"The Science Behind Falling"
Title: The Science Behind Falling
Claim: Multi-Fandom
Table: Buffet - 100 Prompts
Fandom: Sonic the Hedgehog (Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog subsection)
Pairings: Scratch/Grounder
Rating: PG
Warnings: Robotic slash, psuedo-incestuous. Slightly sexual stuff implied, small spoilers for episode "Grounder the Genius", poetry, deep thoughts, Magnificent Bastard with a High Class Glass, big words.
Notes: Strangely, this was originally going to be a very different beast. TBH, I think I prefer this version.
Disclaimer: Ah, lengthy essays denying that certain robot lackeys belong to me; always provides a few chuckles.
Summary: To the uninitiated, love and gravity is a weird link. But Grounder now has mastery of both.
Prompt: #79 - Why they call it falling.
The physics and pain behind gravity,
and the yearned-for nature of love.
Two topics that Grounder now knows
inside and out.
Then again,
given that he’s a
genius now,
he knows an inordinate amount of topics
inside and out.
But the difference between love and gravity
and other more important issues
such as:
• problems in moral philosophy
• molecular rearrangement
• nanotechnology
• the exact thickness of silk needed to fix a hole in his robe
• the surprising usefulness of having a lackey
• the intricacies of a basketball machine
• etc etc
is that
love and gravity
were his enemies,
inferior he,
long before the genius chip,
and now they work for
and submit to him,
superior he.
***
Gravity is a harsh mistress.
Be it directly through
being shaken off buildings,
being pushed down hills,
being thrown out of Egg-o-Matics;
or indirectly through
anvils crushing,
hedgehogs crash-landing,
traps squishing;
the old
Grounder “world’s largest paperweight” Badnik
had taken enough from both sides
to know
key facts of how it worked.
The higher the ledge,
for example:
• the taller the fall
• the faster the descent
• the harsher the wind that hits you
• the more painful it is when one hits the ground
• the harder said ground
• the more parts need to be salvaged
• etc etc.
In fact, if one falls from high enough,
a vital component may be dislodged,
ejected,
or even smashed,
lost to the soft
but stone-cold
dirt.
In a way, it was falling
that turned him omniscient
in the first place,
so the new
Grounder “Ostentatious Vocabulary” Badnik
has gravity to thank.
So naturally he’s learned
more about it.
About the nature
of the forces
pulling him to the ground,
about getting lighter
the higher up you are,
even about the impossibility
of falling into
a never-ending
bottomless pit.
But being smart
allows Grounder to
transgress what he’s learnt.
You see, he knows that
the latter
is wrong.
***
Love is even harsher than gravity.
Inferior-he knew this well,
especially with his brother concerned.
To him, Scratch was:
• bigger and
• better and
• stronger and
• smarter and
• handsomer and
• awesomer and
• all-around wonderful
(although not as adept with a harpoon).
Even amidst the sibling rivalry,
infatuation was
inevitable.
The problem?
Said infatuation wasn’t mutual.
With Grounder being:
• smaller and
• dumber and
• uglier and
• etc etc,
he just couldn’t cut
the mustard for
Scratch’s ideal.
At least, Scratch said so.
But genius has its benefits.
And superior-he
can finally understand
why he couldn’t cut
the mustard.
Love, or at least
infatuation,
is driven primarily by appearance,
or at least attraction to a
particular trait.
And what could be more attractive
than a high class monocle,
the aforementioned silk robes,
and a smooth British lilt?
But without appropriate actions
to back that up,
the love is lost.
It’s a good thing that
Grounder is now an expert
on actions.
***
To the uninitiated,
love and gravity
going conceptual hand
in conceptual hand
is a weird link.
One sends people plummeting,
the other raises them up.
One destroys,
the other creates.
The intelligent, though,
even those below Grounder’s caliber,
will be hard-pressed to tell
which is which.
There’s a reason
they call it
“falling in love”.
Dangling over a precipice,
it only takes one to
cut
the rope
and send you
plummeting
down
to
your
doom
into the very bottomless pit
that they claimed was impossible.
And Grounder
the Genius
wields the scissors.
Working his new-found lackey
to the bone,
rewarding every positive action,
critiquing every negative.
Playing the piano in
that way that
he knows will rile up
the chicken,
tempting him
and eluding him
at the same time.
Subtly flirting,
insinuating a mild affection
for he who is
technically inferior,
giving him privileges,
scratching under his beak
when he gets his duties done
in order to
make him
squirm,
and yet being frustratingly
smug and superior
and irritating and
evil enough
to avoid the sappy stuff,
the awkward bits like:
• confessions
• tender kisses
• soft comforting sheets
• gentle first times
• pet names
• noses rubbing together
• etc etc
that just
wouldn’t mesh
with them.
Sappy isn’t really
a genius’s style anyway.
Still, even Grounder
has to admire his own
genius audacity.
When dumb,
he was reduced to a paperweight.
And now?
Now he has Mobius domination
literally a gloved
finger-tip away,
a famous composer’s
“Ode to Sensuality”
mastered on his medium of music,
his creator begging
for his life
in his dungeon,
and the ability to have
love and gravity
as his mistresses:
the ability to make
the very lackey
who once
berated and
scolded and
ignored and
hated and
generally spurned the affections of
the little tankbot
fall for him
from so small
yet so great
a height.
Still,
if one falls from high enough,
a vital component can be smashed.
So if that pit
had a bottom,
if the endless pit really was
impossible,
would he be held liable
for the smashing
of Scratch's
heart?