maskormenacelogs | [Closed]

Entry tags:

[Closed]

WHO: Newt Geiszler & Hermann Gottlieb - eventually Mako Mori [CLOSED]
WHERE: De Chima (two hotels, two taxis, one cafe, and the porter ~~in a pear tree~~), then Maurtia Falls (Newt's apartment)
WHEN: August 15th-16th - immediately following the August 2015 Swear-In, after Qubit portals them out - forward from there
WHAT: The scientists yell, they argue, they cry, they hold each other together. Then they invite Mako for pizza and try not to spoil their canon for her.
WARNINGS: Newt drops several F-bombs and other lesser curses. Lots of arguing, some serious some childish. Some throwing up. Discussion of their respective mental/physical conditions. Panic attacks. Discussion of self-experimentation of the dissection variety. A single mention of embryonic stem cells. Newt puts his tea on ice--and that's apparently sacrilegious to Hermann.

Hermann and Newt - De Chima to Maurtia Falls
( I know that I've got issues | But you're pretty messed up too )

Hermann, Newt, and Mako - Maurtia Falls
( Either way I found out | I'm nothing without you )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I'd hardly call them gone." Of course there were no Kaiju here, but back home there was still the threat. The Breach was still open.

Still, she looked at both of them curiously.

"What happened to both of you?"

"No, they're--they're gone. Basically."

Probability of Breach reopening was infinitesimally small, even if it was something he and Hermann had discussed and would likely be worried about when they returned, but for all intents and purposes, the Kaiju were gone and--that wasn't what she was talking about, was it. Newt exchanged a look with Hermann as a mixture of surprise and vague alarm dawned over his face.

He giggled nervously. Shit. Why did she have to be so bright? Why couldn't they have gotten a lug-head pilot like Hansen's son (no, no don't think about Chuck right now--Oh my god she doesn't know about Chuck. She doesn't know about Pentecost--Hermann, what are we going to do??!)-- "H-hold up! What's the last thing you remember? I mean, back home."

Hermann gave her a puzzled look. Perhaps for them, and particularly for her, they'd never be truly gone, but after twelve long years of global destruction, they had peace. It was worth something.

"Otachi in our case, primarily." A primal fear he could still vaguely feel, even now. He refused to go into detail about what had 'happened' precisely.

It was possible Newton had the right of it, however. He did recall mention of people being drawn from alternate points in time. He just hadn't put any stock into the possibility until now.

"We closed the Breach, Miss Mori. Or rather, yourself and Mr. Becket did so."

Edited 2015-09-04 08:15 (UTC)

She immediately set her tea down as Newt begins explaining, and when Hermann speaks up to tell her they closed the Breach-

They closed the Breach. She and Raleigh do it?

"No, we haven't. We just took down Otachi." They had just gotten back to the Shatterdome. She had arrived still in her pilot's uniform.

"But that's not what I'm asking." She took a deep breath here, looking between the two of them for a long moment.

"You're acting strangely."

That got more nervous laughter from Newt. They were acting strangely? Uh. He withdrew his hand from Hermann's shoulder. When did that get there? Where should he put it now, uh...

"No, yeah, we--we closed the Breach. Definitely closed the Breach. You're about...three Kaiju behind schedule here--four, actually, if you count..."

He would forgive Hermann if he told her Newt drifted with a Kaiju and made no mention of himself. But it was a cool story. Their part, at least. Mostly cool. Some parts were less cool. Yeah, actually, maybe they shouldn't tell her anyway, though that look she was giving them was making Newt wonder if they even had enough deception skills between the two of them to keep her in the dark.

And speaking of not telling: Hermann, why did you have to tell her who closed the Breach? Striker was supposed to run point on that mission. Fortunately Mako was more concerned with their behavior, and maybe that was good. Maybe they could keep her more concerned with their weirdness. Telling her they drifted with a Kaiju was a lot safer in comparison to the story of the Breach. Yeah, yeah let's stick to that.

It was something of an oversight either way, and Hermann internally winced along with Newton. She'd caught onto their behavior, and he spared a brief wonder for how they were before. Except he knew, because actual physical contact between them had been quite rare and now it was.. comfortable.

She was behind, although not significantly in terms of time. But in all other ways that mattered. What should they tell her? No wonder people sent back to their worlds didn't remember anything, if there were paradoxes to consider. At least they didn't have to worry about that.

Taking a measured sip of tea, Hermann used it to clear his throat and set his mug down.

"I'm sure there's no point in keeping this from you Miss Mori, so I'll be frank. In our.. dimension, Newton and I drifted with Otachi's dying offspring. We discovered the key to getting through the Breach and returned to LOCCENT to make certain the operation didn't fail. Two more Kaiju had risen from the Breach- Scunner and Raiju, I believe- and later Slattern, the world's first- and thankfully last- Category Five Kaiju. Together with Striker Eureka, you managed to defeat them and the operation was a success. Newton and I were drawn here almost immediately afterward."

"You drifted together with a Kaiju." She knew Newton had, but she had trouble imagining that Hermann would put himself in such a situation. However, she also knew drifting alone nearly killed Newton.

Mako shook her head, imagining the difficulty that must have involved. And then a Category Five appeared at the Breach when they were attacking it? Was that coincidence or had there been an exchange of information that helped with that? Either way, it was all almost unbelievable, but she had no reason to mistrust them. They knew she would be able to figure it out eventually.

