oo1 ( dictation / action )

[littlebityeah]

Shit -- sh -- hey -- Hermann? Hermann!

[ There's the sound of panic and stumbling as Newt nearly trips over a chair and runs into the desk, knocking over a -- what is that, a journal? ]

Wh--heh--hahahaha--

[ Excuse him while he just laughs semi-deliriously; the sudden change in scenery is so crazy that he's considering that maybe he's just gone crazy. The journal drops to the desk and Newt turns away. ]

Did--did -- oh, no, nonono -- Hermann! Hermann, I-I-I'm--I'm stuck in--in what I'm guessing must be your -- alarmingly swanky memory, what -- what do the Rangers do? [ That could be the sound of him smacking himself in the head. ] Focus!

Comments

[i_got_this]

And then some. Year and a half, actually. Oh, and it's you're lucky day, there's two bars. I'll be at the Death Match on the second floor. Cliff-notes; pocket dimension run by a sadistic castle, you lost something, death isn't permanent, you can't go home, aaaaaand ... kitchen's on the first floor.

[littlebityeah]

[ Whoa whoa whoa, even the cliff notes is a lot. Pocket dimension, okay, those aren't impossible. Sadistic castle, that's just weird. And the other three... what the hell. In fact, he's going to venture right on out of the room, now, and look for that second floor. ]

Okay, first -- sadistic castle.

[i_got_this]

Okay so ... it's sorta kinda sentient and feeds off of our emotions. It's all nice and wonderful now, but periodically it does shit to stir things up and get a reaction out of us. Sometimes it changes environments altogether. Like, once we woke up to find ourselves camping at a giant family reunion and we all thought we were related to one another. Then one time we were in Tokyo in the fucking 1980's.

[That's like, ancient history to her.]

[littlebityeah]

[ Newt is willing to believe a lot these days, with aliens grown by other aliens attacking his planet through an inter-dimensional breach, so he weighs the craziness of that explanation as he walks out and... oh. This is the second floor. ]

... Jesus. But--how do you know it's the castle, or--or even the planet, and not someone - or a lot of someones - running the show? Also I'm like -- right outside. The... fight club. [ What the hell is this place. ]

[i_got_this]

I don't. I haven't seen any evidence of there being any like, someones doing shit, plus it's just ... I dunno. The castle like, it'll heal itself, you know? And there's ghosts wandering around and shit.

Ah, fuck it. I'll wait 'till you get here. Yeah, it's the Death Match and I'm the hot blonde at the bar.

[littlebityeah]

[ Hot blonde. Great. He turns over all that information in his mind - reluctantly forcing the urgent info about the breach to the back burner - and goes inside, closing the journal and tucking it under his chin like a nervous highschooler. Scanning, scanning -- hot blonde. He edges over, half distracted by looking around the place. How freaking settled are these people?! ]

Yyyyyyyou?

[i_got_this]

[South's pretty settled, in fact at this point she's become a fixture in the bar. She has her favorite drink, her favorite stool, and she's intimate friends with the bartender. She's also hot in the sense that she's got natural beauty and dresses to her advantage, but she's also sporting serious muscle definition and scar over her left cheek.]

[She glances over at Newt's introduction, then jerks her head to the chair next to her.] Yeah, I'm me. 100% grade A bonified South Dakota Freelancer. So I gotta question or two before we get started; who the hell are you, and ... [She pauses, looking him over, and makes a face,] and why do you look like shit?

[littlebityeah]

[ He tennnntatively sits - oh god, he hasn't sat down since that first Drift, his legs are so woobly - and keeps his eyes on her, definitely not even thinking about how he looks until she points it out. Then he looks down, and wow, that is a lot of blood and dirt and even some kaiju gunk. He doesn't even want to think about how his face looks. ]

Oh--oh, jeez, yeah, you might say 'rough day at the office'? But that's like, grossly understating. I'm supposed to be saving the world right now, actually, so this is a real kink in my day. A-and, uh, it's Newt. [ H-HANDSHAKE? ]

[i_got_this]

[She hesitates on the handshake, but eventually reciprocates with a firm grip.] Well, Newt, you can relax because your world's on hold until this place decides to send you back.

[A little smirk as she goes back to her drink.] I was busy saving the universe. [GROSS EXAGGERATION BY MILLIONS OF POINTS.] So, what were you fighting?

[littlebityeah]

[ His eyebrows shoot up at that - ow - and he tucks it away for later. ] Doctor. Newt. Newton Geiszler. But -- call me Newt.

[ He shakes his head as if to clear it and flattens his hand against the bar, then -- oh, starts shrugging off his gross, bloody, dirty, fetal-kaiju-goopy jacket. ] Does the word kaiju mean anything to you?

[i_got_this]

Newt. Right. Call me South.

[She frowns at the word. It's not ringing any bells.] No. Should it?

[littlebityeah]

Yyyyyes -- in my opinion, yes, but you know, that's okay! I just met a dude from fifteenth-century Italy, so discrepancy is -- totally expected.

