 18, so they won't actually be bunkmates but I'll happily kind of handwave that for this thread))



"Yeah, it's pretty far for me, too." Luke got the feeling like it might be more than that, but wasn't going to press. Better to just try to talk positively about it. "It's also kind of cool, though. I never even thought of going to South America." To be honest, he'd probably always thought it must be dirty and unsafe. He knew now that was probably pretty ignorant, though. This place at least was definitely amazing.

"Anyway, I guess... a lot of us are probably with you there."

[spareheir]

(Yeah. sorry. I didn't realize until too late too. I caught it in time to delete one thread but not this one so um...yep. Maybe I'll put up a blurb on his journal with his age and background info. I was thinking about doing it anyway, and it would help not to cause folds in the universe like this. What if we say he tumbled out of the bunk across the hall or something and he's just standing in the doorway? That might be technically breaking none of the rules.)

"Hmm, that's probably true." Kou agreed, thoughtfully. Most of the people here seemed to be pretty far from home.

He couldn't exactly ask Luke where he was from, because he knew already. Of course he knew. Even a few years later and with a new haircut, it was easy to pick Luke out in the crowd. His father had been all over the news once, and to a lesser extent, so had Luke. Which meant that asking what brought him there was also out of the question.

Kou paused awkwardly for a moment, shier than he usually was around strangers, as he grappled for something to say. "I don't know very much Spanish, do you?"

[heliokleptic]

"I took a class once..." Luke offers, fully aware of how lame that sounds. Then shrugs a bit self consciously. "Maybe it's for the best we barely get to leave the base. We can't embarrass ourselves too much until we've taken the Spanish class."

Honestly, it was probably Kou's good luck that Luke isn't that aware of subtleties. He hadn't reacted badly so Luke assumed Kou didn't recognize him and was happy to run with that.

"I'm going to miss my cell phone, though. They're really putting the camp in boot camp up here." He did manage to miss the fact that they had a solid roof over their heads probably made this all pretty far removed from 'camping'.

[spareheir]

"Isn't that standard?" Kou responds, surprised by the complaint. He'd been expecting to have his possessions revoked for the initial training, but apparently it had been an unhappy surprise to some. That's too bad. Even if this guy is being a little dramatic about it, maybe he likes to keep close contact with people. It's going to be a big adjustment for most of them, and especially for anyone who's used to being glued to their technology or who doesn't have a lot of physical activity in their typical daily lives.

Maybe it's safer to stick with the subject of Spanish. Even if the elder cadets are still the same rank, it feels like a bad idea to say anything that might be construed as an insult. "Someone told me they let us go explore every weekend, so I think there's enough time to make fools of ourselves before we learn better."