#and yes jaeger as in pacific rim shut up | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

raibebe · 1 year

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Genre: fluff, relationship study, slice of (apocalyptic) life, action(?) Words: 6.017 AU: Pacific Rim Prompt: Jaeger pilot Jeno x Jaeger technician female reader

Warnings: violence? A giant robot fighting an alien monster. Yeah. Jaemin is a weirdo

A/N: Pacific Rim is one of my most beloved AUs and it's highly underappreciated in my opinion! But! Even if you're not familiar with the AU, Mia said she enjoyed reading it nevertheless. So give Ranger Jeno a try? Please? And also! All hail @kthpurplesyou because she made sense of whatever I had cooked up!

“So when you two drift…” “Mhmm,” Jeno encouraged you to go on, his eyes closed as he tried to figure out what shapes you were drawing onto his naked chest. In turn, he was caressing the skin of your waist. While he was already halfway to dreamland, he loved just being close to you like this, pulling comfort from your body and listening to the smooth sound of your voice - his favorite voice. “You’re in each other’s heads,” you continued. “That’s the general idea, baby. Sharing a headspace so our brains don’t fry while controlling a giant robot,” he chuckled. He wasn’t quite sure where you were going with this since you knew the specifics of the Drift probably just as well as he did. “And you see each other’s memories.” “We don’t just see them, we can feel them too. Relive them basically if we’re not careful and get lost in it. We try to keep our minds clear of most thoughts, so we don’t get distracted. It’s never good to get too involved in a memory whether it be your own or your co-pilot’s.” “So there’s a chance that Jaemin knows what I look like naked.”

At your blunt comment, Jeno swiftly choked on his own saliva and rolled onto his side to cough violently. “Where did that thought come from?” He exclaimed once he was able to get a deep breath of air back in, sitting up on the bed to look down at you curled into your blanket. “Well does he?” “I mean- I- I guess there’s a chance..?” “Jenooo~,” you whined dramatically, hitting his arm before turning away from him to face the very interesting metal wall of your room instead. Dumbfounded, the Ranger just looked at your back for a moment, unsure of what he was supposed to do. How did you even come up with that all of a sudden? He and Jaemin had been co-pilots for years now and getting into this relationship you had to have known from the start that Jaemin would be able to know details of it that Jeno couldn’t help but share through the drift.

“Baby..?” He chose to ask carefully, aligning his body with yours so he could wrap you up in his arms and was relieved when you didn’t fight but instead tangled your legs together, “Are you really upset about this?” Instead of answering, you just huffed out a breath of air and intertwined your fingers with Jeno’s. “That’s not a no,” he concluded, gently squeezing your hand as he tried to keep his amused smile from bleeding into his voice. “It’s like you’re showing my nudes to your best friend.” “I can’t exactly shut him out, baby,” the Ranger tried to gently explain. “The neural handshake won’t work if I try to close myself off from him. And it’s not like he’s actively looking for memories of us having sex.” “But there is a chance that Jaemin has seen it.” Sighing deeply, Jeno pressed a gentle kiss to your nape, “Yes, there is. Especially because you’re all that’s on my mind.” “Stop trying to flatter me,” you whined, flailing around in his hold until he let you go with a smile on his face that curved his eyes into the little half-moons you had come to adore during all the time you had known Jeno. In fact, you had known that you were falling hard for him when you had found yourself tending to his Jaeger more and more just so you had the chance to see his smile light up the room. Even going as far as making a fool out of yourself in front of him, just to make him smile and have him offer his help to you with kind eyes.

“Stop thinking about me when you’re out there,” you grumbled, swinging one of your legs over his body so you could sit atop of him. Jeno’s strong hands immediately found your waist to stabilize you while you cupped his face, tenderly stroking your thumb over the mole beneath his eye that you had kissed more times than you could count, “You need to be focused so you can come back.” “I’ll always come back,” he promised, his voice softening as he brought your hand up to his lips to press a kiss to the inside of your wrist. “They have to send something stronger than those puny Category II that have been coming through to keep us from coming back.” “I mean it,” you insisted. “Think about punching these ugly aliens in the face and not about me.” “Okay, baby,” Jeno giggled, playfully rolling his eyes. “This is serious,” you whined, collapsing onto his chest when he only laughed at your antics.

“Hey,” Jeno mumbled after a moment of silence. “Don’t worry so much about me when I’m out there, okay?” “Easier said than done,” you sighed, burying your face in his neck to bask in the scent of his skin. “I’m strong. And so is Jaemin. We got this. We have each other’s backs. And if things get too messy, they’ll deploy Golden Dragon as well to keep everyone safe.” “And if that’s not enough,” he interrupted you before you could protest, “If that’s not enough, the Hong Kong base isn’t far either and they have a new Mark-4.” “It’s still scary. The clock hasn’t been reset in so long,” you mumbled, gripping tightly onto Jeno like he would slip through your fingers if you didn’t. “Don’t jinx it now,” he just chuckled, craning his head so he could press a kiss to your temple. Yawning loudly, you settled more comfortably against your boyfriend. “Stop worrying your pretty little head and sleep.” “It’s not little,” you protested weakly. “I constructed and installed your new plasma cannon.” “Thank you for keeping me safe out there,” Jeno spoke quietly and despite not being able to see his face, you knew that he was smiling softly. “I love you,” you whispered back, your tongue feeling heavy in your mouth so you weren’t even sure if the words had come out correctly but Jeno still echoed the words back at you.

You didn’t know if you truly had jinxed it last night but instead of Jeno’s alarm, you were woken up by the howling of sirens. Both Jeno and you were startled awake with your hearts beating furiously inside your chests. Finding Jeno’s eyes that mirrored the shock you felt deep within your bones, worry crawled up your throat and burned your mouth like acid, constricting your airways like the Kaiju wasn’t somewhere out there but sat on your chest instead. “Don’t worry,” Jeno immediately tried to soothe you, pulling you in for a quick kiss. “Get her ready so I can kick some alien ass,” he spoke against your lips before both of you hastily got dressed, throwing the clothes that you had hastily discarded yesterday evening at each other. The only thing that kept your silly smiles at bay were the still blasting sirens and the terror they proclaimed. “You better come back in one piece,” you threatened Jeno just when you were pulling up the zipper on your overall. But before you could zip it up completely, Jeno took your hands, making you halt. Slowly, he pulled his dog tags over his head to put the necklace around your neck instead and gently zipped up your overall so they were concealed. “Give them back when I do.” “In one piece,” you reminded him, “And with a dead Kaiju in tow.” “I’ll bring you a souvenir,” he winked cockily, easily catching you when you threw yourself into his arms for one last kiss. “Don’t die!” you called after him, making a beeline for the main hall of the Shatterdome where the Jaegers were stationed for maintenance and Jeno running in the opposite direction to fetch the elevator that would take him to the Drivesuit room.

Upon your arrival to the main hall, J-techs were already running around the Jaeger’s feet like ants, the giant robots dwarfing anyone and anything. Well, they were running around and moving catwalks on one of the Jaegers while the other one was left as it was, her inner parts exposed and stray wires hanging around like vines. “What’s with Golden Dragon?” You called out to one of the techs that handed you your headset along with a tablet showing the schematics of Hurricane Chaser. Percentages and fancy graphics displaying exactly which systems were powered up. “The modifications on the breastplate weren’t done yet. They’re just deploying Hurricane Chaser for now.” With that, the tech blended in with the crowd again, hustling around to get the one Jaeger you had up and running as soon as possible before worse could happen. “Just our luck,” you cursed under your breath. A bad feeling settled in the pit of your stomach as you weaved into the current of people as well, a rehearsed dance between the feet of giants.

“How many Kaiju?” You asked into your headpiece, narrowly avoiding a golf cart looking vehicle carrying tanks of lubricant used for the Jaeger’s joints. “Just one Category II headed towards the coast. It’s a fast one,” Jisung’s deep voice resounded through your ears from the LOCCENT Mission Control room where he was overseeing the entire process, “Status?” “Max 5 minutes for Hurricane Chaser, core is firing up now. Maybe another thirty before Golden Dragon is ready to be deployed, we were still working on the new breastplate.” “No need, Hurricane Chaser will be more than enough to stop it. Come up to oversee deployment.” “This is bullshit, Jisung,” you cursed, angrily punching your code into a terminal to unlock Golden Dragon’s data to oversee her systems. You could easily let everyone install the old breastplate without the new modifications and get the Jaeger ready for battle. Thirty minutes possibly was a stretch but once Hurricane Chaser was deployed, you could get everyone to work on the golden Jaeger, “They shouldn’t engage alone.” The boy could only sigh, “Orders from higher up. Get in here so you can oversee the deployment.” Furious and without granting Jisung an answer, you changed channels on your headpiece. You weren’t about to let Jeno fight a Kaiju without any backup. “Chenle, please tell me you’re working on Golden Dragon.” “Good morning to you too,” the other J-tech laughed. “I had the old breastplate temporarily fixed but it’s at a risk of corrosion from Kaiju blue-“ “Which would damage the core,” you completed his sentence with him. “They’re on their own on this one. I haven’t connected the relays on the new one yet, had some issues with the power supply. I was actually about to ask for your help today to find out where I’m overloading the system.” “Fuck.” “Hong Kong is getting one of their Jaegers ready too if we need help. Go get your ass up to LOCCENT, I’ll handle everything else,” Chenle urged you on and immediately barked out orders in rapid-fire Mandarin, mandatory usage of English be damned. Switching the channel to the chitter chatter of LOCCENT again, you took a deep breath and looked up at the looming figure of Hurricane Chaser, freshly painted in a deep blue color. “Bring him home safely.”

“You didn’t come home last night,” Jaemin said in lieu of a greeting, suggestively wiggling his eyebrows from his place in the middle of the room as he was surrounded by Drivesuit technicians hustling around to get their armor ready. “Missed me?” Jeno blew his co-pilot a kiss which Jaemin caught in a dramatic act. “Less talking, more getting ready,” one of the Drivesuit technicians huffed, heaving parts of Jeno’s suit out of the cabinet. Always worried that he’d cause an inconvenience to the technicians, Jeno quickly stepped into place beside his co-pilot, straightening his spine and bending his arms like he was instructed to so he could quickly get dressed. “What are we dealing with?” “Category II and that beast is quickly approaching our coast,” Jaemin filled him in, hissing when his spinal clamp clicked into place and Jeno’s back hurt with phantom pain from an injury he had never sustained, “A little more gently please.” “No footage yet?” “None, sir,” one of the technicians replied, clipping Jeno’s shoulder pads into place before handing him his helmet. “Must be one ugly bastard,” Jaemin chuckled, running a hand through his freshly dyed orange hair before pulling his helmet on, the relay gel shortly obscuring his face. “Let’s go mess it up some more,” Jeno grinned, pulling his outgrown hair back before he mirrored Jaemin’s movements. He had always felt a little claustrophobic with the helmet on and kept his eyes closed, taking a couple of steady breaths until he could see again, knowing well how once the adrenaline really kicked in, nothing really mattered anymore.

“Rangers Lee and Na ready to enter Conn-Pod,” a technician called out into their headpiece before they opened the heavy doors for them that groaned under their own weight. “Home Sweet Home,” Jaemin chuckled, taking his place at the left, his feet easily clicking into the mechanism of the pedals. Following his co-pilot’s lead, Jeno stepped into place as well. His muscle memory kicked in when the handle controlling his arm of the Jaeger was brought up and he gripped it tightly. “She’s looking good,” he approved when he couldn’t make out any of the damage Hurricane Chaser had sustained in their last battle, the interface coming up confirming that all systems were up and running already. “Ready for drop,” Jisung’s familiar voice filled their ears just before the Conn-Pod was dropped down the shaft. It quickly picked up speed as metal ground on metal and sent sparks flying before the Conn-Pod hit its target dead on between Hurricane Chaser’s shoulders with a loud thunk, the metal groaning with the impact. Quickly, the tens of mechanisms around the neck of the giant secured its head, making the Conn-Pod tremble until it was safely locked into place. “If only there were a way to make this go softer,” Jaemin groaned, rearranging charts on the interface to his liking in a way that made no sense at all to Jeno right now. Their vitals right next to the map, really?

