Post-Pitfall scraps

==Doctor Blockhead==
7 January 2025; Hong Kong, China; {by artificiallifecreator}; Min's been awake since before V-K-Day and Typhoon's conn pod has yet to be recovered, so quite a few weeks before 'Breaker'.) 
"Good morning, Doctor Gottlieb," greeted Min, "I have coffee and toast because I recommend avoiding the cafeteria. I also have some letters for you." 
"Good morning, Miss Yeung, that's very kind of you. Thank you." 
"Good morning Doctor Blockhea- Geiszler," continues Min, "I brought you toast." 
"Good morning, Tang Min- wait what?" 
Doctor Gottlieb rummages around his desk. 
"I'm very sorry, Doctor Block- Geiszler, I had a really weird dream last... whenever I slept last." 
"You had a dream about me?" 
"I had a dream about getting swallowed by a Kaiju, spat up beyond the Breach, and dying of malnutrition. You were peripherally involved." 
Doctor Blockhead sits on his desk. "How?" 
"I had to drag your sorry-," Min bites her tongue. "Sorry. I escorted you to Mr Chau." 
"You know that creep?" Doctor Blockhead's eyes light up. "No, your cousins do. The Tangs have a- a thing." He scrambles for a notebook. 
So many of Min's nerves had boottracks she didn't even know where to start. Except, of the three people in the Shatterdome privy to the PPDC-Chau-Tang mess, two stood within twenty feet of each other and the third was a stray collection of molecules floating around the bottom of the ocean. 
Doctor Gottlieb feels her glare, looks up, draws the correct conclusion that Min would need an awfully good reason not to make that 'one person in the Shatterdome', and taps his head. 
God. Damn. Drifting. 
Panic snuck in with the anger: The liability issues were spiralling out of control. 
"My cousin, Liu, humours Mr Chau, that is correct, however I know Liu through Mr Chau through my work as the Accounting department." 
"Since when do you work with Accounting? I thought you were a Quartermaster." 
"I took over Accounting in 2019, and I still am." 
"But you're delivering mail." 
"Yes." 
"And I send all my requisition forms through you." 
"Yes." 
"And you make little foam Kaiju." 
"Didn't have time today, but yes." 
"Is there anything you don't do?" 
"J-Tech and K-Sci, which if I recall correctly is what my brain helpfully used as a set up to the whole debacle." 
"So you Drifted with Meathead instead and Otachi came after you?" 
"Correct, however the Kaiju wasn't Otachi." 
"What did it look like?" 
"Large Category One or a small Category Two..." Min frowns, and recites "'built for speed, built to run'." 
"Dreams, right?" Doctor Blockhead grins, scribbling. 
"Yea, I remember hearing that... somewhere." 
"Any crests or anything?" 
"Primary eyes like Otachi." 
"Secondary eyes?" 
"I don't know, sorry." 
"Your brain cooked up a Kaiju of its own design! How could you not remember the details?" 
"I just watched myself get eaten, Doctor Blockhead," Min replies tightly. "Forgive me if I focused on that." 
"Aha!" Hermann strides over to Min and- 
"Ow!" 
"My apologies, Miss Yeung. As K-Sci J Tech Chief, I would like to put forth a motion for 'Blockhead' to become, Doctor Geiszler, your official name." 
Min rubs the meat around her lapel. 
"As K-Sci J-Tech Assistant Chief, you may vote if you so desire," explains Doctor Gottlieb. 
"As K-Sci J-Tech Assistant Chief, I second the motion." 
"Hey-!" 
"The majority has voted, motion passed. K-Sci J-Tech Assistant Chief Yeung, you may return to your duties. Doctor Blockhead, lab meeting in twenty minutes." 
"Good day, Doctor Gottlieb," Min bows. "Doctor Blockhead," She nods in his direction, and steps from the lab. 
.
Min returns to her quarters, kicks off her shoes, and flops onto her bed. 
«I didn't get to properly tell Doctor Block- Geiszler- Arg!» She rubs her face. «I did not have the chance to fully explain to that stupid biology guy how much of a stupid idiot he is,» she tells the Crimson Typhoon plush. «I'm still really pissed off over that dream and it's still making me feel really awful and,» she pokes the plushie's chest, «I really want to take it out on him because he was so stupid! Ack!» 
Min presses her palms into her eyes. 
«You're right,» she says finally, «It's probably the lack of sleep. I should sleep.» 
Min closes her eyes. 
Cold. 
Hello? Are you still there? 
Battering tugging 
Larger than a Category One but Smaller than a Category Two grinning red dripping from its jaws little bits of triplet smeared 
«Okay!» She rolls out of bed. «That's enough of that. Time for mail!» 
Min pulls on her shoes and kisses the plush's head. 
«Be good while I'm gone.» 
Min's halfway down the hall before she realizes she'd just had a full conversation with an inanimate object.
==Squishy==
9 January 2025; Hong Kong, China
(January 9th, 2025. Four days without proper sleep!)
"Oooo Squish-y!!"
Min paused in mid-shoe tie and looked around. 
"Over here!" 
Nothing in her room had anything even remotely resembling a mouth...
"Yes, me! Crimson Typhoon!"
...except the plush on her bed. 
"That would be me, yes, I am talking to you."
"A plushie is talking to me."
"You bet!"
Min really needed to sleep. 
"You're gonna be fine." 
But if she did, she would dream of Kaiju and dead triplets and oh so alone...
"I promise, my Squishy." 
Or she could numb her brain with piles of mail. 
A much better idea. 
