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1. Octavius and Lancelot
Hypothetically, Octavius is a ranger who’s particularly interested in machinery and his Jaeger’s construction; he speaks to Lancelot about it because Lancelot is truly a great mechanic and Octavius’ relationship with him precedes Teddy’s arrival to the Shatterdome. Practically, Teddy has heard a great deal of idle chatter, gossip, and, recently, complaining.
“-And he keeps making himself think about horses, he’s never even ridden a horse.”
“Wow,” Lancelot says, voice flat enough that it almost makes Teddy laugh, “He’s not ridden a horse?”
He and Octavius are friends, incredibly close ones from what Teddy has been able to find out, but it’s been two weeks of this and Lancelot seems to have grown tired of Octavius’ new favorite topic, especially since it’s beginning to grow repetitive.
“No! You would think he had from all the,” There’s a pause, and Teddy imagines the dramatic handwave he’s seen Octavius do several times now, “Cowboy nonsense, but he’s not a cowboy.”
“Wow,” He says again, “He’s not a cowboy?”
“He’s from Oklahoma! And he has this awful truck, I can’t even begin to imagine why someone would like to drive it, or, or to ride in it… I mean, it’s intolerable and absolutely obnoxious, and he has to jump to get into it, can you imagine? You would need help to get in, if you wanted to, and why would anyone want that? It would be so dehumanizing to need to grab a hand, or to be supported at the small of your back as you got in… And- And he’s always remembering doing these awful ‘donuts’, spinning around and around. He enjoys being thrown around in there, which is ridiculous, because anyone with him would have to hold on, or be held onto, all while he has that stupid grin on his face, and…”
Octavius seems ready to go on (and on) about Jedediah Smith’s ‘stupid grin’, a subject Teddy has heard him pontificate on twice in the last three days, but Lancelot takes a deep, fortifying breath. This, too, is something Teddy has heard a great deal of lately.
“Wow, he hails from Oklahoma?”
“What? Oh, yes, right! He’s from Oklahoma, though he allows everyone to continue to believe he’s a- a character from some Wild West show. Is that not ridiculous?”
“Yes, Gaius, entirely ridiculous,” Lancelot says, “I would, in fact, go as far as to say that it all is increasingly ridiculous, and I am certain you would agree; if there is one thing I have gleaned from our conversations, it is the understanding that the majority of your copilot’s actions cause you a considerable amount of frustration.”
“Exactly,” Octavius agrees, entirely sincere. That is enough to make Teddy laugh, so loudly that he’s sure it alarms the mechanic working right outside his office.
2. William and Pioneer Dynamite
“You did good out there today,” A voice says and Teddy, working late, jumps.
“Obviously. You’ve never let us down before, you’re the only thing that’s never let me down. And you listen.”
By day, William Clark is sharp and snappish, but almost every night, he’s here, speaking softly to his Jaeger.
“He’s just- you know. I won’t say I’m trying, because I’m not, but he’s not either. I think that means it’s not my fault -- I mean, it’s definitely not yours and, ugh, I guess that means it’s also not really his, so… I don’t know.”
Teddy wonders if William just comes down to have something to talk to, like one of his engineers explaining their ideas to a stuffed bear, or if he imagines his Jaeger having a genuine conversation with him. He anthropomorphizes it in a way Amelia and Meriwether don’t -- he rather than it -- but he also doesn’t seem to imagine responses to his statements.
“It’s just all so dumb. It’s always been so dumb. I don’t know why we even-” William sighs deeply, tiredly, “We don’t try, do we? That’s it too. We don’t try and we can’t. He’s just so-”
William cuts himself off with a frustrated noise. Teddy’s only watched William during these visits once, but he knows that he’s pacing. He can hear the rap of boot on metal, of course, but he’s realized that at a certain level of irritation, William either starts moving or explodes; while he’s very willing to do the latter to his partner and most other people on base, he cares about -- for -- Pioneer Dynamite in a way he doesn’t most things. He has no interest in blowing up at it, even if it doesn’t have feelings to be hurt.
“There has to be something wrong, right? Amelia and Custer weren’t like this. The fucking Cowboy isn’t even like this,” William says, still quiet and soft but with a weariness that makes Teddy’s bones ache, “So that means there’s something wrong with us, and this whole awful, dumb thing is just a pile of mistakes. Fredericks was wrong about a lot of things, why not this?”