“Stop complaining, Na,” your voice sounded over the comms. “Oh if it’s not our favorite J-tech,” he singsonged, just to further annoy you. Jeno had never understood why Jaemin always needed to antagonize you but he couldn’t help but find it rather amusing. Not that he would ever tell you that unless he wanted to see you pout and whine about it. “Hey babe,” Jeno couldn’t help but smile, his fondness for you bleeding into his voice and even without looking, he was sure that Jaemin was rolling his eyes at him. “Hurricane Chaser is ready for deployment, I patched her up and upgraded her since last time,” you reminded the Rangers, “The blade is now more secure and you have a new plasma cannon in the left arm, Jaemin.” “Sweet.” “Take care of her.” “Treating her like the fine lady she is,” Jeno promised, biting his tongue so he wouldn’t declare his love for you again for everyone who was checked into their comms to hear. As much as he was fond of everyone knowing just how much he adored you - Jaemin would call it a possessive streak - it didn’t seem like the right thing to present when he was about to risk his life to protect that of others from a huge alien monster.

“Ready to be in my brain?” “I never am,” Jeno joked but at the same time he truly meant it. And it had nothing to do with how disjointed Jaemin’s thoughts were, jumping from here to there at such a speed that Jeno wasn’t even sure if his friend was able to even grasp all his thoughts, but all with how you could never truly be ready to share a headspace with someone even if you had done it time and time again both with and without the threat of an alien trying to eradicate your entire race. “Initiating neural handshake in 15-“ Jisung slowly counted down for the two rangers, his voice strong and steady as always despite the threat at hand. Closing his eyes, Jeno tried to calm his mind to make the process easier but nothing would ever prepare him for the initial feeling of the Drift. To him, it felt like both drowning and like he got hit square in the chest, all air being punched from his lungs as he fell in a pool full of tar that clogged his lungs. Flashes of different memories played out in front of his eyes: A child chasing after a ball, sitting at a desk and doing homework, and a man looming at the door. Jaemin’s memories. Then everything seemed to morph together and shift like he was on a rollercoaster, thrown left and right before another memory took shape: A young man sitting on the catwalk high up in the Shatterdome, tears obstructing his vision as he crumpled a piece of paper in his hand. But despite the tears, all that memory made Jeno feel was anger. Just as suddenly as the memories were crashing down on Jeno, it was quickly over again like he had finally breached the surface of the sea and he was able to heave in a deep breath.

“Neural handshake strong and steady,” Jisung announced, “Pilots aligning perfectly.” “Right hemisphere calibrating,” Jeno spoke, moving his arm up and just like she was supposed to, Hurricane Chaser followed his example, holding her fist up in front of her chest. “Left hemisphere calibrating,” Jaemin mirrored him, going through the familiar motion of the calibration to make Hurricane Chaser’s other palm collide with the fist. “Hurricane Chaser ready for deployment. Go kick some Kaiju ass.”

Completely in sync and breathing as if they shared a pair of lungs, Jaemin and Jeno took one step forward on their pedals. Hurricane Chaser followed their moves with a heavy footstep out of the Shatterdome and into the ocean, waves crashing around her feet. “That’s it babygirl,” Jaemin grinned, moving a last piece of the interface into place and now, with their shared headspace, Jeno couldn’t have found a better place for the chart.

“So, you got some last night, that’s why you didn’t come back to the room.” “Get out of my head,” Jeno groaned, suppressing the urge to shake his head. “You can’t get rid of me~” Jaemin just sang, a grin spreading on his lips as they started to jog towards the supposed position of the Kaiju. “Stop getting off to me having sex just because you ain’t getting any,” Jeno sighed, keeping his eyes on the interface for any sign of the beast and trusting Jaemin to keep them on the right course. “It’s not like I want to see any of that, just for the record,” Jaemin noted, “Not my fault you’re so obsessed with her that she’s all you’re ever thinking about. Kinda gross actually.”

“Why don’t we keep it professional for once, kids?” A familiar voice interrupted Jeno before he could defend himself. He was definitely not obsessed with you, he was thinking about you a perfectly normal amount. “Markie,” Jaemin cheered, “Are you jealous?” “Not after seeing the Kaiju, we finally have footage,” the other Ranger sighed, sending the footage over to be played on the big screen in Hurricane Chaser. “That’s not a Category II,” Jeno gasped upon seeing the beast absolutely annihilate a town that happened to stand in its way, its tentacle-like appendages whipping around to demolish houses and infrastructure alike. “It’s been upgraded to Category III, the readings weren’t really concrete,” Mark informed them, his voice hoarse. “It’s not your fault Golden Dragon isn’t ready,” Jaemin spoke Jeno’s mind sooner than he could, his voice softening, “We got this.” “Hong Kong is readying up two of their Jaegers just in case.” “So they don’t really trust us to finish this ugly thing off,” Jaemin scoffed while Jeno was busy scrolling the video footage back and forth, trying to get a feel for the Kaiju. They were quite evenly matched based on size and that was saying a lot. Hurricane Chaser was massive, the biggest Jaeger they had currently stationed in Tokyo. “You’re on your own for a while, it’s quite the trip for them,” Jisung interjected, “Watch out for those tentacles.” “Yeah no shit,” Jeno and Jaemin spoke in tandem, grinning at each other. “Don’t die, boys,” Mark tried to hype them up, but both of them could tell that the weight of his worry and guilt was crushing down on the senior pilot, “Less than two minutes until contact.” “We should try to cut the tentacles first, that seems to be its main weapon,” Jeno mused, “I can’t really make out any other special thing.” “My thoughts exactly.” “We have the same thoughts.”

“LOCCENT, we see it,” Jeno announced when the shape of the Kaiju came into view, a whirlwind of a mass, dashing around at a speed that shouldn’t be possible for a monster that size. “Hurricane Chaser engaging,” Jaemin grinned, flexing his fingers - and Jeno’s by proxy - around the handles controlling the arms of their Jaeger. As soon as the beast sensed their presence, it whipped around to let out a toe-curling scream that reverberated in the hull of Hurricane Chaser, showing off rows of teeth on the inside of its yellow mouth, its saliva bubbling over. “Nasty,” was Jaemin’s only comment, bending his knees to brace for the impact as the beast pounced. Taking one last deep breath, Jeno cleared his mind and focused only on the task at hand: Taking down this monstrosity even if it were to cost his life. With this single-minded focus shared between the two pilots, the world narrowed down to this moment. Time seemed to go by slower as the Kaiju approached, its tentacles whipping behind the mass of its body as it ran towards the Jaeger with a single-minded agenda: To kill whatever was in its way. Against all odds, the Kaiju simply slipped through Hurricane Chaser’s arms that were meant to stop it in its path, colliding with her chest head on and almost throwing her off balance before it slipped past.

“What was that?” Jeno gasped, whipping his head around so they wouldn’t lose sight of the beast as it barreled past them, shouldering the Jaeger whose pilots struggled to keep the giant balanced. “It just slipped through,” Jaemin kept LOCCENT in the loop, his eyes wide and chest heaving with heavy breaths, “We couldn’t grab it.” “Hull is holding up strong.” “It’s coming again!”

Just like the first time, the Kaiju slipped right through their hands and barreled into Hurricane Chaser at full force, managing to wrestle her to the ground. “There’s an overgrown puppy on top of us!” Jaemin called out, trying to get a hold of the tentacles bearing down on them while Jeno called on the mechanism to release the blade embedded in the right arm. “Get ready.” “I was born ready,” Jaemin grinned, swinging his arm in sync with Jeno and Hurricane Chaser to cut straight through the bundle of tentacles on the left side of the Kaiju, the plasma blade cutting through the flesh like a hot knife through butter. “That’s it, baby!” Jaemin’s shout got drowned out by the scream the creature let out, the sound rattling the Conn-Pod as it finally jumped away from the Jaeger so she could stand upright again. “Kaiju severely damaged,” Jeno reported, his eyes flicking over the status module of Hurricane Chaser, “Minor damage to the breastplate, core stable.”

“You sure this is a Category III, Jisung?” Jaemin chuckled, watching with glee in his eyes how the Kaiju darted back and forth as if it was wallowing in its pain. “Don’t underestimate it,” Jisung’s voice sounded over the comms, “It already caught you off guard twice.” “Details,” Jaemin rolled his eyes, his annoyance clear as day to Jeno over the neural link. “Focus,” Jeno muttered, “It’s done mourning the loss of the tentacles.” In the same pattern as before, the Kaiju barreled towards the Jaeger again but something was different this time. Maybe it was the way its leaps were longer or the way it put more pressure on its back legs but Jaemin and Jeno had seen enough Kaiju to predict what was going to happen. “Duck!” Jeno and Jaemin screamed as if they had one pair of lungs, Hurricane Chaser’s joints groaning under the sudden movement that had the Kaiju barely missing them when it had gone straight for the Jaeger’s head where the Conn-Pod was located.

“It’s like it knows we’re in here,” Jaemin panted, whirring around to brace for the next attack. “It’s too fast like this, we can’t grab it,” Jeno worried but before he could think of a solution, the Kaiju pounced again and latched onto his side of the Jaeger with its jaws spread wide to accommodate the girth of the elbow joint. “Fuck, get this thing off!” He groaned when the neural connection sent sparks of pain through his arm like he was the one getting chewed on, rendering him immobile as he gritted his teeth. “On it,” Jaemin assured his co-pilot, his own arm tingling with phantom pain. Forcing them both through the pain that the neural link to the Jaeger provided, he activated the mechanism of the blade again that pierced straight through one of the Kaiju’s legs, leaving it screaming before it jumped off.

“Way too close,” Jeno groaned, flexing his fingers to shake off the lingering feeling of pain that made his arm feel heavier than it was. “Something is off, calibrate right hemisphere.” Perplexed, Jeno went through the familiar motions again but Hurricane Chaser would only follow his movement very delayed, the plasma blade still out despite recalling it. “What? LOCCENT, we have no power on the right arm,” Jeno reported, his eyes wide as his gaze flew over the schematics drawn up. This couldn’t be. Hurricane Chaser had just been maintained. “Can’t be, none of the relays have been damaged and no vital parts of the mechanism were compromised either,” Jisung answered, probably looking over the exact same graphs that Jeno was. “I’m telling you, I can’t recall the blade or move the arm correctly,” the pilot argued, groaning when the Kaiju slammed into his side again when they didn’t manage to evade quickly enough. The remaining tentacles damaged the Jaeger further, graphs flashing red to display the damages. “Jeno, can you reset the arm?” Your voice came next, laced with panic that you tried to swallow down for the sake of professionalism, “It looks all normal from our end but I can see the problem on the live feed.” “We’re a little busy here,” Jaemin gritted through his teeth, trying to hit the Kaiju when it pounced again but the punch barely did anything to the beast. “What’s wrong with this fucker?”

Quieting down, Jeno took a deep breath. They could figure this out. He had barely any control over the right arm anymore. The side the Kaiju had attacked. The big tentacle that the Kaiju funnily hadn’t reacted too badly to having half of them cut off. “If it’s not the tentacles that make it special,” Jaemin agreed, “What is? Other than that, it’s just loud and slimy.” “Slimy?” “Yeah, there’s slobber all over the breastplate and your arm.” Jeno hadn’t even paid attention to that detail, putting it off as the usual Kaiju saliva but now that he was looking closer, the arm was dripping with it.

