shortcrust · 4 years ago
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Audio transcript of appointment between Lt. Ranger John Lawrence (ID J-JLAW_122.21-C) and Dr. Cai Qiu Yue (ID C-CQIU_824.65-D)
PPDC Mandated Counseling, Session #84 1601 HKT, December 19 2024 
CQY: So, Johnny. How did the sparring session go?
JL: Don’t give me that look.
CQY: What look? This is just my face.
JL: You know about LaRusso.
CQY: I don’t know anything which you haven’t chosen to tell me for certain. But I’m sure you’re aware of how Shatterdome walls like to talk.
JL: [inaudible]
CQY: This is still easier if you speak to me, not to your hands.
JL: I said I can’t believe it. 
CQY: How are you feeling?
JL: Don’t know. 
CQY: Okay. Let’s set some parameters.
JL: You love those.
CQY: Sure do. Should have been in K-Science. [pause] Alright. Wikipedia’s entry on Ranger LaRusso states the following; ‘Daniel LaRusso is an American pilot with the Pan Pacific Defence Corps. LaRusso helmed the Japanese jaeger Perfect Balance alongside Nariyoshi Miyagi until the latter’s death in 2020. His exit from active service removed the last of the Mark 1 jaegers from operation’. Would you say that is accurate?
JL: No.
CQY: How so?
JL: He didn’t ‘exit service’. He pussied out. 
CQY: He experienced an incredibly traumatic event. I would have thought that, of all people, you might have some understanding for how that must have felt.
JL: I didn’t take all the glory then quit when the going got rough.
CQY: No. And I would encourage you to feel sympathy about that, the next time you have dinner with Marshal Brown.
JL: [pause] Point taken.
CQY: Can you describe what happened for me? Today?
JL: He was on the mat with Miguel. He’d already been through most of the trainees and they were - fine, my kids are good, they’re great. But that wasn’t it; it just wasn’t lookin’ right. None of them were doing it wrong but I could just see how LaRusso wasn’t getting into it, was missing all these openings. It pissed me off. 
CQY: Because….
JL: Because he’s a good fighter! He should have been better than that. Like, how the hell am I meant find him a co-pilot if he won’t try.
CQY: Did you?
JL: Try, or find him a co-pilot?
CQY: Take your pick.
JL: Back when me and Bobby were in Cobra, it wasn’t - it was like we anticipated each other’s moves, you know? I could just guess what he was going to do next. With LaRusso it was more like I already knew. Like it was he was already in my head, and he’d read and practiced some kinda instructions written on the inside of my skull. He knew like I did. Like some other part of me.
CQY: And yet you don’t like him.
JL: Absolute shit for brains. [pause] Wait.
CQY: Perhaps not the best insult under the circumstances. Are you apprehensive about the drift?
JL: Not my first rodeo. 
CQY: I imagine Ranger LaRusso feels similarly.
JL: What, you talk to him too?
CQY: You have to know by now that I can’t tell you that.
JL: Yeah, y-
CQY: But no, I don’t. Have your seen your new jaeger?
JL: Hah, ‘new’. She’s a refurb.
CQY: Aren’t we all?
JL: I wish. 
CQY: What do you think?
JL: I think she’s gorgeous. I think she’s one of the most beautiful machines that man has ever made, and I can’t wait to die in her.
CQY: I see.
JL: Isn’t this where you usually tell me to be more optimistic?
CQY: John, the last time we spoke you were a highly specialised gym instructor. Now you’re suiting up to drive a 8,000 tonne robot for the first time in over a decade. There is no ‘usually’ here, and I’m not in the habit of lying to you.
JL: You know they’re not technically robots, right?
CQY: Yes. Don’t think I don’t notice you attempting to distract me, but yes. I do know that. 
JL: They’re letting me name her.
CQY: Oh?
JL: Don’t tell anyone, in case it gets back to LaRusso. Don’t want him to give me some pretentious sh- stuff. But I’m thinking Eagle Fang.
CQY: Eagle… Fang?
JL: Yeah. Like it?
CQY: I think it’s more important that you do. On different note; how is Robby?
JL: Still won’t speak to me. Still not speaking to me from the middle of the continent, though, so I’m taking the win.
CQY: Did you reach out to him like we talked about last week? Have you told him about your change in circumstances?
JL: He’s the one looking at the numbers. He’s a smart kid, he knows. 
CQY: And Cadet Diaz? Have you told him?
JL: Oh, come on. He definitely knows. Have you looked out the fucking window recently?
CQY: John.
JL: Sorry. [pause] Yue, I can either keep the kids safe by putting them as far away from the action as possible, or by teaching them how to fight. Call it playing the odds. Not that mine have never been all that great.
CQY: I understand that you still aren’t open to discussing the situation with Sergeant Diaz -
JL:  [crosstalk] You’re goddamn right I’m not.
CQY: [crosstalk] But I feel obliged to state for the record that what happened is in no way your fault. She was an exceedingly competent pilot who knew the risks she was taking, same as you. 
JL: Yeah sure, I knew the risks. Still ended up putting her in a fucking wheelchair. [pause] Sorry. 
CQY: I’ll let the ’goddamn’ slide. Call it an early Christmas present. [pause] John, I understand that for how closely you have been involved with the training and co-ordinating the jaeger program these last few years, there is a world of difference between teaching and doing. I would just like you to be able to feel whatever it is you need to feel about that.
JL: Well, doc, that was as delightful as ever. Same time next week?
CQY: Holidays.
JL: Oh, right. Hey, think they’ll still be paying us in January?
CQY: I’ve been stealing the cutlery from the canteen for years. If I pawn it I can probably keep us going for ano- [alarm siren begins sounding, recording ends abruptly]
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