Dr. Newton Geiszler (CRAU) (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ohnehalfte) wrote2017-07-23 06:51 am
ohnehalfte) wrote2017-07-23 06:51 am
Entry tags:
Application.
Player Information
Name: Nikki
Age: 29
Contact: nikkernoodle @ plurk
Current characters: n/a
Character Information
Name: Newt Geiszler,
Series: Pacific Rim
Appearance: Schatzi, schenk mir ein Foto!
Age: 35 (37??? 38??? technically he’s had some bdays since but he hasn’t aged so)
Canon Point: Tail end of his drift with Hermann Gottlieb
Transferring From:![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
havenrpg and hadriel
Canon History: Convenient Wiki Link!
Canon Personality: “[Marshal Pentecost and Sergeant Hansen] won’t give you the equipment [for your experiment] and even if they did...you’d kill yourself!” Doctor Hermann Gottlieb declares.
“Or I’d be a rockstar!” Doctor Newton Geiszler protests, and that, in a nutshell, defines the latter almost utterly. Brash, irresponsible, brilliant and reckless, Newt is 35-year-old man with the maturity of a 12-year-old and who dresses like a 25-year-old hipster. Whether it’s hooking himself up to a drift machine made out of garbage or running straight into the den of a drug lord in search of a new Kaiju brain, Newt rarely looks before he leaps. “Fortune favors the brave, dude!” says he, and, as cheesy as that statement sounds, means (and exemplifies) every word of it.
As one of the two remaining members of the Pan Pacific Defense Corp’s Kaiju Science department, Newt is a genius. No, but seriously. Despite all appearances to the contrary (the skinny jeans and even skinnier tie, the colorful Kaiju tattoos, the thick-rimmed glasses,) he is, in fact, a genius. Newt started teaching at MIT when he was twenty and received six doctorates before the age of twenty-five. What subjects these doctorates are in is a mystery, but it’s safe to say that they’ve had something to do especially with science and biology (and, possibly, since his family life was so steeped in it, music.) He shows an especial knack for DNA and is the one to recognize that the Kaiju, though they all look vastly different, genetically they are the same. He also theorizes that the Kaiju aren’t just acting on instinct; that their behavior doesn’t line up, and do defeat them, they need to be understood. He can identify parts of a Kaiju and what category they’re from on sight. He’s even able to tell that the defeated Kaiju corpse of Otachi is pregnant just from hearing a sound over a crackly walky-talky.
Newt also incredibly talented when it comes to electronics. He invented a machine that was specifically designed to draw the toxins out of Kaiju glands in order to classify them. He ended up calling this machine the “Milking Machine,” so perhaps he’s not so great in the ‘naming things’ department, but well. At least he invented the thing. This, however, doesn’t even come close to the fact that Newt built a drifting machine out of, as Hermann calls it, “garbage” and then uses it to drift with a piece of a Kaiju brain. Not only does the machine actually work the first time around, but it hooks Newt right up into the Kaiju Hivemind and, though it only gives him little glimpses, it’s enough to prove his hypothesis about there being another driving force behind the Kaiju. The machine is later used a SECOND time, with Newt and Hermann diving into the Kaiju psyche for longer this time and allowing them to subsequently help save the world from total destruction.
As it is, though, this genius seems to come with a price. Newt is not-so-great at socializing. He has many interactions with many different types of people in the movie, and every single one tells us several things about how Newt interacts with other human beings.
Newt has no filter; no concept of what is appropriate to say and when. When we are first introduced to him, we’re treated to a man who talks about the Kaiju not just in front of, but to Raleigh with great enthusiasm (Raleigh, who Newt has just been told is a Ranger, someone who risks their life fighting the Kaiju,) calling one of the Kaiju tattooed on his arms “2500 tons of Awesome.” After an awkward pause, Newt finally seems to realize he said something Not Quite Right, and it is amended to “…or awful, whatever you want to call it” about the same time that Hermann calls him a Kaiju Groupie as an explanation for his behavior. Despite this interaction, he never seems to fully grasp that he made a major social faux pas with that entire conversation, looking to Hermann in confusion once Marshal Pentecost and Mako escort Raleigh away.
Newt is a larger than life “borderline manic personality.” He is loud, direct, and not shy or bashful about who he is, what his field of study is, and what he believes. He wears his obsessions on his skin, rolling up his sleeves constantly to display the bright monsters permanently residing on his forearms. He makes no effort to hide them and even touts them, talking about them proudly when asked. He makes sure everyone knows who he is and completely refuses to apologize for it. Newt is smart: he knows it, everyone else knows it, and therefore he refuses to consider the idea that what he comes up with might be wrong. On the surface, this can be easily interpreted as arrogance. However, considering his background, there is more to it than that. Newt’s constant energy and enthusiasm is anything but normal, and, if his plan to drift with a bit of a Kaiju brain is any indication, his ideas are sometimes far out to left field. He’s probably used to having to defend every idea he has come up with from a very young age considering how early on he attended (and taught at) MIT. It would explain his constant push to get his idea about drifting with the Kaiju brain heard by Stacker Pentecost and Herc Hansen, pursuing his idea even after they’ve told him no, and going ahead and doing it anyway (not to mention risking his own life in the process.) He is so obsessed with being right that he is willing to put himself in harm’s way. He doesn’t take being right gracefully, either. Instead, the first thing he says to Pentecost after the drift is: “I told you it would work.”
This isn’t the only time we are treated to how immature Newt can be. It is the most visible when he’s with his colleague and lab partner, Dr. Hermann Gottlieb. Hermann is the left brain to Newt’s right; the order and numbers and logic to Newt’s riot of bright blue Kaiju parts and colorful tattoos. As such, they grate on each other almost constantly. They tear down each other’s work in front of Pentecost and Herc without a second thought, like two children in competition, trying to curry more favor than the other. “And here’s where I gotta chime in, because really, I wouldn’t want to go in there with that limited amount of data,” says Newt, in response to Hermann’s explanation about the Breach. “Newton, don’t embarrass yourself,” retorts Hermann.
They literally fight like cats and dogs. Newt mocks Hermann openly and in front of others (“Hermann, these are human beings. Why don’t you say hello,”) laughs at him when he’s speaking seriously, and even makes a ‘blah blah blah’ hand motion behind his back. He is completely disrespectful of Hermann’s space, tossing Kaiju parts carelessly and making a mess. However, whatever Newt throws at Hermann, he gets back in equal measure. The two are seemingly constantly at odds, picking and tearing at each other with a verbal viciousness. When he’s with Hermann, Newt is at his most cruel, and it shows in every single scene they’re with each other.
