#gipsy people

[bellofiore]

beatiful wedding.

he was a gipsy-boy, there was a lot of gipsy people. they danced some romanian songs, and show me how curios is their incredible culture.

[fluorescentbalaclava]

the lord giveth (pacific rim prequel) and the lord taketh away (the acolyte)

[amitshridhar]

Scandinavian minorities ignored by the State and media – Arctic 93

Romani people

19/03/2024, tuesday 19 march 2024, 01:18 p.m, indore, madhya pradesh, india.

[captainzigo]

not going to be tagging any future posts that feature muffins as #derpy or #ditzy doo. they aren’t even canon names. i’ve been doing it so my posts get the maximum reach but no that’s stupid. both bubbles and muffins have been printed with her on official stuff from hasbro. and neither of those are ablest or misogynist, nor have they been retracted and apologized for. yeah everyone called her that. people used to just say gipsy all the time too. it was in the episode of teen titans that i just watched. culture grows and changes and yall need to catch up.

[kevqzt]

expanding more on that pacific rim x transformers thing,,

random fight between decepticons and the autobots and then the ground starts shaking TREMENDOUSLY and they're like,, "what in primus name was that" and the moment they look up a giant, horned scaly creature is stomping through the city roaring at something in the distance, which infact is one of the jaegers, slowly being transported by a bunch of helicopters

"since when did those fleshy little rascals have TITANS on them" a decepticon probably as they watch the jaeger get dropped off and it goes on an absolute rampage against the kaiju fists, weapons and everything (thinking gipsy danger here) and when they look at her chassis they're like "... why's it's spark fully exposed can't that giant monster just hurl that thing out" but it's the reactor that powers her in the first place

one of em takes a glimpse into the helmet and sees the very vague figures controlling the jaeger "is that a human. since when did titans allow humans to be inside their HELMS" but it's just your average seasoned pilots fighting their millionth category 3-4 in a row

NEED THE AUTOBOTS AND THE DECEPTICONS TO STUDY THE JAEGERS... and vice versa for the people in the pacific rim universe cause like,, more aliens ??? we're already being tormented by the ones coming from another dimension and another batch just waltz on in

[wistfulpoltergeist]

List 5 facts about a favorite sim of yours, and send this to 10 simblrs whose sims you adore ♥♥♥

Aww, thank you! It's time to reveal something about KONAN! His eyes are up there, btw XD

1) He is a former Navy SEAL and an MMA fighter. This telling Konan is all about physicality and endurance. He loves good challenges and never misses a chance to improve his body mobility. His army mates are still his only family. (Roland, I'm looking straight at you :D)

2) Konan was born in Sulani, left his heart to the ocean. He is proficient in surfing and finds fishing calming. After the war, he worked as a fisherman on a ship in the Atlantics. Survived several storms and saw that the ocean returned his feelings.

3) He plays the guitar and drums, goes nuts about good old Metal and Epic and finds any other music genre void of power and spirit.

4) Konan's religion is shamanism. He is prone to ancient rituals, listening to the wind and waves and trusting Mother Nature. That's why he never parts with his amulets and can predict the weather or survive any cataclysm.

5) He comes from a very poor family that had to move from place to place in a van and live like hippie-gipsies. Since being a boy, he detested rich and important people and believed they were all corrupted meaningless shells. He changed his mind when he met Arwin, his new source of inspiration and trust in people.

From me I can only add that Arwin has no idea how he managed to return Konan trust in people being either depressed or anxious about his relationships with Aidan most of the time they spent together :D

(づ ᴗ _ᴗ)づ♡

[bethanydelleman]

The racism Heathcliff faces isn't because of skin color. It's because he's Roma. Antiziganism was, and still is, a massive, MASSIVE problem in Europe. The Nazis genocided the Roma along with Jews, and there are other historical parallels there. And this absolute unmitigated hatred his society had for Heathcliff because he was Roma is at the core of his character. He succumbed to evil because of the despair it engendered in him.

I lived in France at one point and I witnessed this myself, it is definitely still a thing. All I'm saying is, put yourself in the shoes of the Earnshaws and it's more complicated than racism.

Just imagine if your dad/husband came home from a three day business trip and pulled a living human being out of his pocket. Just like that. "Here, new brother" like this child is a puppy at Christmas And then, he favours that kid above his biological children! Of course Hindley hates him! Of course Mrs. Earnshaw is angry!

These reactions are definitely a mix of racism and disbelief, anger, and hatred over favouritism (all Ch 4):

Mrs. Earnshaw was ready to fling it out of doors: she did fly up, asking how he could fashion to bring that gipsy brat into the house, when they had their own bairns to feed and fend for?

