RE: [IC][WIP][Arc 1] How I Managed to Quit Worrying and Love The Grief Seed
03-28-2019, 06:17 AM (This post was last modified: 03-28-2019, 07:53 AM by Black Aeronaut.)
03-28-2019, 06:17 AM (This post was last modified: 03-28-2019, 07:53 AM by Black Aeronaut.)
A little bit of bonding time, and a little bit of progress made, which raises as many questions as it answers.
Benjamin put his disguise away, went through the shower, then slept through the morning and early afternoon. As Nanoha, Fate, and the rest of Team Fisherman had slept the night away in Washu’s lab, they spent that time demonstrating travel magic for Washu, who then spent the evening putting together a sensor drone specially made for their purposes.
When Ben woke up at two in the afternoon, he got himself fed, checked in with everyone, then retired to his apartment. He felt at a bit of a loose ends, so he opened the windows and the front door, leaving the security door closed, vacuumed the bedrooms, and swept and mopped all the other floors. He then threw his laundry into the washing machine, set the cycles, and finally went back to the living room where he picked up his guitar, sat down, and started playing.
For a few minutes, he just doodled around, playing nonsense riffs and licks until he suddenly found himself laying an old favorite of his.
There was a polite knock at his door.
“Come in,” he said without interrupting the music.
Nanoha and Fate came inside. Nanoha was smiling at seeing the guitar again. Now that Ben was not in his Halloween costume, Nanoha got a better sense of him as his fingers plucked the strings and shifted over the frets.
Fate simply stared in wide-eyed wonder. She had heard some music, but most of it was Alicia’s memories. She had ever imagined that a single person could make such a wondrous sound.
“How long have you known how to play guitar, Benjamin?” asked Nanoha as she and Fate sat down on the sectional sofa.
“Not long, really,” said Ben with wry smile. “I cheated and asked Washu-chan to implant the skills into my brain. Part of having ADD is that the part of your brain that gives you a satisfied feeling from doing hard work is kinda broken. Traditional awards systems don’t work on me. I only wanted to be able to play well, not spend countless hours sounding like crap.”
Fate giggled at that. “That does sound like you alright~.”
Nanoha laughed as well. “So what song are you playing now? I think I’ve heard it before, but I don’t know what it is.”
Ben smiled. “Doesn’t surprise me much. The Beatles had quite an impact on Japan during their time. This is one of their early songs and it is called The Fool on The Hill. It’s about a man who sits by himself on top of a hill. Nobody likes him because he is so different from everyone else. But even though he wants friends, he knows the people that do not like him are not worth his time, even though he tries anyways.”
Knowing that they would want to hear it for themselves, he cycled back to the opening verse, and began to sing.
Day after day, alone on a hill
The man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still
But nobody wants to know him
They can see that he's just a fool
But he never gives an answer
But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning ‘round
Well on the way, head in a cloud
The man of a thousand voices is talking perfectly loud
But nobody ever hears him
Or the sound he appears to make
And he never seems to notice
But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning ‘round
And nobody seems to like him
They can tell what he wants to do
And he never shows his feelings
But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning ‘round
He never listens to them
He knows that they're the fools
They don't like him
The fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning ‘round
As Nanoha and Fate both listened, smiling and yet thoughtful, Ben let the music trail off and rested his guitar in his lap.
“The song was very special to me when I was much younger,” he said with a sad, distant smile. “I was so very different from everyone else. Nobody saw the world the way I did. Whenever I looked around, I saw how everything interacts. Causes, effects. Machines moving. People reacting. I would try to see exactly how it is that the world spins on.
“And nobody understood me. They had no frame of reference.
“When I grew older, I eventually started to learn how to frame it for other people to understand. Those that listened? They were shocked. Because here I was, this seemingly quiet, hyperactive teen who always ate as if he was starving, had just said something that completely shifted their paradigm.” He then grinned a bit mischievously. “Sometimes without the benefit of a clutch.”
They blinked at him in confusion.
“It’s why some cars have three pedals instead of two. A clutch momentarily disconnects the engine from the transmission so you can shift gears without grinding them and ruining your transmission.”
