Newt Geiszler | Pacific Rim (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
groupiedrifter) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
ximilialog2021-12-02 01:29 pm
groupiedrifter) wrote in ximilialog2021-12-02 01:29 pm
[MOSTLY OPEN] December Catch-All
CHARACTERS: Newton and You!
LOCATION: See Each Prompt
DATE: Dec 1st onward
CONTENT: Newton faces the consequences of his own secrecy - and gets help for it! Alt title: A dumb bitch in action.
WARNINGS: Medical issues, including an alien-induced seizure in one prompt.
I. Back to the Station | [OPEN] | Locations: Kitchen, Infirmary, and Others!
[Returning back to the station doesn't quite... feel as victorious as usual for him. For one thing, he's got a friend who is for some reason still under some weird effect of the dream — and on top of friends also getting hurt, there's that unspoken elephant in the room for a lot of them: the dreams that were shared, those vulnerable moments that leaves a lot of the orbers feeling too seen. But it's more than that. It's... like something's missing. He's got this awful itch he can't mentally scratch, this feeling that he's missing something important, carelessly lost track of an important thing he should be addressing.
But when he thinks about the dreams, he sees the people he'd visited, and he sees himself as a child, himself at a concert and being attacked by kaiju... Nah, man. It's stupid. It's a stupid feeling, and he's just tired.
Rubbing the sleep from his eyes and making himself a huge, unwieldy cup of coffee in a pot in the kitchen, he makes enough to offer those around him. Anyone familiar he's quick to wander over to, smiling a bit more genuinely; after all, he's relieved to see people awake and alert. And of course, don't think for a second he's not gonna check up on his crew in the medical wing. You'd better be resting in that damn infirmary, so help him...!
He still feels off... exhausted.
But it'll probably go away, so whatever.]
II. Morning After Meme (But Not a Meme) | [OPEN] | All Over the Station
[It does not go away.
Some part of him thinks 'I need to plan a post-mission party or sleepover or usual thing, something we can all relax to', but most parts of him just thinks about how nice it would be to sleep some more. Coffee doesn't really cut it, and as the days tick by, he finds himself more and more unable to focus on his projects, or get himself to perk up with caffeine. What the hell, right? Spend a month stuck in and out of dreaming, and now his stupid insomniac brain has decided insomnia is out of style.
So he sorta starts having weird sleeping patterns.
It starts mostly with falling asleep at the desk he's got set up in the lab; slumped over his papers, he snores softly, but it's mostly drowned out by the loud rock music on his phone that can't seem to keep him alert. On occasion he ends up asleep at the mess hall cafeteria table, his spoon still in his hand and a soggy bowl of overly sugary cereal to his left. The sunlight room also leaves the opportunity to find Newton, sleeping on his back with a comic book called The Space Warriors of Zar draped over his face (what a generic-looking manga, looks like one of those big robo shows with the combining mechas...).
It becomes a real problem when he gets so sleepy and ready to hit the bed that he stumbles into the wrong room and crawls under some other poor sap's sheets. So very sorry if you either walk in to find a snoozing, snoring lump under your blankets or open your eyes to Newton sleeping a foot away from you.
Typical Ximilia nights, am I right?]
INTERLUDE PART 1 | What Happens When He Sleeps | [CLOSED]
[In Newton's waking hours, he has no memory of the aliens in his head. But when he's dreaming, he remembers everything — every. little. thing. The precursors that linger in his sad eroding brain tinker and tanker with his free will, but Newt remembers here. He remembers Clara and Peter, Hermann and Yzak, Sabriel and Elthree, Raleigh and the Doctor... They had been in this dream world for a moment. They may not remember, but he saw what they tried to do for him.
It fills him with determination.
And, more importantly: bitchy pettiness.]
NEWTON GEISZLER, YOU ARE TESTING OUR PATIENCE—!
