Video; un: newt | a day or two before the Big Mission Log

[groupiedrifter]

[The little electronics shop has a small back room that is dangerously close to detection, when it comes to any government workers coming or going; just a door with a little private sign on the front — and behind that, there's a figure huddled over a desk, tie loosened and hair askew as he takes apart disarmed detonation collars and puts together prototypes to shut them down completely. His focus is impeccable, that's to be sure, but he's going on a second or maybe third night in a row without rest as he stares down the glassy front of a magnifying glass, fingers shock-still around a small welding gun that carefully patches pieces of refurbished technology together.

There is a hefty-sized box beside him, and he's placing his newly created disarming tools into it one at a time; it's gotten quite full. As he works... he starts... rambling into the feed. It does not stop. It almost seems like it never will.

Beside him on the desk, there are generic brand MEGA-CAFFEINE PATCHES.]

I can't just take it easy. Are you kidding? Taking it easy means there's less time to perfect the proper tools we need for this job; if I screw up and everyone's heads pop like grapes, what's that gonna say about me? That I'm a two-bit piece of shit engineer — and yeah, okay, so engineering isn't my primary skillset, but I helped build giant plasma canons, alright? I fortified armaments for 200 foot robots! I built a drifting PONS out of garbage! So, like, I can't just fail at this mission. Besides, this is Viv's home world, so if I fuck it up, I'll basically be letting her down; what would I even say? "Sorry I let people you probably care about go kablooey? At least I made you a dumpy robot body that isn't anywhere near as good as the ones you've got on your world?" Pfft, no, no way. So excuuuse me if I hit some caffeine patch vendors up for a little pick-me-up; what else was I gonna do, snort sci-fi cocaine? I'm not gonna snort sci-fi cocaine; let's leave that to the Scarface wannabes, yeah? I'm steady as shit right now, couldn't be more steady, like Doogie Howser up in this bi — shit! Electronic shock. Sorry. Don't worry, I'm not gonna blow myself up. C'mon, do I look like a guy who would blow himself up? Okay, maybe I look like a guy who'd blow himself up, but I've been alive 36 blissful years and I haven't turned myself into a reenactment of Jeff Goldblum at the end of The Fly yet. What a sick movie, totally worth it for the gross-out. A lesser man would have played it in its entirety at one of our movie nights, but I'm a kind and compassionate soul who would never do such a thing; Newton H. Geiszler is an angel. I don't know why I put an 'H' in there, I don't have a middle name. Does everyone have a middle name? Shit, did my dad skimp out on me? First he makes me a torrid love affair baby, then he curses me genetically with the gold trophy standard of ADHD and bad eyesight, and now he's not giving me my due right as a German-American by giving me some ugly middle name like Clarence or Wolfgang. Actually, Wolfgang sounds kind of lit. Newton Wolfgang Geiszler. Dude, I might just adopt that for myself. Shit! I don't know. What time is it? Someone'll come and let me know when we're doing the mission thing, right? 'Cus I'll be fine to do it, I'll rest in a little bit; I've been taking catnaps in-between finishing disarming tools. Trust me, I'm the king of taking power naps while sitting upright. I've even done it on a stool before, easy peasy pumpkin peasy pumpkin pie. Oh! Actually, I need to think of names for these ones, right? Like how I named the Newtrilizer. I loved that fucking thing; I'm actually using a few notes from that to help make these, too. But I'm seriously blanking on a name... Hermann would probably think it's stupid to name it, but what does he know, anyway? Only a complete loser would name something after a bunch of dead scientists or boring numbers. He's not here to stop me, so whatever! I'll do what I want! And what I want is to name this one The Geiszler Extemporizer. The Geiszler Depolarizer? Or is that too long? It's kind of a mouthful... I guess naming it something that ends in E-R is pretty boring, though. Maybe I'm boring, too. Damn, I don't wanna be boring... Ooooh, I think I'm having heart palpations. Or hot flashes? I really need to get some air conditioning installed in this place. How am I so poor and underequipped in every job after MIT? You'd think saving the world would get me a hell of a lot more money; mo' money, less problems, ha! Ha.... Mmmrrr.

[He quiets for a moment, then another moment, and then his head slouches forward to rest on his chest. There's a quiet buzzing of dead noise and a soft snore before he he startles back awake, gripping the soldering tool more firmly in his hand.]

Whoa!

[He sniffs, rubbing his eye.

Looks left. Looks right.

Squints at the equivalent of a flashing red video light in his vision.]

... Was I recording?

Comments

UN: Wei Wuxian| text

[singlelogbridge]

[Ignoring the horrifying knowledge that this is exactly what he gets like when he shuts himself up for days to work on his inventions, Wei Wuxian raises an eyebrow and then just. Keeps raising it as he listens on and on. And on.

He has so many questions. (Sci-fi cocaine? ADHD? German-American????)

