Dr. Newton Geiszler (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
justaskalice) wrote2018-03-26 05:09 am
justaskalice) wrote2018-03-26 05:09 am
Entry tags:
Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle.
How cheerfully he seems to grin,
How neatly spread his claws,
And welcome little fishes in
With gently smiling jaws!
CHARACTER NAME: Newton Geiszler (Please, call him Newt)
CHARACTER AGE: 46ish
SERIES: Pacific Rim (Film Chronology)
CHRONOLOGY: Middle of Pacific Rim: Uprising (SPOILER ALERT)
CLASS: Undecided. Likely will remain unregistered.
HOUSING: *See Note at end*
BACKGROUND:
(Per the novelization) Newton is born in Berlin, Germany in 1990 to parents in an already tempestuous relationship, and once Newt is born, his mother leaves him to be raised by his father and uncle. Given that he exhibits no notable German accent, it probably can be safely assumed he moves to the US while young.
As a child, he is fascinated by nature, by manga, and by monsters like Godzilla. He wants desperately to be liked and to be famous.
He is brilliant, a wunderkind. Overflowing with curiosity and intelligence, he is allowed the opportunities to advance in school, progressing to college well before normal. As such, Newt is always younger than his classmates and has few same-age peers to interact with. He eventually attends MIT as the second-youngest student ever admitted. By 2010, Newt begins a six-year teaching career there, likely focused in biology and life sciences, with some interest in engineering and maybe neural sciences. By 2015 he has six doctorates to his name.
K-DAY: August 10th, 2013: San Francisco, California.
Humanity faces a Kaiju for the first time when the massive creature of unknown origin, later known as Trespasser, makes landfall. Five days later, the government finally takes it down with three nuclear missiles, leaving the bay--now contaminated with nuclear fallout and toxic blue Kaiju blood--designated as the San Francisco Exclusion Zone.
Kaiju (怪獣 kaijū) Japanese, noun: Monster.
The varied alien species that emerge from the Breach. They are categorized based on size, strength, and complexity in a numerical system, "One" being the lowest.
In the aftermath of four separate Kaiju attacks, all stemming from a space-time Breach determined to lie somewhere unknown in the depths of the Pacific Ocean, the Pan Pacific Defense Corps (PPDC) is created by the UN. The international alliance of twenty-one Pacific rim countries shares the common goal of eliminating the Kaiju and begins developing the Jaeger program, a specialized mobile suit that would come to be the best and last line of defence against the Kaiju threat.
Jaeger ([ˈjɛːɡɐ], Jäger) German, noun: Hunter.
Robotic military-grade weapon/armor, usually somewhere around 250ft tall, designed to combat Kaiju. The Jaeger are classified with a Mark system based on their particular model or type, with "One" being the earliest. In addition to internal controls, Jaegers are monitored by the LOCCENT (Local Command Center) in their Shatterdome (hanger/base).
To control a Jaeger, two (or three, in one instance) compatible pilots, operating out of the cockpit/head-cavity of the Jaeger, connect their minds via a special armor and a cerebral pons device. This bond is largely known as the Drift and synchronizes the Pilots with each other and with their Jaeger. With a successfully bridged connection, which is referred to as a Neural Handshake, each pilot, each brain--left and right--shares the load required to move as, to embody, the Jaeger.
Two brains think as one. Two bodies figuratively become a Jaeger.
Fascinated by the Kaiju, which remind him of his childhood monsters, Newton embarks on related research. His interest in Kaiju consumes his work, his life. He tattoos them on his skin.
He starts a correspondence with a brilliant young mathematician named Hermann Gottlieb who is responsible for coding the Mark I Jaegers. The two form a connection. The letters are "passionate." They confide theories and engage in friendly and useful debate. In each other they find a kindred spirit, perhaps even a friend. Newt finds a rare peer who keeps up with him, challenges him, for whom neither age nor intelligence is a barrier to their friendship. As is his nature, Newt throws himself full tilt into this. His relationship with Hermann is undeniably important to him, a man who otherwise has little patience for others.
His friend joins the Jaeger Academy and, a year later, Newton does the same. Their letters continue.
When they finally finally meet in 2017, they immediately dislike each other.
The letters, presumably, stop.
From there forward the two are juggled to different Shatterdomes and stationed as the PPDC needs them. Hermann's focus becomes locating and destroying the Breach and finding an equation that predicts the next Kaiju attack. Newt's research becomes more in depth understanding of the Kaiju to better combat them. They work with some of the best minds the world has to offer as the world throws all it can at the Kaiju problem.
But Kaiju keep coming.
Jaegers are barely enough.
January 1, 2025: Sydney, Australia.
Having suffered major losses of pilots and Jaegers, the PPDC decides in 2024 to cut funds to the Jaeger program, decommissioning active Jaegers and beginning a massive Wall to line the Pacific Rim--a vain attempt to keep the threat of the Kaiju at bay. Lars Gottlieb, in opposition to his son's work and beliefs, is a major proponent of the Wall.
On the first day of the new year, however, the Category IV Kaiju known as Mutavore easily breaks through the Sydney Wall. Striker Eureka Jaeger is the only thing that stops it.
With funding all but gone and the Shatterdomes all but disbanded, Marshal Stacker Pentecost determines that the last, best hope for humanity rests in the hands of the Jaeger and a mission to close the Breach. Attempts had been made before, but with no success. So he rallies the last resources--not all legally obtained--pulling together the only remaining usable Jaegers, and their pilot teams, to make a final stand out of the Hong Kong Shatterdome.
They are the Resistance.
By the time the Resistance assembles in Hong Kong, they have four Jaegers and three pilot teams: Striker Eureka (the Australians: father/son Herc and Chuck Hansen), Cherno Alpha (the Russians: a husband/wife pair), and Crimson Typhoon (the Chinese: triplets). The fourth Jaeger is the American's Gipsy Danger, refurbished but without a pilot.
The Kaiju-Science division has been reduced to a single lab divided between them. They bicker constantly and are justifiably, harshly critical of each other's data. With funding and resources down to the wire, and Earth at stake, they have become overly-competitive.
Pentecost brings on-board Raleigh Becket, one of the only pilots to survive a solo Drift (when his drift-partner was killed mid-battle, Raleigh successfully navigated his Jaeger ashore). Here he is reunited with his old Jaeger, Gipsy Danger, but has no one to pilot it with.
As Raleigh arrives, so do valuable Kaiju samples. Newt, accompanied by Hermann, goes top-level into the pouring rain to make sure the samples are handled with the care they deserve. They encounter Raleigh, Pentecost, and Pentecost's adopted daughter Mako in the elevator.
"He was 2,500 tons of awesome. ---Or awful. You know, whatever you wanna call it." Boasting about his Kaiju tattoos and raving about the Kaiju themselves starts Newt off on the wrong foot in front of Becket, and doesn't particularly endear him to Pentecost or Mako either. All three have lost someone to a Kaiju attack. Hermann introduces Newt as a "Kaiju Groupie" and Newt himself declares that he'd like to see one in person, up close, alive.
Raleigh assures him he doesn't.
Back in the lab, the scientists vie for Pentecost's attention like kids that need to prove they're Dad's favorite.