Yet somehow, they work side-by-side in a tiny laboratory divided straight down the middle. The Shatterdome is a humungous place that used to house, as Pentecost informs Raleigh, somewhere around 30 Jaegers. Now it has 4. If the work situation is as horrible as Hermann’s many complaints filed makes it out to be, it should be easy enough to find another spot for one of them to work in. Thus it leads us to a more interesting conclusion: their outwardly tumultuous and often vicious relationship actually works to make them better scientists.
Both Newt and Hermann are geniuses. Where Newt has six doctorates and pioneered research in tissue replication, Hermann wrote the original code for the Jaegers and was the one to pinpoint the location of the Breach. It’s fairly safe to say that they’re pretty comparable to each other in the intelligence department. Instead of one leaving the other to their respective fields, they instead seem to poke and prod at each other’s theories and ideas, creating holes that a normal person might miss. This means that neither of them have any room for error or sloppiness in their work, as their lab partner is sure to go straight for whatever weakness they present and tear it apart. For many people, such a thing might be defeating after a while, but it seems like, for Hermann and Newt, this sort of thing really works to push them farther and to press the boundaries of what they know (and Newt seems more than happy to poke holes in the theory that Hermann presents to Pentecost and Herc.) Thus, proving to Hermann that he is right and that his work has validity is, when combined with Newt’s borderline mania, a driving force behind many of his actions, even if just subtly and secondary.
Here’s the really interesting part: Newt and Hermann are drift compatible. Travis Beacham, the writer of the original script, tells us that it is impossible for two people to drift without one very important element: trust. And not a casual “yeah okay I’ll trust you just this once,” but trust as a reflex. Implicit trust, as the brain wants to instinctively protect itself. How interesting is it, then, that they are able to drift together (and with a baby Kaiju along for the ride, but details) successfully when they should be each other’s worst enemy. Instead they open themselves up and hand over literally the worst ammunition against them: access into their mind, psyche and memories. Yet, it is done without hesitation. “You’d do that for me?” Newt asks. “…with me?” Together they take the leap into the void, and, in doing so, are able to save the world.
In a roundabout way, it is possible to call Newt’s actions brave. However, it is more of a “brave to suit one’s own needs,” rather than “brave for honor” in the sense of Raleigh or Mako. Yes, he does go running blindly into danger. Drifting with a Kaiju initially could have killed him, but he did it anyway. Heading straight into Hannibal Chau’s black market Kaiju den and putting himself face to face with the terrifying drug lord would have scared off most people, but Newt just shouts and raves and doesn’t leave Hannibal alone until he gives Newt what he wants. He then drifts with a Kaiju (with Hermann’s help) a second time, even after he was found seizing and hemorrhaging from his nose the first time around. However, this is all done in the pursuit of understanding the Kaiju. Saving people-nay, the world-is an afterthought. A happy side effect. When he’s scared, really scared, he becomes far more obviously self-centered, as is evidenced in his push to get down into the public shelter. “Make way, coming through, I’m a doctor,” Newt shouts, as he pushes past similarly terrified crowds. Not to mention when the baby Kaiju comes bursting out of Otachi’s corpse, Newt run/stumbles away, scrambling and finally curling into a fetal position. Newt is not fearless; it’s more a combination of sheer obsessive determination and his inability to judge social situations that allows him to continue to run headfirst into danger without a second thought.
To be honest, Newt isn’t the best guy. However, he isn’t anywhere near the worst. His heroics may be self-motivated, but at the end of the day he still does want to help, even if it is a secondary benefit. Despite his reverence for the creatures bringing about the Apocalypse, he is firmly on the side of good, running as fast as he can to learn and discover and create to save the world, always willing to try something new and throw caution to the wind (and often common sense along with it.) He may not be the best in social situations (perhaps a gross understatement,) but his genius and dogged persistence seems to get him through anyhow. At the end of the day he’s the guy that might drive you absolutely crazy, but there’s something charming in his madness, shining with a brilliance you can’t look away from and thus becoming what he’s always proclaimed he could be: a rockstar.
Personality Shifts: Newt went through a lot in Haven. Yes, okay, everyone went through a lot in Haven, but that’s hardly the point. Like any traumatic experience, his time there has had quite an effect on him. Though he is still Newt Geiszler at his core, and will forever be the brash, passionate, slightly socially inept, self-absorbed, genius pain in the ass that he is, he is now far more wary and cautious than he used to be, especially when it comes to large corporations and omnipotent people with god-like powers. Being under the thumb of the Yao Corporation and being a victim of their constant abuse and dehumanization has given him an extreme dislike of anyone that has far too much power over other people. Even if they are claiming to help, Newt remains incredibly suspicious, because even the rebel group that was supposed to be trying to take down the Yao Corporation had no trouble attacking the group of them being experimented on when it suited their purposes.
Thus, Newt also passes judgement far more quickly, now, not just on those trying to control his life, but also on the people around him. Being in a situation where he is constantly under threat of being killed or eaten has made it essential that Newt have people that he can trust to pull him out of the fire, and to make friends with these people very quickly. Thus, he makes snap first impressions of people that are very hard to change. For example, one of the first people to pull Newt’s butt out of the (literal) fire during his first couple weeks in Haven became Newt’s best friend in short order. Newt trusted Travis with his life, even after finding out that he was an assassin, and that even before coming to Haven, he had killed people. This was essentially Newt’s first experience with discovering a darker side to someone he felt very close to. Yet even though he and Travis didn’t speak to each other for couple weeks, Newt eventually forgave Travis for not telling him. Because at the end of the day, though the discovery that your best friend is a murderer is a little horrifying, really Newt was more mad about the fact that Travis hid it from him than the actual aforementioned fact. As a result of this and the continuing discoveries that people in his friends group were also supervillians, mercenaries and vampires, to name a few, Newt has become quick to dismiss and accept faults of these people because they helped him, and didn’t hurt anyone Newt didn’t consider as “bad.”
On the flip side of this, if someone who Newt is not close to kills someone, does something negative to him, or just makes what he views as a bad decision, they are immediately put on Newt’s shit list, and even starting to take steps to get off of it is a long, arduous process. For example, Newt started to get to know Cecil Palmer, who came from a canon where it was normal for a large omnipotent group to control a community. So naturally, on his arrival, Cecil joined up with the Yao Corporation. Newt found out about this and, considering it a betrayal, immediately put Cecil on his garbage list. Soon after, Cecil realized that Yao Corp wasn’t much of anything like the Night Vale City Council, but by then was trapped. It took several months of Cecil sneaking things behind the corporation’s back, including things like smuggled medicine to experiment on and such things, before Newt would even give him the time of day.
This even applies to people that he doesn’t know well, that are put under some sort of influence where they are not themselves and take actions that they normally wouldn’t. At one point, half the population of Haven was thrown into a labyrinth and heavily dosed with a gas that would make them much more aggressive and not themselves. As a result, Newt was killed by one of the people he was rooming with and he never forgave her for it, even though it was completely out of her control and he was being just as aggressive as she was.