[The precursors all squirm in outrage, but their crescendoed voices are just barely audible over the sound of the music blaring from the speaker Newton has put between them; he sits with his chin on the top of the machine, biting his lip as it nearly trembles into a manic, victorious smile.]
♪ I get knocked down, but I get up again
You're never gonna keep me down
I get knocked down, but I get up again
You're never gonna keep me down ♪
TURN IT OFF THIS INSTANT-!
♪ I get knocked down, but I get up again
You're never gonna keep me down
I get knocked down, but I get up again
You're never gonna keep me down ♪
DO YOU THINK YOU CAN DO THIS FOREVER-
♪ Pissin' the night away, pissin' the night away ♪
III. i'm gonna writhe & shake my body | [CLOSED to Daisy, Blue, and maybe Bones?]
[The mental war wages and rages on in the coming days, but it all kind of goes tits up on December 10th. Not that he'd know he was pissing off aliens in his head. He wakes up from his memoryless nightmares this day as he does any time sleep abandons him, but it's something worse. It's something wrong. His head hurts worse than he thinks it ever has, so much so that he can't think straight; the colors that dance in front of his eyes scream medical science at him: symptoms can include temporary visual or other disturbances, ones that strike before other migraine symptoms: intense head pain, sensitivity to light and sound, and —
Nausea!
Ah, yes, that's the one that makes him stumble into his bathroom.
He's pale and sweaty but a little more put together as he steps out of his room; don't ask him how he's managed to button his shirt or put on his shoes. He couldn't tell you. He mumbles to himself:]
... Migraine aura usually occurs within an hour before head pain begins... and generally lasts less than 60 minutes... Scotomas, shimmering spots, check and check... numbness, check... muscle weakness, yessir... Speech, er, mmmyeah, yeah...
[He looks down at the drops of blood on the floor, blinks. Looks back at the drops of blood that lead from his bedroom door to where he's standing. Then looks at the red spots on his dress shirt.
... Huh.]
... Nosebleed, check.
[Oh no, he finally thinks, Maybe I should've just admitted something's wrong. There in the hall, his eyes roll up in their sockets before they snap shut, and he falls backward like his strings were unceremoniously snipped. The occiput of his skull bounces uncomfortably against the hard ground as his arms and legs begin to twitch and seize, muscles spasming, chest heaving, all while he's caught up in the flashing images of long teeth and serpentine eyes and bio sludge stewing monsters in its depths-
It's an unpleasant thing to run into, the convulsing figure on the floor, but someone's got to, right?
Sorry, Daisy and Blue.]
IV. Whoops? | Location: Infirmary (December 10th) | [OPEN]
[Ah, if it isn't the consequences of my actions.
In a very short, very unpleasant dream, he's lying on the floor of the endless white expanse, crumpled into a very still pile with his arms and legs splayed out. He breathes in deep. Holds it. Breathes out. He doesn't open his eyes here, but he can hear the precursors chattering. We pushed too hard. But he was getting on our last nerve, what else were we supposed to do to shut him up? Great, we've broken him; how are we going to use him if we break him? Humans are so frail. How were we supposed to know just how frail? Like bugs! Like fleas and ticks!
Newton slurs, ... Fleas and ticks are hard to kill...
And in reality, as he lays in an infirmary bed, he wakes up grumbling:]
Fleas and ticks are hard to kill.
[Oh. Oh, shit, right. He's resting in the infirmary. He remembers waking up from it at some point, getting looked over — bedrest, his mind supplies. He's only been here for a couple of hours, but he feels like it's been days for how little of it he's actually spent awake. Concern and guilt and panic hit him like a hammer; is he gonna have to actually admit it all now? That something's horribly wrong?
Duh, of course you are.
He's not allowed to leave for the next few days, just until tests are done and he's certifiably safe to walk out on his own and be left to his own devices, but it doesn't mean he's gonna like being stationary. Like... yes, he did absolutely have a medical crisis happen recently, but he's supposed to go on his routine jog! And work on his stuff in the lab! And plan dumb movie nights!
