maskormenacelogs | I'm gonna rock a last dance tonight, night

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I'm gonna rock a last dance tonight, night

WHO: Hermann, Qubit, and Newton
WHERE: Bavaria Germany
WHEN: (Forward-dated) September 26th
WHAT: An unplanned trip to Germany as a result of unintentional power experimentation and Oktoberfest.
WARNINGS: Alcohol, swearing

The temperature strikes him first, and a shiver crawls up his spine and along his arms. Hermann shudders and lifts his head to stare out across the Garmisch valley, abruptly tired and unable to quite believe the cold ground beneath his hands.

One moment he had been staring at his laptop screen, feeling just a little homesick and considering when to ask about international travel, then in the next he was here, thirty degrees colder and facing the ground. Two problems were immediately apparent. One: he didn't have his cane, and two: he could really use a respectable jacket. Thank god he'd gone through the trouble of acquiring a bank card.

..Three, the drift was letting him know in no uncertain terms that Newton was a few countries and an ocean away. Lovely.

Hermann shivered again and sat back. For several moments, he was conflicted. He wanted to stay now that he was here, but he'd also come wholly unprepared and he'd always intended to bring Newton with him. So it was with great reluctance that he closed his eyes and attempted to recreate the criteria that brought him here to start with. Teleporting shouldn't have been possible without his calculations, but evidently it was.

Except of course, it refused to work for a return trip. Was he missing something? Coordinates, mental image- or did he simply not possess enough energy to go back? Hermann frowned, and after several chilly minutes of futility, finally conceded to a temporary visit and pulled out his phone.

First things first.

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A few minutes later, Newt having texted him the coordinates in a calm and rational manner, Qubit walked briskly out of a portal a couple meters away (to the audible surprise of someone walking their dog further up the hill). "Her- Dr. Gottlieb?" he called. But it turned out to be redundant. He spotted Hermann sitting in the grass almost before the words left his mouth, and came over to crouch next to him, squeezing his shoulder with one hand. "There you are. You all right?"

Herr Doktor, words only lacking a thicker accent. For all the combination of sounds may have been unintentional, the appropriate use of them tugged a faint smile at his lips.

A shiver laced through his spine, but it was milder this time as his body adjusted to the shift in temperature. He hadn't expected Qubit to arrive this quickly.

"Quite alright, Mr. Qubit. I apologize for Newton. I'm sure he was rather insistent." His partner was still on edge, but no longer panicking at least. He peered around the man to the portal.

"Newton didn't come with you?"

(Really all he'd done was almost call him Hermann and stopped himself at the last second, but. Whatever makes you happy bro.) Also, he'd gotten a mental ping from his nanites the second he stepped into Germany - not authorized, return to the States immediately or something - but he was ignoring it. Shut up, nanites, you don't tell him what to do.

"Not appreciably more so than usual," Qubit said. "At any rate, I came straight here." He tapped a button on his watch, closing the portal behind him. "Can you stand? That was, what, seven thousand kilometers you just jumped?"

If he sounded impressed, that's because he was. Barely a week ago Hermann had still been having trouble 'porting himself from one room to another, and now here they were in Bavaria, of all places.

Of course he could stand. It was walking that's the issue. But bless Qubit, making it sound like he was more worried about his exhaustion. Granted, he was still somewhat drained.

"Roughly," he agreed, and pushed himself into a standing position. Perhaps he should have made that stick, after all. But he'd make it a handful of steps back through a portal. "Not particularly extraordinary when your portals don't appear to have the strict limitations my teleportation seems to."

Really, his own abilities seemed to shadow Qubit's in a strange way. "If not for that, Newton wouldn't have needed to send for you. ..It seems you are ever rescuing us."

Qubit smiled out the corner of his mouth. "Well, that is my job. I'm just glad nothing worse happened. But I have to ask, what were you trying to do here? Why Germany?"

His comm was starting to get a bunch of notifications again, which he ignored. He already knew they'd all be from Newt. Which kind of made him want to answer them less, honestly. Teach the man some patience.

Hermann shifted his weight to his right leg.

"I'm sure it hasn't escaped your notice that Newton and I are German." Or maybe it had, given their differing accents. His name made it readily apparent, in any case.

Hermann gestured around to the landscape. "While it wasn't my intention to visit in such an unconventional manner, this is my hometown."

And wow, he'd really missed it. Maybe he was overwhelmed by nostalgia, but even here in a foreign world, the air smelled the same and promised so many comforts. It brought a faint smile to his lips, despite everything.

"I haven't been here since I was a child."

It actually had escaped his notice - obviously their names were German, but that didn't necessarily mean anything, and their accents didn't give away their origins any more than his own did. It was a pleasant surprise, though. Qubit took a moment to look out over the valley and the orange-roofed city nestled within, resting his hands behind his back. To the southwest, the Zugspitze stood tall above its foothills, with the sun well on its way to setting behind them.

"It's gorgeous," he said. And, after a moment, "If you'd rather stay a few minutes..."

It was. He missed these mountains, the buzz of the winter season, his desire to learn how to ski just because it was such a popular sport and he wanted to have something in common with boys his age. But then they moved to England, and it was just as well that he'd never learned.

"Newton's agitated," Hermann noted absently. He glanced down at his phone and disconnected the call. No new texts, but he fired off a short assurance of his own and stowed it back in his pocket.

"We'd best get back. The drift reacts strangely to different degrees of distance."

Strangely? Well, it was true Newt was even more excitable than usual. Qubit's comm hadn't stopped buzzing since he got here, good lord. He took it out of his pocket to check, only to find eleven unr- bzzt - sorry, twelve unread messages. He fired back one or two of his own, exasperated, before pocketing it again and starting to enter coordinates on his watch.