Newt has also learned several survival skills. He now knows (thanks to Wade and Travis) how to throw a decently accurate punch that won’t break his hand. He’s self-taught on how to use a butterfly knife, and he can build a small generator out of salvaged parts practically with his eyes closed. Most importantly, he’s learned how to better ignore any emotional fears/doubts/problems he might have, and convince himself that everything is fine. He already sort of knew how to do this; anyone who is arrogant (whether founded or unfounded) does. But Newt has gotten exponentially better at it. As Joel from The Last of Us told him: “It’s not about knowing for sure. It’s about believing what you need to believe to keep going.” It’s a set of instructions that, for once, Newt has actually taken to heart. Haven was the kind of situation that was forever helpless. They had no control over their lives, and every time they took one step forward, it felt like they were shoved three steps back. Add to that all the aforementioned things that Newt went through, and it would take sheer ignorance to stay hopeful in such a situation. In Newt’s case, this is willful, self-imposed ignorance. He chooses not to think about how getting his lower jaw hacked off with a surgical saw affected him emotionally and mentally. He chooses to think even LESS about how he had to poison Hermann and felt him slowly die in his head through it; not just the psychological effects of THAT, but also the guilt that he pretends he doesn’t feel. He chooses not to think of how helpless he is. How, no matter how much he tried and struggled and fought and clawed tooth and nail to survive, they still couldn’t fight off Yao in the end. He forces himself not to think of his inability to protect Hermann from Kite; from Haven in general. Nor does he think about how easily Hermann has been taken away from him, time and time again, and Newt’s complete inability to find him. How terrifying it is to think that he could be removed at any moment, and Newt could do nothing about it. Instead, he tells himself that he’d rip apart the world, the stars, every universe across time and space until he found him again. He convinces himself that this is a thing that is possible. He convinces himself that, even in this helpless, hopeless situation, they can win. That if he can work hard enough, fast enough, long enough, they will go home. He clings to this ignorant hope like a sinking ship in the middle of the storm: it may be a false hope to believe he’ll reach land, but it’s the only hope he has.
Unfortunately, this is also a strategy he has imposed on others. Mainly Hermann. Though they have certainly fought about the hopelessness of their situation and Hermann has explicitly stated his fear and how he is terrified of losing Newt, Newt has still failed to really fully understand it and its origins. Partially because if he thinks about it too much, he’ll realize his own fear, and therefore patches it up using the same method he uses for himself: distraction. It’s a bandaid for the situation; it doesn’t solve Hermann’s feelings of helplessness, nor does it help him deal with it. It just tucks it away for a little while until, eventually, like everything else, it will spill over.
Basically, Haven has taught Newt how to physically and mentally deal with a hopeless situation through repression. It may not be a healthy way to live but it gets him through the day when others might have given up, and he is determined to drag those he cares about along with him, kicking and screaming, whether they like it or not.
Speaking of Hermann Gottlieb, I cannot talk about Newt’s time in Haven without devoting some paragraphs to him. When Newt and Hermann first arrived in Haven, both coming from the very end of their Drift, they were separated for three weeks. During this time, they would get the occasional impression of something that happened to the other person because the Drift is wonky and really not specifically defined at all in canon so…yeah. Anyway, when Newt finally gets back, the first thing they do (to both of their surprise) is hug it out, because there’s something comforting about the first familiar thing encountered in a strange, horrific, terrifying place like Haven. From there, things only became further entangled. Between meeting and talking at night after sharing nightmares from two floors apart, Newt hemorrhaging from his nose and feeling it when Hermann got badly electrocuted, Hermann trying to push them apart and failing, several events where they had to, more and more, confront some misconceptions they had about the other person felt about them, putting each other's needs above their own whether consciously or unconsciously, and spending most of their waking hours together (which, granted, they were doing even BEFORE coming to Haven, so that in-and-of-itself was not necessarily noteworthy,) they became much closer.
Newt doesn't even really fully realize how deep he's in until seven months later after he and Hermann nearly get killed by some visiting Yao Corp employees, after which he pretty much word vomits at Travis about it. His best friend then confirms exactly what Newt had been pondering over: that he is “really, really, really fuckin' gay for Hermann Gottlieb.” Unfortunately, before he can do anything about it, both he and Hermann are captured and tortured by Phillip Kite, who hacks off Newt's lower jaw with a surgical saw because Newt pissed him off, and attaches Hermann's lower half to that of a giant spider.
Yeah.
Basically Newt can't talk after waking up from that, jawless, and they end up communicating in morse code. Hermann taps out something, shaky, that Newt can't parse because it comes out so jumbled. Later, while slowly waiting for his jaw to grow back, he decodes it, and realizes that Hermann had similar feelings. From there, he confronts him about it and is originally rejected, but because Newt is far too stubborn for his own good, he pretty much digs his heels in and pushes and pushes until Hermann concedes. Unfortunately, that’s also when it’s revealed that Hermann has come down with a case of the Spiral Madness—that is, a thing in Haven where you become obsessed with spirals to the point of where you try and break your own body so that it becomes a spiral. Newt tries many things to try and cure Hermann, but ultimately it all fails, and he poisons Hermann after the other man breaks his own arm in order to make it bend properly into a spiral.
From there begins a back and forth of them being in each other’s company for a time, then one of them disappearing, then the other. It’s hard on Newt, with the longest period of Hermann being gone (approximately 3 months,) being the worst. He overworks himself to the point of exhaustion several times, worries his friends, and gets yelled at (and yells at other people) for it. Thus, when Hermann comes back and Newt is (understandably) emotional, Hermann then tries to break up with him. It’s at that point that Newt gets a bit of a realization about why Hermann does what he does, and it’s fear that motivates him. So he has that realization, but I wouldn’t say that he fully understands. Because honestly he’s scared, too. All the time. But he deals with it differently than Hermann. Instead of confronting it, he does that thing where he pretends that things are going to work out and buries it and ignores it. So, once again, Newt digs his heels in and persists and doesn’t let Hermann say no, insisting that they stay together until Hermann finally caves.
The fact of the matter is that, now, Newt is very dependent on Hermann for his own mental sanity. Hermann provides a grounding base and a moral center that leaves Newt on shaky footing when he’s not there. If Newt can’t feel Hermann in his head, he becomes even more snappish, isolating himself and becoming prone to overworking in order to keep from focusing on any thought that Hermann is gone and that he might not come back. He becomes more reckless, taking risks that are normally extreme even for him. Basically, Hermann is usually most of Newt’s impulse control and an anchor that keeps him grounded. Without him, Newt’s world is negatively effected. Which was exactly what Hermann was trying to avoid by pushing him away all those times. Oops.
