#<- this has been sitting in my drafts since forever djdbdj

[vladimpale]

i'm having a lot of newmann feelings so because i can't help myself here is kuroaka as gay scientists at the end of the world

its so easy to think about kuroo coming to love the unlovable and becoming obsessed with studying the kaiju

you might think he would become a jaegar pilot and fight in the front line of the war THIS IS THE FRONT LINE FOR HIM

dissecting every bit of kaiju he can get his hands on, experimenting on them, theorizing about their physiology and ecosystem and all the shit biologists do idk man sjsjsjke

i think kenma convinced him of this back when the jaegar program was just at its start and kuroo, hearing about the masses dying, wanted to enroll as a pilot

kenma's eyes pierced him through the darkness of the room, glowing in their intensity. kuroo liked to joke that they were definitely drift compatible with the way he could read kenma's eyes, always so expressive despite his attempts at covering them with his hair.

"don't go."

"what? kenma-"

"what use are you dead in a giant mech? there are plenty of people who can pilot a jaegar, but not a lot of people think like you do."

cue sparkling eyes kuroo (tears? inspiration? who knows)

i was thinking about kenma in j-tech but like. how hilarious would black market dealer kenma be. i still dont know tho

(after deliberation i decided. yeah kenma in j-tech working in secret with kuroo on cloning kaiju in a controlled environment because it sounds cool af)

(also totally unrelated but how cool would kaiju bio harvester yaku be)

akaashi on the other hand did get into the jaegar program to be a pilot

he was praised a lot for being the only person drift compatible with bokuto who had a very volatile temperament

on his first deployment he fucked up his leg and was forced to retire (which was better than being dead but yk)

he was often told he was wasting his intellect as a ranger which made him a bit reckless during the deployment. retiring to the academics was all the more bitter because of this. i think his resentment towards his job would never stop until the breach would be closed

so he took out his frustration through k-science and, when he wasnt helping to find bokuto a co-pilot, he dedicated his entire time to analyzing the patterns of the kaiju

(bokuto is not drift compatible with anyone akaashi doesn't give his ok to. they have a complicated relationship ok)

before being assigned to the same shatterdome i think kuroaka would be distantly aware of, maybe even admiring each other (maybe they too sent each other letters, kuroo first because he's old fashioned and then akaashi because he liked the seriousness of hand written letters)

of course kuroo's attitude was an instant turn off for akaashi the first time they met. kuroo is simply horrible at first impressions (and he was trying way too hard to look cool in front of akaashi)

akaashi thought he was kinda asshole-ish for how he butted in other people's business like he knew better (and he was kinda right) kuroo just likes getting reactions out of people, which is not an easy task with akaashi

more and more people were being let go not only from j-tech, but their lab too, and the tension between them was higher and higher

there were nights where they let themselves be vulnerable tho. like talking about their dreams and their friendships and how isolated and alone they felt at the end of the world

"you've never thought of drifting with him?" "well. i once did, when i first started working for the ppdc. i had the equipment basically at my fingertips — i didn't actually — and the temptation was big. it sat in the back of my mind for a long time; but i don't need the drift to read kenma's mind so. no."

i'm honestly so unsure on which one would be the first to drift with the kaiju brain but. i have to say akaashi; i think it got presented to him as a hypothetical during their talks and the idea just rooted itself in his brain because akaashi is anything but normal about his obsessions

as we know he can't just not see his obsessions through and drifts with the kaiju

i just know kuroo was pissed as shit and gave him the silent treatment for a while, though akaashi might not have noticed while being haunted by The Visions

kuroo and oikawa (now laid off drift scientist) talked about all kinds of possibilities of side effects in that time so when time came for a second drift — kuroo just hauled akaashi with him to do it together