[open]

[ghostlocked]

Who: Harlan Halliday, Newt Geiszler, and whoever else
What: Catch-all log for post-Deserted reunions/September
Where: All around town
When: In the days following the Deserted event/whenever in September
Warnings: Probably some mentions of suicide/self harm in some threads. I'll cw tags accordingly.

I'll be doing closed starters for some folks I've plotted with ahead of time, but if anyone wants to hit up Harlan or Newt (either to check up on them after Deserted or just in general), go for it! I've put up individual headers for them.

Comments

NEWT

[completelycrazy]

closed to hayden

[completelycrazy]

[Seems like the town is back to normal. Cool. So it was an event, it seems. Dick move, gods.

Newt would super love his salamander back, though. Semiyon had Beep Beep, so she's back in her cage, safe and sound, but Chimney is nowhere to be found... And Newt has a suspicion as to his whereabouts. Problem is, finding Hayden requires monster hunting skills way beyond his ability. Here's hoping he'll answer his phone.]

Hey, kid! It's Newt. Did you take my—uh, Chimney? Do you know where he's at?

[demonsional]

[Hayden screams when his phone rings. Newt doesn't get to hear that part, but I feel like it's important enough to note. Fumbling, he manages to catch the call in time after first running in a panicked and confused circle, and then takes a deep breath.]

I have the package!

[completelycrazy]

[Newt tilts his head away from the phone as Hayden is suddenly screaming at full volume. Great!]

Wait, really?

[He... somehow didn't expect it to be this easy, but he's glad that it is.

...Well.]

You're talking about the salamander, right?

[JUST CHECKING.]

Where are you?

[demonsional]

I'm talking about...

[The sentence stops. There's a moment of dead air, and it's hard to say if he got confused or just distracted and forgot what they were talking about. Or maybe both?]

Where are you?

[Just parroting the question right back at ya, Newt.]

I will come to where that is!

[completelycrazy]

Uh, I'm at the lab. You know where that is?

[A beat.]

How are you carrying him around? You're not using your hands, right?

[Oh god.]

[demonsional]

Yes!

[It's where he watched you sleeping, after all. But, let's not talk about that, haha. The call drops, and without warning Hayden appears in midair, falling down onto the nearest workspace and, uh, hopefully not breaking anything. He has the salamander traveling case cradled in his arms, and he's wearing the heat-resistant gloves.]

Sometimes I learn when a thing causes me suffering!

closed to semiyon

[completelycrazy]

[Newt doesn't immediately realize that the town is back to normal. He's been trying to shut everything out, to ignore just how bad the situation is or might be in the future, which means he's been pouring himself into his research down at the lab. It's annoying, having to work without electricity, but that makes it all the more interesting of a challenge. He's also basically been living in the lab, so it's not until early afternoon that he heads back to the house to feed the monsters.

When he walks in, it's pretty clear that he's not expecting anyone, least of all Semiyon, to be there. He's wearing a ratty t-shirt that he's definitely been wearing for days, and he's let his hygiene fall to the wayside. Hope you like some intense stubble, Semiyon.

He shrieks when he finds Semiyon going about his business in the kitchen, and then stops short like he's just been caught sneaking out of his room after bedtime.]

Oh, uh... You're back, huh?

[bespectacledsnake]

[It's about the reaction he should have expected from Newton Gieszler: high pitched and ineloquent. Though it is actually a relief to see him, Semiyon can't resist the opportunity to tease Newt.

He raises a single brow, shooting an intrigued look Newt's way as he leans back against the counter]

I see you've enjoyed my absence.

[completelycrazy]

What?

[He looks down at himself, like he's noticing for the first time just what a hot mess he is. Oops.]

I mean, not really? That was scary as hell, dude. I got stuck with a couple weirdos I'd never met before. From the guard, I think.

[Sorry, Cecily and Kain. Newt thinks most people are weirdos, to be fair.]

[bespectacledsnake]

[Semiyon, who had been making coffee before Newt came in, reaches behind him to take his mug off the counter and drinks slowly as he listens to Newt's ordeal.]

I was fortunate that one of the young women I found myself alone with I knew from before. The other I had not met but she was not difficult to get along with.