You deserve this, you lied all this time.
Sure, but it doesn't mean he has to accept his punishment like a good person should.
By now, Daisy might've already let people know. Or maybe they felt Blue's sudden burst of despairing energy when he'd tried to enter Newt's head during the seizure (spoilers: it sucked for Blue, not that Newton even remembers him being there; too busy seizing and all).
Or, y'know, they would've just poked their heads in and saw that he was in here.
This ship is too damn nosy for it's own good.
It's because they care, stupid.
When did his inner monologue get so mean?
Uncalled for.
............
Said to the wall ahead of him, he mumbles wearily:]
Fuck, I'm craving chips and salsa like crazy.
V. WILDCARD?
[This is a catch-all for December, so feel free to throw me a prompt or do a starter here!]
LOCATION: See Each Prompt
DATE: Dec 1st onward
CONTENT: Newton faces the consequences of his own secrecy - and gets help for it! Alt title: A dumb bitch in action.
WARNINGS: Medical issues, including an alien-induced seizure in one prompt.
I. Back to the Station | [OPEN] | Locations: Kitchen, Infirmary, and Others!
[Returning back to the station doesn't quite... feel as victorious as usual for him. For one thing, he's got a friend who is for some reason still under some weird effect of the dream — and on top of friends also getting hurt, there's that unspoken elephant in the room for a lot of them: the dreams that were shared, those vulnerable moments that leaves a lot of the orbers feeling too seen. But it's more than that. It's... like something's missing. He's got this awful itch he can't mentally scratch, this feeling that he's missing something important, carelessly lost track of an important thing he should be addressing.
But when he thinks about the dreams, he sees the people he'd visited, and he sees himself as a child, himself at a concert and being attacked by kaiju... Nah, man. It's stupid. It's a stupid feeling, and he's just tired.
Rubbing the sleep from his eyes and making himself a huge, unwieldy cup of coffee in a pot in the kitchen, he makes enough to offer those around him. Anyone familiar he's quick to wander over to, smiling a bit more genuinely; after all, he's relieved to see people awake and alert. And of course, don't think for a second he's not gonna check up on his crew in the medical wing. You'd better be resting in that damn infirmary, so help him...!
He still feels off... exhausted.
But it'll probably go away, so whatever.]
II. Morning After Meme (But Not a Meme) | [OPEN] | All Over the Station
[It does not go away.
Some part of him thinks 'I need to plan a post-mission party or sleepover or usual thing, something we can all relax to', but most parts of him just thinks about how nice it would be to sleep some more. Coffee doesn't really cut it, and as the days tick by, he finds himself more and more unable to focus on his projects, or get himself to perk up with caffeine. What the hell, right? Spend a month stuck in and out of dreaming, and now his stupid insomniac brain has decided insomnia is out of style.
So he sorta starts having weird sleeping patterns.
It starts mostly with falling asleep at the desk he's got set up in the lab; slumped over his papers, he snores softly, but it's mostly drowned out by the loud rock music on his phone that can't seem to keep him alert. On occasion he ends up asleep at the mess hall cafeteria table, his spoon still in his hand and a soggy bowl of overly sugary cereal to his left. The sunlight room also leaves the opportunity to find Newton, sleeping on his back with a comic book called The Space Warriors of Zar draped over his face (what a generic-looking manga, looks like one of those big robo shows with the combining mechas...).
It becomes a real problem when he gets so sleepy and ready to hit the bed that he stumbles into the wrong room and crawls under some other poor sap's sheets. So very sorry if you either walk in to find a snoozing, snoring lump under your blankets or open your eyes to Newton sleeping a foot away from you.
Typical Ximilia nights, am I right?]
INTERLUDE PART 1 | What Happens When He Sleeps | [CLOSED]
[In Newton's waking hours, he has no memory of the aliens in his head. But when he's dreaming, he remembers everything — every. little. thing. The precursors that linger in his sad eroding brain tinker and tanker with his free will, but Newt remembers here. He remembers Clara and Peter, Hermann and Yzak, Sabriel and Elthree, Raleigh and the Doctor... They had been in this dream world for a moment. They may not remember, but he saw what they tried to do for him.
