taliahale

Guillermo, you made the thoughtful action movie of my heart. Was Pacific Rim a perfect movie? Of course not. But it hit a lot of the big ones for me, and the world-building was excellent and ripe for fandom tinkering. (Oh, and if you haven't already, give the soundtrack/score a listen--it's become a go-to for me at the gym and on my commute.)

( i love everybody in this shatterdome )

"That, Herr Doktor, is the best fucking thing I've heard in the last ten minutes. It would be all day, but..."

"Saving the world does tend to eclipse other matters, yes. Come on, Newton." Hermann hooked two fingers in one of Newton's belt loops, gripped his cane, and proceeded to drag Newton through to his bedroom. Newton, meanwhile, nattered on as per usual.

"...I'm so glad we're on the same page her, man, I mean I have been thinking about this for like at least eight years, okay more like since the day I saw you but eight years ago it stopped being a hatefuck thing and became kind of a thing where i thought about like what pretty eyes you have and how I wanted to hold your hand and steal food off your plate and shock you with ice toes in bed and shit, I mean really perverse domestic shit, you know?"

All of Your Flaws and All of My Flaws by CinnamonCake. Mature, 5,000+ words, Newt & Hermann, Newt/Hermann. It's Newt and Hermann, unfiltered, from their first meeting till the Breach is closed.

Newton has always been an egotistical bastard most of his life, for reasons that feel petty now, but when Hermann looks at him with wide panicked eyes and says, "It's not going to work," he knows this is not the time for him to be himself. As they scramble out of he plan back on base, Newton really hopes he doesn't regret being selfless for once because that would really suck.

He doesn't cry when he sees the last of the living Kaiju die. He knows he should because there is much more he wants to know about them, wants to cut them up and look at them through the lens of a microscope and catalogue and breathe in all the knowledge but he doesn't. Because he'd miss it all anyways if he were dead. he's miss...a lot of things if he were dead.

All the Eastern Marks in Germany by

what_alchemy . Mature, 14,000+ words, Newt/Hermann. Although not mentioned in the film, Hermann is canonically married to someone named Vanessa. 'Nessa is Newt. Mind the warnings here, because holy wows transphobia and ableism, but it's handled deftly and with a great deal of compassion.

"You would not, of course, be the only models. We're looking for diversity. Your files came up in our searches, and you both fit demographics we are still missing."

Newton's brow furrows. "Two...nerdy...white dudes? What?"

Hermann scowls at Ms. Munoz before turning to Newton.

"I'm visibly disabled, you arse. And you--" His mouth snaps shut when he sees Newton's eyes go wide and disbelieving Hermann lurches back around, his cane a fulcrum, to pin Ms. Munoz with a quelling look. "You can't do this. You can't outhim, and I find the legality of approaching either of us on the basis of our minority status extremely dub, and I will thank you, madam, to leave us now before I can seek legal counsel on a discrimination suit."

He feels a hand on his shoulder, but it's gone as soon as he looks in Newton's direction. Newton is facing Ms. Munoz when he says, "I assume we'd be doing this clothed, and none of the models will be identified by their demographics."

Bear Your Neighbor's Burden Within Reason by callmejude. General Audiences, 6,000+ words, Newton/Hermann. Hermann's cane is broken, and due to rationing post K-Day it's going to take a while too replace it. Newton steps up to the challenge of assisting his lab partner. They maybe get a little more attached than predicted. There are a few moments where I cringed and thought 'urgh, ableism,' but they also read pretty true to Newt's level of obliviousness concerning, you know, anything vaguely resembling a social nicety. But head's up for that.

"What?" Newton asks after a moment, and Hermann realizes he's been staring.

"Did they hurt?"

Newton doesn't react exactly the way Hermann was expecting. The look on his face is suddenly drawn, and he shrugs. His eyes don't meet Hermann's when he mutters, "Nah.

Hermann can guess there's more to the situation, but he knows better than to ask. He nods. "They're very well done."

Like a light switch, Newton's face changes again, breaking into a grin. "You do like them."

"No," Hermann insists, but his face must betray him, because Newton is still grinning. "I find them horribly distasteful, but they're well done."

big teeth small kiss by

magneticwave. General Audiences, 7,000+ words, Raleigh/Mako, Newt/Hermann. College AU. I cannot accurately describe how fucking adorable this all us, though the GA rating should give you an idea how fluffy this is.

