Shatterbucks scraps

==Gimme==
13:21 July 9 2014
July09
Chest plate
Lower back plate
"Cute PJs," Daiyu added.
Min glanced down - her right eye meandered off to the side - "Apparently pink is supposed to be 'calming'."
"You know you have to tell me if there was sabotage or the deal's off, correct?"
"Yes."
"Was there sabotage?"
"No."
"Could a 20 year old human inflict this kind of damage on her own?"
"No."
"If you didn't do this to Typhoon, did Typhoon do this to you?"
"That's classified."
"Miss Yeung--"
"I can't tell you because I don't know what you'll do with the information."
"You're going with that."
"It's not - it's very, very bad. I don't even know what's going on; they're telling me I fell down the cafeteria stairs with 8 cups of coffee."
{"I can't tell you because I don't know."
"This is just a coincidence."
"Apparently I fell down the cafeteria stairs with 8 cups of coffee."}
["I can't tell you because I don't know what you'll do with the information."
"Even if I already know?"
"Apparently I fell down the cafeteria stairs with 8 cups of coffee."
"If you stick to that reason you'll never have a proper conversation again in your life."
"I have a friend ....]
.
"Does Wei know?"
"About what?"
"That you were attacked?"
Min's pupils shot open, her teeth clenched, her pulse picked up, and then she smiled wryly. "Thought it best to solve the problem first. Triplets agreed."
.
Why couldn't hospital gowns still be off-white and boring instead of baby pink with ducklings?
.
July08
The high lasted another seven minutes and Min blinked rapidly at Daiyu with a slight frown.
"Numbers," said Daiyu, and handed back Min's tablet.
Min's eyes widened and her chin bobbed. "Numbers," she agreed and took the tablet.
"Is there a repair estimate for Typhoon yet?" asked Daiyu.
Right hand (1)
Right hand (2)
Right (1) bicep plate
"Probably an arm and a leg," replied Min. "Convenient how there happens to be a set of the Kaiju variety lying about."
"Very," said Daiyu.
.
July07
Daiyu handed her a disk and Dr Lightcap absently put it in her mouth.
"Oh my god," she said and dropped into a chair, "oh my god, is this real chocolate?"
"From Belgium," said Daiyu.
"Oh my god, I haven't had real chocolate for years!"
.
Min blinked back from oblivion 7 minutes later.
.
July06
When Diayu walked into Medical, Setsuko went from anxious to relieved and leapt to her feet.
"Thank goodness you're here," she said. "Tang Min's not saying anything but I can tell her patience is starting to go. Right this way please."
When Daiyu stepped by Setsuko into the recovery room, Min lit up like a noon day sun after a raging thunderstorm.
No one had ever looked at Daiyu like that before.
"I have something for you," she said.
"Numbers? Yes, of course, that's why you're here, can we start? Please?"
Daiyu found it startling and commendable, the difference between content, home-turf Mimi and professional, 'I'm an adult' Tang Min.
Daiyu pulled a small box from a pocket and held it out.
Except Min had the dexterity of an infant and her nose scrunched up, her cheek darkened, and her forehead wrinkled.
"How many drugs are you on?" Daiyu asked, taking back the tin.
"hardly any, actually, which is the frustrating part; I'm not- nothing hurts and I feel fine except," Min rocked her arm, "These keep leaking."
Daiyu could get in serious, major, finger-losing trouble for what she was about to do but...
"Close your eyes and stick out your tongue."
Min did (without question! What kind of- Daiyu shut down that thought).
She flipped a tiny, brown disk onto Min's tongue and poked her nose.
So maybe Daiyu /occasionally/ abused Min's trust.
Min made a tiny sound, slumped against the pillow, and tried to put her hand to her mouth.
She'd seen the surveillance footage, of course, seen Min laugh milkshake up her nose, bawl her eyes out when the hero died in movies, playful annoyance when some combination of triplets woke her up, but seeing the tension lines melt away from Min's eyes and mouth, watching her eyebrows float back to their normal shape from something /she/'d done...
Min squeaked.
"Che," Daiyu tapped the underside of Min's chin. "Don't try talking. I'll load the data for now."
Doctor Lightcap came in about an hour later and nodded to Daiyu. She pulled out a thick sheet of EEG plastic from the headboard and wordlessly held out her hand without looking from the data.