“You’re insane.” “Get out of my thoughts,” Jeno barked with no real bite, “LOCCENT, the Kaiju is poisonous.” “We know that already, how’s that what’s happening?” Concern was bleeding into Jisung’s voice when the Kaiju slammed into the Jaeger again, staggering the giant who struggled to throw it off and leaving more of the viscous liquid on the breastplate in the process. “No, not toxic for the environment, it’s like a poison dart frog. Whatever that slime is that it’s covered with, it’s messing with our power supply on the arm or blocking the impulses. I’m not a mechanic, goddamnit.” “Avoid it at all costs,” you called out before Jisung could reply, “If that’s how it operates, we don’t know how much damage it can do to the system. If it cancels the neural handshake by paralyzing the system, you’re done for.”

“Then let’s see how good our new toy is,” Jaemin grinned, transforming the still working left arm into the newly installed plasma cannon. “If this thing would hold still for longer than a couple of seconds, this would be a whole lot easier.” “It’s a multiple-ton heavy alien, it’ll hit,” Jeno argued, recalling his formal training in the army to the forefront of their shared headspace to help Jaemin aim. “We should have tried this out beforehand,” Jaemin groaned when the recoil of the blast reverberated through his arm, throwing the Jaeger off balance while the bright blue plasma ball only grazed the Kaiju, angering it further. And for all that the powerful blast was worth, it was agonizing to see how slowly the numbers rose that indicated the charge on it. “It’s too fast and the cannon doesn’t charge quick enough, we have to let it come close again.” “Absolutely not, Jeno,” you immediately interjected over the comms, “If more of this substance gets on the Jaeger, we can’t predict what will happen.” “We can never predict what will happen when we fight a Kaiju,” he argued, “That’s our only chance if we want to kill it.” “Jeno-“ Before you could voice your concerns, Jaemin flipped a switch that cut communication with LOCCENT. “That will get us in so much trouble.” “Can’t have her talk you out of this.” “Get ready then,” Jeno said grimly, lowering his stance and enabling a mechanism on the legs of the Jaeger that would allow her to stand up more securely and hopefully not barrel over from the force of the Kaiju.

“Plasma gun charging.” “Make it count!” Jeno shouted out when the Kaiju pounced, the Jaeger and him groaning alike under the weight. With barely any control over the arm, he tried his best to lock the Kaiju in place to keep it from flailing around so the shot wouldn’t miss again. With the beast so close, they were able to look directly into its mouth, seeing rows upon rows of sharp teeth, the inside of its mouth glowing yellow. “Firing!” For a split second, everything was drowned in the blue light of the plasma cannon, then came the almost comical noise of the charge being unleashed. After that, there was just silence. The Kaiju didn’t scream when it fell into the water like dead weight, a huge hole in its underbelly. What was left of its tentacles twitched a couple of times but after that, it lay there motionless.

“We did it,” Jaemin panted, a grin breaking out over his features, “We took out a Cat III without any reinforcements!” “Yeah,” Jeno couldn’t help but laugh, his body running wild with all the adrenaline and endorphins, “Fuck man, we actually killed it.” Still grinning, Jaemin flipped the switch back on that would connect them to the Shatterdome. “Rangers Na and Lee reporting a dead Category III Kaiju,” he spoke. “Don’t. Ever. Flip that switch again, Jaemin,” Jisung all but growled. Oh, he was pissed pissed. “But good job,” he added with a sigh, “We’ll take care of the cadaver, come back home.”

“We should totally call it slime jellyfish,” Jaemin decided. “I don’t think we get to decide that,” Jeno laughed, carefully checking how much control he had over his hemisphere of Hurricane Chaser and still finding the arm completely unresponsive but at least the leg seemed to work with an extra bit of effort. “We should. New rule: Whoever kills the Kaiju gets to name it.” “You can ask the Marshal when you’re in his office once you’re back,” Jisung sighed over the comms, “He’s waiting.” “With breakfast?” “I don’t think so, Jaem,” Jeno chuckled, “Let’s get her home.”

“Stop being so reckless,” you scolded, throwing yourself into Jeno’s arms as soon as he stepped out of the Conn-Pod, colliding roughly with the metal of the Drive suit. “Stop worrying so much then,” he chuckled, tightly winding his arms around you, “We had everything under control.” “You couldn’t control half your Jaeger.” “And even with half a Jaeger, we kicked alien ass,” Jaemin chimed in, his grin still etched onto his features as he tried to fix his helmet hair. “You,” you threatened, slipping out of Jeno’s embrace to stab your finger into Jaemin’s chest armor, “What has gotten into you shutting off the comms like that? I should dismount that switch. We had no idea what was happening to you.” “And what would knowing have changed?” The Ranger arched one of his stupidly perfect-looking brows, a challenge clear in his voice. Flabbergasted by his words, you didn’t know how to respond, opening and closing your mouth but no words coming out.

“Exactly. And don’t worry so much about who sees you naked,” he added with a wide grin, not so gently taking your chin between his fingers to close your jaws. “Jaemin!” Cackling, he made a beeline for the Drive room to get his suit taken off and the only thing hindering you from ripping him a new one were Jeno’s arms around your middle. “Please don’t murder my co-pilot,” he mumbled, pressing a kiss to the side of your face. “I wouldn’t take that honor away from the Marshal,” you snickered, going limp in his hold and trusting him to catch you.

“I told you I’d be coming back,” Jeno whispered. “I nev-” “Oh you did,” he chuckled. “I was so scared,” you admitted, your voice getting smaller and smaller. “And I’m sorry for scaring you,” he spoke softly, spinning you around so he could cup your face between his palms, “But this is my life.” “I know, Jeno, I-” “Can you not trust in my abilities?” “It’s not that,” you pleaded, gripping onto his wrists, so he wouldn’t pull away, “I’m just scared to lose who I love the most, Jeno.” “Trust in me then. In our love. I will come back.” “But how can you promi-” This time, instead of shutting your thoughts down with his words, he did so with his lips. “Okay?” He whispered against your lips. “You’ll come back.” “Every time,” he promised, his hands trailing down your neck to lower the zipper of your overall, “So you can give these back to me.” “Of course,” you puffed out in a chuckle, pulling his dog tags over your head to press them against his chest armor, right over his heart, “Of course.” “I love you,” he promised, sealing it with another kiss.

“Now, I love a grand declaration of love and enjoy seeing couples engage in PDA as much as the next person,” Jaemin’s voice interrupted your moment rather rudely, “But I do believe Jeno and I are due to get our asses handed to ourselves by the Marshal.” “You have the worst timing,” Jeno groaned. “Weird, that’s what my last girlfriend used to say to me too,” his co-pilot mused, throwing Jeno’s uniform at him, “We’re meeting him in five and I doubt he wants to see you in your suit.”

“Well, I guess I-” “I’ll trust you to come back,” you giggled when your boyfriend playfully rolled his eyes, “If you’re looking for me after, I’ll be the one covered in grease, trying to repair your giant man-toy.” “And I’ll be the one offering you his help despite knowing absolutely nothing just so I can watch you without being a creep,” Jeno smiled, pressing a last kiss to your lips.

#jeno #lee jeno #nct #nct dream #jeno fluff #jeno imagines #jeno scenarios #nct dream fluff #nct dream imagines #nct dream scenarios

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moosemonstrous · 10 months

Text

Inspired by @cicada-candy's brilliant comic 🥰 surround sound screaming coming later down the timeline tho 😶‍🌫️

Ghost Rider Pacific Rim AU - foreign substance detected

He is… running. He has no idea where to, only that he has to keep going, the rage in his chest writing over the pain in his useless right arm. The corridor is familiar – it’s the hangar access. Robbie walked it for the first time, or the first time he can remember, only–

It feels like only a few hours ago, but time seems stretchy, inconsistent. He turns to aim a shot over his shoulder, hits one of the pursuing men square in the face – pure luck, Robbie isn’t left-handed, he’s never even held a gun before, why does he have a gun? Why are they chasing him? Doesn’t matter, he has to– he has to get to The Charger.

A sequence skips; he’s in the elevator up to the Conn-Pod. (What? There is no elevator, only stairs.) He can barely stand, blood pooling on the floor at his feet. Just a few more seconds. The pain is unbearable and he screams, kicks at the wall and that just makes it worse – he didn’t even realise he got hit in the thigh, too. He feels his eyes water, squeezes them shut just for a second – he’s not going to cry. No time to be a baby about a couple of scratches.

Opening the hatch is a two-arm job. That’s going to hurt. He throws his pistol down the walkway, hears it scatter away as more and more shouts join his pursuers. The techs will be trying to disconnect the power from the cockpit – but he’s faster than them, he’s done it a hundred times now. The whole set-up is still in place, still sizzling with the demon’s blood. Nobody had the balls to try and clean it up yet. All the better. Saves him having to hot-wire Pons into his spinal clamp.

Activating drift sequence, the AI drones. His HUD is cracked, covered in the black goo. Pilot One absent. Abort–

“Override code six-zero-zero-two-eight-five,” he barks. His voice is different, deeper. Older.

Override authorised. Relay gel deployed. Thank-fucking-God he didn’t bother doffing the drivesuit. Of all the things to be buried in–

No. He’s not going to die here. Engaging emergency connection protocol. Pilot confirm: yes/no. “Yes, damn it!” Stand by. Emergency connection in three, two, one–

Something drips on his face from the crack in the helmet. It’s not relay gel. The demon blood burns on contact. Beto’s arms will be–

Nothing. They won’t be anything, anymore. The drift feels like a vice around his temples without someone to share the load – Robbie thinks he might be screaming, but it doesn’t matter. He’s got control. When he lifts his arm, The Charger moves with him – and down on the people coming up the walkway. Soldiers, techs, it doesn’t matter. He has a date with the LOCCENT overlook, and it doesn’t matter how many fuckers he will have to crush to get there, to get to–

The burn spreads over the whole right side of his face, sharp and blinding. Doesn’t matter. The concrete cracks under The Charger’s feet when he steps forward, but the reactor is tripping up, making his movements stutter on relay. “Reactor status,” he calls out.

Foreign substance detected in the reactor core, the AI supplies in its stupid monotone. It sounds even slower than usual. Urgent maintenance recommended. Power levels at six percent.

Shit. He’s not going far then.

Doesn’t matter. Six percent is plenty to charge the shoulder cannon. He might not get to feel Ivanov’s spine snap in his jaeger’s hand, but he sure as hell will melt it as a second choice.

Shoulder cannon deployed. Confirm target.

He nearly misses it, the tiniest of movements from this high – ants crawling through the quarters access, and amongst them that stupid little suit. It’s too late to move, but he has enough power for two more shots, and it’s not like Rasmussen and the rest of the cunts on the bridge crew don’t have their own coming, either–

The Charger is unstable, the right leg damaged. It wobbles from the kickback. Robbie has to put his spine into remaining upright, nobody to balance him, but the top of the dome is now just a smoking ruin and falling debris. More and more parts light up in red on the HUD. Fuck this. He’s getting revenge if he has to tear the whole base apart. He survived this far. He’s not going to die here.

“Full power to shoulder cannon,” he commands, and turns The Charger to aim at the wall, towards the living quarters. The joints creak like they’re about to break apart.

Request denied.

“What?! Override code–“

Request denied. Message incoming.

“Cancel! Full power to cannon, now!”

Request–

The AI fizzles out, tripping over the q several times before going dead. His HUD flickers, like it wasn’t hard enough to see through the demon blood, fucking useless–

“Robbie!”

What? The pressure in his temples spikes dramatically. Blood pours down from his nose, and he tastes copper at the back of his throat. It doesn’t matter. He screams, forcing The Charger another step along, then another. He will get there, he will get that cannon working, he will drop it on those fucking traitors if that’s what it takes–

“Robbie-Robbie, wake up!”

Gabe.

