Newt Geiszler

The party was raging on inside.

And outside. And on the docks. And further into the city, where fireworks and ordinance were being set off.

And normally, Newt would be in there, half a keg deep into Kaidanovsky homebrew and making ill-advised choices about who was a viable target to hit on, but tonight he wasn't.

They saved the world. They deserved to party. They deserved all the parties. But he had peeled himself off the impromptu dancefloor and made his way outside, where the air carried the scent of the ocean and the stench of Kaiju Blue and he had the eerie feeling that he knew what the city looked like from high in the sky, far higher than he had ever gone in a helicopter.

"Hey, you've reached Newt, I'm busy, or lost my phone, or something, leave a message, I'll get back to you. Probably."

"You come from another dimensional world, powered by physical intimacy, and you want to recruit me to come and 'help' with your 'energy crisis' and in exchange you'll give me whatever I want? Like… seriously? Aside from being creepily a bit like prostitution, what's the catch?"

"Dr Geiszler… firstly, please understand, this is nothing like prostitution. We are not paying you to have sex. We are asking you to come and live in our city with an expectation that you will make friends there, find people to enjoy company with and that act alone is enough to help fuel the city. The embrace between parent and child or friends is enough to generate energy, there's no expectation of sex and we expect consent from all people at all times. Agreeing to come to the city is not giving consent to anyone or any act inside of our city."

"Look, I get that and frankly, the fact that needs to be spelled out worries me about some of the places you've been previously, like seriously, people have to be told 'just because someone came here doesn't give you carte blanche to grope and tongue them'? Scary. Anyway, no not the point, point is, this is a bit hard to believe, you know? You get that, right? And what is 'anything within reason'? If I asked for like… tiny pet kaiju, would I get them?"

The recruiter's pleasant expression twitched slightly. "Yes, it does."

"Huh. Well, I don't want that. What about medical treatment? Like, advanced medical treatment. For brain damage. And neural drifts."

Her expression softened a little. "Yes. We can repair the damage from the Hive drift. Stop the seizures and quieten the echoes."

"I am not going to ask- yes, I am, how did you know? No, don't answer, you can search the multiverse for suitable candidates, this should not surprise me. Yes. I'll do it. If you can really fix the damage and stop the Hive being able to like, take over my brain and body, or stealing information from me. I want that."

"Not a tiny, pet kaiju?" She grinned as she asked and he found himself grinned back.

"Well… tempting, but I think Hermann might kill me if I turn up with any sort of living kaiju. He might only sort of kill me if he finds out I gave myself neurological damage, if I've already fixed it."

They shook hands over the table.