[MOSTLY OPEN] December Catch-All

[groupiedrifter]

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!]

Comments

Here we go :(

[morethan084]

[Daisy’s on her way to the training room when she hears an odd noise in the distance, she can’t quite place what it is but she hurries off in that direction to find someone on the ground. Her stomach drops when she realizes it’s Newt.]

Holy shit.

[Quickly getting on Newt’s level, Daisy’s by no means a medic but she knows what a seizure looks like. The blood running down his nose is what really concerns her. Her hands are shaking as she gently places her hands on him.]

Newt, can you hear me?

[Carefully, Daisy rolls him onto his side as she looks around for anyone else who might be nearby.]

I need help out here!

[She shouts, knowing there’s got to be at least a few people in the rooms surrounding them.]

[firstroar]

[others may be physically near, but Blue isn't one of them. it doesn't stop him from noticing, however. Newt is one of the handful of people here that he has something of a bond to, and with that bond comes an unconscious awareness of any distress that may rattle him and, by extension, the tether Blue's mind has made to him.

he's not swift enough to sense the danger until it's well and truly upon the man, as Blue was in the midst of conversing with Yzak elsewhere. all that stops when that steady stream of agitated, Newt-y energy is halted by the seizure, and that's all Blue needs to send himself that way.]

Newt...!

[Blue's a pale, flickering ghost which phases into view, descending beside both Newt and Daisy, red eyes bright.]

His thoughts-- how did this happen?

[morethan084]

[That voice sounds vaguely familiar, and she turns around to see where it's coming from just in time for Blue to appear right in front of them.

Oh. He's talking to her in her mind.]

I don't know, I just found him like this.

[It takes Daisy a minute to process the first thing he said.]

You can hear him?

[Then he's got to be okay, right?]

[firstroar]

[the mashup of music, musings, and all the various off-topic tracks that illustrate Newt's consciousness to the Mu...there's a distortion that Blue can't identify, and that makes him doubly concerned.]

Sudden distress, and then...this...

What...what is this? His thoughts...

[Blue's hands reach out to pantomime gently cupping Newt's face, to make a willful intrusion into his psyche and seek him out.]

Newt, answer me--

[groupiedrifter]

[Newt's mind is —

not good

His teeth clatter together behind his lips, biting his cheek, but he doesn't taste blood doesn't taste much of anything eyes rolling back to see monsters with sharp teeth long claws, they're going to catch him, going to find him — clones in biological slurries, soups where life is created then pulled out then created, walkways like spinal cords moons and suns like reptilian eyes help something's wrong and nerves firing off, fluid on the brain swells and pupils dilate and the kaiju are fighting to the death, tearing and ripping and clawing and one dies but one gets to live until the next stronger one kills it, newton runs and sees through his eyes and their eyes as they hunt him and he feels them watching like predators hears them coming for him knows he knows too much human or monster? hard to tell both so mixed up when you're in the drift and then he wakes up but he can still feel them he's fishing as a child he's running for his life his head hurts so much it hurts it hurts—

eyes roll back into the head to look at blue's mind where it digs around, pupils shaped like rice grains, animalistic, the kaiju growls and newt whimpers and then something like electricity like THUNDER strikes both of them in the neurons and axons and tissue of his brain

the awful thing shaped like a winged dead beast hits blue with full force, grabs him like a dog grabs a small animal and shakes him (like it shakes newton, back and forth shakes him) before throwing blue like a rag doll

like sticking a fork into an electrical socket, baby]

[firstroar]

[the severity of the circumstance is outwardly shown to Daisy by the way that not only Newt convulses, but the specter as well, his reactions staggered and flickering as though he were under strobed lighting. bright, white light etches across like veins before the ghost is shredded by unseen teeth, and an echo of the dreadful encounter pulses out like a wave of heavy bass, tinged with a distorted echo of a monster's bellow.

both Blue and this noise evaporates, leaving Daisy once again alone with the mess she's found.

think fast, girl.]