Robbie sits up in the bed – no, a cot, where the hell is he? Medical. He’s in medical, he was– fuck, he can’t catch his breath, but that doesn’t matter. Gabe has his hands clasped around his ears, and he’s crying, and what the hell was that about?

You tell me.

“Gabe,” he rasps. There’s someone– a nurse. She’s got both hands on the back of Gabe’s chair, ready to wheel him out. “Gabe, what–?”

“Loud,” his brother sobs. “You screamed loud, I hate loud noises, are you okay?”

“I think Robbie needs a minute,” the nurse says, but Gabe releases his ears to grab Robbie’s half-outstretched arm.

“No, stay! Robbie, are you–“

“I’m okay,” he squeezes Gabe’s hand. His heart is pounding like he just ran a mile, but he has to keep it together – Gabe is calming down, his thumb running up and down Robbie’s, but he still looks a little shaky. He lets Robbie gather him up in a hug. “I’m okay, I’m sorry, I’m sorry I shouted.”

“We’ll see about okay,” the nurse mutters. Robbie scowls at her over his brother’s head. “You really need to stop moving, Mr Reyes, your neck is–“

There’s still a brace around his neck. Through the haze of the weird – weird – nightmare, Robbie remembers how impossible it felt to move last time he was awake. The doctor said healing will take a few days… but he feels fine. Maybe they were overreacting. “I feel better. What time is it?”

“Time for you to lie back down, now!”

Gabe doesn’t let go of his hand. Robbie is grateful the nurse doesn’t make him, even when it makes it a little awkward to get around the cot to check the readings on the cot’s panel. She’s pretty good at describing what she’s doing, too – have they been doing it for a while? How long was he out, this time? Shouldn’t Gabe be–

“Quit it,” the nurse threatens cheerfully when the soft beeping of the oximeter picks up in speed. “Deep breaths. Your readings are fine, I suppose you had a nightmare?”

“…Yeah.”

“Bad dreams are the worst,” Gabe squeezes his hand again. “Was it about the demon?”

Uh, no. Rude twerp.

Robbie swallows. “Yeah. Just a bad dream.”

#ghost rider pacific rim au #robbie reyes #eli morrow #hello gabe how do i shield you from trauma #yes he should be in school no robbie it's not your priority right now

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4mulaone · 5 years

Text

spontaneously writing 2k words of f1 drivers as jaeger pilots as a coping mechanism

#shut up the format just works ok im a hoe yes !#my brain at ALL TIMES: what if.......pacific rim au #i cannot for the life of me work out what ferrari jaeger would be called it cannot have horse in the name #bc horses are not sexy and this is sexy and classy material

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foggysirens · 2 years

Note

For your WIPs, tell me about “the thunder of guns” 👀

(WIP Ask Game!)

Thank you, thank you, thank you for asking about this fic!

'the thunder of guns' is my Dinluke Pacific Rim AU and it is my baby. It's the first fic that I ever planned out for the fandom and it is going to be by far the biggest fic I've ever written. Pacific Rim is one of my all time favourite movies for one reason (besides the big monster fighting robots) and that's the concept of drift compatibility. Fully and completely knowing the mind of another in the most intimate way. Gorgeous. Beautiful. A fanfic writers dream.

'guns' pulls a lot from the Pacific Rim movie in terms of plot beats, but I've had so much fun infusing Star Wars characters and elements into the environment- especially in coming up with the Jeager teams and names.

The fic itself is from Din's point of view (with the prologue and epilogue being Lukes), following him as he gets pulled back into the war and has to grapple with how much has changed since his time as a pilot, with the fact that he has a son to think of now, and with his growing attraction to his fellow pilot Luke Skywalker- who happens to be convinced that they'd be drift compatible.

Anyways, I'm absolutely feral over my own fic and cannot wait until my brain actually decides to let me write more of it cause I just love it so much!

Here's a snippet for fun! :

“Engage drop, Mr. Calrissian.”

“Yes, sir. Marshal Kenobi is on deck. Securing the Conn-Pod and getting ready to drop.” Lando confirms.

Machinery whirrs around them as the Pod doors are sealed shut and the connection bridge is disengaged. A thrum of energy spikes through Luke's body, fear and excitement building in his gut. Preparing for the drop is like riding a rollercoaster, building up and up until it all gives away into a stomach-swooping fall.

Leia reaches and punches in her drop code, “Release for drop.”

“Double Force is ready, bring on the drop,” Luke confirms, quickly jabbing his code in as well, feeling the Pod jostle slightly and then give way as they are shot down the connection lines. He whoops, the sensation of freefall making him giddy.

The Pod slows speed just enough that when they make the connection with the body of the Jeager the impact is minimal. The plates around the Jaegers neck and torso slot up and into place, latching on and anchoring the two parts into one.

Double Force flashes alight with power, responding to her pilots. The voice of Marshal Kenobi fills their comms again, “Prepare for pilot to pilot protocols.”

#thank you!!!#i was hoping to get to talk about this one!#its a little niche but its mine haha #dinluke #mj.chatter #ask game #wip game

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alishamaybe · 2 years

Text

Wrote down a bunch of thoughts in a notebook while rewatching Pacific Rim: Uprising last week. After some clean-up, here they are:

The colours in the opening scene actually match PR1's vibe

Hmm Hermann's workspace is too messy-I know it's from drifting with Newt but...really?

AHH there's a photo of him and Newt on his desk that's so cute!!

Newt's so mean :(

Direct inconsistency about Precursors' motives?? What.

"And now we're shouting. There's no need to shout." WHAT. NEWT?? Not being loud??

Mako laughing with Jake!! :')

Uppercut to Lady Avenger through the building was funny

Jake tearing up as he runs to see if Mako's ok ;-; (yay emotions! good acting John Boyega!)

"I really am sorry about your sister. Half-sister." Hmm...feel like tension broke for humour too soon

Yeah, not liking Mako's death. A Hero, dying like that? No.

"Activate Gravity Sling!" Ahahah it's what a kid would come up with-I think GDT would like this

The jaegers don't have as much weight as in PR1

Newt's littol run down the stairs. It's him! It's Newt!

Newt's flat is waaay too neat. How.

"The boss could have died. Would have been great, actually!" Yay Newt! It's him!

Good transition from the shot of Jake asking for permission to the shot of Siberia

Escaping through the ice was cool

Callback to Chuck in Leatherback fight :')

Jake talking to Amara after she got dismissed had good weight-even the humour landed well

"I have a mission? Finally!" I think the emotion is defo a Hermann thing but expressing it? I guess drifting with Newt means it makes sense

Quan has zero personality

Wait, why is Newt working in mathy stuff and Hermann in bio??

Oh wait, Newt can use drifting as an excuse but he just needs the resources for the Precursors' plans

"I will shoot you. I will shoot you twice. You're officially fired!" Ahahaa

Hermann trying to get Newt to snap out of it haha trope! but also ;-;

"Yes!" from Hermann after Shao shut down feedback grenade-what was that shot?? loll

We don't know the other pilots-there's this shot of one pilot launching some missiles from the jaeger's fist but who was it?? Feels very not GDT

I laughed at this then, I laugh again now-what is this montage?? rrrghh

Lol the visual of Earth being covered in red clouds already designed and programmed? Newt, was that you?

"Knew it'd work." Hermann should be more confident because he's like that

Anti-kaiju refuge lift goes down, lots of people don't get in? The jaegers are damaging buildings-what?? Not pacifist GDT, especially Saber Athena, just rushing up and slicing

Strike Whip? GDT-like.

Ok, but I guess Jake and Nate trying to see how much impact Raijin(?) can take works...

Car gently being hit callback joke. It works :) (reluctant smile?)

Nate should have been given a different name. Too similar to 'Newt'

Shots of the little kaiju crawling onto big kaiju + red smoke-nice visual, sorta GDT, yeah! nice colours, dramatic. Weight was almost there!! Especially with Newt sighing. But Nate just had to say, "He's pretty big." Sigh.

Oo cam movement from Tacit Ronin statue to Amara's pod was good

Amara jumping yess, good arc conclusion

"You got this, brother." :')

Liwen smiling and looking relaxed! I liked that!

Amara and Jake having a snowball fight-too early? Suresh died.

Uggh why do the Precursors have to be generic aliens who want to invade Earth coz That's What Aliens Do-I mean, that's what it seems like with how mind-controlled!Newt is acting ("We are never gonna stop! Lousy little world")

#not exactly a liveblog but #liveblog #Pacific Rim #Pacific Rim: Uprising

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peppermintquartz · 3 years

Text

One-shot, Pacific Rim WWE wrestlers AU

The general folds his arms and sighs. What he'd give to be twenty-two again, stupid enough to climb into a Jaeger and young enough to think that's the coolest thing in the whole wide world. Beside him is his right hand man and former partner, who hides his chuckle behind a fist.

"Don't encourage them, Shawn," Hunter warns under his breath. Aloud, he snaps, "Everyone's leave is cancelled until your Jaeger is not decked with boughs of holly."

"Falalalala, lalatoldja," Kingston mutters to his two partners. Ettore 'Big E' Langston rolls his eyes.

"And you, Woods, stop trying to persuade the maintenance crew to paint New Day with different colors every two weeks."

"Aw man, that sucks..." Woods droops, and then salutes properly. "I mean, yes sir!"

If Hunter hears a muttered "Grinch", he pretends he doesn't. Shawn is grinning outright as he winks at the trio, then steers General Helmsley away from the New Day's dock.

"Lighten up! You know we hardly ever get any incursions in December. Besides, you have the Kabuki Warrior on duty. Asuka and Kairi have yet to find a kaiju that can give them a run for their money."

Grudgingly, Hunter nods. "Reminds me of the Brothers of Destruction."

"Yeah, no. Those two monsters had way too much fun brutalizing the kaijus."

A loud argument interrupts their stroll down memory lane. When they round the corner, they see Seth Rollins shoving Roman Reigns, and the latter looks ready to push back.

"I told you, I'm the lead when it comes to the Shield Messiah!" Rollins yells. "You keep forcing the lead, you're gonna lose us both our minds!"

"Your mind keeps trying to link to Dean who isn't here any more. You were about to chase the RABIT, ok? I did what I had to." Reigns jabs a finger at Rollins' forehead. "Maybe you should get this checked out. Maybe you got PTSD like Dean does."

"What the fuck is going on here?" Hunter asks loudly

The Uso twins get between the two pilots and pull them apart when Hunter and Shawn approach. Shawn looks at Rollins and Reigns, before he sighs. "You two aren't working out, huh."

"He keeps trying to take the lead when it's my Jaeger-"

"-it isn't just yours, the weapons from Big Dog are included in it-"

"Shut up." Hunter exhales and rubs his temples. "Look. It's Christmas. Reigns, Rollins, you two are to take a break. Usos, you boys will take this shift instead. Day One is ready?"

"Yeah, they fixed the ignition for the left arm cannon this morning."

"Okay, so you boys are on. Reigns, Rollins, we'll do auditions again." Hunter takes two steps when Rollins catches up.

"General, that's just one Jaeger. You mean to bench either of us?"

Shawn interrupts. "No, we mean that you take a break. Leave the nitty gritty to us."

The two older men ignore Rollins' questions and stride away, towards the cadets' barracks.

Shawn sighs. "Their chemistry is incredible."

"And volatile. What I want is stability. Like Owens and Zayn. One talks, one listens, both do what they're supposed to, everyone comes home safe except for a kaiju. As long as no one gives Zayn a coffee before they head out, they're very reliable." Hunter pauses. "Any candidates for the auditions?"

"There's a new guy, transferred in from Tokyo. A Finn Balor. He tested well with multiple other candidates, so maybe he can be the third." Shawn grimaces wryly. "He was nominated to Los Angeles. Apparently his former partner had a stroke. But he's steady, and him coming here means we have an extra Jaeger."

"The Demon King? I told Joe to put it through its paces."

