DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
Winter's Phone
HTML https://wintersphone.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: Role-Plays & Stuff
*****************************************************
#Post#: 3192--------------------------------------------------
[25] BEN
By: Zellaphone Date: October 24, 2022, 11:20 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[center]━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━&
#9473;━━━━━━━━&#
9473;━━━━━━━━	
473;━━━━━
✸xxxＢＥＮxxx✸
━━━━━━━━━&
#9473;━━━━━━━━&#
9473;━━━━━━━━	
473;━━━━━━━━^
73;━━━━
Ben was relieved when they made it to his apartment, eager to
escape the awkward silence in the car that he didn't know how to
fix. Two days ago he had made Rey cry, and now she was coming
over to his home for tutoring and pizza. How the hell was he
supposed to have casual conversations with her? He led her to
the door of his apartment, opening it, and stepping inside,
introducing her to the place. She complimented the apartment,
saying that it was nice, but Ben didn't really see anything
special about it. Yes, it was his home, but it was still just a
New York apartment. Nonetheless, he shrugged and thanked her,
saying that his mother wanted to move to a new apartment next
year. Rey seemed a bit surprised by that, questioning it before
validating it, though she pointed out how cozy the apartment
seemed, adding that, based on the smell, they didn't have a meth
lab next store. He chuckled slightly at that, amused. "No, no
meth labs," he agreed before his small smile faded. “She just
wants someplace nicer. It’s whatever," he said, trying to not
sound bothered by the whole thing even though he was. Though he
didn't plan on living here the entirety of next year since he'd
be graduating, this was still his home. It was the only place he
could remember living since he had been so young the first time
they had moved, and though he understood his mother's desire to
live closer to her work, he didn't think it was necessary.
Still, it wasn't up to him. Rarely anything ever was. He told
her that his parents often worked late, so she'd luckily be
avoiding them entirely today. However, Rey said that she enjoyed
meeting friends' parents, as if it wasn't one of the most
awkward things in the world and that they were friends. She said
that she especially liked the idea of meeting American parents
since she was a foreigner and could blame anything weird she did
on cultural differences. While Ben was sure that could be true
in a lot of situations, he reminded her that his parents knew
Hux, plus he had a cousin from Camden, so she probably couldn't
get away with that. Besides, his parents knew many other people
from the United Kingdom as well, but he didn't say that. Rey
pouted, though it was clearly fake, snapping her fingers and
feigning disappointment as she admitted she had forgotten about
Hux and also didn't know he had a cousin from Camden. “She was
adopted… and we’re not exactly blood-related, but yeah," he
briefly explained. He sat his backpack by the door, asking Rey
to make herself comfortable while he ordered their pizza. She
asked if she should sit in the kitchen or the living room and
Ben shrugged, telling her to sit wherever, though he warned her
that the living room was more comfortable. He also added that
they could sit in his bedroom, though he was certain she'd turn
down that suggestion. In fact, he was banking on it. He had
never had a girl in his room before, and he didn't want Rey to
see it. He was already lucky enough that she was talking to him
despite everything he had put her through, so he didn't want her
laughing at him because of the contents of his room. She chose
to sit in the living room, to which he nodded, but then she
added that since he was offering a tour, she wanted to see his
room and quench her curiosity. He blinked, caught off guard by
that. A tour? “Oh, I wasn’t—“ he began, but she seemed so set on
seeing his room now. He couldn't turn her down, could he? That
would probably disappoint her, and he had already done that
enough as it was. Shit. “Um, sure, okay… yeah," he agreed
awkwardly, regretting the decision to bring up his room. It was
then though that Chewie came rushing into the room, heading
straight toward him. Ben's expression brightened right away,
surprised and thrilled to see the dog. He had expected Chewie to
be with his dad, but he had clearly been wrong, and he now knew
that he wouldn't have to be alone for most of the night now. Ben
crouched down, greeting Chewie and petting him, chuckling as the
dog licked him. He loved Chewie. After a few more pets, Chewie
went over to Rey, letting her pet and greet him as well, even
giving her a kiss. Ben couldn't help but smile a bit at the
interaction, pleased to see that Rey seemed to really like dogs
and that Chewie immediately liked her. That was a good sign...
