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Dr Benjamin Kondraki was not a good person, he was willing to admit that. Dispite knowing he wasn't a good person he still tried to do what's right, most of the time.
Sure there were times where he didn't take his research or missions seriously and that usually led to injuries and death in the field, but could you honestly blame Ben? The foundation has things like the Tickle Monster, that moving sign, and a bunch of other bullshit anomalies, so forgive Ben for not taking the talking conk shell from SpongeBob as a serious threat. He was he suppose to know the thing wasn't a toy?
For the most part Alto was the same, he might actually be worst than Ben.
He was annoying for the sake of being annoying, and would say some pretty fucked up stuff just to get a rise out of people. Ben use to think he was serious, that Alto was genuinely an asshole, but after years and tears together Ben was able to somehow understand Alto to the point of knowing when we was being playful, being an asshole, and being an asshole with a asshole with a purpose.
~~~~
Kondraki wasn't a psychologist, he couldn't diagnost people and he didn't have the medical knowledge to even recognize the signs of any mental disorders. Even if he did have all that information, he still wouldn't have the patience to examine and figure out just what was afflicting his hypothetical patient.
Having said that, Kondraki could tell that something wasn't quite right with Alto. There were moments where his entire demeanor changed, his speach pattern, and even his own tone seemed completely different from how Alto normally conducted himself.
Kondraki didn't really notice it at first but he soon learned how to interact with Alto when he changed like that.
Alto had talked to Ben about his old GOC days, how Alto acted during his time as Agent Ukulele was very similar to how Alto started to act when he got involved with missions regarding reality benders.
The Alto who didn't give a flying fuck about how the foundation wanted to handle anomalies was gone the minute a reality bender was involved.
Instead he would rant about hoe they didn't need to be researched, they needed to be cut down beee they did something crazy like delete gravity.. Ukulele never said it exactly like that though. It was always calm with and underlying urgency to him, like he knew the foundation wouldnt take him seriously so he tried to appear calm so he could maybe convince them to listen. They never did listen.
He wouldn't go against orders for the most part, but if bringing the reality bender in was proving to be more trouble than it was worth, Ukulele would kill the reality bender himself. Then he'd spend the trip back to the site grumbling about how pointless it was to try an 'save' a reality bender. And how reckless the foundation was.
The underlying manic to his voice after missions that went south was really stressing the field agents and even Ben out. It made him wonder why the foundation even sent out Alto when they knew his track record with reality benders.
It wasn't until Ben brought it up to Gears that the foundations actions started to make more sense. The foundation wasn't stupid or reckless, they were a far expanding research facility that kept anomalies away from humanity. They knew exactly what they were doing when the send Alto out into the field.
"We need a reality sink in order to take out the more dangerous reality benders, Dr. Clef is a reality sink therefore we send him on missions where recruitment of said reality bender is likely to fail." Gears cold voice explains, his bland face only really passed off Ben even more.
"And you can't tell him this why?" Ben growled out. He may be a shitty person but he was a decent friend. He knew Alto had to take a trip to see one of the foundations physiologist after these kinds of missions and sometimes Ben wouldn't see him for a couple if days afterwards.
Basically these missions where hard on Alto and made him act like a completely different person, him at least knowing what to expect might... be less stressful. Ben didn't like not being about to see Alto for days, and the days without him where only getting longer with each mission.
"I'm sure you've notice his change in demeanor," Dr Gear speaks, " that change is what we need in order to fully prepare for the possibility that the potential recruit turns violent. Agent Ukulele is an invaluable asset to the foundation, we may not condone the decommissioning of anomalies, but we must be prepared to do so when the times comes." Dr Gear speaks with finality, as if he just told Kondraki everything he needs to know.
"You've been doing this on purpose?" Rage did creep into his voice, not only for his best friend but also for the rest of the team, "Do you have any idea how fucked up that is?"
"Dr. Kondraki," Gears cold voice cuts him off before Kondraki cam continue. "We at the foundation are not concerned with morality, it I'd our job to maintain normality, in a sufficient manner."
'So he wants to play the sufficiently game,' Kondraki thought to himself, again he's not a physiologist, but he know that this situation is not good for morale.
"I get that you had a stick up your ass that you can't really feel since you're secretly a robot, but incase you forgot, the rest of us aren't like you," Kondraki knew he was being cruel in his choice of works but he couldn't really stop himself now, "constantly worrying that the very delicate confrontation with a reality bender, ones you yourself said where higher risks, will result in reality getting bent all fucks out of shape isn't good for the MTFs, and definitely isn't good for the results of said missions!"
