The Barefoot Violinist

The Devil in the Detail

"Aren't we going to the den?" Ellie asked curiously as they followed Blue through a door that connected the house to a workshop.

"Mum redecorated the garage to "minimize the damage". Blue informed her using air quotes.

"Are you freaking kidding me?" Victor walked further into the room looking at the equipment installed, the clean layout and high-tech gadgets that were perfectly lined up. Another section of the workshop had beanbags, a table, game console and stocked fridge, with snacks on the counter.

"It makes her happy." Blue sighed. Her mother didn't know the meaning of going over the top.

"Does she want to adopt any more children?" Bennett turned to her with a smile, running his fingers over the stainless steel worktop.

"I was just about to ask!" Hector stopped looking around, and turned to Blue.

"Piss off, both of you. I don't need drama and Dopey as my brothers." She grinned.

"Hey, I'm not drama!" Victor moaned.

"Okay, enough yammering," Bennett turned to start getting his supplies together. "Let's get to work. This could take the whole night." He moved over to a coat rack picking up a clean lab coat.

"Tell your mum I'll play any time for her bridge ladies." He sighed happily as he slipped into the coat.

"Don't encourage her. You know she made you play the whole afternoon, last time." Blue interrupted his happy thoughts.

The others tried to help for the first forty minutes, but soon gave up as Bennett kept snapping at them to get out of the way, or jumped up to find or do whatever it was that they got wrong. He also continuously picked at them for not putting tools in their right places or leaning over the work bench.

Ellie flopped into a beanbag, while Blue took some drinks out of the fridge for them. They'd left Victor to work with Bennett, because if they have to be honest with themselves, it would take a saint to work with him.

"I think he referred to me as a dumb blonde a few times back there." Ellie laughed, opening a can of soda.

"At least you got off easy." Blue moaned sending a frown to where Bennett sat soldering parts together while Victor hovered nearby trying to look like he understood what was going on. "He called me a pretty face with no brains while shoving me out of the way!"

"It looks like he's hijacked Victor's project." Elli observed, as she watched Bennett slap Victor's hand away from whatever he was building.

"He won't let me anywhere near it!" Victor moaned, throwing himself onto a beanbag an hour later. "No matter what I do, it was either too slow or too wrong! I mean, he even 3D printed the planets himself, saying that I would do it wrong!!" Victor  made his displeasure known.

"Well, you've made a deal with the devil of perfection, so you'll just have to ride it out." Ellie observed wisely.

"But it's my project!" he whined.

"What? Did you really think Ben would do a half arsed job. Don't pretend you didn't know what was going to happen." Blue cut him off.

"I still thought he'd let me do something though! It's really starting to look like he's building a time bomb guys. How much electronics can a universe really need?"

"It's the solar system, not the universe!" Bennett shouted from where he sat testing the mirrors he'd installed. "Get it right!"

For the next few hours the three of them lay about playing video games while Bennett tinkered away as if they weren't there. After gaming became boring, they turned to watching a few movies back-to-back.