[morethan084]

[Daisy's eyes flicker between Newt and Blue, wishing she could somehow hear what Newt is saying. Taking off her sweater she rolls it up to quickly put under Newt's head so it doesn't continue to slam into the hard ground.]

What is it? What do you hear?

[She feels utterly helpless and is about to call Bones when Blue's skin suddenly lights up.]

What's going?!

[Blue isn't answering though, and that's when she hears it. Feels it. Her stomach fills with dread. This is way bigger than just a seizure, even if she has no idea what it is.

Did something or someone follow them back from their last mission?

In a blink Blue is going.]

Blue?!

[Shit.

Daisy doesn't waste anymore time and quickly tries to get in contact with Bones.]

[homeostatic]

( His coffee forgotten in the wake of Daisy's call, McCoy isn't sure what he'll find when he gets there.

Stay calm, he tells her, Stay with him. )

How long has he been like this? ( He asks Daisy not a minute later, and drops quickly to a crouch beside her and Newt, medkit under his arm, loading up a spray applicator. )

[groupiedrifter]

[He feels something weird tickling his nose at first, but not much else for a moment; if he had any sense, he might know it’s just Bones spraying an anticonvulsant into his nostril; he’s calming now, eyes flickering in thin white slits as a sigh makes way for a sliver of consciousness. Blinking slowly, he looks at McCoy, then to Daisy, not quite sure what he’s looking at.

Blood continues to drip from his nose in a small, congealing line, just beside the edge of his lips. He’s pretty sure he smells kaiju guts beyond the taste of pennies, but his tongue is too heavy, fills his mouth and chokes back his words. Looks at Daisy, looks at Bones, looks at the ceiling.

Move? Body, hey?

Shouldn’t you move?

Say something?

He sighs softly again, the quietness of the noise not quite matching with a blood pressure that is still teetering dangerously high. Slurring with such grace:]

S’this finally my firs’ threesome here?

[Is that a joke? Probably. But in fairness, he’s having a really hard time remembering anything after waking up earlier in his room and barfing in the sink.

(sorry, sink)]

[morethan084]

[Daisy does a decent job of not panicking, outwardly, at the very least. Relieved when Bones comes into view, Daisy looks down at Newt again as she shakes her head.]

I don’t know, a few minutes? I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s more than—

[Daisy cuts herself off when Newt starts to come to, her stomach in her throat as she braces herself for something else to happen.

That…

Is not what she expected for him to say.]

What?

[Did she hear that right? She’s concerned as she looks from Newt to Bones.]

II

[bossily]

[Sharing a bed with Newt isn't a new thing for Clara. What is new is falling asleep in her bed for a nice, restful nap and waking up to have Newt's face right there in her personal space. She doesn't realize that it's him at first and gives a startled shout as she moves to sit up.

Panic subsides quickly as she realizes who it is. Concern for the fact he just crept into her room and her bed takes over, and she frowns as she reaches down to feel at his forehead.]

Good morning, starshine.

[She gives him a little shake, trying to get him to stir.]

Wake up so I can yell at you, Newton.

[homeostatic]

( Keeping a hand on Newt's shoulder as he slowly comes to woozy awareness, Bones sets to checking him out, and what he ought to mitigate before the scientist can be moved.

He's also heard weirder, sorry Daisy, completely unfazed. )

In your dreams, Newt. Can you tell me your full name?

[groupiedrifter]

[He swallows, but it feels about as easy as swallowing a golf ball. With consciousness comes some... discomforting and growing nonplus. He tries to open his slightly bloodshot eyes a bit wider, tries to actually look at Daisy and Bones, but everything's so murky. He's trembling, but thankfully it seems very different from the jerky spasms that had held him prisoner for minutes beforehand.]

... Uh. [A syrupy slow blink. His hand moves up (oh hey it moves!) and he touches the blood on his upper lip.] ... Newt? Just Newt... [He looks over at Daisy and smiles a little, trying to reach out to touch her arm and totally missing it.] Hiya, beautiful. Cool dream... Pretty cool...

