[OOC][PLOT] Planning for Arc 2 - Crisis on Infinite Earths

[Black Aeronaut]

Depends on the wish.  "Can be" indeed.

For Ben, it's not really a second shot at childhood - for that he needs to have 'parents' be involved, but with him retaining all his prior knowledge, parents are superfluous.  However, it's a solid shot at correcting his physical, mental, and educational development.  He'll be taller than I am because he's definitely going to be eating better.

A word on his nutrition...

Nutrition was always an issue for me because I was never getting enough.  Ironic that when I was little my maternal grandparents were worried I'd become a chubby kid because of how, even at the age of three, I completely cleaned my plate.  EVERY.  DAMN.  TIME.

In case you don't know small children, this is a VERY unusual anomaly.  Kids between the ages of 3 and 5 will typically get most of their nutrition by snacking throughout the day and then have small meals.  I snacked a lot... and devoured meals that a kid twice my age would eat.  My metabolism was that freakish - and perfectly matched to my hyperactivity coupled with a brain that was constantly in overdrive.

And then I got brothers who were just as hungry and a father who was stingy.  It got so bad that kids would make fun of me because I would completely destroy my school lunches before most were even halfway done with theirs.  I was never once able to fully satisfy my appetite until I joined the Navy.  During recruit training, the only limit on food was however much we could eat in the time allotted, and I could already eat ridiculously fast.  I wound up putting on 20lbs in boot camp.  Most people wind up either losing weight, or not changing much at all as they trade fat for muscle.

I was scrawny at just at 120lbs at 5'8", which is a BMI of 18.2.  You're officially underweight at 18.5 or less, and overweight at 25 (my BMI after recruit training was 21.3).

As for parental units...  An interesting quandary.  Well, as Garrick told Boddole Zer, in a human being's second decade, a parent's role in a child's life tends to shift from active care to guidance and support.  

Regarding Parental Relations...

Ben's own parents presents a bit of a quandary in and of itself.  His father won't care much either way.  "It doesn't concern me," he'd say, and go his own way, not paying any mind and concerning himself only with his own affairs.

Ben's mother, on the other hand....  She's going to be pissed for a while.  She has a very low opinion of the idea of a man having more than one woman (she has her reasons for which we'll not go into detail).  Eventually, though, she'll get tag-teamed by Ruby, Fate, and Madoka, and she comes to accept that this somehow works.  While everyone isn't always happy 100% of the time, there's still happiness enough to make getting through the rough parts worth it.

Ben's mother will mentor the more artistically inclined of the girls, be their interests in painting, photography, music, literature, or even gardening (especially gardening).  But once children are on the way... well, she's been known to live up to the phrase "Grandma is the name, and spoiling is my game!"

The only other known parental units are the Takamachis, the Kanames, Taiyang Xiao Long, and Lindy Harlaown.  They would certainly all play active roles, especially after the Takamachis and Taiyang give the Kanames the primer for dealing with combat-ready teens.  Qrow would most certainly help out, but I don't know about Raven.  It would be interesting if Ben or one of the others did something that convinced her otherwise.

The Takamachis will take on a role as the odd family's silent sentinels.  While they will still have their regular business, they will keep a somewhat passive eye out for trouble, and caution Ben and the others where they see it's needed.  Benjamin, knowing how good they are, would take their word seriously - something they appreciate.  In other matters... they'll open the family's sword discipline to those in the group that wish to learn.

The Kaname family will simply be family to the rest of them.  While Madoka's father will mentor others, her mother will particularly like Kyoko as she seems to have the right mindset to become a corporate shark.  (dunn-DUNN-dunn-DUNN-dunn-DUNN...)

Taiyang would definitely be Ben's mentor.  He would love younger-Ben's spunk and ready-willing-able attitude, even though he can be daunted by the scope of some tasks.  He especially loves Ben's willingness to meet his enemies head-on and be willing to teach Ben some of his tricks.

Raven... will be slow to come around on the idea.  She'll think Benjamin is utterly insane for standing up to the likes of the Incubators and Salem... but as the saying goes, it's not bragging if you can back it up.  And being a living M/AM weapon system tends to let a person back up a whole lot of bragging.  But what really catches her attention about Ben, personally, is that he hardly ever stops smiling, much like Taiyang.  And while her daughter isn't one of Ben's ladies (Not with Blake Belladonna and Sun Wukong in the picture), she is definitely caught in orbit around him.  The tempting call of 'Family' starts to drag her in until one day she sees Ben get serious.