"Thank you for your honesty." They had closed the Breach! Amazing. And that explained the strange behavior. Of course they had Drifted. It made complete sense.

"I am glad we were successful."

"Me too. You have no idea." Knowing what the Precursors had in store for Earth made Newt all the happier that Earth's final stand was a success, no matter the costs. The drift, and any damage to his brain as a result, had been worth it.

He was pretty sure the Jaeger pilots who died would agree that their sacrifices were also worth making for humanity.

"And yep! We drifted... are drifting, now." There was a pride and enthusiasm not entirely unlike his research in Kaiju. Unintentionally, there was an emphasis on the idea of a We that he just couldn't get rid of, and maybe, if his smile was any indication, didn't really want to. "I don't remember if we told you yet, but that's one of our powers, to perma-drift with each other. So if I seem kind if weird, that's why--I've got a permanent case of Hermann on the brain. Anyone would be weird with that."

Hermann dipped his head in a nod, brushing off a twinge of guilt for the omissions in the face of her gratitude. They likely should tell her, because there would never be a good time to do so, but now seemed particularly ill-advised. She was obviously still suffering from the visions of her past. There was no need to make the future haunt her as well.

"I question the accuracy of the drift being classified as a 'power'." he remarked, taking up his tea again and sending Newton a slightly exasperated look with no real feeling behind it. "Rather more of an awareness, but an interesting experience just the same."

"It's a power," Newt argued, mostly because he could and because he did believe it was more than just an awareness. They shared memories with an extreme vivdness. This was so much more than a Hermann compass and empathy. "You're just failing to see the practical applications for it, dude. You have to think outside of your perfect cube."

He could admit there were practical applications, but there were also a great many downsides and they've explored many of those. Not to mention the strange need to play their connection down in front of others, even if it was Mako- a pilot he was sure could understand.

Hermann still wasn't sure what to think of the memory he'd inadvertently shared.

"Perhaps you should write a paper on the topic. I'll be certain to read it." The former wasn't likely, but they'd hash out the details of all of that later. It would be nice though. Newton sounded so refreshing on paper. Sometimes he wondered if they didn't just communicate better through written form, without all their individual idiosyncrasies grating on one another.

"Hell, I'm tempted to, just to get you to 'listen,'" he snarked back, and maybe he actually was tempted. It had been a long time since they'd written to each other, seriously, outside of the context of the network and that little taste on the network made him miss those penpal days.

It was weird, arguing right next to each other instead of across the room. Not that they hadn't, obviously, but there had always been so much distance between them, either real or perceived.

"But I expect YOUR response in writing, rebuttal or otherwise. If we're gonna do this, we have to do it right."

It was perhaps a little ridiculous to feel a buzz of anticipation in response to that threat. A recollection of years long past, of curling up with tea and one of Newton's letters, rereading it several times and beginning the words to a mental draft he'd later sit down to handwrite. A ritual he'd stubbornly maintained even in Alaska despite all else.

"And this," he said, ostensibly to their guest, tone long-suffering yet with the hint of a smile. "Is what I have to deal with."

Edited 2015-09-06 00:55 (UTC)

That was a pleasant buzz.

Newt made a face at Hermann and flipped him off, playfully and without real malice, almost entirely for show. "Excuse him. He gets cranky when he's hungry." He gave Mako aa sly grin, as if she was the audience to their play (and she kind of was) and he was making an aside, letting her in on a secret, before he then tired to shove the remainder of his own pizza at Hermann's mouth.

Hermann jerked back, narrowly escaping Newton's attack. "Would you please just-"

His hand snapped up to hold Newton's wrist at bay, the other tightening around his mug. "You're going to make me spill my tea, you ingrate."

He eyed the piece of half-eaten piece with evident distrust. "I have my own thank you. Please excuse him, Miss Mori. It'll be some time before he's house-trained even with my influence."

"Ingrate?! I got you that tea, you ingrate!". But Newt laughed at the way Hermann scowled at his pizza as if it had cooties or something. Geez. I'm not tox-- oh, shit, I am. Never mind. Not sharing my food. Ever. Wow. And with that, his laugh faded and he ate his own pizza in a sobered silence.

Housetrained! Maybe he should be insulted. "It's cute how he thinks he's smart enough and patient enough for that," Newt muttered to Mako, getting up for more food.

Mako knew better by now than to try to interrupt the two. They liked to bicker across their lab, and she could only imagine how much sharing a constant Drift would enable the bickering.

Letting them have out their conversation she forces herself to eat the slice of pizza that had been offered to her, knowing she needed something to eat after the last day.

"I'm certain Dr. Geiszler can take care of himself, Dr. Gottlieb."

To be honest, Newt feared it would lessen the bickering, and that was one of those things he didn't want to let go. Everyone always said you didn't have to talk much if you Drifted...don't let word get out, but he liked talking to Hermann.

"See! See!" He gestured to Mako, as if her opinion on the matter validated Newt and voided Hermann's argument. "A few Kaiju entrails on the floor and he thinks I don't know how to live in a house."

He returned with a couple of slices of his own pizza and the box of Hermann's, still rather pathetically obvious in any attempts to make sure someone (tall, thin, and mathematical) ate enough. If he managed to wrangle Mako in at the same time, all the better. Newt set the opened box on the coffee table, closer to Mako than to Hermann, however, and took a seat on the couch. "We have plenty of pizza, Mako."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Closed]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Feel free to interrupt them, Mako

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

is it my turn? I kind of messed up the order T_T