And then they were whisked away to Hadriel, and ended up having an argument about this very thing the same day. After a screaming match in which Hermann challenged Newt’s attempt to deal with the fact that all of his friends were still stuck in Haven by turning to an unattainable platitude, and in return, Newt Fucked Up Royally by basically calling Hermann as heartless as his father, they went separate ways for a couple hours. Only a couple hours, though. After seeking Hermann out (and having the terrible thoughts that that Hermann wouldn’t want him or might’ve stopped loving him because of his massive fuck up) and apologizing, they managed to come to an uneasy truce with an acknowledgement that their current codependency wasn’t sustainable, and agreed to reconvene in a week to discuss it and try and suss out a solution. In the mean time, they remained together.
Unfortunately, such a meeting never happened. Between an appearance of Silent Hill, dragons, zombies and other events, they never actually got the chance to sit down and talk. Not until four months later during an event where everyone’s various powers went utterly haywire, and Hermann ended up getting very badly hurt, and the two of them separated. They finally managed to find each other and retreated to their lab that they’d set up (with plenty of help,) to basically hide out there until the madness settled down. Once finally back at the lab, Newt ended up snapping at Hermann to just let Newt take care of him, because it was all Newt could do. He couldn’t keep Hermann safe; he was useless, and this little was the only way he could help, so Hermann had to let him do it. Hermann, after such an outburst, acquiesced. Newt realized, quickly, that it was not the solution he’d hoped for; instead of assuaging his guilt about not being able to protect Hermann, it only made it worse when he realized that the request was selfishly only helping him and wasn’t doing anything for Hermann. After asking what Hermann needed—really needed—they finally sat down and had the talk that they had meant to have months ago.
What came about from that was the confirmation that, well…Newt is essentially being willfully delusional; clinging and living and believing in the idea that no matter how hopeless or helpless the situation, if he and Hermann are separated, he can and will find a way to reunite them. And he won’t stop until he achieves it, no matter what he has to do (“I…I will tear apart universes to find you.”) Because at this point, Newt’s died enough times and seen other people die and come back to life that he’s concluded that, well, death is a construct. And not one that’s permanent. He’d like to avoid it as much as possible because it also hurts and is pretty traumatizing, but it’s not the End like it is in their original world. In both Haven and Hadriel, people came back to life after they died, resurrected. So there’s nothing stopping him from finding a way back to Hermann, or to bring Hermann to him, even if he has to search for a long time. It’s not like he’s aging, anyway. He’s a genius. He’ll find a way. Which…it’s insane. And Hermann told him so. However, when challenged by Newt, Hermann also admitted that he would not be able to move on from Newt either. That if they were separated, he, too, would spend his time looking for Newt and finding a way to bring them together again instead of moving on. Newt, in turn, was not only relieved by this, but happy. Hermann wouldn’t leave him of his own volition. Not ever. And he recognized, to himself, that that thought process was both seriously fucked up and selfish (especially with how devastated Hermann seemed by the realization and culmination of the thing he had been trying to avoid for so long coming to pass,) but at the same time, could not bring himself to regret it for a moment, because the one thing that scared him the most was no longer a possibility. They may be separated, but it wouldn’t be because Hermann wanted to leave him. Anything else, even Death, even Space and Time, was (and is) surmountable.
Abilities: Newt is ridiculously smart. In fact, it's safe to call him a genius. He can create complex machines out of garbage, has a vast knowledge of many forms of biology, chemistry, mathematics and has an obsessive personality that can keep him on the trail of a problem for years and years. From his stint in Haven, he has also gained the ability to physically dodge things fairly well, as well as developed something of a hyper-vigilance problem, causing him to having a constant awareness of his surroundings. I wouldn't say that he's a trained fighter by any standards, but he does know enough now to throw a good and accurate punch. He can also wield a butterfly knife not exactly well, but with enough familiarity that he's not going to stab himself with it if forced to use it. At this point he could build a basic generator from garbage spare parts and very little tools practically in his sleep, can figure out how to use practically anything within reach as a weapon (though he may not wield such a thing well,) and has the art of food and water rationing down to a science.
Inventory: Newt will have on him a backpack full of Things. He pretty much carried this around with him in Hadriel (it originally came from Haven and then a couple more items were added once in Hadriel) at all times and kept it close. The Things amount to: a toolbox, a coil of wire, various main essential parts for building a small generator (uses a crank to generate power,) a tablet from Tony Stark, about ten cans of a spam-like substance, five cans of mixed veggies, a chocolate bar and a flashlight. Tucked in the pockets of his leather jacket he has his a butterfly knife, an origami newt, a pair of glasses, a piece of chalk about the size of his pinky and a cell phone. Lastly, he’s clipped a beam katana onto his belt.
Sample
Q&A: What’s more important: love or duty? Oh, love, definitely. Like, duty’s important and all that; if you've got shit to do, you'd better get that shit done, but it can also make you feel like you're morally obligated to do something that you don't agree or believe in. I mean, I guess love can do that also, but I feel like it has more freedom of choice than duty. Plus duty kind has the same effect as rules, and I'm really not a big fan of those. Also it sounds super military, and I’m not a huge fan of that either.
Do you have a personal code you follow? Why or why not? Kiiiiiind of?????? I mean, I’ve got a couple core tenants of Shit That Is Not Right, but I mostly trust myself not to do anything that I morally wouldn’t agree with. So maybe the answer is ‘no?’ I mean, other than that. I dunno, it’s not really something I’ve thought about. I mean, what is a personal code, exactly? Is it a moral code? Is it some sort of other code? Again, that’s sounding like rules, and I’m not into those.
Do you get along better with emotional people, logical people, or those somewhere in-between? All of the above??? Kinda??? I mean, again, it depends on the person and the subject we’re talking about. Like, if we’re talking about science, I’d rather hang out with logical people because science is science is science. If your reasoning for blasting on someone’s sexuality or gender is “because I don’t feel it’s right” or “my religion said that this is wrong,” then I’d rather someone logical in that situation, because science is logical and science says that those people can go fuck themselves. But if we’re like, talking about how it’d be more logical in a survival situation to kill someone off so the rest can live, then fuck that too. In that case I’d rather be hanging with a more emotional person who knows that shit is wrong. So maybe those somewhere in-between? I dunno, that’s not really something I think about when I’m meeting people.
What is your greatest ambition? It used to be figuring out the kaiju. Then it was getting home. Now, I just want to find a way to find Hermann and find a way around being separated when we go to new worlds. That’s it.
What would you rather have: powerful but uneasy allies or weaker but loyal friends? Loyal friends. Any day of the week. Like, how is that even a question???? What’s the point of spending your time with someone if you can’t trust them?
Would you rather disappoint someone by failing, or by not trying at all? Um…again, depends on the situation, but probably by failing? Because if you fail, you can always try and find another solution. There’s always another way to do something. But if you never try, nothing will happen at all.
What kind of person do you find worthy of respect? Good people. People who don’t hurt my friends or don’t hurt other people out of anything other than self-defense. Scientists, searching for the truth in an ethical way. People who don’t trap other creatures in other worlds and treat them like cattle or science experiments.
