No, sir. [ it's true. no one had come to meet him at the station, because meeting a person at the station means you were expecting to see them. ]
But I had a run-in with my kid brother. [ he wavers a little on that last part. ] He... he didn't take the sight of me very well.
[ there are so many questions he wants -- needs the answers to: sir, you've been here awhile, do you know why he would say that? sir, i heard from another person here that something happened last week? but instead yancy leaves it as is. a statement of facts, nothing more.
[ Yancy doesn't need to say it because Herc hears it well enough. though they'd never been pilots, there's a certain brand of unspoken that exists between rangers. ]
Doesn't surprise me, mate, with what happened b'fore you got here.
[ He's heard about a ship. About people dying and getting hurt. But Raleigh's a good kid, a strong one, full of life and drive and yes, kind of ridiculously naive enough to look forward to meeting the kaiju head-on, so Yancy only cares about one thing: ]
Sir, there's something that's been bothering me about how my brother reacted.
[ You're not real, Raleigh had insisted, wild-eyed and furious.
You're not real. ]
He said something about me not being real. [ He hesitates for a moment, adds: ] Was it because he got here before me and he knew I wasn't around?
[ succinct, because he may be a marshall but he's still a ranger and open communication is what they do to get the job done. there's no sense in beating around the bush, trying to hide the information, that they'd all been compromised. that this place was compromising them. ]
Never found the cause. We were all hearing and seein' the dead on the Ishimura.
[ It takes him a while to respond because he actually has to sit down to process the information that's just been handed to him.
We were all hearing and seeing the dead.
Suddenly, the memory of falling from so high up, a forgotten obstacle now for the still living kaiju -- it flashes back to him and Yancy shuts his eyes; drags a hand over his mouth because-- ]
--Shit.
[ Then, remembering who it is he's currently speaking to: ] Sorry for the language, sir.
[ Another pause. ] When? [ Oh, it's not that he doesn't know. No way could he have survived a fall like that. But he needs the confirmation. He needs to know how long it's been. ]
[ he doesn't flinch at the language, it's hardly the worst thing he's heard in years. how he leaps from the Ishimura to follow what Yancy has to say is anyone's guess, but when you become a ranger there are certain leaps of logic you learn to follow. he's quiet for a beat, before saying: ]
five years. and suddenly he can't be sitting. he can't be still.
five years.
it should feel small, but it's not. it's a chunk of a lifetime. it's a fist to his solax plexus. it's a year short of his whole tour with raleigh from the day gipsy was deployed to the klaxons sounding at two in the fucking morning, raleigh's bright-eyed enthusiasm and the bumping of their fists hey kid, don't get cocky and the moment they shut the comms, one unanimous thought in their heads let's go be big damn heroes and save that fishing boat.
[ he lets it sink in, but when the silence stretches on for long enough to cause concern, Herc speaks up again. he can't imagine what it would be like, losing a chunk of time like that. has no idea what the ranger might be going through—
but as Stacker used to say: if he could be nothing else, he could be a fixed point. ]
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heracleidae) wrote2013-09-06 11:57 pm
( wk 6, d3, voice )
But I had a run-in with my kid brother. [ he wavers a little on that last part. ] He... he didn't take the sight of me very well.
[ there are so many questions he wants -- needs the answers to: sir, you've been here awhile, do you know why he would say that? sir, i heard from another person here that something happened last week? but instead yancy leaves it as is. a statement of facts, nothing more.
( wk 6, d3, voice )
Doesn't surprise me, mate, with what happened b'fore you got here.
( wk 6, d3, voice )
Sir, there's something that's been bothering me about how my brother reacted.
[ You're not real, Raleigh had insisted, wild-eyed and furious.
You're not real. ]
He said something about me not being real. [ He hesitates for a moment, adds: ] Was it because he got here before me and he knew I wasn't around?
( wk 6, d3, voice )
[ succinct, because he may be a marshall but he's still a ranger and open communication is what they do to get the job done. there's no sense in beating around the bush, trying to hide the information, that they'd all been compromised. that this place was compromising them. ]
Never found the cause. We were all hearing and seein' the dead on the Ishimura.
[ you can guess who he saw, Yancy. ]
( wk 6, d3, voice )
We were all hearing and seeing the dead.
Suddenly, the memory of falling from so high up, a forgotten obstacle now for the still living kaiju -- it flashes back to him and Yancy shuts his eyes; drags a hand over his mouth because-- ]
--Shit.
[ Then, remembering who it is he's currently speaking to: ] Sorry for the language, sir.
[ Another pause. ] When? [ Oh, it's not that he doesn't know. No way could he have survived a fall like that. But he needs the confirmation. He needs to know how long it's been. ]
( wk 6, d3, voice )
Five years.
( wk 6, d3, voice )
five years. and suddenly he can't be sitting. he can't be still.
five years.
it should feel small, but it's not. it's a chunk of a lifetime. it's a fist to his solax plexus. it's a year short of his whole tour with raleigh from the day gipsy was deployed to the klaxons sounding at two in the fucking morning, raleigh's bright-eyed enthusiasm and the bumping of their fists hey kid, don't get cocky and the moment they shut the comms, one unanimous thought in their heads let's go be big damn heroes and save that fishing boat.
five years. ]
( wk 6, d3, voice )
but as Stacker used to say: if he could be nothing else, he could be a fixed point. ]
Yancy?