Rack off Becket, I'm inna goddamn goddamn med lab. [ the bite doesn't have the same venom they've come to expect from one another. chuck's words are taut, like a sail at the end of it's line- and he's firing warning shots he doesn't mean.
it's another beat before he continues, and when he does, there's an unusual stillness in his tone. the video feed isn't activated, but chuck doesn't look down all the same. ]
No bodies where I am, so far. [ He leaves the give it time part out; he doesn't have to say it out loud for both of them to know. In the background, the klaxons continue blaring on in high shrill notes. It's putting Raleigh on edge. ] Engineering deck. Have you heard from Mako and your dad?
Fieldin' call-backs. Gettin' armed. [ which is to say nothing conclusive, and no rendezvous yet. it grates on his nerves all wrong. becket tells him to grab a kit, and it isn't actually something he'd considered yet. his gaze moves to the med packs opposite him, but he doesn't move. that he doesn't tell becket to find himself a gun says something about where he trusts the guy's head is at. something about where they stand with one another. ]
We're comin' for ya. [ he says instead. like a promise, and not the desperation chuck remembers ringing in his ears- feeling his legs go offline.
[ He says it like it's a request, though his tone initially seems to brook no argument; we're holding the line is hardly something he has to tell Chuck, would indeed be more of an insult than anything else, and Raleigh may not get along well with the other pilot but he does respect him. Chuck's one hell of a pilot, for all that he has the attitude of a middle school brat, and Raleigh doesn't need to be looked out for — not when they can do so much more for everyone else.
[ becket tosses it back like they're chatting about groceries. about day-trips and if you have times. chuck doesn't call him on it because he doesn't need to. he gets it. he knows the difference between bravado and doing the goddamn job and has to trust that gipsy's pilot is drawing lines where they need to be.
but he sure as hell isn't going to tell mori that. chuck said they were coming. they won't be stupid about it- but they're getting becket back come hell or high water. ]
Like vacuums, either gravity's compromised worse than the consoles are saying and it's doing something weird to the air compression, or the ship's got holes and we're sitting ducks in space.
[ He'd narrowly missed getting sucked in, checking in through one of the doors. One of these days he'll thank his instructors at the Academy for the reflex training, but until then— ]
[ it'd far too deadpan to be true and chuck makes no effort to mask that fact. but the fact of the matter is they don't know the extent of what they're looking at. at his back, chuck knows there's a group working at one of the consoles, that they're trying to track down supplies because there's no telling how long they'll be trapped here. what they'll find. who. ]
[ it suits him just fine, for far more reasons that he's willing to admit. there's a shuffling on the opposite end of the feed. a faint thud, followed by the squelch of wet boots on the ground.
just when it seems he'll let it play, without another word- ]
[ Raleigh gets out that much before something starts trudging its way in his direction and that takes up the rest of his time for a good few minutes fighting with it, softly bit curse words filtering through the pneumatic sound of a pulse rifle discharging.
[ From his end, Raleigh has the even, practiced breathing of someone conserving as much oxygen as possible. Air is getting thinner, and Raleigh thinks he has an idea why, but it's hard to focus on the whys when you're too busy checking your sixes and twelves for bogies. ]
[ it takes a moment for him to even out (a parallel to the whole of Chuck's lived experience- if an even keel was ever a possibility) but he does. or at the very least, he reigns himself in. the reply is an irritable growl through clenched teeth, something a wounded animal would make ]
[ Raleigh asks with hints of irritability, mirroring tone and mood over the line. Just say it, he thinks, but Chuck's not Mako and Raleigh shouldn't be expecting the same level of resonance with the other pilot. ]
[ is this a bad time he asks. like its a phone call made during half time. chuck would laugh, if he wasn't so goddamned angry. if he wasn't so goddamned scared.
he can tolerate a lot of shit, and maybe part of that is blowing himself sky high- but his old man isn't kicking the bucket here. none of the rangers are, and chuck doesn't care what he's got to stare down to make it true. ]
[ Raleigh is adept in the art of seeming the opposite of what he is, though it's a skill he doesn't have the time for because it's too much duplicity than he wants to put up with. If it shows through at inopportune times, it's not because he's trying; Raleigh is a contradiction even to himself at the best of times, and right now is one of those times, it would seem.