But most of all—]

...are you okay?

text

[groupiedrifter]

Of course I'm okay!! Why wouldn't I be okay??

I'm aces! That's slang for awesome/cool/great. 🤘🤘🤘🤘

audio — un: hotel.california ;

[karaoqi]

Yeah. Yeah, you were definitely recording.

That was — a lot and after all that, I'd hardly say you were boring.

[ He might have tuned out at certain bits though. ]

You ... okay, man?

audio

[groupiedrifter]

[Oh no, a second person asking if he's okay.

Don't make him actually have to consider what the answer is, dude.]

Just busy is all. What, you never get all worked up and chatty when you're neck-deep in projects?

audio; un: romanoff

[deaddrop]

Shouldn't you find a middle name that starts with an H? You did throw that out there. Hugo, or something like that.

[Yes. That is what she's going to go for as an opener. With all the information Newt just threw out there, Natasha has to pick something to hold onto as a starting point.

From there, well:]

Just how close are you to getting into your emergency stash of good liquor?

audio;

[groupiedrifter]

... I might've drained that particular emergency stash a while ago.

But I was with company! I didn't do it alone!

[So that's an important point to note!]

Sorry, I should've saved some for you; I should've known you'd have that emergency stash languishing around in your head for times like these. Maybe my middle name should start with an I for Inconsiderate.

Audio; un: belova

[laviny]

If you don’t have a middle name you should definitely give yourself one. I don’t have a birth certificate so I just made a new one.

[Making shit up is a totally valid way to deal with these things, ok, she knows.]

I will call you Newton Wolfgang Geiszler from now on if you want.

Audio;

[groupiedrifter]

See, that's the spirit! Fuck the facts, just make up your own names and birthdays. You think Wolfgang sounds pretty cool, though? I'm torn between it sounding so nerdy it's badass or just plain nerdy.

Video | Un: Star-Lord

[spacedisaster]

Newt, dear gods...I'm coming over to bring you something to eat.

And you need to sleep for at least a couple hours.

Video

[groupiedrifter]

I'm fiiiine. I'm barely hungry! I've been hardcore munching on those nasty food rations between the usual spurts of madness. It's amazing how absolutely awful a place's food supply can be; I didn't think it could get any lower, but here we are.

[sleep???? who is sleep??? don't know her]

Text. un: Kirigan.

[cruelyethuman]

That was a lot of nonsense, Newton.

Where are you right now?

Text.

[groupiedrifter]

Thaaanks, I'm really good at nonsense.

I'm working at my shop, duh. Can't stray too far from work, yknow??? We've got a very limited window of time to get these stupid collar disarming tools completed, so it's not like I can sit on my ass and stare at the walls.

un: fullmetal, video

[chrysology]

You definitely have looked better, bud. Not even going to ask who this Doogie person is. Just -- you need a hand? You need help. I'm coming to help. While you get some rest. And some food in you. Just tell me what you need and I can help.

[Look. Ed knows how he can get. And he doesn't have Al here to prod him to eat or sleep like he usually does back home. So. He gets it. But also. He doesn't want to see Newt pushing himself too much like that. So.]

video

[groupiedrifter]

Doogie's awesome. A badass.

[... Nope, that's the full description. Totally unhelpful.]

Hey, wait — I'm cool! Everything's cool, really, man. I'm just. I've been eating and sleeping. [He does not, of course, specify how much of either of those he is actually doing. Because the answer is insufficient and they both know it.] Besides, you've all got plenty on your plates, too.

audio. private.

[construing]

〈 —well. 〉

I’ve still got my Newtrilizer.

audio. private.

[groupiedrifter]

It's pretty awesome, right? I love that funky little guy!

Too bad it's only effective against really particular natural resources from a particular planet. But I've been able to use it as a blueprint, kinda! You think I could tinker with yours a little as a refresher?

audio; un: nightmoves

[ruinously]

Dude. You good?

audio;

[groupiedrifter]

Sure! Are you good?

Usually when someone uses 'dude' as a one-word sentence, they're not as good as they could be.

Video un: surgeonofdeath

[kikoku]

...
[Hello??? Sir???]

Newton-ya. If you don't get some actual rest immediately I'm going to come find you and knock you unconscious.

Video

[groupiedrifter]

... I think knocking someone unconscious is a terrible doctoring method.

[HELLO TO YOU TOO, SIR]

video; un: kovacs

[kovach]

[ he doesn't immediately jump on video with this thing unless he absolutely has to, and right now, it's very much a has-to.

because how else is he gonna give that stern knit eyebrows looks that's both reprimanding and concerned, the former almost outweighing the latter since he doesn't like to show off being sentimental, even if with newt, it's been shown plenty that he can be. ]

Newt.

