Adj. 1. having a sharp, pungent taste or smell; not sweet. 2. (of people or their feelings or behavior) angry, hurt, or resentful because of one’s bad experiences or a sense of unjust treatment.
I.
Would you kiss the lips that whisper, walk on thin air frail as lisps and moth wings wander white silk bed-sheets, empty ghosts in empty retreats-
Would you kiss the lips that tremble, tamed and tired of preamble, too ashamed to state the gamble of the game we’ve just begun-
(Would you kiss me with your fist, my darling one?)
II.
Would you kiss the lips that love bitter, ‘brittle bones and backwashed liquor, rusted nails and wicker splintered,’ sings the boy who’s growing thinner-
Would you kiss the lips that hover over green tea laced clover, take a taxi or a drover, (but before we meet, please, think it over-)
Would you kiss the lips that linger over burning bile bringing, peace of mind to know there’s stinging in this constant carnage binging?
(What the apocalypse is flinging- binding brains, grave matters clinging! But the telephone’s shrill ringing- is only fiction of my pen…)
Would you kiss the lips that lavish, lunge and lash and lick and ravish, stoic stunned at turning savage, oh–
(could you imagine the kind of longing that is?)
III.
Would you kiss the lips that hunger, for a youth lost ten years younger, for the wrong done to become worse- and in agony hit Reverse-
Would you kiss the lips that dry up, scab and picked at like the pried pus from the edge of a constant, open wound-
Would you kiss the lips that curse you, plan to kill and blame, desert you– all because they sorely missed you and couldn’t spit it out too soon?
Would you kiss the lips that color at the thought of diving under ragged work-shirts and rolled sleeves, tattooed thighs and suck them clean, (‘till you scream and scream and scream) and your head spins madly- (please,
would you do that just for me?)
IV.
Would you kiss the lips that savor every parchment, every paper, knowing lines and loving tender–
(to that boy…could you surrender?)
V.
Would you kiss the lips that purse, fumble, stutter, (twitch and curse,) would you nurse a dying breath back to life, (and french me in a hearse?)
Would you kiss the lips that pucker, pilfer, (pillage and discover,) of your petals blooming violent, all they taste is ink and dirt?
Would you kiss the lips that wallow, wicked thoughts through haze and hollow, (and take in everything they swallow) just to say Dear Newton, how have you been?
(Or would you admit already- it’s no use loving someone in the state I’m in.)
-Poems Hermann Gottlieb wrote to a boy across the sea and never sent.
Alan Turing: Hermann had to at some point dress as his idol. All the costume really entailed was a slightly different tailored suit and styling his hair just a little differently. Most people assumed he hadn’t dressed up. Newton immediately walked into the lab, shouted how good it was to see The Turing gracing their presence and called Hermann “Al” all day. It secretly pleased Hermann a great deal despite how many times he insisted that Newt should still call him the appropriate name per protocol.
Spock: This one took some persuasion from Newt to get Hermann to follow through with it. They were at work after all and he didn’t want to seem unprofessional. Hermann perhaps used the term “illogical” more frequently throughout the day. At the annual Halloween party Tendo put on Newt and him both got a bit tipsy and Newton took his hand and held onto it while joking about how they were technically making out.
Newton Geiszler: Vengence for Newton dressing up as him the year before. Hermann ended up losing his voice after a full day of mimicking Newton’s voice and being far louder than he typically would each day. Newton wasn’t annoyed nearly enough by his attempted retribution as he seemed to find it hilarious more than anything. Still, Hermann kept up the act most the day while they were in the lab alone just to hear his laughter.
Daniel Jackson: By this time Hermann was finding he rather enjoyed getting to dress up for Halloween (something Lars had strictly forbidden cause he’s fucking Lars). If he also took joy in seeing Newt almost fall over himself when he came into the lab to see Hermann wearing a fitted black tshirt, green cargo pants and green military jacket with the Stargate symbol on the sleeve so be it. It ended up leading to an entire day of debating the movie vs. tv series and discussing how the knowledge gained from the breach would factor in.
Update 17 End of part 3! Part 4 will be the last part. 8 updates to go! Things are going to be a bit bumpy for those two 8) Great thanks to @doodledroiddesign for proofreading this update!
Hermann, teaching jaeger system management to the enlisted pilots: “In my class you will be punctual and self motivated. I’ll not tolerate any /shenanigans/.”
Jake: “Good lord, do you kiss Dr Gieszler with that mouth?”
Ok but random thought I had while writing the Kidnapping AU – but what if one of the reasons Hermann doesn’t figure out that something is wrong with Newt sooner is because he can’t let himself connect the dots?
Hermann is a theoretical mathematician of sorts, right? Someone in academia can probably give me a more nuanced title. I’m not as familiar with the subcategories of that field, I do know some cryptographers personally, and at the highest levels of math things get a little bit insane and the risk of seeing connections where there aren’t any like Nash in “A Beautiful Mind” is a legit real thing that happens. Worse, Hermann’s focus was on making predictions, connecting disparate data points.
Hermann could very well have sensed something was wrong. He’s planning for Jaeger deployment, but to what end? Clearly he’s planning for a return of the Precursors and the Kaiju, maybe because he can sense something is out there. Except it’s a threat he can’t see. But what if his biggest fear as a mathematician is beginning to see patterns where there are none?
I thought you were maybe going a different direction with this idea that Hermann can’t connect the dots, so hear me out. Mine sounds dumb/reaching when I try to word it, but this was what I thought your point was going to be and it kind of ties into your actual much better point.
What if Hermann can’t connect the dots because (on some level other than just nightmares) The Precursors have taken a small root in his brain and They won’t let him. Just as we know from the supplementary material that Newt was not aware of the Precursors’ motives and actions through him, that he wasn’t aware of all the issues until suddenly he WAS aware but could no longer control things, maybe the hint of Precursors in Hermann’s brain keep putting Their spin on the patterns Hermann does pick up and convince him where he’s connecting the dots to is lunacy. Keep throwing him off Their scent, so to speak. They’re undermining his sense of certainty, undermining his faith in his own ability to understand things, to understand Newt and Newt’s actions (that he gained further insight on through the Drift).
It is a great way for Them to weaken Hermann if They can’t have him as their own. While the Precursors work on building up and inflating Newt’s sense of self/ego, They create self-distrust in Hermann’s foundation of his own mathematical reliance on patterns and prediction. And if he did start raving around the Precursor’s return without being adequately able to back it up? Better for Them. Anything to make him less likely to be in a mental and physical position to thwart the Kaiju when they return.
(I mean, obviously the Shatterdome staff DOES see Hermann as kind of a crazy kook…)
Avelera 