random loose threads

[driftsintobuffetline]

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2016
January 29 - Returning from Submarining
February 13 - What are you thoughts on MARRIAGE?
February 16 - Day 1, Soviet Occupied Import Cities
March 12 - They were supposed to talk about Miles and Greg, but talked about themselves instead
April 14th - Kinks, Tatts, and Power Suppression
June - Admiring the Ring
July 27 - Hermann's New Car
After the Kaiju Test - Need a New Apartment

Comments

[driftsintobuffetline]

Newt seemed to fluff up like a happy bird at the use of his new last name. He'd never much cared for titles, but that one was a keeper because, if nothing else, they both shared it. The Doctors Gottlieb-Geiszler. Doctors. Two. Plural. A unit. It was pretty snazzy how that worked.

"I keep all my promises, man. Don't you dare call me a liar."

It was hard not to get sentimental here, today. He considered himself lucky to have a second Drift anniversary ...considering what just happened to Miles. (Fear ran cold through his veins before he returned to sentimental joy) And he was extremely lucky and extremely proud to share his life and mind and everything else with Hermann. It was gross just how sappy he felt, but this was a warm fuzzy feeling Newt wanted to roll around on and bask in the sunlight and enjoy.

"You know it." He steered them back into the flow of foot traffic carefully, staying near Hermann's cane side. "Heck, sometimes I forget we're married. Like, how did that happen? How is it I upgraded you? Aren't I still bribing you with coffee and tea to just be seen in public with me? Did I dream up December? I think I did. I think I caught a fever and I'm imagining November 2015 onward." He laughed. "I have the best dreams."

[mathemagier]

Hermann shook his head, ducking his chin back into his scarf.

"Very lucid and extensively detailed for a dream," he remarked. "And I still can't believe you were dating me before we even established more than friendship."

Having thought nothing of these outings or shared bits of conversation. He'd just thought it a sort of peace offering after years of conflict. Something they could both enjoy on a casual level. But it was sweet, really, to think of Newton resorting to as many coffee/tea dates as he would agree to so early on in their friendship.

And as ever, it warmed him that even now, Newton was looking out for him. It seemed like such an unconscious effort anymore. Guarding him from the inconsiderate passersby while maintaining enough distance that he wasn't in danger of tripping them himself.

"No, we're very much awake and conscious of our decisions, Newton. You 'upgraded' me by professing your undying love and commitment long before we actually married. And we're doing rather well."

[driftsintobuffetline]

"It was Friend Dating, alright."

He'd enjoyed finding excuses for them to spend nearly every morning together. It was the kind of socializing they should have done from the start, vaguely reminiscent of their lab debates, but with more honesty and compromise. Newt was pretty sure he'd started it because he was obsessed with befriending Hermann, and somewhere in there he fell in love with the man. Or re-fell. Newt wasn't wholly convinced now that he hadn't been a little in love with Hermann all along.

What a revelation that was.

"You make me sound so much more romantic and terrible than I was. Professing my undying love. God. How gay. I did nothing like that. Telling your long-term lab partner you want to be with him forever, through sickness and in health, is perfectly normal, alright? God. Can't a guy propose lifelong codependency without being accused of professing his undying love? You make it sound like a shojo anime."

[mathemagier]

It was endlessly humbling every time he took the time to think about just how much Newton loved him. To the extent that he'd rather have fleeting moments of lucidity between what would likely otherwise be a cantankerous old man, than marry someone with considerably less pre-existing health conditions.

Hermann hummed amusement.

"Yes, I'm rather certain that's love, Newton. It's even a traditional clause in the vows."

Not that they gave traditional vows, but that particular vow had already been pledged anyway. It was every time he had difficulty getting around their apartment unaided, or every time the Drift colored over with Newton's flawed brain chemistry and skewed emotional norms for awhile.

"You are very romantic and sweet, Newton. And quite gay, if your choice of scarf is any indication."

[driftsintobuffetline]

He wanted Hermann, no matter what that ended up as for them in the future. Newt couldn't imagine his life without this cantankerous old man and he was determined to give as good as he got.

"Whatever, Hermann," he said, the tone a mockery of one he'd used many times in their years together--self-assured in his own rightness. "Like I'm one for tradition anyway."

Side-stepping a couple taking a photo, his gaze lingered on them a moment before responding to HErmann. The couple was young, cute, very giggly and in love and Newt wondered what that was like, finding a person when you were still in your twenties. Or, rather, finding and KEEPING that person--or knowing what they meant to you, instead of letting wounded pride, ambition, and prejudices get in your way.

It must be nice.

Then again, a little age had honestly made better men of them both and he was more appreciative of Hermann now than he ever could have been when they had first ended up on each other's radar.

He was totally NOT romantic or sweet, but hey, if he had Hermann fooled, he'd take it. Because he liked to think he was capable of courting and wooing the man he'd promised forever to and who he was quite intent on being obsessed with for the rest of his life.

"Bi. I am very bi..pan...whatever," he corrected, flicking said scarf with his free hand. "Don't forget, Doctor, I'd be just as into your skinny ass regardless of what you had between your legs."

