Blocking

The Kaiju use building blocks. 
==Blocks==
Please see "Blocks"
==Blocks II==
Newt wakes up. 
Hermann wakes up. 
“Newton, what’s wrong?”
“Hermann, what are the chances I’m responsible for killing them?”
“Who?”
“The Rangers--the Kaidanovksys and the Weis and Chuck--he was just a kid--and Marshal Pentecost?”
"I ..." Hermann gets yanked back to ... "They Will Stay and We Will Go" (damn that's good). "What do you want me to say?"
"I don't know." 
"You know what I can't say."
Newt nods, slowly. He shivers.
"What do we know?" [Marshal, there are two Kaiju coming through the Breach] (line from novelization).
[Hermann is a creature of logic and knows Newt will appreciate the familiarity. He also recognizes the thought trap so he and Newt take turns listing facts such that Newt has the tools to get himself out of the thought trap if and when if occurs in the future (the Kaiju had nigh-limitless technology, Newt worked on Cherno and Striker's upgrades, etc). Each time Hermann lists a fact, a novelization paraphrase that mirrors that fact occurs in a flashback. Finally, Hermann says, "I insisted the Marshal abandon Hong Kong."]
===OVA===
"We all took our chances. Some of us died, while others survived. 
"Whatever your motivations, your actions were key to closing the Breach.
"My plan would've failed and we would be dead, along with the six billion people on the planet."
Hermann fills his lungs with a shaky breath. "I've keep it from you, but I recommended the Marshal abandon the defense of Hong Kong. I told him to leave the kaiju to the Chinese air force. I told him to let you--and thousands of others--die for a plan which would have
accomplished nothing and handed the planet to the Kaiju. I have to live with that knowledge for the rest of my life.
"That did not happen because you, correctly, ignored me and because the Marshal listened to the Rangers instead of my worthless predictions. You and he were right and I was utterly wrong."
Hermann fiercely wipes away forming tears and dries his hand against his bad knee. "We make our choices and we must live with them. Asking 'what if' is nothing but a way to drive yourself mad. We-=you--I'll never know for certain."
Newt sounds tiny. "There's no out. We just have to live with it."
Hermann nods. "We must continue as best we can," he traces the scar on the inside of his arm, "carrying our dead with us."
~~Goals~~
1. Hermann provides what little comfort to Newt he can in this situation.
2. Hermann exorcises a little of the guilt he feels over the way
Pitfall went down
3. Hermann shows Newt he's not alone in facing a host of 'what if's
from the last days of war
4. Hermann offers Newt a chance/excuse to reject him (something he
will do regularly from AN 27 out)
5. Echo Raleigh's comments to Mako about making decisions in combat
===Novelization===
(Chapter 21)
“Both Category IVs,” Tendo said. He brought up visual approximations of the two kaiju based on their signatures from the deep ocean. One appeared blocky and round in profile, with a surface density reading suggesting a heavy carapace. The other was all jagged angles and claws, with a long spiked tail. “Codenames: Otachi and Leatherback. They’ll reach Hong Kong within the hour.”
...
“Sir,” Gottlieb said, stepping into the pause. “You have to hold off. My parabola was right. We may lose a city, but we must preserve the Jaegers for the mission. We need to hold ground.”
That was the problem, wasn’t it? They were going to need all the Jaegers they had for Operation Pitfall. The kaiju kept getting stronger and recent engagements were costing more and more Jaegers. They’d lost eight in 2024, and only taken out fourteen kaiju. The trend was not good.
On the other hand, could Pentecost stand by and watch kaiju destroy Hong Kong while they finished their preparations for the operation? Tendo was glad it wasn’t his decision to make.
“Hey,” Herc said. “It’s a city of ten million people against numbers on your chalkboard.”
“My numbers are correct,” Gottlieb said stiffly. “A city of ten million or the world? We cannot save everyone. If we do not have the Jaegers to deliver the bomb, protecting one city will not matter.”
There was a pause. Tendo saw Raleigh looking at Pentecost, who was refusing to look back at him. But Tendo remembered another version of this conversation, albeit on a smaller scale, five years ago off the coast of Alaska, and he could tell both Raleigh and Pentecost remembered it, too. What was the name of that boat?
“You can’t save everyone,” Raleigh said. “Right?”
Pentecost said nothing. Tendo saw the weariness in him, and wondered again just how ill he really was.
“Sir,” he prompted. They needed to decide. “Do you want to deploy?”
Another long moment went by. Then Pentecost turned to the seven pilots who weren’t Raleigh and Mako.
==Subconscious==
Newt wakes up to an M C Esher painting on acid. He pushed himself up to sitting--
Tap tap tap of small feet in cloth shoes.
"Gotta love the architecture of this place." 
--and gives up, groaning, "Not you again."
Tang Min grins with far too many teeth. "These little chats are just so fascinating, aren't they?"
"Not really," Newt grumbles. 
"Oh, don't be like that!" 
"I feel awful. I have no idea how to not feel awful and it sucks and I hate it and I really wish you didn't do this to me."
Tang Min gives him a Look. 
"I kinda don't want to think about why my subconscious picked a twenty six-year-old girl because where I come from that's a little creepy sooo ... as far as I'm concerned I'm just having a screaming match with a kid." 
"Like the arguments of old with Herms?"
"You don't get to call him that."
Tang Min visibly counts to ten. She takes a deep breath and asks, "How'd he feel?"
"I think Herms was doing that thing where it's like 'I will be vulnerable too so you feel less threatened' or something."
"That's it?"
"What's wrong with that?"
"Seriously dude, Herms was feeling sooo bad. The guilt! The pain! Man-o-man, he must've aged five years during that conversation."
Category:Ficlet
Category:Scraps
Category:Hermann
Category:Hermann (ficlet)
Category:Work in Progress
Category:Newt
Category:Newt (ficlet)
Category:Tang Min
Category:Tang Min (ficlet)
Category:Battle of Victoria Harbour (mention)
Category:Operation Pitfall (mention)
Category:Team Cherno Alpha (mention)
Category:Team Crimson Typhoon (mention)
Category:Chuck H (mention)
Category:Pentecost (mention)
Category:Blocked