So, from the very beginning, he bred bad feeling in the house; and at Mrs. Earnshaw’s death, which happened in less than two years after, the young master had learned to regard his father as an oppressor rather than a friend, and Heathcliff as a usurper of his parent’s affections and his privileges; and he grew bitter with brooding over these injuries.

“Take my colt, Gipsy, then!” said young Earnshaw. “And I pray that he may break your neck: take him, and be damned, you beggarly interloper! and wheedle my father out of all he has: only afterwards show him what you are, imp of Satan.—And take that, I hope he’ll kick out your brains!”

Heathcliff is also denied an education and is dirt poor (Mr. Earnshaw brought him home and then left him nothing in the will, clearly. What an adoption plan!). When he returns rich, everyone is ready to accept him into society. He has the lawyers on his side, Isabella ready to marry him, and he has a respected position in society. So I would say his class/wealth is also a huge factor here.

All I'm saying is, it's not just racism. I mean, to me, Wuthering Heights is a two generation story of people being extremely awful to each other. I'm not sure what the theme is meant to be other than bonkers.

That said, yes, they should totally cast Heathcliff as a darker skinned person, because he definitely is one.

[garlictoast]

To Love is to Let Go

happy pacific rim year!!

here's Day 1 for @lastdaysofwar aka what Mako does with Stacker's dog tags.

of course i gotta make it sad.

Raleigh doesn’t keep Yancy’s dog tags.

At first, he tells himself it’s too painful. He doesn’t need the reminder, doesn’t want to hear Knifehead’s roar, doesn’t want to feel the Kaiju ripping through his arm, every time he looks at them. Normal people don’t really understand it. Don’t you want to memorialize him? They ask, as if Yancy wasn’t living in Raleigh’s head. Don’t you want to honor his service? Like Raleigh didn’t gain possession of everything else his brother left behind at the PPDC. His dress blues, his medals, his Gipsy Danger bomber jacket. The memory of every Kaiju they ever dropped. After a while, Raleigh gives up trying to explain to civilians. They just can’t get it, and he doesn’t have the energy to run circles getting them to try.

It shouldn’t surprise him that Mako is the first person to understand. After the Kaiju War, after Stacker and Chuck sacrifice themselves to save the world, Raleigh waits for Mako on the cliff’s edge as she holds the Marshall’s dog tags over the raging sea. It’s all that’s left of him, of course, his body incinerated in the blast.

“You don’t wanna keep them?” Raleigh asks, raising his voice to be heard over the wind.

Mako’s brow furrows, the corners of her mouth turning down. “No,” she says after a moment, but she doesn’t let go. The tags stay gripped in her fist, clicking together on their chain.

“Mako.” She closes her eyes, shaking her head. “You don’t have to keep them.”

“I should.” Her voice cracks, and Raleigh can tell she’s fighting back tears. “It’s all I have left of him.”

Raleigh doesn’t say anything. He’s familiar with this conflict, the constant tug-of-war between wanting to do what everyone else thinks is right and wanting to just be rid of the reminders. In the back of his mind, a younger version of himself stands on a cliff in Alaska, a colder wind lashing at his face, ice stinging his eyes. That Raleigh was alone, the only other person he imagined capable of understanding reduced to nothing but memories and two slips of battered metal. Mako mirrors that version of Raleigh now, a few tears escaping down her cheeks as she considers the memento in front of her. Raleigh steps up beside her, toeing the edge of the cliff as he pushes his hands further into his pockets.

“You know,” he starts, shifting his weight, “I didn’t keep Yancy’s.” Mako turns to him, eyes wide. “I couldn’t make myself hold onto any more of him.”

Mako’s hand lowers as she bring the tags to her chest. “I have to. I feel like I have to.” Her thumb rubs the raised lettering. “I won’t have anything left of him if I don’t.”

“You have this.” Raleigh rests one hand on Mako’s head. “Everything you’ve ever done with him, everything he’s ever done, is right here.” He lets his hand fall to her cheek. “Yancy’s been gone for a long time now, but I still see him. Every day. Every time I close my eyes, he’s there, whether I want him to be or not. That’s the beauty of the Drift, Mako. No matter what happens, no matter how much time passes, he’ll always be with you. You don’t need to hold onto anything more than you already have.” Tears are reforming in Mako’s eyes, spilling over as Raleigh talks. He doesn’t have to be in her head to know that she agrees.

