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[rangerbecket]

When he sleeps, he remembers.

It’s been five years since Raleigh lost Yancy and he still wakes up sometimes in the middle of the night (or afternoon, as it was just a nap this time and not overnight) thinking his brother should be there, that they should be cutting up and finishing each others’ sentences and suiting up to go fight kaiju. Instead, there’s an empty hole where Yancy used to be and Raleigh’s not sure that it’s ever going to be filled in again and, more importantly, Raleigh’s not sure he wants it to be. As fucked up as it is, this is the only time he gets to see and hear Yancy anymore and he clings to it even if it’s probably not the healthiest choice.

It seems to help to have a purpose to fill his days besides welding on the wall. He’s glad Pentecost roped him back into being a Ranger even if he’d been against it at first because at least he’s fighting for something instead of just fighting so he doesn’t have to feel anything.

The hotel is a frustrating stumbling block in that process because while he’s here, he gets lulled into thinking it’s safe. There’s plenty to eat; Raleigh spent his whole first day gorging himself on meat and bread and shit that they just can’t get back home with all the rationing. There’s no televisions blaring about the latest kaiju attack, about people dying painful deaths from Kaiju Blue, about the military arguing whether or not Jaegers are worth the hassle when they can just build a wall to keep them out. The hotel is a bubble, safe, and Raleigh has to constantly remind himself that this is temporary. This isn’t something he can let himself get used to.

He’s pretty sure he’s not going to go back to sleep any time soon so he ends up pulling on a shirt and sliding into his boots, wandering without a purpose. There’s dozens and dozens of rooms in this place and he’s pretty sure he’ll never explore them all. He winds up in a room with a couple pool tables and thinks maybe this is a decent way to pass the time until the memories of Yancy fade a little.

He racks the balls and pulls out a cue, thoughtfully chalking the tip while he tries to decide how he wants to play, which angles to hit. This had always been a fun exercise with Yancy and had almost always ended in a draw; when you Drift as much as he did with his brother, you almost start sharing thoughts outside it. Raleigh nods at the person closest to him, asking if they want to start a game.

“I call stripes. Ten, corner pocket.”

It’s a welcome distraction.

Comments

[freezedout]

Isaac gnaws on his lip as he watches the man playing pool by himself. He hasn't really talked to him or seen him since he arrived, but Isaac can't shake that familiar feeling he'd gotten when he'd been around him. He hasn't seen Camden in years, but there's something in Raleigh that reminds him of his older brother -- maybe the service, maybe his face, maybe something, but it's there.

He's been lurking around, trying to drum up the courage to go home, but he's not sure if he has the ability to walk over there. Eventually, though, sympathy for Raleigh playing pool on his own gets to him and he walks over, hefting up the other cue. "I'm pretty bad at this game," he warns.

[rangerbecket]

"Doesn't matter. I was only good when I played with my brother," Raleigh says, nodding toward the other cue. "Go ahead and get a cue and start. It's just for fun anyway."

He's never really been competitive except where Yancy was concerned and now he doesn't get the same thrill from trying to outdo someone.

[freezedout]

The only game he and Camden had ever really played was 'watch Camden while he swims in the pool so Dad won't yell'. Isaac hefts the cue in his hand and studies the balls on the table in front of him, trying to figure out if being a werewolf gives you any advantage at pool. Judging from his first poor shot in which he misses, it probably doesn't. "See? Told you."

[rangerbecket]

"It's a game of angles, or something. That's how Yancy explained it to me," Raleigh says, setting up his shot and missing it by a hair. He didn't scratch, no, but he also doesn't get any balls in.

"A whole bunch of complex geometry goes into it."

[freezedout]

Yancy's the brother, Isaac remembers that much. He's not sure if the brother is still around or not, but he has a feeling it's more leaning towards the whole 'not'. "I'm kind of barely passing math right now," he says, which is not for lack of aptitude, but more for lack of time to hit the books when you're trying to stay alive. "You?"

[rangerbecket]

"I was always better in gym," Raleigh agrees. He isn't stupid. Nobody can get through ranger training without being moderately intelligent but that's not the first quality that comes to mind when he describes himself.

"Then again, if we don't scratch, I call that a job well done."

[freezedout]

"So pretty much, we're hoping no one watches us play?" Isaac asks, but he's pretty amused by the whole situation. "Lacrosse is more my speed," he admits. "Maybe we can dig up some equipment and rough around on the lawn outside," he says before he thinks about it, then he backpedals, wishing he could take that back for being too presumptuous.

[ogunquit_girl]

Sometimes the quiet in her room was just too quiet. Sometimes she couldn't get comfortable. Sometimes she had nightmares - not the terrors she'd suffered before they got to Boulder, but bad enough to have her not wanting to close her eyes for a while.

Tonight Frannie'd ended up in a game room of sorts with a decent enough dart board and she'd spent an hour on that before deciding to give sleep another try. She was just just passing a pool table when a familiar voice spoke up. She laughed at the comment.

"I think given one thing or another," she looked down at her belly, "you might have a slight advantage at pool."

[rangerbecket]

"Now, I don't think there's anything in the rules that says pregnant ladies can't rack 'em up," Raleigh says, flashing her a quick grin.

