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text / audio | un: newt

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.

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... Oh yeah?

Well, you'll be happy to know I totally nailed it.

[Oh! Well, in that case...

There's a long pause, followed by a-]

[This man has multiple PhDs and has successfully built drifting technology out of literal garbage.]

[ Whaddya know, they have so much in common. Well, except for the word "successfully" and "drifting." ]

Correct answers, overshadowed by a bunch of necessary extras... well damn, you've got the makings of a real monster after all.

[ He kinda does mean that, even if he's winking. ]

Almost makes me feel like I'm not completely outnumbered on this tub.

Edited 2021-07-10 03:59 (UTC)

Even if you are outnumbered, I've got your back, little skeleton dude.

It's not like you're stomping around trying to wipe out people; you're making crossword puzzles. Any humans worth their salt are gonna love you, guaranteed.

[Newton's always been preeeetty tone deaf, but he's also absolutely the person to go to if you want to be reminded that you're badass and awesome and should love yourself. It's the philosophy he has used since being a teenager in a sea of jealous adults at MIT, or the philosophy he used at the Jaeger Academy, when they took one look at him and wrote him off near immediately because he had dyed hair and jewelry. It's cool to be different. It's cool to be a monster, as long as that monster is full of good stuff. He'll shout it from the rooftops (and get yelled at for being shrieky and loud at 2 in the morning).]

Do you have a name, by the way? I feel bad just calling you all these variations on 'skeleton'. Unless you're into that. Personally, I'm super endeared to 'Skele-man', but, you know.

Edited 2021-07-10 22:53 (UTC)

[ The confidence of that statement almost makes Sans laugh. It was arrogant, sure, but unintentionally so. Genuine. He really believed the words coming out of his mouth and hell if that wasn't kinda sweet.

Unconvincing, but sweet. ]

Oh, sure. That's always been my experience with humans. [ The video feed means he can't extend a hand, as is his personal preference when it came to greeting new pals, but Sans offers a quick wave all the same. ] And you can call me whatever you want, but the name's Sans.

Sans is a pretty good name, so maybe I'll just stick with that.

[He crinkles his nose in amusement, still a bit starstruck by the fact that he's talking to a non-human being. Talking to it in a way that isn't drifting through its head, mind you (no offense to the hunk of Kaiju brain in the lab, or Baby Otachi, whom we must assume would speak in baby babbles and rattle shaking, rest in peace).]

So! Tell me about yourself, dude. [He leans on his elbows. This is a date, we're dating over a candlelight dinner. Tell him about long walks on the beach and how much you like astrology.] Otherwise, I'll just annoy you with an endless stream of questions about monsters, which is probably not what you were walking into on purpose.

[ Well hell if Sans isn't one to match the vibe. He leans forward too, jaw balanced in one hand thoughtfully. ]

It's a family name. [ Skeleton culture is nothing if not steeped in tradition, after all. ] And I dunno, I'm kinda shy. But you seem like a nice guy, so I'll cut you a deal.

[ He holds up a finger, tapping it against his skull. ]

You get one answer in exchange for one question.

Awwww, no fair! Come on.

[He throws his hands up, slumping back.]

Okayokayokay, uhhhh.

[Well, scientifically, he's got oodles of questions... But...]

What're your favorite things to do?

[ Wait. Is this a date? Sans bursts into abrupt laughter. ]

That's seriously your question, isn't it? Wait, don't answer that, I don't wanna waste my question on something I know the answer to. [ His laughter finally dies down a bit, confronted with the fact that he has absolutely zero idea how to answer. ] I guess if we're talking a shortlist it's eating good food, drinking good drinks, telling bad jokes, and, uh...

[ Whatever he's about to say, Sans chews on for a few moments before swallowing it back down again. There was a strange ache in his breastbone that he quickly shrugs through, beaming with dazzling sureness. ]

Guess it's a shorter list than I thought. [ Sans moves speedily along with a quick wink. ] Your turn, buddy. What's with the tats?

[He's about to commend the fact that 'bad jokes' is included in there, but then he's distracted by the question about his tattoos. Usually they're a source of fondness and pride, a sort of complicated relationship he has with what he fears and loves, but it does feel a little morbid to explain to a self-proclaimed monster what's going on there. Would it be offensive? He's not even sure. There are a few people in his world who think he's tasteless and/or lame for it, but they're humans, so...

And anyway, his last few days on earth... drifting with the creatures, it had messed with his passion more than he'd like to admit. Now he's just got an even bigger, more complicated mass of emotions, like a tumor clinging to the outer wall of his heart.]