[ that's all he says. way past the "geiszler" calling now. ]

video;

[groupiedrifter]

[He looks terribly unfazed by the stern knit eyebrows. Shit, Kovacs, he's already adapted.]

Heya, T.K.! What's up?

[Is he playing dumb? Is he being a little turd? Or is he genuinely not even noticing the reprimanding way his name is spoken? Maybe that's just how people say his name most days!]

text / un: solnishka

[peasant]

what's a

[ give her a minute or two. insert phone holding music here — ]

depolarizer

text

[groupiedrifter]

[aliNA NO-]

A depolarizer, in electrochemistry, according to an IUPAC definition, is a synonym of electroactive substance, i.e., a substance which changes its oxidation state, or partakes in a formation or breaking of chemical bonds, in a charge-transfer step of an electrochemical reaction. In the battery industry, the term "depolarizer" has been used to denote a substance used in a primary cell to prevent buildup of hydrogen gas bubbles. A battery depolarizer takes up electrons during discharge of the cell; therefore, it is always an oxidizing agent. The term "depolarizer" can be considered as outdated or misleading, since it is based on the concept of "polarization" which is hardly realistic in many cases.



I just wanted a fancy word that related to the engineering steps I'm taking in disabling the electrochemical reactions inside the collars, lol.

text || un: 5

[fluffernutters]

Where did you get the patches?

[He only watched like the first 30 seconds of this before gleaning the most important scrap of information and moving on. Come on, Newt, this could be a game changer.]

text

[groupiedrifter]

I'm not giving a 10 year old caffeine patches

audio (un: major.yzak.jule)

[coordination]

Newton what in the absolute fuck.

audio

[groupiedrifter]

I wish there was an absolute fuck around here somewhere.

[hi buddy]

audio. un: barnes

[starer]

[What the hell did you just make everyone a witness to, Newt??]

...you need a nap.

audio.

[groupiedrifter]

I just took a nap! You saw!

[FOOLPROOF RESPONSE. UNOBJECTIONABLE.]

voice; un: qinghe

[eschewings]

No, don't worry, you weren't recording at all.

[ the voice that comes through is incredibly pleasant, light and nice, and 200% not making fun of him at all. ]

voice;

[groupiedrifter]

Oh, cool.

[He's getting the feeling you're fucking with him, sir, but! He'll just roll with it.

Rubbing his eyes, he squints at the feed.]

Huh. You're one of the newbies, aren't you?

text; un: doctor.disco

[attackbrows]

They don't make cereal like they used to.

Re: text; un: doctor.disco

[groupiedrifter]

[What does it say about him that he doesn't bat an eye at this commentary?]

They really don't, I'm jonesing for Fruity Pebbles hard right now.
Have you ever head Fruity Pebbles? Or Cinnamon Toast Crunch???

un: blue

[firstroar]

[he lets most other people chime in first, but after a couple hours or so:]

...Newton?

[groupiedrifter]

[There's a snore-turned-startled noise, and suddenly a sleepy voice says:]

Yeah?! Oh — Blue. Wassup, man?

[Hours later, he has been rudely forced to rest. It's very uncalled for, to be honest.]

video; un: rita.farr

[farr]

[ well, now, he's pushing himself a lot, isn't he? she could argue for him to rest, sure, but she's done 18-hour work days just to perfect a scene, making sure the camera captured the shot just right, so she knows the devoted exhaustion that comes with it. ]

You know it's much better to talk to company than yourself while you're working. Otherwise you're only going to strain your vocal cords. You should take care of those, Newton. They're very important.

[ pause — ]

Or you could sing while you work. Singing is for your voice like a stretch is for a jog. It'll relax all the muscles at once.

video;

[groupiedrifter]

[He clears his throat, looking a touch — gasp — sheepish?

Newton, embarrassed at the thought of doing something? Say it isn't so...!]

Confession time? I'm not really, uuuuh, a very good singer.

Maybe if you wanna scare away some cats and dogs...

video; un: stargirl

[bossily]

[Okay, so she's concerned about him.

Incredibly concerned.

So concerned she can't even say anything at first.]

Newt? How many of those patches have you used?

video;

[groupiedrifter]

[oh god there she is-]

Um.

A few.

[... His lower eyelid twitches.]

What's up, my most favoritest stargirl in the world?

video; tw: drug reference

[krazed]

[Sure, she's still licking her wounds but with high pain tolerance that shot might as well have been a mosquito bite. Her pride is more wounded than her body. Still... Newt never fails to disappoint. She could drown in all that manic energy, mixed with a little schnapps.]

Christ almighty, trigger finger. Have you ever heard of quaaludes?

video;

[groupiedrifter]

Who needs quaaludes when you've got totally over the counter patches?

[He tries to sound humorous about it, but... he's talking to someone who had drew one of the shorter straws last mission, running into him and his brain aliens. Sooo... he may be a touch sheepish when he speaks up.]