Navigation.
Name: Nikki
Age: 29
Contact: nikkernoodle @ plurk
Current characters: n/a
Character Information
Name: Newt Geiszler,
Series: Pacific Rim
Appearance: Schatzi, schenk mir ein Foto!
Age: 35 (37??? 38??? technically he’s had some bdays since but he hasn’t aged so)
Canon Point: Tail end of his drift with Hermann Gottlieb
Transferring From:
havenrpg and hadrielCanon History: Convenient Wiki Link!
Canon Personality: “[Marshal Pentecost and Sergeant Hansen] won’t give you the equipment [for your experiment] and even if they did...you’d kill yourself!” Doctor Hermann Gottlieb declares.
“Or I’d be a rockstar!” Doctor Newton Geiszler protests, and that, in a nutshell, defines the latter almost utterly. Brash, irresponsible, brilliant and reckless, Newt is 35-year-old man with the maturity of a 12-year-old and who dresses like a 25-year-old hipster. Whether it’s hooking himself up to a drift machine made out of garbage or running straight into the den of a drug lord in search of a new Kaiju brain, Newt rarely looks before he leaps. “Fortune favors the brave, dude!” says he, and, as cheesy as that statement sounds, means (and exemplifies) every word of it.
As one of the two remaining members of the Pan Pacific Defense Corp’s Kaiju Science department, Newt is a genius. No, but seriously. Despite all appearances to the contrary (the skinny jeans and even skinnier tie, the colorful Kaiju tattoos, the thick-rimmed glasses,) he is, in fact, a genius. Newt started teaching at MIT when he was twenty and received six doctorates before the age of twenty-five. What subjects these doctorates are in is a mystery, but it’s safe to say that they’ve had something to do especially with science and biology (and, possibly, since his family life was so steeped in it, music.) He shows an especial knack for DNA and is the one to recognize that the Kaiju, though they all look vastly different, genetically they are the same. He also theorizes that the Kaiju aren’t just acting on instinct; that their behavior doesn’t line up, and do defeat them, they need to be understood. He can identify parts of a Kaiju and what category they’re from on sight. He’s even able to tell that the defeated Kaiju corpse of Otachi is pregnant just from hearing a sound over a crackly walky-talky.
Newt also incredibly talented when it comes to electronics. He invented a machine that was specifically designed to draw the toxins out of Kaiju glands in order to classify them. He ended up calling this machine the “Milking Machine,” so perhaps he’s not so great in the ‘naming things’ department, but well. At least he invented the thing. This, however, doesn’t even come close to the fact that Newt built a drifting machine out of, as Hermann calls it, “garbage” and then uses it to drift with a piece of a Kaiju brain. Not only does the machine actually work the first time around, but it hooks Newt right up into the Kaiju Hivemind and, though it only gives him little glimpses, it’s enough to prove his hypothesis about there being another driving force behind the Kaiju. The machine is later used a SECOND time, with Newt and Hermann diving into the Kaiju psyche for longer this time and allowing them to subsequently help save the world from total destruction.
As it is, though, this genius seems to come with a price. Newt is not-so-great at socializing. He has many interactions with many different types of people in the movie, and every single one tells us several things about how Newt interacts with other human beings.
Newt has no filter; no concept of what is appropriate to say and when. When we are first introduced to him, we’re treated to a man who talks about the Kaiju not just in front of, but to Raleigh with great enthusiasm (Raleigh, who Newt has just been told is a Ranger, someone who risks their life fighting the Kaiju,) calling one of the Kaiju tattooed on his arms “2500 tons of Awesome.” After an awkward pause, Newt finally seems to realize he said something Not Quite Right, and it is amended to “…or awful, whatever you want to call it” about the same time that Hermann calls him a Kaiju Groupie as an explanation for his behavior. Despite this interaction, he never seems to fully grasp that he made a major social faux pas with that entire conversation, looking to Hermann in confusion once Marshal Pentecost and Mako escort Raleigh away.
Newt is a larger than life “borderline manic personality.” He is loud, direct, and not shy or bashful about who he is, what his field of study is, and what he believes. He wears his obsessions on his skin, rolling up his sleeves constantly to display the bright monsters permanently residing on his forearms. He makes no effort to hide them and even touts them, talking about them proudly when asked. He makes sure everyone knows who he is and completely refuses to apologize for it. Newt is smart: he knows it, everyone else knows it, and therefore he refuses to consider the idea that what he comes up with might be wrong. On the surface, this can be easily interpreted as arrogance. However, considering his background, there is more to it than that. Newt’s constant energy and enthusiasm is anything but normal, and, if his plan to drift with a bit of a Kaiju brain is any indication, his ideas are sometimes far out to left field. He’s probably used to having to defend every idea he has come up with from a very young age considering how early on he attended (and taught at) MIT. It would explain his constant push to get his idea about drifting with the Kaiju brain heard by Stacker Pentecost and Herc Hansen, pursuing his idea even after they’ve told him no, and going ahead and doing it anyway (not to mention risking his own life in the process.) He is so obsessed with being right that he is willing to put himself in harm’s way. He doesn’t take being right gracefully, either. Instead, the first thing he says to Pentecost after the drift is: “I told you it would work.”
This isn’t the only time we are treated to how immature Newt can be. It is the most visible when he’s with his colleague and lab partner, Dr. Hermann Gottlieb. Hermann is the left brain to Newt’s right; the order and numbers and logic to Newt’s riot of bright blue Kaiju parts and colorful tattoos. As such, they grate on each other almost constantly. They tear down each other’s work in front of Pentecost and Herc without a second thought, like two children in competition, trying to curry more favor than the other. “And here’s where I gotta chime in, because really, I wouldn’t want to go in there with that limited amount of data,” says Newt, in response to Hermann’s explanation about the Breach. “Newton, don’t embarrass yourself,” retorts Hermann.
They literally fight like cats and dogs. Newt mocks Hermann openly and in front of others (“Hermann, these are human beings. Why don’t you say hello,”) laughs at him when he’s speaking seriously, and even makes a ‘blah blah blah’ hand motion behind his back. He is completely disrespectful of Hermann’s space, tossing Kaiju parts carelessly and making a mess. However, whatever Newt throws at Hermann, he gets back in equal measure. The two are seemingly constantly at odds, picking and tearing at each other with a verbal viciousness. When he’s with Hermann, Newt is at his most cruel, and it shows in every single scene they’re with each other.
Yet somehow, they work side-by-side in a tiny laboratory divided straight down the middle. The Shatterdome is a humungous place that used to house, as Pentecost informs Raleigh, somewhere around 30 Jaegers. Now it has 4. If the work situation is as horrible as Hermann’s many complaints filed makes it out to be, it should be easy enough to find another spot for one of them to work in. Thus it leads us to a more interesting conclusion: their outwardly tumultuous and often vicious relationship actually works to make them better scientists.