That doesn't mean that he doesn't swear so wholeheartedly, though. ]
[ the tightening never really goes away. chuck knows this through lived experience, and through experience he shouldn't have lived through at all. becket swears on the opposite end of the feed and while it sure as hell isn't a reassuring hand on his shoulder (not that chuck would know what to do with that either) its something. ]
That's what I'd like t'know. [ its as close to an accusation as anything, and in the background there's a clatter of metal that follows. with another muttered swear. ]
They're vacuums, [ he responds deadpan, as though to say it's the least of my concerns - and they are. Mako is somewhere he can't go to until their respective sectors are sorted out, Chuck has no back-up, and Herc is possibly going to die — air pockets are the least of his worries right now.
He can't get to his people fast enough. ] Can you get to him?
[ those words aren't nearly enough. they don't say i'm listening to my goddamn father slowly die. they don't say i lost track of how many human fucking bodies i've had to take apart in here. they don't say i can't. chuck has to say it because he has to draw a line. because duty and obligation and responsibility, the job has always been what mattered most to his old man, and it's what chuck pulled into himself to fill every nook and cranny that could possibly have been a hole until he decided he was complete.
they can't reach one another and he doesn't know how much time his old man has because herc doesn't tell him. all he smells is blood and the only part of him that's able to exist outside this room is this feed with becket.
[ he doesn't understand what chuck means when he says we have our orders, but even if he did, raleigh thinks he'll do what he's always done when given an order he doesn't believe in — wholesale disregard, made solid by sheer force of will, and it's definitely cost him more than an armful of nerve damage and a brain half-mushed, but he wasn't going to change that any time soon.
he wasn't going to change that part of him - the part that, to this day, he reminds himself had cost him yancy - especially not when the alternative would be someone else's family becoming the cost.
raleigh's done with that. a hundred times over done with that. ]
Talk me through it, [ he asks, because there's a power to words that raleigh knows of, how just saying things make them more real, more founded. talk me through it, it might help. ]
chuck and raleigh have been a hell of a lot of things in their collective history thus far, but there's never been symmetry. it's nothing to grieve over, not when the only person he has that could ever come close to friendship is his father- not when they have nothing but the drift. he knows what becket's saying without the words to articulate it. it's a punch to the gut, one that flattens his diaphragm and takes a rib with it and leaves him winded. angry.
becket tells him to ignore it and go on anyway. but that isn't a call chuck has ever made on his own, isn't the kind of call any good ranger makes when he's in the field. he couldn't make it in the bay of hong kong. and he can't make it now.
there are some things he won't be able to undo. chuck remembers getting word when gipsy danger had gone down. when yancy becket had been lost and his copilot fucked off to lands unknown. chuck wants nothing more than to go after his old man- it hammers in his lungs and drums in his ears. ]
Nothin' to talk about.
[ but his dad gave the order. and what he needs is for chuck to do his job. ]
The thing is, Raleigh doesn't know Chuck. He doesn't know what makes him tick, what makes him angry, what makes him want to swing his fists or sit down and listen or plug into a Jaeger and kick kaiju ass; what Raleigh only truly knows about Chuck is that he's got a mean right hook and that he's arguably the best pilot to come out of the PPDC, barring Mako, and that's partly his bias talking when says that. Chuck isn't like Raleigh, doesn't have the same streak of casual insubordination in his veins, doesn't have the ache of a kaiju-free life to shadow most of his motivations in life.
When he thinks about it, Chuck has more in common with Mako than anyone else he knows. He knows this. So what is he doing asking Chuck questions he has no business asking him to?
(Because you care, despite better judgment. The words sound like Yancy.) ]
[ there's a change to the tonal quality, and maybe it's one becket started and maybe it isn't something either party is ready (willing) to define- but chuck echoes it the way he echoes everything else. there are rules to every universe, and of the equation for action to reaction- chuck has always known which of the two he represents. maybe the other pilot is trying to talk him through it, for both their sakes, but it isn't a motive he wants to take apart. it isn't something he wants to understand when it's so much easier to just be and do. chuck's mouth opens on reflex, to do as he's told-
but the syllable breaks off for a cacophony of sound. the wet splatter of flesh on steel and the ricochet of metal on metal. whatever chuck had been prepared to say is lost in what is undeniably an attack- punctuated by a sharp ] Son of a- [ before the feed cuts out ]
[ it's a stretch of several hours before the feed reconnects, and when it does- the relative silence in the background speaks to some semblance of safety. however momentary. chuck's voice is quieter, though whether the rough, weathered quality of his tone is from vocal rubbed raw or faded with disuse is anyone's guess. ]
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( wk 5 : day 1 | audio )
Hansen, sound off.
