Major Harry (meta)

Everything happens very rapidly after the Joneses take up residence at the Sydney Shatterdome.

## Major Harry

My agenda today is to put something down for "Major Harry" (of which you have seen or heard nothing until now).

Yay! Am officially intrigued about the other thing. Is it for this AU or something else?

"Major Harry" is for this AU; the character himself is kind of an obvious Chekov's gun and character/atmosphere developer but o well! Major Harry is a very hairy decorated drop bear plush that guards the suggestion box in Chantell's office. He's also an excellent listener, and Chantell's had him since she was 4.

Oooo. Major Harry sounds like fun.

I hope so! (Also hope it doesn't come across as too kitchy in practice!)

And the Hivemind apparently has drop bears on the brain today, for here is the lightbulb, "Urban Legend".

## Andrea tells the Nguyens about the Joneses

(I am fully cognizant that he's a very obvious plot device; I needed some way of making it very obvious to the audience that Chantell left in a hurry and not by choice. I'm hoping the audience will see him as such and forget about him to be and then we'll pull out the harddrive and they'll kick themselves :D )

Got it. I /like him as that sort of plot device. He's a wonderful shorthand for 'left in a hurry' and as a facilitator for that very important conversation Chantell has with Andrea.

Phew! In fact, Chantell keeps him in her office for that exact reason! It seems there're quite a few anxious-around-authority employees which, since the PPDC works very hard at their 'benevolent' image, probably means he's around in ANSK somewhere.

## The Nguyens look into the Joneses /

### Remarks

I figure Nguyen and Chantell want to meet the new Rangers, so call them up to the office for a meeting. The boys act weird for new Rangers as far as the Nguyens are concerned, so the Marshal goes digging. And the Handler doesn't help matters when he makes weird remarks about the rules he has to enforce on the Joneses.

What kind of remarks/rules do you imagine? \*tries shaking loose Code: Violet protocols\*

Well, they

* Are not allowed in the hangar
* Have to leave their door open except between certain night hours
* Are not allowed off the grounds of the Shatterdome proper
* Cannot be transferred to another base or position (standard)
* Have limits placed on their network and internet access
* Cannot carry cellphones
* Must visit the base psychologist more often than other Rangers (standard)

And that's just what we've tripped over so far ....

### Research

"Confidential to marshal-level clearance and higher, he thought his firstborn was a demon and tried to drown them in the bathtub."

If the PPDC /does take Baby and Charlie out of the picture, they'll also release this tidbit to prevent Jackson from getting custody of Book

Niiiiiiiice, and so far from the truth it makes my heart hurt.

"No other history of violence. Erratic, sure, but nothing like that."

Much forging of personal history

Obviously, and his 'berserk button' when it comes to his family might give enough actual incidents to give the story some traction

## Nguyen arranges Chantell's safety

Whatever the Marshal does, we have to leave enough time between action and PTB reaction for him to arrange Chantell's escape.

I bet Chantell's escape is the first thing he plans, before he makes any kind of move, so we don't have to worry about timing that.

But at what point does he realize Chantell may need to escape? He has to already suspect his bosses are capable of badness when this starts or something needs to tip him off.

If he digs into the Joneses, finds out they'd been forcibly conscripted and Jackson's family's being used against him, he might worry they'll do the same thing to Chantell.  He makes arrangements and confronts the PTBs, ending the meeting with his resignation and the tone at the end is such that he's very concerned for Chantell's safety.

So he starts looking into the Joneses, finds out about Jackson being kidnapped and having his family used as leverage and he thinks, 'I've got family and I'm about to talk about things they don't seem to want talked about' (since the files weren't hidden, exactly, but buried in a forgotten corner of the network). So he makes sure Chantell can disappear if the meeting goes south.

He buys a new harddrive, copies as much to his laptop's harddrive as he can and then rips it out, smashes his laptop and the new harddrive, and stashes the old one in Major Harry (the decorated plush dropbear), whom Chantell leaves behind and eventually ends up with Andrea.

Chantell’s okay, though. The night he resigns, Nguyen puts Chantell on an out-of-country plane to the kid of an army buddy of his dad's (or mom's), working with the Coast Guard on a ship or at a lighthouse. Except she's not Chantell anymore but I haven't determined what her new identity is.

## Nguyen confronts his superiors

Nguyen meets with the brass, asks them when they were going to tell him about the new Rangers, they waffle, and then he asks when they were going to tell him the Rangers were kidnapped.

They all go stone-faced, one of them explains loftily that certain measures had to be taken.

Nguyen says these measures were inappropriate.

"Confrontation" bits.

## Nguyen meets his end

Nguyen does not replace himself; the PPDC does away with him. He finds out how Jackson and Logan come to be serving under his command and resigns in protest. He doesn't vanish willingly from the planet. A murder most foul: It happens very quickly and efficiently. Nguyen probably never knows what hits him. No witnesses aside from those who carry it out.

## Nguyen disappears

No news about a death breaks, but his disappearance is quickly noticed. The press assumes or is fed the story that he and Chantell flee the country after all that bad stuff the Marshal oversaw. The story spreads that law enforcement is still hunting for him, but, of course, they're not really.

No one besides Andrea thinks anything of it before the story breaks?