Min's bottom lip slid out, her eyes grew wide, and her TKT hung low on her neck.
"Please do." "I don't want to get in trouble." "She intruding upon /our/ secret!"
Daiyu would close the Breach with nothing but rainbows and butterflies.
==Move this Boat==
(typed up June19/2014 but only my notebook knows when I wrote it)
One could divide the people of Hong Kong, or any city, it two: those that traveled during rush hour, and those that didn’t.
To say the census people were surprised would be an understatement, when the results of the “Should the ship blocking an intersection downtown be removed?” could not be divided along similar lines. 
“Some people want to keep it there as a monument, apparently,” said Rang- Marshall Hansen. “But it’s unsafe and leaking oil, so the city would like us to move it to a dry dock while they decide what to do.”
“How are we going to do that?” asked Officer Choi.
“It is pretty much the most awesome leftover ever,” said Jin. Min started working out logistics in her notebook. “They haven’t a clue,” said Marshall Hansen, “So they said since we were responsible for putting it there, we should be the ones to move it.”
Everyone looked at Mako.
“I will admit, Gipsy Danger had a thing for ships,” said Raleigh.“But Gipsy Danger’s no longer here, and we don’t have another way to move it.”
“Crimson Typhoon’s a couple days from ready.”
“But Hu can’t put on a circuitry suit, let along armour,” said Cheung, “And my hand’s still busted.”
“Which is why we’re switching things up,” said Marshall Hansen. Cheung, you’ll jockey left. Jin, take gunner. Tang Min, you’ll be on the right.”“Thank you very much sir, but I have a million-,”“That’s why I said we’re ‘switching’ things,” said Marshall Hansen. “Hu’ll do your jobs.”“With respect sir, they require different skill sets.”“Mr Chau’s agreed to send over one of his people to help.”“I don’t think I can move a ship.”Marshall Hansen sighed. “Everyone who’s not a Tang, you’re dismissed.”Officer Choi and Rangers Mori and Becket left the office. “Tang Min,” began Marshall Hansen, “I think you can do anything you put your mind to.”“I’m not getting out of ordering a new kit, am I?”“Cheung nudge her with his knee. “It’s cheaper this time ‘cause we’re buying in ‘bulk’.” He made air quotes. “Ours were shredded taking the armour off.”
==Inventory==
Min's somewhat butchered attempt to explain how the vowel inventories of Russian, Korean, and Cantonese merged comes to an abrupt halt.
"Miss Yeung?" Hermann prompts.
"One sec." She digs a smartphone from her back pocket and deflates. "I'm so sorry, he's going to keep calling unless I answer."
"Go ahead."
Min touches her earpiece - "It's new!" she mouths, eyes shinning with excitement - "Mr Chau," she says, far, far too sweetly, "I am not just a liason with the PPDC. I have a number of other responsibilities, and I can't just drop everything to take your call. While I appreciate the trip to the Dominican Republic and for keeping Liu and... Liu's stuff together - and I really do - I am not grateful for my phone constantly going off when I'm working."
Mr Chau, apparently, either has a copy of Min's schedule or contacts within the Shatterdome.
"I am working, Mr Chau, I'm having a conversation with a PPDC employee as mandated by my role as morale officer. Why do you think they kept me on 'latte artist' for so long?"
Hermann chokes to death as quietly as he could.
"A shoe? You've been calling me for ten minutes over a /shoe?"
Hermann returns to choking to death/tries really hard not to snicker at her tone.
"What are you- Dr Geiszler? He left, like, four days ago."
Hermann really wanted to ask why Newt had come up in conversation but didn't want to be rude.
"I don't know, I wasn't looking for it. 'Stand out', right, that's cute, you really underestimate the clutter in there. No! No, that's fine- Of course I don't have a ride home, I haven't moved out yet and I'm not going to walk, I've made arrangements." Pause. "I don't need any help, I can quite literally roll out of bed tomorrow, strip the sheets, and be ready, but thank you and please be sure to tell your people when you loan them out like that because the last time they showed up and I didn't know they were showing up and no one knew what was going on--it was just really awkward." She says to Hermann, "Can you give me a minute?"
"You can have," and he glances at his watch, "slightly less than an hour if you so need it."
