sciencesaggressively

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sirius

july 1

Every once in awhile, the day gets away from him.

Newt hadn't even realized it was past seven until his phone had buzzed with a text from Kate saying that she'd be home late because she was going out for an impromptu dinner with some of her coworkers. He'd shot her back a message saying he was only just leaving the lab, which hadn't even surprised her at all, and it takes another half hour before he finally manages to drag himself away from the blood samples he's been studying. His stomach rumbles as he steps into the elevator with a yawn, and he rubs at the back of his neck as he tries to remember whether or not he'd actually eaten anything since lunch. Allison had force-fed him, as she usually does when she doesn't seem him wander out into the lobby during his lunch hours, but Newt's pretty sure that he hasn't touched anything other than several cups of coffee since then.

When he walks out of the building, the sidewalk is pretty much empty, aside from a couple shadowy figures further up in either direction, and Newt's at a crossroads. Pizza is one way, burgers the other, and life is so goddamn hard right now that he doesn't even know what to do.

"Make a move, genius," he mutters to himself, willing what he is totally identifying as a hunger headache away as he feels the pressure starting to grow at the base of his skull. "Nah, the bar. Burgers and beer, that's where it's at."

Semele's seems like a good choice for that so Newt sets his sights in that direction, walking with renewed purpose and a determined expression.

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Darrow is a different town at night, Sirius has found. The harmless facade fades with the setting of the sun, giving way to a sensation far more sinister. There's something familiar about it though, a magic in the air within which Sirius finds strange comfort.

The scents too, are more intriguing at night. His nails clip the pavement as he follows one after another, spying people and creatures alike in interesting and sometimes intimate situations. He chases cats just because he can, pesters the few city rats and rabbits. He forages through trash bins in alleys for interesting bits of food, wandering and wandering either until his legs feel worn or until the sun begins to peek once more above the horizon, whichever comes first.

Tonight, however, it's a face he spots rather than a scent. He's seen Newt before, but they've never spoken.

Perhaps now isn't the best time, but Sirius knows an opportunity when it presents itself and, given the strange things going on with Newt of late, it seems negligent to not seize this one.

Ducking quickly into an alcove, he shifts from Padfoot to Sirius and quickly runs a hand through his hair before stepping out. "Dr. Geiszler," he calls out from several feet behind him. "Do you have a minute?"

Literally nobody calls him that except for his mother, and Newt hasn't seen her in like, fifteen years. It stops him in his tracks, and he spins on his heels to find a respectably pretty dude standing there, which is all the more confusing. He racks his brain, trying to figure out whether he's supposed to remember this guy or even remotely know who he is, but Newt comes up with nothing but blanks.

"Uh, yeah, I guess I do," he says, tilting his head curiously. "Don't mean to seem like an asshole, but I don't know you, right? If we've met before, that's totally my bad, I'm pretty bad with names."

He's generally good with faces, though, and this one just isn't familiar.

"Anyway, call me Newt, Mister Whoever You Are. Doctor always just seems way too formal, I'm not about that life."

"We haven't met no," Sirius replies, stepping closer once Newt's turned around. His lips twist into a half-grin at the urging to drop the formality and he nods in acknowledgment. "Name's Sirius. I'm... I'm a friend of Kieren Walker's." After a slight hesitation, his lips twisting into a deeper frown, he amends, "Boyfriend, actually. And he's a patient of yours, is he not?"

It's still strange to him, this notion of Muggle science. Even after seeing it in action, witnessing with his own eyes the effect of the pills on Kieren.

Or, rather, the effect without them. And when they've gone wrong.

"Oh! Yeah, sure, good to meet ya."

Newt and Kieren haven't exchanged much about their personal lives, though Newt's definitely mentioned Kate more than a few times, and it's kind of hard to avoid letting the world know he's married when he's got a ring on his finger. Not that he'd want to avoid that, considering he's married to literally the best person of all time.