It fills him with determination.
And, more importantly: bitchy pettiness.]
NEWTON GEISZLER, YOU ARE TESTING OUR PATIENCE—!
[The precursors all squirm in outrage, but their crescendoed voices are just barely audible over the sound of the music blaring from the speaker Newton has put between them; he sits with his chin on the top of the machine, biting his lip as it nearly trembles into a manic, victorious smile.]
♪ I get knocked down, but I get up again
You're never gonna keep me down
I get knocked down, but I get up again
You're never gonna keep me down ♪
TURN IT OFF THIS INSTANT-!
♪ I get knocked down, but I get up again
You're never gonna keep me down
I get knocked down, but I get up again
You're never gonna keep me down ♪
DO YOU THINK YOU CAN DO THIS FOREVER-
♪ Pissin' the night away, pissin' the night away ♪
III. i'm gonna writhe & shake my body | [CLOSED to Daisy, Blue, and maybe Bones?]
[The mental war wages and rages on in the coming days, but it all kind of goes tits up on December 10th. Not that he'd know he was pissing off aliens in his head. He wakes up from his memoryless nightmares this day as he does any time sleep abandons him, but it's something worse. It's something wrong. His head hurts worse than he thinks it ever has, so much so that he can't think straight; the colors that dance in front of his eyes scream medical science at him: symptoms can include temporary visual or other disturbances, ones that strike before other migraine symptoms: intense head pain, sensitivity to light and sound, and —
Nausea!
Ah, yes, that's the one that makes him stumble into his bathroom.
He's pale and sweaty but a little more put together as he steps out of his room; don't ask him how he's managed to button his shirt or put on his shoes. He couldn't tell you. He mumbles to himself:]
... Migraine aura usually occurs within an hour before head pain begins... and generally lasts less than 60 minutes... Scotomas, shimmering spots, check and check... numbness, check... muscle weakness, yessir... Speech, er, mmmyeah, yeah...
[He looks down at the drops of blood on the floor, blinks. Looks back at the drops of blood that lead from his bedroom door to where he's standing. Then looks at the red spots on his dress shirt.
... Huh.]
... Nosebleed, check.
[Oh no, he finally thinks, Maybe I should've just admitted something's wrong. There in the hall, his eyes roll up in their sockets before they snap shut, and he falls backward like his strings were unceremoniously snipped. The occiput of his skull bounces uncomfortably against the hard ground as his arms and legs begin to twitch and seize, muscles spasming, chest heaving, all while he's caught up in the flashing images of long teeth and serpentine eyes and bio sludge stewing monsters in its depths-
It's an unpleasant thing to run into, the convulsing figure on the floor, but someone's got to, right?
Sorry, Daisy and Blue.]
IV. Whoops? | Location: Infirmary (December 10th) | [OPEN]
[Ah, if it isn't the consequences of my actions.
In a very short, very unpleasant dream, he's lying on the floor of the endless white expanse, crumpled into a very still pile with his arms and legs splayed out. He breathes in deep. Holds it. Breathes out. He doesn't open his eyes here, but he can hear the precursors chattering. We pushed too hard. But he was getting on our last nerve, what else were we supposed to do to shut him up? Great, we've broken him; how are we going to use him if we break him? Humans are so frail. How were we supposed to know just how frail? Like bugs! Like fleas and ticks!
Newton slurs, ... Fleas and ticks are hard to kill...
And in reality, as he lays in an infirmary bed, he wakes up grumbling:]
Fleas and ticks are hard to kill.
[Oh. Oh, shit, right. He's resting in the infirmary. He remembers waking up from it at some point, getting looked over — bedrest, his mind supplies. He's only been here for a couple of hours, but he feels like it's been days for how little of it he's actually spent awake. Concern and guilt and panic hit him like a hammer; is he gonna have to actually admit it all now? That something's horribly wrong?