Uh -- kaiju. [ He just drops the jacket over the back of the empty chair beside him and pushes up his sleeves, not even thinking about his tattoos this time. Commence gesturing. Can you tell he used to be a teacher? ] The name is borrowed from the Japanese term for monsters like Godzilla and Mothra, but these guys are like -- the real deal. Huge monsters that started coming out of an interdimensional - or interplanetary, but I'm not even gonna get into that - a-a-a rift in the Pacific ocean twelve years ago. [ Twelve? For some reason he's unsure. Weird. ] They came to -- I didn't know this until like, literally five hours ago, but they came to clear out the Earth to make way for new inhabitants. Alien inhabitants. And--and I was just about to stop the people responsible for saving the world from making a huge mistake, but -- [ WIDE GESTURE AT THEIR LOCATION. Great, right? Right??? ] Here I am! So-ho I guess we're screwed!

[i_got_this]

[South pulls back slightly in irritation, wow this guy was emphatic. But, aliens she can emphasize with, and she tries to work out some of the details.]

Dude, you're talking science fiction according to my universe. Aliens showed up way long before that. [Considering she's thinking twelve year's from her time. She leans forward and taps fingers on the bar as she illustrates her own bullet points.] I mean, they took Harvest all the way back in 2525, they haven't even touched Earth yet -- or, wait, no wait they did, but that's after my time ...

[She sits back in her chair and picks up her beer.] Point is, time stands still while we're here, and not everyone from your world comes in from the same time.

[littlebityeah]

Ahhh -- hold up. [ Wow. He shakes his head, gets himself on track. Okay. ] One -- 2525 is like, five hundred years in my future. Two -- what? So--so this is a pocket dimension that is also somehow outside time?

[i_got_this]

[She looks at him blankly for a moment.] What the fuck was so special about the twentieth century? God there's a lot of you running around.

[Yeah so a big part of her liked to play the space faring supermarine from the future, but it'd be nice to run into a parallel more on course with what she's used to.] Yeah, yeah, pocket dimension apart from time.

[littlebityeah]

Twenty-first. [ He can't not correct her. ] And that is... simultaneously great and terrible news.

[i_got_this]

Whatever. It was a long time ago.

Yeah, that's usually how it goes. Then you'll find out for sure when someone from your personal future shows up and tells you how it's all gone to shit.

[She leans against the bar and sulks for a moment. Gone to shit was exactly what had happened with her project.]

[littlebityeah]

[ Oh god. Yes. Great. Newt takes off his cracked glasses and gives his eyes a hard rub -- ow. ]

But if time doesn't change -- it'll be like I didn't disappear, right? So they won't necessarily go and--and blow the operation because I couldn't warn them in time -- right?

[i_got_this]

Yup. Going theory is when this place gets sick of you, you go right back to that exact moment like nothing ever happened, no memories of whatever happened here. [She's putting a lovely spin on it but she's scowling, opinion colored by her own experiences and recent losses.]

[She hesitates in telling him this next part, because while it's certainly important and useful information, it's something she's been through personally and doesn't like remembering. Her body language is pretty clear about this, the way she's picking at the label on her beer and avoiding looking at anyone.] There'll be times too that you, ah, go home, but only momentarily? So you'll pop back - no memories of this place - go do your shit like normal for a month or year or so, and then wake up back here like you'd never left here either.

[littlebityeah]

[ That is... a lot to take in! But showing up here hasn't doomed the world. Yet. That's something, at least.

[ He runs his hands back through his dirty hair. ] I--I can't even tell if I'm relieved at this point. Oh man.

[i_got_this]

[South claps her hand on his back encouraging, then looks at it with mild disgust because, ew, just what has he been into?]

Yeah, you're still new so, let it sink in and just enjoy it. It'll flip out soon enough and then you won't have time to worry about anything else.

[Nonchalantly taking a drink of her beer.]

[littlebityeah]

[ Ow. Wow, okay, he's sore. Prompted by the beer, he looks around for someone he can get some damn water from. ] Flip out, like--like the things you mentioned earlier?

[i_got_this]

[Yeah sorry, it comes with being an elite soldier who specializes in heavy hitting.]

You got it. Sometimes it effects the whole castle, sometimes just a single person. Sometimes it's not so bad, but then other times ...

[She just gives a bitter chuckle and then takes a drink from her beer.]

So, aliens. Like Godzilla, you said?

[littlebityeah]

[ Yeah, that's totally not ominous at all. Newt finally flags down a glass of water and chugs it. Sweet hydration! ]

G--uhh. Similar in idea. And in city-smashing. They don't actually look like Godzilla but -- well, they look like a lot of things, but in general -- oh. [ Oh, duh. Newt doinks his own foreheaaaow there's a cut there, and turns a little, yanking his sleeves up again to show South his tattoos. Mostly Yamarashi because what the fuck are the other ones named come on continuity. ] Just two of many right here.

[i_got_this]

[South looks over at the tattoos. It's nice inkwork and she can appreciate it for that, but ... isn't that like getting a tat of a Covvie Destroyer? She raises her brows at him.]

You got them tattooed?