not that it really mattered. It shouldn't matter, but Ben's
crush on Rey was only getting bigger by the second as he watched
her interact with Chewie. He introduced the dog to her,
explaining that Chewie was really his father's dog, which seemed
to confuse her as she pointed out that since Ben lived with him,
Chewie was practically his, so long as she didn't steal him. Ben
chuckled slightly, saying that he wasn't sure that would go over
well. He knew he wouldn't be able to survive this place without
Chewie, and his whole family adored the dog. Ben explained that
his father barely let Chewie out of his sight unless it was for
him to walk him. Rey smiled and shrugged, saying that Simon
would be upset with her if she brought home a pet anyway. Ben
quirked a brow. "Simon?" he questioned. Surely she didn't call
her dad by his first name, right? His parents would kill him if
he ever did that. Simon had to be a landlord or something...
right? She apologized, explaining that she wasn't allowed to
have pets, which is why she acted like a child upon seeing on,
but Ben brushed her explanation off, understanding her love of
animals. He called her weird girl, as he had done before, but
Rey actually laughed somewhat at it this time, seeming
unbothered, which was good. He then gave Chewie the command to
go lay down, knowing that he needed to start his tutoring with
Rey soon. The dog obeyed, just as Ben knew he would, laying down
on his bed beside the couch. Rey gave Chewie an adorable little
wave before standing up while Ben asked her what she wanted on
their pizza, pulling out his phone and opening his delivery app.
She said that she was happy with just about anything, but asked
for pepperoni and olives. He looked up at her, crinkling his
nose. “Pepperoni and olives?” he questioned, wondering what kind
of teenage girl she was. Who ordered a pepperoni and olive
pizza? Olives were disgusting... though he had never really
tried one. He remembered having some olive slices on a pizza as
a child and not being too crazy about them, so he had ended up
deciding that he hated them. “You really are weird,” he decided,
though he was mostly teasing. He looked back at his phone,
customizing a large pizza. “Fine, but I’m putting all the olives
on your half," he told her, doing just that. Olives and
mushrooms were a no for him. After placing the order, he slide
his phone back into his pocket, feeling a bit awkward again
since he knew they probably weren't going straight to tutoring.
“So… uh, tour then, I guess?” he asked.[/center]
#Post#: 3195--------------------------------------------------
REY [26]
By: winterssmary Date: October 25, 2022, 9:30 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[center]━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━&
#9473;━━━━━━━━&#
9473;━━━━━━━━	
473;━━━━━
✧ xxxxＲＥＹ xxxx✧
━━━━━━━━━&
#9473;━━━━━━━━&#
9473;━━━━━━━━	
473;━━━━━━━━^
73;━━━━
Ben seemed caught off-guard by her asking to see his bedroom.
She found that sort of strange, since he had offered it to be
where they held their tutoring session today. Had he been
bluffing? Well now she felt a little weird about it, but her
curiosity had only grown. Was there something in there that he
didn't want her to see? Would he ask that she give him a moment
to tidy up first? Or was he just... afraid? She didn't want him
to be afraid of her or of her seeing his room. It felt innocent
to her. All she would see would be the color of his bedsheets
and maybe a few posters, right? Surely, he didn't have anything
potentially incriminating. He wouldn't have suggested it if that
were the case, right? He agreed to it though, a little
reluctant, from what she could tell. She slanted her lip for a
moment. "Don't worry. I promise not to pry or snoop or break
anything," she said, trying to lighten the mood. "And I can text
you pictures of my room so you can judge me for my shitty setup,
if that makes you feel a little better," she added, playful, but
fully meaning it. If he wanted to see her bland sheets and poor
paintings, he was welcome to it. They could judge each other. It
could be a trust-building exercise. That was when Rey was first
introduced to her new best friend in the world: Chewie. The
Alaskan Malamute trotted out of one of the rooms down the
hallway, greeting Ben eagerly. She could tell that the dog and
Ben had a close bond, something that was rather beautiful to
see. Someone who was so harsh and mean to her just a few days
ago could be so gentle and sweet and happy in the presence of an
innocent animal. She wanted to see more of that. She found that
this soft side of Ben, even if it was short-lived and not for
her eyes, was a side of him that she wanted to see more and
more. Her heart fluttered a little bit at the sight of his
smile. Curse this stupid crush. She knew he was cute but now she
genuinely found herself attracted to him, despite the abuse she
had taken from him just earlier in the week. Was she doomed to
fall in the cycle of toxic men? Or had Ben just been expertly
masking how soft and sweet he truly was? She was praying for the
latter. Ben introduced the two of them and Rey was extra eager
to greet Chewie, getting to his level and petting him, the two
exchanging a few short kisses as she showered the dog with
compliment after compliment. Ben explained that Chewie was
technically his father's dog, but Rey made the argument that he
was Ben's too, since they all lived together. For now. She joked
that she might dog-nap Chewie that night. Ben warned her that it
wouldn't end well, since his father was very protective of
Chewie and that their bond was very, very strong. She shrugged
it off, knowing she wasn't planning on a heist anyway. She
explained that Simon would kill her if she brought a dog home
anyway. Ben paused for a second, questioning the name. Simon.