[A pause for another sip before he decides to relent and for once admit to an authentic feeling around his housemate]

I am glad you are back, Newton.

[completelycrazy]

Man, you lucked out. Anyone I know?

[Probably not, but he's gotta ask, if only to make awkward small talk to avoid actual feelings. But then Semiyon has to get all real with him anyway. Ugh. He should've booted this guy to the curb months ago.

Wait, has it been months? Uh.]

Yeah, uh, same to you, dude.

[He drops the bucket of fish was carrying (right in the middle of the living room because that's a good place for a bucket of fish) and heads into the kitchen. He reaches past Semiyon to grab a mug and help himself to that fresh coffee. Thanks, roomie.]

It was too quiet around here.

[bespectacledsnake]

[Semiyon moves a little to allow him easier access to the coffee (and to get himself out of elbow range...srsly, Newton, your manners tho....).]

It was very dull without your... [insert general vague gesture attempting to encapsulate the whole of the chaos and curiosity that comes with Newt's very existence here] ....around the house.

Also one of the salamanders went missing....

in the lab;

[hasitsthorns]

[ She comes out of nowhere, the sneakiest wolf yokai there ever was with a: ]

What'cha doing?

[ from right over his shoulder.

Actually, he just wasn't paying attention and she's enough of a little shit that she couldn't resist the opportunity to try and spook him. It's been a few months too so, like. Sue her. Maybe she actually missed him. He might not be her Newt but he's a Newt and he definitely livens things up a little. ]

[completelycrazy]

[When Newt is working, he gets into a zone. Tunnel vision is putting it lightly. Back at his own lab in Hong Kong, if Hermann was being especially irritating, Newt would just put his earbuds in and the world beyond his dissection table all but disappeared. It was heaven.

He doesn't have earbuds here, so Rosie's sudden voice puncturing the quiet lab right next to his ear... He yelps, jumping so hard that he nearly falls out of his chair.]

Oh my god! Don't scare me like that! Jeez!

[He yanks off his glasses and starts to clean them on his shirt, like a cat aggressively grooming itself in embarrassment after it biffs a jump. Oh, shoot, his hands are all covered in old blood and he forgot... Eugh. He yanks a towel off of the table and uses that to clean himself up.]

I could've been holding a scalpel, you know. You could've made me ruin this specimen.

[He's being a sassafras, but that's largely the adrenaline talking. He's not that mad.

Now that Rosie is able to get a closer look at what Newt's working on, she'll see that he has a songbird delicately cut open on his desk. It's a jabberjay, and he seems to be digging around in its neck. There's a haphazard stack of notes piled next to it. He's been drawing anatomical diagrams as he goes.

There's a big scribble across the top page—a byproduct of her spooking him.]

[hasitsthorns]

[ Some things never change. It's almost a comfort that any iteration of him would still be jumpy. ]

Sorry, dude, [ she says, about the specimen. She really wouldn't have wanted him to ruin it even if she isn't actually that sorry. The blond inspects the bird now. The diagrams. It brings back memories of House 1, watching Newt work his manic magic when he couldn't sleep.

If it wasn't the quiet hours of the early morning, it was when things were actually good. They sang Passenger songs at the top of their lungs and roped Jesse or Hiruma into it. She misses those days. She misses them. ]

Still hard at work as ever, huh? What're you tearing this little guy apart for. Just to figure it out?

[ She's interested in The Science even if it isn't her strong suit. ]

[completelycrazy]

[Newt is quick to move on, at least. Especially since she's asked about what he's working on.]

Yeah. Cashmere showed me where these guys have been nesting. They're awesome creatures, you know? They can perfectly mimic human voices. Like, any sound, probably. It's wild. I want to get a look at its syrinx.

[The delicate touch required to work on a songbird is a bit beyond him, so he's taking extra precautions to not screw this one up. It's a nice break from the bulkier monsters, if tedious.]

And before you ask, I didn't kill it. I found it like this. There aren't many left in town and they don't seem to be aggressive. Territorial, maybe, but that's not the same thing.

[hasitsthorns]

That sounds creepy as fuck.

