Chronological markers: this scene fits in as a deleted scene from The Umbrella Academy, season 3, episode 8, around 27:12 (during Luther and Sloane's wedding).
Suggested soundtrack: The rescues - Teenage Dream ; Cindy Lauper - Time after time.
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April 07 2019, 7:24 pm
I was finally in the wedding hall before everyone else tonight. Not because I was eager to toast or dance, no, but because I felt out of sync with the entire world and afraid of being late. What Klaus did for me earlier by conjuring my mother: I won't forget it, even through multiple more apocalypses. And him - even though he clearly realizes the significance of it - acts as if it were nothing extraordinary, with his usual modesty wrapped in flamboyance.
I stayed alone for a long time in the middle of all these chairs, far too many for the handful of living beings we are, letting the myriad of little lights from the disco ball danse in front of my eyes, as if I were at the heart of a nonsensical galaxy. Behind his turntables, Chet made his technical adjustments, then went to the kitchen to finalize the last preparations for the buffet.
It took a long, very long moment to get past the ambient discomfort, despite Luther's insistence that we grant them two of the last hours of our lives. I can confirm that I hate this kind of wedding celebration. I could already feel it, even though this is the first wedding I've ever actually been invited to in my life.
I dragged my feet a bit to go listen to Klaus officiate in the inner courtyard, but I have to say he was brilliant. He's talented at improvisation, that's a fact. Since our years with the 'Destiny's Chidren', he has also become incredibly skilled at public speaking. Factually, he was very moved. As for me, I remained like a dark shadow on the chairs dimly lit by the small strings of bulbs. Despite everything, I was almost touched by Luther's smile, but of course, I'd rather choke than admit that to anyone. Just as Klaus will never tell anyone that it took him a solid fifteen minutes - really - to stop crying from emotion afterward.
Lila caught the bouquet - because it hit her in the face after I turned intangible - then we returned to the reception hall for the cocktail hour. Luther was really determined to check all the boxes on the kitschy wedding checklist: he chose to open the dance with a cover of Teenage Dream. I hate dances, but after all, we're on the brink of the end of the world, again. So I agreed to 'dance' with Klaus under those damn hyper-cheesy chandeliers. On one and only one condition.
To be invisible for it.
Even without being seen, I can confirm that I hate dancing. Klaus, on the other hand, loved it. He even burst into laughter when we collided multiple times. Factually, no one was surprised to see him spinning around - seemingly alone on the dance floor - amid the smoke machine's haze. Well hidden in my invisibility, I ended up smiling. Widely. In a way that he might have glimpsed when the music stopped.
Now that I'm helping myself at the buffet, I'm completely freaking out over the sheer amount of food available, because for the Hotel Obsidian, this is the last chance to empty its cold storage before it disappears into eternity. There's enough here to feed at least six or seven times the number of people we are: a pitiful fraction compared to the seven billion humans we were just a few days ago. It's almost grotesque, just like this ultimate euphoria as a whole. But isn't that what humans always do in the face of their own end?
Everyone is serving themselves from this last buffet, before going to sit at one of the many tables that have been set up. There's an overwhelming choice of where to sit, even though we could have all gathered around a single large table. This scattering gives the illusion that a crowd is about to feast. But paradoxically, at the same time, everyone somehow ends up eating alone.
Klaus has decided to approach each person to plead his father's case and will likely stick to one of his legendary 'liquid meals', consisting of every possible alcoholic and sparkling drink. I can already see him trying to engage with people while swaying unstably. So far, no one has taken him seriously. So I turn back to the buffet, still unsure of what to serve myself.
I'm not very hungry: the large pieces of lamb even disgust me outright, while Sloane has rushed toward them. It's probably also because I'm anticipating the moment - tonight - when I will pass into Oblivion. And, as if I needed that, I find myself serving myself potato salad right next to Ben, his expression more closed off than ever.
"You don't like this festival of promises and food either?"
He doesn't turn his head, but eventually mutters:
"I could puke into the bruschettas."
I don't know why I still try to talk to him, given that our last interaction was when he punched me in the hallway of Reginald Hargreeves's office. The problem is that - somewhat like Klaus - I can sense in this version of Ben an inner conflict that touches me as much as it unsettles me.
