WHO: Nanaki WHAT: Catch-up with grandpa (Topics: State of Garden, Dr. Gerhardt, bangle downgrading and...crossbowcutie?!) WHERE: Dorm WHEN: Late evening of July 17
"So everything's back to normal, the basement's cleaned up and classes are back to normal again and people don't seem to hate me as much as they did. It helped going around as the other guy, and I was advertising myself as a citizen of good sniffing standing than a feral with rabies."
Bugenhagen stroked his wispy beard all the way in Esthar while his grandson gave a summary of events to go with the how are you question. "I was right of course. I knew the trick to your acclimatization was revealing your secret rather than keep the canary in the cage. I would have done it a long time ago."
"They would have gotten me just the same," Nanaki didn't need to define who 'they' were, "And worse, they might have done their research better if the truth is out there for public consumption, ready to be moogled at will. I think this is the best possible outcome...though I'm sorry to have to hurt people. You remember Sage? The healer I told you about? She was captured in a cocoon for months. I feel horrible for anything happening to her, it feels like I jinxed her." He rested his chin against the heel of his hand. "But she couldn't remember and I don't consider it an out in my part, I'm just glad that unpleasant event wouldn't haunt her."
"Poor thing," His grandfather sympathized with a frown, "How is she doing?"
"I think she's been released but... I don't know if she's all right. The interns aren't very helpful, I think they're keeping something." If those shifty eyes were anything. "I hope she'll be fine soon."
"And," Bugenhagen clasped his hands together on the table like an interviewer. "What of crossbowcutie?"
Nanaki's cheeks flared like two fire bombs, "I guess she's all right? Going out with her boyfriend." Emphasis on boyfriend.
Bugenhagen clicked his tongue and shook his head as though Nanaki had done him a great disappointment, "That is not the way, grandson. You call her immediately to ask how she is doing. Better, if you visit her usual haunts so you can look into her eyes like this." He demonstrated by staring into the depths of Nanaki's soul through his dark lens, "And tell her you care..."
Nanaki might have just flipped the table with his laptop if he didn't have 3 final papers he's working on there, "Grandpa, for the last time! She's not into me and she is steady with someone."
Bugenhagen was not daunted and calmly took a sip of his tea, "Or what if she is looking at other fish in the sea?"
"There's no fish in the sea because she's got the biggest one!" He said with hands sizing the length of a tuna, "Edgar Figaro, who's like the prince of Galbadia or something!" Now he was apologetic to Edgar for bringing him into this whole Loiregram confusion.
"Money is never enough to buy love, my grandson!" Bugenhagen declared with a passion, "And you have something this Edgar Figaro does not have, a young and wild untamed soul!"
Nanaki wanted to throw his pizza slice and his headset at his grandfather. Or run away screaming. But all he did was rub his eyes and try not to gouge them all out.
"Come now you can't tell me you are not attracted to her. Let's see, she is intelligent with a knack for science, she is redhead like that singer on your posters, she seems to have a sense of humor and is outgoing... "
"And I'm going grandpa, I'm seriously disconnecting this." He threatened with a mouse pointer hovered over END CALL.
"Pah! Must your grandpa do everything himself--"
"What? Don't do anything!!" Nanaki exclaimed palms out to the screen, "Seriously, don't make this weird. She's one of the few friends I have here and yes don't you think it's possible that we could just be friends? That's it, change topic grandpa. What's the latest in the lab about Gerhardt?"
If there was another topic that would hold his grandfather, that would be it. "Let's say it's been a source of excitement. As you know, some of the fellows had been betrayed by this man and they are demanding swift justice and a shoot-to-kill order. I am more concerned of the people who have Gerhardt now. It would not bode too well. Recently the army inspected the security at the space station, but I have this odd feeling we are not looking at where we should be..."
"Hrm," Nanaki did not like his grandfather's odd feelings. Beyond the telescopes and his holographic observatory, his grandfather was a man who would look up to the stars and pay attention to their faint humming. He would stand as an anchor in the midst of a swirling galaxy and seemingly hear a false chord, something wrong about to happen. He just had that hunch, something Nanaki would describe poorly as a remarkable affinity for...well, the workings of the universe and life at large. It was nothing scientific, it was more like attuning to a spiritual energy.
"As long as it's not a Lunar Cry." Because what could honestly be worse than that calamity from the skies? "We would be fine right?"
"Are you familiar of the writings on the wall that appeared in Dollet and Timber?"
Nanaki squinted, trying to remember the messages, "Somewhat, why? Something about falling stars?"
"Mmm. We must watch these developments, grandson. 10 years have gone since the last Lunar Cry and the planet had kept its eye on itself. The skies could be telling us something, and we are not listening."
Times like this, he would wish his father was around to explain to him in more realistic terms what his grandfather meant. Nanaki could be staring up at the stars and just get dizzy not knowing where and how to look, much as he wanted to see and hear this universal conspiracy that his grandfather was privy to.
"About your bangle, grandson."
And in a snap Nanaki was back to reality, back inside his fluorescent-lit dorm with 3 papers due and indeed, a steel accessory around his wrist that keeps him speaking to his grandfather as a human being rather as an amalgam of a lion and a wolf.
"I did speak to the laboratory as you requested and they appear to think the idea has its merits."
"I'm right, right?" And this time Nanaki was excited, "The bangle's function to inhibit my propensity to shift was proven to have an effect in memory and streams of consciousness. And now I think it also affects motor memory to a certain extent. I took notes grandpa, numerous transformations later. There's a clarity that I'm able to achieve without the bangle. I think it's been preventive in more ways than one. Can they do something? Can they lower down the frequency?"
Bugenhagen watched his grandson jump up his chair and argue his point of view with hands flung in inspiration. He had a teenage son once, at Nanaki's age he too would be abuzz with ideas. Colleagues would congratulate the astronomer how he gifted the budding scientist was and how he would surpass the old man himself. Bugenhagen smiled and believed it.
Until. Of course.
Nanaki pulled his chair with a pleased, eye-squinted smile. "I'm figuring it out grandpa. I think the next step is to be used of having the guy around."
Bugenhagen quirked a bushy eyebrow, "You mean try to be more animal?"
"Try to be freer! Grandpa, this bangle chains me down..."
Once he had encouraged his grandson to come out of his shell, but now Bugenhagen find himself setting the limits. "Nanaki, Much as this could help you score a date with crossbowcutie" (Nanaki groaned, covering his face) "This is an interesting development, but are you truly prepared? You told me yourself that you are still unable to control the creature on a full moon."
"I know...I'm not walking around without a bangle but maybe it would help if it's toned down. Maybe I'd be able to fight decently without shifting, because the reflexes and enhanced senses are there..." Nanaki picked something from the side, his issued knives, "I need to be able to fight with this if I'm going to try out to be a SeeD and I think I could do it if the bangle is kept at a lower frequency."
"I don't recommend that you try this without supervision...in fact we must consult your Headmaster and Instructor Xu first out of deference."
Nanaki cringed and raked back his hair, "Can't we just tell Cloud? The Headmaster won't say yes, he had been through this spider fiasco..."
Bugenhagen shook his head, "We must, then you must return to Esthar for a week so we can attempt and observe the adjusted bangle. But your assignment, is to ask the Balamb admin first."
Nanaki exhaled, "All right, I'll just...finish my papers then I'll ask."
Bugenhagen nodded. "And don't forget my advice."
"Go star-gazing?"
"No, score a date with crossbowcutie!"
"I'm just out of here." Nanaki reached for the mouse. "Good night grandpa. Don't forget your medicine."