Saturday, 10 May 2025
In a standard apartment in the northern part of Munich, Germany. Neo Wagner is still enjoying his sleep. It's a Saturday so he could sleep in a bit. He is currently dreaming, doing his best to avoid the toilet trap. He isn't falling for that again. Let's just say he has some experiences. Thankfully he was saved just in time by the smell of his favorite food, his mom is most likely cooking some Weisswurst in the kitchen. A popular local sausages.
He opened his eyes and immediately rushed to the bathroom, being careful not to wake his brother. After he finished his urgent business, he went to the kitchen and greeted his mom. “Morning mom, dad still sleeping?”.
His mom flipped the Weisswurst and replied over her shoulder, “Yeah, he stayed up late last night correcting papers. Besides, you know how he and your brother are in the morning. Are you excited for the tour? “.
His father is a Professor who did some research on the nuclear reactor facilities at the local university. He promised to take him on a tour of the nuclear reactor after he taught a class this morning.
He took a sip of water then replied to his mom, “Yup, it's gonna be so cool”. He'd have to sit through his father's class first, but he didn't mind. His dad usually lets him borrow his phone to play some chess. Watching the despair and confusion on the students' faces is always peak entertainment too. It's not that they're stupid or anything, his father is just not that good at explaining stuff.
If you're wondering why an 8 year old German boy is speaking English with his mom, his mom is actually from London. She understands German just fine, it's pretty similar to English after all. She just doesn't speak it very well.
Just as she is about to finish putting the food on the table, he could hear a couple of footsteps moving toward the kitchen. It's probably his older brother William, his dad tends to take a little longer in the bathroom. His brother just turned fifteen last week, they had a small party to celebrate. His brother doesn't have a lot of friends yet, because he skipped some grades and had just started freshman year in college. But he is sure that would change very quickly, his brother likes to surround himself with useful allies as he called them.
He turned his head a bit and looked towards the hallway, sure enough it's his brother. He giggled a bit at the dead eyed look on his face. His brother and father have never been a morning person, they always took a while to wake up. He greeted his brother loudly just to annoy him, “Guten Morgen Will!”. His brother cringed a bit at the loud noise, he could see him take a deep breath to steady himself. Then he replied while shuffling over to take a seat, “Guten Morgen Neo, Morning mom, why are you dressed up so early? Isn't it Saturday?”.
His mother replied for him, “Morning Will, Neo is tagging along with dad this day. He promised to show him the nuclear reactor after his class. You were there last afternoon when we talked about this.. “.
His brother poured some milk while replying to his mom, “Oh yeah, I forgot, I was busy working on my assignment last night so it slipped my mind. Do you want some milk Neo?”.
He nodded his head and said, “Ja, bitte”. His brother poured him a glass of milk while they waited for their dad to join them. This is their usual morning routine, his father is always the last to join them at the table. He could hear the shower turning off, his dad would join them shortly.
A few moments after that his dad walked into the kitchen and joined them at the table. He apologized as usual for being late, “Guten Morgen Allerseits. Sorry for the wait, I forgot about the exam papers and had to rush it last night. This Weisswurst smells amazing, let's eat”.
They all started eating, he took a slice of the sausage and blew on it a bit. It's still hot but he couldn't wait anymore. He took a bite and began to chew, the fats just melted on his tongue and he could hear some crunch from the crispy skin. It's his favorite food for a reason, maybe he'll ask his mom to pack some for snacks.
They all enjoyed the breakfast in comfortable silence. Most people who look at this scene would probably think that they are a pretty normal middle upper class family, those who know them a bit more would think that he is the most unique of his family, with his tendencies to hyperfocus, his annoying dyslexia that turned reading into a challenge and making him have a hard time telling left from right. He got lost in the mall so often that he got to know the securities there. He was also offered to skip some grades like his brother, but his brother asked him to really think about it so he hasn't got the answer yet. Some might think that his father is the eccentric one, with his mad scientist vibes that ooze out whenever he is excited about a new discovery. But no, his father is actually the most normal out of all of them. He knows his brother is a functioning sociopath at best who only cares about his family, he is just a very good actor. As for his mom, he is pretty sure she has some shady past, she is a writer who never ran out of money, she never mentioned any family from her side and his brother must have gotten it from somewhere. He just never caught her without her mask, she is even better at acting then his brother.
There's some sign if you know what to look for. His brother and mom never lose control of their emotions. They are never really angry, people love them. They always have the right word to say. He always wondered how his nerdy goofy dad managed to make his mom fall in love with him. But he didn't mind, he still loved his family.
They finished eating breakfast, he didn't forget to ask his mom to put some in a paper bag. He followed his dad to the front door, then he put his shoes on, making sure the dinosaur sticker on the heel matches. Don't judge him, it's hard for some people!. He didn't forget to say goodbye to his mom and brother, giving them a hug each. “Tschüss!” He waved his hand and walked out towards the elevator. His father stayed by his side to make sure he didn't get lost. You probably think that couldn't possibly have happened in their own apartment building. Well, let's just say he lived to impress. They got to his father's car without an accident. His dad started the car to warm it up.
They had to wait for a bit so they chatted about the lesson his dad is planning to teach this morning, the subject is Mechanical Vibrations. His dad tried to explain the basic concept, which should tell you a lot about him. He is at the ripe old age of eight years old and his dad actually expects him to understand something that most of his students would struggle with. He just went along with it, used to his dad's horrible attempts at explanation. He actually understood the subject, no thanks to his dad's fumbling attempt at lecture. He sometimes borrowed his brother's books when he was bored to practice his reading. One of them is about this subject. Both of them like to read ahead.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
After the car is warmed up, they are finally on the way. The faculties and research facilities are a bit further north outside of the city. When they got on the highway his father finally showed his German side, they drove at the speed of German. Let's just say they arrived with time to spare.