[mathemagier]

"Comforting, should that ever change."

Not that it was likely to. He was comfortable with the person he was, even if that person was far from perfect. But Newton loved him, and that was all that mattered really.

He glanced back at the couple a moment, only grasping an odd sense of vague envy and appreciation from Newton.

"Everything all right Newton?"

[driftsintobuffetline]

"Hey, it could."

This world was weird and while so far its changes had mainly been with regards to time and memory, he didn't put it past someone's power fuck up or whatever to just ...rule 63 them.

Newt turned his attention from the couple and back to Hermann completely, tightening his grip on his husband's hand.

"It's fine. I was just thinking about being young and stupid." Stupid wasn't exactly an insult in this case, either.

[mathemagier]

The thought was a bit unsettling, though it would be far from the worst thing to happen with rogue imPort abilities. Past the initial shock and disorientation however.. Considerations for another time.

He smiled. Young yes, and stupid in a different sense than usual. Hermann squeezed back a bit, reassuring.

"Well we've been making up for lost time rather well, all things considered. Even if we'd gotten along back then, the Kaiju war took precedence. Better that we have time to focus on each other now, I think."

[driftsintobuffetline]

"You mean rather than getting distracted with crazy sex and relationship drama and the world getting destroyed by the Kaiju? Yeah, probably better that we waited."

A gust of wind reared up as they got further along the bridge and Newt took his hand away from Hermann's to properly zip up the leather jacket. Hands shoved into his pockets now, he offered Hermann the crook of his elbow to loop an arm through instead.

"I have to admit, I like that here I get you all to myself, too. I mean, no recovery effort distractions, no politics, just you and me and figuring us out. Would kind of prefer a bit more permanence, but, hey, you take what you get, right?"

[mathemagier]

Hermann gave Newton a look for his presumption, but threaded his hand through with only a bit of an eye roll.

"A day at a time, yes. But we have some odds in our favor at least. We've ported in together, so we're more likely to leave in a similar fashion. And if we can ever perfect Qubit's design.."

But down that road led to the portal, the porter, that dangerous Drift..

"In any case, it's been more than a year, and my data is beginning to point in that direction. The longer a person has been here, the less likely they are to leave."

[driftsintobuffetline]

He wasn't going to mention that Miles and Greg had seemingly arrived together and Greg hadn't taken Miles with him when he vanished. There wasn't enough data to prove Hermann's theory, but Newt was also not sure there was enough to disprove it. Which was frustrating, because if nothing else, he wanted answers.

"At least we have the letters and recordings in case something does happen." Hermann could be optimistic here, but Newt was feeling the weight of Miles' loss too much to be anything more than a realist. Someday, one of them WOULD disappear without the other, and it would be more than a weekend excursion and an excuse to return with new powers. Someday it would be permanent, or semi-permanent, or resultant in memory loss, and he wasn't going to delude himself into thinking it would be otherwise.

And it was probably going to be Hermann who disappeared, because that was how things went, Newt decided. He had no basis for the theory except that it seemed to happen to him again and again--people LEFT, and even here, the losses were more Newt's than Hermann's (or so it felt like). He would wake up some morning to find Hermann had vanished, or had been rePorted in with no memory of this place and...god. Maybe ten years older with a wife and kids. Who knows.

No no no. This was supposed to be a nice outing.

He put his hand over Hermann's where it rested on his arm. Don't go.

"I wonder," he said, noticing how his power suppressor bracelet bumped Hermann's arm, "if it'd be easier or a better solution to protect individuals from inter-dimensional porting than it would be to actually...create a general porter? An ounce of prevention or whatever, but, like. You can't destroy a disease, for example, so you inoculate individuals to protect them. Now, I mean, you actually also inoculate people to create Herd Immunity, which doesn't apply here because I don't think preventing you from being ported out is going to protect, say, Miles, but the idea still stands: what if we find a way to take someone OFF the Porter's radar?"

[mathemagier]

It was about as much as he could lie to Newton- cherry pick bits of data. Not the blanket reassurance Newton wanted, but a touch of hope at least. Though it seemed Newton's drift with Miles had already swayed him otherwise.

I'm still here, he tried to impart with all the sincerity he could muster.

Newton's idea was unorthodox, and raised too many questions that they didn't have answers to.

"It's possible," he conceded, unwilling to shoot the idea straight down on an anniversary. "But we'd need to understand how the Porter works first."

[driftsintobuffetline]

Newt heaved a sigh. Everything came back to understanding that damn Porter which they couldn't even get close to and which Qubit--one of the smartest people Newt knew--couldn't even manage to replicate. There would never be a guarantee.

He hated that word, Never. They could do better. They could improve their probability because that's what research and knowledge would do for them.

"Then we'll just have to do that." They had come to understand how Kaiju worked, how the Breach worked, when everyone said it would be impossible and that humanity was doomed. They had figured it out. He and Hermann were the Dream Team and as long as they were here together, with time, they could accomplish anything they put their minds to. "Because we've worked way too hard to get here. I'm not going to lose this."