Duh, of course you are.
He's not allowed to leave for the next few days, just until tests are done and he's certifiably safe to walk out on his own and be left to his own devices, but it doesn't mean he's gonna like being stationary. Like... yes, he did absolutely have a medical crisis happen recently, but he's supposed to go on his routine jog! And work on his stuff in the lab! And plan dumb movie nights!
You deserve this, you lied all this time.
Sure, but it doesn't mean he has to accept his punishment like a good person should.
By now, Daisy might've already let people know. Or maybe they felt Blue's sudden burst of despairing energy when he'd tried to enter Newt's head during the seizure (spoilers: it sucked for Blue, not that Newton even remembers him being there; too busy seizing and all).
Or, y'know, they would've just poked their heads in and saw that he was in here.
This ship is too damn nosy for it's own good.
It's because they care, stupid.
When did his inner monologue get so mean?
Uncalled for.
............
Said to the wall ahead of him, he mumbles wearily:]
Fuck, I'm craving chips and salsa like crazy.
V. WILDCARD?
[This is a catch-all for December, so feel free to throw me a prompt or do a starter here!]
no subject
But you know, they all probably look pretty tired. S'not that out of place. Yzak certainly looks like he could use some shut-eye himself, and so Newt holds up the pot of coffee with raised eyebrows and a relatively pleasant demeanor. There was, uh. A lot said in the dreams they shared, huh? Maybe they can just. Let sleeping dogs lie, for now.]
You like it strong enough to turn a hole in your stomach?
Or should I get the sugar and cream and all that beginner's business?
no subject
"So why was Yzak so much more ornery for the rest of the mission after he woke up" shhhhhhhhhh. ]
Basically. I only take the smallest bit of milk with it. I don't require anything else.
no subject
Best way to get it. Here ya' go.
[He moves it over to Yzak across the counter, then leans into the edge with his hip and pinches the space between his eyes and kneads it. His glasses bob on top of his fingers.]
Long month, dude. The longest month ever.
no subject
[ He takes a small sip to test how hot it is, and then sets it on the counter next to him to let it cool a bit.
He first opens his mouth like he's going to say one thing, and then reconsiders. Because he knows what Newton means here, but there's also... ]
The fact that it was impossible to tell how much time was passing while we slept certainly made it seem longer.
no subject
[He blows out a breath. Stands there quietly for a moment.]
I was a pretty cute kid, right? Totally adorable.
[Yeah, he totally remembers every moment of that.
... Awkward. Not as awkward as Yzak's memory, but y'know. We'll just. Focus on this one!]
no subject
You ... weren't bad.
[ He'll say that much! Which means Newton is definitely correct in that assessment of his younger self. ]
Exactly like I would have pictured you as one.
I do hope you've acquired a better sense of personal hygiene since then, though! Especially since you work in laboratories, now!
no subject
He sips his coffee, glancing aside.]
... Mm. Totally.
[Does that instill any sense of comfort in the hygiene of his labs?]
no subject
You are SO FULL OF SHIT.
[ He looks down at his cup of coffee DUBIOUSLY. ]
no subject
[He actually didn't, but poop jokes are funny on occasion.
(To him.)]
I promise I don't spit on my hands and wipe them on my pants to sanitize them.
Happy?
no subject
[ Did you expect any other reaction from this man with no sense of humor.
He squints at him. ]
Marginally.
[ And then takes a sip. ]
no subject
God, is Commander Yzak too above poop jokes, too?
[He grins despite his weariness, nudging him with his elbow.]
You gotta take humor classes, man. It'll do you a world of good.
no subject
[ He doesn't realize what he did there until after he said it. So now he looks like he wants to die. ]
... oh my god.
no subject
... What was that, Yzak? You don't like what?
no subject
I am not repeating that!