"If it doesn't bother your back to lean over the table, I don't see why you'd be any worse at it than I am."

[ogunquit_girl]

"It's not so much the leaning that concerns me," Frannie smiled and approached him. "It's the complete inability to get close to it. I'm in danger of never seeing my toes again if it gets much bigger than it is. But I'm willing to try it if you're that desperate for an opponent?"

[rangerbecket]

"We don't have to," Raleigh says, leaning against his cue.

"I am completely open to suggestion about other things we might be able to do to kill time. Do you play cards? We could try to find a pack in here somewhere and I don't think you'll have any problems with that."

[ogunquit_girl]

"I haven't played in a while," Fran responded, looking at the cue, "but I used to play sometimes in college. I'd like to at least try? See if I remember how to play?"

She shifted her eyes to Raleigh's. "Maybe remember a little about my life before everything went insane?"

[rangerbecket]

"Same here, though I had a lot less life to remember before the world went nuts," Raleigh says, nodding toward the door.

"Let's go find something more bump appropriate."

[wearethehunters]

Chuck, meanwhile, has chosen the preferred distraction of all members of the Hansen line: alcohol. His sleep's been poor of late, for similar reasons he won't admit so Chuck wanders the public areas of the hotel like an alcoholic ghost. It's better than living with nightmares and memories.

"Sounds fair enough." He's come to respect that Hansen's a good ranger, can still jockey with the best of them, but he can't say he thought they'd ever come to friendly terms. Now, with no other rangers here, it's forced him to reevaluate that attitude, even if he's made a piss poor show at it.

"Who's going to break?"

[rangerbecket]

"You can," Raleigh says, feeling fairly magnanimous about it. He doesn't feel the animosity between he and Chuck that he felt back in the Shatterdome and that can only be a good thing.

"You want to play for anything or just for fun?"

[wearethehunters]

"Drinks?"

Puting on a cavalier posture, Chuck sets his whiskey down and goes around the table, sizing up the feel of the cue and the pressure behind the hit.

[rangerbecket]

"Drinks always work," Raleigh agrees.

"I used to be good at this with Yancy. Could predict everything he was going to do. You the same with your dad or what?"

[wearethehunters]

"Nah," Chuck bends to the table, pulling back the cue to get himself ready. "There was Ghost Drift, yeah, but it couldn't make up for us. For me always trying to best him."

Outside of a Jaeger, he and Herc had always been defined by opposition. Chuck's almost entirely.

[rangerbecket]

"Couldn't imagine that. It's not as strong with Mako but I've only drifted with her a little. I can't imagine what it would be like not to have that connection with my partner."

Well, he can, but he suspects the empty hole inside him isn't exactly the same as not being completely drift synced. "The triplets seem to have it, though."

[not_lost]

Finished with her shift, Fiona had been walking past the door and found herself drifting inside at the sight of him. Halloween had been nice, an unexpected burst of levity after the past couple of months, but the worry and guilt had settled in quickly enough.

It was stupid that she felt guilty, as if Jimmy hadn't been the one to leave. Two years was a long haul for a girl like her, and apparently hard to shake.

Still, she liked Raleigh, which was worrisome all on its own, but didn't stop her from stepping up to the table and reaching for a cue.

"I should probably warn you that I grew up at barroom pool tables," she said with a smile, twisting the blue chalk against the tip of her cue.

[rangerbecket]

"Are you gonna hustle me, Fiona?" Raleigh asks, laughing warm and low. He doesn't think he'd really mind being hustled by Fiona, considering; it's a hell of a lot better than losing to Chuck or to his brother, back when Yancy was alive.

"I'm warning you, you're probably gonna want to go easy on me. None too good at all these angles."

[not_lost]

"Do you wanna be hustled, Raleigh?" Fiona asked with a coy tilt of her head as she watched him. There was probably (no, definitely) an off-color remark to be made about his proficiency at angles in other situations, but she bit her tongue and bent low over the table instead. With a quick, smooth motion, she landed the two into a side pocket with a thunk.

"You're warning me to go easy on you," she continued as she stepped around Raleigh to the far side of the table to focus on the six. "What happens if I don't?"

[rangerbecket]

"Probably means you can get whatever you want out of me," Raleigh says, flashing her the kind of smile he used to use when he tried to pick up girls in the old days. He's always aiming for cocky but Yancy used to say he just looked like an overgrown puppy.

He leans against the table and watches her move. Fiona always seems confident to him and it's sexy.

"Depending on what you want."

[not_lost]

"Oh, so there's limits?" Fiona asked as she lined up with the six ball, brown eyes carefully watching Raleigh over her cue. "And here I thought my power was infinite."

Innuendo-laden as their conversation had been, she found herself pausing as her mind veered off into an unlikely direction, dangerous for several reasons that she promptly ignored.

"Is seeing giant robots on the table?"

[rangerbecket]

Raleigh swallows, a little nervous. "I guess. I wouldn't want you to get hurt, Fiona, so if I brought you back to Hong Kong...there's a chance something might happen to you. That would be my only issue with bringing you back."

It's not something he would want to risk, not with Fiona.