"He doesn't--you don't think he uses, like, feng shui or anything?"

As Raleigh has honestly never known a person less likely to be interested in improving the chi of his desk space, he says, "No, I don't think so," and the girl nods twice, sadly, and wanders off towards the stacks. Raleigh stares after her and then he shakes himself and plugs his headphones back in, trying to get back into the rhythm of comparing various Indo-European verb forms and mostly succeeding.

It seems like the kind of funny story Newt will want to add to his repertoire, so when Raleigh goes back to their room after dinner, he makes sure to say, "Hey, Newt, some girl asked me this morning if you feng shui your desk."

Hermann, neatly tucked into Newt's desk and scribbling on a stack of papers as thick as Raleigh's Latin-to-English dictionary, groans alm theatrically. "Another groupie?" he says. "Marvelous. Truly marvelous. I'm delighted."

...Confused, Raleigh says, "...Why would--you have groupies? And how do they know who I am?"

"Facebook," Newt guesses. "You have really shitty privacy settings, Raleigh. Like, ten minutes on that thing before we were friends and I knew your mother's maiden name and the names of your first five pets. You're a banking security system's worst nightmare."

it was grassy and wanted wear by achilleees. Mature, 4,000+ words, Raleigh/Chuck, AU-Groundhog Day. Chuck is dead. Chuck wakes up. It's the fandom's obligatory timeloop AU, and it pings all the best cliches.

"Look sharp, I can't have you slacking off right now," Stacker says, taking his place beside Chuck.

Chuck shrugs and knuckles his eyes. "Doesn't matter, sir. Just gonna do it all again tomorrow anyway."

Stacker furrows his brow at Chuck. "What?"

"Never mind, you'll see in a minute."

They activate the neural handshake. The drift is always deep, but this time, it threatens to swallow Chuck alive. When he comes back to himself, Stacker is staring at him.

"Well," Stacker says eventually. "You've had a long day, Hansen."

Chuck quirks his lips. "That's an understatement, sir.

riding the wave and build a house on a mountain by achilleees. Mature, 13,000+ words, Raleigh/Chuck, AU-Canon Divergence. Stories exploring what could've happened if Chuck had been injured instead of Herc. It's a gorgeous series: in-character, realistically bumpy and yet charming relationship development, and he perfection of our boys simultaneously failing and winning at communication. Plus the prose itself is damn-near flawless. build a house on a mountain strongly reminds me of the SGA A Farm in Iowa 'verse by

aesc and

sheafrotherdon, which is a very, very good thing.

"Well, hey there," Chuck says around a laugh. "You're happy to see me." But he hugs back just as tightly, caressing the back of Raleigh's neck with the pads of his fingers as he draws away.

When Chuck pulls back, he's got smears of grease on his army green t-shirt. "Shit, sorry 'bout at," Raleigh says.

"Eh, it all comes out in the wash," Chuck says.

Raleigh raises his eyebrows. "You've given too many interviews, man. Everything you say sounds like a sound bite now."

Chuck snorts. "Hell, whaddaya think I'm doing here? Just tryna get away from it all. Mako says you put up electric fences to keep out the reporters."

"The deer, actually," Raleigh corrects with a half-smile. "But it works for that too."

The Stretch and Pull of Disused Hearts by billiethepoet. Mature, 14,000+ words, pre-canon, Newt/Hermann. The cold of the Anchorage Shatterdome is adversely affecting Hermann's mobility. Newt tries to help him out by building him a hot yoga studio. Everyone misinterprets everything. They both pine like champs.

"This is perfect. Fucking perfect." Newt is incredibly pleased with himself, and not just for being himself this time.

Sweat drips down Newt's forearms and soaks the rolled up cuffs of his shirt. The room is blazing hot, way hotter than any room in Anchorage in the dead of winter has a right to be. But that is entirely the point. The humidity's a bit low, but newt is working on that. he has a couple humidifiers set up in the small space ready to pump out moist air at a moment's notice. it's just a bit too much for him right now. he has already sweated through the back of his shirt and his glasses are slipping down the bridge of his nose.

The time for humidifiers would come. he needs a couple more things first: a steady chair, some towels, another mat. he could make this work; he's going to make this work. Hermann will love it. Or hate. Probably hate it. Or maybe love it. He will love it, if Newt just talks him into it.