"Right. Is it the - you mentioned the two of you got picked up by Starktech, didn't you? Are you still commuting from Maurtia Falls, or..."

Faintly apologetic for the poor man dragged out of bed only to be on the receiving end of Newton's excessive concern, Hermann took another minute to look out over the valley and roughly estimate where it was his family had lived. Someone else lived there now of course, as even if there was a chance of an alternative selves, they were long in London by now, and he was.. in Anchorage or else still working with the ESA in the absence of any Kaiju threat.

"Ah yes, we were, but we've just finished settling into our new apartment in De Chima. I have the coordinates here.."

He pulled a piece of paper out of a pocket and handed it over. "Once again, I feel I must apologize for dragging you all this way."

He was already out of bed, sheesh. And the coffee had had a chance to kick in by now anyway. He took the coordinates and got them set up as he talked.

"And once again, it's really not an inconvenience." Interruption, sure, but it wasn't like he'd been doing anything important. "Trust me, Gottlieb, there are very few places on Earth that are actually out of my way."

The portal opened, leading directly into the apartment, and Qubit motioned to it with one arm - after you. "Now. Shall we?"

The portal blipped into existence in the living room, near the wall opposite Newt, and he gave a huff of "Finally!" then dragged himself up off the couch quickly. Having no idea they hadn't agreed to his proposition of attending Oktoberfest, he wasted no time going through because he didn't want them to change their mind and un-invite him.

Newt was wearing a hoodie with the zipper up the front open and Hermann's windbreaker over it, ill-sized as that was, and carried the cane more like a baton than a walking stick. As he burst through the portal, the smell of chalkdust and coffee was quickly replaced by greenery and morning indoor lighting became afternoon sunlight.

"So!! You two FINALLY decided you missed the pleasure of my wonderful company, huh?"

He looked between the two of them, then thrust the handle-end of the cane at Hermann so he would take it off Newt's hands. "You ready to get drunk and party? Because I'm ready to get drunk and fat on German beer and the way I see it, you owe me at least one for the near heart attack." Wait...he got the impression he was not expected. "What?"

Hermann stared, unable to do more than angle his body forward before Newton burst through. He took his cane automatically, grateful for it more than anything, but Newton clearly had other plans, and Hermann shared a puzzled look with Qubit.

"While I am sorry for causing you undue stress and hold no particular objections against buying you a drink to make up for it, I wasn't aware there was a plan other than returning to our apartment at the moment."

Edited 2015-10-05 03:15 (UTC)

Qubit was more than a little startled to see him, as well - normally he was the one jumping out of portals unexpectedly. If Hermann's expression was puzzled, Qubit's was just disbelieving. Because... seriously??

"Newt, what are you talking about?" (Translation: I did not read a single one of your texts.)

"What do you mean what am I talking about?" he asked, frowning at them like they were losing their minds. "Like I TEXTED you, if you guys are going to get in trouble at least bring me along and we can ENJOY the trip before we get in trouble for leaving the country." He took off the coat and then shook it out, holding it up and open for Hermann to slide his arms into, all while continuing to jabber at them. "From a friend standpoint it makes sense--we're all in this together or something, dudes--and from a practicality standpoint, it's really logical because if they lock you two up for this jaunt, I'm not going to cope well without Hermann, so I might as well get in trouble too, and since we're here, let's make the most of it and turn it into a vacation. It's Oktoberfest season, right? So let's go do that."

God these two. Too many numbers, no sense of fun. If you're going to get in trouble anyway, at least get in trouble for doing something cool.

Hermann was halfway to checking his phone for any text along that vein, but paused as Newton held his jacket open for him. He snatched it out of his hands with a huff and shrugged it on himself, and focused pointedly on the zipper while Newton explained. It was a good thing he'd already briefed Qubit on their issue with distance. Even so, that particular implication made them sound ridiculously interdependent.

Which alright, wasn't far from the truth, but hardly conversational.

"Oktoberfest- is it really?" And considering just how much more of his life he'd spent in Germany than Newton, he really should've known. Hermann peered through the portal, suddenly indecisive. Newton was here, he had his cane, they were in Germany already, and who knew if they'd be able to get clearance to return after this..

But then there was Qubit. "We already dragged the poor man out into a foreign country, I'm sure he'd rather be back home."

No matter how much he insisted it wasn't any trouble, the man had manners and they kept relying on him. "Although I do have a license now, so renting a car to drive to Munich wouldn't be difficult.."

"You've got to be kidding me," Qubit groaned under his breath, dragging a hand down his face. Oktoberfest? Really? It figured Newt would decide something like that on ten seconds' notice, but the truly incredible thing was that Hermann was going along with it. What was he supposed to do, just leave them there and come back later to pick them up? (Theoretically Hermann could just come back the way he came, but could he teleport Newt with him? What would even happen if he tried it after drinking? There was no telling if they could get back to De Chima reliably on their own.) Rescuing a friend was one thing, but picking them up from a party actually did sound like a pain.

Maybe he could talk them out of it. At least one of them had to realize this was a bad idea, didn't they? "It's ten in the morning!" he exclaimed, incredulous that he was even having to point that out. "You can't be seriously considering this. You're just going to lose the whole day, and that's in the best case."

He was... not factoring in that it was Saturday. Or that most people took Saturdays off. Or that it was not ten AM in Germany. Or even whether he'd like to go to Oktoberfest himself - somehow it hadn't really occurred to him that he was invited as more than the designated driver.

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I'm gonna rock a last dance tonight, night

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