“Let the sea have them,” he says, covering the dog tags in her palm with his own. “You can always find him in the Drift.” He’ll realize later that he was echoing Stacker’s last words but to her, but in the moment, all he can think of are the tears on Mako’s skin, her fingers trembling under his, the cold metal warming between their palms. All he wants is for her to feel okay with her decision, like she has something, someone. Like she isn’t alone in this, because she isn’t.

They drop the last remains of Stacker Pentecost into the sea together, watching the tags fall into the ocean until they’re swallowed by gray waves. He doesn’t move until Mako does, slowly turning her back on the sea, on her father.

“It’s not a goodbye,” she says quietly, almost to herself. “I still have him here.” She rests one hand over her heart as she smiles sadly at Raleigh.

He smiles back. “Let’s get somewhere warm.” He puts one arm around her shoulders as they walk back down the cliff, letting the warmth of her against his side chase off the chill of the wind.

In the back of his mind, he hears Yancy’s voice, faint but never fading. You did good, kid.

[bustybounty]

So I found a weird potion and a strange powder in the attic of my gipsy grandma's house with some weird instructions: "take a drop of the pink potion, and your size will be reduced till you weigh 100 grams (any more drops wil reduce the weight by another tenfold) . Then take a pinch of powder and bake it into any dish you like. Eat that entire dish and you become your regular size again." I showed this to my wife and she wanted to try it immediately. I gave her a single drop and her size reduced to a cm or 15 tall. We checked her weight and she really was a 100 grams! I baked her a single cupcake with the powder in it to return her to her former size. She ate it like a woman posessed. I could hear from her small voice that it was the best thing she had ever eaten. After what seemed like less than a minute the cupcake was gone and she started growing back again. When she started growing though, it seemed like she was gaining weight at a rapid rate. That's when I realized the mistake i made; when she was smaller, she basically ate a cupcake that was the weight as she was, meaning she became twice as heavy when she grew! I apologized profusely, but she was ecstatic. The feeling of her body growing was orgasmic bliss to her (and to be fair, she wears it well). She wanted to do it again immediately, but I had my doubts. So she explained to me that she always had a bit of a fat fetish, but her metabolism left her petite and very thin and now she had a way to make her dreams come true and then some. So after a lovely night in the bedroom she convinced met to help her gain even more weight with the potion and the powder. Now my question is: should I take it slow and just make the same sized cupcake, doubling her weight each time, or should I size it all up? Let her have more drops so the cupcakes are bigger in comparison? Bake bigger cakes or even a tub full of just batter? Or should I just give her the bottle entirely and drop her reducing body in the nation's ice cream reserve while just a pinch of powder gets mixed into it? What is a husband to do to please his wife?

Hey, honestly that ask on its own is basically its own post and it's like you've done my job for me! Well not job, this is supposed to just be a hobby to make people happy, but you get what I mean!

Hard to EXPAND on that much unfortunately as you've made such a good description yourself...maybe you should take up writing on a blog as well! Who knows, you definitely have talent~ <3

Anyway...

The best course of action is doing whatever makes your wife happier. Now, she's obviously fat, and fattening up at a rate where she's very unlikely to lose all her weight, unless you find another special potion for weight loss specifically, in your grandma's attic or somewhere else. She is definitely VERY into this, and so should you, there's so much more of her to love~! If you DID have access to the national ice cream reserve...what's there to stop you, or even her to do such a thing? She might start taking the initiative herself even when you're not looking or away from home, ending up fatter and fatter each time you arrive, so you might as well go all in with every option you just said, combined.

Drop the whole liquid on her, put powder on the largest food container you can find, have her tiny, almost inaudible moans and squeals show the pleasure she's having eating so much for her tiny body (even if frankly she's eating so much that even if she was at her normal self she'd be more than bloated!) that'll soon become a gigantic blob that's definitely visible from space, the most grandious, beautiful, ginormous, titanic wife ever...

A hungry blob that'll demand more, but since the vials are empty, you better find some kind of solution to her new eating problem~ <3

[pinescent-and-gingerbread]

Alright people, needing your help once again, for writing purposes!

Which horse do you think fits Arthur the most, canonically? Not your personal favorite, the one a canon Arthur would be the more likely to have.

Considering certain theories, Boadicea was a Hungarian halfbred... But I'm trying to be as canon as possible and searching for what new horse he could have after her during the game's events.

Another one? Feel free to tell me in the comments, and to add the coat color too! I would love to know what you folks picture for him!

Pine🌱

[eli0209]

Thereafter

Mako is deep asleep. Raleigh reflects.

Bringing back my first ever Pacific Rim fanfic because I just realized it took place on January 13th.

