Letting the Joneses Live

## Victoria Harbour

Everything's the same up 'til the middle of the Battle of Victoria Harbour.

Leatherback EMPs the Jaegers. But the Kaiju decide to fall back on old tactics for maximum damage with minimal effort: Stun the pilots (via the shock from the EMP), break the Conn-pod visor glass, knock down the Jaeger, and let the pilots drown while the Kaiju skips away to cause more damage in the city.

Sooooo, Vulcan, Typhoon, and Alpha freeze. Otachi limps off after Newt. Leatherback does a slow circle to make sure the Jaegers aren't going to move. Punches Vulcan in the face, shattering the glass. Shoves her over backward.Stands on her chest and punches Typhoon in the face. Shoves /her over backward. Moseys toward Alpha.

## EMP

Meanwhile, scifi nerd Jackson and scifi nerd-by-proxy Logan recognize the EMP for what it is and know they need to get the hell outta there via the escape hatch. They reach for the harness release and the glass shatters. And they recognize the M.O. from their first fight in time to stop themselves. The harness keeps them from being knocked out or killed by the fall (witness Gipsy and Alpha getting thrown around and their pilots being able to get up immediately and fight)

Jackson: hey, cool! An EMP!
Logan: NOT THE TIME.

## Alpha

Does Alpha fire their spring loaded Conn-pod into Leatherback's face?

YES. Because that has to happen in some universe. Probably doesn't kill Leatherback, but distracts it long enough for Gipsy to move in and finish it off. It's like the awesomer version of the flare gun scene. XD

YOSH. Battle of Victoria Harbour condition "improvised weaponry by a Jaeger other than Danger": FULFILLED.

Additional condition "Awesomeness on the part of the Russians": FULFILLED!

that is an awesome additional condition. Well done, pickle \*slow clap of impressed-ness\*

## Disney

The Conn-pod starts filling with water which is no big deal for the Joneses, who are stronger than average swimmers for Rangers (all of whom have to be good swimmers). They unhook, let the pod fill, swim out, and make it to shore. They're exhausted, beat up, but very much alive.

Okay. So. They swim from the Conn-pod, completely disoriented but knowing this: swim /away from the battle. So they do.

Five kilometres later, they drag themselves onto the shores of Hong Kong Disney.

Which disorients them further because Disney-places are frickin' surreal.

Does Logan break into the gift shop/employee zone for clothes? XD

Yes, yes he does and feels no remorse, except for the part about breaking into employee lockers to find shirts without Disney characters on them.

Wot? He didn't want to run around in adult-sized Disney print onesies? XD And Jackson ends up bringing something back from Hong Kong with him (besides his life) for the beans!

XD. And that's a beautiful touch with the gift.

\*bows with a flourish\*

## Jaeger Bits

Other points: I imagine they're going to want to recover what's left of the Jaegers who fell in Victoria Harbour. This probably won't happen until a few weeks after Pitfall (if ANSK is any indication), and when they do, they're going to find a distinct lack of human remains (even if the critters had been feasting, there water would be too clean and there wouldn't
be enough armour scraps because of how diluted the Blue would be).

Yes, they would be trying to recover the bits and Blue contamination would be minimal since most of the killing is done by Gipsy on shore. And, yes, they would quickly notice a lack of bodies in Vulcan, which would be very noteworthy since I think the find bodies in Typhoon.

Jaeger bits: If they do find bodies in Typhoon, they will also find they died of impact trauma from getting knocked around after pulling the harness release.

Jaeger bits: EXACTLY.

Excellent. (Drowning death avoided, yay!)

## Identities

Jamie and/or Liu (or maybe even one of Logan's 'friends') gets the brothers new identities and gets them back to Australia.

New identities wouldn't help them a whole lot given that Jackson'd go right to Charlie.
——"why did you go AWOL?" demands a PTB at the trial.
Logan points to Jack, "he hit his head, didn't remember the last two years. I got lazy, put us on a bus to the 'Dome, turned out it wasn't to the 'Dome and I can't read Chinese so I didn't know where we were but there was a little plane thingy so I got us on another train to the plane thingy which was an airport and I put us on the first flight out of there. Turned out it went to Canada where they do speak English and where there's an Australian embassy and it was a lot more straightforward for them to just send us back to Sydney."
 "Without ID."
"Our accents were proof enough."
"Also my feet were hot so I asked for thongs which I got and wasn't surprised by."
Logan adds, "Even if we weren't Australian, Aussies are a friendly bunch."
(Considering everyone in the room had only met aggressive Australians, they weren't quite sure what to believe.)

Identities: \*headdesk\* of course. Scrap that part. Or maybe Liu just helps out with new ID cards with their real info?