Rey only then remembered just how little Ben knew about her. She
wasn't used to being able to talk about herself like this, so
she had forgotten to even mention her home life. "Oh, right.
Yeah, Simon," she said, looking over to him. God, she really
didn't want this to turn into a weird pity party. "Uhm... he's
sorta... uh... it's hard to explain. He's my... foster father,"
she said. But, wait, that wasn't technically right anymore. "Was
my foster father, but he adopted me so that he could bring me to
America. Free housekeeping, you know?" she corrected herself.
She shrugged off the last bit, as if it were a joke instead of
the undeniable truth that she lived. Simon kept her for free
labor and to have someone to take his frustration out on.
Nothing more. He didn't want a child and he certainly wasn't a
father. But, now that she was on the subject of Simon, Rey
remembered how she reacted when Ben called her by Simon's last
name. She had threatened his safety and surely it had given him
a terrible idea about who she really was. She owed him an
explanation. He deserved to know that he hadn't done anything
wrong. "Uhm... his last name is Plutt. That's why I got so mad
at you for using it," she said after a moment, obviously ashamed
of her behavior. "I'm really sorry for snapping at you like
that, by the way. I promise, I'm not a violent or angry person.
I just lost my temper. Simon and I don't always get along and...
you know... he's not my father, so I kinda hate being forced to
take his name," she explained, keeping it vague, hoping Ben
wouldn't pry too much. Hopefully, he would understand family
troubles. After a moment, she apologized again for her reaction
to Chewie, explaining that she just got excited. Ben excused
her, calling her weird girl, which didn't sound insulting
anymore. She kinda liked having a nickname he gave her,
honestly. He then commanded Chewie to go lay on his dog bed in
the living room, asking Rey what she wanted on her pizza. She
got to her feet, explaining that she wasn't picky, but asked for
pepperoni and olives. Ben's face scrunched up as if he had just
smelled something disgusting, which caused her to chortle a
little bit. He questioned that, as if she were a sociopath or
something. "Or not. It's fine. I really don't care," she assured
him. He reiterated that she really was weird. She laughed more
brightly at that. "Do olives offend you, good sir?" she asked
playfully. He said that he would place the order, but that he
was making sure olives only went on one half for her. She
chuckled, but nodded. "Fine by me. Thank you again for ordering
food. I really appreciate it. I didn't want to have to cook
tonight," she said, being genuine this time. Ben placed the
order and put him phone away, awkwardly suggesting they take
that tour that she had mentioned. She smiled softly and nodded.
"Yes please," she said, following his lead. [/center]
#Post#: 3197--------------------------------------------------
[26] BEN
By: Zellaphone Date: October 26, 2022, 10:15 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[center]━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━&
#9473;━━━━━━━━&#
9473;━━━━━━━━	
473;━━━━━
✸xxxＢＥＮxxx✸
━━━━━━━━━&
#9473;━━━━━━━━&#
9473;━━━━━━━━	
473;━━━━━━━━^
73;━━━━
Ben hadn't expected his little offhand mention of his room to
turn into Rey expecting a tour. He had just mentioned his room
fully believing that Rey wouldn't want to go in there, but that
had, apparently, been a bit of a mistake. He started to explain
that he hadn't been offering her a tour, but she looked pretty
eager now, causing him to just awkwardly give in. If she really
wanted to see his room then she could... but he wasn't exactly
ready to see her laugh at it all. Surely, she'd find something
to laugh at, whether it be his romance books, his poetry, his
plants, his sketches, or even just any of his many band posters.
