ok i’m sorry but i’m back again (because break in torts; let’s talk about the intentional or reckless infliction of severe emotional distress by extreme or outrageous conduct — no? ok)
im here to laugh about the difference between these two pictures and the inherent incredible ridiculousness of dr.hermann gottlieb
i’m sure it’s been noted before but i’m a broken record and it’s crunch time so let’s go
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?
And the thing is, the truth is legitimately batshit insane. The Precursors took over Newt and made him take private sector, military industrial job to he can sabotage the next generation of Jaegers and use them to destroy the world? Hermann already can’t tell anyone else that he still has nightmares from Drifting with the Kaiju brain, for some reason he felt he needed to tell this in confidence to Newt because it wasn’t safe. That means the guy probably isn’t getting help after the war, at least help he can be completely honest with. He could very well fear for his own equilibrium, and fear getting committed if he tells the truth.
What theory could he possibly put together that would be close to the truth that doesn’t sound insane? What if he could see the data points cropping up that pointed to a return of the Precursors, to them using Newt as their vessel, to the possibility his nightmares might not be PTSD but actually real? How could he have not feared that it was just his very advanced, theoretical, prediction-making intellect putting together patterns where there were none? Maybe he even began to creep onto the realization sooner but had to suppress it because the closer he got to the truth the more insane his answer became. He probably couldn’t even bring that up for fear of being laughed out of a room as a has-been who misses the glory days and wants to believe the Kaiju are coming back and it’s somehow tied up in Newt.
I’m just saying in addition to him not putting it together until the threat becomes very real and present, with rogue Jaegers and Kaiju brains right before his eyes and Newt literally telling him he’s destroying the world, Hermann might not have been able to honestly put it together before then because he didn’t have enough proof to trust his own instincts, and if he was wrong with those instincts it could be a very real indication to himself and others that he was losing his mind.
Maybe he literally couldn’t contemplate what would later turn out to be the truth, and maybe that’s why he spins off these less accurate but very plausible theories of Shao being the real mastermind and the threat being an entirely Earth-based power grab instead of anything to do with the creatures he still has nightmares of to this day, and the man who abandoned him.
I lost the ask but someone requested Hermann and Newt having an argument over the benefits of planned vs unplanned sex.
“Dude, I’m just saying okay?” Newt shakes a chunk of blue muscle for emphasis, sending neon splatters over his protective apron. The one he was forced to wear by the recipient of his emphatic gesturing. “I’m just saying, surprise is the spice of life.”
“I am quite sure that phrase is about variety.” Hermann grumbles from his ladder, refusing to look away from his equations. It’s not that he’s actually putting much effort into the work, but if he does not look towards Newton’s side of the lab, then he isn’t fully engaging in the nonsense. It’s a matter of principal.
“I know what I said.” Newt chucks the flesh to the ground, away from the nerve strand he’s carefully dissecting out. Sure, he has a bin right by the dissection table for waste, but he wants to be sure that Hermann hears the wet slap of kaiju bits hitting the floor next to the bin. “Honestly, you need all the spice you can get, varietal and otherwise. I wouldn’t be surprised if you could subsist on a diet of plain oatmeal and graham crackers if left entirely to your own devices.”
“I do not need spice Newton. And I would appreciate if you did not throw around biohazardous materials in a space I have to share with you.” Though it is admitting a small defeat, Hermann twists his shoulders to glare at Newton from the top of his ladder. “And I will not hear any word about my dietary habits from a man who I have witnessed crushing a bag of doritos chips into instant noodles and calling it basically mac and cheese!”
“Hey!” Newt shouts, pointing up at Hermann and sending more droplets of blue flying with the movement. “Fuck you okay! That’s called culinary creativity with rations and me being a goddamn genius!”
To prove that he is still very much above this ridiculous conversation, Hermann turns his attention back to his boards, the tap-scrape of chalk serving to further show just how detached he is. “I am amazed you were able to eat it without gagging.”
“Jokes on you,!” Newt crows,“I killed my gag reflex years ago!”
“Oh yes, I am aware.”
“Yeah?! Well I hope you got those sweet memories stored away to be cherished because I’m not doing this!!” Newts shout hits a dangerous octave and, unfortunately, stays there. He snatches up a paper sitting by his table, forever turning it into a blue-smeared toxic hazard. “This!? This is a goddamn spreadsheet! You made a fucking spreadsheet schedule for us banging?!”
