Thank you for calling, I’ll get back to you soon If you should get a message from the dark side of the moon You’ll know that’s me, baby, you’ll know I’m there The reception’s lousy, baby, but the view’s beyond compare (x)
Aw geez, this is a year old now! I’m still pretty happy with it. It was above and beyond pretty much anything I’ve done before, I just wish i didn’t see a billion things I’d do differently at this point. *_*
Strapped down to something that you don’t understand Don’t know what you were getting yourself into You should have known Secretly, I think you knew (x)
Calling it done. Been staring at the lines for too long, and this was supposed to be a quick diversion.
I love Newt, but I want to see him suffer some consequences from mind melding with a giant alien beastie.
I mean, I think there’s several answers to this. Unfortunately, the movie only gives us the externality, we don’t know what Newt’s emotions are doing in any given moment, we really don’t even know when it’s really him or the Precursors masquerading as him, except with the “They’re in my head” line.
– In the novelization, I hear they could control Newt’s emotions to some extent and direct his thoughts, so that up to the minute the plan went into motion, he still thought he was on the good guy side.
– My theory about what’s happening in the movie, is that they didn’t actually control Newt from minute to minute as such, they just changed his central motivations. As in “If you wanted to destroy the world, how would you do it?” and then just let Newt go about it exactly as he would if that were something he actually wanted (hence his ability to showboat during the final battle and make sarcastic comments about Jaegers and stuff, that IS Newt, it’s Newt if he actually wanted to destroy the world, that’s exactly how he would go about doing it, they just made him want it) and the Drifts with Alice were to keep their programming running and keep him plugged in to their will, hence their regularity. In that version, I’d say they can usually just override him except when it was something so cognitively dissonant to him that he can tell it’s not something he wants, like hurting Hermann, which made him finally realize just how much he was being controlled.
– In “The Only Way Out is Down” Newt is much more the hardware the Precursor software runs on, it’s his body, and they need him kinda conscious when they need info on our world or guidance on how to fake being him (basically he needs to be near the surface so they can read his memories), but whenever they want to override him because he didn’t want to do something, they’d just pushed him down into his subconscious. This was a deliberate authorial choice to make him not guilty of Precursor actions, but it’s not by any means the only interpretation that I think works, or even the only interpretations that I want to explore in my own fic!
Basically, I’d say it’s entirely up to the fic author, and I count the novelization as a fic as well. It’s a film. We literally don’t have canon on what’s going on inside Newt’s head or how he feels about it at any given moment except when he cries over “They’re in my head” while they try to make him kill Hermann, the one thing that was so clearly against his own desires that he actually gained the power to break free long enough to speak clearly. Everything else? Maybe Charlie Day knows or has a set belief in which scene was which in terms of how much of the Precursors it was, but unless he spills on a frame by frame level, we as the fans have no idea what blend of Newt/Precursors we’re seeing except that one time, in my opinion. It’s entirely up to interpretation and what tells a better story!
Hermann steps into the interrogation room cautiously, his cane gripped tightly like a lifeline. Inside is dark and cool, lit only by a series of blue lights around the edges. It is cold and menacing, surrounded by eerie silence. Earlier he was told there was screaming. There isn’t anymore.
It’s been exactly one week since Newt was captured; one week since Hermann’s life fell to a series of pieces so broken, he wonders if he can ever reassemble them again. His chest hurts. His heart hurts. He wants his Newton to come home.
Newton is sitting in a chair, strapped down by a series of bonds and steel plates on his hands and body. He is looking up at the ceiling, but glances over when Hermann comes in.
Hermann makes the first move. “Hello, Precursors. I do hope you don’t expect me to—“
“OH THANK GOD,” Newt screams, his voice cracking in several places. “YOU’RE HERE. GET US OUT OF THIS CLUSTERFUCK RIGHT THE HELL NOW.”
Hermann takes a step back.
What?
“I- er- excuse me?” he tries, not really knowing what to make of this. Newt rolls his eyes.