Hermann presents his predictive model equation for when the next Kaiju will attack, foreseeing soon a "Double Event": two Kaiju from the Breach at the same time...with attacks coming with ever-increased frequency until humanity is wiped out. The increase in traffic through the Breach, Hermann thinks, will force the portal to stabilize and allow for the Jaegers to make a final attempt to destroy it.
Newt refuses to put faith in what he sees as fancy guesswork. It's a shot in the dark.
His own theory is that the Kaiju--who are all thus far unique--are actually clones. It's not unfounded. His samples show that they have the exact same DNA, regardless of what they look like or how long ago they came out of the Breach. One of his samples is part of a damaged Kaiju brain Newt asks Pentecost for permission/resources to Drift with it--to better understand the creatures, their motivations, and their very existence--as well as how to enter and destroy the Breach.
Pentecost denies him his request.
Hermann has won this round. Even if they gave Newt the Drift equipment, Hermann warns: "...you'd kill yourself."
"Or I'd be a rockstar."
Determined to prove himself, Newt waits until Hermann is out of the lab, then rigs his own pons system from junk equipment. In a final act of defiance, he records a childish farewell:
"Unscientific aside: Hermann, if you're listening to this...well, I'm either alive and I've proven what I've just done works...in which case, haha, I won...or I'm dead and I'd like you to know that it's all your fault. It really is. You know, you drove me to this. In which case...ha, I also won. ...Sort of."
The Drift works. He sees the creators of the Kaiju, the Precursors...
A frightened Hermann finds Newt trembling with a seizure on the floor of their lab, his left eye hemorrhaging. He disengages the pons, pulls Newton to a chair, fetches him a glass of water, and then goes to urgently find Pentecost, interrupting the Marshal's observation of Mako and Raleigh's first drift together.
A jittery Newt outlines for Pentecost and a skeptical (worried) Hermann all the information gained from the Drift: Contrary to previous hypotheses, the Kaiju aren't animals attacking out of need for food or some other instinct: They're attacking under orders. The Precursors have been engineering clones--the Kaiju--to help overtake worlds for resources. The state of the polluted Earth makes it ideal for the Precursors to come in and take over. The next wave of Kaiju will be the exterminators. Things are escalating fast, just as Hermann's model predicted.
Pentecost insists that Newt Drift again and, following the Marshal's instructions, Newt goes to meet Black Market dealer Hannibal Chau to arrange for a Kaiju brain. When asked why he needs an ammonia-ridden useless part, unable to resist, he confesses his Drift to Hannibal.
Outside, two Kaiju attack Hong Kong. One Jaeger is destroyed when the Kaiju busts its head. Another's hull is breached by acid from the Kaiju and the reactor is flooded with water. The teams are lost.
Striker Eureka joins the fray, but the Kaiju releases an unprecedented electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack, disabling Striker's electronic controls, LOCCENT, and all of Hong Kong's power. Herc is injured when his son Chuck disengages from the controls.
The Kaiju are adapting. They are attacking specifically for the weapons the Jaegers have and are learning to disable their only opponents.
With all other forms of defense down and unable to power up for a while, that leaves only analog-based, nuclear-powered Gipsy Danger to fend off the attack.
Meanwhile, the Kaiju heads for the city.
It's a Double Event.
Could this be a result of Newt's Drift? The Kaiju are a Hivemind. A Drift goes both ways; Newt learned about the Kaiju, but the Hivemind learned about him and the plans in turn. Perhaps it even learned how to defeat the Jaeger and knew how to assemble Kaiju clones for maximum efficiency. Acid, to corrode Cherno's thick hull; an opening in the Typhoon's three-armed attack; the EMP to disable Striker before it could release its chest missiles.
The Kaiju known as Otachi finds Newt in the public refuge. Its tongue scents the air in front of him, reaching for him… Before it can decide just what to do with him, Gipsy Danger comes to save the day.
With the Kaiju defeated, Newt returns to Hannibal Chau's lair, now bold enough to demand the brain. Chau then sends out his workers for the secondary brain, but they discover it is damaged. Through the radio, there's a heartbeat noise. Otachi has a live offspring.
The baby bursts through the womb and attacks Hannibal's workers. It chases down Newt, swallows Hannibal Chau, strangles on its own umbilical cord, and dies.
Elsewhere, the Breach mission is getting underway.
There are only two Kaiju signatures on the radar when there should be three according to the predictions. Frustrated with Hermann's preoccupation with the reports from LOCCENT (hurts to be wrong, Hermann) and impatient to get the Drift done before the Kaiju baby goes brain-dead (and perhaps before Newt talks himself out of this necessary but dangerous venture), Newt yells at Hermann to help with the "off the charts" neural interface.
So help Hermann does. Instead of offering programming adjustments or advice, he offers--no, insists--that to prove that he's not wrong, that it is indeed a Triple Event, he will Drift too. With Newton. With the Kaiju. Share the Neural Load as Jaeger pilots do.
Another Drift with a Kaiju, especially an intact (if underdeveloped) brain could have likely killed Newt. Newt knew that, Pentecost probably considered it when ordering him to do so again. There are necessary losses and risks in the war. They have little choice but to Drift, as they need the information. Their world will come to an end if they don't succeed. With Hermann carrying half the weight, it is bettering their odds.
Probably. But Hermann's the numbers guy.
"You would do that for me? Or-- You would do that with me?" Neither questions whether they are Drift compatible enough to make this work. It just works.
They discover through the Drift that a Kaiju DNA has to accompany the bomb through the breach or it will never open and the detonation cannot penetrate. They hurry back to warn the Marshal, making it to LOCCENT just in time.
Striker Eureka, piloted by Pentecost (standing in for Herc) with Chuck, is deep beneath the Pacific running point in the Breach mission. Poised at the Breach are two Category Four Kaiju and then a Category Five, the first ever, emerges to face Striker Eureka and Gispy Danger.
Hermann finds out it hurts to be right, too.
Ultimately, Pentecost's Jaeger is damaged and cannot drop its payload to trigger the Breach destruction. So Chuck and Pentecost take the shot available to them: they "clear a path for the lady" by self-detonating. The bomb strapped to their Jaeger explodes with them, taking out one of the two remaining Kaiju. From LOCCENT, Herc watches and listens as his son and Drift partner dies. Gipsy makes short work of the last Kaiju and uses the carcass to enter and cross the Breach.
The crew, including Newt and Hermann, wait in LOCCENT as Mako's air fails and Raleigh gives her air before sending her off in the escape pod. On the radar/data screen, Gipsy explodes, detonating its nuclear reactor, and the Breach collapses from the energy, just as Hermann predicted it would.
Newt and Hermann share a hug, smiles, and a sense of accomplishment.
The Apocalypse is cancelled.
...10 Years Later…
**HERE BE SPOILERS**
In the aftermath of the war, Newt eventually pursues lucrative work in the private sector and loses touch with Hermann. Ten years later, a highly successful Newt now works for Shao Industries, where he helps design and create Jaeger-like Drones. For all his skill and intelligence, however, Shao treats him with little patience and barely any respect, belittling him often.