"Heaven help me, I hope not." She stepped quickly out of (what she thought was) earshot. "Listen, I have two parents, more aunts and uncles than I can count, and three godparents. I do not need a fourth. I don't know why Liu did what he did - I don't even know how - and I'm almost 27 years old. I do not want your help, nor do I need it. If you would kindly leave me alone, Setsuko can find an apartment, she, Liong, and I can finish growing up, and we can all go back to our lives pre-Kaiju. Simple as that." Min started on her way back. "As for your shoe, Dr Geiszler's lab partner's still here and I'll ask him." She covered her ear. "Have you seen a really tacky shoe?"
"I haven't, and anything Newton didn't know what to do with he put in a box and sent down to Requisitions."
Min sighs. "Damn, that means I have it." She drops her hand. "I'll look around tonight and I'll just bring it with me if I find it, ok? Have a nice day." She hung up. "Well, that was the most aggravating conversations of my life."
==Library==
Late one night, crowded around a library computer, Hu—
Jin points, "What's that—Cheung, click—lemme—"
Cheung slaps away his hand. "The programme doesn't open for walk on candidates until June." 
"So we wait," says Hu, "or we get a sponsor." 
Cheung clicks the link. 
"Which would get us out of here by May." 
They sigh. 
Jin says, "D'you think the new guy—"
"Chau?" Cheung snorts. "Yea, right."
"He's new, he may not know how good we are." 
Hu says, "If he doesn't, he has no reason to send us off. If he does, he's not giving up the ring's top three earners."
"Maybe for training?" 
"If he'll fall for it." 
They glower at the screen. 
The librarian says, "We're closing up—"
Cheung shuts the window. 
"You three have somewhere to stay tonight?" 
"Yep!" says Jin. "Thanks!" 
"Stay safe."
==Ancient==
A few hours later, Tang Min fumbles off her phone's 3:45 alarm, rolls out of bed, and head's to the washroom with her day clothes. A scalding hot shower later, she feels mildly more alive, and she returns to her room, grabs her work bag, and heads out, offering a quick wave to the small name tree of ancestors, dead grandparents and relatives, and the three missing cousins. She shuffles on her work shoes, lets herself out of her and her parents' appartment, and nearly bowls over her best friend. 
Siqi stuffs a garment bag into her arms. 
"For me?" 
Something very old, very new, but somehow timeless looks back out at Min. 
She swallows. "Thank you." 
Siqi's head lowers, then rises. 
"Can you get back?" 
The muscles of Siqi's face twitch; one side of her mouth turns up in a smile and then the other joins. 
Min nods, relieved—no one needs another wild Siqi hunt—
Her 4:05 alarm chimes. 
"Shoot! I gotta go—" Runs to the elevator—bows deeply. "Thanks again!" Hits the button. 
Siqi's arm lifts, her elbow and wrist bend, her fingers curl joint-by-joint but in the wrong order, her hand rocks back and forth. 
The lift arrives.
Min waves back, steps in, and bolts for the train the minute she hits the ground floor, and lo! her train's running late!
==Gallery==
A few thousand kilometers away, Charlie Darling sits on a hard museum bench in a gallery—/her gallery—duffel at her feet, half listening to a nearby tour guide. 
""This next display was compiled from photos donated by a kind—""
Shoulders square and eyes hard behind her very obvious headphones, some white girl's still wandering over. 
""And here is our very own Novoa Lisa—""
""She looks like the model!""
White girl says, "You do, too." "Look like—" Tilts her head. "—her, I mean." 
Exactly why I got shoved off the bus this morning—
The [conservation person] says, "Ready to go?" 
Charlie stands, pushing off her headphones. 
"I have all the paperwork done, we're checked in to our flight, just need a couple more signatures, but we can do that in the cab—and on the plane, obviously—and then you're all set for Rangerdom!" Beams. "This is so exciting!" Offers a hug. 
Charlie stifles a sigh, gingerly hugs them back, and steps away as soon as is polite. 
museum, flights. 
==[Triplets again]==
Cheung jogs up all five floors to their apartment, knocks four times. 
Jin opens—"Eey, you found breakfast!" 
Cheung nods, hands off the bag. "Baker wants us back at four." 
"Awesome." 
