Group Log : Q&A Session 001

[inurhead]

Characters: Any/all
Location: The Meeting Hall
Date/Time: Sunday afternoon
Summary: Q&A with a Ranger. All Rangers and staff welcome to answer Q&A. All cadets are invited to the session, but attendance is not mandatory.
Additional Notes: Start your own threads, jack some of mine, go nuts. This is just another mingle post but it's also meant to be informative ICly. Other staff and Rangers showing up for interactions with the cadets is wholeheartedly encouraged.


The meeting hall, like every other area of the Shatterdome, has the feel of an industrial environment. The walls are lined with bleachers on three sides, while the forth side has a platform and podium. In the middle are rows of chairs, desks, and tables. It's clear that a large audience can be accommodated by the room when there's need, though the group that gathers there today isn't nearly enough to fill it.

Cadets will be directed to sit at some of the tables closer to the podium when they arrive, and given scratch paper to take notes on. Staff will be directed to the large table on the podium, which has a row of conference microphones, lamps, and water pitchers already set up. Everything is neat, cool, and professional. The fluorescent lighting and stern expressions of the support staff encourage a sombre attitude, but if anyone is looking up toward the podium they might catch at least one of the Rangers smiling as he peeks out from behind the curtains during the initial set up. He's wearing something like a wetsuit at the moment, though it won't be fully visible until he emerges for the demonstration.

Sharpen your pencils and have a seat, guys. You might even learn something.

Comments

coordinated Becket attack

[inurhead]

Yancy's there for the food too, and sure, alright, because some part of him loves to see the spark in the Cadets eyes when they really get on board with the cause. Or one of the other causes, sure, but he's fond of one in particular.

This staff member is unfamiliar, but hey, a lot of them still are. Yancy glances down for a name tag, but doesn't see one. Maybe the dude is dressed down. It's free time, technically. They're all volunteers and Cadets here.

"You gonna eat that, or...?"

The last of the lemon cremes being 'that.' He's usually not big on sweets, but those ones...they taste like childhood, ya know? So if Rory isn't going to call dibs, Yancy sure is.

[righthemisphere]

Oh man-! Raleigh makes grabby hands for the candy and plucks it from his brother's grasp, turning it over in his hands before stuffing into his jacket.

"That's what you get for eating my stuff."

He fishes around in his pocket and pulls one out, blue, and pulls the twisted cellophane - suddenly looking about ten years old in his glee. It's the little things, you know.

"Mmhm." Sugar drop clacking around behind his teeth, he follows the gaze with a nod. "How old do you feel right now."

Which isn't exactly fair seeing as you can enlist at any age over the minimum requirement, but the recruits seemed to be getting younger and younger. Raleigh vaguely wonders if that's a good idea..letting kids get so involved in such huge pieces of tech. Or if they've just run out of the older generations. A dark thought.

"Ranger Hansen is what, barely seventeen?" And he'd just been given the most advanced Jaeger to date. No drops yet (does he even have a copilot?) but if he's anything like his dad then he's bound to be good.

[righthemisphere]

Raleigh looks over with a smile before pulling it into something closer to a pout.

"Twenty two."

But...clearly still young enough where that matters. Pretty freshly twenty-two as well. But the minimum age is, what, 14? That can't be right. Not even old enough to drive.

"Raleigh Becket." He states, extending his closest hand.

[inurhead]

"Kid, we're just getting started." Yancy winks, and takes another long swallow. At the mention of the Hansen kid he glances over that way and chuckles sympathetically. Man, he's clearly not at ease with this whole situation yet. Sometimes it feels like sink or swim when the limelight first hits, but hey at least it's not an immediate problem for him.

So the official word goes, anyway. After that chat with the kid in the Bay the other day, Yancy'd put the odds at 50/50. Not to mention the kid going through his paces in Alaska, word had always trickled down that he was a hard working cadet with natural talent. It's not a shock, but it is a little harsh. That's a lot to ask of a kid that age.

Yancy ruffles Raleigh's hair to cut off the funk he's trying to work himself into at the head. None of that shit, bro. This is a party, -kind of- get out there and dance. "Dude, there's bacon. When's the last time you had bacon?"

hello and welcome

[inurhead]

"Only when the brass is in town. Pro tip, volunteer attendance means show up and reap the rewards." Yancy replies, wiping the smear of cream cheese off of his arm -that was a decent jostle kid- with a napkin, which he then balls up and tosses in an easy arch to the nearest waste bin.

He picks up one of the strawberries off the tray and bites into it with an appreciative grunt. Man, those are good. You can't eat strawberries in February in Anchorage. He can practically taste the sunlight in it.

[righthemisphere]

"You're damn right, we are."