Shao intends for her drones to replace piloted Jaegers in the field. When she, Newt, and her entourage visit the PPDC shatterdome, she cruelly insists Newt refrain from talking to Hermann. Before they leave, Newt tries to ask Hermann back to his place for dinner and to meet "Alice." Hermann admits to being too busy for that, but then confesses to Newt that he has nightmares about their Drift with the Kaiju. Newt claims it was "a hell of a rush."
Shao goes ahead to Sydney for a PPDC council meeting regarding usage of her drones. An unknown Jaeger attacks the council meeting, killing a key voting representative and Shao is granted the go-ahead to implement her drones after an emergency vote. She views the attack as a good thing as it has won her her dream (yeah, if you turn your head and squint, maybe, Newt says). But when the rogue Jaeger is finally tracked down and defeated, parts from the mech can be traced back to Shao industries.
The drones are already being en route to the Shatterdomes to replace the Jaegers. They break free of their transports and seem to transform, sprouting Kaiju-like parts.
Convinced that Newt's research is being twisted by his employer to make potentially dangerous drones, Hermann sneaks into the Shao building and confronts Newt for more information. They take out and disarm a group of guards and, after a hug, head to the command room to disable the drones.
This is where Newt will arrive at Mask or Menace. This is what Hermann knows and what, for the time being, "Newt" intends for him and others to know.
However, the truth is more complicated than that.
Sometime after the victory of the first film, Newt departed from the Hong Kong Shatterdome to put distance between himself and Hermann. He probably didn't fully understand why, only that he needed his space. His brain was bombarded with Kaiju/Precursor-related nightmares and other discomforting thoughts. He didn't feel right, didn't feel himself.
Something inside was convinced he deserved more as his share of the victory and, ambitious as ever, Newt pursued other endeavors, but ended up dissatisfied, belittled, and isolated in his new line of work until he slowly slipped into depression…
Depression does ugly things to a human's self-confidence, to one's sense of reality, to their sense of self. Paranoia seeps in. Anxiety. Sleep often abandons you. Bad thoughts nag at inopportune moments. Brain chemistry alters.
Instead of seeking help or the comfort of a friend (instead of seeking out the one other man who had Drifted with a Kaiju), Newt, being Newt, recklessly chased something to make him feel GOOD. A high. That rockstar dream of his.
And that's how They get him. Human brain chemistry is so FRAGILE.
Newt is a cocktail of manic behaviors, of passion for the Kaiju, of social disorders, a determination to be taken seriously, to not be seen as weak and--
Like a sleeper agent activated, the fragments of the Hivemind lingering in his mind seized upon Newt's weaknesses. They embedded themselves deep into his psyche, using his mind against him, influencing his actions and choices and (when stronger) they even take control of him. Newt was sometimes aware, tried to fight it, but was fighting a losing battle. He was too proud to ask for help. He had been separated too long from Hermann to feel like he could comfortably reach out to him. At some point, he began to drink alcohol to excess and lose himself further.
Soon, he was powerless to stop them. They were in his head--his most powerful weapon turned against him.
With the Precursors' influence and knowledge, he reconstructed Kaiju parts from remaining tissues samples, effectively creating Kaiju-based neural-networks. One of those, perhaps, was "Alice."
We don't get any explanation for where, when, or how he comes into possession of "Alice," only that she is. "Alice," it turns out, is a Kaiju-brain Newt provocatively keeps in a tank in his bedroom. Part-drug, part-lover, their nightly Drifts provide him the comfort and reconnection that he lacks in his daily life and help to reconfirm the Precursors' hold over his mind. It's possible she serves as a transmitter between Newt's brain (when connected) and the Precursors in the Anteverse. When he's away from her, it's likely his brain is either Ghost Drifting, or merely making do with downloaded information.
In his time with Shao, Newt (controlled by the Precursors) took advantage of the largely automated company to reallocate resources, working behind her back to turn the drones into Jaeger/Kaiju hybrids that he could activate and use to open a Breach to the Anteverse.
So when the drones flare to life with their true purpose and attack the Shatterdome, of course Hermann suspects that red-herring Shao. All the tech is hers.
He believes so strongly that Newton is a good man.
And Newt is.
But, well, he hasn't been feeling very much like himself lately.
PERSONALITY:
Newton, the real authentic Newton, has a defective setting for emotional maturity. He's selfish, petty, offensive, has a faulty head-to-mouth filter, and lacks social skills. His emotions peak and trough rapidly. Whether he's ADHD or not, Newt is nevertheless fidgety and hyperactive, difficult to pin down. He's always moving, manic in his speech. He jabbers, chronically, especially about what he likes. Newt is deeply passionate about his interests and his interests are Kaiju.
He studies them, he wears them on his skin. The Kaiju are fascinating. They are his life, the bulk of his research, his focus, and he's determined to know everything he can about them in the same way adventurers live among wolves and swim with sharks. Sometimes his passion and interest blinds him to the chaos and pain the Kaiju create: to him, they're something to study; to most, they're dangerous monsters.
He's sincere, though, for better or for worse. Part of having a faulty mind-mouth filter is that he doesn't really think about what's being said to measure it out for tact or consistency. Often, he says all the wrong things at the wrong times. At least he's generally, unabashedly honest with his opinions, but that doesn't make it easy for him to have friendships. He's off-putting. He's fighting to be heard, fighting to be right, fighting to be taken seriously.
So Newton gives off the air of being insanely sure of himself, sometimes to the point of narcissism and selfishness, determined to be right all the time. He's one of the smartest men of his generation and stubbornly dislikes authority, showing contempt for anyone who isn't as intelligent as him. He wants to be a "rockstar"--someone cool, with lots of attention, viewed as capable, incredible, legendary. Displaying reckless disregard for his own safety, he readily uses himself as a test subject in his own experiments without enough care for his own well-being or consideration what that would mean to the people around him. But contrary to his "Fortune favors the brave, dude!" he's more impulsive than brave.
That is not to say he entirely lacks bravery. He's foolish and impulsive and has his own motivations, but whether it was bravery or loyalty or morbid determination to do something instead of lie down and go extinct, Newt fought for the world. He wanted to be there, to keep trying, and even embedded himself into the action with his Kaiju Drift. He went toe-to-toe with a Black Market dealer. He's spunky.
And maybe he's spunky because he has to be. Because that's what life's demanded of him. Newt is shorter than his peers, shorter than the massive Jaeger pilots around him. Even as an adult, his voice cracks and breaks. He proudly wears his offensive Kaiju tattoos. He was brilliant, but viewed as a child. His college peers may not have taken him seriously. Hermann sometimes didn't take him seriously. Pentecost didn't pay enough attention. Shao belittled him. Newt needs to fight to be heard, so he goes into situations expecting to not be taken seriously and looking for a fight--a verbal, intellectual fight.
As time cools and the high of saving the world winds down, Newt once again becomes the smart weirdo who no one really likes. He becomes depressed, isolated. Everything he achieved in those last hours of the war...slip from his grasp.
In the aftermath of the war, Newt is displaced. His job is gone as the subject of his research is extinct in this realm. He is weak, he is needy, and the Precursors (still remnants in his brain via his first Drift) seize upon that. It is so easy to poison his mind. They give him a companion, introducing "Alice," the kaiju brain Newt acquires (or manufactures) and who he approaches like she's his lover, like his addiction. "Alice" is his cocaine, his alcohol, his feel-good times. He cannot quit her.
