The Only Way Out is Down (81887 words) by Avelera
Chapters: 15/16 – To Rebehold the Stars – Hermann
Fandom: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Newton Geiszler/Hermann Gottlieb
Characters: Newton Geiszler, Hermann Gottlieb, Jake Pentecost
Additional Tags: Post-Movie: Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018), Literary References & Allusions, Coma, Rescue, Newton Geiszler is a Dork, POV Newton Geiszler, Newton Geiszler Recovery Arc, Mind Control Aftermath & Recovery, Dreamscapes, Past Relationship(s), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, The Drift (Pacific Rim), Drift Side Effects, Hell, Inferno AU, Stream of Consciousness, Worried Hermann Gottlieb, Explicit Language, Past Mind Control, POV Hermann Gottlieb, Precursors are super dead, Memory Loss, Memory Alteration, Bickering, BAMF Hermann Gottlieb, Kissing, Canon-Typical Violence, Injury, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Explicit Sexual Content, Consensual Sex, Hurt/Comfort, Seduction, Cuddling & Snuggling, Fluff, Angst, Trauma, Therapy
Summary:

The invasion of the Anteverse was successful, and the Precursors have been destroyed, but Newt still hasn’t awoken from his coma and doesn’t respond initially to Drift attempts from Hermann to wake him.

But when one day a connection is established, Hermann and Newt find themselves in a mingled mindscape that seems informed by Dante’s “Inferno”. Together, they pass through the Nine Circles, nine memories of Newt’s years under Precursor control in the hopes it will help free Newt from his own head.

Yet questions linger: how much did the Precursors take from Newt, to what lengths will Hermann go to free him, and is the other even truly there, or merely a rabbit of the other’s making, a wish fulfillment fantasy that they’re chasing into the abyss?


Almost to the end! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! 😀

For the prompts 62 u know who

ch3ry1b10ss0m:

Fingertips smudged in blue ink

Hermann is not nearly as neat as he thinks he is. He might be a lot neater than Newt, sure, but he’s not totally put-together and perfect. For one, as professional as he wants his image to be, his clothing can often look messy as a result of not fitting properly, begging to be readjusted. And another thing – he always leaves half-drained, cold mugs of tea around the lab, sometimes on Newt’s side, and seems to have no idea that they’re his after the fact.

And the most persistent one – he’s always covered in whatever he was writing in. Chalk dust settled into his hair, streaking up his sleeves, absolutely coating his hands like he’s a gymnast or something. When he works with paper and pencil, it always ends up smudged all over his hands and sometimes, as a result, his face. It’s unbelievable; Newt doesn’t know how he manages it.

Newt’s startled when he walks into the lab one morning to find Hermann’s fingers stained with blue ink. He notices it as he sets down a mug on Hermann’s desk and glances over at his hands on the keyboard.

Keep reading

The Limits of Reason: Chapter 8

kingfindekano:

Chapter: 8/11

Words: 50884

“That I did,” said Newt. “That I did. You didn’t have a Facebook, so I had no idea what you looked like. You know what I was picturing? Some dude in a leather jacket who didn’t cut his hair himself. You sounded way cooler in writing.”

“A leather jacket,” spluttered Hermann. The back of his neck felt very hot, and Newt’s fingers laced with his own helped little.

“Oh, yeah. Leather jacket, combat boots… I imagined us going out to a bar, and then some guy tries to pick a fight with me, but then you step in and suplex him into the bar with the power of math. And also your muscles.”

At 5.5k this chapter is slightly shorter than usual, but we are out of the thick of the Nightmare Action at last! Time for Hermann and Newt to recover and have a little chat about feelings. I’m excited about this chapter, but then again, I’m very excited about everything from here on out!

Read here on AO3

Chapter one

Can you please tell us more about the kidnapping AU? It sounds interesting :)

Certainly, Anon! Way to ask my my favorite question XD

The Kidnapping AU (yet untitled) takes place in the second year of Newt’s possession by the Precursors, after he’s gone to work for Shao. Like “The Only Way Out is Down” it opens with the premise that he and Hermann began a relationship after closing the Breach, but unlike TOWOID, Hermann actually does something about getting ghosted by his boyfriend who now won’t return his calls and acts like a stranger to him. 
(Cut for spoilers)

So very much against Hermann’s better judgement about letting Newt go with dignity and not being a clingy ex, he finally snaps and decides he at least needs some answers from Newt about why he left, especially since the times he’s tried to drop in on Newt or meet up with him while on business in Shanghai under more casual circumstances have all been met with the discovery that Newt had a sudden, emergency “business trip”. Hermann realizes he’s being seriously avoided and decides to show up unannounced at Newt’s apartment, say his piece, and finally be able to move on. 

Err, except he doesn’t find a jerk ex who is too cowardly to break up with Hermann to his face. He finds Alice. And the fact that Newt has been possessed and essentially kidnapped himself. He finds out everything. And the Precursors are going to kill him for it. 

Newt makes a desperate deal with the Precursors to let Hermann live, unharmed and unpossessed himself, in exchange for keeping Hermann prisoner. He can never be allowed out again because he knows too much now, but Newt convinces them he’ll be utterly impossible to work with and will fight them every step of the way if Hermann dies. They accept the terms, and Hermann becomes leverage against Newt to get him to work faster and more efficiently on the plan to destroy the world.

Of course, Hermann is hardly idle, and he’s hardly helpless. Far from being imprisoned in a nightmare, he hasn’t felt this alive since Newt left. He’s been stuck in uncertainty these last years, sensing an enemy he couldn’t see. Now he knows where the enemy is, now he’s fighting the Anteverse again just like when they were closing the Breach, only now on a far more intimate playing field. He has to formulate a  plan to get them both out alive in total secrecy, given that the person who knows him best in the world is a conduit directly to the enemy. 

Which all sounds very action-packed and dramatic, but in practice, a sort of domestic calm settles over the situation. They’re together again. Newt isn’t alone in the nightmare, and sometimes it’s even possible to pretend none of this is happening, and they’re just living their lives together. 

So expect lots of domestic fluff, overshadowed by eldritch horror and a slow acting death sentence if Hermann doesn’t find a way to get them out of there. But strangely enough, even though it’s a darker, more claustrophobic situation than TOWOID, I think both Newt and Hermann wished this had happened instead, with Newt not being alone the whole ten years and finding a way to put a stop to the Precursors in Newt’s mind much sooner. I can’t wait to start sharing it with you all! But first I gotta finish TOWOID :3