Well, who in their right mind is going to tell Herc Hansen's kid he can't do something? Poor Chuck never stood a chance, he was raised in the cradle of a Jaeger. Officially accepted into the Academy at fourteen and graduating top of his class, he is an intense individual. Nice guy, though. For all Chuck's reputation, Raleigh finds him fun. Maybe a little nervous and chomping at the bit to actually do something, but he remembers that feeling and can't blame him in the least.

Raleigh swats his brothers hand away and attempts to fix his hair - no touching the do, man, c'mon. He had it the perfect level of messy now he's gotta got it all- ugh. He gives up and crosses his arms, leaning his hip against the near by table.

Bacon, though, that is a good question.

"Mmm-oh. Casper. Victory breakfast." He remembers exactly the last time. He'd gotten bacon for his birthday the week before, too. Raleigh could probably live on bacon if he had the opportunity. Bacon and curly fries. Curly...bacon...fries. Perfect.

"There was a mountain of it."

[inurhead]

Yancy snorts quietly at Raleigh's fussing with his hair. He refrained the whole time they were up on the platform, but here at the buffet no one expects them to be perfect. They can screw around a little, and screwing with Raleigh's hair always gets him a little wound up.

The bacon memory provokes another grin and a nod. Yeah. That was a good day. For a long moment Yancy gets lost in the memory, but not of the bacon. The battle. He runs through them in his head a lot when they have down time, trying to keep on his toes with strategy. Raleigh is great on his toes, the lunatic, but someone has to balance that out. That would be Yancy.

He finds himself glancing over at Chuck Hansen again, frowning a little. It's true the Academy is cranking them out young these days, and that kid was the prototype. No one can dispute it. He nudges Raleigh's shoulder with his own as he leans past to steal an orange. "Hey, take it easy on the kid, alright? He spooks easily."

So it had seemed to Yancy when they'd spoken the other day in the Bay, anyway. Chuck had read as awfully nervous and uncertain and full of energy he didn't know what to do with. They'd all been there, after all.

[suicidemission]

Chuck's juuust about to wrap up his plate of raw vegetables (and maybe a few strawberries, man he loves strawberries, it's been ages since he had good ones) when there's an intruding hand. He's about to start snarling until he hears the apology (and the title, that helps, that puffs him up) and he straightens, rolling his shoulders and nodding briskly.

"Yeah, yeah. 'S fine, go ahead."

[righthemisphere]

"Yeah?" Raleigh asks and raises an eyebrow. They'd met in the hanger just before general assembly for the recruit's arrival and he'd seemed..well. Maybe Yancy is on to something, there.

But Raleigh isn't a stranger to nervous energy and Chuck seems like he's got a hurricane inside him. Young and standing in the huge shadow of his father. He'll mellow out once he's gotten a chance to get out there.

"What'd you do to him?" He teases and follows Yancy's lead - pocketing an orange for later. Because, obviously, if Chuck is spooked it's his brother's fault.

[expect]

"Rory Williams," he replies, offering his left. He has to reach awkwardly across himself to do so, but his right hand is currently occupied with a paper cup of tea. "I saw you at the thing," he adds, nodding over towards the stage.

[righthemisphere]

"A pleasure to meet you, Rory." And he quirks a brow.

"Oh yeah?" He glances back over to the demo area and the group of girls that have cornered his brother before coming back to his own goodies and nibbling on a piece of bacon from his sandwich.

"Is that an English accent? Are you with K-Sci?" He asks, grasping at straws but knowing that the main K-Science hub is in the UK, all the major facilities, anyway. And he figures Rory looks like he could be a scientist.

[expect]

"Help yourself," Rory says, glancing from the lemon creme to Yancy to the sweet again. He's loaded up his own plate with plenty of other foods, enough that the bagel he's now adding balances a little precariously. He recognises Yancy from the demonstration… and, well, from television before that, so it feels a little weird talking to him. Not due to some sort of 'celebrity' feeling exactly, just… well, it's real now, isn't it? Not just television? He's only been here for a few months. Some things take getting used to. He realises he's kind of side-eying him a little and looks back to the table, carefully selecting a danish and hoping his staring wasn't noticed. Just in case it was: "I'm Rory. Hello." Wow, he's an idiot.

[expect]

"Sorry, no," Rory says, wondering if he looks like a scientist. Well, he did get really good marks on his A-level… "I mean, no, sorry, I'm not a scientist. I'm a nurse. Uh- medical staff, here. Also English." It's one of those sentences where even as he says it, he realises how terribly put together it is. He slowly winces and tries to look like he's not wincing.

[righthemisphere]

He has to think about all that for a moment before it makes sense. Oh, right. Medical. Okay, he can see that.

"So if I get my ass kicked it's you I come looking for, huh. Good to know."

And really, between actual fights and occasionally...maybe doing something stupid it is actually good to know who to come slinking to when he needs it.