Both Newt and Hermann are geniuses. Where Newt has six doctorates and pioneered research in tissue replication, Hermann wrote the original code for the Jaegers and was the one to pinpoint the location of the Breach. It’s fairly safe to say that they’re pretty comparable to each other in the intelligence department. Instead of one leaving the other to their respective fields, they instead seem to poke and prod at each other’s theories and ideas, creating holes that a normal person might miss. This means that neither of them have any room for error or sloppiness in their work, as their lab partner is sure to go straight for whatever weakness they present and tear it apart. For many people, such a thing might be defeating after a while, but it seems like, for Hermann and Newt, this sort of thing really works to push them farther and to press the boundaries of what they know (and Newt seems more than happy to poke holes in the theory that Hermann presents to Pentecost and Herc.) Thus, proving to Hermann that he is right and that his work has validity is, when combined with Newt’s borderline mania, a driving force behind many of his actions, even if just subtly and secondary.
Here’s the really interesting part: Newt and Hermann are drift compatible. Travis Beacham, the writer of the original script, tells us that it is impossible for two people to drift without one very important element: trust. And not a casual “yeah okay I’ll trust you just this once,” but trust as a reflex. Implicit trust, as the brain wants to instinctively protect itself. How interesting is it, then, that they are able to drift together (and with a baby Kaiju along for the ride, but details) successfully when they should be each other’s worst enemy. Instead they open themselves up and hand over literally the worst ammunition against them: access into their mind, psyche and memories. Yet, it is done without hesitation. “You’d do that for me?” Newt asks. “…with me?” Together they take the leap into the void, and, in doing so, are able to save the world.
In a roundabout way, it is possible to call Newt’s actions brave. However, it is more of a “brave to suit one’s own needs,” rather than “brave for honor” in the sense of Raleigh or Mako. Yes, he does go running blindly into danger. Drifting with a Kaiju initially could have killed him, but he did it anyway. Heading straight into Hannibal Chau’s black market Kaiju den and putting himself face to face with the terrifying drug lord would have scared off most people, but Newt just shouts and raves and doesn’t leave Hannibal alone until he gives Newt what he wants. He then drifts with a Kaiju (with Hermann’s help) a second time, even after he was found seizing and hemorrhaging from his nose the first time around. However, this is all done in the pursuit of understanding the Kaiju. Saving people-nay, the world-is an afterthought. A happy side effect. When he’s scared, really scared, he becomes far more obviously self-centered, as is evidenced in his push to get down into the public shelter. “Make way, coming through, I’m a doctor,” Newt shouts, as he pushes past similarly terrified crowds. Not to mention when the baby Kaiju comes bursting out of Otachi’s corpse, Newt run/stumbles away, scrambling and finally curling into a fetal position. Newt is not fearless; it’s more a combination of sheer obsessive determination and his inability to judge social situations that allows him to continue to run headfirst into danger without a second thought.
To be honest, Newt isn’t the best guy. However, he isn’t anywhere near the worst. His heroics may be self-motivated, but at the end of the day he still does want to help, even if it is a secondary benefit. Despite his reverence for the creatures bringing about the Apocalypse, he is firmly on the side of good, running as fast as he can to learn and discover and create to save the world, always willing to try something new and throw caution to the wind (and often common sense along with it.) He may not be the best in social situations (perhaps a gross understatement,) but his genius and dogged persistence seems to get him through anyhow. At the end of the day he’s the guy that might drive you absolutely crazy, but there’s something charming in his madness, shining with a brilliance you can’t look away from and thus becoming what he’s always proclaimed he could be: a rockstar.
Personality Shifts: Newt went through a lot in Haven. Yes, okay, everyone went through a lot in Haven, but that’s hardly the point. Like any traumatic experience, his time there has had quite an effect on him. Though he is still Newt Geiszler at his core, and will forever be the brash, passionate, slightly socially inept, self-absorbed, genius pain in the ass that he is, he is now far more wary and cautious than he used to be, especially when it comes to large corporations and omnipotent people with god-like powers. Being under the thumb of the Yao Corporation and being a victim of their constant abuse and dehumanization has given him an extreme dislike of anyone that has far too much power over other people. Even if they are claiming to help, Newt remains incredibly suspicious, because even the rebel group that was supposed to be trying to take down the Yao Corporation had no trouble attacking the group of them being experimented on when it suited their purposes.
Thus, Newt also passes judgement far more quickly, now, not just on those trying to control his life, but also on the people around him. Being in a situation where he is constantly under threat of being killed or eaten has made it essential that Newt have people that he can trust to pull him out of the fire, and to make friends with these people very quickly. Thus, he makes snap first impressions of people that are very hard to change. For example, one of the first people to pull Newt’s butt out of the (literal) fire during his first couple weeks in Haven became Newt’s best friend in short order. Newt trusted Travis with his life, even after finding out that he was an assassin, and that even before coming to Haven, he had killed people. This was essentially Newt’s first experience with discovering a darker side to someone he felt very close to. Yet even though he and Travis didn’t speak to each other for couple weeks, Newt eventually forgave Travis for not telling him. Because at the end of the day, though the discovery that your best friend is a murderer is a little horrifying, really Newt was more mad about the fact that Travis hid it from him than the actual aforementioned fact. As a result of this and the continuing discoveries that people in his friends group were also supervillians, mercenaries and vampires, to name a few, Newt has become quick to dismiss and accept faults of these people because they helped him, and didn’t hurt anyone Newt didn’t consider as “bad.”
On the flip side of this, if someone who Newt is not close to kills someone, does something negative to him, or just makes what he views as a bad decision, they are immediately put on Newt’s shit list, and even starting to take steps to get off of it is a long, arduous process. For example, Newt started to get to know Cecil Palmer, who came from a canon where it was normal for a large omnipotent group to control a community. So naturally, on his arrival, Cecil joined up with the Yao Corporation. Newt found out about this and, considering it a betrayal, immediately put Cecil on his garbage list. Soon after, Cecil realized that Yao Corp wasn’t much of anything like the Night Vale City Council, but by then was trapped. It took several months of Cecil sneaking things behind the corporation’s back, including things like smuggled medicine to experiment on and such things, before Newt would even give him the time of day.
This even applies to people that he doesn’t know well, that are put under some sort of influence where they are not themselves and take actions that they normally wouldn’t. At one point, half the population of Haven was thrown into a labyrinth and heavily dosed with a gas that would make them much more aggressive and not themselves. As a result, Newt was killed by one of the people he was rooming with and he never forgave her for it, even though it was completely out of her control and he was being just as aggressive as she was.