“Oooh!” said Nanoha as if she got it... then frowned. “But what’s a paradigm?”
“A perspective,” said Ben. “And a way of thinking. Such as he culture of another country and their way of thinking. A paradigm shift is when someone’s way of thinking and looking at the world changes.” Ben grinned again. “And a paradigm shifting without a clutch can be like you suddenly realized something that is so radically different from what you knew before that it feels like your brain just exploded.”
Nanoha and Fate both laughed hysterically at that as Ben kept grinning and bobbed his eyebrows at them.
He then went on, “But that’s just how I am. I have a tendency to change people. A girlfriend I once had told me that I was like this crazy and intense storm that came into her life, and completely turned her world upside down. She said that because of me, the world was never going to be the same again afterwards.”
“That sounds kinda scary,” said Nanoha, suddenly sober at this revelation.
“It is for a lot of people,” said Ben with a shrug. “A lot of people... they like the status quo and they’re afraid of things changing. But then...” Ben spoke again, this time reciting instead of singing, “‘He never listens to them, He knows that they’re the fools, They don’t like him, But the fool on the hill sees the sun going down, and the eyes in his head see the world spinning ‘round.’”
Nanoha got up at that, came over to Ben's side, sat down, and leaned up against him. Fate got up and did the same on his other side.
“I don’t care what others think,” said Nanoha. “You’re my fool on the hill. And Fate’s, too.”
Ben didn’t say anything. He simply took up his guitar again and started playing.
When I find myself in times of trouble
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom
Let it be...
##
That night, as Benjamin and the others went out into the grungy part of town on the west side the the expressway, there was one other report in addition to the others.
“The Mosquito is free. Telemetry is good.”
And for several hours, the night was quiet just as before.
As Benjamin was settling in for a nap, Sousuke’s voice sounded in his ear.
“Alert! The Mosquito has detected activity. Polecat, proceed to North Medina and West Martin - it’s in the loading dock between the Databank Building and Scobey Cold Storage.”
“Eagle Nest, Polecat copies,” said Ben as he got up and started running. It took him a moment since he’d been on the far side of the search area. But by the time he got there, all he could see was one person slumped against the loading dock platform as though they were another homeless person sleeping.
But the fact that they were completely unclothed put the lie to that. It didn’t help matters that the loading dock had been fenced off.
“Eagle Nest, Polecat. No activity. Possible corpse sighted.”
“Polecat, Eagle Nest. Understood. The Mosquito reports the activity ceased just before you came within line of sight. Mother Hen wants that body. Dispatching a drone to your location.”
“Polecat, Eagle Nest Actual,” came Noike’s voice. “I’m calling it for the night. Sticking around now is only asking for trouble. Stand by to receive your extraction point.”
“Eagle Nest Actual, Polecat. Copy that. Will move once the package is secure.
##
Shinobu Tsukimura gazed at the corpse with barely contained horror.
“This... This is monstrous,” she murmured just barely loud enough to be heard.
“No offense, Shinobu,” said Benjamin politely, “but we kinda gathered that. Can you elaborate any?”
“...There are old stories,” she said quietly. “Stories of the primordial progenitors of our kind. Things that you can’t even call human. We called them Nosferatu. And when they fed, they took everything. Not just blood, but all the electrolytes too. And even more horrifying was that they even sucked out their very life essence... and the soul as well.
“How such abominations came to be, we do not know. The only good thing about them is that they would only need to feed in such a manner once in a century. In the meantime, they took servants, turning them into the night walkers that you’re more familiar with.”
“What happened to these Nosferatu?” asked Ben.
“There were exterminated by their servants. Eventually they had turned enough humans that they had the power of numbers on their side. They revolted against the Nosferatu, and then afterwards turned to a more quiet way of life - remaining hidden, sometimes in plain sight, and only feeding as they needed to. But... there were stories that a few Nosferatu survived. Lurking in dark places, and living wretched lives in order to remain hidden.
“Father used to tell Suzuka and I stories about these things in order to frighten us. But even so, I never thought that any could be real.”
“I doubt that’s the case,” said Washu.