"I guess 'patient' is one way of putting it," he says thoughtfully, though his expression shifts into something resembling concern. "Wait, he's okay, right? Like... y'know. Okay?"

Newt's obvious concern is something of a relief, an indication that he truly is looking out for Kieren as a person and not as a walking science project of some kind. Sirius has no real reason to think that of Newt if he's honest; Kieren's only ever said good things about him. But Sirius's opinion of Muggle science and medicine is... suspicious to say the least.

Shoving a hand into his trouser pocket, Sirius's usual easy smile fades, however, and he shrugs. "I'm not certain, honestly," he admits.

"You're aware of what happened some weeks ago," he continues, well aware that there's hardly a way Newt doesn't know, but feeling the need to put it all out there. "Where there was something off in his medication and he... he went rabid for a bit. Well, he's recovered from that, it seems. Mostly. But more recently there have been some strange happenings. He's. He shakes at times. Like a shiver or a throb. And he's... he's been forgetting things here and there. Memory lapses for seemingly no reason at all."

And, honestly, Sirius has no idea if any of that means a damn thing. Or, moreover, if Newt can even do anything for it. But he can't help thinking, he should at least try.

The corners of Newt's mouth turn downwards into a frown at the mention of what'd happened. Yes, he's aware; yes, he feels guilty as hell about it, even though everything to do with Kieren is still a work in progress. It's not like he's ever worked on the undead before, it's just a bit of a shift from working on kaiju biology for the better part of his adult life. So he's doing his best, he and Kieren both are, but that particular side effect had not been ideal, to say the least.

All of what Sirius is saying sounds, well, pretty fucking serious, and Newt's frown only deepens as the list of symptoms grows longer. He does't want to freak the guy out by saying they ought to do something pronto, but he doesn't want to make it seem like he's brushing anything off, either. It's a fine line, but he takes a breath, nodding slowly as he tries to work through his thoughts.

"Okay, well. That's not great, I'm not gonna lie, but we expected there might be some hitches. Whatever they did in his world to produce that medication he used to take isn't something I've been able to fully replicate yet." Biting down on his lip, he glances behind him at the lab before looking back at Sirius. "I've got some of his samples up there. I'll probably need new ones to compare, see if anything's different, but I could show you what I'm working on. If you want."

Newt frowns and Sirius isn't sure whether to feel vindicated in his worry or if he should truly begin to panic. Kieren's been worried himself, of course, though he largely seems to be keeping it quiet, either because he's in denial or to save Sirius from further worry.

In truth, Sirius isn't at all certain he'll be able to make heads or tails of a thing Newt shows him, but he wants to have a look all the same. If for no other reason than it could give him better insight into possibly developing a spell instead. Magic, as far as he's concerned, supersedes any of this science business, but perhaps getting some sort of understanding of it might help all the same. Or they could even develop some sort of mix of the two.

"He's been bleeding as well," he continues, nodding quickly at Newt's invitation. "Not constantly, but here and there. Nosebleeds. Typically when he gets a bit, ehm. Excited. But not always. Sometimes for seemingly no reason at all. How is that works, do you know? If he has no blood flow at all, how is that possible?"

Christ, it keeps getting worse, and Newt thinks he should probably be pretty grateful that he's not on Kieren's shit list or something. It'd be easy enough for the guy to blame Newt for all this, to demand answers for side effects Newt doesn't quite know how to explain yet, so he's grateful that Kieren has a good head on his shoulders.

Well. Except for when he's rabid. But that's probably not a joke he should make in front of Sirius.

"Well," he answers, knitting his brow as he swipes his key card over the DARK Lab sensor to let them into the building, "if you want to get real technical, he shouldn't be able to move around much at all. Livor mortis, man. Gravity's supposed to be pulling the blood flow down to toward the body parts closest to the ground and then it would just, like, burst. That's what would happen in the typical dead human, anyway, but I mean... I think we can probably agree Kieren isn't exactly that. However his body works, it's not like you or me. That's the biggest issue, finding out what the differences are and how to go about regulating them."

