driftwithme

[driftwithme]

It's tiiiiiiiime

[driftwithme]

we as a society got over Pacific Rim too fast.

- banging soundtrack just awesome

- lead female character with her own fully realized arc that had nothing to do with a love interest

- the concept of drifting is so fucking cool and prime fanfic material

- those two gay fucking weirdo scientists who drifted together inside a fucking alien brain like hello

- IT PULLS OUT A SWORD IN OUTER FUCKING SPACE

- kaijus are cool. that's all.

[driftwithme]

Thing is:

Yes, the trauma of piloting a jaeger is real but so it's the need to pilot it, so I need an au where the PPDC created a program to help pilots cope with the need to go fight.

It's literally a simulation center where you play for scores. That's it. They tricked all governments to keep a space where they can turn piloting a jaeger into a videogame. It's not dangerous for the brain, helps collect data, the k-science department can create new kaiju by combining info they know or replicate old versions, etc.

I'm talking about a "everyone can live if you want to" type of au where Chuck can complain about a game Eruka being slower than real life Eruka, or the Kaidonovsky can run a betting poll of who can score more against the new kaiju Newt created.

They also work on how to make the j-pilot training super effective. What is the first thing cadets see when they go in the simulator for the first time? Oh yes, Mako's score on top in red intimidating the hell out of them.

They get "themed parks" that are in fact recruiting centers. People pay to play, but in some cases the scouts also find a compatible pair.

I don't know, I think it'd be fun.

[driftwithme]

One day I'll make another edit lol

Here's another version of my All I Wanted Was You chaleigh edit! This time better synchronized, even if only a little <3

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And more 🤭

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[driftwithme]

🇺🇸🇦🇺annual

[driftwithme]

The one with the prompt month

First of all, I was not expecting as many people to vote on that poll as they did. With just under a day before it closes, we’re at almost 200 votes, which is…several times more than what I expected. Now, I was prepared to run this even if it only got 20 votes, so Last Days of War January 2025 is absolutely going forward now. 

With that in mind, I’ve put together this post with some questions I think might need to be answered in regards to the event, though if anyone has anything else to ask, please feel free to! 

The Questions: 

What is a prompt month?

It’s the same principle as challenges such as Inktober, really. A calendar of prompts is released prior to the event itself, with a prompt or several prompts to each day of the challenge month. 

The prompts will be kept fairly loose to ensure that they’re suitable for whatever medium people may use, but as many of them as possible will be Pacific Rim themed, taking inspiration from the first movie as well as the comic books. 

The current plan (inspiration providing) is to assign three short prompts to each day in the month of January, which participants can pick and choose from, or try to use all three! This is, of course, dependent on having more than ninety prompts of a good quality, and that plan could still change. At the very least, there will be one prompt for each day. All going well, the prompt calendar will be made and posted by early November to maximise prep time.

How to take part? 

There’s no sign-up necessary, so you participate simply by following along with the prompt calendar throughout the month! 

Make sure to use the tag  ‘#last days of war 2025’ and/or tag @lastdaysofwar on tumblr so that others can find your posts and the mod can reblog them onto the event page! 

An Ao3 collection will also be made for the event so that anyone who posts over there can add their works and make them easier to locate. 

Rules/Guidelines: 

Honestly, it’s a bit of a free for all. The mod (hi!) is mostly here to facilitate the event by doing the prompts, answering questions and reblogging posts. The people have the power in this one. 

All I will ask is that everyone be respectful to one another. If someone posts something that you don’t personally like, don’t harass them over it, just scroll past. We’re all here to have fun and enjoy the event in our own way. 

Also, please try to interact with each others’ posts! Take a look through the tag to see what others have made, and make sure to let them know if you enjoy it. We all love hearing that people liked our stuff. 

Further Questions?

If you have any further questions about the event, you can DM or send an ask to this account (@lastdaysofwar). The mod is more than happy to answer any questions you may have, so fire away! 

There is a google form for this event that you can find here. It's quite short, and mostly to gather opinions from people who want to participate, so be sure to fill it out!