[Dream. Dream? C'mon, think. These two people have names, right? He knows them, 100%. As soon as he figures out how legs work, he'll figure out the name thing later. What else, what else. Station? Ximilia? He tries to swallow again. Blinks less slowly. Looks at McCoy in all of his pale and bloody splendor and decides on something wholly infactual and dishonest, even while in a confused post-seizure haze:]

Jus' a migraine, dude... [Note to team: did not lose 'dude' in vocab even for a moment after tonic-clonic seizure. Looking at Daisy, he says again, like that's necessary:] Jus' a migraine. I'm good now?

[Wait, no question mark on the end here; whatever, ugh, too late.

Wait (x2).

... Wait (x3).

As Bones checks that hideously bad blood pressure (just wait 'til you get to see the intracranial pressure readings, bro, cerebral edema never looked so hot), he seems to have a more concrete epiphany.]

Seizure? [Dangerously close to saying 'sure' instead of 'seizure', but he likes to think he nailed it. If he had any wits about him right now, he'd feel the distinct difference between this and a seizure called by a drift neural overload, but he can't be assed to even remember he has 6 PhDs or what kaiju are just yet. He drops his head back and adds a bow on his reply:] Ffffuck.

[morethan084]

[Daisy's concerned about what happened to not only Newt, but Blue too. She doesn't want to talk about it around him. She'll have to pull Bones aside once Newt is okay. Smiling down at him when he tries to reach out for her arm, Daisy places a gentle hand on his other shoulder.]

Yeah? What happened in your dream?

[Daisy asks lightly, as if she is not at all worried.]

Maybe you should leave the diagnosis to the real doctor.

[She teases, gesturing to Bones to hand her something to wipe the blood off of Newt's face. Brows knitting together when he realizes what happened, Daisy's expression softens.]

Has this happened before?

[groupiedrifter]

[Newton takes an extra few attempts to rouse, and when he does, it's to look at her with bleary confusion. Maybe a sign of his ridiculous sleep patterns, but: he still has his glasses on, crookedly sitting now, as if he'd just crawled right in without bothering to remove them. He smacks his lips and stretches his legs down like a housecat before he looks more mindfully at her.]

Yo, Clara... What're you doing in my bed...? [He shimmies himself closer, making dumb smooch sounds at her, because he thinks he's totally funny (even in this dumb sleepy state).] You here for some kissie kissie benefits or what?

[bossily]

[Her broken arm is currently out of its sling, and she's cradling it close to her chest so she'll stop doing stupid things like bumping it around. So it looks distinctly like she's clutching her heart in offense, something that the wide eyed look she's currently giving him doesn't help.

When his words finally sink in and she winds up wrinkling up her nose in disbelief is about when she stops looking like he's just gone and offended her.]

This is my bed. My bed in my room that I was napping in first. [There's a pause as an eyebrow sharply arches, lips pursing together with amusement. He is such a dork.]

And...kissy kissy benefits, seriously?

[groupiedrifter]

[... Huh?

At that, he looks around the room, blinking like he's only just realized where he is (that's because he's only just realized where he is). Oh. Oh? Oh! The tired-looking bloke has the good decency to look somewhat sheepish about it.]

... Maybe I unconsciously wanted the kissy kissy benefits?

[It is really comfortable in Clara's bed. So it doesn't seem that farfetched that he'd end up here, half-asleep. After all, she's one of the few aboard that knows he gets those unpleasantly empty nightmares.]

... Sorry, my bad.

[His eyes shift down to the arm, his little smile falling away.]

How's the arm?

[homeostatic]

( Y e p both of those readings are alarming af, but he keeps his mask of cool professionalism intact through Newt's ramblings. Instead of passing Daisy anything, he takes her lightly by the elbow, his voice low, )

Go to the infirmary, get one of the stretchers and bring it back here. Finn'll know where it is.