### Canadians

Speaking of Canadians, remember "Mister Two Tables Stage Left" from Siqi's dinner with Jamie? He's totally a Canadian in an expected place (I discovered this a while ago and forgot to mention it). Maybe he has something to do with that flight to Canada. XD

Canadians in Expected Places: ...huh. How did you find that out?
—Liu isn't in HK during the double event; the CCTV bot tracking unusual activity finds the Joneses immediately upon post-EMP reboot. He would've told Hannibal to 'kidnap' them if not for the fact that Hannibal's cellphone has dissolved in Kotachi so he gets Daiyu to excuse herself, go to a safe house, grab their IDs, and meet up with them.
—Liu has stuff waiting for them at the embassy.
—Siqi mails stuff to that Canadian, should he work at the airport, such that they arrive, addressed to him at the airport the day of the Double Event
—Siqi asks the Canadian that, if he should meet two Australians of disreputable appearance, let them on a plane, no questions asked. The Canadian volunteers Canada 'cause Commonwealth, it's about to leave, and also, I'm from there and it's great. Here's the number for my parents house and money for a taxi to get there :D. They're like, okaaaay, and on the plane, "Canadians are weird." XD

I love this use for the Canadian and heartily approve of Siqi's interference.

I'm glad you like him for this use; Chu "player of long games" Siqi strikes again!

That's /exactly what I was trying for. It didn't materialize. It wouldn't be one of our universes without one of Siqi's long games.

pickleplum/ALC 'verse condition "dead Joneses who end up living": check! Condition "Siqi does something with an effect that is much more far-reaching than initially thought": check! "Liu and Logan have a run in and Logan regrets it": Check! "Cats are somehow involved": Check!

We're definitely developing a type when it comes to worlds. XD

To say we have a type is selling ourselves short, methinks. More like, we have a set of fixed points and tropes that we enjoy implementing in different contexts :D

That was meant to be 'UNexpected places' but I'm apparently to caffeinated enough to use prefixes. I found this out from trying to write a follow-on scene to the one introducing him.

Based on that sentence, you seem to lack the caffeine to for "not", as well. "Not caffeinated" (a think you almost wrote), "to not let the Joneses live" (a thing you decided against)... :D Jamie and this Canadian flirting, eh?

DX I'm just going to type very, very slowly and hope I don't miss any more words.

Best of luck, o great one.

## AWOL

I'm totally picturing Logan, in full Drivesuit, breaking in somewhere and stealing clothes and funds so they don't attract quite as much attention on their way to the airport. How do they get on a plane without ID, if they don't get some new cards or back into the 'Dome to reclaim theirs? \*giggling about thongs\*

There wouldn't be a whole lot of people to attract attention, tho, if they're all in shelters (I'm running under the assumption HK subways would be fully automated at this point). As for the airport, Logan can say they were separated from their transport, how do we get back to Australia? In Logan's tall tale, the attendant saw two clearly PPDC people who spoke only English, figured, well, there's a flight to Toronto leaving as soon as the airspace reopens?

Good point about a lack of people. And what with all the chaos from getting all the passengers and airport and airline staff into and back out of the shelters, the staff is probably less concerned than usual about proper ID. Lots of people probably lost theirs in the rush to hide and now they just want them the hell outta the airport. I'm really loving Logan's tall tale. It just keeps getting better.

Good point, yourself, about people losing their IDs. So long as they keep their mouths shut, two more people without IDs in a flood of people without them would go rather unnoticed.

And two Rangers fresh off a near-death experience aren't very likely to talk much. If Jackson were to start babbling, Logan would just elbow him until he shuts up. And if they're a little worse for wear, well, that's just par for the course, too.

"Jack, so help me, if you do not shut up, I will punch you in the throat."
"We just had a near-death experience and now you want another one?"
"It wouldn't be me, it would be you, and /I'm still having one thanks to you yammering my ear off."

A lot of that doesn't agree but pretend it does

Agreement or not, it's /hilarious!

I got quite a few funny looks on the bus while writing it XD

## KIA

From Australia, it still looks the same. Vulcan's facing off against Leatherback, the feed goes dead, and when it comes back, Vulcan is gone.

In the chaos, the death notification gets screwed up. Either no call is made and Charlie and the family are left to assume Jackson's dead or a call is made in error.

And then Jackson gets hold of a phone and calls Charlie.

It occurs to me it wouldn't necessarily be a death notification but one for 'missing in action'; that meta on why the Marvel fandom thinks Steve Rogers is very rich included a blurb about the (US) military being very reluctant to assign KIA status without a body, so Charlie and Grandmother Typhoon wouldn't get a confirmation of death until someone remembered/bothered to recover the Jaegers and found the Conn-pods full of nasty water/x-rayed the Conn-pods and found skeletons inside.