So, the clock had been stopped permanently…

Now what?

Now what?

Raleigh sighed heavily. He had spent the last 12 hours waiting for something to change, for something to happen. Waiting for someone to come and tell him what was next…

But none of that happened.

What would he do? What would she do? What would they both do now that the Jaeger Program was over and they were no longer needed?

The "she" he was worried about was peacefully sleeping on a small bed less than two meters away from the chair he was on; her blue dyed strands of hair falling freely on her face.

They were in Mako's bedroom. Not feeling in the mood to celebrate, and exhausted both physically and mentally, they had managed to avoid the cheering crowds and discretely headed there almost immediately after reaching the Shatterdome. He didn't think there was that much to celebrate and he knew she felt the same.

Once in the room, Raleigh had helped her remove the pilot suit from her body to change into more comfortable clothes, careful not to hurt her already bruised frame. After everything they'd gone through, Mako had been just too tired to even grief and had simply lain down on the bed, falling asleep shortly after. He had tried to get some sleep as well, but sitting had proven to be an impossible position for him to do so, so after an hour or so of struggling he had given up. There was too much in his head anyway; too much to assimilate.

He had taken a hot shower in an attempt to clear up his mind and changed into some cargo pants and an undershirt he had fetched from his room. He didn't want to leave Mako's side. He didn't want her to wake up alone to her new reality.

He looked at her sleeping form and his mind went back to the rainy day he met her in. To the way she looked. To how her dark hair and fair skin contrasted with the grayness around them, just like it did with his life itself. He had been really close to losing her. Unconsciously, his mind relived the fear and anguish he felt when he realized Mako's oxygen levels were dropping; a shill ran down his spine at the thought and his eyes moved to the scars on his left arm subconsciously. There was only one time in which he had felt that way; it had been in the prior moments to Yancy's death… that fear of losing someone.

This time he hadn't been willing to let that happen. He had to protect her. After Marshal Pentecost's sacrifice, Raleigh had made the silent vow of watching over Mako no matter what, and that was what he had kept in mind while activating Gipsy's reactor manually. He couldn't die; he had to go back to her.

It wasn't the Drift compatibility they had or it wasn't simply that. There was something in her that had captivated him since the very first time he saw her, and as he got to know her that simple "something" turned into more.

Raleigh was certain she knew what he felt for her; he had never really bother hiding it. What was the point if in order to get a proper neuronal connection between pilots they couldn't hold onto any memory or thought. He knew she felt something for him too; he just wasn't sure how long it would take for her to come to terms with it. He didn't care. He would wait.

Raleigh took Mako's small red shoe from one of the shelves before him, and examined it carefully, tracing the patent leather surface with his fingers, musing. He wondered if Mako had finally gotten rid of her ghosts from the past. Had he finally gotten rid of his? He put the shoe back when he felt Mako stir.

She sighed deeply in her sleep, and Raleigh watched as she slowly opened her eyes, and little by little, regained consciousness of the things and people surrounding her. She sat up. A pained expression crossed her features as the realization of what had happened hit her. Then, her eyes met him. Something in the way she was looking at him made him feel uneasy.

They stared at each other for what it felt like ages.

Some words he had heard once came to his mind "When you share a neuronal connection with someone for so long, you feel like there is nothing left to talk about."

It didn't have to be that way…

"What are you thinking?" she asked him a little drowsily; her black eyes curious and expectant.

He had never believed that crap anyway.

"My timing seems to be finally right," he replied.

She narrowed her eyes.

He smiled.

She smiled.

He didn't care what was next anymore.

[e-vay]

do you have tattoos? if yes can you share them? if you’re comfortable sharing!

Oh heck yeah, Anon, you’re speaking my language!

I have three!

The first I got was the Gipsy Danger emblem from Pacific Rim:

People laugh at me when they find out what this tattoo is. But honestly I saw that movie at the lowest point in my life where I felt completely worthless, and seeing that movie filled me with so strength, so I wanted to have a reminder of that feeling with me always.

My second tattoo is a matching set with my best friend:

Hers is a wolf and mine is a fox (naturally) and together they make a heart.

My third tattoo is this stellar art piece where I commissioned an artist to design a “Sailor Moon” wand for the character Mercy from Overwatch:

I love it with my whole heart. It’s easily my fav so far!

I have plans for more (of course including Sonic tats) but I’m not able to make that happen at the moment haha

[vinnieswife]

Hi there! If you're still writing for Raleigh Becket, I'm curious to know how this sad Golden retriever of a man would react to having a friend/love interest who is filled with hope and is adventurous and excited about his work as a Jaeger pilot?

raleigh becket x reader

word count: 680

author’s note: I don’t know if that’s what you wanted, feel free to ask me for more requests :)

Steel and Sunshine

You’ve always been the kind of person who sees the light in everything, even when the world is crumbling. That’s what Raleigh loves about you.