That's certainly a rather graphic visual. Horrifically, it's all too easy to picture and he grimaces a little as he shakes his head. He can agree, at least, that Kieren is certainly different from either Sirius or Newt. He's human, but not. Dead, but not. Alive, but not. He's a walking marvel, honestly.

Though Kieren, he can imagine, considers himself more of a walking time bomb.

Sirius grabs the door to follow Newt inside before hurrying to keep up as they walk. "So you've monitored him, I imagine," he says, frowning as he tries to follow along. "With all those Muggle wires and knobby things and machines. He was living off the medication from home for awhile, he said. And you've not been able to replicate it? Is that the issue? Can you not... deconstruct it?"

The lights are dim in the lobby, reception had left awhile ago--and Allison had glared at him until he'd promised her he'd leave soon--but Newt knows there are still plenty of people working overtime in the building. They're the ones who prefer it quiet, the ones who think better on their own. Sometimes, Newt's one of them, mostly because it allows him to blast whatever music he wants on his floor without having to waste any time giving a shit about whether or not someone's going to complain about it. Other times, he needs to sound off on someone, even though nobody's been as good about it as Hermann.

He doubts he'll ever get as good a partner as Hermann, in fact. Well, unless dude shows up, obviously.

"'Course I can deconstruct it," Newt says defensively, narrowing his eyes at Sirius as he jabs at the elevator button. He bounces on his heels, pausing for a beat as he crosses his arms over his chest. "Eventually I'll be able to, anyway. And did you say Muggle? I know a guy who uses that term. Not personally, but my wife used to date him. In another world. I know how it sounds. Anyway, he's a wizard. Like, bona fide, magic wand wizard. Crazy shit, right?"

Sirius has always gotten a kick out of lifts and this time is no different, despite his age, and he hurries in to stand alongside Newt.

Of course, his enjoyment is rather muted given the topic at hand and he frowns a little when Newt suddenly sounds much less sure of himself. He has no idea himself what goes into deconstructing anything at all that isn't magical, but as he's understood it, science is some form of magic all on its own.

Hopefully this eventually happens sooner rather than later.

"Your wife dated a wizard?" he asks, curious now. Because it's not just any wizard, clearly. In the half a year Sirius has been here now, he's learned that, while there are a good number of wizards about, they're not all like him. In fact, most aren't. But he knows Muggle seems to be a word used almost exclusively in his world. "Do you happen to remember his name?"

"You're asking me if I remember the name of the freakin' wizard my wife dated on some stranded ass island before we started going out? Dude, of course I remember. That shit's like, burned in my memory, y'know? Could make a guy feel inferior, knowing the gal he loves used to be with someone who could actually do magic tricks of the legit variety. Y'know, if said guy wasn't so badass himself."

The elevator opens then, and Newt steps out, turning on his heels so he's walking backwards and facing Sirius as they speak. He knows these halls like the back of his hand, he could easily navigate them blindfolded. Which doesn't sound like half-bad idea now that he thinks about it, he'll have to pitch that to Kate later.

"Anyway, his name was Harry. Harry Potter. I guess he's in the city, too, but he doesn't remember her at all. It's this whole big thing, it's messed up." He arches a brow, curious. "You know him?"

Newt talks quickly, animatedly, hands waving about as he turns to face Sirius, walking backwards the whole while. It's entertaining, really. Mad, but in a good way. Sirius's favourite way, honestly. His lips twitch into a smile that then immediately slides away into shock at Newt's reply.

"Harry Potter?" he repeats, slowing to a stop right in the middle of the corridor.

Like most things in this city, it doesn't make any sense. When had Harry been stranded on an island? He's never mentioned any such thing to Sirius. And, as far as he's aware, Harry's never dated much at all either. Of course, there's every likelihood he's simply kept that part of himself secret from his godfather in much the way Sirius has kept his own quiet from Harry. But if this man is already married to the woman Harry once dated then... well, that had to have been one whirlwind romance, surely.