"I'm going to, uh, leave now before the, um, funny farm, comes to collect me," she said. 
"Okay, Squishy, I love you."
"That's nice," replied Min, backing slowly towards the door. "I love you too." 
"Have a great day, Squishy!"
Min waved a bit, slipped out the door, and sprinted down the hall. 
She returned to her room.
"I feel really guilty. Wanna come with me?" she asked. 
"That would be awesome!"
Min tucked the plush under her arm and they headed off.
==Wake==
14 January 2025; Hong Kong, China
Cold.
Cold and wet and battering.
“Hello? Are you still there?”
Cold and wet and dark and oh so lonely...
Cold and dark and dark and dark-
"Dilegua, o notte! Tramontate, stelle! Tramontate, stelle! All'alba-!"
Min reached out and found her phone.
She cracked open a bleary eye. 
10 am. 
Right. 
Night shift.
Meeting with Marshall Hansen. 
Another night plagued by dreams that left her sickly empty and dead inside.
Another morning waking up exhausted. 
And a meeting with Marshall Hansen. 
Min dropped her face to her pillow and instantly regretted it. 
Fourth trip to Laundry in as many days. 
She dragged herself out of bed. 
A little voice cheered. She deserved a medal, 100%! 
Min didn't acknowledge it. 
The other bed stirred. 
“Morning,” she grunted. 
“Morning,” Cheung grumbled. 
Hu mumbled something and flipped over. 
Jin yawned and wiggled closer to Cheung. 
“Meeting,” croaked Min, “go back to sleep.” 
Cheung nodded and pulled the blanket over his head.
==Cyanide==
February 2025 >link to Athene<
The next day, Mǐn strode into the lab and plunked a coffee on a cardboard box. 
Newt totally didn't notice, so engrossed was he in his book. 
Mǐn sat down on the floor behind the box and rested her chin on her folded arms. 
Newt squinted at something on the page and mouthed whatever he was trying to decipher (something about brains and men in tights). 
Resting her eyes, Mǐn took a deep breath, holding it for five swells in a distant cacophony and 18 heartbeats. 
"Aha! Meningitis in the brain. Damn my writing was crap." Newt laughed and shook his head. 
Mǐn returned to a blaze of fluorescence and a wave of ammonia-musty-paper-chalk. 
Newt absently tucked his foot closer. 
She gave him a minute. 
Still reading. 
Mǐn sat up straight. “Heard you took the long way yesterday.” 
Newt shrieked and fell backwards. 
"How did you know?!" 
Mǐn raised an eyebrow. 
"Right. Dumb question." 
Mǐn pushed the take-away cup towards him but... 
"Of course I'm not mad. Besides, Liu took the cyanide away. Don't worry." 
"You were actually going to go through with that?!" 
Mǐn worried the end of an apron string. “He kinda made me give it back. Couldn't really make those UN idiots sick if they were in Geneva and I was here now could I? 
"Were you always this terrifying or is this new?" 
"My closest family is dead and my life is falling apart." Mǐn pressed her hands flat to the box. "I think it's stress. I hope it's stress." The ribbon became an accordion of triangles. "Otherwise, I may be going insane." She stood, smoothing the creases from the happy dragon and the big blue- 
Newt quailed, and she totally knew why. 
"I might have time to attempt another Karloff tomorrow, and if you're wondering why it's chilly, I'd put money on this being the draftier part of the lab." 
"Right, nothing to do with sympathetic nerve responses." 
Mǐn smiled. “Nothing at all.” She bowed. “Have a nice day Doctor Geiszler.” 
Newt waved back warily. 
==Surprise Party==
February 2025 >find the meta about the book<
"Doctor Gottlieb Doctor Gottlieb!" 
Hermann stops and turns as two young people trip over themselves skidding to a halt. 
"This is for you," pants Setsuko, thrusting an envelop into the bubble between them. 
"Suprise party for Tang Min," adds Long. "Not 'suprise' like 'Surpise!' 'cause she'd probably kill us all- 
Remember Tang Hu's face after the Kaidanovsky incident?"
"Which one?"
"The one were he was all-," Long mimes tip-toeing. "And then he goes 'boo!' and Lieutenant 
Kaidanovsky was all 'Ah!' and whacks him- goes flying, twenty feet, easy, plows into a wall..."
"Oh yea, we called that the 'bug hitting a windshield' incident."
"Why?" 
"Cause he looked like a bug that'd hit a windshield. Were you there for that?" she asks Hermann. 
"I don't think you were there for that."
"Anyway, that happened, jump scares are a really, really bad idea."
"But birthday parties!" grins Long. "Great idea!"
"Yea, first birthday with everything back to normal." She takes a deep breath. "How're we doing?" 
Long frowns at his watch. "Hmm, a month and a half."
"Okay. Halfway there. 'Nother month, we'll have a Tibetan funeral- is it Tibetan?"
Long shrugs.
Setsuko rolls her eyes. "Next month, we'll have another ceremony and we'll either laugh or we'll cry."
"Why, exactly, would you laugh?"
Long and Setsuko exchange looks. 
"Um..."
"You don't know?"
"Apparently I don't."
"You should probably talk to Tang Min about that," Setsuko says finally. 
"We gotta go," Long apologies, tugging on Setsuko's sleeve and turning to leave. "People to see, 
invitations to give out, that kinda thing."
"Yes, we must be off. Good bye Doctor Gottlieb." Setsuko snaps a bow - as does Long belatedly - and they both flee down the hall.
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Category:Scraps
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Category:Operation Pitfall (mention)
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