Clearly seeing his reluctance, Rey asked him not to worry,
promising not to snoop or break anything. It wasn't snooping or
breaking he was really worried about, though. She told him that
she could text him a picture of her room so that he could judge
her, if that made him feel better. He shook his head. As curious
as he was about Rey's room, he didn't want her to think he was
nervous or embarrassed about showing her his own. "It's fine, I
don't need to see your room," he told her. It was then that
Chewie rushed out to greet him, surprising him in the best way
as he greeted the dog and pet him before Chewie went to Rey. He
introduced the dog to her, watching with a bit of a smile on his
face as Rey got down to Chewie's level, smiling and speaking to
the dog so excitedly and sweetly as she pet him. It was a very
nice sight to see, he had to admit, and seeing that Rey liked
dogs warmed his heart. He couldn't date someone who didn't like
dog, not that he was going to date Rey... because he wasn't. She
wouldn't want to date him... even if he had a big, dumb crush on
her. He explained to her that Chewie was his father's dog,
though Rey pointed out that the dog lived with him too, and
while Ben wanted to agree that Chewie was also his, he explained
that his father rarely let the dog out of his sight unless he
asked to take him for a walk. His dad had been the one to find
Chewie as a puppy, so he knew his dad considered him to be his
rather than Ben's. Rey joked that she might steal Chewie, but
Ben warned her that wouldn't go over well. His whole family was
fiercley protective of Chewie. Rey shrugged, saying that someone
named Simon wouldn't like it if she brought how a dog anyway.
Ben quirked a brow, repeating the name Simon. Surely, she didn't
call her own dad by his first name, right? Maybe she lived with
an uncle? Or maybe Simon was a dog-hating landlord? Rey clearly
realized that she had neglected to explain who Simon was,
rectifying that immediately. She explained that Simon was her
foster father, or, well, had been her foster father. He blinked,
surprised by that information. He had no idea that Rey had been
a foster kid. What happened to her parents? She explained that
Simon adopted her so that she could move to America with him,
adding what seemed like a joke that he had wanted free
housekeeping out of her. She shrugged off that last comment, but
Ben wondered if there was more to the story than she was letting
on. Either way, he didn't question it. It wasn't his place to
dig for information, he didn't think. "Right..." he said,
curious to know more. How old had Rey been when she had lost her
parents? Did she like this Simon? Was she pissed at him for
bringing her to America? Rey then went on to explain that
Simon's last name is Plutt, which is why she had gotten mad at
him the other day for using it, practically threatening his life
over it, which, at the time, he had viewed as an extreme
overreaction. She apologized for snapping at him, assuring him
that she wasn't a violent or angry person, but she had simply
lost her temper. She explained that she and Simon didn't always
get along, and he wasn't her real father, so she didn't like
having to take his last name. Well, he supposed that made sense,
then, but he wondered what Rey's surname had been before Simon.