The Precursors have him. His brain chemistry is theirs to control. They barrage his mind with hatred for a world that they convince him has wronged him, that hasn't given him his share, that doesn't love him enough. They break him with their insidious negativity and self-hate, feeding off years of feelings of being unlovable. They gaslight him. They try to convince him the world needed to burn. And he fights. Because that's what Newt does. He fights. But this fight he fights alone, because he's too prideful, too fearful to ask for help. So they wear him down. And then they take control.
Newton controlled by the Kaiju is both volatile and more subdued. Later, when his plan is underway, he becomes manic and gloating--but for now he has cultivated a personality that hopes to keep suspicion off him. Much of it involves being Shao's lackey, but when Hermann walks back into his life, the Precursors force him to be dismissive and avoidant in the face of an obviously overjoyed-to-see-him Hermann. They want to put a rift between the two men…
And it almost works. Except--
At that point, Newton is well past the point of being able to literally and clearly ask for help, but Hermann is back in his life after years apart, and Newt himself breaks through just enough to deliver a coded cry for help:
"How about you come over for dinner -- my place?" Rekindle their friendship, let Hermann into his life, let Hermann see just how far in over his head Newt is… "And you can finally meet Alice." Hermann has no idea who this Alice is, but it's clear the implication: a wife, a girlfriend… Someone who is more important to Newt. And with that, Hermann states he is too busy.
Newt's losing his ability to fight it anymore… The bold, excited man has been broken down too many times. In the first Drift, he had nearly lost himself by going solo. It was only Together that he could succeed.
Why, though. Why is Hermann Gottlieb so powerful?
His antithesis, his partner in crime, his Drift partner… Probably his salvation.
Hermann captivated Newt. The letters--the friendship--bridged a gap, overlapped a venn diagram, made it clear here he had a kindred spirit. Though their fields are different, they are equals: children struggling to be taken seriously, the last two scientists standing, fighting to find the answers in time.
They bring out the best and worst in each other. The relationship works as the exchange of brilliant ideas, a sounding board, and the companionship of the one person who is just as smart and passionate about his work...however vitriolic the companionship once was.
An effective and compatible Drift is about communication. It does not matter what the nature of the relationship is between the Drift Pilots; what matters is that they are not shy with themselves or with their partner. In the Drift, they must be prepared to bare their soul with their Drift partner, to lay out who they are--warts and all, take them or leave them--and accept in return. Partners can be any relationship... They simply need that mutual understanding and it is that empathy--shared with Hermann, shared by Hermann--which is the crux upon which their Drift succeeds and the world is saved. They are Drift compatible and never question it. They might not always like each other, but they respect each other, and they just...understand.
Or they did.
They do. They could again.
Hermann believes Newton is a good man. He has faith. And that makes him dangerous to the Precursors, because maybe that's all Newt needs--someone to reach out to him, show some faith in him, give him a second chance...
POWER:
Kaiju Form - Transforms into a small, tank-sized Kaiju and bleeds toxic blue blood. In Kaiju form only, he has an active Drift with Hermann since he cannot physically talk in that form. Opening such a Drift/Hivemind, however, would allow Hermann detection of the Precursors' influence over Newt's mind, presumably.
Healing - Regrowth of limbs, speedy recovery of cuts and bruises.
Alice - A specimen of a Kaiju brain suspended in a glass tank and yellow liquid (the tank is roughly the size of a refrigerator). A Drift headset is attached. She's basically his drug, reaffirming his connection to the Precursors and Anteverse. In the case of MoM where we assume her Hivemind can't cross space-time, Alice will just serve to strengthen the Precursor hold over him, giving more power to that "evil" side.
FINAL NOTES:
Newt has been in the game before. The intention is to bring them back with those memories, canon updated. I'm not entirely sure where to put the summation of his activities in MoM the first time around, but most of his significant CR has disappeared. Most important note is just that Hermann and Newt reconciled differences after the first movie, grew closer, married and they experienced the Russian invasion and the kidnappings (Newt as one of the kidnapped).
HOUSING: In their previous lives here, the Nerds purchased land and built a house (with the aid of MilesVolkswagon Vorkosigan and the Elrics). Hermann will definitely seek ownership of the house again and it of course makes sense for the nerds to live together in either Gov't Housing or their own house as a married couple. HOWEVER, Newt needs a little lovepad in which to hide Alice and scurry off to see her and get his fix. So, what I'd like to propose is that the government assigns him an apartment by himself. Hermann can be assigned to government housing of his own. Newt will then lie to Hermann and say that they're assigned to the same location. Hermann never has to know. O:-) (Hermann's player knows)
SPOILERS: The film has come out only about two weeks ago. For the first month, I'll try to avoid log tags with people who have not said in advance that they are willing to be spoiled, simply because there is no avoiding discussing the Precursor thing a little in a tag. Logs will be spoiler tagged. Comm threads should be just fine, though existing CR will obviously notice changes in his behavior from his visit to MoM before.
PLOT: I'm just putting this out there: would love to involve Newt in any sort of evil tech stuff or whatever kind of plots that might be useful or intriguing to an alien race controlling a human body and interested in total world domination. Their end goal is whatever the Anteverse version of terraformation is--via basically greenhouse gases/global warming, etc, so… that kind of thing sounds fun.
How neatly spread his claws,
And welcome little fishes in
With gently smiling jaws!
CHARACTER NAME: Newton Geiszler (Please, call him Newt)
CHARACTER AGE: 46ish
SERIES: Pacific Rim (Film Chronology)
CHRONOLOGY: Middle of Pacific Rim: Uprising (SPOILER ALERT)
CLASS: Undecided. Likely will remain unregistered.
HOUSING: *See Note at end*
BACKGROUND:
(Per the novelization) Newton is born in Berlin, Germany in 1990 to parents in an already tempestuous relationship, and once Newt is born, his mother leaves him to be raised by his father and uncle. Given that he exhibits no notable German accent, it probably can be safely assumed he moves to the US while young.
As a child, he is fascinated by nature, by manga, and by monsters like Godzilla. He wants desperately to be liked and to be famous.
He is brilliant, a wunderkind. Overflowing with curiosity and intelligence, he is allowed the opportunities to advance in school, progressing to college well before normal. As such, Newt is always younger than his classmates and has few same-age peers to interact with. He eventually attends MIT as the second-youngest student ever admitted. By 2010, Newt begins a six-year teaching career there, likely focused in biology and life sciences, with some interest in engineering and maybe neural sciences. By 2015 he has six doctorates to his name.
K-DAY: August 10th, 2013: San Francisco, California.
Humanity faces a Kaiju for the first time when the massive creature of unknown origin, later known as Trespasser, makes landfall. Five days later, the government finally takes it down with three nuclear missiles, leaving the bay--now contaminated with nuclear fallout and toxic blue Kaiju blood--designated as the San Francisco Exclusion Zone.
Kaiju (怪獣 kaijū) Japanese, noun: Monster.