"We'll get the test results tomorrow." Shawn pauses and looks at two Jaegers, docked side by side, both having the name Horsewomen painted down the side, except one had 1 and the other 2 after the word. One was predominantly black and peacock green, the other blue, yellow and white. "Gotta admit, having four of them being able to drift together has to be a record of some sort."

"Yeah. But we can't send all four out at the same time unless it's a category three at the minimum. We can't risk losing all of them at once." Hunter spies Flair talking to one of the fighter pilots and sighs. "I'm afraid Flair will become out of sync with the other three soon."

Shawn shrugs. "Send her out with Lynch more frequently then, and give Asuka and Kairi a break. Nakamura wants them over in Tokyo by next month since we now have Demon King."

It isn't a good feeling to have to send his best fighters away, but life is what it is. The entire world needs him not to hoard the best to himself.

"What about Heartsoul?" Hunter asks. "They ready to go out? Sydney is asking for some new blood."

"Mustafa and Alexander are ready, but Joe isn't."

"Joe? What's Joe gotta do with that?"

Shawn grins. "You didn't hear? Joe's hooked up with Mustafa."

Hunter's eyes grow wide. "He did not."

"Did too."

"But... Him? Them? Nah."

"You'd think, but they're really good together. If you send Heartsoul away, Joe will wanna go with them."

Hunter thinks about who he can get to replace his J-Tech chief if Joe does request a transfer. Life is too short in perpetual war not to let lovebirds stay together, he knows.

"We can promote Ripley if need be," says Shawn, reading Hunter's mind as easily as if they were in the drift. "She's been working as Joe's second the last two years."

"Alright. Let's get that sorted tomorrow, have everyone ready to move by New Year's." Hunter smiles at Shawn and kisses him on his cheek. When Shawn raises his eyebrows, pleased, Hunter points upwards. "Mistletoe. The New Day has been busy all over the base."

#pacific rim #pro wrestlers #my writing

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sesamestreep · 3 years

Note

(idk if this counts as a prompt, but...) duo of your choosing, "Shatterdome"

“Okay, but here’s my issue,” Sloan says, as she side-steps to avoid colliding with another pedestrian. “‘Kaiju’ and ‘jaeger’ are actual, real words.”

Don tries to give her a searching look, but with his arm wrapped around her shoulders, the angles just don’t line up right. “Yes, I know,” he says, drily. “I was also paying attention at the beginning of the film, when they gave us that vocab lesson.”

“Right. Exactly!” Sloan says, gesturing emphatically. “So, what in the fuck is a ‘shatterdome’ then?”

“It’s like a military base, but for the, you know, jaegers.”

She scoffs in response. “But why not just say ‘military base’? Why invent a new word for only that?”

“This is really what stuck with you about ‘Pacific Rim’?” Don asks. “The terminology?”

Their plan for the evening had actually been to see that documentary about whales that no one at work can shut up about, but someone—Don isn’t naming names, of course—had misread the showtimes online—it was Sloan, but she insists that it was actually the website that was wrong, not her, and therefore none of this was her fault—and they’d shown up to buy tickets fifteen minutes after the film started. On impulse, he’d suggested they see whatever the next available movie was, which is how he and Sloan ended up seeing Pacific Rim on their date.

They’re walking home now—or rather, they’re walking with no particular destination in mind and eventually one of them is going to have to say something about it and then they’ll have to decide if they’re calling it a night now or if he’s going back to her place or she’s going back to his and what that entails exactly. But for right now, it’s simple and easy. It’s just the two of them walking through the Village, along with the press of everyone else out to dinner or drinks on a muggy, summer evening. Normally, crowds make Sloan nervous, on edge with the possibility of being recognized, so he keeps waiting for her to shake off the arm he has draped over her shoulders, but she hasn’t yet. When he casts a sidelong glance in her direction, she looks completely at ease, dressed casually in a white t-shirt and jeans. She looks happy, he thinks, and thank god for that. It’s only been a few weeks since Charlie’s funeral, and it hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing so far with Mac at the helm of the news division. Don has every confidence things will get better eventually, once she bends Pruit to her indomitable will, but the transition period has been rough on everyone.

It’s why he’s secretly glad that they didn’t get to see the damn documentary about orca whales and instead got to watch two hours of giant CGI robots punching giant CGI aliens. It was exactly the bout of escapism he didn’t know he needed after yet another stressful week. He tightens his hold on Sloan, who puts an arm around his waist to pull herself in closer and rests her head on his shoulder. The soft smile she’s clearly trying to fight off suggests she probably feels the same way. There’s always going to be more opportunities to feel guilty about SeaWorld in the future; they can let themselves off the hook just this once.

“It doesn’t really bother me that much,” she says, after a moment.

“And yet you look so thoughtful.”

She laughs, and tries to bury her face in his shoulder. “I just can’t tell you what I’m actually thinking.”

“Well, now I have to know.”

Sloan sighs, as if this is a huge burden for her, but he can tell she’s also dying to tell someone her thoughts. “I’m thinking about how kaiju attacks would impact international trade routes.”

Don stops abruptly—normally a crime punishable by death on a New York City sidewalk, but luckily they’re right by a crosswalk—and turns Sloan to look at him. “Sorry, are you seriously worried about the theoretical impact of a fictional alien invasion on the global economy?” He asks.

“I wouldn’t say worried, exactly,” Sloan replies with a gentle eye roll. “I’m just thinking through the implications on various markets.”

Foot traffic starts to move around them, so Don pulls her into his side again so they can keep walking. “God,” he says, shaking his head, “I love the way your brain works.”

As soon as he hears the words out loud, he braces himself for things to get awkward, the way they always do when love or commitment or the future comes up between him and Sloan. It never happens, though; they just keep walking without missing a step, somehow. When he risks a look in her direction, she’s still got that small, pleased smile on her face. It might be even brighter now, he thinks, as her eyes meet his.

“Lucky me,” she says, so quietly he almost doesn’t catch it with all the noise on the streets around them. She tightens her hold on his waist as they continue on and she’s right, of course. Lucky is exactly the right word for them.

#can you BELIEVE that cinematic masterpiece Pacific Rim CANONICALLY came out three weeks after the events of the finale of the newsroom??#that makes me feels so utterly insane #anyway…. BINCH U THOUGHT #this is like a whole fic my bad #it’s like three sentences if you squint and maybe don’t know how to read so good #the other movie they’re talking about here is Blackfish #that orca whale seaworld documentary that no one could shut up about in 2013 #if you weren’t paying attention to documentaries in 2013 you may not know this so I am telling you #I haven’t seen it but like it’s allegedly very good #It’s no Pacific Rim but what is honestly #cant believe that GDT made pacrim just to help these idiots move on after the death of their beloved mentor #what a guy #I would give my left arm to actually finish one of my newsroom fics but unfortunately….. it’s just not realistic #Sorkin told me IN CANON that these two did not say I love you by the end of the series #and while I do not respect it as a choice I have chosen to honor it just this once #the newsroom #sloan sabbith #don keefer #my writing #three sentence fic #LMAO OK #that’s the tag leave me alone #firstelevens

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the-lightning-strikes-again · 4 years

Text

Pacific Rim (2013) and the Chance to Try Again

So I re-watched Pacific Rim (2013), per an anon’s request that I write a Pacific Rim-based Voltron AU. And I know this movie is clearly a love song to mecha genre as its ultimate goal. But in re-watching Pacific Rim in 2021, an odd moment really spoke to me. It was how badly Mako Mori struggled in her official debut in Gipsy Danger, how dangerous her triggered reaction was to other people around her, and yet how Raleigh Becket had an empathetic reaction that helped Mako get back up, resulting in her ability to reclaim her agency against a reputation as a traumatized failure.

I guess a little background to explain further, and why this meant so much to me:

So here’s this Asian woman who’s been asking for years for her chance to prove herself. She’s been told by her guardian, Marshall Stacker Pentecost, that she will fail to function in a drift setting because of her inexperience with reigning in emotions/a need for vengeance. But Mako Mori finally gets the chance to be a co-pilot, finally connects to a very real drift inside a very real jaeger…and then, oop. Becket has a negative reaction to his own memories and falls out of phase. This sets up Mori, who is unexperienced in handling this situation, to “chase the RABIT.” She has a genuinely traumatic breakdown that nearly kills her own comrades in the Shatterdome. She unintentionally activates Gipsy Danger’s weapons to protect herself from the ghosts of her own memories.

The team has to actually shut down the jaeger to protect themselves from being annihilated.

Upon shaking out of the drift, Mako Mori knows she has validated Pentecost’s fears and judgements about her. She is pretty sure she’s lost her chance to achieve her goals.

And clearly, her father figure Stacker Pentecost—who does love her and is as such overprotective—has been struggling the whole time with accepting Mori in a jaeger. The standard Toxic Masculinity figure of Chuck Hansen has a hissy fit that Mori is too inexperienced, and he actively tries to get her pushed out too, even accusing Becket of standing up for Mori only because he thinks Raleigh has romantic interest in her.

But it’s Raleigh…this very masculine dude with the somewhat over pronounced man-strut in his step lol, who does something that I really appreciated seeing.

After everything, Becket fights for Mori’s reinstatement when Mori has lost faith in herself and is trying not to break down in shame. And then he sits by her and actively tries to empathize with her about how rough a drift can be.

And Raleigh doesn’t do this because he thinks she’s pretty, or because he’s trying to take pity on Mori as some kind of male savior for her weak emotional constitution. This is the guy who is most likely to die first if Mori screws up in real-time, and this is the guy who can acknowledge that he helped set Mori into a no-win situation.

And unlike Pentecost (who initially wants to protect Mori at the cost of her own agency) and Hansen (who believes Mori is too incompetent to function above reproach), Becket knows what Mori was capable of. He believes in her 51 drops, 51 kills simulator score. He believes in her physical and intellectual capabilities based off his interactions with her, which are things that both Pentecost and Hanson immediately forget when Mori fails her first real drift and endangers people.

Becket knew what Mori could do if people just…invested in her and gave her a chance, now that she knew what drifting was like. He saw his own struggles in her and empathized with her as a human being. He takes some responsibility even over the fact that she was not simply made aware of/prepared for what she could face in that drift while also being hooked up to a weapon of mass destruction. Because as we see later in the film, once Mori knows what to expect, she can function very well as a co-pilot.

Had Raleigh not believed in her, had Pentecost tried to permanently ground her out of fearful love, and had Mako Mori herself accepted a reality where she was only a failure—the kaiju would have absolutely decimated multiple cities. Because Mori did not remain tied to her initial failure, the resistance lived to fight another day.

The more I thought about the fall and rise of Mako Mori in this 2013 film, the more I really appreciated those moments.

Because if a woman makes a mistake and big-time screws up their debut, it’s usually a death knoll, and even more so if that woman is already living in an environment that makes her a second-class citizen to begin with. People often act like a Chuck Hansen and write her off as incompetent/dangerous, or they pull a Pentecost and assume her to be too weak/too emotional to be of use. There’s not a lot of forgiveness for a woman. Whereas, there’s generally a lot more forgiveness for a man to screw around on the goodwill that he has potential. So it’s pretty rare to see a woman mess up as Mori did, especially in an emotional, traumatized way with such potential consequences…and to see someone still fighting to reach out to her. To empathize with her. To offer her the second chance they knew she could handle.

So it hit me that when the computer in the movie asked, “Drift sequence terminated. Would you like to try again?” and no one answered, Raleigh Becket didn’t have to. Because he had already answered yes, and he had been saying yes for every second he was trying to reach Mori.

And as the movie unfolds, yeah it might be redundant that Raleigh talks to her out loud while they’re fighting. But he takes actual time to warn and prepare her for what they’re facing—because he’s been here before in the real world, and she hasn’t. He’s trying to keep her in the present and to keep himself grounded too so he personally doesn’t bog her down. And it’s in this environment that we see Mako Mori absolutely bloom into one of the best jaeger pilots the world has ever seen, not including that she’s part of the first team to ever single-handedly take down two category four kaiju in one night. And furthermore, we see a Mako Mori who doesn’t just internalize her emotions. She uses those emotions to carry on the fight and to rally Becket to another charge, even when he believes they’re out of options.