Had she even had one or had she been surrendered to the system
as a baby or something? He had so many questions he wanted to
ask, but he already felt as though he was having to walk on
eggshells around her because of their last interaction, so he
kept them all to himself. “It’s an ugly name anyway. Doesn’t
suit you," he said, not really thinking about the implications
of that statement until he had already said it. He hadn't meant
to basically call her pretty for the second time that day,
though she seemingly hadn't caught on to the first. His eyes
widened slightly, his ears feeling a bit warm before he quickly
scrambled for something else to say. “I’m, uh, sorry he dragged
you here," he added, not sure of what else to say or what he
could say. It didn't sound right to just apologize to someone
for possibly not having any real parents. She then apologized
for her reaction to Chewie, explaining that Simon wouldn't let
her have any pets, so she turned back into a three-year-old. He
shrugged off her apology, calling her weird girl again in a way
that wasn't supposed to be taken as an offense. Thankfully, she
laughed a bit at it, making him feel a bit more comfortable
about giving her nicknames, though he knew sweetheart was
probably still off the table, which was fine. He wouldn't call
her sweetheart affectionately. That would just be asking for her
to catch on to his crush. He commanded Chewie to go lay down,
knowing that they needed to start tutoring soon. Chewie obeyed,
laying on his bed by the couch before Ben pulled out his phone
and asked Rey what she wanted on their pizza, opening the
delivery app. She told him that she was fine with anything, but
had a preference for pepperoni and olives. Ben's nose crinkled
in disgust at the mention of olives, knowing that he hadn't
liked them the first time he had them as a child. Seeing his
expression, Rey assured him that it really didn't matter to her
what was on the pizza, but he was still stuck on the fact that
she, a high schooler, liked pepperoni with olives, of all
things. He repeated her toppings request, clearly judging her,
and she laughed, asking if olives offended him and calling him
good sir. “They’re fucking disgusting," he told her as if it
were the most obvious thing in the world. He said that he would
place the order with her request, but he was putting all the
olives on her side of the pizza. She chuckled, fine with that
idea. She thanked him for the pizza, assuring him that she
appreciated it since she hadn't felt like cooking. Ben didn't
think much of that comment since he often cooked for himself
since his parents were rarely even home in time for dinner. Of
course, he never cooked anything extravagant. He made microwave
burritos, ramen, or sandwiches, or he just ordered something a
bit more healthy from somewhere else. “I get that. It’s no
problem," he said with a little shrug before placing the order
and sliding his phone back into his pocket. He glanced at the
couch, wanting to go straight to tutoring, but he knew that Rey
was now probably expecting that tour she had wanted first.
Awkwardly, he asked her if she was ready for the tour, still
feeling nervous about her seeing his room even though he was
trying to not show it. She smiled and nodded, letting him know
that she was ready. “Cool… um, my room is this way," he said,
awkwardly gesturing towards the hallway, starting to head in
that direction, walking past his parent's room. He didn't think
Rey had any interest in seeing it, nor did he think that he
should show it to her. “Oh, the bathroom is here if you need to
use it at any point," he added as they passed the door,
motioning to it. “And, uh, this is my room,” he announced as
they reached the door at the end of the hallway, opening it to
reveal his room.[/center]
#Post#: 3201--------------------------------------------------
REY [27]
By: winterssmary Date: October 26, 2022, 8:47 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[center]━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━&
#9473;━━━━━━━━&#
9473;━━━━━━━━	
473;━━━━━
✧ xxxxＲＥＹ xxxx✧
━━━━━━━━━&
#9473;━━━━━━━━&#
9473;━━━━━━━━	
473;━━━━━━━━^
73;━━━━
Rey realized, after Ben pointed it out, that she had never
mentioned Simon to him. Or anyone, for that matter. She usually
just dodged the subject of her home life since she had come to
America. People didn't normally ask, so it never created much of
a problem for her. But she had put her foot in her mouth just
now and she had to at least give a vague description of her
relationship with the man. She explained that he was technically
her adoptive father, but that he was a foster father who liked
to have a live-in maid. She tried to play it off as a joke,
though she was completely serious. She just didn't need the
extra drama at the moment. Ben seemed curious, but kept his
mouth shut, thankfully. She explained that, when Ben called her
Plutt, it really hurt her because she and Simon were not related
and she hated having his name. He was not her father. And he was
a horrible, horrible man. She hated having to share a name with
him. She apologized and promised him that she wasn't actually a
volatile or violent person. Ben just said that Plutt was an ugly
name, that it didn't suit her. She couldn't help the light blush
on her cheeks. Did he just call her pretty? Did he actually
think she was pretty? Honestly, she would be thrilled if he did.
She thought he was pretty, of course. But he could have just
been trying to be nice, she supposed. It was best to react too
intensely to it, especially given how his expression shifted, as
if he regretted the phrase the second it left his mouth. He
didn't mean it like that, did he? "It is an ugly name, isn't
it?" she said, nodding in agreement. "And it does my heart good
to know that you don't think I'm hideous," she added, keeping it
playful, not taking into account the light pink that was on his
cheeks. If he had intended to call her pretty -- or he genuinely
thought she was cute -- he would slip up again in the future.