He knows nothing but competition: he was raised for it. For a stupid self-sacrifice, devoted to his father and to the Sparrows. That's the only thing he's ever had in his life - which is sad, in a way - whereas Sloane, on the other hand, has always dreamed of something else. His whole world collapsed before the actual world even started to. He's lost. And as Number One now, he's realizing that, in the end, he's just a number. One that's closer to zero.
"I'm like you, this whole thing makes me sick", I tell him. "It's cool of you to do this for Sloane."
"It's not like I have anywhere else to go."
At the turntables, Chet is desperately trying to liven up the room with Luther's playlist, which has just shifted to Time After Time. I finally take some potatoes, forcing myself not to think about how the earth that grew them has been wiped away. Just like Cyndi Lauper, for that matter. Hearing the words 'Suitcase of memories', my eyes briefly drift toward Five, who is having a one-on-one moment with his bottle of champagne. He, too, is clearly trying to forget what is now inexorably approaching. I search for something to say to Ben, in vain.
"Your shirt is cool. You really like patterns, huh?"
Good grief, that's the only topic I can come up with. I can't even talk about the weather, since there's not really an outside world anymore. The truth is that his outfit looks like it was sewn from funeral home upholstery, but Klaus is definitely going to love it, no doubt about that.
"Listen, Chris-"
"Rin."
"Rin. You don't have to make conversation with me. I'm the outcast here, even within what was my own family. My own father literally told me to fuck off and preferred talking to the spaniel in the green velvet suit."
"Klaus."
"Klaus. I wasn't invited to that damn bachelor party. I was rudely excluded. So all I want is to eat and drink until I don't know where I am or who I'm with and then get the hell out of this stupid reception hall."
As he serves himself an excessive amount of garlic shrimp, I realize that he feels left out. Ostracized, in a way that he sees as unfair, with zero self-awareness that he's literally behaved like an asshole. Despite everything, I feel a little bad for him.
"Have you tried talking to Klaus?"
If there's one person who would accept him as he is, without holding a grudge for his behavior, it's Klaus. Klaus never resents anyone for the harm they do to him - especially not Ben - and that would still apply now. His different timeline wouldn't matter, I believe. I hadn't looked kindly on the bond Klaus had hoped to form with him, but in the end, maybe it could be good for both of them. Better for Klaus, at least, than continuing to suck up to Hargreeves's ridiculous heeled shoes. And Ben finally looks at me.
"Why would I talk to him?"
I realize then that he doesn't know. That he can't know how close his former self was with Klaus.
"In our timeline, you and him… you were particularly close. Tied together for life and death, you could even say - no wordplay intended."
"Oh, everyone seemed to adore the other Ben. If Klaus was close to him, that's all the more reason for me to stay away."
I sense so much bitterness in his words. It makes me realize that he never truly felt like he belonged - neither now among the Umbrellas nor even in his own life with the Sparrows. Ben himself is tired of this sterile competition and aggressive verbal sparring, but he simply doesn't know how to be any different. He grabs a seeded bread roll.
"What Number was your Ben, anyway?"
"Huh? Damn, who cares…"
"You're only saying that because you're Number Seven. Otherwise, you definitely wouldn't be so indifferent."
"I'm not a Number at all. I am NOT Christopher. I was… raised off the grid, like Lila."
Ben takes his plate of shrimp and scans the room, watching the scattered patches of rotating light from the disco ball and the lingering vapor from the smoke machine.
"So they ended up with six. Without me. But they got you two instead, the bleached Brit and you."
I don't say anything. Factually, that's pretty much it.
"With Sloane and me, that makes ten. And with Dad and Chet, the number of humans left on Earth reaches the staggering sum of twelve."
"Can you really count Chet and your father as humans?"
A short laugh escapes me. I pretend to joke about it, and Ben doesn't argue, so maybe he also has some suspicions about their true nature.
"Fine. Ten. Ten humans left in the entire universe. A fucking absurd bubble, drifting in the void."
He's right, but those thoughts won't lead us anywhere tonight. We either accept our fate… or we act, and fast. And everyone who knows me knows I will always choose the second option.
A little further away, Klaus is attempting to approach Viktor - probably to talk about their father - but he's met with a categorical refusal. He walks off with a dejected posture and sits alone at a table. So I take my plate and, almost instinctively, step toward him to sit with him.
"Enjoy your meal, Ben", I tell him as I leave.
And as I pass by Allison's table, where she sits alone, I hear him mutter behind me:
"Ten fucking humans, and I still don't know who to sit next to for dinner."
