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]

"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."