[driftwithme]

A short update from behind the scenes

We have almost reached enough prompts to run 3 per day of the event! Still a few short, and hoping to overshoot the minimum of 93 for the sake of being able to cut out duplicates and put together a good shortlist for the actual calendar. All going well, that will be ready to go in early November as originally planned.

A reminder that you're all able (and encouraged!) to submit your own prompt ideas. You can do so through the Google Form here or, if you'd rather just give a prompt idea and not fill out the rest of the form, you're free to do so in the notes of any post on this blog, by ask or by DM! If there's any specific idea/trope/AU you'd like to have put down as an option on the event calendar, we'd love to hear it.

[driftwithme]

Pacific Rim fans, this one's for you

If you, like me, are a Pacific Rim fan (big surprise, I tagged the post), then you will probably know that the in-universe timeline of the movie takes place in January 2025.

But wait, I said to myself many months ago, that's next January!

We've had some truly wonderful zines and challenges this year and last, but I wanted to put together something of my own to throw into the mix, and I came up with a simple idea that's been done a million times before: a prompt month! With no sign-up necessary, I thought it might be fun to throw together a prompt list for the month of January, set out a tumblr tag (and maybe an Ao3 collection, if I can figure out how those work) that we can all use, and have a shared little celebration of this movie we all love in our corner of the internet.

Tell me in the notes/asks/DMs/??? if you have any questions, suggestions, or anything else I can't think of to put in this category.

And because the people love polls, here's a poll:

[driftwithme]

If you were in the sleeping quarters of the Hong Kong Shatterdome, specifically on one ranger's room, you'd be able to witness the smile Chuck has on his face when he accidentally looks at his reflection on the glass of the G. Danger poster he framed on the wall after the Double Event. It was a gift for a birthday, although he can't remember now which one.

In truth Chuck fashion, it is half a cocky smirk with a genuine, content slip of the lips that oozes satisfaction. He traces the cut on his lower lip with his tongue, tempted to reopen it as many times as needed for it to leave a scar.

It's when he catches his eyes that he whispers in wonder "I kissed Raleigh Becket".

He can be back at being terrified later.

He kissed Raleigh-bloody-Becket.

Unaware of the details, Raleigh feels a shiver run through him all the way across the Shatterdome. He blames the cold of the metal he's sitting in and with a slight curse, he pulls back from his previous position. The railing has left a superficial red mark where it was pressed against his forehead, his legs balancing themselves beyond the platform as he leans back supporting his weight on his arms.

Raleigh faces up, the absolute maddening lost look witnessed by the dying sun and the blinking stars above. He's so far high on the hangar that not even the j-techs would find a good reason for bothering him.

Raleigh has exhausted himself punching, kicking and body slamming his thoughts out of his mind. When asked about it by Mako, he choked on his words before he could lie and say he was okay, it was just a nightmare. It didn't feel right. He could not lie with the shape of Chuck's mouth imprinted on his, tasting bitter and warm and all the things he fought hard to recall from the seconds before and after Chuck kissed him.

He swore he saw a shine to those eyes, but no matter how hard he tried, he was too dazed to remember if those were tears or— or—

He was going insane.

Raleigh fell back, not caring about the cold. He wishes the air and metal could take the heat from his skin, the shadow of his silhouette beyond the kwon entrance. He's been high on the memory, too wired to fall asleep— and the way that j-tech asked him if he had beaten up Chuck again, half concern in the wrinkle of his eyes but even more malice in the badly disguised grin—

He didn't mean to brush their shoulders forcedly as he passed by. Or maybe he did. In any case, he just can't find a reason to regret that action.

It was getting late. Raleigh had things to do, very important things, things that didn't include hiding and mopping around after being kissed by fucking Chuck Hansen.

Chuck Hansen kissed him.

Then disappeared.

Fuck.