Oh, uh! They're tattoos of those monsters I told you about. Every year or two, I started getting a new one, so now I'm pretty much done with my arms — and my chest is covered, so now I'm gonna be working on my back, I guess...!

[He looks his arms over, Yamarashi and Gamera Jr. facing outward.

Despite himself, he smiles, a little proudly, a little fondly.]

It kind of started out as me facing two big fears at the same time, you know? Needles and the monsters from the ocean stomping on our cities? But I guess over the years, it became a lot of things.

[ It was a fresh subject, which is exactly what Sans wanted out of his question. After all, who didn't love talking about their tattoos? Not that they were especially common underground, but sometimes temporary ones would wash down from the surface into the dump. Sans remembered a time when his brother found one bearing a particularly demonic looking skull and couldn't stop talking about it for weeks. Sans had to have a mini-intervention to get him to wash his scapula.

At the time, Sans had no real idea why humans would want skulls on their arms. Listening to Newt, the reasoning seemed... clearer, somehow. Though Newt's fear seemed considerably more justified than whatever was frightening the humans on the surface of his world. ]

Yeah? [ There's laughter in the word, though it's not so much at Newt as a sort of fond consideration of Newt's admission. ] So the tats, did they come before or after you decided to study them? [ A beat. ] The aliens, not needles.

Edited 2021-07-18 23:57 (UTC)

I guess somewhere around the same time? I went into the academy, and one thing led to another. If I’m honest, it started becoming this exciting thing, to get a new one done — which I know sounds kind of fucked up, but they were all I studied for years, day and night, and eventually... I realized I wasn’t scared of them, not like a lot of people were. I just wanted to know more; to figure out how they worked. They were the most complex, fascinating creatures to walk the earth...! Like Godzilla, or King Kong, or Mothra, but in the flesh. And we didn’t know anything about them for so long...!

[Sorry, he’s starting to get a little chatty; it’s too clear that, even with his complicated feelings, he can’t help but excitedly discuss them. He reigns himself in, but not without some difficulty.]

I guess now I don’t really have any new kaiju for tattoos... but you know, I’m sure there are some pretty badass-looking aliens out there that would be good for a back piece...

[ The unbridled enthusiasm, the chattiness, the hyperfocus. It was as comforting and nostalgic to Sans as anything else on this ship -- a ghost of something familiar and friendly, dressed up with a stranger's face. That kind of nostalgia was doing a lot of work on Newt's behalf, casting his unplanned speech in a very specific light.

Sans leans against his hand, caught between enjoying himself and homesickness. To look at him, enjoying himself was certainly the most visible of the two forces. ]

Bound to be a few somewhere. It's space, right? [ A fact that truly had yet to sink in. All those years reading waterlogged astronomy books from the 70s, and here they all were. ] I'll keep an eye socket out, but you gotta give me a sense of what counts as 'badass'. Which is your favorite?

[ He nodded to Newt's visible arms, the question obvious. Pick your favorite child, Newton. ]

Edited 2021-07-19 05:40 (UTC)

[He looks absolutely FLUMMOXED!!! that you would even ask such a thing of him. But okay, let him think. Gosh, he looks so stressed out trying to decide on one of them, gnawing at his lower lip and looking off into space like he's literally performing equations to come up with the most 'badass' of his many tattoos.]

That's such an unfair question. Totally 100% cruel and unusual punishment, but I'll humor you — I think... if I had to pick the coolest look, it'd have to have been —

[Oh, wait, he's unclothing himself! Cover your eyes, children...! No, wait, he's just unbuttoning his shirt halfway down, so he can pull the right shoulder of his dress shirt down. There is the green and blue hued beauty of a beast with an exoskeleton like pale white bone, with a long, sturdy tusk jutting as if it were part mammoth; it's got four eyes and sharp, long teeth on a head bordered by red swirls on a background. Judging by the colors and creatures that vanish into his neckline, he's got a full chest piece to go along with his arms. The mad lad's a mess.]

This right here, this one's the top badass. This is Taurax, courtesy of the year 2022! It had these massive horns, kind of like elephant tusks? Usually the kaiju tend to look a lot like animals from our planet, and this one was sort of more like a mixture of a mammoth and a bull...?

I don't know; I just thought he was neat.

[ If Sans had the means, he would've put on some appropriate hold music for the wait. Sadly for all involved, the mind transmission technology they were speaking through wasn't quite that advanced.

That said, it's probably for the best, because it might've culminated in a real-time record scratch once Newt just spontaneously started undressing. ]

Welp, I asked didn't I. [ Sans comments, more to himself than to Newt. It is genuinely interesting, in an alien (heh) sort of way. The devotion is too, and Sans is content to listen through Newt's gushing explanation. ] Okay. Next person I see with cool tusks or horns or both, I'll see if I can get 'em to sit for a portrait to fill out some nerd's back piece.