In a world filled with metal giants and kaiju nightmares, hope is rare. People lose themselves in fear, in grief, in the weight of survival. But not you. No, you look at the Jaegers like they’re something out of a dream, not just machines built for war but symbols of humanity’s defiance. You look at Raleigh like he’s something more than a soldier, more than a man who’s lost too much.

The first time you saw Gipsy Danger up close, your eyes lit up like a child seeing fireworks for the first time. “She’s beautiful,” you whispered, running a hand along the cold steel, your fingers trailing reverently over the insignia painted on her hull. Raleigh had chuckled, leaning against the railing, arms crossed. “Yeah, she is,” he agreed, but he wasn’t looking at Gipsy. He was looking at you.

You make his world feel lighter. Your excitement is infectious—when you talk about his work, it’s with awe, not fear. You ask about every mission, every maneuver, every part of the Jaeger that fascinates you. “What’s it like in the Drift?” you ask one night, lying next to him under the dim glow of the Shatterdome lights. He turns his head to look at you, studying the way your lips curve up even in the darkness. “It’s…intense,” he admits. “Like being cracked open. You feel everything. Your co-pilot’s past, their pain, their joy—it’s all just there, like it’s your own.”

You hum thoughtfully, fingers tracing circles on his arm. “That sounds terrifying,” you say, but there’s no hesitation in your voice. “And incredible.”

Raleigh huffs a small laugh. “Yeah. Something like that.”

You’re different from anyone he’s ever known. Most people look at him and see a pilot, a warrior, someone who’s lost too much to ever be whole again. You see more. You see the kid who built sandcastles on the beach with his brother, the man who still gets that gleam in his eye when he talks about flying, the heart that keeps beating even when everything around him has tried to break it.

Raleigh isn’t used to that. He’s used to people looking at him with pity, with wariness, like he’s a ghost of the man he used to be. But you? You look at him like he’s unshakable, like he’s worth believing in. And maybe that’s why he starts believing it too.

You challenge him in ways he never expects. When he’s cautious, you push him to take risks. When he’s buried in his own thoughts, you pull him back to the present, reminding him there’s still joy to be found in this world. And when he’s doubting himself, you remind him exactly who he is.

“You’re a damn hero, ray,” you tell him one evening, after he’s come back from a brutal training session. He’s bruised, sore, and exhausted, but when you say it, your voice so full of certainty, something warm settles in his chest. “Not because you fight,” you continue, your fingers brushing a cut on his cheek with the gentlest touch. “But because you never stop trying.”

He doesn’t know what to say to that. So he just pulls you in, arms tight around you, breathing in the comfort of your presence.

And God, you love the thrill of all of this. The danger, the mission, the idea of standing on the frontlines of history. You tell him you wish you could pilot a Jaeger, that the idea of being in that cockpit, facing down monsters, sends a rush through your veins.

“Don’t romanticize it too much,” he warns, smirking as you practically bounce on your feet beside him in the Shatterdome. “It’s not all heroics and perfect fights.”

“But it is fighting for something bigger than yourself,” you counter. “It’s proving we won’t back down.”

Raleigh shakes his head, a little amused, a little amazed. He’s seen cadets with less enthusiasm than you, and you’re not even in the program. You’re just you—a wildfire of hope and adventure, of belief in what the Jaegers stand for, in what he stands for.

And that’s why, when he climbs into Gipsy Danger before every mission, your voice is the last thing he hears in his head. Because you remind him why he fights. Not just for survival, not just for revenge—but for the future.

For hope.

For you.

[synthapostate]

@lastdaysofwar, Day 16: Alternate Universe/Orders (Sasha Kaidonovsky)

This one got away from me a little.

They follow the marshal’s orders, even when those orders are for Crimson Typhoon and Striker Eureka to engage the kaiju, and Cherno Alpha to hang back and defend. Her brutal war machine is not suited to the sidelines, but Sasha trusts the marshal.

But trust only goes so far. The Kaidonovskys have not spent all these years protecting their perimeter without learning when to take the initiative. And when the dying screams of Crimson Typhoon’s pilots crackle across their comms, and are abruptly silenced, they don’t wait for further orders. Cherno Alpha makes its lumbering way to the remaining jaeger’s aid.