Dr Gear, as always, isn't visibly effected by Kondrakis words, he does how ever seem to have listen to them dispite the insults.
"You believe this arrangement is effecting the results?"
'Of course he chooses to focus on that part,' Kondraki glares at the stone faced man. But Kondraki knew this was his chance to sway Gears, if it had to be threw logic then so be it.
"We're sending out MTFs plus Clef to confront reality benders, ones who are suspected of being violent. The MTFs would put anyone who doesn't know about the foundation on edge, making the reality bender more likely to become violent because they're being intimated. Then we add in Clef, who already has a distinct for benders and can't exactly hide that fact even when keeping his trap shut." Kondraki has to pause to keep himself from making his rant more personal, it won't sway Gears.
"Clef just puts the reality bender on edge even more, neither part wants to cooperate because they view each other as threats, so it escalates and ends in us killing the bender,"
"I'm aware of this current pattern the foundation finds itself in Kondraki, get to the point."
"Look my point is were dealing with people who have emotions and can interpret other people's emotions. We're just making an escalation loop where we scare a reality bender, they turn violent as a defense, we end up killing them, Clef rants about the dangers after the mission and then when we go out again, the cycle repeats because the MTFs are seeing the signs that lead to the escalation of the last mission. They might even being seeing signs or interpreting things that lead to an escalation because AGAIN, we're wired to see patterns even when they're not there."
"I see. You raise many valid points Dr. Kondraki, things that I would not have noticed, but I do not see a way to off set this pattern. These reality benders were already suspected of becoming violent, we can not ignore safety measures in lieu of morale." Ince again he speaks with finality, he constructed the current procedure to combat the outcomes of the confrontation there was little room to change without taking on a great deal of risk to the foundation.
"If safety really the biggest fucking concern then why don't we just have our own Ichabod compain." Kondraki regretted saying it the moment he says it, he's too stubborn to show his regret but he knew he crossed his own line. Gears isn't offended and wouldn't find the idea sickening, but thats because he wasn't there for the campaign nor did he know anyone who participated in the campaign, Kondraki do.
Kondraki was tempted to apologize, not to Gears himself, but to Clef. The man had shared his conflicting feeling about the Ichabod campaign; to even suggest the foundation start their own felt like a betrayel in Kondrakis eyes, especially since he knew Clef would not only be enlisted but would more than likely spearhead it.
"Dispite our cooperation with the GOC, it's not our policy to destroy anomalies, " Gears doesn't have any readable emotions but Kondraki can't help but feel like he's being condescended to.
"I get that we need to have some level of safety and that we can't just destroy the anomalies, but that's literally what we're doing! There's no point in sending out MTFs to talk a dangerous reality bender into joining us when every fucking attempt has lead to a termination. We could literally just hire snipers to take reality benders out and we would have the same result. Are missions that only result in repeated failure really what the foundation want?"
Silence is what Kondraki is met with.
"I will admit the result are not up to par with our initial estimation of recruited reality benders," there is another long pause before Gears speaks again.
"What do gou suggest we do Dr. Kondraki? How do you think the procedure should continue going forward?" Kondraki is sure this is suppose to be a jab at him, which would be fair giving how Kondraki has only really complained so far. Of course he could also be projecting his own feelings onto Gears since the guy was impossible to read.
Within a second Kondraki already knows of at keast three different things that could be done.
"Simplest solution: remove Ckef from these groups, as a senior researcher and a former GOC member who regularly took out reality benders, Clefs attitude greatly effects the morale of the MTFs. But this is like putting a bandaid on q bulletwound. Most MTFs assigned to these missions already have a biased for reality benders." Kondraki explains, patting himself on the back for leaving out his own worries about Clef.
"We can also try preventing any escalation in the first place. We could give MTFs training in de-escalation. Or better yet why not just keep the MTFs hidden until their needed? Have one person confront the reality bender about joining and take it from there?." It's a very thought out solution but it might work better than their current procedure that has been ending in failure every time. Kondraki is extremely tempted to quote that Einstein quote about the definition of insanity or whatever it was about.
"I'll take it into consideration, for now we will proceed as usual."
~~~
It took an extremely close call for Gears to take Kondraki's suggestion seriously. The foundation had underestimated the reality benders powers and they had nearly lost 4 MTF teams.
