Monster Research Society 2, An Amazing Old Man Appears!

For other scenes, please refer to my paste bin.

Last time, young protagonist Ricky enjoyed an ordinary afternoon with his sly childhood friend, the mature(?) succubus Anna. Their everyday conversations are interrupted as Ricky's Father announces his arrival.

I suggest playing alice1.ogg for this scene, found here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-GjXk3kc48
As before, thanks for reading and please enjoy.

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“Time for a dramatic entrance!” With that, Father vaults over the upper floor railing and becomes a blur of motion, spinning through the air countless times before making a thunderous, heavy landing. The robust, olive skinned, short and mostly bald man with the wide stance grunts heavily and then raises his head. He gives a big thumbs up and proudly says, “Nailed it.” I applaud diligently, on cue. Father whips his head back and roars with laughter. So ends our almost peaceful afternoon. “Ah, I'm really great, huh?” he declares in his unmistakably dark, low, growling voice. It's the kind of voice that sounds like it could only say things that are deadly serious, a voice incapable of frivolity. That's what you'd think, until you heard him say something ridiculous of course.

“You're obnoxiously loud, as always. Keep it down, there are people working here you know?” Anna follows her tongue lashing by hurling the thickest tome in arm's reach at Father.

He catches the book with ease and casts a sly look at the succubus. “Indeed, I'm always wonderfully boisterous.”

“That's not what I said...” Poor Anna doesn't really stand a chance against Father.

“Son, did you observe my magnificent quadruple front flip off the banister?” he proudly beams.

“Yes Father,” I return.

He looks away and exaggeratedly places his hand in front of my face. “No, no, no! You've failed the test! It was most definitely a quintuple back flip! Didn't you think it was strange I said front flip? Who says front flip?”

“Ah... it was that, huh?” I'm actually not sure if people say front flip.

“You need more training!” My ridiculously muscled Father declares. It's said that in his past, he was a lion in the deserts of Sabasa who, observing the plights of man, took pity and took human form so as to bring the righteous judgment of the heavens to the needy masses of the world... I guess it's no surprise that it was Father who said this. Tall tales aside, he has an incredible history of scholarly pursuits and heroic achievement. If he's an incredibly absurd old man it's because he's earned the right to it. He wears a toga, like the ancient scholars, and walks the earth in simple sandals. This man exemplifies the ideal image of a keen mind and healthy body. He's my Father, and I truly, truly love and respect him.

Anna looks annoyed. “The incredible transformation from adolescent scholar to adoring son has occurred.”

Father puffs himself up and whips his single long, thick white braid of hair. I guess it's a meaningless gesture, but he does a lot of things like that. “Please, ignore my grand entrance. I believe you were talking about nicknames.”

“Don't make unnecessarily stupid entrances to begin with!” Well, Anna's full of energy again. That was fast. Father will tire her out quickly enough though.

“Unnecessary? Bah and hah! There is no such thing as an unnecessary grand entrance! You never know who might be watching at any moment! The kind of incredible impression that it burns into a person's mind, it's a goal worth pursuing!” He looks thoughtful as he grasps his chin. “Indeed, to make my point...” His eyes flash open and he points dramatically at the front door! “Look over there!”

But there's no one.

Still no one.

Nope.

My Father's hand returns to his chin and he closes his eyes. “Next time.”

“Never! It'll never happen!” Please understand, that's not me. I think Anna's the only person who could yell at him like that. Well, I'm sure a lot of people would like to, at least. Maybe only monsters have that kind of courage?

“In any case, you were talking about nicknames.”

The exasperated succubus groans. “What about it?”

“It's very cuuute. My adorable subordinates have little pet names to call each other by. I like it. It's good for morale. I was thinking that I should have one too.”

Anna looks annoyed about the subordinates remark but she's quick on her feet with an insult. “Old Ben,” she swiftly suggests.

Father's right eyebrow twitches slightly. “Hmm, try again.”

“Ancient Ben.”

“Once more.”

“Prehistoric Ben.”

“Why do they keep getting older?!” I suppose it could be said that Anna is kind of incredible herself for being able to shake Father. It's just another reason among many to respect her.