Hermann whips back around, clinging to the ladder to prevent falling. “We are both busy and spare time is difficult these days! That is the most efficient-“
“I’m not having scheduled sex Hermann! This ass don’t run on a time clock! How is someone so good in bed also so good at ruining sex?!”
There are a few moments of silence while Hermann processes this combination of insult and compliment, a couple high points of pink blooming on his cheeks in the interim. He decides the current argument is the more productive course to stay on.
“No part of you runs on time clocks in my experience!” Hermann snaps. “Having a set plan means no longer trying to find a few spare moments together Newton, this makes the most sense!”
“It’s a goddamn spreadsheet! You may have more boning time laid out here but you did it in the most guaranteed way to kill my boner!”
“It isn’t-”
“You know what this means?!” Newt shrieks, brandishing the spreadsheet. “This means you can wave good-fuckin-bye to my surprise blowjobs!”
The threat fills the now silent lab, the only sound is Hermann’s chalk tapping nervously on the board.
“I’m sure that isn’t-”
“No!” Newt’s on a roll now, and he wildly waves the blue smeared paper. “It isn’t on the damn schedule, I dont do it! That means no more surprise blowjobs, no more of me treating every morning like I’m trying out for the Houston rodeo! Does this count makeouts!? I feel like this should count makeouts. No makeouts unless strictly scheduled. Maybe we should time out how long foreplay takes while we’re at it! What if we spent all the alloted time on foreplay and had to stop mid-dicking because we ran out of time huh?!”
“You are being petty.” Hermann says stiffly, attention fully back on Newt.
“I’m just following your schedule babe! No more surprises! Everything is completely efficient!”
There is another silence as Hermann’s pride battles his…appreciation for Newtons skills.
“Perhaps…” he says slowly, “we can reach a compromise later this evening.”
“Nothing on the schedule for this evening.” Newt points out, but the enraged shrieking is gone and he sets the damn schedule down.
“Yes. We will have to review that of course.” Hermann sniffs, going back to the equation that hasnt had anything done to it for fifteen minutes now.
Turning away means he does not have to look at Newtons wild, triumphant grin.
Oh damn, Anon, you’re right. I mean I don’t think I’m alone in headcanoning that Hermann and Newt’s fights might get vicious with one another, up to and including (canonically) calling into question the worth of everything they’ve studied in their life. Questioning their intellect, their passions, and the worth of their ambitions and theories.
But I think there’s also an element of dignity to it. Like, personal dignity or things they have no control over is a line that Is Not Crossed. And I could totally see someone outside K-Sci not understanding the nuance between the types of mockery and fighting that are ok and the kind that are Not. And taking Hermann’s cane or in any way attempting to use his disability as something to attack or shame brings out the most incandescent fury from one Newt Geiszler.
I’m certain there’s aspects of Newt in return that would engender a similar response from Hermann, perhaps along similar lines of attacking Newt as a person (attacking his sexuality, his mental health, or appearance as not related to clothes or tattoos). I imagine many of their fights too are along the lines of “I’m allowed to call him that, because I know him and I know where the line is and because he’s mine. You’re not allowed to call him that.”
I think no matter how vicious their fights might get, there is an aspect of care shown even in their existence. It means someone cares. It means someone thinks their theory, no matter how stupid, is worth engaging (a replacement perhaps for every other kind of academic debate or peer review that they no longer have the funding, respect, or luxury to receive?) and probably shouting at one another is a major distraction from their full and unholy knowledge of just how fucked the world is. They’re on the bleeding edge of awareness, probably much of the world or even theirShatterdome isn’t as aware as they are. I imagine a lot of the K-Sci info in particular is classified.
I know this became a rant on the nature of Newt and Hermann’s fight but one last thing: the reason the viciousness of the fighting is never an issue is because viciousness is not how they’d really insult each other or hurt each other. That would be apathy. If the other just stopped caring and stopped engaging, that would be the ultimate attack. That’s why Newt seems particularly hurt by Hermann’s dismissal of the brain drift (before and after): you can call it stupid but don’t ignore it.
And that’s what the Precursors did when they really wanted to twist the knife in Hermann: they showed him the face of Newt’s apathy.
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.
Avelera 