“How?” asked Shinobu.
“This body has no bite marks. Shinobu, I know this might seem rude, but may I see your fangs?”
“If it helps, then yes,” said the girl. She then opened her mouth and bared her teeth. And then her canines, which had already looked unusually sharp before, extended by nearly an inch.
“Please, come closer,” asked Washu.
Shinobu reluctantly went down on one knee, and Washu gently took Shinobu’s face in her hands, carefully tilting her head this way and that so she could see the fangs in full detail.
“Remarkable,” said Washu as she took her hands away. “Thank you, Shinbu, that’s enough.”
Right away, her fangs retracted back into their original positions, and she closed her mouth as she got up again.
“Later when this is all over with, Shinobu, I would like to ask if I could perform a full examination of you - don’t worry, nothing invasive. Just a few scans and a DNA sample. If you don’t mind.”
“It doesn’t sound like much trouble, but why?”
“Well, I am a scientist, am I not? I am simply very curious about how you work, dear. And besides, should something happen to you or anyone in your family, it would be good for me to know how to treat you properly.”
Shinobu nodded. “It is hard to find a medical professional who is versed in our particular biology,” said Shinobu. “If you’re willing to be our family’s doctor, then I will not mind.”
“Great! Now, back to this...” said Washu, looking to the corpse once again and her face turning thoughtful. “It does display a lot of what you said these Nosferatu would do to their victims. I even made an APO localization chart. Souls extend up through the higher dimensions, you see, and the APO localization chart is a three-dimensional ‘snap shot’ of it.
“Anyhow, the thing is that whatever did this to this poor person... it basically ripped their soul to shreds and then sucked it out of them.”
“Yee-gads,” said Benjamin in revulsion. “It’s like how a spider eats its prey.”
“What do you mean?” asked Shinobu.
“The reason why spider bites hurt so much if they get their venom into you is because it’s like digestive enzymes. It predigests the prey’s innards within its own carapace, and then the spider just sucks it all out.”
Washu nodded at that. “And whatever is doing this? That’s pretty much exactly what it did to this person’s soul.”
Shinobu shuddered at the idea and Benjamin couldn’t blame her one bit.
Next part is gonna be a bit slower in coming because we're gonna be getting into the knock-down-drag-out bits...
Benjamin put his disguise away, went through the shower, then slept through the morning and early afternoon. As Nanoha, Fate, and the rest of Team Fisherman had slept the night away in Washu’s lab, they spent that time demonstrating travel magic for Washu, who then spent the evening putting together a sensor drone specially made for their purposes.
When Ben woke up at two in the afternoon, he got himself fed, checked in with everyone, then retired to his apartment. He felt at a bit of a loose ends, so he opened the windows and the front door, leaving the security door closed, vacuumed the bedrooms, and swept and mopped all the other floors. He then threw his laundry into the washing machine, set the cycles, and finally went back to the living room where he picked up his guitar, sat down, and started playing.
For a few minutes, he just doodled around, playing nonsense riffs and licks until he suddenly found himself laying an old favorite of his.
There was a polite knock at his door.
“Come in,” he said without interrupting the music.
Nanoha and Fate came inside. Nanoha was smiling at seeing the guitar again. Now that Ben was not in his Halloween costume, Nanoha got a better sense of him as his fingers plucked the strings and shifted over the frets.
Fate simply stared in wide-eyed wonder. She had heard some music, but most of it was Alicia’s memories. She had ever imagined that a single person could make such a wondrous sound.
“How long have you known how to play guitar, Benjamin?” asked Nanoha as she and Fate sat down on the sectional sofa.
“Not long, really,” said Ben with wry smile. “I cheated and asked Washu-chan to implant the skills into my brain. Part of having ADD is that the part of your brain that gives you a satisfied feeling from doing hard work is kinda broken. Traditional awards systems don’t work on me. I only wanted to be able to play well, not spend countless hours sounding like crap.”
Fate giggled at that. “That does sound like you alright~.”
Nanoha laughed as well. “So what song are you playing now? I think I’ve heard it before, but I don’t know what it is.”