William doesn’t truly believe that. Teddy can tell because he’s heard this conversation before. Teddy can tell because William never brings it up in the morning to Ahkmenrah or Larry or anyone who could change his situation.
Teddy can tell because he’s seen the way that William looks when something goes right, and he and Meriwether manage to get past whatever innate difficulties they have with each other and right into the innate simplicity of their bond, and it’s not the look of someone who thinks they’re part of something wrong.
He can also tell because Ahkmenrah is gleefully nosey and finds Teddy to be better at gossiping than Larry, and he doesn’t think someone who truly, solely finds his drift partner a contemptible mistake would be nearly as amorous towards him.
“Whatever. You did great out there. That’s why I came down. I’ll see you later.”
During the day, William walks so heavily and furiously that Teddy would almost call it stomping. At night, when he leaves, he’s so quiet that it feels almost like he’s a parent tiptoeing out of their toddler’s room.
Teddy wonders, again, how exactly William sees his Jaeger.
3. Lancelot and Ahkmenrah
“I hope you don’t mind,” Ahkmenrah’s voice says, and there’s the sound of dropped tools and a muffled curse. When Ahkmenrah continues, he’s quietly amused in a way you can only recognize if you truly know him. “But I’ve heard a great deal about you and wanted to introduce myself.”
“My apologies, Doctor, your arrival somewhat surprised me,” Lancelot says.
Teddy knows without seeing, that Ahkmenrah is smiling. Teddy hasn’t puzzled out why yet -- for all he gossips, he’s rather tight-lipped about himself -- but he seems to delight in surprising people.
“It’s quite alright, Lancelot- My apologies, I’ve presumed familiarity-”
“No, no, I had assumed that you would desire formality. I should have realized that you, as one of Teddy’s contemporaries, might find such things frivolous.”
“Yes, exactly,” Ahkmenrah says, “I was told you had good judgment, it’s good to see they were right.”
“May I inquire as to whom they are? I was unaware that I had become a topic of conversation.”
“Octavius, of course, as well as his drift partner,” Ahkmenrah says. There’s a startled noise cut off by the clearing of a throat. “You and Octavius are very close friends.”
Another skill of Ahkmenrah’s: a sentence is a prompt and easily receives an answer, all while the queried remains barely aware of the game. Unless they know Ahkmenrah very well, of course. It’s something Teddy’s adept at as well, though he chooses to use it less.
“He is one of my dearest companions. We have been well acquainted since the beginning of our training.”
“I’ve heard as much from Jedediah Smith.”
Lancelot makes that startled noise again but allows it to finish this time. “Can I ask- That is, if it is not an inconvenience for me to inquire, what was the reason for Jedediah Smith to speak about me?”
“I think he’s curious, I’ve seen him observing production from the viewing room a few times,” Ahkmenrah explains.
Teddy knows Jedediah isn’t up there right now, because Ahkmenrah had said as much when he dropped by his office before he went to terrorize his mechanic. Lancelot still sounds unnerved.
“And he spoke of me? Ranger Jedediah Smith, Gaius’ co-pilot, he spoke of me? I was not aware he knew my name.”
Here, Ahkmenrah could tell Lancelot, as he’s told Teddy, that Jedediah doesn’t use his name, instead viciously referring to him as That Mechanic.
Here, Ahkmenrah does not.
“He said he’d seen you in the drift,” Ahkmenrah says, “He didn’t talk to me for long, only a few minutes, but he seemed quite interested in you. I hear you have lunch with Octavius, perhaps you could invite Jedediah over as well?”
“I- I suppose so. If Gaius was amenable.”
Teddy doesn’t think he’s ever heard someone sound like they’re hoping for a no as much as Lancelot does at this moment. He can hear Ahkmenrah’s grin in his voice again.
“Wonderful. Perhaps you should even invite Matilda Wilcox, from LOCCENT. I hear she has a similar relationship with Jedediah as you have with Octavius; I think all of you could become great friends.”
“A similar…?” Lancelot trails off thoughtfully. “Thank you for the suggestion, Ahkmenrah. Perhaps I will invite them over.”
“It was my pleasure really. I’m always happy to help a friend,” Ahkmenrah says, which also means I love being able to meddle. This time, Teddy wholeheartedly agrees with him; he’s getting a bit tired of hearing Octavius expound on Jedediah Smith’s many ‘faults’ too.
4. Tilly and Lancelot
“So. Did yours stop talking about the other too, or is it just mine?”