The varied alien species that emerge from the Breach. They are categorized based on size, strength, and complexity in a numerical system, "One" being the lowest.
In the aftermath of four separate Kaiju attacks, all stemming from a space-time Breach determined to lie somewhere unknown in the depths of the Pacific Ocean, the Pan Pacific Defense Corps (PPDC) is created by the UN. The international alliance of twenty-one Pacific rim countries shares the common goal of eliminating the Kaiju and begins developing the Jaeger program, a specialized mobile suit that would come to be the best and last line of defence against the Kaiju threat.
Jaeger ([ˈjɛːɡɐ], Jäger) German, noun: Hunter.
Robotic military-grade weapon/armor, usually somewhere around 250ft tall, designed to combat Kaiju. The Jaeger are classified with a Mark system based on their particular model or type, with "One" being the earliest. In addition to internal controls, Jaegers are monitored by the LOCCENT (Local Command Center) in their Shatterdome (hanger/base).
To control a Jaeger, two (or three, in one instance) compatible pilots, operating out of the cockpit/head-cavity of the Jaeger, connect their minds via a special armor and a cerebral pons device. This bond is largely known as the Drift and synchronizes the Pilots with each other and with their Jaeger. With a successfully bridged connection, which is referred to as a Neural Handshake, each pilot, each brain--left and right--shares the load required to move as, to embody, the Jaeger.
Two brains think as one. Two bodies figuratively become a Jaeger.
Fascinated by the Kaiju, which remind him of his childhood monsters, Newton embarks on related research. His interest in Kaiju consumes his work, his life. He tattoos them on his skin.
He starts a correspondence with a brilliant young mathematician named Hermann Gottlieb who is responsible for coding the Mark I Jaegers. The two form a connection. The letters are "passionate." They confide theories and engage in friendly and useful debate. In each other they find a kindred spirit, perhaps even a friend. Newt finds a rare peer who keeps up with him, challenges him, for whom neither age nor intelligence is a barrier to their friendship. As is his nature, Newt throws himself full tilt into this. His relationship with Hermann is undeniably important to him, a man who otherwise has little patience for others.
His friend joins the Jaeger Academy and, a year later, Newton does the same. Their letters continue.
When they finally finally meet in 2017, they immediately dislike each other.
The letters, presumably, stop.
From there forward the two are juggled to different Shatterdomes and stationed as the PPDC needs them. Hermann's focus becomes locating and destroying the Breach and finding an equation that predicts the next Kaiju attack. Newt's research becomes more in depth understanding of the Kaiju to better combat them. They work with some of the best minds the world has to offer as the world throws all it can at the Kaiju problem.
But Kaiju keep coming.
Jaegers are barely enough.
January 1, 2025: Sydney, Australia.
Having suffered major losses of pilots and Jaegers, the PPDC decides in 2024 to cut funds to the Jaeger program, decommissioning active Jaegers and beginning a massive Wall to line the Pacific Rim--a vain attempt to keep the threat of the Kaiju at bay. Lars Gottlieb, in opposition to his son's work and beliefs, is a major proponent of the Wall.
On the first day of the new year, however, the Category IV Kaiju known as Mutavore easily breaks through the Sydney Wall. Striker Eureka Jaeger is the only thing that stops it.
With funding all but gone and the Shatterdomes all but disbanded, Marshal Stacker Pentecost determines that the last, best hope for humanity rests in the hands of the Jaeger and a mission to close the Breach. Attempts had been made before, but with no success. So he rallies the last resources--not all legally obtained--pulling together the only remaining usable Jaegers, and their pilot teams, to make a final stand out of the Hong Kong Shatterdome.
They are the Resistance.
By the time the Resistance assembles in Hong Kong, they have four Jaegers and three pilot teams: Striker Eureka (the Australians: father/son Herc and Chuck Hansen), Cherno Alpha (the Russians: a husband/wife pair), and Crimson Typhoon (the Chinese: triplets). The fourth Jaeger is the American's Gipsy Danger, refurbished but without a pilot.
The Kaiju-Science division has been reduced to a single lab divided between them. They bicker constantly and are justifiably, harshly critical of each other's data. With funding and resources down to the wire, and Earth at stake, they have become overly-competitive.
Pentecost brings on-board Raleigh Becket, one of the only pilots to survive a solo Drift (when his drift-partner was killed mid-battle, Raleigh successfully navigated his Jaeger ashore). Here he is reunited with his old Jaeger, Gipsy Danger, but has no one to pilot it with.
As Raleigh arrives, so do valuable Kaiju samples. Newt, accompanied by Hermann, goes top-level into the pouring rain to make sure the samples are handled with the care they deserve. They encounter Raleigh, Pentecost, and Pentecost's adopted daughter Mako in the elevator.
"He was 2,500 tons of awesome. ---Or awful. You know, whatever you wanna call it." Boasting about his Kaiju tattoos and raving about the Kaiju themselves starts Newt off on the wrong foot in front of Becket, and doesn't particularly endear him to Pentecost or Mako either. All three have lost someone to a Kaiju attack. Hermann introduces Newt as a "Kaiju Groupie" and Newt himself declares that he'd like to see one in person, up close, alive.
Raleigh assures him he doesn't.
Back in the lab, the scientists vie for Pentecost's attention like kids that need to prove they're Dad's favorite.
Hermann presents his predictive model equation for when the next Kaiju will attack, foreseeing soon a "Double Event": two Kaiju from the Breach at the same time...with attacks coming with ever-increased frequency until humanity is wiped out. The increase in traffic through the Breach, Hermann thinks, will force the portal to stabilize and allow for the Jaegers to make a final attempt to destroy it.
Newt refuses to put faith in what he sees as fancy guesswork. It's a shot in the dark.
His own theory is that the Kaiju--who are all thus far unique--are actually clones. It's not unfounded. His samples show that they have the exact same DNA, regardless of what they look like or how long ago they came out of the Breach. One of his samples is part of a damaged Kaiju brain Newt asks Pentecost for permission/resources to Drift with it--to better understand the creatures, their motivations, and their very existence--as well as how to enter and destroy the Breach.
Pentecost denies him his request.
Hermann has won this round. Even if they gave Newt the Drift equipment, Hermann warns: "...you'd kill yourself."
"Or I'd be a rockstar."
Determined to prove himself, Newt waits until Hermann is out of the lab, then rigs his own pons system from junk equipment. In a final act of defiance, he records a childish farewell:
"Unscientific aside: Hermann, if you're listening to this...well, I'm either alive and I've proven what I've just done works...in which case, haha, I won...or I'm dead and I'd like you to know that it's all your fault. It really is. You know, you drove me to this. In which case...ha, I also won. ...Sort of."
The Drift works. He sees the creators of the Kaiju, the Precursors...
A frightened Hermann finds Newt trembling with a seizure on the floor of their lab, his left eye hemorrhaging. He disengages the pons, pulls Newton to a chair, fetches him a glass of water, and then goes to urgently find Pentecost, interrupting the Marshal's observation of Mako and Raleigh's first drift together.