They almost make it. Later, she will wonder: if their positions were reversed, if Pentecost had made a different call and Cherno were the one crushed under a kaiju’s foot, could the Hansens, in their newer, faster machine have reached them in time?

She’ll never know. The Hansens scream their last defiance at their killer as water rushes into the cockpit. Then, just like that, they’re gone. Three brothers and a father and son, all taken in a matter of minutes, and Cherno can do nothing about it. Gipsy Danger’s untried and unstable pair has to save the day, and Sasha can only watch.

Later, with her arm in a sling and fury in her heart, she finds Mori and Beckett in the jaeger bay, watching the mechanics put the pieces back together. Mori has been crying. She’s calm now, but her eyes give her away. The girl is green. But she’s getting there. This won’t be enough to break her.

“Herc was a really decent guy,” Beckett is saying. “I’m sorry.”

“He was a good man,” Mori agrees. “You didn’t get the chance to know Jin and Hu and Cheung, but they were as well. They were good friends, and very brave. And poor Chuck.”

Beckett just nods at that, his expression carefully neutral.

“I realize he did not make a good first impression, but there was more to him than what you saw,” Mori sighs. “I’ve known him since we were children. We used to make such big plans for the future.” She shakes her head. “I’ll have to look after Max now.”

“You will spoil that dog,” Sasha says. They both turn to her.

“Lieutenant Kaidonovsky, you’re out of medical.”

“Dodging my husband now. Man like that is worst kind of mother hen.” She smiles, a flash of white teeth and crimson lips that she has cultivated over a lifetime. It makes her look fierce. A smile like that keeps anyone from noticing the parts of her that are not cold steel. Like a warm heart that adores her Aleksis, and melts at his care for her.

“Glad to see you still in one piece,” Beckett says. Sasha nods.

“Thanks to you two.” She rolls her shoulder, best she can in its sling. “You came through. Second drift was stable.”

“Yes,” they say together, still all tied up in each other’s heads.

Sasha should go find her own partner now. She’s had her walk, proven that she can handle herself. Now, time to let Aleksis take care of her, if only because it makes him so happy.

“See you, rangers,” she says. “Look forward to fighting with you next time.”

“Can you pilot?” Mori asks, with innocent concern. The girl is so young.

“Don’t need two arms to pilot a jaeger,” Sasha says. Beckett meets her eyes over the top of Mori’s head. He frowns, but doesn’t speak. Sometimes, even outside of the drift, there are things that don’t need to be said.

Sasha waves and walks away. Behind her, she hears Beckett call up to their maintenance crew, “Hey up there! You have a safety harness! Quit screwing around and use it!”

“They are trying to work quickly,” Mori says.

“I’ve seen people fall from that height. I never want to see it again.”

Heh. There are going to be improvements to the Shatterdome’s safety ratings in the future. Assuming everyone lives that long.

*

Gottlieb says they’re running out of time, but somehow Sasha doesn’t believe it until the order comes for Aleksis to suit up and report to the jaeger bay. Without her.

Hell no. This is not happening. They head down together, and Sasha finds the marshal’s sidekick Choi and demands an explanation. Aleksis looms behind her. That’s what he does best.

“Why you didn’t call me, huh?” she asks. “I still have time to suit up?”

“Uh…all due respect, ma’am, you can’t pilot with that arm,” Choi says, looking like he expects her to bring her fist down on the top of his head and drive him three feet into the floor.

“Aleksis cannot pilot alone. Better this arm than neural overload. Or who you think his copilot will be? You?”

“Sasha,” Aleksis says. Be nice.

Sasha groans and tosses her head. She knows, this is not Choi’s fault, but she doesn’t like where this is going. She can see the ending all laid out for her, and it’s wrong. Her place is in her jaeger, by her partner’s side.

The doors open, and in comes Marshal Pentecost, looking sleek and dashing in a drivesuit made for a younger man.

Mori is silently devastated, as she learns all over again that she can lose what she loves the most.

Choi clutches the rosary that never leaves his hand.

Beckett looks away. Better than anyone here, he knows that heroes do not go out in a blaze of glory. They just go.

Others murmur, pride or sorrow or grim resignation.

Sasha walks out. She doesn’t care for Pentecost’s speeches, and Aleksis needs to get ready.

*

There is ice in her eyes, and she freezes their crew with a look. They don’t come near.

Sasha fits him out herself, one-handed and methodical. First the underlayer that sits against his skin, then armor to protect him through the fight, ports to connect him to the jaeger’s cybernetic brain, all the things she should be layering over her own body.

Her man is a ranger.