He squints a little. "You're certain? Harry?"

"Well, it definitely wasn't Larry. So yeah, I'm pretty certain."

Obviously, Sirius knows exactly who Newt's talking about, but Newt isn't sure how much he wants to get into it. He knows how weird it is for Kate, having her ex here but without any of the memories they'd shared on that island. The Harry of Darrow isn't the same one she'd known, though, they're two completely different dudes so it's nobody's fault he doesn't remember but that doesn't make it any less easier for her to have to deal with. She'd struggled with what to tell him and how much, but Newt thinks she'd done the right thing by keeping it to herself.

Ending up in this place is hard enough. It's hard to predict how any given person would react to being told there'd been another version of them somewhere else, too. One that had done some seriously heavy partying.

"He doesn't know who she is," Newt explains, shrugging a shoulder as he comes to a stop in front of the door to his lab. "Like... I don't know. That island was like Darrow except, y'know, on an island. Sometimes people come from there and remember. Other times, it's like nothing ever happened at all. I'm not really the best person to get this info from, though, I was never there. Which is really too bad because there were dinosaurs, how cool is that?"

It takes a moment for Sirius to remember to walk again, so shaken is he by the news that his godson dated this man's wife. Intellectually, he's well aware that Harry is seventeen years old (nearly eighteen now) but he still has such a difficult time differentiating him from the bubbly, pudgy, dribbly-mouthed little infant he remembers so well.

He feels a bit dazed following Newt further down the corridor, listening as they stop outside a door.

"An island," he echoes because he does think he's heard mention of such a thing before. It's yet another aspect of this place he doesn't understand, a different sort of magic. And he's not sure he'd ever heard mention of dinosaurs, but that hardly seems to matter in the wake of learning this.

"He's my godson," Sirius finally manages, feeling as though he needs to give some reason for his strange state. "Harry is. Merlin, it's strange enough accepting he's suddenly seventeen years old." He frowns then, looking at Newt more carefully. "And you said he doesn't remember a thing?"

Swiping his badge over the reader, Newt glances over his shoulder with an arched brow. Godson? Dude looks a little young to have a godson but then again, it also sounds like Sirius hadn't expected to meet an older version of Harry here in Darrow. The whole timey-wimey bullshit here can be so goddamn confusing.

"I mean, you'd have to ask him to make sure he wasn't like, y'know, trying to spare feelings or something," Newt answers, though he doesn't see why that would be the case. Kate had broken up with him, not the other way around, and anyway, seems like kind of a dick move to just pretend not to remember someone he'd supposedly loved back then. "But I mean, just based on what Kate has told me, sounds like it's legit. 'Sides, I'm pretty sure he's younger now than he was last time Kate saw him. Anyway, come on in."

The door slides open, and Newt steps aside to let Sirius in first. The lab's mostly organized and clean, though he doesn't know how his colleagues manage that and is pretty sure that means they aren't doing any kind of real work; but his side of it is pretty much what it'd been at the 'Dome. It's a hot mess, as he voluntarily calls it, but at least he knows where everything is. There's order in the chaos, there always is.

Despite how strange the whole time thing is, Sirius has a feeling Harry would've mentioned something like that in all the times they've talked. Not once has there been mention of any sort of island, nor any girl he'd met there. In truth, there doesn't seem to be much Harry keeps from him, a fact Sirius can only hope remains the case once Sirius himself is a bit more honest about certain things.

And that is certainly a train of thought he has no interest on boarding right now so he quickly veers away, turning his attention instead on the room he's stepped into.

His eyes widen a bit as he takes it all in, wondering what everything is as he looks around. Some things he can pick out, of course. Tables and chairs and papers. There a number of Muggle computers set about as well as dozens of machines with purposes Sirius is sure he can't even begin to fathom. He turns in a slow circle as he takes it all in before looking to Newt again. "This is where you make it then?" he says. "The drugs for Kieren. All of this is yours alone?"