She quickly has a change of heart and starts the rocky road of getting to know her daughter and the truly absurd 'Family' that's sprung up around her.  Strangely enough, she finds herself getting along well with Ben's mother - who, surprisingly enough, has a mild anarchistic streak in her (Green Anarchy - She likes to live off the grid) and was the black sheep of her own family.  (Just like Ben, further supporting his assertion that he's pretty much a gender-flipped clone of his mother.)

Jacques Schnee will actively detest Benjamin, thinking him nothing more than a jumped-up commoner.  He would pay no heed at all to the fact that Benjamin is a fighter that can legitimately take on the entire Alteasian Air Fleet and is being adopted by the Masaki-clan of Jurai.

However, in the midst of Jacques posturing, he'll lose the support of his butler, Klein Sieben, stating, "For being such a carnal young man, the boy is far more of a gentleman than you could ever be.  He actually treats those young ladies as people."  He will then tender his resignation and then go to work for Benjamin where he will be quite happy under a young fellow who is so earnestly diligent.

Winter will be appalled at first, even as Ben launches an all-out charm offensive at her.  It isn't until she drills him on hypothetical situations that she changes her mind about him.  From there, she simply asks Weiss if she is sure that this is what she wants, and she convinces Winter that it is so.  From that point, Winter assumes a position as their educator in military tactics, stratagem, and history.

Whitby is a different matter.  He'd hold Benjamin and Weiss in contempt, but carefully not let it show.  He thinks his father is a fool for openly disparaging them, as it drives a wedge between the SDC and potential political connections and starts working his schemes to supplant his father as soon as possible.

Lindy would kinda sit there and blink for a moment...  And then suddenly go SQUEEEEEEEE! once she realizes how many grandchildren she's gonna get out of the deal.  (Even if most of them are not going to be through Fate, she won't care.  BABIES dagnabsit!  BABIES!)  Seriously, Lindy feels like she's going to be the most Girlie Girl out of them all and go above-and-beyond to be on good terms with the rest of the parents.  Yes, even Raven, which is going to weird her the fuck out.

I am uncertain as to the existence of the parents of Sayaka Miki and Akemi Homura.  Homura, I strongly suspect, is an orphan, though Sayaka is likely not.  If anyone knows otherwise, please say so.

So, educational setting...

I'm imagining that they set up a special school - something like a crazy mish-mash of Mahora Academy and the huntsman academies of Remnant - a full-blown 'elevator school' that teaches not only academics, but combat as well.  And we don't just mean one-on-one combat.  We're also talking about strategy and tactics whether it's a small squad or entire armies.  This place is for frontline fighters as well as future officers.  And because it's being taught at all levels, this gives it an advantage over military academies in that more leisurely or vocational pursuits can be taught as well.  It would produce warriors, soldiers, and officers that are much more well-rounded and capable.

It can be set in the old base-housing complex of what used to be Kelly Air Force Base.  I actually used to live there when I was a kid, and now...  Yeesh.  Place is like a ghost town.  But it has more than enough nice little townhouse units for it to become a boarding school to rival Mahora.

(I remember this place pretty well as I had a 'pet spider' there - a large orb weaver spider that lived outside my bedroom window where she remained undisturbed as my room was on the second floor.  My mom seemed oddly fond of it, but then, she was the type of girl to go turning over rocks in the winter time to look for hibernating scorpions.)

Think Optimus Prime would like to be the headmaster?  Hell, you can stick all of the Autobots out here - this used to be one of the USAF's biggest bases!

Anyhow, Ben's primary pursuits will be, of course, mathematics and engineering, maybe a little side-trip into chaos theory.  The Punisher could be his big college project - to prove that a combat capable spacecraft can be built and operate entirely on analogue controls.  Conservative technology FTW, yo. 

I'll have to do a bit more research to figure out where everyone else's fields of study are going to be.  I suspect that Homura's might be something like temporal mechanics so she can get a better handle on how her time manipulation abilities work.