Before they knew it, Benjamin had used up all the batter after smoothly creating pancake after pancake on the one dozen pans that he had been using, towering them up on plates for everyone to eat their fill, and after a little while, the whole family was eating breakfast together.
"These are great, Dad! God, how I've missed your cooking…" Natsuo exclaimed mouth full with fluffy, maple goodness. Pushing up his glasses to the bridge of his nose as tears began to well up in the corners of his eyes. In response to this, Christie quickly gave him a quick smack over the head. "Shut it, you C-Grade actor. But at least he's right with this time; these pancakes do taste great, Benjamin. And I'm impressed with all that fancy stuff you did right there… it was amazing to watch!"
"Thank you, Christie. And you, Natsuo, stop playing the Lyre and get to the point." Benjamin said with a light smirk before Natsuo began scratching the back of his head with a smile saying 'You caught me,' while Tony choked on his food.
"Dad, you still say that? I haven't heard that in years." Natsuo laughed loudly, already confusing Christie as well as the five kids, making them quite curious.
"Gramps, what does 'Playing the Lyre' mean?" Benji asked with a frown as he shoveled a fork full of his pancakes into his mouth, and the old man chuckled as he moved his fingers through his beard.
"Huh, I barely noticed that I said it. Well, it's something your Grandmother used to say. It actually didn't start as 'playing the Lyre', but with "being the Lyrebird," although I always only heard the former. The Lyrebird is known to be able to make any sound it hears, so it's something she used to say when catching someone lying." Benjamin explained, and Natsuo let out a loud, satisfied sigh.
"Yeah, that's quite nostalgic, but that wasn't the only thing those two always used to say. I think Mom would always call Dad a Panda when she wanted him to relax more, right?"
Quickly, Tony nodded, snapping his fingers as he tried to remember something else. "Right, right! And then there was this thing she said to tell us not to talk to strangers… 'Don't trust the Raccoon wearing a Lion's Mask', or something like that, right?"
With a laugh, Benjamin agreed, feeling calm as he remembered the little quirks he picked up from his wife. "Yeah… She said a lot of that kinda stuff. Most of which even I didn't fully understand, but I didn't really mind." He laughed, finishing his plate of pancakes and placing it into the dishwasher, while the others continued talking a bit about this and that.
After a little bit of cleaning up after himself and everyone else, Benjamin turned around to them again. "Well, everyone, I think we should let Natsuo sleep a little bit. Melody, Sophia, and Michael are coming only around this evening, so it's fine to sleep as long as you want."
"Sounds good to me. Are Christie and I staying in my old room?" Natsuo asked with a loud yawn, stretching as he grabbed his and his Wife's suitcase before Benjamin quickly nodded.
"Yeah, exactly. Oh, but first, what was the thing you wanted before?" Benjamin asked as he helped Natsuo carry everything, and he chuckled softly. "Would you let me take a look at the capsule, I'm very curious about how it all works? Like, the dive technology has existed for a while, and through light electrical currents it's also possible to quite easily simulate touch, but we still haven't figured out how to actually configure things for complex senses like smell or taste, and especially not weird, nonexistent stuff such as the feeling that 'mana' has in there. That shouldn't really be possible yet, at least not with the current technology that we're supposed to have. I'm not gonna break anything, and I only want to take a look behind some of the surface panels."
With a sigh, Benjamin frowned at his son but ended up nodding. "If you really only remove the plastic covers, then sure, you can go ahead."
"Awesome Dad, thanks. Well, see you after my 8-hour coma." Natsuo said as he took off his shoes and clothes before simply letting himself drop into his bed, while Benjamin placed down the suitcases.
"Sleep well Natsuo." The old man chuckled and made his way out of the room again, stepping back into the living room where the rest of the family was waiting. And it seemed like two of them found a particular little gadget.
"Grampa, Grampa! The ball is talking! Can Lyla and I take it apart? Pretty, pretty pleeease?!" Lola asked as she was holding Rover in her arms, with even Lyla, who usually had a very blank expression, seeming excited.
"Hmm, taking it apart is not a good idea. But I'm sure Rover can explain to you how he works." Benjamin suggested before Rover's eyes quickly moved in an up and down motion as if he was nodding.
"I will do my best in order to not be destroyed!" Rover exclaimed in an overexcited tone, before Lola and Lyla looked at each other with glittering eyes, happily dropping down onto the ground to listen to what this small robot had to say.
"Should we go outside again and rest for another day? It would be unfair to leave Natsuo alone, and I'm sure you three are also pretty exhausted, even if you don't need to sleep right now." The old man suggested, and nobody seemed to have anything to say against it. So, they all quickly stepped outside and spent another day basking in the sun.
---
Over the day, Benjamin actually spent a reasonable amount of time texting with everyone from the Originals, as well as Komer, to see how everything went.
It seemed like Evalia was picked up by Ailren quite swiftly, and they then arrived around the evening of the in-game day after Benjamin went to bed there.