On the way back from that mission, when it was just him and Alto driving back to the on site staff quarters, Alto had a twitch to him and wasn't talking.
"Your not normally thos quite after a mission," Ben comments, hoping Alto might crack a joke to ease the tension and show that he was alright.
Alto doesn't say anything for a full 20 minute before chuckling lowly.
"That bastard almost got us all! He almost got our team, almost got civilians..... almost got you....." Neither one wanted to continue speaking. Ben is probably reading too much into Altos words, but he couldn't help it. They both nearly died today and the thought of never hearing from or seeing Alto again was not a pleasant thought.
"I almost lost you too," Ben admits, he doesn't know what he really means by that comment, but he couldn't really decipher the meaning behind Altos words either so they're even.
Silence over takes the vehicle for the rest of the drive back to the site. They part ways, fill out their paperwork and fill the rest of the day with other borning office stuff. Ben doesn't see Alto again until the end of the day, everyone is heading to the on-site staff quarters when Ben sees Alto exiting his office. Ben doesn't really know what he was gonna do, but he absolutely hated the two hours where Alto had been out of Bens sight.
Maybe it was the bond one formed with the people you shared near death experiences with, but Ben really didn't want to be left alone with his thoughts and he doubted Alto wanted to be left alone too. That's probably why Ben began to approach Alto.
"Hey Clef," Ben calls out as he reaches Alto.
"Konny~" Alto greeted back, wearing his signature Cheshire cat smile. That smile never really reached his eyes. "What brings you over to my side of the site?"
"Was wondering if you'd like to go get some drinks with me?" Ben was proud of himself for comming up with that without any prior planning. To be fair though, drinking after a stressful day of work was a pretty normal occurrence so he should be too proud.
"You know I'm always down to drink," Alto's smiles slightly diminishes, "but I'm not really in the mood for drinking tonight."
"I didn't really want to drink either," Ben admits before he can stop himself, he mentally kicks himself for the slip up.
"Whyd you ask me out to the bar than?" Alto tries to keep some mirth in his voice but Ben could tell it wasn't said with any sincerity.
"I didn't-" Ben cuts himself off this time before he can he didn't ask Alto out, "I didn't mean we'd go to the bar."
The hall goes silent, mostly because it was only the two of them in the halls and both were at a loss for words at the moments.
"Look, I really don't want to be alone tonight," Ben figured he might as well be fully open with Alto on this, there's no turning back now. "I figured getting drunk and hanging out with you would be better."
"I'm fine with that, as long as it's just you," once again Ben almost reads too much into those words.
The two them make their way to Altos apartment on site, it was closer and according to Alto had way better booze than Ben. Ben wants to be irrited at the jab at his taste bur a small part of him was glad to hear Alto laugh at his own joke.
They get tipsy, not completely drunk, they may have been off for tomorrow due to how this mission ended but they would still have to see Dr. Glass for psych evaluations after their last mission.
They were still pretty drunk though, drunk enough for Alto to demand he get to braid Ben's shaggy hair.
"Common, I'll only braide it a little."
"Fine," Ben agrees before adding a coviot, "but I get to paint your nails first."
"Done," Alto then hands him a bottle of nail polish. Ben gas no idea where he got it from unless he kept nail polish in his pajama pants.
"Neon Green?" Ben teases Alto for his choice in color. He's hit with a pillow for his teasing.
~~~
"I don't think I can walk home," Ben jokes from his position on the floor. He had just tried to get up but apparently stoud up too quick and had laid back down.
"You ain't gotta leave," Alto laughs from the couch, "my beds big enough for two people."
If Ben was completely sober he wouldn't have agreed to share a bed, but drunk Kondraki hated sleeping on couches, especially Altos itchy and hard couch.
Ben ended up borrowing some of Altos clothes to sleep in along with a blanket to sleep with since Alto tended to steal blankets.
~~~
The two men started the night being on opposite sides of the bed from each other but by moring where sleeping next to each other. They weren't cuddling, the blankets kept them from doing that, but their heads were nearly each other and they wear facing each other.
Ben was the first to wake up and didn't know what to make of all this. He was so close to Alto, but the closeness didn't really bother him. The snoring didn't bother him, hell even the droll on Altos cheek didn't bother him. Deciding that he was still tired, Ben went back to sleep and if he somehow moved closer to Alto, well no one would know anyways.