[ Don't wendigos do the same thing? Eugh, those gangly looking creatures always gave her the creeps. ]

I wouldn't care if you had killed it, really. It's the circle of life and all that jazz. Or, like, I don't know. In this case, I suppose science requires sacrifice. Something profound like that.

[completelycrazy]

[He frowns, the wind a little knocked out of him at her response. He's used to it, but it's still annoying. Why can't more people share his awe of all things natural? It's wrong that he's the only person who seems to appreciate these things sometimes.]

Creepy, sure, but it's so much more than that. Cash said her government genetically engineered these guys. Do you have any idea how advanced the bioengineering field must be where she's from? Something like this...

[He huffs out a breath, momentarily speechless.

Momentarily. And then he's off, waving his arms around and directing her attention to the bird splayed out on the table as he goes on.]

Could science pull something like this off where I'm from? Theoretically, maybe? I could revisit my methods for artificial tissue replication and what I've learned about cloning on a mass scale from the Kaiju... But even then, I'd have to—work like this? We're talking not only rewriting DNA, but rewriting it from scratch. This isn't taking a thing that exists and putting it somewhere else. This is designing a new thing to put into an existing thing, which is already impossible, and then pulling it off so seamlessly that the result can thrive independently. So much so that it's apparently integrated itself into the natural environment and started to mate with existing bird populations!

[He splays out his hands. How is this not incredible to anyone but him? He doesn't get it.]

This bird? This unassuming, "creepy" little bird is a genetic masterpiece. And there's only a handful left in town, and they can't breed. You should care if I'd killed it.

A few days post reunion / LAB

[bespectacledsnake]

[Semiyon has never been to the lab before. He knows where it is. He knows it's where Newt goes most of the time. But he's never had the interest. Something about dissections and internal organs doesn't exactly grab his interest. Particularly not after what he finds in the fridge a lot of the time.

But he's bored and feels like entertaining himself with a visit to his housemate, so he turns up, sticking out like a sore thumb in his tailored overcoat and collared shirt, and even moreso for the fact that he's carrying a large bucket on his arm far too casually as though it is a normal thing for elderly, well-dressed men to do.]

So. [He saunters up beside Newt when he spots him working] This is where you work.

[And yes. Beep-beep is chillin in the bucket]

[completelycrazy]

[Of all the people to suddenly turn up in the lab, Semiyon is perhaps the least expected. He harps on Newt for his work enough at home, and though Newt knows he's just teasing, Newt also knows that he's not, not entirely. It's gross work, this monster-studying business. Semiyon never struck Newt as a man who liked to get his hands dirty.

So color Newt incredibly surprised when Semiyon is suddenly standing next to his desk, bucket in tow.]

Oh, uh, hey. Yeah. This is where I work.

[He reclines in his chair to spread out his arms like the sight before Semiyon is impressive. It's not. It looks about the same as Newt's side of the dining room table (and then some) at home, all piled with various notes and sketches and small cage prototype parts. If Semiyon was wondering where the house's collection of coffee mugs has been slowly escaping to, he has found their migratory home on Newt's desk.]

What's in the bucket? You bring me lunch or something?

[He could eat. He sits up to peer into the—oh my god.]

What are you doing! Why'd you bring Be—why is the salamander here?

[bespectacledsnake]

[Semiyon simply arches one eyebrow and takes a calm glance between Newt and the salamander hanging out in the bucket.]

I am taking her for a walk around.

[How is this not obvious?]

[completelycrazy]

[...]

Why?

[bespectacledsnake]

It is what I did when you had disappeared. I did not want to leave the house only to come back and find her disappeared as well so...

[He gestures to the bucket]

...this was my solution. And I became fond of it. It gives me something to do.

[A shrug. Yes, he does realize it is out of the norm and serves no real purpose, but enjoys it.]

So. I thought today we would see where it is you work.

[completelycrazy]

[Newt peeks into the bucket again. Beep Beep does seem awfully chill all tucked in there like she is. It's a good size for her, and although Newt would be wary of the open top, it's a decent makeshift travel container.

Especially if you're going out for a freaking stroll around town like Semiyon apparently is. What???]

Uh... Cool? Cool.

[He's not sure what else to say to that.]

I mean, hey, if it gets you out of the house, and all... And she just hangs out in there like that? She doesn't try to escape?