I think Chuck should try to land a punch on Raleigh and Raleigh should catch it and pull Chuck against him for a hug and Chuck should lose all control and sanity for a few seconds and fully grab Raleigh's shirt and kiss him hard and then come back to his senses.

In all of that, Raleigh still has Chuck's now soft hand in his and he did move to react but for some reason the kiss felt more like a blow than anything he has ever been hit with, so he's totally paralyzed as Chuck runs walks away.

Raleigh touches his mouths and licks his lips to find out there's blood there and he doesn't know who it belongs to. The phantom feel of Chuck's fingers over him won't let him rest. Raleigh has trained himself to stay calm and react accordingly to any emergency, but this????

Meanwhile Chuck was expecting a tantrum or a rage threatening to destroy it all but all he feels is at peace. It's weird, it's wrong. He fills his head with absurd notions like maybe he stole Raleigh's tranquility with the kiss. It only gets worse when Chuck passes quickly beside the gym and sees Raleigh annihilating a poor boxing bag. Oh God, he turned Raleigh violent.

I need them to feel what the other feels and be convinced it's magic or some kaiju science bullshit and never EVER consider the fact that maybe—

Maybe they just care about the other.

Maybe Chuck feels better after kissing the man he has wanted to kiss since he was a teen. Maybe he feels better to kiss a friend. Maybe he feels less lonely and it makes him feel less angry and that's the whole thing.

Maybe Raleigh is mad because he wants more or because now he notices how badly people treat Chuck. Maybe he saw the hurt in Chuck's eyes a second before he pulled away or felt the despair in the kiss and that messed him up.

God forbid, maybe they are in love.

[driftwithme]

This is true no matter when you read it

Every night I gaslight myself into believing that making a whole new au in my head for chuck and raleigh to fall in love is gonna help me fall asleep and every night I lie in my bed like: the implications

[driftwithme]

1) Is that Mako smiling in the background?

2) Wtf, Raleigh has such a tiny waist in this frame!

3) Chuck's face after spitting blood is so funny, he doesn't even look as angry as he looks out of it.

[driftwithme]

MAKO WAS SO INVESTED IN THAT FIGHT

[driftwithme]

She was introduced by making fun of Raleigh.

She has a perfect score on drops simulations.

She led the effort to restore Lady Danger.

I'm pretty sure it was her idea to use a boat as a sword on the Double Event.

I can go on and on about her!!!!!

Have you ever thought about how fearless Mako is portrayed?

She dyes her hair the color of kaijus blood.

She looked at a jaeger with PLASMA CASTERS and decided to add CHAIN SWORDS.

Mako saw it to criticize Raleigh Becket's skills to his face and then proceeded to defeat him, proving she was not all talk. She bites.

She's 21-22 years old and she's already acting like Pentecost secretary/advisor.

Her first drop was a fucking double event and she found a way to slay a kaiju almost on space.

While she claimed revenge on her parents.

Every other pilot around her has been doing that for years now. They are brave by experience and before that they were brave because they had to be, okay?

Mako Mori is Stacker Pentecost's child and like him, she's the most fearless motherfucker ever on that movie and any kaiju should tremble in fear if she appears on battle. Neither Stacker nor Mako has mercy. They are bad in the head, capable of anything to exterminate those aliens. Insane !!!!!

Although for me, the best part is that they are also human. Mako is afraid of disappointing her adoptive dad, she is afraid of reliving her traumas, she's hopeful and vulnerable too. Pentecost hides his weakness because he doesn't want others to think him incapable of doing his job or pity him. He is a man who loves his daughter A LOT and fears losing her. He doesn't want to see her hurt.

Mako is such a freaking good character. C'mon.

[driftwithme]

mako mori hive where are you i need you!!!!!!!

[driftwithme]

My favorite trope is "accidentally in love" applied to friendships.

They were NOT meant to be besties, okay? Yet they never stood a chance against all that trauma bonding. Absolute dorks 'cause they still consider each other enemies, acquaintances, teammates, whatever. You are friends, pals, mates, besties.

Best feeling in the world when they keep fighting the power of friendship and lose.