( wk 5 : day 1 | audio )
[ the bite doesn't have the same venom they've come to expect from one another. chuck's words are taut, like a sail at the end of it's line- and he's firing warning shots he doesn't mean.
it's another beat before he continues, and when he does, there's an unusual stillness in his tone. the video feed isn't activated, but chuck doesn't look down all the same. ]
Haven't got a proper count'a the bodies yet.
( wk 5 : day 1 | audio )
—Take a kit with you, we might need it.
( wk 5 : day 1 | audio )
We're comin' for ya. [ he says instead. like a promise, and not the desperation chuck remembers ringing in his ears- feeling his legs go offline.
it'll be different, this time.]
( wk 5 : day 1 | audio )
[ He says it like it's a request, though his tone initially seems to brook no argument; we're holding the line is hardly something he has to tell Chuck, would indeed be more of an insult than anything else, and Raleigh may not get along well with the other pilot but he does respect him. Chuck's one hell of a pilot, for all that he has the attitude of a middle school brat, and Raleigh doesn't need to be looked out for — not when they can do so much more for everyone else.
Put me last on the list. ]
—Christ, this is a m— Vacuums.
( wk 5 : day 1 | audio )
but he sure as hell isn't going to tell mori that.
chuck said they were coming. they won't be stupid about it- but they're getting becket back come hell or high water. ]
The hell d'you mean vacuums?
( wk 5 : day 1 | audio )
[ He'd narrowly missed getting sucked in, checking in through one of the doors. One of these days he'll thank his instructors at the Academy for the reflex training, but until then— ]
Tell me it's better on your end.
( wk 5 : day 1 | audio )
[ it'd far too deadpan to be true and chuck makes no effort to mask that fact. but the fact of the matter is they don't know the extent of what they're looking at. at his back, chuck knows there's a group working at one of the consoles, that they're trying to track down supplies because there's no telling how long they'll be trapped here. what they'll find. who. ]
Check-in's every hour?
( wk 5 : day 1 | audio )
Or just keep the line open.
[ The last time he shut off the comms around crew, that was Anchorage. Call it retroactive wariness, but he's not making the same mistake again. ]
( wk 5 : day 1 | audio )
[ it suits him just fine, for far more reasons that he's willing to admit. there's a shuffling on the opposite end of the feed. a faint thud, followed by the squelch of wet boots on the ground.
just when it seems he'll let it play, without another word- ]
And don't be a hero.
( wk 5 : day 1 | audio )
[ Raleigh gets out that much before something starts trudging its way in his direction and that takes up the rest of his time for a good few minutes fighting with it, softly bit curse words filtering through the pneumatic sound of a pulse rifle discharging.
It's like having a pulse cannon in miniature.
And he probably said that out loud. ]
( v : d 1 | perma-audio) --> later that day
punctuated by the sound of his breathing. sharper than his usual measured inhale. ]
( v : d 1 | perma-audio) --> later that day
Hey.
(v : d 1 | perma-audio) --> later that day
'M not dead yet.
(v : d 1 | perma-audio) --> later that day
[ Raleigh asks with hints of irritability, mirroring tone and mood over the line. Just say it, he thinks, but Chuck's not Mako and Raleigh shouldn't be expecting the same level of resonance with the other pilot. ]
Is this a bad time?
(v : d 1 | perma-audio) --> later that day
he can tolerate a lot of shit, and maybe part of that is blowing himself sky high- but his old man isn't kicking the bucket here. none of the rangers are, and chuck doesn't care what he's got to stare down to make it true. ]
Goddamned poison in Hydro deck.
(v : d 1 | perma-audio) --> later that day
That doesn't mean that he doesn't swear so wholeheartedly, though. ]
Goddamnit.
How long?
(v : d 1 | perma-audio) --> later that day
That's what I'd like t'know. [ its as close to an accusation as anything, and in the background there's a clatter of metal that follows. with another muttered swear. ]
How're the damn vacuums.
