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When you graduate from the Jaeger Academy, you are given a dog tag, and you wear it with pride.
When you are assigned your copilot, you each get a copy of each other's dog tag, and you wear them with pride.
*
The Mark-I Rangers are the ones to design the PPDC dog tags.
They all have their own copies – stainless steel, elongated, a hole punched through the left side, a raised lip around the edges, with embossed text reading out their name on one line, their ID on the next.
But Sasha and Aleksis have been wearing each other's tags for years, and Trevin is the one who suggests they wear copies of their copilot's tag.
Jaeger pilots are rock stars, and interviews are near constant, but for everything they are asked and everything they talk about, no one ever pulls out their dog tags.
No one ever pulls them off.
Up until the point when there is movement in the Breach, and jaeger copilots are deployed. The circuitry suits need to be flush against skin, and so the tags must come off.
The Jessops are the first to take off their dog tags off their chains, and tuck them into small nooks in the chest pieces that don't interfere with the interface.
This is met with anger on the J-Tech engineers' part and delight on the Rangers' part. Caitlin Lightcap-D'onofrio has a foot in each realm, and she is looked to make the final call.
The dog tags stay.
*
When you first get your dog tag, you go a solid week without taking it off. Then you get tired of having to swing it around while you shower, how it falls out of your shirt when you train intently in the Kwoon room, how the tag jangles in your sleep and the chain is sometimes too cold in the early morning, how it tangles with another's dog tag when you fuck. You take it off, and it's a rite of passage like any other. You still wear it, more often than not, and you still take pride in your ID number.
When you first get your copilot's dog tag next to yours, the first time you take them off is when you first suit to take down your first jaeger. You take your dog tags off together, you slide them off the chain together, and after the battle you slide them back on the chain and put them on together. The tags get in the way while you shower and swing distractedly while you Kwoon, they jangle when you thrash in your sleep and tangle with other dog tags when you fuck, but you don't take them off.
*
The Breach collapses, four escape pods are collected, the Hong Kong Shatterdome celebrates wildly as the apocalypse is cancelled.
Mako and Raleigh touch back down at the Hong Kong Shatterdome, and they are allowed but a fleeting celebration, as there is a serious concern of contamination.
Mako and Raleigh are escorted to the medical offices, and stripped down from their drivesuits to their circuitry suits to nothing.
Mako and Raleigh are to enter the wash-down room, their drive suits and circuitry suits are to be securely disposed of.
Mako and Raleigh quietly inform them that they would like their dog tags back first. They are not in the mood to argue.
There are no chains, and there is no time to retrieve them. Mako carries Raleigh's tag in her right hand and her own in her left, Raleigh carries Mako's tag in his left and Yancy's in his right.
They do not let them go.
*
You wear your dog tag, then you wear your tag and your copilot's.
Before you are copilots, though, are you ever allowed to swap tags?
*
There's a joke about the Kaidonovskies: How can you tell which is Sasha and which is Aleksis?
Most variations involve the joke-teller to gett their audience into supplying possible answers.
The punchline: You can't.
A variance on the punchline: They can't.
This is, of course, rubbish.
There is, however, a somewhat reasonable explanation as to the confusion.
Before Sasha and Aleksis Kaidonovsky were jaeger pilots, they were prison guards. It is a super-max facility, and all guards are given dog tags as a precaution. They take their tags off at night, set them down on the cramped bedside table beside their bunks, and early one morning when there is a riot that needs as many guards as can be assembled, she grabs one tag and he grabs another. Her name is his name, with one additional letter, and it's not until halfway through the day that someone catches he is wearing hers.
He gets ribbed for it, but he very politely informs his fellow prison guard that he does not give a fuck.
Her smile is sharp and dangerous, and no one comments on it when it happens again.
And it does happen again, and again. They switch tags because one is closer than the other, they switch tags because they want to, and they switch tags because they can.
When they enroll with the PPDC, they give the diminutives of their names.
When Marshal Schoenfeld gives them their dog tags, Sasha and Aleksis Kaidonovsky, he takes the first tag he is handed and hands it to her, then puts on the second tag.