So I guess to wind down this rambling meta, I felt that this wild and fun movie contained some content that, whether intended or not, spoke to me today in a new way I hadn’t seen it as before. I thought it was pretty cool how in this movie, women can rise above a failure and try again, successfully even. The message that men can feel empathy with a woman or understand their struggles is still wildly progressive in today’s world, where it’s more acceptable for women to empathize with men than the other way around. The message that trying to understand helps everyone rise together is lit. And I didn’t really expect to be flailing over this movie and this concept in 2021, but here we are, lol.

#Pacific Rim #Mako Mori #Raleigh Becket #Stacker Pentecost #Chuck Hansen #fandoms #mechas #empathy #failure #gender dynamics #I watched to think about a Voltron AU but got caught up in how I felt Pacific Rim did some pretty cool stuff #some things that i've been craving being in fandoms where if a female character isn't perfect then she's trash #it was really refreshing to return to Pacific Rim because it canonically grapples with that concept and rejects it #it says that a triggered and traumatized woman or an angry woman is valuable #she might even be the one to help save the world #I think Mako Mori and Princess Allura would get along well #BUT ALSO PACIFIC RIM UPRISING DOES NOT EXIST #I REFUSE TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT MOVIE AS ANYTHING MORE THAN A TERRIBLE FANFIC #but yeah so anyway back to mecha movies and encouragement to try again even if you fail #that sometimes we can't help failing or are set up for failure #but that you can get back up #and try again #and that a failure or a trauma doesn't have to define a person's identity or capabilities #that's how this movie read to me today

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villainsandvictimsalliance · 3 years

Note

BNHA 331 is the spiritual cousin of that one scene in Spongebob where he causes a nuclear explosion just to clean a plate. I have to laugh

I swear to God I hate so much nuclear weapons.

"Let's solve this by causing even more damage and deaths!" shut the fuck up, you're the problem.

That's why I love so much Pacrim (Pacific Rim). Guillermo del Toro was really worried about showing the citizens going to safe bunkers underground before the battle started, so that the Jaegers could find the Kaijus without risking human lives.

In bnha, you can also see how the kids tend to try an reduce the damage. For example, Deku during his fight with Overhaul tried to keep him away from the ground.

Star and Stripe is fighting on the sky yes, but then she has this bunch of attacks to the ground and calls for nuclear weapons and I'm,,,,,,,,,,, ma'am, why not sending him TO SPACE IR YOU WANT TO KILL HIM AND PROTECT THE CIVILIANS AT THE SAME TIME. WHY NOT.

Anyway, I'm still bitter about Star and Stripes not having good ideas for her quirk.

#Shan's asks #Shan's mha opinions #Shan's bnha opinions #bnha #mha #my hero academia #boku no hero academia #Mha 331 #Bnha 331 #Mha spoilers #Bnha spoilers

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rockthistowninsideout · 3 years

Text

DigiWeek 2021

Day 5 - Crossover

Pacific Rim AU

continuing from Digimon OTP Week 2017 and this fic. (Finally!)

“What are you doing here!?”

“You might remember that this is my Jaeger, too.”

“No, I don’t remember that!”

“Well, then your mind is even harder up than I thought. Little wonder we cannot pilot anymore.”

“Oh, so you’re saying that this is my fault now?”

“Of course it is! It’s certainly not mine.”

“Are you kidding?! It was not me who charged at that Kaiju even though the Marshal told us to stand clear.”

“Since when do you follow orders? And if we hadn’t attacked, the Nisga'a Nation wouldn’t exist anymore. Or at least would be severely damaged.”

“Yeah, but you know what has actually been severely damaged? Flaming Eagle, our Jaeger! They’re still not done repairing him. You’ve saved a stretch of coast-”

“- which is what we’re here for!”

“- but now we’re unable to participate in any other mission!!”

. . .

“Sir, can you not just order them to get their shit together?” Ranger Raleigh Becket asked Marshal Edwards as they watched Rangers Daisuke Motomiya and Miyako Inoue quarrelling in front of their Jaeger.

Again.

Raleigh’s brother and piloting partner Yancy giggled behind him and drew a line on a black board that was covered in chalked tally charts. “Argument number 165”, he announced with glee.

The Marshal rolled his eyes. “This is not funny, Ranger Becket. If Flaming Dragon is ready to go again after mendings are finished but its crew isn’t then I don’t know what we are supposed to do. We need to be at our full force if we want to win this war. And this is not about wanting, it’s about needing to win!”

“And if we just lock them up in a padded room and only let them out there when they live in harmony again?”, Yancy suggested.

Marshal Edwards shot him a look. “These two are so stubborn, they’d probably rather starve than reconcile.”

“I can’t believe that they really have the highest drift compatibility in the entire Jaeger program. You would never guess that when you saw this for the first time”, Raleigh said and indicated them still bickering.

“If I hadn’t seen the stats, both about compatibility and kill count, myself I would have never let them on the premises. Not even our neurologists can explain this divergence.” The Marshal pinched the bridge of his nose. “And no, Becket, ‘opposites attract’ is not an appropriate explanation”, he said as Yancy was about to open his mouth.

He snapped it shut again and looked at his brother. Raleigh just shrugged.

Suddenly the Kaiju siren started blaring. “Dear mother of God, please no!”, the Marshal muttered before strutting away to the stairwell leading up to LOCCENT. Raleigh and Yancy had started to move as well, in the opposite direction towards the Drivesuit Room.

“Sir, we have lost Lady Danger!” the coordinator yelled but he didn’t need to state the obvious. The entire Shatterdome had watched the gruelling battle between G. Danger and Knifehead. How Yancy Becket had been torn out of the cockpit and Raleigh had ended the fight alone before the radar connection had been cut off and Lady Danger had staggered away into the fog.

Marshal Edwards’ face was a motionless mask. Underneath, grief, anger, and denial were fighting a battle that none of the emotions could win. He gripped the back of the chair the coordinator was sitting on before issuing through gritted teeth “Dispatch the search party!” An armoured squad in helmets swarmed out down below.

“Sir!”, the coordinator piped up again.

Marshal Edwards closed his eyes, inhaling for a moment, before answering “Yes?”

“The Kaiju sends life signals again. I’m afraid it’s still alive.”

For a split second, the Marshal thought it to be a sign, help from above, to solve the issues between Rangers Motomiya and Inoue. But he quickly suppressed the idea again, it was spit on the wet graves of the Becket brothers. He leaned to the intercom and bellowed “Flaming Dragon, prepare for launch! This is an order! Two Pilots have died fulfilling their duty to protect humanity from the Kaijus and I expect you to honour their memory by suiting up and finishing the fight they’ve lost their lives in!”

Down on the ground, Daisuke and Miyako stilled. Their first response, incidentally in unison, had been to shake their heads and talk back, simply out of habit, but then they knew better. The Becket brothers were dead, one probably eaten by a Kaiju and the other swallowed by the ocean. It would be a disgrace and go against every reason they had enlisted for if they refused service now. So instead of being uncooperative, they set off to the Drivesuit simultaneously. The J-Techs hurried to suit them up. The Pilots averted eye-contact with them, out of shame, while they were strapped into the Rig.

Suddenly their antics, their constant bickering and arguing felt childish, unnecessary and completely out of place. This was a war they were fighting in and yet they had decided to put their own meagre disagreements before the welfare of humanity. When the female AI announced that both hemispheres were calibrated, Daisuke and Miyako looked at each other.

“Ready for the Big Drop?”, Daisuke asked, in different circumstances he would have produced his trademark bright smile.

“Ready when you are”, Miyako retorted before saying “I’m sorry.”

“Me too. Now let’s do this.”

Miyako nodded. At this point she would have added her cheerful “Bingo!” but right now it felt inappropriate. Instead she said “For the Beckets!”

“For the Beckets!”

Yancy and Raleigh Becket were sitting upright in separate hospital beds, watching incredulously and in awe through the window between the infirmary and the doctor’s office how Daisuke and Miyako were bantering. What was so baffling to them was the fact that they apparently were sharing friendly banter. They were laughing - the Beckets could clearly imagine how loud it was right now in the office as both Japanese pilots had boisterous laughs - and hitting each other amicably on the shoulder every once in a while.

When the Marshal entered the infirmary, the brothers turned to him. “What happened to them?”, Yancy asked.

Marshal Edwards shrugged. He looked tired but relieved. “Some say it’s a miracle, others insist on common sense. I’m just happy that the drama is over now.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t be so hasty”, Raleigh said and indicated the window. Yancy and the Marshal followed his index finger and groaned at the same time because apparently the mood between Daisuke and Miyako had turned sour again. They seemed to get physical soon if it wasn’t for the doctor who’d stepped between them.

“That was a short-lived miracle”, Yancy remarked.

Marshal Edwards just sighed.

#digiweek2021 #digimon adventure #digimon adventure 02 #pacific rim #au #daisuke motomiya #miyako inoue #raleigh becket #yancy becket #my stories #my oc #did you really think i would kill yancy AND raleigh off in this one?!#also thank you for adding this prompt so i could finally drag myself to complete #well sort of complete this digimon/pacific rim au

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yoditorian · 4 years

Text

drift- grogu

pacific rim au!din/reader

i’ve decided i’m going to be slowing down original content here since engagement is way down and i really don’t need the disappointment when i do post stuff. i’m not stopping entirely, but i think i’m going to take it down to one fic/hc a week until i decide otherwise, hope u understand x

series masterlist // main masterlist

word count: 994 // warnings: none but i feel like i should specify that our little green boy is a human in this au

Sleep is definitely not your friend right now.

Maybe it’s the stress of the pilot who clearly doesn’t like you, or the worry about potentially failing at your new job, or the daunting size of your to-do list.

Or you’ve still yet to get used to having your own room. Being lulled to sleep by the hum of the base instead of five other people breathing is definitely a change.

You drag yourself out of bed and pull your jumpsuit on. If you’re not going to sleep, maybe you should get a head start on that to-do list. You’re pretty sure your tools are still lying around in the Razor Crest’s cockpit anyway.

You’re no stranger to wandering the base at night, sometimes you can’t get your brain to shut up long enough to get to sleep and a walk is the only thing that’ll tire you out. It’s not much quieter, night shifts for other departments are on rotation, but it’s always odd to see the dimmed lights in the corridors and some rooms locked up for the night.

There’s a scrabbling noise inside the Crest when you get to the scaffolding and, stupidly, you don’t think much of it until you lower the boarding ramp and spot him.

A little body, curled up tight, underneath the console.

You stumble back in shock and shoot a message off to Peli on your tablet.

SOS. KID IN CREST.

You hope she’s awake. You have no idea how to deal with something like this.

He’s not sleeping. His big brown eyes are wide and terrified as he watches you approach. He flinches back, dangerously close to some exposed wires, when you step into the rig. So you back up onto the scaffolding and crouch down to his level.

“You’re not supposed to be in here, buddy. Can you come out for me?”

The tablet buzzes in your back pocket, hopefully with a message from Peli, but you’re loathed to take your eyes off the kid even for a second in case he catches a wire and hurts himself.

He looks so, so scared.

“I’m not gonna hurt you, it’s just not safe in there okay? If you come out we can get you back home, yeah? How does that sound?”

You keep your arms folded over your knees, so he can’t see how badly they’re shaking. So he can’t see exactly how much danger he’s in right now.

The kid looks at you for a long moment, then back at the wires beside his head. He shuffles slightly away from them, to your relief, but makes no other move.

“She’s pretty cool, right? You know, I could show you the plans we’ve got for her if you come out here.”