A jittery Newt outlines for Pentecost and a skeptical (worried) Hermann all the information gained from the Drift: Contrary to previous hypotheses, the Kaiju aren't animals attacking out of need for food or some other instinct: They're attacking under orders. The Precursors have been engineering clones--the Kaiju--to help overtake worlds for resources. The state of the polluted Earth makes it ideal for the Precursors to come in and take over. The next wave of Kaiju will be the exterminators. Things are escalating fast, just as Hermann's model predicted.
Pentecost insists that Newt Drift again and, following the Marshal's instructions, Newt goes to meet Black Market dealer Hannibal Chau to arrange for a Kaiju brain. When asked why he needs an ammonia-ridden useless part, unable to resist, he confesses his Drift to Hannibal.
Outside, two Kaiju attack Hong Kong. One Jaeger is destroyed when the Kaiju busts its head. Another's hull is breached by acid from the Kaiju and the reactor is flooded with water. The teams are lost.
Striker Eureka joins the fray, but the Kaiju releases an unprecedented electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack, disabling Striker's electronic controls, LOCCENT, and all of Hong Kong's power. Herc is injured when his son Chuck disengages from the controls.
The Kaiju are adapting. They are attacking specifically for the weapons the Jaegers have and are learning to disable their only opponents.
With all other forms of defense down and unable to power up for a while, that leaves only analog-based, nuclear-powered Gipsy Danger to fend off the attack.
Meanwhile, the Kaiju heads for the city.
It's a Double Event.
Could this be a result of Newt's Drift? The Kaiju are a Hivemind. A Drift goes both ways; Newt learned about the Kaiju, but the Hivemind learned about him and the plans in turn. Perhaps it even learned how to defeat the Jaeger and knew how to assemble Kaiju clones for maximum efficiency. Acid, to corrode Cherno's thick hull; an opening in the Typhoon's three-armed attack; the EMP to disable Striker before it could release its chest missiles.
The Kaiju known as Otachi finds Newt in the public refuge. Its tongue scents the air in front of him, reaching for him… Before it can decide just what to do with him, Gipsy Danger comes to save the day.
With the Kaiju defeated, Newt returns to Hannibal Chau's lair, now bold enough to demand the brain. Chau then sends out his workers for the secondary brain, but they discover it is damaged. Through the radio, there's a heartbeat noise. Otachi has a live offspring.
The baby bursts through the womb and attacks Hannibal's workers. It chases down Newt, swallows Hannibal Chau, strangles on its own umbilical cord, and dies.
Elsewhere, the Breach mission is getting underway.
There are only two Kaiju signatures on the radar when there should be three according to the predictions. Frustrated with Hermann's preoccupation with the reports from LOCCENT (hurts to be wrong, Hermann) and impatient to get the Drift done before the Kaiju baby goes brain-dead (and perhaps before Newt talks himself out of this necessary but dangerous venture), Newt yells at Hermann to help with the "off the charts" neural interface.
So help Hermann does. Instead of offering programming adjustments or advice, he offers--no, insists--that to prove that he's not wrong, that it is indeed a Triple Event, he will Drift too. With Newton. With the Kaiju. Share the Neural Load as Jaeger pilots do.
Another Drift with a Kaiju, especially an intact (if underdeveloped) brain could have likely killed Newt. Newt knew that, Pentecost probably considered it when ordering him to do so again. There are necessary losses and risks in the war. They have little choice but to Drift, as they need the information. Their world will come to an end if they don't succeed. With Hermann carrying half the weight, it is bettering their odds.
Probably. But Hermann's the numbers guy.
"You would do that for me? Or-- You would do that with me?" Neither questions whether they are Drift compatible enough to make this work. It just works.
They discover through the Drift that a Kaiju DNA has to accompany the bomb through the breach or it will never open and the detonation cannot penetrate. They hurry back to warn the Marshal, making it to LOCCENT just in time.
Striker Eureka, piloted by Pentecost (standing in for Herc) with Chuck, is deep beneath the Pacific running point in the Breach mission. Poised at the Breach are two Category Four Kaiju and then a Category Five, the first ever, emerges to face Striker Eureka and Gispy Danger.
Hermann finds out it hurts to be right, too.
Ultimately, Pentecost's Jaeger is damaged and cannot drop its payload to trigger the Breach destruction. So Chuck and Pentecost take the shot available to them: they "clear a path for the lady" by self-detonating. The bomb strapped to their Jaeger explodes with them, taking out one of the two remaining Kaiju. From LOCCENT, Herc watches and listens as his son and Drift partner dies. Gipsy makes short work of the last Kaiju and uses the carcass to enter and cross the Breach.
The crew, including Newt and Hermann, wait in LOCCENT as Mako's air fails and Raleigh gives her air before sending her off in the escape pod. On the radar/data screen, Gipsy explodes, detonating its nuclear reactor, and the Breach collapses from the energy, just as Hermann predicted it would.
Newt and Hermann share a hug, smiles, and a sense of accomplishment.
The Apocalypse is cancelled.
...10 Years Later…
**HERE BE SPOILERS**
In the aftermath of the war, Newt eventually pursues lucrative work in the private sector and loses touch with Hermann. Ten years later, a highly successful Newt now works for Shao Industries, where he helps design and create Jaeger-like Drones. For all his skill and intelligence, however, Shao treats him with little patience and barely any respect, belittling him often.
Shao intends for her drones to replace piloted Jaegers in the field. When she, Newt, and her entourage visit the PPDC shatterdome, she cruelly insists Newt refrain from talking to Hermann. Before they leave, Newt tries to ask Hermann back to his place for dinner and to meet "Alice." Hermann admits to being too busy for that, but then confesses to Newt that he has nightmares about their Drift with the Kaiju. Newt claims it was "a hell of a rush."
Shao goes ahead to Sydney for a PPDC council meeting regarding usage of her drones. An unknown Jaeger attacks the council meeting, killing a key voting representative and Shao is granted the go-ahead to implement her drones after an emergency vote. She views the attack as a good thing as it has won her her dream (yeah, if you turn your head and squint, maybe, Newt says). But when the rogue Jaeger is finally tracked down and defeated, parts from the mech can be traced back to Shao industries.
The drones are already being en route to the Shatterdomes to replace the Jaegers. They break free of their transports and seem to transform, sprouting Kaiju-like parts.
Convinced that Newt's research is being twisted by his employer to make potentially dangerous drones, Hermann sneaks into the Shao building and confronts Newt for more information. They take out and disarm a group of guards and, after a hug, head to the command room to disable the drones.
This is where Newt will arrive at Mask or Menace. This is what Hermann knows and what, for the time being, "Newt" intends for him and others to know.
However, the truth is more complicated than that.
Sometime after the victory of the first film, Newt departed from the Hong Kong Shatterdome to put distance between himself and Hermann. He probably didn't fully understand why, only that he needed his space. His brain was bombarded with Kaiju/Precursor-related nightmares and other discomforting thoughts. He didn't feel right, didn't feel himself.
Something inside was convinced he deserved more as his share of the victory and, ambitious as ever, Newt pursued other endeavors, but ended up dissatisfied, belittled, and isolated in his new line of work until he slowly slipped into depression…
Depression does ugly things to a human's self-confidence, to one's sense of reality, to their sense of self. Paranoia seeps in. Anxiety. Sleep often abandons you. Bad thoughts nag at inopportune moments. Brain chemistry alters.