Schoenfeld looks surprised, but he does not comment.
Interviewers learn to do the same.
As they did before, they take their tags off, leave them on another cramped bedside table beside their bunks, and pick whichever tag is closer.
When the Gage twins notice the switch, they like the idea, and Trevin suggests all co-pilots wear each other's tags.
And so Sasha's tag goes on Aleksis's chain and Aleksis' tag goes on Sasha's chain.
It seems hardly different from how it was before for the two of them, though they do not swap tags now, as they do take off their tags.
*
Next question: are there any tags in an alphabet other than the Latin alphabet?
*
Mark-I jaeger pilots are picked through an arduous series of interviews, and varying other methods the pilots don't disclose.
Mark-II jaeger pilots are picked through the newly-established Jaeger Academy, although it lacks the compatibility predicting software and simulation tests that has the Mark-III and Mark-IV years running more smoothly. Instead, they are tested solely through the even more newly established Kwoon trials. Before the compatibility and simulation tests, familial relationships are given first priority, romantic relationships are given second priority, standing friendships third priority, newly-established friendships fourth. After, every relationship is given equal priority.
The Wei Tang brothers know this from personal experience.
They show up on Kodiak Island, breeze through the preliminary testing, then through the Kwoon testing. Jin and Cheung, Cheung and Hu, Hu and Jin, they are all equally compatible, as well as being exceptionally skilled combatants. Some cadets grouse that their background give them an unfair advantage, before realizing that every advantage helps and sheepishly taking their complaints back.
There are four Mark-II jaegers, and none are piloted by any of the Wei triplets.
They want to pilot a three-person jaeger.
Marshal Schoenfeld wants them to pilot a three-person jaeger.
The jaeger engineers have their questions, and the Drift technology specialists have their doubts. But they also all have their orders, and so a three-armed jaeger is designed with a three-person Ponns system to match.
Deputy Marshal Pentecost oversees their first Drift together, but three successful Drifts later, it's Marshal Pentecost who tells the jaeger engineers to provide the newest jaeger with three arms.
Their three-person Ponns system is replicated, and then altered to attach to the simulator. With their own unique simulator system, they don't have to jockey around to get time to go through trials, and some cadets criticize them for their hours spent playing basketball and talking and laughing amongst themselves.
They do not spend every waking minute in the simulator because the hours spent playing basketball and talking and laughing amongst themselves are hours spent strengthening their relationship and their compatibility.
The hours they do spend in the simulator, their scores steadily increase.
By the time their jaeger is completed, they have perfected the Thundercloud Formation.
They name their jaeger and give her their sign, then splash it on custom-made pilot jackets.
Marshal Pentecost offers for their dog tags to be reprinted in Chinese, but they turn him down. They have their names properly written on their jackets, and that's enough for them.
Pentecost nods, and the next day, they are each delivered two more copies of their tag.
That night, they throw all three copies of their name into a pile on the caf table, mix them all up, and they take turns drawing their three tags.
The Weis have been accepted as jaeger pilots even without having a deployment to their names, and they know the tradition, they know why there are nooks in the chest armor, why they look big enough for three dog tags.
But it doesn't seem right.
Instead, Jin's tag goes in the left forearm, Cheung's tag goes in the right forearm, and Hu's goes in the right upper arm.
They defend the Port of Hong Kong seven times.
*
Jaeger Academy cadets are given a silencer along with their dog tag. Black silicone, with a raised emblem of the PPDC on the back.
Cadets initially think silencers are disrespectful. You had to work for the clink of two different tags, and owning those two is the highest honor you can achieve. Wearing silencers is a sign of disrespect towards your copilot.
Right?
*
It is an ungodly hour in the morning when Yancy wakes up, feeling unbearably exhausted and cranky. For the past few nights, his normally blissfully dreamless sleep has been none of the three. Yancy's been getting flashes, back to his and Rals' second kaiju kill. Flashes of near-misses that could have gone horribly wrong.