Matilda Wilcox is one of the best LOCCENT controllers Teddy has ever had the pleasure of working with, competent and caring in a way that people at Teddy’s last Shatterdome weren’t -- not that he’s holding a grudge against Sydney, of course not, regardless of what Ahkmenrah says. He can recognize that Seattle is a wonderful Shatterdome that’s bloomed under Larry’s leadership without hating where he was before.
Tilly had also been in Sydney, and she does hate it. Their postings likely overlapped but Teddy, bafflingly, hadn’t met her there; Tilly is brilliant, for her to be unrecognized was a major lapse of judgment.
Not that Sydney was lacking those.
However, Teddy isn’t holding a grudge.
Regardless, Tilly has other things occupying her time outside running LOCCENT like a merry ship, and one of them is befriending rangers: Amelia Earhart, if you believe Ahkmenrah, and Jedediah Smith, if you spend even thirty seconds in proximity to both of them.
She isn’t friends with Lancelot, as far as Teddy knows, but they’ve had a few meetings since Ahkmenrah informed Lancelot of their shared friend-shaped problems.
“Mine has as well,” Lancelot confirms, “Since their pairing, I do not believe I had gone two sleeps without enduring a treatise on him, and then: nothing at all.”
“Thank god, now I won’t feel like I’m betraying Jed when I ask if you think they’re sleeping together too.”
“Without a doubt in my mind. A great many things have changed since Gaius and my hearts were intertwined, but one that has not is his penchant for possession. He is nearly luminescent each time we pass him in the halls; Jedediah Smith’s state is not an accident.”
“Oh good, because Jed’s just sunny about it too, for all he’s refusing to talk. He’s also incredibly bad at hiding it, he called him Octavius a few days ago and then frantically tried to distract me. Usually when he calls him Octavius, he’s so distracted he doesn’t even realize it, so for him to do it by accident and notice he’d done it was different enough for me to notice. And then after that…”
“It was incredibly obvious,” Lancelot finishes. “Now, I can easily spot the spaces in Gaius’ poor disguise of hatred. I await only his disclosure to me.”
“That’s the thing, I don’t think he will. I’ve been needling Jed and he just keeps saying he can’t tell me more, which is entirely ridiculous. We’re us and he won’t tell me more?” Tilly says. It’s a bit of a nonsensical statement, but when you’ve had a conversation with ‘Til, sugarplum, my number one girl’ and ‘Jed, babes, sweetheart’ it makes quite a lot of sense. “There’s something here, besides the other thing that’s obviously here.”
“You believe they intend to keep their affair a secret from even us?”
“I know. So, should we pretend to not know, or do I get to corner Octavius in the hallway and tell him to be sweet to Jed or else?”
“And I assume you would allow me to do the same to Jedediah?”
“Yeah, alright, should’ve expected you’d want to be fair about it,” Tilly sighs, “Fine then, we’ll leave them alone, but Jed’s sensitive. If your Gaius hurts him-”
“I know what quarrels your confidante has had with mine, however I believe we can rise above them as they have,” Lancelot says, “Because, beneath all of his pretense, Gaius also has a delicate core.”
“Of course he does.” There’s the sound of someone tapping their nails on a railing. “A secret relationship between two overemotional twits, I’m sure that’s going to be entirely fine.”
“... Perhaps they will learn to communicate their thoughts and desires to each other.”
“Ha! Good one. Christ,” Tilly says, “This is going to be a bloody nightmare, isn’t it?”
“By the gods, I fear you are entirely correct.”
5. Amelia and Tilly
“You don’t have to do all this, you know,” Tilly says, “No one would hold it against you.”
Amelia Earhart sighs. It’s a recent development, her visits to the Technology Sector. For weeks, she had avoided Teddy, for all he pretended not to notice, and now she’s brought him design suggestions for her Jaeger, nods to him when they cross paths, sits on his scaffolding instead of solely the Shatterdome’s walls.
“Did I tell you that ML asked if he could try drifting with me the other day?”
“He what? He does know he already has a partner, right?”
“I think that’s the point. There can’t be a Meriwether and Will if there’s no Meriwether-and-Will.”
“You know, ‘Mel, I think you and Meriwether have a lot in common sometimes.”
“At least it’s not Will,” Amelia says.
Tilly laughs, but repeats, “Seriously, you don’t have to do this.”
“Haven’t we talked this to exhaustion? I like piloting, Tilly.”
