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

[chosethewar]

The spread was better than Tom was expecting, honestly. Maybe he'd come in with misapprehensions of what a para-military lifestyle would be thanks to one too many action and war movies over the years but the food honestly impressed. A cynical part of him wondered if it was all for show to do just that, impress the new Cadets who showed up expecting to meet modern day rockstars.

Were Rangers' egos as huge as they appeared to be on the tv? Surely the saviors of mankind deserved a little all-star treatment so maybe this rich spread was more for their benefit than the cadets. These musing thoughts occupied the young man as he filled up his plate. He snagged the last everything bagel and grabbed some cream cheese before its steadily dwindling supply was extinguished.

"Sorry," Was all he said to the person he accidentally reached around for said cream cheese. Offering a rueful smile he grabbing some fruit as well and backed out of the press of bodies. Wandering down the buffet he finally spotted some orange juice and topped the whole slightly off-balance breakfast with a blueberry muffin.

"This is some spread, huh? Wonder if we'll eat this good the whole time."

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.

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."

[inurhead]

Yancy was already over it, on the other hand. He had younger siblings growing up -including one he still shared a suite with actually- so he took it in stride that buffet lines were a dangerous place. At your own risk. Anyway, a little cream cheese never hurt anybody. Really, if it had been anywhere without a room of young cadets watching he would've licked it off instead.

Things as they were, he just tossed a reassuring grin at the kid and reached for another strawberry. Damn, those were good. "I'll make sure the apology goes in the official report," he teased. This kid looked around Raleigh's age, maybe a little younger. Hopefully old enough to get that it was a joke.

[chosethewar]

Tom slanted a long look Yancy's way, those dark eyes far too intelligent and accessing as he gauged the older man's mood silently for a moment. Then a slightly scoffing little smirked pulled at the corner's of the young man's lips.

"Thank you, sir. You're far too kind. Ranger Beckett the senior, right?" He took the teasing in stride.

[inurhead]

Yancy choked on the strawberry a little, but recovered himself. "Woah. Senior? There's no senior Becket. You must be thinking of the Hansens. Ranger Becket-the other Ranger Becket- is my brother."

God, he must really need sleep if people are making that mistake. Maybe Raleigh's taunt of 25 going on 40 isn't as off as it seems.

[chosethewar]

Tom's eyebrows crept upwards ever so slightly when Yancy choked on the strawberry. "Well, you're the older Becket, correct? Yancy Becket?"

Okay, he could have phrased that better perhaps. Of course, Tom had no idea what proverbial pile of shit he'd accidentally stepped in when it came to Yancy's age though apparently.

[inurhead]

"Watch it, Cadet." Yancy snorts, relaxing slightly. That was one way to shake off the afternoon nap desires. Give him a heart attack and all.

It's not an actual warning, there's no danger of sparking a genuine misunderstanding. But this particular cadet's a bit light on the manners in a room full of staff that could step in and give the kid hell if they wanted to. The smart ones sometimes are, and this one looks intelligent. It's nothing new. But getting a write up in the first week blows. Might as well help him avoid it until he's at least got a foot in the door.

After that, he gives the introduction the kid is asking after, including the first name that they're not supposed to be using. No one's going to write Yancy up in this room. "That's right. Ranger Becket, Yancy. Just a few years older than Ranger Becket."

[chosethewar]

Dark brows crept upwards in the face of that chastisement but if the cadet was feeling particularly cowed, it didn't register on his face. "I wasn't trying to be forward, sir."

He'd recognized Yancy Becket of course, but Tom was still getting used to the whole paramilitary thing and apparently he'd already stepped into it. He just had to hope the guy wasn't as prickly as say that new kid piloting the Australian Jaeger. "How are we supposed to tell the two of your apart if you're both Ranger Becket then, sir? Doesn't that get a little confusing?"

holy balls I'm slow this week SORRY

[inurhead]

Luckily for Tom the Beckets were about as far from prickly as military guys ever came. If he'd been talking to Raleigh he probably wouldn't have even gotten the caution there, but it was programmed right into the core of Yancy's being to look out for the younger ones after a lifetime of doing exactly that. Standing on ceremony was generally only considered important to either Becket as far as it was necessary not to get into the sort of trouble that would result in a military action. A little trouble, on the other hand, they generally agreed was just fine.

"Good question. You'll have to ask someone else, though. I always know which one I am."

[karearea]

"I wish," Ngaio offered around a mouthful of pastry. "This is the best we've had since I got in."

She paused, distracted by his bagels.

"What is in those?" she asked, fascinated. She'd filled her plate with pastries and fruit before even reaching the bagels, and as far as she's concerned, bagels only come in one flavor if at all.

Wow, I am slow and sucky, sorry!

[chosethewar]

"I guess the rumors about military fare aren't undeserved then." Unconcerned with this news, the dark haired man busied himself with spreading some cream cheese on first one half of the bagel and then the other with the remaining cheese with a meticulous sort of attention to detail.

The woman's accent was Australian perhaps? Or maybe a New Zealand; Tom wasn't sure honestly. Her question was a little surprising however mainly because he'd never met anyone who hadn't been introduced to the taste-packed wonder that was an everything bagel.

"It's a bagel. This kind comes topped with poppy, caraway, and sesame seeds, salt, garlic, and onion. It sounds kinda gross but it's amazing." After a moment's hesitation, he ripped off half of the top bagel slice and held it out to Ngaio. "Would you care to try it?"

[karearea]

Ngaio wrinkled her nose a little at that description - it sounded like a few too many things on one piece of bread - but that meant she couldn't possibly turn down the offer. People like these things? "Ta," she replied with a grin, taking the bagel half.

She took a bite and made various faces as she chewed, trying to figure out if she liked it or not. By the end of the mouthful, she still hadn't decided, but she certainly wasn't about to give up the rest of the slice.

"That is weird," she said, rather delighted. "I've only ever had the plain ones."

[chosethewar]

The doubting expression garnered a quiet, huffing laugh from the young man. Dark eyes gleamed with genuine amusement. "Oh,ye of so little faith. I assure you, they wouldn't try and poison us so soon into our training."

He said the last part with a decided note of irony in his tone. Amused, he munched on a bite of his own bagel half while Ngaio made a series of funny faces as she sampled the bagel.

"Back in San Fransisco, sourdough bagels are all the rage but my dad was from New York so we always had these growing up. I'm Tom by the way." The dark-haired man introduced himself somewhat belatedly.

[karearea]

"Ngaio," she said instinctively, careful not to rush the nasal ng sound in the hopes that he could get it right, before she remembered where she was. Briefly, she glanced around in case one of the stricter higher ups was listening. "Cadet Travers, I guess I should say."

Sure, she was used to a bit of 'Cadet Travers' from Air Cadets at home, but her squadron hadn't been as intense about it as Jaeger Academy was.

"I'm from Tolaga Bay - New Zealand," she added, trying to recover. "Never been to America."