~~~
Every once in a while that night would repeat itself, Ben and Alto would have a stressful day, would either go out drinking or would head back to one of their places to drink. They'd always end up in the same bed together, usually wearing the spear clothes they started to leave at each other's place.
Each time it felt like they were becoming closer and closer to the point where Ben had woken up with Alto practically glued to his side. In return Ben started to not bother keeping his harms to himself. He's sure Alto had woken up a few times in Ben's arms, but he never made a comment about it. It was like a silent agreement between the two to never speak about what was practically their Monday night ritual. And Tuesday night, and honestly any night where the two didn't want to be alone, which seemed to be almost 4 nights out of a week.
Ben wants their living quarters to be closer now that this has become a common occurrence, but there was a bit of a problem with that.
~~~
"Weird question: have you even thought about move towards the eastern apartments?"
"No really," Alto yawns as he get breakfast ready, who knew the guy could make edible food.
"Why not?" Ben really didn't want to move his apartment to be closer to Altos, he practically hated all the residents here and the eastern apartments had a lot of MTF members. It made it easier to be close to his son while still giving him the privacy a young adult needed.
" I've tried requesting a chance in apartments for years, ever since I got here actually, but you know how it is." Ben doesn't 'know how it is' as far as he was aware it was pretty easy to get permission to transfer from one apartment complex to another.
Alto, practically seeing the questions on Ben's face, further explains himself. "I'm a loose cannon Konny, they want me surrounded by people who can tell when I'm about to launch a cannon ball at someone."
That didn't really answer many questions, in fact it just gave Ben move questions. Ben didn't really know that many people here since they worked in different departments, but he had meet a few of them on missions involving reality benders. Of course there's always at least five people from each department in an apartment complex, it's suppose to help each department familiarize with each other and build a sence of comradery.
It did work for the most part, if your work lives weren't the same, people would just talk to each other over non-work related topics.
"Why do you want me to come Konny? You don't like my neighbors that much?" Alto laughs.
"No," Ben admits, "I just don't want to have to run a block to get some clean clothes for work."
"Well why don't you request a move, I can guarantee you'll have better luck than me getting a request in."
"My sons in the eastern apartments," Ben sees to tense up for a split second, Ben mentally kicks himself for bringing up his closeness to his kid when he knew that's something Alto couldn't have.
The smell of French toast burning broke the two out of there thoughts, Alto rushes to try and keep the smoke from getting to the sprinklers, while Ben tries to think of something else to say.
"There! Made with love!" Alto hands the burnt French toast to Ben after the two sat down for breakfast.
"It's burnt," Ben comments, although Alto gave himself the one that was the most burnt, so did he really have the right to complain.
"Well it's made with love, not skill," Alto counters before breaking out the toppings: maple syrup, powdered sugar, fruits, and for whatever God awful reason he put rainbow sprinkles on his breakfast.
The breakfast table was silent, the two were too busy eating to really continue their conversation.
"I'll see what I can do about getting that transfer request," Alto says before taking a bite of his food.
Ben wants to comment on that but he was still chewing his food. Instead he gave Alto a questioning face, as a way of asking why.
"I hate my fucking neighbors too, plus the Eastern apartments are closer to Meri's room."
Ben's about to speak further but Altos phone rings. It's an obnoxious sound that everyone hated to hear.
"Ah! Duty calls!" Alto get up from the table before calling back to Ben, "clean up before you leave will you doll?"
Ben looks around at the messy kitchen and decides he'll make sure the food gets put away so no flies or bugs stop by, but he's not cleaning all the dishes. How did Alto even use this any dishes? He only made French toast.
~~~
Alto never mentioned the transfer request again, and he just got quite when Ben had tried to bring it up in casual conversation. Ben could tell this day had been rough for him, so all he really did was pat his friend on the back and invite him over for drinks.
~~~
Like usual, Ben woke up in Altos arms, his own arms also wrapped around Alto. However it wasn't morning, it was the middle of the night, and the sound of birds hadn't woken Ben.
Alto was crying into Ben's chest, his hands were fisted in the back of Bens night shirt, as if he were clinging to it for dear life. Instead of asking any questions, Ben pulls Alto even closer and threads his fingers through Altos hair.
Ben briefly wonders why it feels so much longer. Alto almost never let it get past his neck, but his hair had grown down to his back seemingly over night.
It takes Ben a minute to realize that Alto is talking, probably not to Ben, hell Alto probably wasn't even fully aware that Ben had woken up.