Then she might be able to do something about it. He added that
he was sorry that she was here in America, sorry that Simon
dragged her here. It was almost sweet, she thought. "It... it's
alright. I mean, aside from losing my healthcare and having to
navigate the American immigration system, it's not so
different," she said. "That's a lie. It's pretty different. But
it could be worse. He could have moved us to Russia," she added
quickly, trying to keep it light. He already read her sonnet
though. He knew how badly she missed home. America had a lot of
problems -- as did England -- but London was home to her. She
felt like a stranger here, like she was living in someone else's
world and someone else's life. It was... wrong. Ben asked Chewie
to go lay down in the living room, leaving the two of them to
start their tutoring. After order the pizza, of course. Ben
asked for her topping preferences and, today, she asked for
pepperoni and olives. He seemed absolutely disgusted by the
olives, even calling her weird for liking them. She teased him,
asking if he was offended by the presence of olives and he
argued that they were disgusting. Rey laughed. "Calm down,
weirdo. They're only olives. They can't hurt you," she teased.
He said that he would get olives, but only for her half of the
pizza, which she was fine with. She then thanked him for buying
her food, since she really didn't want to cook when she got
home. Simon always made her cook. Otherwise, she didn't eat. He
only ever ordered enough food for himself, if he didn't expect
her to have a hot meal prepared for him. Ben said that he
understood, shrugging off her thanks. He finished off the order,
sliding his phone into his pocket before hesitantly saying that
they could start that tour she requested now. She nodded,
following along with him. He awkwardly gestured toward the
hallway, leading her that way. He stopped at once point to point
out the bathroom to her, which was actually a really good thing.
She'd need it eventually, she was sure. "Oh, yeah. Good to
know," she said with a smile. Then, at the very end of the hall,
was his room. He opened the door, obviously nervous, before
announcing it to her. She found a relatively clean space, which
wasn't what she expected from a teenage boy. It was neat and
tidy, well-organized, and heavily decorated. There were posters
on his wall for bands that Rey had never heard of. He had black
bed sheets, books all over the place, sketches and writings on
the walls, and an abundance of houseplants. Frankly, Rey was
impressed. She didn't take Ben as the type of person to keep
plants in his room or to care for them. Maybe he didn't. His
parents could have put them in there. But the sketches were
definitely hand-drawn, either by Ben or someone that he cared
about, probably. She couldn't read any of the writing from this
distance, but she would wager those were original pieces by Ben.
"This is... this is actually really cool," she said with a soft
smile, stepping into the space, letting her fingers gently drift
along the spines of the few of the books closest to her. She
admired the plants most of all, since -- if they were there by
Ben's choice -- it showed that he liked to take care of things.
It wasn't what she expected of the man that was so mean to her
just a few days ago, but it was pleasant surprise nonetheless.
"Do you take care of all of these plants yourself?"[/center]
#Post#: 3204--------------------------------------------------
[27] BEN
By: Zellaphone Date: October 27, 2022, 11:24 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[center]━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━&
#9473;━━━━━━━━&#
9473;━━━━━━━━	
473;━━━━━
✸xxxＢＥＮxxx✸
━━━━━━━━━&
#9473;━━━━━━━━&#
9473;━━━━━━━━	
473;━━━━━━━━^
73;━━━━
When Rey mentioned that someone named Simon wouldn't like it if
she brought a dog home, Ben raised a brow. He had never heard
her mention a Simon before, but judging from the context, it
sounded as though he could be her father or some other sort of
legal guardian or authority. He didn't know much about Rey's
life other than she was from London, so it could be anyone. He
repeated the name, curious to know if she called her own father
by his first name. If she did, she had more balls than he did.