He told her where Benjamin could find him once he was back and then left her to her own devices. At first, Benjamin thought the Ancient Dragon would join them all in the Inn for a bit, but he was actually quite glad this wasn't the case. Benjamin wanted to be there when Ailren met Dien since the old man had no idea what would happen, and whether or not he would be angry, or wouldn't care at all. But to be safe, having a de-escalator there was quite useful.
Other than that, it seemed like Brody and Jyuuk were still about a real-life day away from reaching Handor.
But the thing that Benjamin wanted to be most informed about was the situation with the next group of players, the Deltas, that would be appearing a few hours after Benjamin went to bed in the game.
Apparently, Handor was not a regular startertown for players, and Xenia only started there because she was an Original, as such the group in the Magic City hadn't directly encountered any of the Deltas yet. But Jyuuk and Brody, on the other hand, had to travel through many different small towns and villages, which meant that they met quite a few handfuls of these new players.
From what Jyuuk could tell Benjamin, none of them seemed especially extraordinary in talent or ability beyond their knowledge of game-logic, which didn't apply all that much in the World of Magic. As such, it seemed like there was a little bit of conflict coming up with the NPCs already, although, in the end, there were no real major incidents yet. Since many of the Deltas were quite pleasant and helpful, always trying to get new quests to further themselves while helping the different townfolk, the opinions of most NPCs was quite high so far, with a few smaller exceptions, of course.
Besides that, there was nothing especially noteworthy that seemed to have happened, as the group in Handor was patiently waiting for Benjamin's arrival. Xenia kept telling him about how weird it looked when Benjamin's new arm grew since it seemed a little bit like a pulsating lump of metal forming on his side that slowly changed shape over a few hours to look exactly like it used to.
Regardless, around 10 pm, Benjamin was patiently waiting for the rest of his guests to arrive, he had already finished preparing all of the rooms, so all that was left was for them to arrive. Apparently, they ate on the way, so the old man didn't need to prepare anything for them to eat later.
Soon enough, the doorbell rang, and Benjamin quickly got up to open the door, while Benji, Tony, and Christie, the only ones beside Benjamin currently awake, also stood up to greet and help the new arrivals.
When the old man opened the door, he was quickly met with the sight of four people. First, his Daughter Melody, with her shoulder-length black hair lying openly next to her head.
Next to her stood Michael, Melody's husband, and he really seemed to wear a white button-up shirt with some random tie whenever he could. Of course, the shirt was tucked into his black pants, and his short blond hair was neatly gelled and parted to the side.
Then, there were the two teenagers, Sophia, Benjamin's granddaughter, looking extremely annoyed at her parents after an 18-hour trip, as well as an exhausted and awkward-looking boy with a slight emo-look to him.
"Hey there, everyone! Come on in I'm sure you're tired." The old man said after leaning in to hug his daughter and Granddaughter. And quickly giving his Son-in-law and Sophia's friend, and at the same time her fake boyfriend, a hearty handshake, looking at the latter with a smile.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Sophia's Grandfather, but you can call me Benjamin. Please feel right at home here." He said before the teenage-boy looked at Sophia, confused, but once she nodded, he greeted him back.
"Th-Thanks, I'm Kyle, nice to meet you to Mr.Jo- Benjamin." Kyle stuttered with a light smile, continuing to look Benjamin up and down before they all greeted the other three people in the room.
"Benji, bring Kyle to your guys' room, alright? Ah, Kyle, you were alright with sharing a room with someone, right?" The old man asked, and Kyle quickly nodded.
"Yeah, that's totally fine with me." He responded, quickly taking his suitcase before whispering something into Sophia's ear, causing her to make a slightly disgusted face, softly punching Kyle's shoulder, and whispering something back to him.
Once the three teenagers left, only five of the six adults in the house were left in the room. With a smile, Benjamin turned to Michael and Melody. "Sorry that Natsuo isn't here right now, he was quite tired when they arrived this morning, and he seems to be still asleep."
"Tsk, yeah, that lazy bum of a husband" Christie muttered out, already getting a sour look from Michael, which the police-woman swiftly ignored.
"It's fine, Benjamin. I can understand him, I'm pretty tired myself. Melody, let's go to bed now." Michael said with his trademark hollow smile before Melody nodded and quickly looked at her father.
"Goodnight Dad, make sure you get enough sleep." She told him, and Benjamin simply smiled and directed them to sleep in her old room.
Once both of them were out of hearing range, the slander immediately began. "Urgh, I can't stand that guy. If I had to deal with him at work, I'd arrest him just cuz he's an ass."
With a sigh, Tony quickly agreed. "Yeah, but he's Melody's husband. We can't just tell him we don't like him."
"Exactly, so please try to get along with him and share your toys, alright?" Benjamin chuckled, pretending to be talking to a few kids at the playground.
With a shrug, Tony sat down on the couch again, turning on the TV, jokingly responding to his father. "Yeah, but if he takes my Captain Amazing Action-figure again, I'm biting him."
Smiling lightly, Benjamin sat down next to Tony, while Christie stood behind them while shaking her head in disappointment. "Superhero names really suck these days, huh?"