-
7:42 pm
*Flash!*
The flashbulb burst from Chet's vintage camera makes me see a thousand stars, which gradually fade. Klaus grinned with all his teeth, showing off what he considers to be his best profile: his right side.
"Rin-Rin, how long has it been since we were last photographed together, huh?"
He almost spills champagne on my lap while pouring himself a glass, but I smile.
"I don't know. I think there must be photos from the time of the 'Children', Keechie used to take some."
They've probably all been wiped out by the Kugelblitz, but I would have liked to find them. I know Chet won't have time to develop these pictures before his equipment is also reduced to dust. It's a shame: the album he would have given to Luther and Sloane would have made them really happy.
For a moment, I look around at everyone sitting at different tables. In the end, Ben has sat with Allison, far from Viktor, who remains alone. Sloane laughs and bickers with Luther, already like an old married couple at times. Lila is whispering things to Diego that I'd rather not hear. Five, still by himself, keeps drinking.
Ten humans. Ben is right.
I don't think it's a coincidence that these specific people weren't taken by the Kugelblitz, aside from those who had direct contact with it, like poor Christopher, Marcus, or Fei. The ones left in this room are those who were somehow shielded by the machine that is the Hotel Obsidian. The ones who serve as plug-ins for Oblivion.
"You talked to our radiant Benerino?" Klaus asks, maybe because he's noticed me watching him.
"A little", I reply. "He's even more taciturn than the old one."
"I know, it's adorable. I'll try to soften his tentacles a little later."
Ben is the one I wonder about the most, in relation to Oblivion. I struggle to grasp his power, to understand his connection to the machinery of the universe. To comprehend, too, why he was so crucial to Hargreeves and why the Jennifer Incident seemed to be some kind of fixed point in time and space.
"Ben's power is very painful for him, isn't it?"
I know that our Ben suffered greatly from the devastating nature of his abilities, which Hargreeves literally used for bloodbaths. I also know that his physical pain is terrible, every time the tentacles emerge from his chest. All the Hargreeves children suffered psychologically from their powers. But physically? Ben suffered, yes, and still does - perhaps as much as the late Fei and Alphonso.
"Ben and I…" Klaus murmurs, "we were alike, really. Both of us spent our days babysitting supernatural nightmares".
I look up. He's never put it that way before. He eventually grabs a handful of peanuts and rests his chin on his 'Goodbye' palm, realizing that I don't get what he means.
"Ben's tentacles, they were… they are… the appendages of The Horror, an Eldritch creature."
"What does that mean?"
Klaus shrugs, his green velvet shoulders rising and falling.
"I never fully understood, but inside his chest, he has… like a portal to another plane. A plane inhabited by creatures straight out of the sexiest shunga prints by Hokusai… but truly terrifying ones."
I lower my eyes. 'Matter-Energy / Space-Time / Planes', was indeed a line from Hargreeves's notes.
"What do these creatures do?"
Klaus shakes his unruly hair.
"I don't know, but Ben… always felt like they were trying to get out. He had to control them constantly. Me, I tried to keep my ghost fan club from coming in, and he tried to keep his tentacle horror show from getting out."
Klaus doesn't sound sad when he talks about Ben anymore, just affectionately wistful. The others probably never really understood what they both lived through. And then he adds:
"He used to have nightmares about them, a lot. He said he saw them devouring reality."
He picks up the champagne bottle.
"Ironically, in the end, it's the big fiery Paradox ball that's taking care of that now."
I don't say anything, I just turn over his words in my head. I wonder what role these creatures from another plane play in Oblivion. Because they must have one. And it must be crucial.
Creatures that devour space-time? For what purpose?
I don't have much time to think about it further: Klaus raises the champagne bottle over my glass, ready to pour, but I place my hand over it to stop him while chewing my potato salad.
"Nothing? Not even a little?"
"No, thanks. Tonight, I'm sticking to sparkling water."
"Rinny, this isn't a birthday party, and we only have an elevator ride to get back to the room-"
"No, really. No alcohol."
He frowns, aware that this isn't like me. When we party, I usually indulge in a drink or two, not nearly as excessively as he does, but enough to let loose. I don't handle alcohol well: maybe because, as he puts it, I weigh as much as a wet chihuahua. But that's not the reason I want to stay sober tonight.
"Klaus… There's something I need to tell you."
He freezes in his chair, champagne bottle raised, blinking with concern.