"I just with I could talk to her, do something to show her I care" Altos shakingly says to himself, "She probably hates me and I can't even blame her, I hate me too." That last part is said so quietly that Ben honestly could have missed it had it not been sobbed into his chest.
"Alto," Ben says, trying to maybe break him out of this spiral he seems to be in.
"I'm not fucking Alto," Altos voice is harsh but still quite. Ben takes a good hard look at the man that's clinging to him in bed. He looks like Alto, sounds like Alto, and Ben doubts a shape-shifting anomaly would break into a researchers apartment just to impersonate another researcher in order to cry his heart out to someone who's asleep.
"Than why are you?"
"I'm Francis," he speaks as if saying those two little words took all of his energy.
"Ok. Francis," Ben goes back to carding his fingers through Alto/Franci's? hair, he would demand answers in the morning.
~~~
The man claiming to be Francis looks exhausted in the morning, he probably didn't sleep at all last night. Ben slowly slides him a cup of coffee, using Altos weird mug with "hold the Joe" written on it.
Francis smiles at the mug, before muttering a thanks.
"So..." Ben takes a sip of his coffee, not really knowing where to even begin, "your Francis."
"Yeah, are you new to the foundation? I don't quite remember you from before," Francis' voice isn't as loud as Altos, infact now that Ben can see him in the light, Francis only really shared his looks with Alto, not including the now longer hair. Francis seem to shrink away from direct eye contact, he twitched far more than Alto ever did, and he seem to constantly observing his surroundings.
"I've been here for years actually," Ben corrects, dispite the differences between Francis and Alto, something in the back of his mind knew that this Francis guy was Alto, Francis wasn't something that was wearing Altos skin or anything like that.
"What exactly are you?" Ben asks. Francis takes a shaking breath, as if preparing himself to answer.
"Normally I'd tell foundation researches to fuck off, ans go read my file if they wanted to ask me stupid questions, but you seem nice, so I'll tell you."
Ben felt like 'seem nice' wasn't exactly what Francis wanted to say, but he wasn't about to interupt him to ask.
"My name is Francis, but you guys call me SCP 4231-B." Francis is looking at Ben for a reaction, but all Ben can really give is a head nod so Francis will continue.
"The stuff that went down in the house kind of messed up my mind. But what can you expect when two greens are together," that last comment was directed more towards Francis himself than it was at Ben.
"Greens?" Ben asks, not fully understand what Francis means by greens.
"Are you sure your not new?" Francis says it gently, but Ben still feels kind of insulted. "Type Greens, Reality Benders, honesty take your pick. But it's what I am, what we are."
"We?"
"Me, Alto, and Ukulele. Although they prefer to call themselves Reality Sinks, since they can counteract reality benders, but that doesn't really chance what we are."
"Are you three, like, separate people sharing a body?" Ben's trying to understand what exactly Francis/Alto/Ukulele is, or at least how much what they are relates to being and SCP.
"Think of it like this," he hold up the coffee mug. "This was us... before. Nice and smooth without and cracks or scratches."
Francis puts the cup on the table gently but cracks start to form from the bottom of the mug to the rim of the cup, the cup wasn't leaking or breaking apart but you can't say that it wasn't was just one solid piece anymore.
"But shit happened," Francis closes his eyes for a moment before continuing, "and now there's me, Alto and Ukulele."
"Does that answer your question?" Francis is smiling but that smile doesn't reach his eyes, just going off of his eyes Ben could probably guess that Francis is ready to be done with this little interaction.
"This is a lot of information," Ben says after taking another sip of his coffee.
"Well you can always ready my file," Francis is pushing a physical file towards Ben. Ben is tempted to open the file and start reading but he hesitates, would reading this hurt Alto?
"Do the others know?"
"We all know, we just don't want to talk about it."
"You talked to me?"
"Yeah," Francis pauses, "Alto likes you, so you must be trustworthy."
"Just Alto?" Ben tries to tease, maybe get Francis is laugh a little to ease the tension.
"We all like you Ben," Francis admits, this time his smile reaches his eyes. He reaches his hand across the table towards Ben. Ben reaches back before he fully knows why he's doing that.
"Ben," Francis looks at their interlocking hands before looking into Ben's eyes. Suddenly Francis hand is holding his harder.
"If you ever hurt us, you won't live to regret it."
Ben knows when he's being tested, and since Francis is apart of Alto, he won't hold it against him. He gently, but firmly squeezes Francis hand back.
