jaegeracademy | Group Log : Q&A Session 001

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Group Log : Q&A Session 001

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.

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He sees him coming and smiles, nodding lightly. Yes, he is accepting interaction. You are more than welcome to share his personal space.

"Hey." Raleigh answers, raising an eyebrow at Chuck's choice of treats before tearing off the end of a danish he'd stolen away with and popping it in his mouth.

"Ever get the feeling we're actually in a people zoo?" Meant both as a light ice breaker and an observation. They did technically volunteer, but all the attention constantly focused on them could be exhausting.

Don't hate on his broccoli and carrots. They're good in Ranch dressing, okay.

"...Every damn day," he agrees, flicking his eyes towards the mass of people, then the buffet, then back to Raleigh. "Guess the foods pretty worth it, though, yeah?"

"Pretty much the reason I'm here." He sees Yancy prancing around half naked enough as it is. Volunteering for that in front of a huge crowd as well as doing it himself needed to have a big reward. Good thing it did.

"That and I've got a whole stack of paperwork to ignore."

He points a look at his brother across the room, smiling and talking with a swarm of cadets - mostly girls.

"Look at him, he loves this."

Chuck's eyes follow Raleigh's hand to Yancy, and Chuck can't contain the snort of laughter, fingers curling a little awkwardly around the edges of his paper plate.

Be cool, man. Be cool.

"Looks like it." He flicks a look over at Raleigh. "You don't?"

Chuck doesn't know what that's like yet. He's just been assigned to Striker for a few months, and it's all been so fucking hush hush not yet, Hansen that Chuck's a little fucking confused about what he's allowed to say.

He's not famous. Not yet.

But he will be.

"Mmmeeh," Raleigh answers with a shrug, somehow effortlessly cool, and props one foot up on the chair in front of him - slouching down that little bit into the Super Comfort Zone.

"Everyone likes attention." And he's young and hot and famous, hitting his prime and on top of the world. But for all his boisterous reputation and energy there's a stillness in Raleigh. At least for the moment. He and Yancy are successful because they offer constant give and take. One gets overwhelmed and the other pulls them back down to earth. They share the burden, the stress, the overexcitement, everything and are practically attached at the hip. Co-dependent, would be the phrase. They share the neural load, so to speak, even outside the Drift.

"I don't mean to sound ungrateful, it's just a little much, sometimes. Yance, though, he's born for this." Raleigh explains with a small gesture, waving another pinch of danish around before eating it, adoration for his brother unmistakable.

"You know that book The Giving Tree? He's like that. Don't let him fool you with the Mr. Cool Guy thing, he's like a kid at Christmas right now."

Yancy Becket, Twenty-five and going on middle age. An eldest-sibling-suddenly-young-single-father in charge of his little brother and sister, and always giving. For all the shit they get up to, all the trouble, all the shenanigans, Yancy has always, without a doubt, been there giving 110%. It's no wonder he's always tired, he's been working on overdrive for as long as Raleigh can really remember. Since their family fell to pieces, anyway.

Edited 2014-02-27 01:41 (UTC)

"Suppose so."

Yeah, everyone likes attention, he guessed. Positive, negative - some people didn't really care. Chuck's kind of one of those people, he doesn't really give a flying fuck what most people think of him because it doesn't matter. Chuck is who he is, and he works hard and doesn't fuck around. He gets the job done, fights for what he's got and fights to keep it.

He picks at his strawberry, and glances over at Raleigh, a little unsure because this feels like...fuck, he doesn't even know. Like a heart to heart or something, and that's something Chuck doesn't know how to handle, how to deal with. He's never been good with conversation on a base level, mainly because no one bothered to teach him how to do it.

"I don't think I've ever read it," he confessed, scratching awkwardly at the back of his head.

Raleigh gives a half shrug in return.

"It's just a kid's book. Content is in the title."

Bless, he's just making small talk and you're the one that approached him. Yancy was right about him, Chuck seems nervous. It might have something to do with all the change in their lives at the moment. Which, Raleigh has to admit, he is incredibly curious about.

"Hey," He ventures, dropping his voice slightly and leaving in an inch or so. "I know it's top secret and all but..this thing with you and your dad and the new Jaeger..what's going on? Is he your copilot?"

"Huh."

Yeah Chuck -- doesn't have much experience with kids books or being read to.

"Uh--"

Raleigh leans in and Chuck kind of shifts and scowls, because he knows he's not supposed to be talking about this stuff with anyone that isn't top level PPDC.

Or anyone that doesn't happen to be named Herc Hansen.

"Maybe," he ventures, lifting his shoulders into a shrug, like he's as clueless as Raleigh.