They got out after his dad parked his car, he didn't forget to carry his snacks. His dad immediately held his right hand, he didn't want to risk losing him here again. The faculties are gigantic, even the students could get lost in this maze. They arrived at the lecture hall, his dad somehow managing to open the door while holding both his hand and his briefcase. There's already some students there. They walked to his dad's desk and his dad greeted his students, “Good morning everyone!“. It's an international class, so it's in English.
Some of them replied, “Good Morning Professor”.
His dad opened up his briefcase and took out his laptop to set up the powerpoint presentation to help his lecture. As the lecture time got nearer, students started to pour into the classroom and filled up the seats. He asked his dad to borrow his phone so he could play some chess to pass the time.
He opened the app and started a rapid game, he got black for the first game unfortunately, he preferred white. It's a standard King's pawn opening, he brought out both his knights to tempt his opponent to go for the fried liver attack. He didn't think they would go for it, at his level most people know how to counter it. He thought too highly of his opponent it seems, the disrespect is real. He went on to punish them for it. As soon as he moves his pawn to f5, his opponent is most likely aware that they are cooked. He won the game pretty easily after that.
He looked up and saw that the lecture is in progress, his dad hasn't got to the calculation part of it yet and the students are actually following along. He is explaining about the natural frequency in objects, it's quite fascinating really. Until you get to the equation and analysis parts of course, his dad is about to enter that part. He hastily put down the phone and brought out his Weistwuss and some milk his mom had packed for him. Some snacks to go along with the despair and confusion of others is always peak entertainment.
As his dad began to write equations after equations along with their derivatives just for fun, he couldn't miss out on that. He could practically feel the despair on some of them, most of them probably wondering if they took the wrong major. He saw some furrowed brows, frowny faces, head scratching, he even saw one dude practically eating the back of his pen. This is why he always loved tagging along with his dad, where else could he get this masterpiece of cinema.
After about an hour and a half, his dad finally finished torturing his students. The board is practically filled with equations and real life examples of engineering problems that the students are expected to be able to solve. Some of them are probably questioning their life choices right now. His snacks are long gone, and he already played some extra games. He lost one game, but he made up for it by beating up 3 other guy.
His dad is packing his laptop and asking him if he wants to go to the restroom. He said yes and took his trash to the trash can, separating it properly according to their type like a proper German boy. They got out of the lecture hall and turned left, the restroom is not that far.
After they finished washing their hands, they began making their way to the nuclear reactor facilities, it could barely be called a reactor really. It's just a small one made for research purposes. But it's still exciting, not a lot of people can get access. His father just happened to do a lot of research on materials science there, so he could bring him along.
They arrived at the facility at around ten, his dad greeted the security and showed them his batch. They seem to be familiar with each other, they were allowed entry into the decontamination chamber. There is a staff member there who gave them some scrubs that cover them from head to toe, there is even a cloth that covers their shoes. She gave him a brief lecture about the rules that applied there, it can basically be summarised into 3 points. Don't touch anything, don't take any part of the protective scrubs off under any circumstances, if he happened to touch anything by accident he has to report it on the way out so they could go through a proper decontamination procedure, in that case he'd probably lose all his clothes. They'd be checked for contamination on the way out anyway so it's just in case the detection machine failed.
They went past the stern lady and entered the inner parts of the facility. He could see the reactor in the center of the area, it's inside a hole that is filled with water. There are a lot of pipes running all over the place, he had never seen a machine this massive and complex. There are also some people who worked here standing around discussing things and writing stuff on a clipboard.
His dad is explaining how everything works, for once he is actually doing a good job. He could see the passion and excitement in his father's eyes.
Just as they were about to finish the tour, the ground began to shake, he could hear some crashes and people screaming in panic. His dad is crouching down and covering him with his body. After a few moments, there's a hissing sound and his father begins to be worried too, the hissing is from leaking pipes. Some of them are carrying radioactive water that is used to cool down the reactor. That's bad, really bad. It's weird cause they almost never had earthquakes, especially not this strong. Then things got worse somehow, the reactor that is not even capable of exploding began to glow orange and radiating heat. Everyone turned to the center of the room, there's a moment of silence as the earthquake finally stopped.
As they were just about to run outside, there was an earth shattering noise as a shockwave expanded from the nuclear reactor. His dad held him tightly, doing his best to protect him as they were thrown like ragdolls along with everyone else. They hit the wall with a sickening crunch that he felt more than heard. His ear was ringing, just as they were about to slide down the wall. Another smaller explosion happened and shearing pain exploded from the center of his chest. He looked down and saw a metallic rod going through his father's stomach and his chest, pinning them to the wall.
The pain is excruciating, he could barely think. He looked up toward his father's face and he could see the despair and resignation in his eyes, there's blood pouring out of his mouth. They both knew they wouldn't be making it out of this, even if by some miracles they managed to survive the catastrophic wounds they suffered, the radiation would surely kill them.
He recognized the metallic rod that pinned them to the wall, it's not just any metal. A pulsing wave of heat is spreading from the rod. Steam is rising up from his chest, he can smell it. It actually smelled like his favorite sausages. That is so absurd that he giggled a bit, he could barely feel the pain now. He was feeling a bit numb. He looked toward his dad's face again. His dad is mouthing some words to him, he is also running his right hand through his blonde hair. He couldn't hear a word, there's only a constant ringing noise in his ears. But he knew what he was saying, he told him he loved him too. His sight is beginning to get blurry, there's some blackspots there too. He is getting sleepy. A nap would be nice.