For the past few nights, Yancy's been hearing the squeak of the bed frame, the metallic clink of dog tags sliding across each other.
Rals has an appointment to speak with someone tomorrow, but that doesn't help Yancy much tonight. The door to the bathroom opens and closes, and Yancy makes himself roll out of bed, and rummage through his drawers.
By the time he finds the silencers, Raleigh is standing, waiting by the bed.
"Put these on," Yancy says. It's a horrible throw, but Raleigh wakes up faster and easier than should be possible, and he catches them with ease.
Raleigh grimaces when he sees what they are. "Sorry, Yance," Raleigh says, as he unhooks his chain, and quickly pulls the tags off.
Yancy waits until Raleigh has his dog tags back on, before he reaches up, ruffles Raleigh's hair. "Don't worry about it, kiddo."
They climb back into bed, the frame swaying with the force of them both flopping onto their mattresses at once.
Yancy thinks about the time when they were younger, when being nine years old made Yancy the authority on everything, and he had climbed into bed with Raleigh, and promised he wouldn't let the monsters under his bed eat him.
He finally manages to drift back to sleep, and when he does, he ends up sleeping through breakfast and almost through lunch. His is spared the daily powdery, instant scrambled eggs, and instead is rewarded with powdery, instant mashed potatoes.
Yancy is only starting to wake up when Ilisape Flint sits down across from him. "Hey, Yancy," she greets, as if it's a common occurrence for her to do so. Jaeger pilots get along well, but they tend to stay with their copilot and their jaeger crew. "How you doing?"
"Fine."
She nods a few times, gaze flicking down before she looks at him again, a concerned look on her face. "Everything... alright?"
"Yeah. Any reason why it wouldn't be?"
"No, no reason." And then she leaves.
Yancy has at least half a dozen similar experiences through the day.
He's halfway through his dinner when Tendo takes the seat next to him, reclining back against the table. "Hey, Yance," he greets. "Everything going alright?"
"Okay, why does everyone keep asking me that?" Yancy asks, setting down his fork.
"Y'know," Tendo says. He looks down Yancy, in what likely meant to be a significant gesture.
Yancy looks down at himself, then back up at Tendo. "What?"
"Your dog tags."
Yancy looks back down at them. They're there. "What about them?"
Tendo raises his hand halfway between them, keeping a respectable distance, and points to them. "Raleigh was wearing a silencer."
Yancy sighs. Tendo's new as the Anchorage LOCCENT Chief, but Yancy feels like he can trust him. And he better damn well be able to. "Raleigh hasn't been sleeping too well since our last deployment."
"Oh," Tendo says. "Well, the rumor mill is going wild over it. You don't match."
Back in their quarters, after Raleigh's long day with every shrink under the Shatterdome roof, Yancy slides his tag off first, and Raleigh's off second. He stretches the silicone silencer over Raleigh's tag, and slides it back on, and does the same with his own. "There," he says. "Now we match again."
Raleigh beams. "Was it bothering you too?"
Secretly, yeah, it was.
*
The question no one asks is what happens to the dog tag of Yancy's that Raleigh had.
This is in part because the only person who could answer left the Shatterdome after the grief became too much to handle.
Instead, it finally occurs to them to ask, what happened to the dog tag of Herc's that Scott had?
*
Chuck is sixteen years old when he graduates from the Jaeger Academy, and is given two copies of his dog tag, and a new copy of his dad's dog tag.
The fact he's a jaeger pilot makes him feel so proud it almost hurts, and then after their first Drift together the hurt is for another reason entirely.
He wears silencers around his tags, and turns his dad's so it's not visible. Chuck knows it hurts his dad, and his father knows that's part of the reason Chuck does it.
Still, Chuck always moves in unison with his father as he takes his tags off his chain for a deployment, moves to put them back on afterwards in unison.
Up until Leatherback, and his dad is rushed immediately to medical, and it's an hour later when Chuck takes off his drive suit alone, takes out the tags alone, puts them back on alone.
When Chuck is told to suit up for Operation Pitfall, he can't, because his dad can't pilot, and there's too much room for one dog tag.