The story that he's missing hits the news right after he's supposed to show up for work and he doesn't. Jamie's investigation lags by a couple of days because he doesn't get turned loose on the story until after it's clear Nguyen ain't coming back. Andrea (and a couple of others) suspect something other than the story the PPDC happened to the Nguyens.

Ooo, okay, they don't get a replacement Marshal right away (ie, they go a day without a Marshal. They can't just say 'he quit'.) which is apparently the bush I was beating around >\_<

Bingo! I think they go 48 hours without a marshal. In case of emergency, the Hong Kong marshal has operational command if the Jaegers have to deploy before the new marshal's in place (they don't).

## Andrea meets the new marshal

### Sympathy

(Though it does seem Silber is...sympathetic? with Andrea--she's free to go without giving a two week notice, and Silber pulls a couple things to recognize Andrea for having a 99% employee rating).

(That's ADORABLE.)

(I'm glad!)

### Wills and Silber

Re former version of Turtles.rtf: Hivemind about Andrea and Egan (I think she's sweet on him, too). When the Equerry asks why she's quitting, Andrea says "after Ranger Egan--" Swallows. "It just hasn't been the same around here, and now that Officer Nguyen's gone..."

Also, the Nguyens' replacements have surnames now. The marshal is Wills, the equerry is Silber.

Excellent, thank you! >tweaks "Major Harry" part 3<

### Knowledge =

How much, you reckon, do they know about the Nguyens'?

Officers ranked highly enough to take over marshal- and equerry-ships have probably at least heard of each other, if not met. Seems like it would be a fairly small number of people. So, they're probably at least passing acquaintances. I doubt they know the truth about what happened and more or less believe whatever story the PPDC tells them about what happened.

Without Andrea's kindness and friendship with Chantell, nothing prompts them to look too hard into the behavior problems they have with Jackson (all of his escapes come under their watch), so they just carry on with their jobs.

Wills and Silber are more businesslike and less, uh, humane than the Nguyens, so they kinda ignore their colleagues' personal lives and just expect them to get their jobs done.

From what I've seen of Silber, sounds like we're on the same page.

(Though it does seem Silber is...sympathetic? with Andrea, at least.)

Silber and Wills ARE sympathetic, I wasn't clear. The difference is where if a staffer is obviously upset Silber will be sympathetic and kind, but will expect the staffer to sort it out on their own. Chantell would do whatever she could to help. Roughly the same with the marshals.

## Andrea meets Derek

Very, very shortly after the Nguyens go missing, Andrea gets tea for her and Chantell and goes to her office to talk at Major Harry (he doesn't judge).

But Chantell's not there and Major Harry's in a box.

So Andrea drops off tea and heads off to the Darling-Jones residence.

Derek explains what happened, Andrea's in denial, and then she remembers Major Harry in cardboard box. So (after she's thrown up everything she's eaten for the last week), she decides to quit.

Spends the night there, heads back to the Shatterdome to drop off her resignation and to get her stuff.

## Andrea ends up with Major Harry

How does Major Harry make his way to Andrea? Who, if anyone, finds the hard drive? What sort of stuff, beyond the normal marshal crud, is on there? So many questions!

The new equerry offers Andrea the box of all Chantell's old stuff ("saves me the trouble of sending it down to Recycle") and wishes her well. (I mucked up the timelines but words are almost in shape!)

## Nguyens are Discredited

### Accusations

Shed's Marshal ignored ethics board, authorized inhumane, life-threatening research!

Which are the headlines the PPDC sells when they notice someone (Jamie) poking around. (Chantell's not committed, but they must ruin her credibility somehow).

Nice move, accusing Nguyen of something he certainly would've protested loudly.

Not only, this'll 'prompt' the PPDC to launch a major investigation into the 'Domes running, they'll conclude that Sydney was the worst of the bunch but it's alllll cleared up now and they'll go to great lengths to make sure nothing of the like ever happens again. A controlled airing of dirty laundry, as it were, on their terms so it can play out along as they see fit.

Brilliant! I LOVE this plan! You are a genius.

>cackling with thunder booming in the background<

### Chantell

A buddy with a private jet, stuff paid for in cash, a few favors called in, and she's in the wind. If the PPDC doesn't know about Major Harry (and I doubt they do), she's not really a threat. No evidence. Without evidence she's just a young woman driven delusional after her father abandoned her.

"Sydney 'Dome Equerry Committed After Father's [Unprecedented] Treason"

"Marshal's Assistant Committed After Father's Treason"

Joey Bagodonuts might not know where an equerry ranks in the grand scheme, but can certainly figure that a marshal's assistant is a big-wig.

Very good point about Joey Bagodonuts (snork), thank you!

I don't know where Chantell winds up and how Jamie finds not-Chantell.

## Jamie tracks down not-Chantell

Jamie starts out investigating her father's disappearance, and eventually finds her.

When not-Chantell and Jamie meet up, she tells him that if he wants to know more, he should talk to Major Harry, and then leaves.

When Jamie finally tracks him down (it takes an age and a half) and figures out where the harddrive is, he finds a /lot of dirt on it.

### "Drive"

I'm curious: what all malfeasance does Jamie find on Major Harry's drive?

A little bit of everything. A thread here, an email there. At least a note from DriftSci about Kaiju brains dissolving too quickly for testing.