\*headdesk\* again. Makes perfect sense. KIA means a big 'death gratuity' (actual phrase from the US Army website). MIA, not so much. When the Joneses /do show up, the evil!PPDC would probably flag them as deserters or charge them with dereliction of duty, give them dishonorable discharges, and say publicly 'good riddance, you cowards.' With the fudged up medical records (which would now include mentions of head trauma and PTSD) and their supposedly cowardly actions, no one will take anything they say seriously. Thus, the PPDC is insulated from fallout. And the Joneses are free to reassemble what they can of their lives.

Could they argue they didn't abandon their post as they didn't know where the Shatterdome was, it was dark, and no one was around to ask?

They could argue, but 1) Would the PPDC listen? and 2) If they're out of the PPDC would the Joneses care about how that was accomplished? Logan certainly won't give a shit about a black mark on his record. There ain't much white on it anyway. And if Juliet's family still employs engineering types, she could make sure Jackson gets a job, no matter what anyone says.

I am wondering about their house; without a PPDC pension, can they still afford it? If the PPDC bought it for them, are they still allowed to stay? (Was the deed made out to Charlie in the first place?) Fluffles; are they still enrolled in the CDL? Is Book still enrolled in PPDC Kindergarten?

Hmm ... very, very good point. Let's change the PPDC reaction to "your confusion was understandable, we're merciful and will forgive you, here's your honorable discharge, and a generous pension, but, yeah, your reputation is still fucked."

Would do to commit them for a couple weeks; taint whatever news of their 'heroic return' leaks.

EXCELLENT. It will be so.

Awesooome!

## CDL

Izzy's yanked from PPDC schools before finishing kindergarten (2023) because Jamie's filled the Vosses in on what the CDL's about and they want no part of it. The other Voslings may finish out the year before switching schools. The beans hang on through all 2023 and 2024, but after that, I bet Jackson insists on pulling them out and sending them to whatever school the Vosses chose for Izzy.

Ah, okay, Izzy's file is now up-to-date. Gawd I hope Lightcap doesn't have much of a case for claiming Jupiter as PPDC property (besides all the meds-tweaking, like how companies have a 'anything you create while employed with us belongs to us' kinda thing).

I hadn't shared the Izzy thing before. Ooops. Well, we /did say that finding a way to keep Jupiter out of the PPDC's clutches was part of what got Logan and Jackson sent to Hong Kong, so we can hope that sticks.

"out of their clutches" is probably generous, though describing their approach as "hands-off" certainly lends itself to that metaphor :D I don't know if they ever completely let Jupiter go (besides keeping tabs on her (which they probably do with lots of fluffles), I have a feeling there's always someone 'there').

Good point. Checking up on how her schooling's going, attending any sporting events or performances. Same as they probably do with Izzy and any other babies of interest.

Stay-away camp's probably a no-go, I bet.

Oh god, no. No stay away camp for any of the beans and maybe not even the Voslings.

## Painful

Another painful readjustment:

Something awesome happens, Baby and Book speed home, go right past Jackson, and tell Pietr/Derek alllll about it. And then remember Jackson.

ainful: Ouch. \*wibbles\*

## Snicket

Of course, this does mean that Snicket the cat can't be a reincarnated Logan. He could just be a stray who refuses to leave Logan alone.

The slightly less surly stray with whom Logan, for some reason, feels some kinship, like a hole in his soul's been filled in. This doesn't improve Logan's temperament, of course, though going to bridge club with Nanny is slightly less 'good god, /no' idea.

Perfect. Time to lightly rewrite the Snicket stories to take this development into account. Logan at bridge club with spare cards up his sleeves. He is promptly banned. Playing Pokemon with the fluffles works out better.

"Come along."
"But Nanny--"
"Logan Patrick Jones, you are my grandson and I will /not lose you
again."
Logan sighs, holds the door for Nanny, and trails her to her car.

And that is Logan and Nanny's relationship (regardless of universe) in 31 words. Brilliant!

thank you, thank you, thank you very much \*bows\*

## Chuckles

11ALSO: Chuckles and Logan: Post-war flatmates.

"Fuck, you two take wingmen seriously. Am I ever gonna be rid of you?"
"Last time I checked, /Chuckles, we actually have lives here. No idea why you're here."
"Right, that's obviously why your kid's telling Pietr 'n your mouse of a brother about their day and not you."
...it was supposed to be funny and then turned mean.

That didn't turn mean, that turned /Chuckles: abandoned child, child soldier.

That would explain the "that's our Chuckles!" niggle.