She explained that Simon, apparently, had once been her foster
father, but had since adopted her so that he could bring her to
America with him. She seemingly joked that it was for free
housekeeping, but Ben couldn't tell if it was actually a joke or
not. All he knew is that he hadn't been expecting Rey to be a
foster kid. If he remembered correctly, Finn Porter was one as
well. Maybe that was part of the reason the two of them had
become friends so quickly. He didn't make much of a comment on
Rey's explanation, not exactly sure what to say. I'm sorry you
don't have real parents, or sorry you're adopted didn't sound
like appropriate things to say. Rey added that Plutt was Simon's
last name, so that's why she had gotten mad when he had used the
name on Tuesday. She apologized for snapping at him because of
it, promising him that she wasn't usually so temperamental, but
Simon wasn't her real father, and the two of them didn't always
get along, so she didn't like having his last name. He supposed
he could understand that to a degree. He didn't get along with
his parents a lot of the time either, though that never really
made him want to stop being a Solo. If he had been adopted by
his parents though, that might have been different. Ben told her
that the name Plutt was an ugly one, so it didn't really suit
her anyway. He hadn't been thinking about what he was
insinuating when he said those words, but as soon as they were
out, his eyes widened and his face felt warm. Shit, he hadn't
meant to basically call her pretty again. Rey agreed that it was
an ugly name, adding that it did her heart good to know that he
didn't find her to be hideous. Fuck, so she had definitely
caught on to what he had accidentally gotten at with his
statement. “I— well— no…” He was floundering and needed to
recover. "Not entirely, anyway," he added, hoping she knew that
was a joke he was using just to make himself feel better. He
added that he was sorry that her foster father had dragged her
to America with him, knowing from the ballad that Rey had
written that she was homesick. She tried to assure him that it
was alright, saying that aside from losing her healthcare and
having to deal with the American immigration system, it wasn't
all that different. Ben quirked a brow, and Rey quickly stated
that was a lie, saying that it was different, but it could be
worse since Simon could have taken her to Russia. Ben shrugged.
She had a bit of a point, but just because America wasn't the
worst country didn't necessarily mean it was the best either.
"Guess that's true, but moving still sucks," he said. Though he
didn't really remember the first time he had moved, he
remembered his father once telling him about how much of a fight
he had put up to not leave their last apartment. However, he had
practically just moved a few blocks, Rey had to leave her
country and everything behind. She then apologized for what she
thought was childish behavior around Chewie, explaining that
Simon wouldn't let her have pets, but Ben just shrugged it off,
ordering Chewie to go lay down since he knew he needed to tutor
Rey soon. However, he still needed to order the pizza. He pulled
out his phone, asking Rey what sort of toppings she wanted, to
which she told him that she liked pepperoni and olives. He
scrunched his nose up at that, repeating her topping choices
back to her. She asked him if olives offended him, and he stated
that they were disgusting. Rey laughed, telling him to calm down
and calling him a weirdo, which wasn't his favorite thing to be
called, but he let it slide since he had made Rey cry a couple
of days ago. She teased him, saying that olives couldn't hurt
him. He rolled his eyes. “I’m sure there are foods you don’t
like,” he said before telling her that he would get the olives,
but only on her side of the pizza, placing the order. She
thanked him for buying their meal, saying that she hadn't wanted
to cook tonight, to which he brushed off her thanks and assured
her that he understood. Finding something for yourself to eat
could often be a hassle. He slid his phone into his pocket,
awkwardly asking if she was now ready for the tour she had
mentioned earlier. She nodded, letting him know that she was,
and he started to lead her down the hallway, feeling nervous
about showing her his room. He walked past his parent's room,
stopping at the hallway bathroom and pointing it out to Rey in
case she needed to use it at any point. He then took her to the
door at the end of the hallway, announcing hesitantly that it
was his room before opening the door. He watched her anxiously
as she looked around his room, seemingly taking everything in.
So far, she wasn't laughing, which he thought was a good sign.
He had no idea how she'd react to all of his posters, his books,
his poems, his drawings, his plants, or anything else he had
sitting about or hanging on the wall. When she spoke again, she
told him that his room was cool, and he couldn't tell if she was
just humoring him or not. "Yeah?" he said, perking up ever so
slightly as he followed her into his room. He watched as she
went over to his bookshelf where he kept a lot of his Stephen
King novels as well as a lot of classics, touching some of the
spines of his books and still not laughing or smiling in any
sort of mocking way. She continued to look around, looking at
the plants on his windowsill and desk as she asked if he watered
all the plants himself. He nodded, still feeling rather
self-conscious even if everything seemed to be going well.