Then Pentecost reveals his plan to pilot with Chuck, gives his speech, approaches Chuck, bows his head, and tells him to suit up.
Pentecost's dog tag, back from his days as a Ranger, is already there and waiting for him.
Chuck suits up.
Then Chuck says goodbye to his dad.
And then Chuck and Pentecost are walking down the hallway to Striker, and even though Chuck is going to know soon enough, Stacker's dog tag is nestled against his chest, and Chuck can't help but ask, "Do you have–?"
"Your father ordered me to take it."
It hurts, more than Chuck thought it would.
"Then he ordered me to give them back."
Chuck doesn't feel very charitable. "We're dropping a nuclear bomb down the Breach," he says, shortly. "We're not making it back."
"Orders are orders," Pentecost says. It makes Chuck snort, and Pentecost responds with a half-smile.
They drift together just fine.
Then two kaiju become three, Striker's deployment's jammed, and the only option is to detonate.
Acting Marshal Hercules Hansen orders them to time the detonation to delay, and evacuate Striker immediately.
The ride in the escape pods is bumpy, and Chuck is hospitalized for days, and Stacker for longer than that.
Tendo drops off his tag, his dad's tag, and Stacker's tag, and looks away while Chuck strings the first two back on the chain.
Stacker is asleep when Chuck enters his hospital room. There's a bedside table, with a small flower vase and a paper cup of water.
Chuck sets Stacker's tag down between the two, leaves the hospital, joins the press circuit. Through the interviews, honorary dinners, charity events, Chuck smiles for the cameras and returns to his hotel room alone.
Three Shatterdome cities and almost as many weeks later, Stacker is released from the hospital. Hours later, Stacker hobbles into Chuck's room.
Chuck turns his television off, looks towards Stacker.
Stacker holds out his hand. The late afternoon light glints off the metal of the dog tag, the metal ball chain around his neck. "This is yours," he tells Chuck.
Chuck takes it wordlessly. Under Stacker's gaze, pulls his chain off over his head, and adds Stacker's dog chain next to his father's, next to his own.
*
The question is, why is are the dog tags important?
*
Mako has a simulator score of thirty-nine drops and thirty-nine kills when Sensei takes her to visit Tamsin for Christmas.
This is the first time Mako has seen Tamsin where she can look at the curve of a ball chain and not feel a pang of jealousy – instead, she feels a fierce pride, knowing she has a matching chain around her neck.
Sensei is in the kitchen, washing dishes out of dinner, when Tamsin sits down on the coffee table across from Mako and asks to see them.
Mako pinches the chain, and pulls the tag out from her shirt. It dangles, catching light from the over head lamp.
Tamsin stares at it for a long minute. "You want to know the secret to being a good pilot?"
Mako straightens up, because after all this time, even with how close Mako feels, she has never been able to ask Tamsin for advice, not about this. She nods.
"Never take them off. Not now when you're a cadet, not in a few years when you're a pilot, not even after you've fought your last kaiju. They're yours, they're you, they're the reason you fight, and you should never let that go."
Mako nods. Then bites her lip. Starts, "May I–" before she bites her lip again.
Tamsin smiles, old and tired and fond. She reaches down the collar of her shirt, and pulls out her own. "These are old," Tamsin says, her tone halfway to joking and her expression not matching. "They've still got Stack's position as Ranger on here. He has to wear Marshal tags now." She rubs her thumb over her tag, her smile more sad than anything now. She pulls at her shirt, and drops them back down.
Mako moves to do the same.
"Never take them off, Mako," Tamsin repeats, as she moves to adjust her chain, pulling the clasp back to the nape of her hair. "Don't show them to anyone who's not PPDC, and don't let anybody touch them. Not unless they're on your tags, or you're madly in love with each other. The second reason won't always lead to the first, but the first will always lead to the second."
Mako takes the advice to heart, and aside from two deployments and one decontamination shower, Mako never takes her tags off. Through the multiple press events, she wears collared shirts when she can, keeping them as out of sight as she can manage.