You lift a hand and pull the tablet from your back pocket, waving out towards him.

He keeps staring at you silently. It’s a little unnerving, his dark eyes look black in the dimmed light and you honestly wouldn’t be surprised if you’re hallucinating from sleep deprivation. You didn’t even know kids were allowed on base.

There’s the echo of boots down the corridor and the kid curls up into himself even tighter.

“It’s okay, they're coming to help. I promise.”

Peli rounds the corner with a few security guards and a couple of command officers. In the split second you take to glance behind you, he’s slid even further back into the console.

Way too close to the wires.

You hold your hand up behind you to stop them coming out further. He cannot touch those wires.

“It’s okay, kid. I’m gonna come in and get you alright?”

He takes a moment, but shuffles forward again. Like he’s trying to make it easier to reach him. You take it as a yes.

You’d thought he was maybe around seven in the shadows, but once you’ve pulled him out from under the console and got him in your arms, he can’t be more than five.

He buries his little face in your shoulder and you try your best to comfort him as you duck under an open panel to get him safely onto the scaffolding.

Din elbows his way through the security guards, wide eyed and apparently so panicked he forgot to put on shoes as he slips a little in his socks on the metal floor. He deflates when he sees the kid safe in your arms.

He takes him without a word to you, murmuring soft reassurances into the boy’s hair, and turns ready to go straight back to their room when Karga’s voice rings out through the empty hangar.

“He can’t go running off like that. Especially not into a jaeger.”

A cold fury washes over Din’s face, the same one he turned on you after the plasma cannon incident, and he opens his mouth to argue. But you’re already there.

“He’s just a kid! This place is new and scary and that-” You gesture to the half-gutted cockpit of the Crest, “Is probably the only thing close to normality on this whole base!”

“He could have been seriously hurt.” Karga’s not giving up, but neither are you.

“Yeah and you lot scared the life out of him, I don’t think he’s gonna do it again!”

Some sane part of your brain isn’t overly pleased that you’re yelling at your superiors, but the rest of you is too tired to care. You’re still shaking when they leave.

They won’t let you act out like that again, even in the defence of a child. It’s an unspoken threat that settles heavily over you as Peli pats your shoulder in support.

Din hasn’t moved, although his boy is fast asleep against his chest now. He’s just standing there, looking at you like you’ve sprouted a second head. Maybe he didn’t expect you to jump to your guns as quickly as you did, given how he’s treated you so far.

You’re a little surprised yourself.

TAGLIST (add yourself here)

@brothersdrxke @keeper0fthestars @thevoiceinyourheadx @firstofficerwiggles @ew-erin @chatterbean @1800-fight-me @mary-meee @capsheadquaters

#drift #pacific rim au #the mandalorian #din djarin #the mandalorian x reader #the mandalorian x you #din djarin x reader #din djarin x you #star wars #fic #liz does words #sfw

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moosemonstrous · 10 months

Text

Ghost Rider Pacific Rim AU - it's like self-care if you think about it

Hey, that your face?

Robbie stares at his reflection, razor hovering half an inch from his cheek. It blinks when he does – he’s not sure why he expected it not to. Probably having his right eye taped shut messes with his depth perception, or something. Hopefully he can take the dressing off after the check-up in the afternoon.

He breathes, four in, hold four, four out. The anxiety simmering in his stomach doesn’t go away, but subsides enough that he won’t slice his cheek open when—

What’s with the white bit? You greying already?

He looks around the bathroom. Shatterdome operates on a six-shift pattern, not counting variations in the jaeger duty side of things, so there is always plenty of people milling about. (So many people. No wonder they keep accepting refugees, they need every pair of hands they can get.) There are two men attending their facial hair at the sinks, one tired-looking lady falling asleep into her toothpaste, and several others using the showers and cubicles. Nobody’s paying attention to him, or his hair.

He exhales through his nose and resumes shaving. The blonde streak looks like it starts in the middle of his head; he hasn’t come across bleach—or a haircut—since before Bladecrest descended on L.A. Hong Kong is ridiculously well-supplied for such a frequent demon target. Comes with being the base of coastal operations, he supposes. If he’s allowed his job back, he could swing by the store next week, or maybe take Gabe to town on his rest day—

You ain’t getting your shitty job back, kid.

Yes, I am. That was all an accident. Colonel Ivanov—

Fuck Ivanov. You can’t trust a thing he says.

It was. An. Accident.

Robbie nicks his jaw and drops the razor into the sink. “Fuck!”

“Language,” one of the men chides him, amused. He has Coyote Tango tattooed on his bicep.

Robbie mumbles an apology, then stares into the mirror, waiting. It must be the painkillers wearing off. Maybe his eye got—damn, he hopes it’s not some sort of an infection. There’s plenty of one-eyed mechanics out there, but they tend to have a lot more experience under their belt than he does.

Gabe is nearly finished getting dressed by the time he makes it back to their bunk. “Robbie is back!” he chirps. “Buttons?”

The Shatterdome pharmacy has... everything under the sun, apparently. Gabe already charmed every health professional in medical, so with a nod from Ivanov his permits were run through out of queue. No need to wait for appointments. Only a couple of days on proper meds, and his focus is already so much better. All Robbie has to help him with is buttons.

“Excited for school today?” he asks, rather than going down that particular train of thought.

“It’s not real school yet,” Gabe reminds him seriously. “But, soon!”

“Very soon,” he promises. “Mr Wan said day after tomorrow, yeah?”

And all Robbie has to do is to hang his head and promise he will never step a foot in the jaeger hangar again. He doesn’t mind that in the slightest.

Yes, you do.

No, he doesn’t.

Your memory is all fucked up. I’ve seen it, yeah? Black hole where dear old dad should be.

That’s not—

It is, and you need to figure it out. It’s all in The Charger, you just have to grow a—

“Robbie-Robbie, it’s time to goooo!”

“Yes, yes,” he laughs. “Let’s go.”

There are far more people in the conference room than Robbie expected for a stern talking-to. A couple he recognises from news broadcasts – Captain Danvers, Tony Stark – but most are new faces, talking between each other like it’s their lunch break. Ivanov puts a heavy hand on his shoulder. Robbie has to suppress an alien shudder coming from deep in his stomach.

Fuck, if I could– Argh! Stop letting him touch you!

“It’s normal to be nervous,” the Colonel says. “Don’t worry. It’s just a few questions. It will be over before you know it.”

It can’t be worse than being questioned by the spies. That’s not what they were introduced as, but Robbie spoke to enough cops in his time to know what information not to volunteer. No, I didn’t have time to grab our papers before the house flooded. Yes, the applications are with the embassy. No, I didn’t know the transport was going to Hong Kong. Why the hell would I think a relief plane was leaving the country? Sorry, yes, I’ll mind my tongue. Yes, I was arrested, no, no charges were made, no, nobody asked me to infiltrate anything – it went on for hours.

The room is utilitarian – concrete and metal, like the rest of the base – but clearly sees a lot of use. One wall is dedicated entirely to a whiteboard covered in mathematical equations. Robbie wonders what kind of clearance he’d normally need to see it.

“There he is, the man of the hour!” Stark notices him first, spreading his arms to get everyone’s attention. “Well, don’t stand in the door, come on in, take a seat.”

His affect is overly friendly, but his eyes are sharp, assessing. The young Asian guy next to him gives Robbie a little wave. Ivanov directs him to a seat at the top, between himself and Stark. It’s weird, to be sat at a table instead of on one side of a committee. Difficult to see everyone without constantly turning his head, especially with only one working eye.

Damn. I don’t know any of these fuckers. Well, obviously. Remember, you can pilot The Charger. Nobody managed that in ten years. They have to let you try again.

Robbie is stressed out, and tired, and a little bit terrified, if he’s honest with himself. But he really, really needs to get a grip for this. He can figure out what part of his subconscious is delusionally suicidal after this very, very important meeting.

The tall, white woman with dark hair speaks first. She looks a little familiar. She might have been on the news, too. “Roberto Reyes, is it?” He nods. “Any relation to Alberto?”

He swallows. “My father,” he says. It comes out quieter than he intended.

“Shit,” Stark whistles. “So it’s true. Colonel, do I have to remind you I have dibs on nepotism in this circus?”

“Like you’d let us forget,” mutters the big, black man at the other end of the table. He’s wearing red-tinted sunglasses right at the centre of an enclosed base made mostly of concrete.

“How’s your eye?” the Asian guy asks. “We’ve not had many drift-related injuries in recent years.”

“He is expected to make a full recovery,” Ivanov answers before Robbie can gather a response. “Ladies, gentlemen, this is merely a formality. What happened was an unfortunate accident–“

“No, what happened is you broke protocol,” Stark interrupts him. For such an accusation, everyone at the table remains remarkably relaxed. “Do you know how cranky the techs get when something goes out of schedule?”

Ivanov drums his fingers on the metal surface of the table. “I was under impression we already discussed this.”

“Yeah, but then we looked into the system reports.” Stark nods to the Asian guy. “Hit him, Cho.”

“It wasn’t a fluke,” Cho passes a thin tablet to Danvers, who looks at whatever it contains with a furrowed brow. “Hell Charger was in full drift for nearly thirty seconds. The head movement corresponded to the helmet output. If you didn’t pass out when you did,” he nods to Robbie, “you’d have fried your own brain trying to tear that jaeger off the hold rack.”

It sounds a little like an accusation. Robbie feels his hackles rise – it’s not like he did anything on purpose – and has to force himself to breathe normally. He can’t fuck this up. The medical, the school, accessible living quarters. He repeats it like a mantra in his head while everyone takes a turn reading through whatever it is the tablet holds. Their expressions range from merely surprised to concerned – Ivanov is definitely in the latter category.

You’re welcome, by the way. You’d have chased that rabbit all the way to Wonderland if I didn’t step in.

“How is this possible?” the other dark-haired woman asks. She’s wearing a white lab coat. “Why am I only hearing about this now?”

Stark grins. “Dramatic effect.”

“Also, security didn’t hand over the drives until this morning,” Cho adds, but it’s clear he’s fully on the side of the dramatic effect. “If my samples weren’t held up in customs, I’d probably never have looked.”

“As always, we are saved by young Cho’s inability to mind his own business.” Stark leans forward on his elbows, way too far into Robbie’s space. “You know what that means, Reyes?”

Robbie swallows. He’s pretty sure Captain Danvers is laughing at him, the way she hides her mouth behind her hand. “…No?”

“It means my sidekick wants to study your brain.”

“Not your sidekick.”

“Which means he won’t be a pain in my ass for, like, two whole seconds.”

“Maybe three,” Cho flashes Robbie a smile. It does nothing to make him feel better about this sudden turn of events.

Ivanov pinches the bridge of his nose. “Tony, this is ridiculous. Miss Walters, surely the legal side–“

“Don’t look at me,” the tall woman shrugs. “The program can, and has requisitioned civilians to aid in the war effort.” This is promising. No, it isn’t! “Just don’t let him anywhere near the extremely classified weaponry again and I don’t see a problem. Especially if it shuts those two up.”

Shit, no. Nononono. We need to drift again! Say something!

Robbie clamps his mouth shut.

The lab coat woman grabs the tablet again as soon as Ivanov puts it down. “I want in on this,” she declares, swiping down its contents. “A successful solo drift on an inactive, defective jaeger? Have you had an MRI?”

With a start, Robbie realises the question is directed at him. “I think so?“

“I want to see it. And your psych eval. We need to record your impulse triggers. Cho, clear your schedule.”

“Already done.”

“Can we slow down a little?” Captain Danvers says. Again, Robbie has to suppress a reflexive annoyance – she looks like she’s pitying him. He hates being pitied, and he hates that he feels like the ground is rapidly disappearing from under his feet. “Hell Charger isn’t just defective, it’s dangerous. Mr Reyes was beyond lucky to survive the drift. Let’s not put him at risk to satisfy our curiosity.”