Oh bullshit, Chuck knows exactly what's going on.

But he sees that and realizes Chuck must be absolutely sworn to secrecy and relents, one hand held up in a passive gesture. He's just as curious as anyone. But no pressure.

"Fair enough. I was just thinking, the whole program here is supposed to be matching up solo pilots. And as far as anyone knows, you are."

He exhales through his teeth. Yeah, he's sworn to secrecy but this...

Well. It's Raleigh. It's hard to not want to spill something like this to Becket.

"I'm not."

He's not a solo pilot. He'll give Raleigh that much.

"Ah."

That's all he really needs to put the picture together.

"Heard a little chatter about you having interviews with cadets. Thought I'd ask."

It's always, always best to get information straight from the source. The amount of rumors about Raleigh are hilarious. Especially once the internet fangirl machine gets a hold of them.

"Mhm. They needed someone to fill in."

And it hadn't gone horribly, he'd just.

Been annoyed, because he'd already done shit like that and he has a co-pilot and it was tedious.

Girl'd been pretty nice, though.

"Sort of a waste of time if you've already got a copilot." Stating the obvious but the Shatterdome is still a little short staffed. They probably would have asked Raleigh as well if he wasn't busy re-calibrating his drive suit to accommodate the humidity better.

"One of the initiatives is to see if multiple partners can be assigned to a Drift team. Like the Chinese, I guess." But he has no idea how that would work with three separate people. Most people can't even find one person to drift with much less more than that. Unless your Hercules Hansen, apparently, who seems to be drift compatible with just about everyone...maybe a side effect of early tech development.

Chuck gives a quick shake of his head -- he's clearly not interested in having a third co-pilot.

He's pretty sure he's too much of a pain in the ass for anyone to want to try with, anyway -- which is fine with him.

"You into that, mate?"

You want someone other than Yancy in your head?

He quickly shakes his head no as well.

"No, Yancy and I have it down. A third party would only make it weird, you know? I think it might be too much to adjustment."

And then there is, of course, the underlying horror of what might happen were one of them to be injured or otherwise incapacitated. Or killed... he can't even imagine what he might do. Definitely not look for another Drift partner, absolutely not. How would anyone ever be able to replace Yancy?

He shudders to think about it.

"There's a pilot here looking for a new partner. Simon Gryber. He's a Mach 3" Just like him. "Piloted Helix Plunge out of Japan."

Everyone knows the story. His copilot wounded during a battle and dying shortly after.

He's glad Raleigh seems to be on the same page he is. Keeps him from having to go into a whole lot of explanation and defenses.

"Think I heard about that, yeah."

It's kind of scary, yes -- but not enough for Chuck to back down.

Good. Because him backing down isn't Raleigh's intention. People get hurt, pilots get hurt. Hell, that's the reason they're down there in the first place.

"Mmm." And that's about all Raleigh has to say on that incredibly depressing subject.

"So Striker, tell me about her. I've only seen the promo video thing they did when they announced her commissioning."

Chuck's face breaks into a smile.

"Aw, mate -- y'haven't seen nothing yet, wait'll you see Striker up close and in person, bloody gorgeous--"

And oh, Raleigh.

Chuck is literally not going to shut up unless you interrupt him.

That is perfectly fine with him. He'll take Jaeger talk over pretty much anything else any day.

"Can I see her?"

His face lights up, danish forgotten in his lap.

Funny, he'd just been lamenting to Yancy the night before bout wanting to climb around on Striker and check out the newest model on earth.

Yancy had made a quip about him falling out of love with Gipsy which had earned him a cuff to the head.

If Raleigh's willing to listen, Chuck is going to ramble on and on and on about specs and parts and this and that and the other.

"Yeah." He quiets though, leans in a little.

"Not technically supposed to be up there, but I could take you into the conn-pod, yeah?"

"You could- yeah, I'd love that." His eyes light up.

It's exactly what he wants.

Fucking -- brilliant.

"We'll have to wait til it's darker, yeah? Easier to slip by everyone."

"Covert OPs, I like your style, Hansen."

But it's just then he sees Yancy wave to grab his attention. Looks like this chat is over.

Raleigh nods back and pulls himself up, stopping to clap Chuck on the shoulder.

"Huuft, I'm being summoned. I'll see you later, okay?"

"Sure. You lemme know when you wanna go."

He looks vaguely disappointed Raleigh's leaving, but -- fine.

"Will do. We're just down the hall from you I think. Come by later. It'll be a date."

He answers with a wink before sauntering off to see what his brother wants.

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suicidemission - 2014-03-10 13:32 (UTC) - Expand

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