Currently she, Raleigh, and Chuck are waiting backstage at a charity event for kaiju blue clean-up. The uniform for the event is a baby blue t-shirt, representing the cleaner ocean the charity and all its volunteers are all working to achieve. They do not argue, and so there is a ball chain visible above each collar.
There are technical difficulties, and so they continue to wait.
Mako glances up at Raleigh, eyes tracing the line of silver visible above his collar. Her gaze snags on the clasp for the chain, lying against the side of his neck instead of hiding behind his neck. She takes a half step closer, shoulders brushing as she turns to face him. The metal is warm against her fingers, and she draws the chain up, giving it enough slack, and then she reaches her free hand around the other side of his neck, tugging the chain down on his other side.
Raleigh pulls at his shirt, shaking it out, letting the dog tags drop back to the bottom of the chain. He tilts his head down towards Mako, smiles. His gaze flicks over his shoulder, and his smile dims.
She takes the half step back to where she had been standing, and turns to follow Raleigh's gaze.
Chuck is staring too intently on the quiet stage waiting for them. His shoulders are tense, his lips are thin.
His clasp is at his collarbone.
Mako wants to take a half step closer towards him, and instead wraps her hands into loose fists. She is not his copilot, she is not on his dog tags, she has no place to touch them. "Chuck," she says, quietly.
He looks at her, and raises an eyebrow.
She reaches up, taps at her own chain.
His gaze lingers on her collarbone, before he frowns. He pulls at his chain, down until he sees the clasp. Two dog tags ride up, and he hurriedly drops them back down under his shirt. He curls his left hand around the tags, keeping them from riding up again, making the chain rattle as he pulls the clasp to the back of his neck.
The tension in his shoulders hasn't let up, and it bleeds over all of them.
*
The question is, what happens next?
*
Chuck spends his free time in the Kwoon training rooms.
"Your form has improved," Mako observes.
He doesn't seem surprised to see her. He continues through with his forms, the movements cleaner than Mako has ever seen them.
They had run through Kwoon matches on their own, before Chuck was allowed to enter the Jaeger Academy and Mako was not. He was too aggressive, and the victories usually went to Mako, but there were points that were hard-fought, matching each other move for move, getting lost in the rhythm of the fight. There was a possibility, and they both knew it.
Sensei and Herc knew it too, and neither seemed especially pleased by the thought.
Neither Sensei or Herc are here now, off catching up on the press circuit they had missed, Sensei in the hospital, Herc as Acting Marshal.
Mako grabs a hanbo.
Chuck's form has improved, but he is not used to fighting with it. Mako gets the first point. She smirks. His eyes narrow. Sensei's influence fades from his stance, and the fight becomes what Mako remembers, worn and familiar.
Chuck drops his hanbo and takes her down with a move that Tamsin once taught Mako. Her surprise lets Chuck complete the move, but her familiarity with it lets her counter it. In two moves, Mako straddles Chuck, panting heavily.
He rolls them, pinning her briefly, before she uses his momentum against him, and they grapple halfway across the mats, dog tags falling out of their shirts, until Mako winds up back on top, and holds her position.
They're both panting heavily, inches between them, and Mako quickly tries to sit up, but there's a metallic clink and her chain presses into her neck.
Her two tags are tangled in his three.
It is a delicate operation, fingers pinching each side of the chain, trying to maneuver the tags apart from each other, hyperaware of the rapid rise and fall of Chuck's chest, the dark intensity of Chuck's gaze.
"You can touch them, you know."
She darts a glance at him. She shakes her head. "No, I–"
"It's alright," Chuck says, voice low. He swallows, and his gaze falls to the side.
Chuck knows exactly what he is offering, and Mako knows what her answer is. She reaches down, and with sure hands untangles her tags from Chuck's.
*
You don't take off your dog tags. Even when there are eight tags between the three of you that clink and chains that get caught amongst each other, even though there is talk about disbanding the PPDC, for now you are Rangers, you are jaeger pilots, and you keep your dog tags on.