Newt has also learned several survival skills. He now knows (thanks to Wade and Travis) how to throw a decently accurate punch that won’t break his hand. He’s self-taught on how to use a butterfly knife, and he can build a small generator out of salvaged parts practically with his eyes closed. Most importantly, he’s learned how to better ignore any emotional fears/doubts/problems he might have, and convince himself that everything is fine. He already sort of knew how to do this; anyone who is arrogant (whether founded or unfounded) does. But Newt has gotten exponentially better at it. As Joel from The Last of Us told him: “It’s not about knowing for sure. It’s about believing what you need to believe to keep going.” It’s a set of instructions that, for once, Newt has actually taken to heart. Haven was the kind of situation that was forever helpless. They had no control over their lives, and every time they took one step forward, it felt like they were shoved three steps back. Add to that all the aforementioned things that Newt went through, and it would take sheer ignorance to stay hopeful in such a situation. In Newt’s case, this is willful, self-imposed ignorance. He chooses not to think about how getting his lower jaw hacked off with a surgical saw affected him emotionally and mentally. He chooses to think even LESS about how he had to poison Hermann and felt him slowly die in his head through it; not just the psychological effects of THAT, but also the guilt that he pretends he doesn’t feel. He chooses not to think of how helpless he is. How, no matter how much he tried and struggled and fought and clawed tooth and nail to survive, they still couldn’t fight off Yao in the end. He forces himself not to think of his inability to protect Hermann from Kite; from Haven in general. Nor does he think about how easily Hermann has been taken away from him, time and time again, and Newt’s complete inability to find him. How terrifying it is to think that he could be removed at any moment, and Newt could do nothing about it. Instead, he tells himself that he’d rip apart the world, the stars, every universe across time and space until he found him again. He convinces himself that this is a thing that is possible. He convinces himself that, even in this helpless, hopeless situation, they can win. That if he can work hard enough, fast enough, long enough, they will go home. He clings to this ignorant hope like a sinking ship in the middle of the storm: it may be a false hope to believe he’ll reach land, but it’s the only hope he has.
Unfortunately, this is also a strategy he has imposed on others. Mainly Hermann. Though they have certainly fought about the hopelessness of their situation and Hermann has explicitly stated his fear and how he is terrified of losing Newt, Newt has still failed to really fully understand it and its origins. Partially because if he thinks about it too much, he’ll realize his own fear, and therefore patches it up using the same method he uses for himself: distraction. It’s a bandaid for the situation; it doesn’t solve Hermann’s feelings of helplessness, nor does it help him deal with it. It just tucks it away for a little while until, eventually, like everything else, it will spill over.
Basically, Haven has taught Newt how to physically and mentally deal with a hopeless situation through repression. It may not be a healthy way to live but it gets him through the day when others might have given up, and he is determined to drag those he cares about along with him, kicking and screaming, whether they like it or not.
Speaking of Hermann Gottlieb, I cannot talk about Newt’s time in Haven without devoting some paragraphs to him. When Newt and Hermann first arrived in Haven, both coming from the very end of their Drift, they were separated for three weeks. During this time, they would get the occasional impression of something that happened to the other person because the Drift is wonky and really not specifically defined at all in canon so…yeah. Anyway, when Newt finally gets back, the first thing they do (to both of their surprise) is hug it out, because there’s something comforting about the first familiar thing encountered in a strange, horrific, terrifying place like Haven. From there, things only became further entangled. Between meeting and talking at night after sharing nightmares from two floors apart, Newt hemorrhaging from his nose and feeling it when Hermann got badly electrocuted, Hermann trying to push them apart and failing, several events where they had to, more and more, confront some misconceptions they had about the other person felt about them, putting each other's needs above their own whether consciously or unconsciously, and spending most of their waking hours together (which, granted, they were doing even BEFORE coming to Haven, so that in-and-of-itself was not necessarily noteworthy,) they became much closer.
Newt doesn't even really fully realize how deep he's in until seven months later after he and Hermann nearly get killed by some visiting Yao Corp employees, after which he pretty much word vomits at Travis about it. His best friend then confirms exactly what Newt had been pondering over: that he is “really, really, really fuckin' gay for Hermann Gottlieb.” Unfortunately, before he can do anything about it, both he and Hermann are captured and tortured by Phillip Kite, who hacks off Newt's lower jaw with a surgical saw because Newt pissed him off, and attaches Hermann's lower half to that of a giant spider.
Yeah.
Basically Newt can't talk after waking up from that, jawless, and they end up communicating in morse code. Hermann taps out something, shaky, that Newt can't parse because it comes out so jumbled. Later, while slowly waiting for his jaw to grow back, he decodes it, and realizes that Hermann had similar feelings. From there, he confronts him about it and is originally rejected, but because Newt is far too stubborn for his own good, he pretty much digs his heels in and pushes and pushes until Hermann concedes. Unfortunately, that’s also when it’s revealed that Hermann has come down with a case of the Spiral Madness—that is, a thing in Haven where you become obsessed with spirals to the point of where you try and break your own body so that it becomes a spiral. Newt tries many things to try and cure Hermann, but ultimately it all fails, and he poisons Hermann after the other man breaks his own arm in order to make it bend properly into a spiral.
From there begins a back and forth of them being in each other’s company for a time, then one of them disappearing, then the other. It’s hard on Newt, with the longest period of Hermann being gone (approximately 3 months,) being the worst. He overworks himself to the point of exhaustion several times, worries his friends, and gets yelled at (and yells at other people) for it. Thus, when Hermann comes back and Newt is (understandably) emotional, Hermann then tries to break up with him. It’s at that point that Newt gets a bit of a realization about why Hermann does what he does, and it’s fear that motivates him. So he has that realization, but I wouldn’t say that he fully understands. Because honestly he’s scared, too. All the time. But he deals with it differently than Hermann. Instead of confronting it, he does that thing where he pretends that things are going to work out and buries it and ignores it. So, once again, Newt digs his heels in and persists and doesn’t let Hermann say no, insisting that they stay together until Hermann finally caves.
The fact of the matter is that, now, Newt is very dependent on Hermann for his own mental sanity. Hermann provides a grounding base and a moral center that leaves Newt on shaky footing when he’s not there. If Newt can’t feel Hermann in his head, he becomes even more snappish, isolating himself and becoming prone to overworking in order to keep from focusing on any thought that Hermann is gone and that he might not come back. He becomes more reckless, taking risks that are normally extreme even for him. Basically, Hermann is usually most of Newt’s impulse control and an anchor that keeps him grounded. Without him, Newt’s world is negatively effected. Which was exactly what Hermann was trying to avoid by pushing him away all those times. Oops.