(v : d 1 | perma-audio) --> later that day
He can't get to his people fast enough. ] Can you get to him?
(v : d 1 | perma-audio) --> later that day
[ those words aren't nearly enough. they don't say i'm listening to my goddamn father slowly die. they don't say i lost track of how many human fucking bodies i've had to take apart in here. they don't say i can't. chuck has to say it because he has to draw a line. because duty and obligation and responsibility, the job has always been what mattered most to his old man, and it's what chuck pulled into himself to fill every nook and cranny that could possibly have been a hole until he decided he was complete.
they can't reach one another and he doesn't know how much time his old man has because herc doesn't tell him. all he smells is blood and the only part of him that's able to exist outside this room is this feed with becket.
and that's just the way it has to be. ]
(v : d 1 | perma-audio) --> later that day
[ he doesn't understand what chuck means when he says we have our orders, but even if he did, raleigh thinks he'll do what he's always done when given an order he doesn't believe in — wholesale disregard, made solid by sheer force of will, and it's definitely cost him more than an armful of nerve damage and a brain half-mushed, but he wasn't going to change that any time soon.
he wasn't going to change that part of him - the part that, to this day, he reminds himself had cost him yancy - especially not when the alternative would be someone else's family becoming the cost.
raleigh's done with that. a hundred times over done with that. ]
Talk me through it, [ he asks, because there's a power to words that raleigh knows of, how just saying things make them more real, more founded. talk me through it, it might help. ]
(v : d 1 | perma-audio) --> later that day
chuck and raleigh have been a hell of a lot of things in their collective history thus far, but there's never been symmetry. it's nothing to grieve over, not when the only person he has that could ever come close to friendship is his father- not when they have nothing but the drift. he knows what becket's saying without the words to articulate it. it's a punch to the gut, one that flattens his diaphragm and takes a rib with it and leaves him winded. angry.
becket tells him to ignore it and go on anyway. but that isn't a call chuck has ever made on his own, isn't the kind of call any good ranger makes when he's in the field. he couldn't make it in the bay of hong kong. and he can't make it now.
there are some things he won't be able to undo. chuck remembers getting word when gipsy danger had gone down. when yancy becket had been lost and his copilot fucked off to lands unknown. chuck wants nothing more than to go after his old man- it hammers in his lungs and drums in his ears. ]
Nothin' to talk about.
[ but his dad gave the order. and what he needs is for chuck to do his job. ]
(v : d 1 | perma-audio) --> later that day
Asks? Pleads? What is he doing?
The thing is, Raleigh doesn't know Chuck. He doesn't know what makes him tick, what makes him angry, what makes him want to swing his fists or sit down and listen or plug into a Jaeger and kick kaiju ass; what Raleigh only truly knows about Chuck is that he's got a mean right hook and that he's arguably the best pilot to come out of the PPDC, barring Mako, and that's partly his bias talking when says that. Chuck isn't like Raleigh, doesn't have the same streak of casual insubordination in his veins, doesn't have the ache of a kaiju-free life to shadow most of his motivations in life.
When he thinks about it, Chuck has more in common with Mako than anyone else he knows. He knows this. So what is he doing asking Chuck questions he has no business asking him to?
(Because you care, despite better judgment. The words sound like Yancy.) ]
Or don't, your call.
(v : d 1 | perma-audio) --> later that day
[ there's a change to the tonal quality, and maybe it's one becket started and maybe it isn't something either party is ready (willing) to define- but chuck echoes it the way he echoes everything else. there are rules to every universe, and of the equation for action to reaction- chuck has always known which of the two he represents. maybe the other pilot is trying to talk him through it, for both their sakes, but it isn't a motive he wants to take apart. it isn't something he wants to understand when it's so much easier to just be and do. chuck's mouth opens on reflex, to do as he's told-
but the syllable breaks off for a cacophony of sound. the wet splatter of flesh on steel and the ricochet of metal on metal. whatever chuck had been prepared to say is lost in what is undeniably an attack- punctuated by a sharp ] Son of a- [ before the feed cuts out ]
(v : d 2 | perma-audio)
Broke the comm.
(v : d 2 | perma-audio)
(v : d 2 | perma-audio)