text / audio | un: newt

[groupiedrifter]

Alright, let's not be total wallflowers at prom here, if we're going to be stuck together for the foreseeable future, I think it's only right that we (read: I) start getting to know all of my fellow space cadets. If we're ACTUALLY in space and this isn't some humongous simulation. You guys saw how easy it was for this place to manufacture a hyper-realistic simulation earlier, right? Yikes, big yikes.

But if we ARE in space and we're going to be traveling around, that's actually kind of AWESOME.

No offense to anyone who didn't want to actually be here of course, but you're nuts if you're not a LITTLE curious about the vast expanse of outer space. C'mon. OUTER SPACE! How incredible is that? And here I thought me coming face to face with aliens back home was INCREDIBLE, now we've got ACTUAL OUTER SPACE??? Pinch me I'm in a simulation. LOL.

Sorry I'm rambling, my name's Newt. Dr. Newton Geiszler, but but that sounds so much more boring and overcomplicated than 'Newt', so just stick with that. Worked as a xenobiologist on earth (is there multiple earths or what??? a lot of you are crazy unfamiliar with Kaiju, which is wild to me), helped giant robots fight aliens, the usual. Likes are rock music, playing instruments, tattoos, science and tech, dislikes are bossy pushovers who complain about those things.

Speaking of which, my really good pal from home's name is Hermann Gottlieb, and you should call him Herm to make him REALLY feel at home. :)

It's nice to meet you guys on the NEWTwork. ;P

... Actually—

[Suddenly, the text turns into audio, in which a higher voice with some focal fry bleeds in-]

—can I just abruptly switch to an audio function?

[A pause, and then an excitable:]

Holy shit, how awesome is that?! This is amazing; we've made some pretty monumental gains in technology back home, but we're still working on finessing the finer aspects of neuralogically connecting to networks like these for the general population. I'd love to take one of these apart sometime and see what makes them tick. Good to have an idea of what to expect, in case we need modifications or repairs done at any point.

Anyway. Uh. Hey!

... This whole voices-in-your-head thing can't be good for my train of thought, but geronimo, right?

[If anyone listens beyond that, they may catch the accidental thought-to-audio that follows:]

Wha — oh, dammit.

I sure hope this is the last nosebleed, because I would rather not worry about having accidental brain damage from drifting with aliens.

Comments

[groupiedrifter]

I'd say your life sounds like fiction to me, so we're on the same page here!

Then this place is a lot like home for you, in some way?

[romancekiller]

Yeah, that's fair enough. [she kind of figured as much since he seemed to be amazed by this and the fact that she was one of the few people already familiar with being in space prior to this]

Kind of. I'd say it's probably a better version of it while being more technologically advanced too.

[groupiedrifter]

A better version? I can sort of get that. My world's capable of being in space, but it's definitely not this advanced. What kind of trouble were you guys having, though?

[romancekiller]

The oxygen levels. It was part of the reason we ended up having to test whether being on Earth was inhabitable or not.

[groupiedrifter]

Wait — was nobody on earth to verify whether it was inhabitable????

[Clarke, this is sounding more and more concerning.]

[romancekiller]

It was inhabitable for almost a century and the entire reason mankind went up to space in the first place when the nuclear apocalypse happened.

There wasn't anyone we knew who could verify for us if that was still the case or not.

[groupiedrifter]

... Oof...

[That's absolutely the correct response to 'nuclear apocalypse'. 'Oof'.]

Soooo... What, they sent some dudes down in astronaut suits to test the atmosphere, or-?

[romancekiller]

Yeah, something like that minus the astronaut suits. They just sent a group of us down in a dropship down to Earth for that.

[groupiedrifter]

... What did they send you in, then?

You're saying they just dropped you guys on a potentially uninhabitable planet with no safety precautions?

[romancekiller]

Yeah, pretty much. [because that's totally what happens when you are deemed expendable] We got lucky in finding out it was habitable after we landed.

[groupiedrifter]

Okay, but — why?

Why would you send in people without any actual protective outfitting?

Are your head honchos a bunch of lazy idiots, or what?

[LIKE, SURE, HE'S BAD AT FOLLOWING OSHA PROTOCOL, BUT...]

[romancekiller]

They considered us to be expendable so it didn't matter to them.

If we survived it meant they could come down and if not then there would be less people taking up oxygen on the station and they could wait it out before trying again.

[groupiedrifter]

Kinda sounds like they sent the wrong people down.

[romancekiller]

Yeah, which was pretty much the whole point. They didn't want to risk the lives of anyone more important.

[groupiedrifter]

Uh-huuuuh.

So, did they get to reap the benefits of putting you guys in impending danger?

[romancekiller]

Yeah, they came down a couple weeks after we did.

[groupiedrifter]

And you guys didn't tie them up and knock them over a cliff?

I'll admit, I admire the self-control.

[romancekiller]

It's complicated but honestly if we did then we would be no better than they are.