It's a shame you never fell into the Underground, pal. You'd run outta room.

Absolutely, yeah! Or, you know, just give them a head's up I might ask them invasive questions about their cool tusks.

[Wow, he's mildly self-aware. Advanced AI, eat your heart out.

But oh, Sans. Ooooh, Sans. He looks so invested. Full kid-sitting-at-campfire-stories invested.]

The Underground?

[ Whoops. Sans' mistake. He'd sorta hoped all the tattoo talk might erase their whole infodump deal.

A question for an answer, what the hell was he thinking? ]

Oh, yeah. That's just the name for where I'm from. [ He pauses. ] It's... pretty literal. Our king--er, former king-- wasn't great with names.

Are you kidding? That's a great name. It's like the name of a seedy bar you'd find going down a set of creepy alleyway stairs! What's not to like about it?

Is that where all the monster folks live, then?

Yeah but y'see, this place wasn't some hole in the wall club. We're talking a hole in the ground... hole. [ He grins a little brighter at his own joke, for all the subject matter was a little bleaker than he'd been hoping to get into this early into his arrival. ] It's a system of caves under a mountain.

We've been there... uh, a couple millennia probably? Since we lost our own little war with humanity.

Ooooh.

Wow, uh.

... Twinsies? Kind of?

...

Or I guess not, since I'd be on the human side of the fighting...

... Sorry. For the record, I'd totally prefer to hang out with monsters. Yours seem way more chill than mine? I mean, I don't think you'd stomp my city into paste. Caves are cool; never been to caves before. But I bet the flora and fauna is neat...

[sorry he feels bad so he's rambling]

[ There was something funny about the guilt in Newt's voice. It's not like he'd done anything, and even more directly it's not like Sans was even alive when the war was waged. All that being said, there was something even funnier in how... strangely nice it was to hear Newt's remorse.

So really, who was the one Sans should be laughing at right now? ]

Hey, buddy, c'mon. You don't gotta apologize for what humans from another world did ages ago. They were scared of what we could do, and I guess I can't blame them too much for that. [ Wink. ] We're not really what you'd call uh, natural fighters, but we could be with one extra ingredient. Once they learned what that ingredient was, wiping us out completely became the only option.

[ Telling humans about the whole soul stealing potential monsters had was a big no-no for obvious reasons, so what the hell was he doing? Testing the limits of Newt's apologetic concern for his people? ... Yeah, crap, that was what he was doing, wasn't he? He needed to get his head on straight and find a way out of this conversation ASAP. ]

To tell ya the truth, if humans hadn't found a way to barricade us underground, I dunno if I'd even be here today talkin' to you right now. [ But, on a lighter note: ] The flora is killer though, you'd get a real kick out of Waterfall. Echo flowers, glow mushrooms, water sausages, the whole bit...

Yeah, I guess that's a good point.

[After all, it's not like he's blaming Sans for a bunch of alien monsters coming through and killing millions of people. That wouldn't exactly be fair, right? But Newt also has this compulsion to want to be buddies with every non-human entity he sees, so here we are.

As much as he's interested in echo flowers and glow mushrooms (god he loves bioluminescence), it's kind of hard for someone like Newton to just breeze over that other bit, before the flora talk.]

An extra ingredient?

What, freshly churned butter?

[See, he's good at jokes, too. But also, spill. >:(]

[ He is good at jokes. Sans laughs, genuinely relieved by it honestly. With a quick finger to his temple, he fixes Newt with a look that borders between teasing and grateful. ]

Damn, you are a monster biologist. How'd you guess?

I've got enough life experience to know there's not a single creature in this universe that doesn't benefit from a little butter added to a dish.

Edited 2021-07-27 03:49 (UTC)

You're a piece of work, y'know that? [ If he means it any way other than endeared, his chuckling grin certainly isn't saying so. ] And you've kept me up way past my bedtime. Trust me, you don't wanna cross my path unless I've gotten my eighteen hours.

[ He cracks his neck, giving Newt a final appraising once over.

What a weird guy. ]

Don't go diving into the mouths of any aliens until we can talk again, capiche? [ He winks. ] You're alright.

I'm a piece of work that helped save the planet, so I'll take it.

[He may or may not puff his chest up a bit.

He does kinda look like a puffin, actually.]

I can't promise I won't jump into any alien mouths, but I can promise it'd be for some kind of important reason, so there's that. Let's just not run into any that requires it, huh?

Sweet dreams and rock on, you funky little skeleton.

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text / audio | un: newt

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