Hmm, for the prompts, maybe your take on ‘Newt lures Hermann back to his apartment for the purposes of forcing hiim to Drift with Alice’ with it up to you whether he succeeds or not? Possibly tied in with the meta on Hermann’s nightmares being the Precursors attempting to lure him to them?

sarah1281:

idonotbitemythumbatyou:

Using my free 30 minutes of WiFi to post this!

Hahaha!! Oh man is this a trap!? People already give me shit for my angst!! (Lovingly. Lovingly, I mean.) ok I’m combining this with a prompt from @sarah1281 that I won’t say because it’ll spoil the ending!

“Hermann. I told you at drinks. I want us to be together again.” Newt flopped his arms in exaggerated exasperation, a second pons rig rattling in his hand matching the one already afixed to his own head, “you said you felt the same!”
“I didn’t know you meant like this!” Hermann couldn’t tear his eyes away from the grotesque undulations of the brain suspended in the sickly yellow glowing tank.
“Oooh she’s excited to meet you Hermann!” Newt said, “look she’s practically doing backflips.”

Why hadn’t he known Newt meant like this? He’d left the year before for a lucrative job in the private sector putting him at odds with once ironclad held beliefs. Putting him at odds with Hermann, for something he had never professed to care about. Why had he assumed that Newt – who had once been as pedantic about social justice as Hermann was about prime numbers – would ever prefer money to morality?
He had been so desperate to believe that newt still wanted him. That he regretted leaving so suddenly that he’d accepted Newt’s invitation to go up to his place.
“You should know…” He said as he was unlocking the door. “I’m living with someone. But it’s not what it looks like.” Hermann should have left then but his pride saw him through the door. He couldn’t let on that he’d been expecting anything. Even though Newt had pressed his thigh against his, and traced his palm with his finger and – wait a moment – actually said “I want us to be together again.” So what was this about living with someone.
Hermann had followed him into the should-have-been-suspicious empty and sterile-looking apartment.
He had glared in bewilderment as Newt had called up to someone “Alice! I’m hoooome! And guess who I brought wiiith me!”
Curiosity then led him to follow Newt up the perilous stairs to his bedroom. When he saw what “Alice” was, he had bolted in the other direction. He stumbled down the stairs, slowed enough that Newt easily grabbed him by the elbows and dragged him back up.
“It’s not what it looks like.” He insisted.
And that was how he found himself here. With a madman waving a pons rig in his face and tied to a chair. Like a fool
But then again, what should he have assumed? That Newt had been secretly cloning Kaiju parts for the sake of continued drifts and had since become addicted to the rush and possessed by a hostile alien hivemind? “Alice” suctioned another curious tentacle to the glass and a panicky shudder of adrenaline roiled down Hermann’s spine.
“I’m not interested in another neural ménage e’tois!” Hermann shouted, struggling against his bonds. “Once was quite enough. Thank you! Very! Much!”
“Hey hey hey!” Newt hurried to kneel before him and placed firm hands on his retrained wrists. This close up, Hermann could see a tiny dribble of blood threatening to spill from Newt’s nose. “Hermann. Sh sh shhh!” He rubbed a soothing thumb across his wrists, “I know it’ll be an adjustment, getting used to a third in our relationship but you’ve got to give Them a chance! You won’t regret it. It’ll be the three of us against the world!”
“Literally.”
Newt shook his head fondly, like a husband in a 1950’s sitcom. “Trust me Hermann, I’ve perfected this. It’ll be so much smoother than you remember. And afterwards, you’ll be here with me. We’re going to be like kings together. We’re going to be together.”
And he sounded so sweetly sincere – so like himself – that Hermann was momentarily moved to stillness. Long enough for Newt to carefully place the pons rig on his head like a coronation.
“I’ve had this second rig prepared for you for so long.” Newt murmured, his voice as gentle and loving as his icy fingers on Hermann’s scalp. With a final stroke of Hermann’s cheek he went to prepare the drift.
Hermann knew that this was it. There would be no last minute rescue. He’d told Tendo not to worry. Insisted on going to see Newt instead of him. He had brushed off Tendo’s proposed check in call. And now it was too late.
“You ready, babe?” Newt said, looking every bit like a groom spotting his soon-be-spouse at the end of the isle.
Hermann ground his jaw and stayed furiously silent. Newt sat in a chair beside his, squeezed Hermann’s hand in his left, and held the button panel in his right.
He leaned back and closed his eyes, fully prepared for the impending rush, Hermann gripped the arms of his chair, the lights flickered like a cheap Hollywood effect and Newt pushed the button.
Hermann was so focused on the button (and it had been so dramatically appropriate) that it took him a moment to notice that the lights had flickered and not come back.
All of them. The entire apartment had gone dark. The ambient humming of appliances was replaced by a shuddering groan, and a strange heavy silence.

Shanghai was dark.

“No.” Newt mashed the button. “No no no no no…”
Hermann’s eyes took a moment to adjust to the darkness. He could see that Newt was concentrating all his energy on the panel. And just as shouts and chaos began to drift up from the far far down streets of Shanghai the most salient detail of the entire scene drifted into focus.
The tank had gone still.

Oh, was this for “Newt was saved by something completely ridiculous such as a power outage”? This was great. Well Hermann and Newt are going to have a LOT to talk about. And some rehab to consider. Tendo nice and there. I know Newt’s upset and all but I hope he unties Hermann before too long. That’s extremely rude. The weird touchingness of Newt wanting Hermann back but also wanting him to be all brainwashed and destroying the world and horror…Hermann is going to need a hot minute before wanting to get back on this train. And wow Hermann just doesn’t want to assume anything even though Newt was feeling him up and saying he wants to be together. That is so him. 

And who gives you shit for your angst? That’s definitely not a thing I would ever do. Does not sound like me at all.