Ben smiled. “Doesn’t surprise me much. The Beatles had quite an impact on Japan during their time. This is one of their early songs and it is called The Fool on The Hill. It’s about a man who sits by himself on top of a hill. Nobody likes him because he is so different from everyone else. But even though he wants friends, he knows the people that do not like him are not worth his time, even though he tries anyways.”
Knowing that they would want to hear it for themselves, he cycled back to the opening verse, and began to sing.
Day after day, alone on a hill
The man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still
But nobody wants to know him
They can see that he's just a fool
But he never gives an answer
But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning ‘round
Well on the way, head in a cloud
The man of a thousand voices is talking perfectly loud
But nobody ever hears him
Or the sound he appears to make
And he never seems to notice
But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning ‘round
And nobody seems to like him
They can tell what he wants to do
And he never shows his feelings
But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning ‘round
He never listens to them
He knows that they're the fools
They don't like him
The fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning ‘round
As Nanoha and Fate both listened, smiling and yet thoughtful, Ben let the music trail off and rested his guitar in his lap.
“The song was very special to me when I was much younger,” he said with a sad, distant smile. “I was so very different from everyone else. Nobody saw the world the way I did. Whenever I looked around, I saw how everything interacts. Causes, effects. Machines moving. People reacting. I would try to see exactly how it is that the world spins on.
“And nobody understood me. They had no frame of reference.
“When I grew older, I eventually started to learn how to frame it for other people to understand. Those that listened? They were shocked. Because here I was, this seemingly quiet, hyperactive teen who always ate as if he was starving, had just said something that completely shifted their paradigm.” He then grinned a bit mischievously. “Sometimes without the benefit of a clutch.”
They blinked at him in confusion.
“It’s why some cars have three pedals instead of two. A clutch momentarily disconnects the engine from the transmission so you can shift gears without grinding them and ruining your transmission.”
“Oooh!” said Nanoha as if she got it... then frowned. “But what’s a paradigm?”
“A perspective,” said Ben. “And a way of thinking. Such as he culture of another country and their way of thinking. A paradigm shift is when someone’s way of thinking and looking at the world changes.” Ben grinned again. “And a paradigm shifting without a clutch can be like you suddenly realized something that is so radically different from what you knew before that it feels like your brain just exploded.”
Nanoha and Fate both laughed hysterically at that as Ben kept grinning and bobbed his eyebrows at them.
He then went on, “But that’s just how I am. I have a tendency to change people. A girlfriend I once had told me that I was like this crazy and intense storm that came into her life, and completely turned her world upside down. She said that because of me, the world was never going to be the same again afterwards.”
“That sounds kinda scary,” said Nanoha, suddenly sober at this revelation.
“It is for a lot of people,” said Ben with a shrug. “A lot of people... they like the status quo and they’re afraid of things changing. But then...” Ben spoke again, this time reciting instead of singing, “‘He never listens to them, He knows that they’re the fools, They don’t like him, But the fool on the hill sees the sun going down, and the eyes in his head see the world spinning ‘round.’”
Nanoha got up at that, came over to Ben's side, sat down, and leaned up against him. Fate got up and did the same on his other side.
“I don’t care what others think,” said Nanoha. “You’re my fool on the hill. And Fate’s, too.”
Ben didn’t say anything. He simply took up his guitar again and started playing.
When I find myself in times of trouble
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom
Let it be...
##
That night, as Benjamin and the others went out into the grungy part of town on the west side the the expressway, there was one other report in addition to the others.
“The Mosquito is free. Telemetry is good.”
And for several hours, the night was quiet just as before.
As Benjamin was settling in for a nap, Sousuke’s voice sounded in his ear.
“Alert! The Mosquito has detected activity. Polecat, proceed to North Medina and West Martin - it’s in the loading dock between the Databank Building and Scobey Cold Storage.”
“Eagle Nest, Polecat copies,” said Ben as he got up and started running. It took him a moment since he’d been on the far side of the search area. But by the time he got there, all he could see was one person slumped against the loading dock platform as though they were another homeless person sleeping.