Instead of seeking help or the comfort of a friend (instead of seeking out the one other man who had Drifted with a Kaiju), Newt, being Newt, recklessly chased something to make him feel GOOD. A high. That rockstar dream of his.
And that's how They get him. Human brain chemistry is so FRAGILE.
Newt is a cocktail of manic behaviors, of passion for the Kaiju, of social disorders, a determination to be taken seriously, to not be seen as weak and--
Like a sleeper agent activated, the fragments of the Hivemind lingering in his mind seized upon Newt's weaknesses. They embedded themselves deep into his psyche, using his mind against him, influencing his actions and choices and (when stronger) they even take control of him. Newt was sometimes aware, tried to fight it, but was fighting a losing battle. He was too proud to ask for help. He had been separated too long from Hermann to feel like he could comfortably reach out to him. At some point, he began to drink alcohol to excess and lose himself further.
Soon, he was powerless to stop them. They were in his head--his most powerful weapon turned against him.
With the Precursors' influence and knowledge, he reconstructed Kaiju parts from remaining tissues samples, effectively creating Kaiju-based neural-networks. One of those, perhaps, was "Alice."
We don't get any explanation for where, when, or how he comes into possession of "Alice," only that she is. "Alice," it turns out, is a Kaiju-brain Newt provocatively keeps in a tank in his bedroom. Part-drug, part-lover, their nightly Drifts provide him the comfort and reconnection that he lacks in his daily life and help to reconfirm the Precursors' hold over his mind. It's possible she serves as a transmitter between Newt's brain (when connected) and the Precursors in the Anteverse. When he's away from her, it's likely his brain is either Ghost Drifting, or merely making do with downloaded information.
In his time with Shao, Newt (controlled by the Precursors) took advantage of the largely automated company to reallocate resources, working behind her back to turn the drones into Jaeger/Kaiju hybrids that he could activate and use to open a Breach to the Anteverse.
So when the drones flare to life with their true purpose and attack the Shatterdome, of course Hermann suspects that red-herring Shao. All the tech is hers.
He believes so strongly that Newton is a good man.
And Newt is.
But, well, he hasn't been feeling very much like himself lately.
PERSONALITY:
Newton, the real authentic Newton, has a defective setting for emotional maturity. He's selfish, petty, offensive, has a faulty head-to-mouth filter, and lacks social skills. His emotions peak and trough rapidly. Whether he's ADHD or not, Newt is nevertheless fidgety and hyperactive, difficult to pin down. He's always moving, manic in his speech. He jabbers, chronically, especially about what he likes. Newt is deeply passionate about his interests and his interests are Kaiju.
He studies them, he wears them on his skin. The Kaiju are fascinating. They are his life, the bulk of his research, his focus, and he's determined to know everything he can about them in the same way adventurers live among wolves and swim with sharks. Sometimes his passion and interest blinds him to the chaos and pain the Kaiju create: to him, they're something to study; to most, they're dangerous monsters.
He's sincere, though, for better or for worse. Part of having a faulty mind-mouth filter is that he doesn't really think about what's being said to measure it out for tact or consistency. Often, he says all the wrong things at the wrong times. At least he's generally, unabashedly honest with his opinions, but that doesn't make it easy for him to have friendships. He's off-putting. He's fighting to be heard, fighting to be right, fighting to be taken seriously.
So Newton gives off the air of being insanely sure of himself, sometimes to the point of narcissism and selfishness, determined to be right all the time. He's one of the smartest men of his generation and stubbornly dislikes authority, showing contempt for anyone who isn't as intelligent as him. He wants to be a "rockstar"--someone cool, with lots of attention, viewed as capable, incredible, legendary. Displaying reckless disregard for his own safety, he readily uses himself as a test subject in his own experiments without enough care for his own well-being or consideration what that would mean to the people around him. But contrary to his "Fortune favors the brave, dude!" he's more impulsive than brave.
That is not to say he entirely lacks bravery. He's foolish and impulsive and has his own motivations, but whether it was bravery or loyalty or morbid determination to do something instead of lie down and go extinct, Newt fought for the world. He wanted to be there, to keep trying, and even embedded himself into the action with his Kaiju Drift. He went toe-to-toe with a Black Market dealer. He's spunky.
And maybe he's spunky because he has to be. Because that's what life's demanded of him. Newt is shorter than his peers, shorter than the massive Jaeger pilots around him. Even as an adult, his voice cracks and breaks. He proudly wears his offensive Kaiju tattoos. He was brilliant, but viewed as a child. His college peers may not have taken him seriously. Hermann sometimes didn't take him seriously. Pentecost didn't pay enough attention. Shao belittled him. Newt needs to fight to be heard, so he goes into situations expecting to not be taken seriously and looking for a fight--a verbal, intellectual fight.
As time cools and the high of saving the world winds down, Newt once again becomes the smart weirdo who no one really likes. He becomes depressed, isolated. Everything he achieved in those last hours of the war...slip from his grasp.
In the aftermath of the war, Newt is displaced. His job is gone as the subject of his research is extinct in this realm. He is weak, he is needy, and the Precursors (still remnants in his brain via his first Drift) seize upon that. It is so easy to poison his mind. They give him a companion, introducing "Alice," the kaiju brain Newt acquires (or manufactures) and who he approaches like she's his lover, like his addiction. "Alice" is his cocaine, his alcohol, his feel-good times. He cannot quit her.
The Precursors have him. His brain chemistry is theirs to control. They barrage his mind with hatred for a world that they convince him has wronged him, that hasn't given him his share, that doesn't love him enough. They break him with their insidious negativity and self-hate, feeding off years of feelings of being unlovable. They gaslight him. They try to convince him the world needed to burn. And he fights. Because that's what Newt does. He fights. But this fight he fights alone, because he's too prideful, too fearful to ask for help. So they wear him down. And then they take control.
Newton controlled by the Kaiju is both volatile and more subdued. Later, when his plan is underway, he becomes manic and gloating--but for now he has cultivated a personality that hopes to keep suspicion off him. Much of it involves being Shao's lackey, but when Hermann walks back into his life, the Precursors force him to be dismissive and avoidant in the face of an obviously overjoyed-to-see-him Hermann. They want to put a rift between the two men…
And it almost works. Except--
At that point, Newton is well past the point of being able to literally and clearly ask for help, but Hermann is back in his life after years apart, and Newt himself breaks through just enough to deliver a coded cry for help:
"How about you come over for dinner -- my place?" Rekindle their friendship, let Hermann into his life, let Hermann see just how far in over his head Newt is… "And you can finally meet Alice." Hermann has no idea who this Alice is, but it's clear the implication: a wife, a girlfriend… Someone who is more important to Newt. And with that, Hermann states he is too busy.
Newt's losing his ability to fight it anymore… The bold, excited man has been broken down too many times. In the first Drift, he had nearly lost himself by going solo. It was only Together that he could succeed.
Why, though. Why is Hermann Gottlieb so powerful?
His antithesis, his partner in crime, his Drift partner… Probably his salvation.