And then they were whisked away to Hadriel, and ended up having an argument about this very thing the same day. After a screaming match in which Hermann challenged Newt’s attempt to deal with the fact that all of his friends were still stuck in Haven by turning to an unattainable platitude, and in return, Newt Fucked Up Royally by basically calling Hermann as heartless as his father, they went separate ways for a couple hours. Only a couple hours, though. After seeking Hermann out (and having the terrible thoughts that that Hermann wouldn’t want him or might’ve stopped loving him because of his massive fuck up) and apologizing, they managed to come to an uneasy truce with an acknowledgement that their current codependency wasn’t sustainable, and agreed to reconvene in a week to discuss it and try and suss out a solution. In the mean time, they remained together.
Unfortunately, such a meeting never happened. Between an appearance of Silent Hill, dragons, zombies and other events, they never actually got the chance to sit down and talk. Not until four months later during an event where everyone’s various powers went utterly haywire, and Hermann ended up getting very badly hurt, and the two of them separated. They finally managed to find each other and retreated to their lab that they’d set up (with plenty of help,) to basically hide out there until the madness settled down. Once finally back at the lab, Newt ended up snapping at Hermann to just let Newt take care of him, because it was all Newt could do. He couldn’t keep Hermann safe; he was useless, and this little was the only way he could help, so Hermann had to let him do it. Hermann, after such an outburst, acquiesced. Newt realized, quickly, that it was not the solution he’d hoped for; instead of assuaging his guilt about not being able to protect Hermann, it only made it worse when he realized that the request was selfishly only helping him and wasn’t doing anything for Hermann. After asking what Hermann needed—really needed—they finally sat down and had the talk that they had meant to have months ago.
What came about from that was the confirmation that, well…Newt is essentially being willfully delusional; clinging and living and believing in the idea that no matter how hopeless or helpless the situation, if he and Hermann are separated, he can and will find a way to reunite them. And he won’t stop until he achieves it, no matter what he has to do (“I…I will tear apart universes to find you.”) Because at this point, Newt’s died enough times and seen other people die and come back to life that he’s concluded that, well, death is a construct. And not one that’s permanent. He’d like to avoid it as much as possible because it also hurts and is pretty traumatizing, but it’s not the End like it is in their original world. In both Haven and Hadriel, people came back to life after they died, resurrected. So there’s nothing stopping him from finding a way back to Hermann, or to bring Hermann to him, even if he has to search for a long time. It’s not like he’s aging, anyway. He’s a genius. He’ll find a way. Which…it’s insane. And Hermann told him so. However, when challenged by Newt, Hermann also admitted that he would not be able to move on from Newt either. That if they were separated, he, too, would spend his time looking for Newt and finding a way to bring them together again instead of moving on. Newt, in turn, was not only relieved by this, but happy. Hermann wouldn’t leave him of his own volition. Not ever. And he recognized, to himself, that that thought process was both seriously fucked up and selfish (especially with how devastated Hermann seemed by the realization and culmination of the thing he had been trying to avoid for so long coming to pass,) but at the same time, could not bring himself to regret it for a moment, because the one thing that scared him the most was no longer a possibility. They may be separated, but it wouldn’t be because Hermann wanted to leave him. Anything else, even Death, even Space and Time, was (and is) surmountable.
Abilities: Newt is ridiculously smart. In fact, it's safe to call him a genius. He can create complex machines out of garbage, has a vast knowledge of many forms of biology, chemistry, mathematics and has an obsessive personality that can keep him on the trail of a problem for years and years. From his stint in Haven, he has also gained the ability to physically dodge things fairly well, as well as developed something of a hyper-vigilance problem, causing him to having a constant awareness of his surroundings. I wouldn't say that he's a trained fighter by any standards, but he does know enough now to throw a good and accurate punch. He can also wield a butterfly knife not exactly well, but with enough familiarity that he's not going to stab himself with it if forced to use it. At this point he could build a basic generator from garbage spare parts and very little tools practically in his sleep, can figure out how to use practically anything within reach as a weapon (though he may not wield such a thing well,) and has the art of food and water rationing down to a science.
Inventory: Newt will have on him a backpack full of Things. He pretty much carried this around with him in Hadriel (it originally came from Haven and then a couple more items were added once in Hadriel) at all times and kept it close. The Things amount to: a toolbox, a coil of wire, various main essential parts for building a small generator (uses a crank to generate power,) a tablet from Tony Stark, about ten cans of a spam-like substance, five cans of mixed veggies, a chocolate bar and a flashlight. Tucked in the pockets of his leather jacket he has his a butterfly knife, an origami newt, a pair of glasses, a piece of chalk about the size of his pinky and a cell phone. Lastly, he’s clipped a beam katana onto his belt.
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Q&A: What’s more important: love or duty? Oh, love, definitely. Like, duty’s important and all that; if you've got shit to do, you'd better get that shit done, but it can also make you feel like you're morally obligated to do something that you don't agree or believe in. I mean, I guess love can do that also, but I feel like it has more freedom of choice than duty. Plus duty kind has the same effect as rules, and I'm really not a big fan of those. Also it sounds super military, and I’m not a huge fan of that either.
Do you have a personal code you follow? Why or why not? Kiiiiiind of?????? I mean, I’ve got a couple core tenants of Shit That Is Not Right, but I mostly trust myself not to do anything that I morally wouldn’t agree with. So maybe the answer is ‘no?’ I mean, other than that. I dunno, it’s not really something I’ve thought about. I mean, what is a personal code, exactly? Is it a moral code? Is it some sort of other code? Again, that’s sounding like rules, and I’m not into those.
Do you get along better with emotional people, logical people, or those somewhere in-between? All of the above??? Kinda??? I mean, again, it depends on the person and the subject we’re talking about. Like, if we’re talking about science, I’d rather hang out with logical people because science is science is science. If your reasoning for blasting on someone’s sexuality or gender is “because I don’t feel it’s right” or “my religion said that this is wrong,” then I’d rather someone logical in that situation, because science is logical and science says that those people can go fuck themselves. But if we’re like, talking about how it’d be more logical in a survival situation to kill someone off so the rest can live, then fuck that too. In that case I’d rather be hanging with a more emotional person who knows that shit is wrong. So maybe those somewhere in-between? I dunno, that’s not really something I think about when I’m meeting people.
What is your greatest ambition? It used to be figuring out the kaiju. Then it was getting home. Now, I just want to find a way to find Hermann and find a way around being separated when we go to new worlds. That’s it.
What would you rather have: powerful but uneasy allies or weaker but loyal friends? Loyal friends. Any day of the week. Like, how is that even a question???? What’s the point of spending your time with someone if you can’t trust them?
Would you rather disappoint someone by failing, or by not trying at all? Um…again, depends on the situation, but probably by failing? Because if you fail, you can always try and find another solution. There’s always another way to do something. But if you never try, nothing will happen at all.
What kind of person do you find worthy of respect? Good people. People who don’t hurt my friends or don’t hurt other people out of anything other than self-defense. Scientists, searching for the truth in an ethical way. People who don’t trap other creatures in other worlds and treat them like cattle or science experiments.
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