“Nobody’s talking about plugging him back in,” Stark waves her off. “It’s just a few tests.”

The black man sighs. “I hear the replacement for Horizon Brave is taking longer than it should,” he says. “We are a jaeger short until Wakanda sorts out the vibranium agreements. I wasn’t going to let any of my cadets try out The Charger, but…” He trails off. It’s impossible to tell if he’s actually looking at Robbie with those weird shades on. “Not without training, though.”

“That can be arranged,” the tall woman taps away on her phone. “I can trigger the next recruitment drive early…”

Well, not all is lost. No thanks to you.

The meeting somehow turns to comparing schedules. The white coat is a doctor and she’s cancelling a call with the UN marshal to look at Robbie’s brain. There’s a brief argument about how much of the whiteboard can be erased to make space for notes. At one point, Robbie has to rattle off Gabe’s school timetable so the black guy – Brooks – can cross out relevant squares on said whiteboard.

“I’m supposed to work second and third shift in transport maintenance,” he says, hoping to get somewhere near the original reason for this whole thing. Stark snorts.

“Don’t worry about it. Vicky, authorise a stipend. It’s not coming out of my budget.”

Robbie’s already tenuous grasp on his situation slips even further when Ivanov looks at him with a familiar expression: you’re starting to be more trouble than you’re worth.

Seriously, kid, fuck Ivanov. Unless you plan on ripping his throat out with your own teeth, settle for pissing him off.

How would that help?!

It would make me feel better, for starters.

Don't you want to feel better?

#ghost rider pacific rim au #robbie reyes #eli morrow #who of us doesn't have an occasional homicidal thought #or five #also it turns out I enjoy writing tony stark in meetings

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haunthouse · 4 years

Note

23 (“I immediately regret this decision.”) with a dealer's choice of au jaylen

ft pacific rim au !! this one ended up long, so it’s also on ao3.

Jaylen knows, the moment one of the drift techs suggest offhand that she try drifting with Allie, that it’s a bad idea.

She knows this somewhere distant in her mind, omnipresent background radiation — the same way that, when kaiju begin spilling from the breach again, she’ll be able to predict with a hundred-percent accuracy when it’ll happen long before the nerds down in k-science figure it out. Her instinct is to say no. She almost says no — almost says fuck no, absolutely not, we aren’t dragging him into this, almost storms out of the room and slams the door on her way out.

But she has to be a good little pilot to prove Mike was right to drag her out of the breach. At the very least, she has to avoid getting into fights. She’s made sure half the jaeger program will never get in a cockpit again just by drifting with them, something inside her mind breaking something in theirs, and she’s made the other half terrified of her; they scatter when she walks through the halls, as if her death is contagious.

They would not have let Mike rescue her if they’d known it would cause this much trouble. That’s another thing she knows; she’s still deciding how she feels about it. Parker would’ve sent every jaeger the program had left to follow Mike into the ocean, drag him kicking back to shore.

The least she can do, in their eyes, is find a copilot who can drift with her without collapsing with blood leaking from their goddamn eyes. Current record’s forty-four seconds of drifting with Jaylen; in the droves of pilots they’ve sent since Henderson’s failure, no one else has gotten close, and clearly they’re fucking desperate if they’re asking for Allie, who has never wanted to be a pilot, never trained to be one. Allie teaches music. Allie hangs around the mechbay because that’s where Jaylen is, most days, and he is the only one who treats Jaylen the same as he did before she was declared missing in action and presumed dead, the only one who hasn’t made a huge fucking deal out of her being dragged out of the breach with her eyes the color of kaiju blood, like something just as toxic was waiting inside her.

A part of Jaylen worries that drifting with Allie will change that. Jaylen is not a person prone to being honest, but she only lies to Allie in ways he’ll be able to detect; he rarely calls her bluff, but she knows he knows whenever she’s told him something untrue, and she knows he knows she has reasons for it. In this way, she’s more honest with him than she’s ever been with anyone else.

Drifting is a whole other level. She has walls built up she has no idea how to collapse; she isn’t even sure she’s the one who built them. Jaylen hasn’t exactly been gentle with the other pilots they send to drift with her, but she doesn’t know how much of what happens to them is in her control.

She worries, but distantly. It’s far enough back in her mind that, when the drift tech who’s name she’s already forgotten says “Jaylen? I suggested we bring — what’s his name, Abbott? To try drifting with you.” she nods, sharply, and turns on her heel to leave the room.

***

Three days later, Jaylen and Allie walk into the drift-sim chamber side by side.

It’s strange — she’s never actually come in at the same time as her prospective copilot before, never watched them strap into the helmet and connect the electric wires to their temple and pull the restraints over their arms and legs, just in case Jaylen sends them spasming to the hard metal floor. She’s never given a shit about who they are. The first few drifts, part of her was still too far gone to care what she was doing; the dozen or so following that, she’d learned to sink her expectations as low as they could possibly go. She’s learned to fight back the animal instinct to grin as blood-dripping drift partners are carried away on stretchers.

“You sure about this?” Allie says, turning his head to look at Jaylen. It’s clear in the way he moves that he isn’t trained for this; he doesn’t know what to do with the bulk of the suit, he shifts awkwardly to avoid running into the wires connecting him to the interface in front of them. “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”

Jaylen wants to laugh. Of course she has to. She bites back the sound, smiles at him in a way she hopes is comforting. Everything about her has been too sharp since she returned, but if anyone could see past that, it’s Allie. That’s half the problem — it feels, sometimes, like he’s already inside her brain, and she cannot imagine something more intimate than taking that to its more literal conclusion.

(Drifting with Mike had never been so terrifying. They were best friends before they were copilots; she’d dragged him into the jaeger program alongside her; he’d been by her side for all her worst moments already, and her his, so nothing they saw in the drift could surprise either of them.

Drifting with Allie should be easy, for the same reasons. But Allie was not there for Jaylen’s worst moment. Mike was, and now Mike is gone. Allie grieved somewhere on land, untouched by the category-three that had dragged Jaylen screaming into the Pacific Ocean.)

Jaylen talks less now; when she opens her mouth she feels like she should still be screaming to be heard over the wind and rain and ocean and roaring kaiju, even safe on solid ground as she is now. She forces her voice to be low and steady as she replies: “C’mon, Allie, don’t fuckin’ chicken out on me now.”

She knows that he knows that it’s more for herself than for him. If Allie wanted to stop, she wouldn’t blame him.

“I wouldn’t,” Allie says, genuine as ever.

“I’m not scared,” Jaylen says, feeling laid bare already as she pulls the helmet over her face, double-checks by rote that all the wires are in the correct places.

“I know.”

The voice of one of the techs crackles through the speakers in their helmets. Jaylen knows they’re standing on the other side of the two-way mirror outside the simulation chamber, watching to see if Allie will be the person who cracks down Jaylen’s defenses at long last, or if their last-ditch effort will be a total fucking disaster. “You guys ready?”

Jaylen nods. “Yes,” Allie says, like he’s sure of it.

“Initiating neural handshake in five, four, three, two —”

***

Jaylen has not successfully drifted with anyone since Mike.

It was almost a joke, with Mike — they would bitch at each other about whatever they’d caught floating off the other’s mind, act like they were psychic when really it was just ghost drift, fully scientific. Jaylen’d play her bass and Mike would pick up his guitar and they would be in perfect sync, even writing songs off the cuff; by the time she died, it felt like they were always drifting on some level, always a little bit in each other’s heads. That was fine with Jaylen. She’d trusted Mike with every stupid fucking thought she had, and he’d trusted her the same.

Part of Mike died with Jaylen. When she was thrown into the sea from a height that must have killed her on impact, she was still so intertwined with him that she couldn’t tell where she started and he ended; she couldn’t tell if she was screaming or if he was, or both. Mike would have far too much time to ponder the same question, and would die without an answer.

Part of Jaylen must have died with Mike, too. He’d brought her back, but not all of her, because he’d sacrificed himself in the process and even hardly-lucid as she was when her lifeboat sprung to the surface she’d felt him fall and fall until she could no longer feel anything, just a gaping emptiness.

Now, when she tries to drift, something breaks in her and the shattering echoes across the drift. Maybe Mike feels it, too, wherever he is, now.

***

“Neural handshake calibrating.”

Flashes of memory from Allie. Hanukkah with his dads growing up. The first time he wrote a song. Watching Trespasser land on TV, San Francisco, 2013; watching his dads discuss if they should flee Seattle, move inland, as far away from the Pacific as they could get. Meeting Jaylen. Mourning Jaylen.

It’s the furthest into a drift Jaylen has gotten since her return. It’s the most she’s let in from anyone else’s mind.

Jaylen’s funeral. Allie’s hands piling pebbles on Jaylen’s empty grave. Jaylen in the cockpit beside Mike. She can’t remember her jaeger’s name now, and isn’t that funny, the thing that killed her and the thing that brought her back and she can’t remember.

She can remember what it felt like to be inside it. The power. The ability to fight whatever storm came at them. Mike’s mind in her own. Her mind in Mike’s.

“Out of alignment. You’re both out of alignment.”

Jaylen ripped out of the jaeger by something unfathomably large. Never seen a kaiju from outside the jaeger before, not up close. Not a living one.

Jaylen thrown into the water, still conscious. Somehow. Jaylen underwater. Jaylen drowning for what felt like the entire six years she was gone.

“Jay?” Allie’s voice, distant. Right beside her. Unbelievably far away. Not there at all.

Jaylen dying. Jaylen gasping for breath —

“Shut it down,” she gasps. “I’m tapping out — stop the fucking drift, stop it.”

The connection between them severs, though the ghost of it remains; Allie’s concern, Allie’s fear, and worst of all, Allie’s love for her all sliding into her mind like a knife through the gaps in a ribcage. The hum of machines powering down around them overpowers the clattering of Jaylen’s helmet as she throws it off her head and onto the ground, the shattering of the glass in it; they’ll be angry with her for that, but she can’t bring herself to fucking care, not right now, not after dying again. Maybe not literally, but — does the distinction really fucking matter? Death twice feels the same as death once.

Allie is gentler with the equipment, coaxing the helmet off his head with one hand and reaching out to Jaylen with the other. She flinches away from the touch.

“We shouldn’t have done this,” she says. Her voice shakes and she hates it for doing so. She wants to scream; she wants to tear the shatterdome apart with her bare hands. She wants to be something huge and monstrous and capable of vast destruction, not a woman trapped in a body too small to hold everything swirling within her.

Maybe the rest of the pilots are right to fear her. Maybe death and undeath have changed her in some irrevocable way.

Right now, she doesn’t care.

“Jay?” Allie doesn’t reach out again, but she can feel how hard he’s clenching his fists to keep them by his side. He’s straining against the urge to take her into his arms and make promises he can’t keep, that everything will be fine, that nothing he saw changes how he feels, that they can try again if she wants.

Allie is physically fine. He lasted at least four times as long as the next-highest attempt, and his eyes are clear, and no blood drips from his nose. Jaylen did not hurt him, and some distant part of her is grateful for that, but it’s overpowered by the death lingering over her head, the way it felt to experience it again. The way it feels to know Allie was there with her.

Regret swirls deep in Jaylen’s stomach. She feels sick. “Don’t,” she says, even though he isn’t doing anything. “We’re not doing this again.”

She runs from the room as quickly as her trembling legs will carry her. Bares her teeth at the crowd of onlookers swarmed outside the door, waiting to see if Allie will be another to the line of copilots broken by Jaylen Hotdogfingers. As loudly as she can, she projects her thoughts to Allie through the ghost of their drift, already fading fast: Don’t follow me. Please.

Jaylen needs to be alone.

#catboydeicide #kaylee.fic #blaseball #jaylen hotdogfingers #allison abbott #allijay #pacific rim au #prompt fic

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