She sees herself as a lady, in the medieval sense of the word, buckling a sword on her brave knight as she sends him off on his quest. The thought makes her furious. Sasha was never meant to be a lady. She is not supposed to be left behind.

“I’ll be glad to think of you living through this,” Aleksis says.

“Don’t you fucking talk to me like that.” She jerks his helmet into place. It covers the softness in his eyes.

This could be any other fight. She could imagine he’s coming back, and that she won’t spend the rest of her life hating this world for going on without him.

“Sasha.” He pushes his visor back. Aleksis is not a soft man, but there is a warm sweetness at his core that exists only for her.

They tip their foreheads together, and do not speak.

*

Sasha stays by her husband’s side. She’ll be with him as long as she can. They don’t speak, but still, she resents when Pentecost joins them at the end of the hall.

Aleksis looks at him, silently measuring. Pentecost looks back. They don’t blink.

“We’ll do,” Aleksis says at last.

Their drift will be stable. The jaeger will get them to the breach. Cherno Alpha is slower than her fallen siblings, but tough. Their bomb may get through. The world may be saved.

Sasha takes Aleksis by the shoulder before he can walk away.

“Come back,” she says. She doesn’t waste her time telling Pentecost she’ll never forgive him for this. Aleksis is the only one she wants to speak to in this moment.

He leans down to press his forehead against hers, one last time. There are no words. No promises. But they don’t need to speak. There is nothing they’ve left unsaid.

*

Acting Marshal Kaidonovsky steps into LOCCENT with Choi by her side. She’s not cut out for this. She’s led teams in the field, but never like this. She has never given orders from behind the line, sending people to die so she can live.

“You got this,” Choi tells her. “I’m with you.” Sasha glares at him. Of course she’s got this. There’s no one else who can do it. Doesn’t mean she wants to be here. But she will rely on Choi’s experience running this circus, and between them, they’ll do what they must.

And in the end, the worst is not so terrible. The teams follow her orders like she was the real marshal, and it’s not so different from being in the fight, except that she can see more of it. That, and her partner’s voice comes over the radio, from a distance she’ll never be able to cross.

The scientists return from the mission Pentecost gave them, and Sasha dismisses them from her attention, too busy to stop and listen—until Geiszler runs up and tries to shove her out of the way. Then she flattens him, by pure reflex, with an elbow to the face.

Gottlieb staggers like he’s the one she hit. Sasha catches him—this one, she likes—but she doesn’t have time to stop and ask what happened to the two of them. The jaegers are making their final run.

“Lieutenant!” Gottlieb says, attention torn between her and the biologist sprawled out on the floor. “This is not going to work!” He squeezes past her, somehow flowing like water into every inch of space she gives him even as she tries to keep him out, until at least she gives up and lets him take her microphone. “Rangers, you have to lock onto the kaiju, ride it into the breach—”

“Grocery store,” Geiszler mumbles from the floor.

“Yes, Newton, I’ve got it. The breach will not let foreign material pass. Anything that tries to enter is scanned like a barcode at the supermarket—don’t get up, Newton, I’ve got it—you have to make it think you’re a kaiju or else the bomb will bounce right off and the mission will fail!”

“You heard the man.” Sasha moves the physicist aside and takes back her position. “Kill a kaiju, stuff a bomb up its ass, and fire it into the breach. This is how you save the world.”

*

That line makes it into the history books.

*

As the years pass, Sasha will always wonder how things might have been different, if the marshal had made the other call and the Hansens had lived. Striker’s speed might have made a difference, or it might have been torn apart before it ever reached the breach. All four of the heroes of Pitfall might have made it through, or none of them. Or just two, but a different two. Or six, or nine, if their luck had really held through both the Double and Triple Events. Maybe they all could have survived to see the world they’ve made.

Or Lieutenant Kaidonovsky would be under the sea right now, blown to smithereens, the particles that once made up her body mixed with those of the only man she’s ever loved, never to be separated again.

Gottlieb assures her that the way it is is the only way it could have been, but he talks to her about alternate universes when they get together to toast the dead. And they do spend their evenings together often. Marshal Kaidonovsky and her Head of Breach Science are old friends.

They talk about what might have been, and what never will be. And this, she comes to learn, is what aging heroes do. They refight old battles and wonder what they could have changed, because saving the world will never be enough when the world that’s left is so full of holes.

And then she sends her physicist home to his apartment in Moyulan, and she goes to sleep. And dreams of times of war, always.

She doesn’t hate the world. But it’s made itself damn hard for her to love.

Author’s Note: This was originally intended to be a two-parter, leading into Anteverse/Precursors, but I decided not to acknowledge PRU at all this month other than a few references to Jake’s existence. So let’s say Sasha hit Newt so hard the precursors fell right out of his head, and Uprising never happened.