"How are you liking Chile? I don't know about you but this heat is killing me."

Says the man in the leather jacket..

[expect]

He nods at Raleigh's first statement; that is why he's here; and then shrugs and eyes his jacket in a totally subtle and non judgemental way. Because that's what Rory does. "I've been mostly in the Philippines the last few years," he sighs, because complaining about the weather is a British National Pastime, "so I'm a bit used to it. I never thought I'd miss rain and not being quite sure if the sun was an actual thing or not."

Thank you!

[chosethewar]

Oh, great going there, Tom. Bowl over one of the volunteer instructors there why don't you? "Sorry, sir."

Dismay flashed across the dark-haired man's face before he was able to school his expression back into neutral affability. "Didn't mean to get you there, sir."

Re: open

[observationalhazard]

"Exciting, isn't it?" Hanji opens her conversation with Rory rather brightly and without much fanfare. She simply bellies up to the buffet next to him, eying a particular fruit platter. They're both staff, so perhaps she doesn't feel the need to be formal. Then again, that seems to be her attitude with most of the people she talks to.

"A brand new academy, new cadets - it's going to be an interesting three months."

She shoots Rory a grin and then juggles her plate and mug until she can offer a hand, "Hanji Zoe, K-Science."

[reengineered]

We. They do. They need her, specifically, and she's a little moved by the sentiment. It's not hard for her to identify with the Rangers and what they stand for, but sometimes it's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. She's ready to get a move on, to train and work hard and see what she can accomplish. That's what she's here for. But her, specifically for the moment, being called out? Yes, she smiles. She's going to like this woman.

Lucy isn't sure if she should salute or shake her hand, so she kind of half salutes and then signs a greeting. It's obvious that Hanji knows who she is, but she's not sure how to address her.

Nice to meet you, ma'am.

[reengineered]

Hey, he's a cool dude. And while she doesn't care about his rock star like status, she respects the role and what he does and just... yes. She's a little starstruck, honestly. Maybe he even knows who she is--if she knew he knew her name, she'd be completely beside herself.

Nodding in answer to his question, she gestures to the food. It's good stuff, and she's feeling slightly spoiled by it; the spread is too generous and the variety ridiculous. She's hoping that much gets across. Then she gestures toward him a bit, as though asking how he's doing.

[observationalhazard]

Hanji seems to be perfectly at ease flipping between Lucy's writing and then looking at her when she speaks. Then again, Hanji's a bit of an oddball herself at times.

"Likewise - I hope to see you in my class soon. I help teach kaiju sciences."

Well, of course she will. It's not like anyone has a choice to skip out, but it's still a little gesture to boost morale and maybe just be friendly. It can't hurt.

Re: open

[overeducated]

Despite being completely relevant for the panel, the speed at which he appeared near the food table should've been frightening.

Moreover, his absolute light-up upon spotting the other man should've been frightening. Probably was frightening. Would've been frightening if it came with a quick approach, half-hop and half-trot, except oh, wait, it did. Beaming, smile stretched high, a sprinkling of amazement and---

"Cory!"

-- There you had it. If the man didn't move quick enough, he'd be getting a clap on the shoulder, other hand stuck out for a shake, "Oh, hullo, Cory! It's been ages, hasn't it? How've you been? What brings you here?" Positively delighted.

major mess up with timelines whooops mega apologies.

[overeducated]

Grin for grin, though his ends up being taken in by a distracted quality, as though his mind managed to wander away mid-sentence. It'd be impressive if it weren't something so foolish.

"I've heard it's a popular theory in Eastern Asia's coastal regions, though a bit superstitious-- if they're things from Heaven, they can't have minds of their own, you know, that sort of thing. In a sense, their destruction's with the single-mindedness of insects, isn't it?"

A pause and blink. A little wondering - more prompting than argumentative, honestly -,

"Sure, they're like nothing on Earth physiologically and so, probably, mentally, but if we don't put them on any basis, we may as well pack up the lab coats, eh?"

[reengineered]

Kaiju sciences... probably not going to be Lucy's best subject, but if her instructor cares this much, she'll care as well. At least, she'll give it her best. So Lucy nods a bit shyly and turns a bit toward Hanji, making a motion that seems to indicate she wants to show her something. She'll be teaching Lucy an awful lot, so maybe Lucy can teach her something too.

[observationalhazard]

Hanji's expression turns a bit puzzled, but she sidles a step closer, taking another sip from her mug of coffee. Well, who's she to say no?

"What is it?"

[inurhead]

"Atomic wedgie. Y'think that's a second encounter kinda thing?" Yancy teases back easily, and steals a strawberry off Raleigh's plate. Where'd those come from? He needs some of those. Good god, they taste amazing. He shoves the whole thing in his mouth, stem and all, and his eyes roll back in his head. Yeah, this was totally worth getting up early for.