Pleased with herself, Anna takes hold of the conversation's reigns. “Isn't it kind of pathetic to be begging for nicknames anyway?” Ah, she's being really mean. If this were a visual novel, there'd be a stabbing sound here to represent the mental trauma Father is going through. Well, I'm sure he'll be fine. “If you're that desperate, just ask your fanatically loyal son. I'm sure you'll find the emotional pandering you're looking for.”

Father recovers quickly. “Hmm. No, that's unnecessary. You see, we have a manly understanding between us. Isn't that right?”

I nod. “I'm not sure about manly, but yeah.”

He returns my gesture with gusto. “That said...” He adopts a falsetto voice and continues. “I'd really love it sometimes if you called me 'Daddy' or 'Poppa'!” He looks to me, gauging my reaction, but I fail to give him whatever it was he was looking for. Father sighs. “He's grown up so fast.”

The girl with the wandering tail shakes her head in dismay. “How is it our conversations always seem to turn out like this? Aren't we scholars? You'd think that we'd at least be a bit better behaved.”

“Have no shame, Anna darling.” She visibly quakes in disgust. Father doesn't notice. “It is human nature to be frivolous and joyful. It's simple. Work is work. Play is play.”

“But aren't we just playing at work? Not that I'm human anyway.”

Father thinks on that a moment. “Work? I had something to say, didn't I? Ah.” His fist slaps against his palm. “Nicknames aside, we have a job. An expedition.”

We both perk up at that. “Well Ben, now you have my attention,” she says. “It's been a while since we've gone out on a research mission, hasn't it?”

I finally have a chance to step back into the conversation. “It's just been too dangerous lately. It's hard to feel like you're safe when you're alone. It's like you're always hearing about some famed scoundrel or bandit group rampaging outside the city. And the church of Ilias has gotten really loud lately.”

Anna shivers. “Haven't they though? I thought that disgusting organization was on the way out the door but lately there's been a resurgence. But why? It's just the worst. Those Ilias people give me the creeps. Bad enough they're a bunch of sanctioned monster haters but now they're on every street corner with their doomsday preaching.”

Father adopts a grave look. “In times past, the human and monster populations were in flux due to predation and violence. Established power bases could defend the majority of threatened populations but the inability to acquire resources outside of these regions further limited population growth. But in these times of peace, we've gone outside our walls, fled the safety of our numbers in a greedy rush to increase our own personal gains. Our people have grown fat, complacent, many in number. But so too are there those who have failed. And in their masses they have come together to threaten our peace. Sadly, their greed itself is one shared by many of their victims. It is their need that has made them into villains.” Father can say some incredible things sometimes. But his expression softens into a goofy smile. “Or something like that. I'll leave it to the scholars.”

“No, that's you... Nevermind.” Anna shrugs as she gives up. “So what is this mission?”

“There are reports of a giant in the foothills. But this is an unusual location for a giant sighting. What's more, I do not believe that the local resources are enough to support a giant, not while it's contesting Grand Noah at least. In addition, there haven't been any reports of granaries being raided, nor merchants being robbed. That considered, I'd say that the chance of a giant actually being present in the region are slim. Regardless, we'll be investigating. If it's an exaggeration, it's likely an ogrekin, oni hopefully. There's also the chance it could be a goblinoid subspecies. I'd be satisfied with an interview with any such entities.”

“Goblinoid?” I venture.

Father, excited at the prospect, speaks more quickly. “Extremely rare variant, the bugbear. Very few recorded sightings. The idea of a giant goblin sounds strange but there it is. I'd assume that due to their incredible size, a normal goblin society might have difficulty housing and feeding them, creating a need to exile them for the safety of the community. I suppose alternatively a bugbear could dominate the society instead, what with bigger usually coinciding with stronger. Of course, this is all under the supposition that bugbears are abnormalities, mutations perhaps, born within the goblin race and not an entirely unique species that can only be born from bugbear mothers. There's just not enough data to make a solid hypothesis so we'll just have to proceed with the understanding that all the previously mentioned points could be true. Of course, this is all only relevant if it IS a bugbear.”

I wish I could contribute to Father's musings, but Anna has that point covered. “Isn't what you're describing just a hobgoblin?”

He shakes his head. “I'm fairly certain that by now there's enough evidence to support that there's no size difference between goblin and hobgoblin. It's simply a matter of power.”

