[video] pull point plot - aged-down Newt & Hermann

[driftsintobuffetline]

[His hair still looks like he's just woken up from being passed out on someone else's sofa, but it's shorter, spikier. Instead of his usual perpetual five-o'clock-shadow, Newt now sports a beard with mustache, scruffy, not terribly well-groomed, like he's a college student. This younger version of Newton Geiszler is anywhere from 5-10 years younger by appearances. He's in better shape--if only because a body in its mid-twenties deals with a poor diet of too much caffeine and sugar differently than a body in its mid-thirties--and though his tattoo sleeves are complete, most of the rest of his tattoos have not yet even been conceived.

He holds the phone. Judging from the slight wobble of the camera, his foot is probably jiggling off screen, tapping with uncontained energy. Behind him are chalk-board walls with the remnants of what had once been a drawing/erasing war.]

Hey, so whoever did the rooming assignments? ...Can suck it. Anyone out there looking for a place to stay? --Because I'm about to kick out my roommate and so I've got an extra bedroom--

[The butt of a cane comes into view suddenly, cutting across the feed like it's capable of physically cancelling out the offer. A familiar British growl is audible moments before a much younger-looking Hermann Gottlieb (or is it Miles?) edges into view]

You most certainly do not. Obviously this apartment has been modified to my own specifications. Therefore, if either of us is getting kicked out, it's going to be you.

[He reclaims his cane and stands straighter, sniffing] Best of luck finding anyone else to put up with your awful habits.

Your speci- Just because there's obnoxiously dusty walls doesn't mean you get to call dibs. We've already established: that was MY handwriting.

[With a flip of the wrist, Newt raises his hand at Hermann but does not look at him. Talk to the hand. Then, to the camera:] So please forward any and all applications to Newt Geiszler-- [Pause, then with exaggerated saccharine and a mocking expression:] Hermann, be a dear and go find out what address we're at, hmmmm?

Sod off.

[Hermann looks at the camera, does a double-take and jerks back] You're recording this drivel? Unbelievable-

[He leans in, abruptly snatching the device] I am absolutely not going anywhere.

Like hell I'm living with yo-WHAT THE!!! [The feed ends.]

Comments

audio;

[matadorable]

It's me, Manolo. [He's heard of the Porter wiping people's memories, but this is just too much. He swallows hard.] What do you last remember?

audio until otherwise noted

[driftsintobuffetline]

Uh... Lunch.

...Why, what do you THINK I should remember?

[matadorable]

...I don't know. The last 6 months maybe?

[driftsintobuffetline]

Oh! You mean that time BEFORE I knew what a complete asswipe Hermann is?

I WISH I could FORGET it!

[matadorable]

[That makes Manolo cringe a little. Yikes.]

Um, more like after you realized he wasn't? You two have been living together pretty much as long as I've known you.

[driftsintobuffetline]

Yeah, okay, like I would willingly room with THAT guy.

...Look, I don't know how my writing got on the walls before all this, but let me assure you, you couldn't PAY me to spend another MINUTE breathing the same air as Hermann Gottlieb--If I could cut him out of my brain and forget him? I would.

[And he just means the memory of Hermann, actually. He's not even referencing the Drift.]

[matadorable]

...You don't mean that. [A pause.] You might mean it, I guess. Now, anyway. But Older You disagrees. That's who moved in with Hermann Gottlieb, not Now You.

[This is such a trainwreck.]

Listen, do you need to stay some place else for awhile?

[driftsintobuffetline]

[...what the fuck, Manolo, is all that? Older him?
...You mean they become friends again? Don't get this nerd's hopes up. They can't afford that so soon after the whole meeting debacle.]

Well, Now Me is the Me that's here, okay. And Now Me thinks rooming with Hermann is a shitty idea and fuck Future Me for having that revelation because Current Me is currently stuck with a bastard who won't get the fuck out.

And HERMANN is leaving, okay? Not me. I'm not going to let him win.

[matadorable]

Come on, you two have a cat together. [Plus he's pretty sure that apartment was originally Hermann's......]

This isn't a contest, okay? It is simply...a temporary thing. While we figure out what to do. You also share a lab together, do you know that?

[driftsintobuffetline]

A-a cat? You make it sound like we have a kid together, dude. [Ironically, it's always been THEIR apartment, iirc, as they moved to De Chima together and didn't want to waste having two separate ones, and Newt painted the walls expressly for Hermann because he's been doing that as kind of a way to make nice/hang out since they arrived.]

Who would put the two of us together in a lab? That sounds like the worst possible thing. I'm through with trying to be professional with this guy, let alone domestic with him.

[matadorable]

She kind of is? I mean, you two love that cat, and I've taken care of her for you guys before. [Is she going to be okay with these two knuckleheads fighting every second of the day now? DOES HE NEED TO RESCUE THE CAT?]

You two do beautiful work together. I don't know why that's so difficult to believe.

[driftsintobuffetline]

[YOU JUST WANT TO NAB LIEBLING, but yes, she'll be okay, but Manolo can come steal her. He probably has a key, let's be real.] A cat, with Hermann. You're pulling my leg.

All he does is nitpick my ideas apart. And not in a good way, not in a constructive way. He's just negative and hates anything I come up with and if we managed to work together, I'd have to be a doormat and I refuse to be that.

[matadorable]

A doormat! [A hint of laughter colors his incredulous voice.] No, no. Neither of you are doormats. Your relationship is not a contest, amigo. It's a partnership.

[...He might whisk her away until all of this blows over. HE'S PROTECTIVE OF HER, OKAY.]

[driftsintobuffetline]

[SNORT] Sure it is.

[Such a good amigo.]

[matadorable]

No, I mean it! If you don't believe me, you should try to take a closer look at the life you were sharing here. There has to be a way to look at old network posts and things, right?

[driftsintobuffetline]

Whatever it was, it's gone now, like the years of letters we exchanged. I'm not looking. What's the point in knowing what was lost?

[Oh no, Manolo. He might be tempted to look. D=]

[matadorable]

[Well, he won't press him if he really doesn't want to look...]

What letters?

[driftsintobuffetline]

We wrote letters.

[matadorable]

For how long?

[driftsintobuffetline]

Two, three years.

[matadorable]

That's a lot of letters. You must have enjoyed writing to each other, right?

[mathemagier]

Excuse me, but you're the one that's insufferable.

[driftsintobuffetline]

You're the one trying to have a video-chat from the other room. Say that to my face!

[mathemagier]

I have no problems with that.

[driftsintobuffetline]

Come on, then!