"Yep. After hours, anyway."

Anything that has to do with Kieren is carefully locked away, out of sight of prying eyes and people who'd be a little too curious for their own good. Granted, he does fit into that very same category, but he's using his supergenius intelligence for good. Derek may think he wants to get a hold of shit like werewolf blood just for a science project, but that's only kind of true. He has no interest in turning his friends into experiments, Newt just wants to know if there's other stuff he can do with what they're carrying in their bodies.

Werewolves, for instance, tend to be able to heal themselves. What that could mean if that trait could be extracted would be goddamn miraculous for the regular ol' mortals in the city. Could've come in handy after he'd been shanked in that alley a couple years back, anyway. He should start throwing that in Derek's face to see if that'll get him a sample.

"I'm not exactly shouting about what I'm doing with Kieren from the rooftops," Newt explains, "not only because it could get me fired. Liability and all that, you know how it is. But yeah, it's not so bad. Hold on a sec, let me grab one of Kieren's blood samples, I'll let you take a look."

"Liability?" Sirius asks, frowning as he follows Newt a few more steps through a maze of very large, rather intimidating machines. "Do you mean because of his condition? How is that a liability? It's not as though what he has is contagious, is it? I mean, if it were, I'd be a goner by now, surely."

But maybe there's more to Kieren's blood than all that. He's never thought about it much, though that seems foolish in retrospect. It's just that, well. Kieren doesn't really have blood, that's half the trouble. The dark black gunk that oozes from his nose is hardly like any blood Sirius has ever seen before, though he knows it must be. Knows it can't easily be anything else.

He watches Newt more carefully now, growing both more curious and more worried by the moment. "Is there something awful about his?" he asks. "I'd assume it isn't normal, both from what I've seen and... given what he is. But is there anything at all you can do with it?"

"Uh, more like working on things that aren't actually sanctioned by my employer in my actual place of employment would probably be frowned up just a little if anything were to go wrong. If, mind you, if. I'm not saying anything will."

It's not like he's ever actually cared what his bosses thought of his work in the past. He'd drifted with a half-dead kaiju brain against Stacker's wishes because he'd known it was their best option for finding out how the hell to deal with their situation once and for all and goddammit, he'd been right. He knows helping Kieren is right, too, there are no qualms about that. He's decidedly qualmless.

But that doesn't mean he'd be happy to get fired over it, either. Winning the lottery might have gotten him and Kate a condo but having a job is what's going to allow them to keep it.

"Anyway," he continues, "you need to try to chill, my friend. All your questions are starting to make me nervous." It takes him only a moment to find Kieren's sample, and he beckons Sirius to follow him as he places it under a microscope. "You look at this one, then I'll show you a blood sample taken from a regular ol' Joe Schmo. The answer to your question is, I do what I can and then I iron out the kinks. That's all I can do right now without having access to whatever research the lab rats from his world had that could tell me exactly what was needed to keep him stable."

It honestly isn't his intent to make Newt nervous, but Sirius finds he's a little pleased to know he has. He's always rather enjoyed making people uncomfortable, after all. Even when it does him little purpose.

He doesn't apologize and doesn't smile, but quickly follows Newt to a Muggle contraption he barely recognizes, watching as Newt slides a glass plate inside it. There's a smear upon it that Sirius can only assume is a sample of Kieren's blood and it takes him a moment to figure out where it is he's to look through. Even after he does, he can't say he understand at all what it is he's looking at and he pulls back a moment later, frowning.

"Is there something I should be seeing?" he asks, feeling stupid in a way that makes him highly uncomfortable. "I know his blood is different from ours. He shouldn't have any to begin with, should he? Isn't that half the mystery?"