“I'd argue that point,” Anna stubbornly presses.

“Then we'll accept your assertion. There's no point in arguing it since it doesn't contradict my point. Even accepting what you say, there are reports that suggest a larger 'super goblin' may exist. A hobgoblin should be approximately human sized, a bit larger perhaps, but a bugbear should dwarf even them. A veritable goblin giant!”

The contemplative monster furrows her brows. “Is that even possible?”

“I certainly hope to find out,” he happily concludes.

The scholar succubus considers for a while. “Well, this certainly is the right region for goblin sightings.”

“Right?” Father happily adds. “Who knows, we might even be invited back to their village! Imagine, the discovery of a goblin village, it's practically unprecedented!”

Anna gives him a skeptic look. “I think that perhaps that's expecting a bit much.”

“Anything can happen! The sky's the limit!”

“Please don't feed me such cliched inspirational lines.” But I can definitely tell that Anna's excited at the prospect.

“Excellent!” Of course, Father hears what he wants. “Then we'll depart tomorrow!”

That's disappointing. The way he was going on I really thought we were going to go now. Anna looks similarly deflated.“Tomorrow?” she complains. “If it's the foothills we could probably manage it today.”

“Probably, maybe, but I'd much rather we made an early start of it.” This elicits a groan from Anna. Maybe someone should get up regularly at a decent hour. “There's also the matter of provisions. Should we enter an extended investigation we could be out in the wilderness maybe... three days? More? We should be prepared for anything. So I suggest we begin our adventure now with a supply run. Shall we?”

“Of course!” I answer.

Determined not to be left behind, Anna moves to join as well. “I'll purchase my own rations, thank you.”

Of course, Father takes the lead. “It's decided!” He gives a celebratory fist pump and everyone's completely in the mood. It's an adventure! “We foray into the urban jungle of Grand Noah! What danger awaits us? What evil lurks in the alleys?”

“It's just Grand Noah...” Anna practically puts forth, but it's lost on Father who charges out the door. “He is human, isn't he?” the succubus complains. I shrug and dash after my amazing guardian and with little pause Anna follows. Like that we go, leaving home behind.

…

The sound of a creaking door announces the emergence of the manor's other occupants. They'd been avoiding the commotion, doing their best to work in spite of the building's other rowdy residents. “They are gone, aren't they?” Slightly rotund Dave ventures.

“Finally,” the so-stressed-she's-aging-prematurely Alicia adds. The two breathe a sigh of relief in unison. “I'm an awful person, aren't I?”

Dave laughs. “We both are.” He pauses, then moves the conversation elsewhere. “Damn it, why don't I have an apprentice by now? I've been copying 'Great Battles of History, Sentora' for a solid week and my hand's ready to fall off. This is not proper work for a layman of the Monster Research Society! Right?” His associate offers an almost compassionate shrug in response. Dave frowns. “They think I'm a bitter person...” followed by indistinct grumbling. “I'm not a bitter person...”

“That sounds like a rather bitter remark.” Alicia comments offhandedly. Dave's frown deepens but he doesn't respond. The conversation ends. Nothing more needs to be said. And Alicia smiles. “Back to work then?”

Dave sighs from a place deep in his soul. “Back to work.” Two doors shut in the Monster Research Society's Grand Noah Branch Office and life goes on.

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Everyone knows that a proper quest starts with information and resource gathering. Will this straightforward undertaking have a simple resolution or will Ben's ominous prediction ring true? I hope to see you again next in 'Grand Noah, A Peaceful Future?' Until then, here's another page from 'Encyclopedia Persona 1336'.

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Alicia

Age 30, a laywoman of the Monster Research Society. This anxious person has lived in the shadow of fear her entire life. Having lost her brother to a spider girl, she sought out an avenue for vengeance. But lacking any kind of martial prowess, she never found the justice she searched for. Instead, she joined the Monster Research Society hoping to further the causes of anti-monster organizations with information regarding monster behavior, environmental tendencies, diets, and most importantly their weaknesses. She violently opposed Anna's induction into the MRS and left quite a negative first impression on the succubus. In  time, however, Alicia has revised her opinion of the monster and actually respects her. She's been looking for a way to atone for her actions for some time now.

Level: 1
HP: 21
Skills:  Glare
	 Detect