Hello friends. Here's an Omake to distract us from the Scorpion-Dragon-Kaiju shooting at our Jaegers.
Ashley Langley eyed her foe with fury in her eyes. She was one second away from finally shanking that bastard, all it'd take was a dash to cover the meager distance between them, barreling through the obstacles and this would be over.
"Tacit... Craaaash!" She screamed with all her fury.
"No no no, that's still not right!" Her hated enemy said, waving his copy of the script around. "You need to shout louder, to put more emphasis in it, show you're going to crush your enemy!" Somehow, Ashley managed not to jump out and crush him. She couldn't believe the General had managed to talk her into this fiasco.
"We've been here for hours now, miss Langley, but we've barely got half the lines properly recorded," The director said, ignoring the death glare the ranger was sending his way. "And we might have to redo a few for consistency later." Ashley bit back a curse at the reminder that her torture would not end anytime soon. Recording those lines was just so goddamn embarrassing!
"I'm just not cut out for this, okay?" She said. "Look, maybe it'd be easier to get a voice actor or something? Someone trained for this?" She tried to reason, but the director shook his head and dismissed her suggestion with a wave of his hand.
"Miss Langley, you have to understand it's very difficult to consistently imitate someone else's voice without actually sounding like an imitation, even for a trained voice actor." He explained. "You're already here with us and we already have good recordings ready. Getting someone else would just force us to start from scratch and we'd end up with an inferior product."
Ashley sighed and massaged her temples. Yes, she understood that, but that didn't mean she liked it. "Why do I even have to do this, anyway?" She muttered. "It's just a goddamn toy..."
"Do you have any idea how popular the videos of the last battle were on the intranet?" General Cid Highwind said from the comfortable chair in the corner. "People loved hearing you calling your attack, Ash."
The Ranger just facepalmed at the reminder. "Please don't remind, sir." The General smiled in response. "Regardless of your embarrassment, people loved." He continued. "And when we announced a Perfect Grade Tacit Ronin miniature complete with a voice box of you calling our attacks? People went nuts."
"It's a fu-freaking toy, sir." Ashley said, frowning. "How many people are even buying that sort of thing anyway?" The General smirked at that question. "Well, if the pre-orders are to be believed, about a quarter of the population of the city wants one." Ashley stared at the General like he'd gone nuts. "I know for sure nearly everyone in the defense forces wants their own." He continued. "Every squad put in requisition orders for at least one Pee-Gee Tacit, and some requisitioned two." He looked at the slack-jawed expression on the Ranger's face, a big grin on gracing his own. "Hell, some of them asked when Jagdhund's would come out and if they could pre-order one already, just to make sure they'd be the first ones to get one."
Highwind's grin turned into a more subdued smile. "As it turns out, people really like having reminders of their guardians nearby, especially when the apocalypse is happening all around you." He said. "Things like this toy, those videos, they remind people they have guardians fighting for them, they're reassured when they see and hear you out there, fighting, winning..." He trailed off, and then chuckled. "Shouting your attacks like an old-school mecha pilot. It's a hell of a boost to morale."
Ashley, frowned at her superior, but she stayed silent. The General did have a point, she understood very well how a symbol could motivate and reassure a person. If it meant comforting someone or making a child smile even in the middle of the apocalypse, she would gladly record these stupid lines.
She still didn't want to admit defeat.
"Fine, fine." She said after a moment. "Let's just get this over with, the sooner the better." She went back to the microphone before stopping halfway and turning back to the General. "Actually, I've got one more question." When her superior nodded, she continued. "Why the heck are you even here, anyway? Don't you have other things to do besides sitting there, like signing paperwork or something?"
The General sighed. "I have a bunch of half-mad scientists clamoring for me and the rest of the council to shut down the Magic research division and give them their funding, while the other half is one broken coffee machine away from revolting." His expression darkened. "Then there's the paperwork." He snarled that word as if it were a vile curse. "So much god damned paperwork."
He looked straight into Ashley's eyes. "Frankly, I needed a break. Coming here and calling it supervision and a PR effort was the best excuse I had," He explained. "And being able to sign off on my own paperwork helped make this happen." Then he smiled. "And besides, I get to watch you scream silly attack names all day."
Ashley frowned, but nodded and went back to work. She had long since learned not to question the people from the council too much, mostly because they either had a weird sense of humor. Well, either that or they were legitimately insane. And considering what she heard they'd ordered the science division to research these past few weeks, she was inclined to believe it was the latter option that was most likely true.