Hermann captivated Newt. The letters--the friendship--bridged a gap, overlapped a venn diagram, made it clear here he had a kindred spirit. Though their fields are different, they are equals: children struggling to be taken seriously, the last two scientists standing, fighting to find the answers in time.
They bring out the best and worst in each other. The relationship works as the exchange of brilliant ideas, a sounding board, and the companionship of the one person who is just as smart and passionate about his work...however vitriolic the companionship once was.
An effective and compatible Drift is about communication. It does not matter what the nature of the relationship is between the Drift Pilots; what matters is that they are not shy with themselves or with their partner. In the Drift, they must be prepared to bare their soul with their Drift partner, to lay out who they are--warts and all, take them or leave them--and accept in return. Partners can be any relationship... They simply need that mutual understanding and it is that empathy--shared with Hermann, shared by Hermann--which is the crux upon which their Drift succeeds and the world is saved. They are Drift compatible and never question it. They might not always like each other, but they respect each other, and they just...understand.
Or they did.
They do. They could again.
Hermann believes Newton is a good man. He has faith. And that makes him dangerous to the Precursors, because maybe that's all Newt needs--someone to reach out to him, show some faith in him, give him a second chance...
POWER:
Kaiju Form - Transforms into a small, tank-sized Kaiju and bleeds toxic blue blood. In Kaiju form only, he has an active Drift with Hermann since he cannot physically talk in that form. Opening such a Drift/Hivemind, however, would allow Hermann detection of the Precursors' influence over Newt's mind, presumably.
Healing - Regrowth of limbs, speedy recovery of cuts and bruises.
Alice - A specimen of a Kaiju brain suspended in a glass tank and yellow liquid (the tank is roughly the size of a refrigerator). A Drift headset is attached. She's basically his drug, reaffirming his connection to the Precursors and Anteverse. In the case of MoM where we assume her Hivemind can't cross space-time, Alice will just serve to strengthen the Precursor hold over him, giving more power to that "evil" side.
"Alice" is the name given to a Kaiju brain or partial brain segment kept in a large tank in Newt's bedroom in Uprising. We don't really know where it came from, but I suspect it was grown from purloined kaiju parts. (Newt certainly has the resources and knowledge for doing so)
summary: Newt Drifts with "Alice." Drifting with "Alice" refreshes/strengthens the Precursor hold on him and kind of drags him further away from humanity and more towards the Precursor/Kaiju motivations. As it seems he has a drug-like dependence on/addiction to this Drift (because it fulfills something psychologically?), it is the Precursors' way of pulling him back whenever other compulsions (like NOT killing humanity) make him stray.
"She" is an object that enforces the drastic change in Newt's characterization brought on in the sequel; thus "she" will be a source of conflict, internal and external.
tldr:
The brain itself does nothing but loom passively in "her" tank--it really is just a brain with no body to control, kept alive like a mad doctor's creation by just the fluid and electricity running through her tank. But when Newt connects his own brain with "Alice" via Drifting, he taps into the Hivemind.
The Hivemind is the Hive of brain networking that exists between the Precursors and their creations--the Kaiju. Presumably, the Precursors use this to control the Kaiju when they send the Kaiju as weapons into other dimensions (ie, Earth). Think of the Kaiju as basically drones and the Precursors are a military sending them to attack things. We were shown in the first film that a partial brain segment, disembodied and kept in a tank like "Alice" is, is fully capable of still connecting to that network, because it does just that.
The brain segment is basically a piece of a hardware that, even idle and deconstructed as it is, still connects to its server (the Hive).
Kind of an external harddrive on a network?
The Drift is a sharing of thoughts/emotions over a connection between brains. The human pilots use it to share control of their giant robot. The Precursors use the Hive similarly to control their monsters. In the first film, Newt (and Hermann) use Drifts to steal information from the Hivemind.
Film one: Newt hacks into said external harddrive (aka A Kaiju Brain) and downloads the data to know how to destroy the Kaiju.
Film two: We find out that the hacking job he did in the first film opened up his system (aka Newt's brain) to the Hive which then infected his thoughts. The enemy subsequently used that as a backdoor to ...tweak a few things on Newt's end.
Now, Newt's brain is still Newt's own brain. Newt is human. His little human brain can't just magically tap into this alien wide-area-network, so he's got to hardwire in. And even though the Precursors have worked some gaslighting, neurochemical, persuasive things to kind of turn Newt to the dark side, his brain resists--because Newt isn't EVIL....he just has issues and really likes Kaiju.
That's where Alice comes in.
Drifting with Alice refreshes what control the Precursors have over him, and allow them to kind of exist as a sub-program in his brain.
There's a couple of points where Newt refers to himself third-person ('He's not strong enough, That's not his style') as the Precursors make their control more known. The line between Newt and the Precursors' motivations and actions is undeniably blurred in places, but there's a separation of selves, like a personality disorder--and the more isolation and the more exposure Newt has to "Alice," the more these warring selves lean in favor of the Precursors.
Since Newt will now have more exposure to human relationships, these selves will have conflict and Precursor!Newt will have to fight to maintain power.
other things because this description got away from me:
The tank itself is probably about the size of a large residential refridgerator, or one of those freezers people buy to store Costco purchases, hunting meats, or...you know, if you watch Law and Order...those dead bodies. It's upright, and you see a similar tank and brain segment here in the first film.) The novelization says it uses up a shit-ton of electricty...enough that Newt's employer, when investigating his odd behavior, specifically notes that he uses an exorbitant amount of electricity in his apartment.
I reiterate that Newt has the tank with "Alice" in his bedroom because as the film frames "Alice"--from the moment she is introduced as just a name ("Why don't you come to dinner; you can finally meet 'Alice'") to Newt's arrival home (pouring himself a glass of liquor, chatting about his day to her unseen form, heading to the bedroom, all to the tune of "I want to know what love is" by Foreigner)... to her actual appearance and his suggestion that they have a little fun...--she's framed as a lover, (in a twisted, campy way) even if she isn't.
To Newt, on some level, she's a replacement for human connection. He has human connection again, here, however...but he can't just leave poor "Alice" ...can he?
FINAL NOTES:
Newt has been in the game before. The intention is to bring them back with those memories, canon updated. I'm not entirely sure where to put the summation of his activities in MoM the first time around, but most of his significant CR has disappeared. Most important note is just that Hermann and Newt reconciled differences after the first movie, grew closer, married and they experienced the Russian invasion and the kidnappings (Newt as one of the kidnapped).
HOUSING: In their previous lives here, the Nerds purchased land and built a house (with the aid of Miles
SPOILERS: The film has come out only about two weeks ago. For the first month, I'll try to avoid log tags with people who have not said in advance that they are willing to be spoiled, simply because there is no avoiding discussing the Precursor thing a little in a tag. Logs will be spoiler tagged. Comm threads should be just fine, though existing CR will obviously notice changes in his behavior from his visit to MoM before.
PLOT: I'm just putting this out there: would love to involve Newt in any sort of evil tech stuff or whatever kind of plots that might be useful or intriguing to an alien race controlling a human body and interested in total world domination. Their end goal is whatever the Anteverse version of terraformation is--via basically greenhouse gases/global warming, etc, so… that kind of thing sounds fun.