"I wont," Ben simply states. They stair at each other for what feels like hourse before an alarm is sounded. Ben's phone is letting him know they're got a hour to get ready for work.
"That's my quo to leave." Francis untangles their hands and leaves out the front door. Ben watches as he leaves before looking back at where Francis had been. The file was still there along with the cracked mug. Ben's careful to pick it up, wash it, and put it away.
~~~
After talking to... Francis, Ben couldn't get Alto alone for days, thankfully by the end of the week he'd cornered Alto in his office.
"Stop avoiding me asshole!" Ben shouted after slamming the door shut. Alto looks up from his work only after Ben closed the door.
"Fuck off Kondraki, I don't owe you shit so get the fuck outta my office." Alto yells back, further angering Ben. Not only did Alto ignore him fir days on end but now he's dismissing him with one of his most generic lines. Alto only says that exact phrase when he doesn't care enough to truly try to get another person to leave him alone.
"Don't owe me shit?! Are you kidding me? Your really gonna say that after all we've been through?" Ben marches over to Alto, not raising his voice but not softening it either.
"I've saved your life just as much as you've saved mine, we're even." Alto doesn't meet Ben's eyes
"You know I'm not talking about that, Alto," Ben's voices takes on a serious tone, "why are. You avoiding me, what did I do?"
Alto doesn't speak nor dies he look at Ben.
"Are you mad that I meet Francis? Did I piss him off or something?" Alto tenses up at the mention of Francis, letting go Ben know that whatever was causing Alto to shut Ben out had to do with Francis.
"Just say something! Anything!"
"Did you read the file?" Alto finally speaks up.
"No, I didn't." Ben answers honestly.
Alto finally meets Ben's eyes, searching for any signs that Ben might be lying. Ben meets his gaze head on.
"What'd'ya mean you didn't read it? It literally explains everything!"
"I wasn't gonna look to foundation files to explain what's all happening with My best friend. I thought we'd talk about what the he'll happened last Monday, but no! You decided to be an asshole and ignore me."
"You should like a scorned lover Konny," Alto jokes, an attempt to derail the conversation.
"I am!" Ben argues back, "now are you gonna continue to be an asshole or are we gonna sit down and talk like two functioning adults?"
Alto motions for Ben to take a chair opposite to Alto. The two cross their arms as glare at each other until one breaks the silence.
"What's your fucking question?" Alto grumbles out.
"Who are Francis and Ukulele?"
"There parts of me."
"I meet Francis, can I meet Ukulele?"
"You already have."
Kondraki raises his eye brow in lieu of a question.
"Those missions we were assigned to a couple of months ago, Agent Ukulele tends to come out when in the field, especially when we're dealing with reality benders."
"Is that why you changed so much on those missions?" Kondrakis voice softens, he had even so worried for Alto during those times
"Yeah. I didn't think you had noticed."
"Of course I noticed, I know you Alto." The room is once again over taken with silence.
"I did upset your.. other parts did I?"
"What? No!" Alto nearly jumps out of his chair as he tries to clarify things, "We just-look usually when realize how, abnormal we are, they start looking into us, they eventually find out about our time at the house, and they never look at us the same way...." by the end of the explanation Alto is back in his chair refusing to meet Ben's eyes again.
"Francis gave you the file to speed up the process and I started avoiding you so you'd get the hint and leave me alone, I thought you'd cut your ties with me by now."
"Well you underestimated my stubbornness." Alto smiles as Ben's comment.
"Yeah, I should've know you wouldn't back off that easily."
"Great! Now that this is settled, wanna go get a drink?"
~~~
Agent Ukulele, just like before, only really seemed to come out during missions, but he seemed more relaxed around Ben. Wouldn't rant so much when a mission went wrong.
Francis appearing was a very rare occurrence, but if Ben had to figure out a pattern he'd say it's when the rain was really pouring down, to the point where people worried the drainage system in the roads would flood. Francis was either extremely clingy or didn't want to be touched at all. Ben tended to let Francis take the lead with their interactions. That had apparently been the right thing to do since Francis start to ask him to help cut his hair. Ben didn't really understand why Francis coming out also ment his hair grew like three feet but figured he'd ask if he even thought it was the right time.
Eventually Ben got the full story from Alto, Ukulele, and Francis. It made sense why all three were so secretive giving what they went through in that house and with the foundation afterwards. Ben still felt like there were parts of Altos story that he didn't understand, but he could be patient, for their sakes.