Pacific Rim AU
Jun. 8th, 2024 12:04 pmOriginally posted to Tumblr
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Pacific Rim AU
(This tiny little post has been sitting in my draft for literal months but hasn't really gone anywhere. But I'm tired of it being in my drafts)
TBH I don't think anyone in Oz is actually really drift compatible and if I was going to be realistic about creating an AU (haha) (as we know, it's very serious business), I think it’d make more sense that the Oz characters would all be living in a kaiju infested world doing shit other than piloting (black market harvesting, for example), BUT that being said, I think it would be FUNNY if they were co-pilots anyway
Miguel and Chico as jaeger co-pilots
- They would still be capable of being at each other's throats even though they're copilots; you'd think being in each other's heads would prevent fights but you'd be wrong—just bc they understand each other's viewpoints doesn't mean they agree with each other when they're not piloting
- The fact that they're often squabbling is a strength as well as a weakness because it makes them more combative and they have a very ruthless and agile fighting style. I think it'd all be a little showy, too. Like moments of dramatic flair, purely to look cool on the news lol. It totally wasn't necessary
- Miguel can totally see all the lewd thoughts Chico has when they share a headspace but as is the way, he lets most thoughts drift by without comment. If CHICO sees a lewd thought, it is totally coming up in conversation outside of the jaeger, though. It's really annoying.
- To that point, I envision an AU where they meet in pilot training and are sort of rivals, sort of friends. Neither of them think they’d be a match but the compatibility tests say otherwise and they are eventually assigned together, they hook up just to get it out of the way or some other bizarre logic that just blurs the lines of their relationship right off the bat and ends with them becoming on-again off-again FWB over the years (the on-again off-again part is in regard to whether or not they consider each other friends lmao)
- According to the creator of the concept, being drift compatible is a choice, and so I think they’d go through a stretch where their sync falls under sustainable levels and they can't pilot together until they get over whatever the hell is their problem this time. In many ways, such a non problem when then fate of the world is at stake (like get it together, come on), but that’s also what would make it so 👌🏼 to me. The self sabotage of it all... I could see the main thing they fall out about being that Chico always wants to take risks/only thinks about eliminating the kaijus. He's not like suicidal about it but he just doesn't believe anything will ever happen to them. Miguel is in charge of having the self preservation instinct, and maybe after a battle where they lose some colleagues (insert appropriate canon parallel) and come close to death themselves, Miguel starts pulling back a bit. He doesn't just not want to die himself, he doesn't want to see CHICO die, but he expresses it as like "You're stupid!!" lol. And they've had this balance of being just friends who Sometimes fuck, no biggie (they're stuck in each other's heads all the time, it's bound to happen now and again, right?) that to rock it by expressing any kind of deeper emotion out loud is a No-no. (even though they drift together so they already KNOW what the other means to them).
- Somehow the stubbornness with not communicating and admitting to anything leads them to falling out of sync (i.e, they both refuse to engage with each other), which burns even more and leads to more resentment. It's all a little stupid bc they've fought kaijus side by side but yet the possibility of vulnerability scares them both (it's what makes and breaks them ffjfj)
- The thing that would bring them together again would be some deus ex machina "You're our last hope so you have to make up and drift one last time" type deal
- Do they die together? Why in every AU thing I write do I always end up considering the possibility that they both die at the end? (inward reflection needed no doubt)
Other thoughts
- Pancamo & Morales as copilots: Their jaeger is like a fucking tank, first of all, and their fighting style would be really savage. Big big punches and tearing kaijus in half, etc.
- I think if Said was a pilot he would change co-pilots pretty often. He would be like a hotshot who can drift with basically anyone because he brings nothing into the drift. But at the same time, he has epic emotional/personal issues despite his polished exterior and dedication to the cause of saving humanity, something that begins to reveal itself over time
- Mukada as a scientist here anybody?
jurassic park vibesMaybe he has a special interest in the kaiju hive mind stuff and philosophises a lot about what the existence of kaijus and the world they come from means about the universe. What it means about man's place in it, etc - Reimondo as the Tendo Choi of the AU. Put that lady in charge of things! Also I think her voice in ear of the pilots during missions would be nice.
- McManus oversees pilot training after giving up the dream of actually being a pilot because he doesn't have a strong enough drift compatibility with anyone
- The O'Reilys would probably be co-pilots up until some accident that leaves Cyril unable to drift anymore, after which Ryan would probably be retired or maybe become an instructor in pilot training. Or, he fucks up and gets involved with kaiju blackmarket stuff to make more money to pursue treatments for Cyril using kaiju like... brain chemicals or something idk. (maybe the pilot program loses funding and it fucks them over badly)
- Burr Redding as the Hannibal Chau of this AU lol... Adebisi's there too