( To Newt, he keeps his other hand on him, giving his shoulder a light squeeze. )

You'll be good in a little while, you're just gonna take a ride here in a sec. Gave yourself a pretty good goose egg.

[groupiedrifter]

[Newt's brow furrows. Ah, right. What happened in his dreams...? That was the big mystery, wasn't it? The thing he's been wracking his brain about for the last few months. There's this big black chasm of nothing, nada, zilch, but it leaves him feeling colder and more afraid every time he reflects on it.

What happened in your dream?

I don't know, I'm trying to figure that out.

Okay, but: What happened in your dream?

Thinking it harder won't make it happen, self.]

Uuuh. Yeah. Happened — once. I think... uh. [He stares at Daisy for a moment, though, and feels something give way when he scratches that mental itch. He looks at Bones and says:] Newton Geiszler. [Wait, he asked him to say his name forever ago. Forever ago? A minute ago. He shivers a little harder, not out of cold, but-] Sorry. Uh. What happened in my dream...? Wait, did I fall down? Shit, my head hurts.

[He looks nervously as Bones pulls Daisy aside, watches as she gets up.

Ugh, think harder. So fuzzy.]

H-hey. You're coming back? Right? Um — Daisy.

[Improvement! He knows your name, confirmed! Crushed it.

... Why is he so nervous about her leaving? People do that, it's normal. People leave rooms and come back into them. But what if she's just leaving and doesn't come back? What then? What about the dreams? Shit, he needs to get it together. Stupid scrambled egg of a brain...]

I ... FOR NOW (so before the 10th)

[coordination]

[ Yzak isn't around as much physically the first couple of days after returning to the station. He had thrown in his Charter magic to the cause, and though he's careful and has an excess of physical energy due to his being a Coordinator, the hungry orb took a little more than his training's prepared him for. So he's fine! He's just ... tired because overuse of Charter magic does take a physical toll. He's spending most of those couple of days grabbing what he needs (tea, coffee, food, books) and relaxing in his room.

On day two he's a little more perky, but still not at 100%, so it's then that he comes into the kitchen looking exactly for what Newton's making. ]

Oh.

I was just coming here for that.

[morethan084]

[Oh.

This is so not good.

Daisy lets go of her gentle grip on Newton's shoulder to stand up.]

On it.

[She's about to rush off when Newton calls out to her, hearing the anxiety in his voice. Smiling gently at him, Daisy nods once.]

Promise. I'll be right back.

[Passing a worried glance at Bones, Daisy then rushes off to the infirmary to grab the stretcher.]

ii;

[kovach]

[ at first, he thinks he's somehow in the wrong room, considering he hadn't actually spent the night in his own and had slipped out further into the morning hours, coming back to his room only to seek out his cigarettes (because he's at least courteous enough to not go on smoking in clara's). but he finds them there on the side table, right next to a particular pink unicorn bag that's very undoubtedly his.

which means the snoozing, snoring newt definitely ended up in the wrong bed last night. ]

Hey. [ he utters, voice deep and still a little groggy from freshly waking up from his own sleep. lifting up his leg, he gives the sleeping body a nudge with the bottom of his boot. ] Get your ass up.

[groupiedrifter]

[What a coincidence, Newt had just recently been in Clara's room this week, so like, we're just all trading rooms together. Someone give Kovacs a key to his room too, so they can work on completing this unholy trinity, right? Might as well, since everyone else Newt sees is a mess of hot sad people in need of comfort.

... And no, Newt does not categorize himself as hot.

He's obnoxiously cute.

Anywho, the man who has stolen away Kovacs' bed is so deeply asleep right now that the little nudge with the foot does fuck-all, just gets him to grimace and curl up more where he lays, yanking the blanket up and over his head.]

Mmpf.

[groupiedrifter]

[Newt looks tired.

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?

[coordination]

[ Dreams? What dreams? There were never any dreams.

"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.