“You certainly feel something about piloting. A bunch of things at once, I bet,” Tilly says. Amelia huffs. “Alright, alright, I know you love piloting, I can tell, but what you’re doing-”
“My therapist said that what I’m doing is healthy.”
“She did not.”
She likely hasn’t. Teddy’s spoken to Amelia’s therapist, Sacagawea, a few times -- perhaps a few more times than strictly necessary, but that doesn’t really mean anything -- and he knows that she wouldn’t say that about Amelia’s drifts. He thinks that she might be worried that many of Amelia’s coping mechanisms aren’t particularly healthy, but she hasn’t told him that.
Not that he would ask.
Not that he talks to her particularly often, often enough that she might tell him something, anything, about how she feels or thinks or-
This is not about that, and Teddy is quite glad to have it to focus on.
“Fine,” Amelia says, “That’s not exactly what she said, but saying it’s an expected and reasonable response is a shade away.”
Tilly makes a doubtful noise. Amelia stays stubbornly silent.
“Fine. Fine! But if your therapist thinks it’s so healthy, maybe she should try making it through your tailspin of a dr- Amelia no.”
“Tilly, perhaps you’re right.”
“Amelia no.”
“Perhaps she should try to make it through my drift.”
“Amelia, she is your therapist.”
“She won’t be my therapist if she’s my co-pilot.”
“God, you really are like Meriwether,” Tilly groans, “Is that enjoyable for you? Are you happy that you’ve become like Meriwether Lewis?”
“I understand your hesitance, I truly do, but this is perfect,” Amelia says, “I’ve been searching for a partner who can handle the depth of my, my,” Amelia trails off. It seems that Trauma is the word she’s looking for here, though she refuses to say it, “Memories, and she’s the ideal choice. I won't have to push to show her anything because she already knows about all of it!”
“This is literally the worst idea anyone has had ever, in the entirety of time, and you’re insane.”
“You’re entirely wrong and, as soon as I’ve gotten her to agree, you’ll see,” Amelia says, possibly the happiest Teddy has ever heard her.
It’s almost, almost, enough to keep Teddy from putting his head in his hands. Truly the worst idea he has ever heard.
and one more
“‘Ace Fortuna’, really?” Larry says, reading the last notes on Jedediah and Octavius’ Jaeger.
It’s been all but ready for a week now, it only needs its paint job and its name. Both things are under Teddy’s purview and he doesn’t have to involve anyone else or ask for approval, but he’s come to see Ahkmenrah and Larry as friends and he’d appreciate their feedback.
“Isn’t that kind of…” Larry continues trailing off with a gesture that Teddy can only describe as extravagantly dramatic.
“Flashy? Yes, definitely,” Teddy says, “But consider who it’s for.”
Larry sighs and nods, leaning against the desk. “They are good at flashy. Too good, probably, but beggars can’t be choosers.”
“It’s charming how much you pretend not to love your pair,” Ahkmenrah says. Larry elbows him.
“Stop calling them that.”
Larry has been fighting this -- Ahkmenrah, and occasionally Teddy, referring to Octavius and Jedediah as his -- for a month now. He doesn’t seem to realize that nothing but pure fact is going to change Ahkmenrah’s opinion nor that Ahkmenrah will dig his heels further in out of pure amusement the more Larry complains about it.
Ahkmenrah hums in the way that means I know I should say sorry, but I won’t, and I’m not going to stop. “Regardless, I think it’s perfect. Most of these rangers have shifted to fit their Jaegers, this one will fit them perfectly from first connection.”
“Well alright, maybe, but-”
Larry is interrupted by a rather loud crash and “I told you that was too heavy, now you’re going to have to tell Teddy” “I don’t have to tell him if I fix it myself.”
“What is that?”
“Oh, it’s a quirk of the office; something about its structure and the placement of vents means that occasionally outside noises are funneled in, quite clearly.” Teddy looks out his window, trying to see who dropped something and what it is. “It’s something I’ve grown used to, loud though it sometimes is.”
“How absolutely fascinating,” Ahkmenrah says, examining the air vent. His hands twitch, and Teddy hands him the tablet he’d left on the desk. He immediately begins typing.
“Do you want me to get that fixed?” Larry asks, practical as ever, frowning at it.
“It rarely inconveniences me,” Teddy says.
Ahkmenrah looks up from his tablet. “Have you heard anything interesting?”
“No,” Teddy says with a grin, “Nothing particularly mentionable, I’d say.”