Hu calls, ""Grandmother said she'd feed us lunch if she cleans her place." 
Jin grins, ribs Cheung. "She's trying to set you up again." 
Cheung doesn't dignify that with a response, checks on the rice cooker. 
.
As the ring's doctor pokes at Hu's ankle, Jin asks, "Heard about the Jaeger Programme?" 
The medic shakes their head. "It's a disaster. They shouldn't be opening to civilians." Tests the bandage. "You're good to go. Plenty of ice: five minutes on, five off, for every other half hour—wrap it in a towel—and try to keep as much weight off it as possible for at least twenty four hours."
.
[other scenes]
==Fight==
"Hey, Gorgeous."
Charlie picks up her stuff--
"You don't have to leave, I'm just saying this is our spot. Anyone as pretty as you can have their run of the place, I bet."
"Have you forgotten /everything?" mutters the other Bluey.
"What'm I doing wrong? I'm just letting her know—"
Angle's awkward.
Oh well.
Charlie puts down her stuff, feints for their face—
Bluey recoils.
—jabs their shoulder while they're off balance—
Bluey spins around. 
—rocks back a step out of their way, slings her braid around their neck and back into that hand—
Bluey grabs—
—snakes her other arm across their chest, digs her toe into their hamstring—
Bluey's leg gives out. 
The instructor makes their way over. 
—plants her balance, pulling her braid tight against their sweaty skin. 
Bluey croaks, scrabbles, tries to get their leg back under them but they're too low to the floor. 
The instructor asks, "Name, please?" 
"Charlie Darling." 
Instructor taps their tablet. "You're in the 'do not engage' group." Pulls a black-and-yellow lanyard from around their neck. "You're not to practice against 'civilians', but anyone else wearing one of these is fair game."
"Cool."
"Cadet Hansen isn't in that group." 
Charlie nods, settles a knee against Bluey's lower back, gives her braid some slack, swings it over their head, knees—pushes them away with her foot—
Bluey hits the floor, coughing and spluttering. 
"Thank you," winces the instructor. 
Charlie acknowledges, gathers her stuff. 
"You guys'll practice behind that—" Twists, points to a taped off section across the gym. "—yellow line." Straightens. "I'll give you a run down after I check this guy out."
"Sounds good." Charlie shoulders her bag, steps over the Bluey, heads to her zone.
==Sponsor==
Cheung approaches. 
Mr Chau is not taking visitors at this time. 
It's important. 
I'm sorry. 
It'll only take a minute. 
As I said-- 
Who is it? 
Wei Cheung, sir. 
Send 'im in. 
The secretary leads Cheung in, bows. 
Cheung bows deeply. 
The secretary leaves. 
Chau has the club's books open on every available surface; one's even propped up against the window. 
Cheung says, my brothers and I think it would be ...
Are you fucking kidding? That group's a joke. 
Cheung--
Not a chance, kid. Now scram. 
Thank you, sir. 
The kid does his best not to slink, and Chau feels a bit bad, but then he sees the mess of paper and feels a thousand times worse about a bunch of other shit. 
So he calls the princess. 
"How's spying?"
My deadline's in three days and this is an impossible wreck. 
What do you have so far? 
Either this guy's the worst book keeper in the world or he's been skimming for years.
Well, you're one of the best at numbers.
I /am the best. 
Mmmmm, you're like, third best. 
Gee, thanks, princess. Sighs. Don't even know if that's enough to sort through this mess. Slumps. I'm pretty damn certain there're a few Tang brats running around this place, too. 
O really. 
They look the part, their tag's--
Any chance you can get out of the country? Like by tomorrow? 'Cause that place is not long for this world if it's true. 
Uh huh.
Yea. 
I gotta go. 
Sure. 
Kim? 
Yea, boss? 
Get those three back in here. 
Yessir. 
They're back in four minutes. 
You three are going to that Jaeger school. 
Blink, blink, blink. 
To Kim, get them an allowance, suitcases, plane tickets, anything else they might need. 
Got it. 
And a sponsorship. Make it legal, official, legitimate--give the suits absolutely no reason to doubt it. 
Consider it done. 
Good. You three, get outta here. 
Thank you, sir. 
Don't thank me, scram. I want you gone first thing tomorrow. 