“UGH YOU WOULD NOT BELIEVE WHAT THIS HUMAN HAS PUT US THROUGH. HE IS SO BAD AT BEING ALIVE. AND ANNOYING. DID WE MENTION THAT? HE IS VERY ANNOYING.”
“I’m sorry,” Hermann says, completely off his footing at this point, “are you trying to—“
“WE TRIED TO MAKE HIM DO CROSS FIT BUT HE KEPT WHINING AND THEN PASSING OUT DURING THE HARD PARTS. SO WE TRIED NOT FEEDING HIM, BUT THAT MADE IT IMPOSSIBLE TO DO ANYTHING, BECAUSE APPARENTLY THIS IDIOT DOESN’T FUNCTION ON A DIET OF ANYTHING BUT TWO METRIC TONS OF CAFFIENE AND OYSTER CRACKERS. SO THEN WE JUST TORTURED HIM A BIT, BUT HE WOULDN’T SHUT UP ABOUT HOW YOU WOULD COME AND SAVE HIM.
“HE WOULD NOT STOP SHOWING US ALL OF HIS DUMB MEMORIES ABOUT MOVIES AND TRYING TO MAKE US PLAY MENTAL JENGA. WE DO NOT CARE ABOUT FUCKING MENTAL JENGA, WE JUST WANT TO GO HOME. THANKS TO HIM, WE HAVE SEEN EVERY GODDAMN FANTASY ABOUT YOU, INCLUDING THE ONE WITH THE DECONTAMINATION SHOWER, THE ONE WITH THE LAB DESK, AND THE ONE WITH THE BIOENGINEERED TENTACLES. WE ARE SO TIRED. HE WON’T STOP SINGING MITSKI, AND HE’S PLAYING THE MEMORY OF GROUNDHOG DAY IN THE BACKGROUND ALL THE TIME.”
Hermann hasn’t understood anything up until this point, and he’s considering ceasing to try. They’re so… loud. And, come to think of it, looking incredibly drained and tired.
“Is he… alright?” Hermann ventures.
“HE’S FINE,” Newt says, rolling his eyes again. “HE JUST WON’T SHUT UP ABOUT HOW HAPPY HE IS TO- YEAH I KNOW WE ARE TALKING TO HIM NOW, GIVE US A MINUTE- HOW HAPPY HE IS TO SEE YOU. ITS A FUCKING NIGHTMARE.”
“Ah- may I speak to him?”
“YEAH WHATEVER, JUST GET US OUT OF HERE FIRST. FIND A PONS, HOOK IT UP, AND DRIFT WITH HIM. SHARING THE NEURAL LOAD WILL BREAK OUR CONNECTION. JUST DO IT QUICK BEFORE WE LOSE OUR GODDAMN MINDS.”
Hermann blinks. “Er. Thank you. I think?”
Newt bangs his head on the back of the seat. “AGAIN, WE DON’T CARE. WE JUST WANT TO GO HOME.”
“Right. Well,” Hermann says, wringing his hands together and taking a few steps back. “I’ll, uh, go find a PONS then, shall I?”
“GREAT,” says Newt, looking happy for the first time since the world almost ended. “WE’LL BE WAITING.”
Ok thanks to @linddzz I’ve been listening to this song on loop until 4am because it is the single most perfect Precursor Possessed Newt song like you can just perfectly imagine it’s his hazy chaotic internal monologue where he senses something is wrong but can’t break free of it.
Locked up, naked with socks I’m watching the phone ring It’s making me angry It’s making me mad Maxed out, minimum wage My brain is a time bomb I’m saying goodbye, mom I’ll see you again Striking a pose Smiling in photos without any reason With people that I’ll never know I’m out of control, live in a fictional prose I took an oath, it’s killing me though ‘Cause I don’t believe in the things that I do And now my favorite color is blue And now my favorite color is blue And now my favorite Roped up, rot in a cage I’m having a breakdown Drinking at a playground, tequila for one Too short, walk in the streets, I’m hating my haircut You say that you’re here, but You live on the Sun
Avelera 