"Don't tell me you've got a statistically improbable and potentially very curly bun in the oven?"
"No."
"A Texan one?"
"No. Hell no. I'd rather die."
I know my approach isn't the smoothest, but I'm also aware that I won't have many more chances to talk to him alone: the night is moving fast.
"You know that when I'm tipsy, I can't use my power properly."
"Oh. Yeah. Yeah, obviously."
He knows this better than anyone since, for a long time, he used alcohol to suppress the voices of ghosts before he learned to manage them through willpower and meditation. Alcohol weakens our powers; just as coffee, conversely, enhances them. That's probably why there are already three cups sitting on the table beside my plate.
"Tonight, I want to be at full capacity."
He looks at me.
"This is about Dad's last-ditch plan to save the world. And the White Buffalo, isn't it?"
Klaus isn't dumb, even if he often seems like he's floating on the edges of the atmosphere. He knows me better than anyone: he's seen my obsession with the Sigil, my draw to that Suite ever since we arrived.
"Yes", I say. But I don't want him to think I support Reginald. "Your father really did find a way to reset everything. But he wants to use it for himself, not for all of us."
I look up to catch his gaze, as he tilts his champagne flute to catch the last drop.
"It doesn't matter, Rinny. If you and he are convinced there's a way to fix this shitshow, then I'll follow you. That gives me two very good reasons: I trust both of you completely."
Am I flattered to be put on the same level as his father? Absolutely not. But he's already waving his hand dismissively.
"I won't understand a damn thing, I'm warning you, so just tell me what to wear and which buttons to push."
I sigh.
"I don't know yet, that's why I want to investigate. But I do know that we are essential for it to work. We're like... like plug-ins."
"Plug-ins? Now you have my full attention."
"Dumbass."
I don't really know what's beyond the corridor of light hidden by the pachinko machine, I only know its dangers. But what worries me most, right now, is that I'll be tied up in this investigation for a while, with no certainty about the temporal distortions involved.
"I'll probably disappear for a while", I tell him, looking into his eyes. "I don't want you to worry if you don't see me."
He grabs me by the neck and pulls me closer, his breath reeking of hundred-dollar-bottle-champagne.
"I never worry when I don't see you, Rinny, I've told you before. Even when you vanished for a year in the early '60s, I never doubted I'd find you in the end."
My eyebrows pinch together as the side of his head presses against mine because I know he truly believes that. Klaus always carries this kind of insane optimism beneath despite his shadows. And that unwavering trust in me: the certainty that he'll always find me again.
Around us, the disco ball scatters its patches of light, making my head spin even though I haven't had a single drop of alcohol. I know that, in just a few moments, Klaus will go back to table-hopping, trying to convince his siblings to get on board with their father's plan. Probably until Reginald himself comes downstairs and casts a chill over this already lackluster celebration. I'll wait patiently for that moment to slip away from the party, right here, at this isolated table.
"I hope you're right", I tell him, because I'm not nearly as confident as he is. I fear that things will spiral out of control tonight, one way or another, just like so many times in our past. But he chuckles lightly.
"Of course, I'm right. You always find a way, Rinny. Crack! You disappear. Crack! You reappear… You're a damn shooting star, shining like a diamond, and we're like Moonshine and Molly."
Despite myself, I smile at those words—words he's repeated so many times over the years. I let out a long sigh, finally pulling him a little closer.
"Take care of yourself while I'm away, Moonshine."
"Don't worry, Molly. Worst case: we'll meet again in the afterlife. But I'm not too concerned…"
He clinks his champagne flute against my coffee cup.
"…you and me, we've always been two tough nuts to crack."
-
Notes:
Little by little, I'm building my theories about Ben, which will be at the heart of Season 4. Even though his personality annoys me, I really love the complexity of this character and his power.
Did you notice that in the series, the number Ben gives Klaus regarding the humans left in the universe doesn't really make sense: unless he's not counting Chet… or Hargreeves… Or if he's excluding both but including Rin. That's something I corrected here! And now, you also know that Klaus isn't actually dancing alone to Teenage Dream in the episode.
It was sad for me to write the final scene of this chapter. As you've probably realized, this is the last moment they spend together before the reset. But I'm happy they could have it, before reaching that crossroads. Moonshine and Molly, just like they have been since they were 19.
They'll find each other again, no matter where.
Any comment will make my day!