.
[Other stuff]
==Sleep==
Jin scrambles up the later. Hey, Chuck. 
She sleeps on. 
Chuck! 
No change. 
Shakes her shoulder. 
Nothing. 
Sweet! She's out cold! Shimmies down the ladder. Let's get dinnie! 
I'm gonna call gramma, says Hu. I'll see you there. 
Cheung nods, and he and Jin head out. 
Hu taps his mobile. 
Academy Medical, Petra Tremblay. How may I help you? 
My roommate didn't show up for class today and now she won't wake up. 
Okay, when was the last time you saw her? 
Last night. She was gone before we woke up. 
Alright, how squeamish are you? 
Not at all. 
Okay, is your roommate the only person likely to menstruate in your quad? 
Yea. 
Then I'd like you to check the garbage for any sanitary products, please. 
I don't see any. 
Then I doubt it's toxic shock syndrome. Is there any ice in your fridge? 
A little.
Tuck a cube under her chin, please. 
Okay. 
Any reaction? 
No.
With your other hand, will you check if she has a temperature? 
Hu puts his wrist to Charlie's forehead. A little warm. 
This is all I can do over the phone, so I'm going to come down with a blood test. Is that okay?
Yep. 
I'll be there soon. 
.
Chuck! You're awake! 
She shoves on sunglasses, jams on a baseball cap, slugs Cheung--
He stumbles back and trips onto Hu's bed. 
--"Fuck. You.", and strides from the room. 
Finally! says Jin. She's gone. Thank heavens! 
I'm gonna--
Betrayal--
She's upset! I'm just going to ask if she's okay--
Which she's not, so what's the point?
It's the right thing to do!
She's not one of us! 
/that doesn't matter! I'm not leaving you for her, I'm not leaving us. I have my own life, brother! 
Cheung crosses his arms and pointedly looks away from Hu. 
Hu takes a shaky breath, heads for the halls, finds her as she's finishing a bowl of porridge. 
Hey, Charlie. 
What. 
Just ... Are you okay? 
"No, I'm not fucking okay. I have a fucking migraine and your fucking doppelgänger fucking kidnapped me, duct taped me to a fucking armchair, got me to give up rights to your fucking circus, and, apparently, drugged me. Congratulations on your fucking Jaeger, Wei."
==Intake==
(from page 10 in my notebook) 
“Uh, okay, oldest to youngest. Name?” 
“Wei Cheung.”
“Date of birth?”
“December 25, 1998.”
“ID?” 
“Don’t have any.” 
“You don’t have ID.” 
“Not really?” 
Hu and Jin shake their heads. 
Min makes a note—whoever thought of the sticky note app should get an award*--and moved on: “Height and weight?”
“[answer]”
“Relationship to co-pilot?”
“Brother. Oldeset, if there’s a toggle or something for that/if this’s where that info goes.”
Min smiles. “Different section for that.” She drops another sticky just in case. “Okay, next?” 
“Wei Jin; just copy Cheung’s stuff.” 
Min nods, closes the file and opens another, and writes a third note asking her brain to stop pondering the difficulty of changing the program to allow 3 notebooks. Was it a counter? Number of files = 2? “Last but not least?” 
“Wei Hu, same, no ID, and same.” 
“Great.” Min adds her own name as co-pilot and taps ‘next’. 
WholeMaster loads ‘HandyDandy’. 
Min frowns. 
“Is there actually a thing for three people?” asks Jin. 
Min shakes her head. “I just made two files. I’ll ask about it later.” 
“You can look it up now, we don’t mind,” says Hu. 
“I don’t know how long it’ll take and Marshal Xiong wants this sonner than later.” 
“But it would go faster if you could change it.”
“It would, yes.”
“We don’t mind waiting.”
“If you would excuse me for a moment, I’ll call someone in IT.” Min gets up from the table and perches on the counter, tapping away on her mobile as she went. And then a thought strikes her and she hops back over. A few screens on the tablet later, she spins it to face the triplets. “See if anything on here looks interesting—“Hi, Chuju, this is Yeung Tang Min from Shatterbucks.”
““Tang Min, yea? How goes it?””
“I’m well, thank you, how are you?”
““Can't complain. What can I do for you?”” 
“I need a code wrangler with a few minutes to spare.” 
