driftfleet | Soooo, where are the space monsters?

Who: Newt & You!
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: Marsiva
When: RIGHT NOW.

[ Awareness comes with a jerky start, Newt flinging himself upright with a very undignified noise. He brings his hands up to his face, trying to physically scrub awareness into his head. He's very much not a morning person. ~~Though what can really be considered morning anymore? It's all just 'waking up after sleep'.~~ He's not sure what it is exactly, but he slides his fingers open to venture a look around.

Color him surprised that he's not only not in his cluttered and tiny quarters, but he's also not on the ratty and very much used sofa thrown in the only amnesty space in his shared lab with Hermann. In fact, his surroundings aren't familiar in the least. It's been a long time since he's been able to admit that he's woken up in some place unfamiliar. Throwing his legs over the side of the cot, he jostles the communicator he hasn't discovered until now.

There is a collection of loud noises being broadcast as he shuffles around, drops the communicator on the ground, and picks it up again. Somehow, it's still broadcasting as audio.. Newt favors a look around, green eyes looking for one particular thing to focus on, though seemingly having trouble. That is until--]

Heilige Scheiße!!

[ The broadcast finally switches over to video as Newt all but runs to the observation deck, mouth agape and eyes absolutely sparkling. He's living the anime dream.

Curling his hand into a fist, he raps his knuckles on the window and decides this is very much real, though he still can't wrap his mind around it. Giant monsters invading earth through a rift in the middle of the ocean? Sure. Just-as giant robots in order to fight the giant monsters invading earth through a right in the middle of the ocean? Absolutely.
But space? Being in freaking space? He can't deal with the boyish glee and he lets out a whooping holler, punching the air like he's ten years old. ]

Hey, Hermann!! You've got to check this ou-- ….right. Uh. Herm? You there, dude? Or am I just.. talking to myself again? Please let there be Kaiju...

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Oh yeah? When did you get here- and from where?

[ Strap yourself in, Peggy. He's got loads of questions. ]

A little over a month ago. [ she obliges -- patiently. ] And from New York. [ ... ] Earth.

I went to New York a few times! Of course, that was way back in college, so it's been a hot second. Really glad to hear 'Earth', though. At least I have some sort of comparison.

Stationed in Hong Kong right now. Well. Before being spacenapped.

Hong Kong. [ she's never got quite that far -- not for lack of interest, but the war had hotted up in different places. for her. but she keeps those details close to her chest. ] Quite a difference, regardless: Hong Kong or New York or the bloody Berkshires. It all pales in comparison to...

[ she sucks in a slow breath. ] All of this.

It's kind of amazing though, isn't it? Space travel just holds a lot of answers that we still really don't have the questions for. Mainly 'what's out there?'

[ There is only a brief second of pause before his tone gets a little more upbeat. ]

I mean, isn't it awesome? You're literally surrounded on all sides by stars- and some of them could have died a hundred years ago and we're still seeing some sort of echo.

Oh, the thought is beautiful. Achingly so. [ that much can't be denied. ] But the reality comes with a certain existential terror, don't you think?

[ dramatic, maybe. but she doesn't speak what she feels. better to feed the stranger a line and measure his reaction. ]

Lady, if you haven't had more than a handful of existential crises by now, you're not living life to it's full potential. I mean, the thrill of human existence is that we're super fragile. Taking scary steps is the fun part, even if it's terrifying.

[ she prefers the solid -- the certain -- and the weight of her right hook against an enemy's jaw. spycraft might be her calling, but it was always tangible work. existentialism doesn't mesh well, and yet...

and yet she can't betray that discomfort too deeply. so she smiles, and plays it pleasant. ] Taken many of those scary steps yourself, have you?

More recently, kind of, yeah. Of course, there's the very real 'life or death' situation pretty much for the entire world. It's an uphill battle from here. If it even works.

[ Newt doesn't really get the luxury or the satisfaction of being able to punch a kaiju in the face; that's not his calling. Understanding them and explaining their behavior and schematics in a way that makes others understand was more his thing. Gotta know the enemy in order to beat them.

Although, they were never really his enemy. ]

-- Life or death?

Long story short, these giant monsters emerge from a portal from beneath the ocean and demolish our oceanside cities. We built giant monster-fighting robots to battle them, but fights are always a toss-up.

[ ... ]

Bloody hell.

Yeah, it's pretty much been our history for twelve years or so. We're sort of at the end-all-be-all of the situation right now. See, we categorize the kaiju on the Serizawa Scale. It measures the water displacement, toxicity levels, and ambient radioactivity as they pass through the Breach.

That way, we can figure out what Category to put them in so we can react accordingly. We even have a special team of pilots. They work in teams in Jaegers to fight them. But that's a different story for another time. Definitely over coffee and snacks if they're around.

Monsters so frequent and regular that they require a damned scale to measure them. [ like earthquakes. like storms. it creases her forehead. ] I'm sorry, it sounds challenging.

They didn't happen so much when they first started coming through, but lately they have been. I'm sure we'll figure it out. Our pilots are top-notch, and my partner and I are geniuses.

[ He grins. ]

Your partner--? In what field do you work?

We both work for the Pan Pacific Defense Corps. He and I make up the science division. He's mathematics, I'm biology.

Pan Pacific Defense Corps. Sounds quite...multilateral.

Yeah, we've got people from all over. We have half a dozen Jeager teams! China, Russia, Australia, America; all over, really. Fighting the Kaiju is a global problem. After the first couple of attacks, everyone pooled their resources together.

-- America and Russia. Allied with one another?

I know, crazy, isn't it? But the two Jaeger pilots- the Kaidonovsky's - are pretty terrifying, but awesome. Aleksis is one of those 'big, squishy, and slightly scary Russian bear' types. His wife Sasha is kind of scary, too.

But I guess that's a Russian thing? Anyway! Before they were pilots, I heard that they were prison guards, though nobody knows where.

[ Peggy, please stop him. ]

[ alas, peggy can imagine a few options. unless, of course, russian prisons have changed terribly over the decades. but her quiet bias believes not. ]

Brothers? Piloting together? How storybook of them.

Soooo, where are the space monsters?

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