[ninadove]

Nina reads Dracula 🦇

May 28th

MY GOOD FRIEND JONATHAN IS ALIVE I REPEAT MY GOOD FRIEND JONATHAN IS ALIVE

There is a chance of escape, or at any rate of being able to send word home. A band of Szgany have come to the castle, and are encamped in the courtyard. These Szgany are gipsies; I have notes of them in my book. They are peculiar to this part of the world, though allied to the ordinary gipsies all the world over. There are thousands of them in Hungary and Transylvania, who are almost outside all law. They attach themselves as a rule to some great noble or boyar, and call themselves by his name. They are fearless and without religion, save superstition, and they talk only their own varieties of the Romany tongue.

Buddy, you are being very judgemental for someone who desperately needs their help to survive.

I have written the letters. Mina's is in shorthand, and I simply ask Mr. Hawkins to communicate with her. To her I have explained my situation, but without the horrors which I may only surmise. It would shock and frighten her to death were I to expose my heart to her.

Somehow I have a feeling Mina will hear and see much worse soon.

The Count has come. He sat down beside me, and said in his smoothest voice as he opened two letters:—

"The Szgany has given me these, of which, though I know not whence they come, I shall, of course, take care. See!"—he must have looked at it—"one is from you, and to my friend Peter Hawkins; the other"—here he caught sight of the strange symbols as he opened the envelope, and the dark look came into his face, and his eyes blazed wickedly—"the other is a vile thing, an outrage upon friendship and hospitality! It is not signed. Well! so it cannot matter to us." And he calmly held letter and envelope in the flame of the lamp till they were consumed. Then he went on:—

"The letter to Hawkins—that I shall, of course, send on, since it is yours. Your letters are sacred to me. Your pardon, my friend, that unknowingly I did break the seal. Will you not cover it again?" He held out the letter to me, and with a courteous bow handed me a clean envelope. I could only redirect it and hand it to him in silence. When he went out of the room I could hear the key turn softly. A minute later I went over and tried it, and the door was locked.

We are surely in the toils.

"So, my friend, you are tired? Get to bed. There is the surest rest. I may not have the pleasure to talk to-night, since there are many labours to me; but you will sleep, I pray." I passed to my room and went to bed, and, strange to say, slept without dreaming. Despair has its own calms.

He is punishing Jonathan by disrupting his sleep and refusing him his company — the only one he can get! This man should teach Abusive Behaviour 101!!!

I guess we could interpret the Szgany’s betrayal as a racist stereotype or as a similar situation to what happened in the coach: people genuinely trying to help, but forced to surrender to some greater power. Hell, Dracula may even have drunk that poor guy’s blood offscreen for all we know!

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[monsterblogging]

So here's the official synopsis for Pacific Rim: Final Breach and oh my god it sounds so. so bad. Oh my god. (Uncensored g-slur ahead, by the way.)

Humanity faces its ultimate threat as the Precursors unleash a new wave of devastating Kaiju assaults on Earth in Pacific Rim: Final Breach! After years of failed attempts to enter the Anteverse, the trans-dimensional realm from which all Kaiju emerge, Jake Pentecost and Hermann Gottlieb conceive a daring last-ditch plan whose success hinges on finding legendary Jaeger pilot Raleigh Becket—the only human being to ever survive behind enemy lines. Living in exile off the grid, Raleigh must choose assured annihilation or confront his past and team up with a new generation to pilot the brand-new Gipsy Destroyer, the last Jaeger standing. Tensions escalate and old wounds reopen as the PPDC finally crosses the breach to confront what lies on the other side… It’s time for humanity to meet its true enemy and cancel the apocalypse once and for all.

What. The fuck.

So in the first movie, Raleigh was in the Anteverse for all of a minute before ejecting his conn-pod and getting the fuck out. He wasn't in there long enough to learn anything of any strategic value.

And while Raleigh is a good pilot, the idea that he's some extraordinary legendary super great pilot is so fucking ridiculous. Sure, it was a bummer for a lot of people that Raleigh wasn't in the second film, and SDK's declaration that he'd died from Anteverse radiation wasn't exactly what I'd consider a good creative decision. But bringing him back in this comic like this? It's obviously a stunt to get people's attention.

Also? "We gotta get Raleigh Becket back into the Jaeger program!" was literally the plot of the first movie. They can't even be assed to do something original with him.

Imagine having the nerve to ask fans to crowdfund this bullshit. Go fuck yourself, Legendary.