““Lemme see ... any program in particular?”” 
“WholeMaster?” 
““How on Earth is WholeMaster relevant?”” 
“Redistribution of labour; Marshal Xiong's put me in charge of a potential Ranger team.” 
““You can't leave coffee! You're the only who knows everyone's orders!””
“Well, I mean, we have a chart and there's pletny of other people--”
““Aha! Hang on, hey, Yi Xe, gotta minute? I've got Tang Min on the other line; says she needs a code wrangler for WholeMaster. K, awesome, I'm matching you through. Yi Xe, Rang Min, Tang Min, Yi Xe.””
““Hello,”” says Xe.
“Good afternoon,” replies Min. 
““Later, guys!”” says Chuju. 
““Bye, Chuju.”” 
“Thank you.” 
A beep. 
““How can I help, Miss Yeung?”” 
“I need an extra profile in WholeMaster.”
““Like to add a third Ranger to a pair? Why would you need to do that?”” >95% sure i wrote this before Spares were a thing<
“Classified, sorry.” 
““Well, let's see ... yea, it's gonna take some work, I mean, it's not like we'll ever need replacement pilots. You've got coffee to make or something, yea?”” 
“Or something," Min replies tightly. 
““Bring the tablet by tomorrow morning and I'll load what I have.”” 
“Thank you for your help.” 
““Eh, you're welcome.”” 
Min closes her mobile. "Okay." 
“Success?” asks Wei Jin. 
Min returns to the table. “It'll take a while but we'll probably have something in the morning." She holds out her fist. “Kudos to being a force of nature.” 
Wei Jin grins, “That's us!" Hu smiles, Cheung nods; Wei Jin and Wei Hu bump her hand. 
Min slides into her chair. “Any luck?”
“Not sure yet,” says Hu.
“Can we look at this later?” asks Cheung, handing back the tablet. 
“Sure,” says Min, taking it and reopenning WholeMaster. “Uh, time-spending and lacking ... last physical?” She digs out her notebook. >no idea what i was trying to say here<
“Two weeks,” says Hu.
“Had to make sure we were healthy enough to graduate,” adds Jin. 
“And were you?”
“Obviously,” says Jin. 
“A little underweight,” replies Cheung. 
Min nods absently as she scribbles. “Last time any of you saw a dentist?”
They think about that.
Jin finally opens his mouth but thinks something else. 
“Was it--”
“Two years ago?”
“Four, I think. It was that brawl in Kowloon.”
“Spilled into the market--”
“Which one of us lost the tooth?”
Min flips to WholeMaster's directory. 
“Wouldn't that be an individual memory?”
“It's kind of a blur?” admits Jin. 
“Who nearly lost their eye to a lobster?”
“That's me,” says Jin. 
“I think ....”
“Yea.”
“You lost a tooth in that fight.”
“But it broke or something.”
“So we tracked down a tooth guy and got it sorted.” 
“Four years ago,” they chorus. 
“Dentist appointment it is.” Min taps ‘connect’. 
One ring—
““Good afternnon, [x] street dental, how may I help you?”” 
“Hi, I’m calling from the Shatterdome. I have three pilot candidates in dire need of a check up.” 
““‘Dire’ as in ‘emergency’?”” 
“‘Dire’ as in ‘haven’t seen a dentist in four years’.” 
““Oh dear. Come in for seventeen hundred and there’ll be someone to see them.”” 
“Thank you so much.” 
““Anything for our Rangers. See you tonight!”” 
*: (either just a funny line or supposed to go in the text)
"Smile for me?" 
Eesh, this isn't gonna be fun.
Category:Ficlet
Category:Scraps
Category:Work in Progress
Category:Chuck D
Category:Chuck D is a Bumblebee
Category:Jaeger Academy (setting)
Category:Jaeger Academy 2015
Category:Scott
Category:Scott (ficlet)
Category:Cheung
Category:Hu
Category:Jin
Category:Cheung (ficlet)
Category:Hu (ficlet)
Category:Jin (ficlet)
Category:Tang Min
Category:Tang Min (ficlet)
Category:Siqi
Category:Siqi (ficlet)
Category:Siqi is a puppet
Category:Tang Min works the morning shift
Category:Ficlets in need of language stuff