But the fact that they were completely unclothed put the lie to that. It didn’t help matters that the loading dock had been fenced off.
“Eagle Nest, Polecat. No activity. Possible corpse sighted.”
“Polecat, Eagle Nest. Understood. The Mosquito reports the activity ceased just before you came within line of sight. Mother Hen wants that body. Dispatching a drone to your location.”
“Polecat, Eagle Nest Actual,” came Noike’s voice. “I’m calling it for the night. Sticking around now is only asking for trouble. Stand by to receive your extraction point.”
“Eagle Nest Actual, Polecat. Copy that. Will move once the package is secure.
##
Shinobu Tsukimura gazed at the corpse with barely contained horror.
“This... This is monstrous,” she murmured just barely loud enough to be heard.
“No offense, Shinobu,” said Benjamin politely, “but we kinda gathered that. Can you elaborate any?”
“...There are old stories,” she said quietly. “Stories of the primordial progenitors of our kind. Things that you can’t even call human. We called them Nosferatu. And when they fed, they took everything. Not just blood, but all the electrolytes too. And even more horrifying was that they even sucked out their very life essence... and the soul as well.
“How such abominations came to be, we do not know. The only good thing about them is that they would only need to feed in such a manner once in a century. In the meantime, they took servants, turning them into the night walkers that you’re more familiar with.”
“What happened to these Nosferatu?” asked Ben.
“There were exterminated by their servants. Eventually they had turned enough humans that they had the power of numbers on their side. They revolted against the Nosferatu, and then afterwards turned to a more quiet way of life - remaining hidden, sometimes in plain sight, and only feeding as they needed to. But... there were stories that a few Nosferatu survived. Lurking in dark places, and living wretched lives in order to remain hidden.
“Father used to tell Suzuka and I stories about these things in order to frighten us. But even so, I never thought that any could be real.”
“I doubt that’s the case,” said Washu.
“How?” asked Shinobu.
“This body has no bite marks. Shinobu, I know this might seem rude, but may I see your fangs?”
“If it helps, then yes,” said the girl. She then opened her mouth and bared her teeth. And then her canines, which had already looked unusually sharp before, extended by nearly an inch.
“Please, come closer,” asked Washu.
Shinobu reluctantly went down on one knee, and Washu gently took Shinobu’s face in her hands, carefully tilting her head this way and that so she could see the fangs in full detail.
“Remarkable,” said Washu as she took her hands away. “Thank you, Shinbu, that’s enough.”
Right away, her fangs retracted back into their original positions, and she closed her mouth as she got up again.
“Later when this is all over with, Shinobu, I would like to ask if I could perform a full examination of you - don’t worry, nothing invasive. Just a few scans and a DNA sample. If you don’t mind.”
“It doesn’t sound like much trouble, but why?”
“Well, I am a scientist, am I not? I am simply very curious about how you work, dear. And besides, should something happen to you or anyone in your family, it would be good for me to know how to treat you properly.”
Shinobu nodded. “It is hard to find a medical professional who is versed in our particular biology,” said Shinobu. “If you’re willing to be our family’s doctor, then I will not mind.”
“Great! Now, back to this...” said Washu, looking to the corpse once again and her face turning thoughtful. “It does display a lot of what you said these Nosferatu would do to their victims. I even made an APO localization chart. Souls extend up through the higher dimensions, you see, and the APO localization chart is a three-dimensional ‘snap shot’ of it.
“Anyhow, the thing is that whatever did this to this poor person... it basically ripped their soul to shreds and then sucked it out of them.”
“Yee-gads,” said Benjamin in revulsion. “It’s like how a spider eats its prey.”
“What do you mean?” asked Shinobu.
“The reason why spider bites hurt so much if they get their venom into you is because it’s like digestive enzymes. It predigests the prey’s innards within its own carapace, and then the spider just sucks it all out.”
Washu nodded at that. “And whatever is doing this? That’s pretty much exactly what it did to this person’s soul.”
Shinobu shuddered at the idea and Benjamin couldn’t blame her one bit.
Next part is gonna be a bit slower in coming because we're gonna be getting into the knock-down-drag-out bits...