"Pretty much, yeah. Dead as a doornail in there so makes sense, doesn't it, that it might take just a teensy little bit of time to figure out what really makes him tick? And what's going to keep him ticking?"

Newt gives Sirius a pointed look, but it's not in poor humor. He gets it, the guy's need to make sure someone he cares so much about gets taken care of in the best possible way, but the simple truth is this is something Newt doesn't necessarily want to rush.

He's made a few rash decisions here and there in the past, namely drifting with kaijus and ending up with a goddamn hivemind connected to his head; but in terms of direct danger, he'd been the only one whose life was at risk. If things had gone a nastier route, Hermann would've found him dead after round one. This is different, this is someone else's life, and Newt's not taking that lightly. Sure, the whole process may seem slow-going, and it is; but there's good reason for it that he hopes Sirius understands.

Both Newt's tone and the look he shoots Sirius then are pointed. Sirius's eyes narrow a moment before he lets out a huff of assent. "Yes, fine," he says, rolling his eyes. "It's just-- Is there any way of picking things up a bit now? His symptoms are getting worse, not better. What if there comes a day where he doesn't stop bleeding at all? Or his memory leaves him completely? What if he's just-- What if he--"

Sirius can't quite bring himself to say it, can't voice the fact that Kieren could die. Well and truly. Again and for good this time. That this condition, whatever it is, could win.

"Maybe there's something I can do to help," he says instead, feeling a bit more frantic now. "I don't understand any more about your Muggle science than you do magic, but perhaps we could work together. A spell that could work with these blood samples, a charm to alter it somehow. Anything at all."

"I feel like if I tell you I don't know one more time, you might actually lose it and go apeshit on me," Newt says, lifting an eyebrow in mock suspicion and taking a step back, hands held up in front of him. "You're not gonna, right? Because it took me like, ten years to figure out how to get rid of the giant sea monsters that were destroying my world, and I'm not saying it'll take me ten years to figure this out but... well, science isn't magic, dude. It's science."

If there was something he could do to speed up this whole process, Newt sure as hell would've done it already. He's sure the same can be said of Sirius and whatever spells he's capable of doing, the issue is that neither of them have been able to come with something that can help in the long-term. They're between a rock and a hard place, the both of them, and it sucks but right now, that's the way it is.

"And hey, if you think you can cook up a spell or whatever to rev things up, that's fine by me," Newt adds, dropping his hands to his hips. "Preferably, a Fix-Kieren-for-Good spell would be best, but I'm guessing you've tried that one already."

Sirius's eyes widen a bit at the mention of an actual giant sea monster. The only thing he has for reference is the giant squid at Hogwarts, but as far as Sirius is aware, he's certainly not tried to destroy any worlds. Couldn't even if he wanted to.

"I've tried," he confesses at Newt's suggestion and his sigh should be every indication of how disappointed in himself he is for his failure. "My magic doesn't seem to work entirely with this sort of condition. The best I've been able to do is heighten his senses here and there, make it so he can taste and touch. Those spells do nothing to control his organs though, really, and they're not long-term.

"I've a mate who knows blood magic, though," he adds, thinking of Kell. "Might there be something in that? I could introduce him to you."

Newt doesn't have to look hard to see how displeased Sirius is about not being able to magic up a cure for Kieren but that's the thing, shit in Darrow doesn't work the same way it had for anyone of them in their own worlds. That's just the way it is, it'd be way too convenient and easy for everyone if they could just snap up their fingers and come up with something that would just fix everything.

That's still his goal, of course, and he thinks he'll get there eventually; but it's going to be through trial and error. He's used to that, though he realizes a lot of people aren't, and for all that he's got his quirks or neuroses or whatever, Newt has learned to be somewhat patient when it comes to his work.

But if it'll make Sirius feel better to organize a meet-up between him and a guy who does magic with blood, so be it.

"Sure," he says, "there definitely might be something there. We can meet up, see what happens. Who knows, with our powers combined, we might just figure out an answer sooner than later."

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july 1

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