“Chewie sure as hell doesn’t water them," he said sarcastically
as his bit of attempt at humor. “You, uh… don’t think they’re
girly?” he asked, having been made fun of before for his love of
plants.[/center]
#Post#: 3207--------------------------------------------------
REY [28]
By: winterssmary Date: October 27, 2022, 9:08 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[center]━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━&
#9473;━━━━━━━━&#
9473;━━━━━━━━	
473;━━━━━
✧ xxxxＲＥＹ xxxx✧
━━━━━━━━━&
#9473;━━━━━━━━&#
9473;━━━━━━━━	
473;━━━━━━━━^
73;━━━━
"It's the freckles, innit? Always the bloody fucking freckles
that disgust people," she mused, not wanting Ben to think that
she suddenly believed he had a crush on her or something. That
was absurd. Best to just keep things playful, she figured. He
said she wasn't entirely hideous, so something had to be hideous
about her, she figured. She always hated her freckles. It
followed, she thought. He apologized for her being moved to
America against her will, but she didn't want him thinking that
he needed to say something like that. She assured him that it
wasn't too different, but that was a lie that she admitted to
just a moment later. She explained that it could have been
worse, which he agreed with. But he still acknowledged that
moving sucked, no matter the circumstances. "It really does,
doesn't it? It's like being teleported into a whole new world,
if I'm being honest," she explained. It was nice that Ben was
being so understanding now. "Everything here is deep fried and I
can't say cunt without someone looking at me as if I've just
killed a man," she said with a little laugh. "America is weird.
No offense," she added. Afterward, they ordered the pizza. Of
course, Ben had to have a meltdown about her liking olives
first. She laughed it off, teasing him about it a little bit
before she sheepishly reminded her that she had foods she didn't
like either. She nodded. "Oh sure. A few. I just don't think I
have such a visceral reaction to them. But I could be wrong,"
she said. "I'm just playing with you. You know that, right? I
don't want you to think I'm like... making fun of you or
anything," she added after a moment, her tone more sincere. What
he ate was none of her business. She just liked to poke around
with people. Once the food was ordered, Ben began the tour,
leading her to his bedroom. He seemed rather nervous about, but
Rey couldn't understand why. Especially not after he opened the
door and showed off just how neat and clean his room was. That
was the only thing she could think of him being ashamed of. She
took a moment to take in all that she could, but it was a lot.
He had a lot of posters and plants and pictures and papers and
books and all sorts of other things all around the space. She
said that she thought his room was cool, which seemed to
surprise him, perking him up a bit. He questioned that, but she
nodded. "Yeah. It's... I dunno. Expressive. Like, my room is
just bland. But this feels like you've really made it your own,"
she said. His room genuinely looked lived in, like it was
special to Ben, like it was his own little safe space. She
looked over the band posters. She knew they were for some
heavier music that she didn't always enjoy, but she recognized
some of the names, so that was something she figured she could
use to establish common ground. "I don't know what half of these
posters mean, but I know Fall Out Boy and MCR," she said with a
smile. She stepped into the space, letting her fingers casually
slide along the spines of some of his books. She recognized some
titles and authors, but it didn't mean that she had ever read
the books herself. "And the books are really cool. Just because
I not a good reader doesn't mean I don't think it's cool when
people are well-read. There's a lot of great stories out there,"
she said. In truth, she thought it was kinda hot that he read.
Even if it wasn't her cup of tea. Something about the image of
him with a book in hand was... appealing. "Oh, I've seen Carrie.
Is the book anything like the movie? Not the new one, but the
one with Sissy Spacek?" she asked, having stumbled upon his copy
of the novel. She commented on all of his plants, asking if he
was the one who cared for them all. He nodded, sarcastically
saying that Chewie wasn't in charge of them. She let out a
little laugh. "I would hope not. Your room would probably stink
if he did," she mused. He asked, after a moment, if she thought
they were girly. She stopped for a moment, facing him and
quirking an eyebrow. He was legitimately worried about that,
wasn't he? He genuinely worried that she might judge him like
that. What happened to make him that insecure? Who made him feel
ashamed of taking care of plants? "Plants? Is that a thing
people think?" she asked. Maybe it was an American thing. Or
just a not-people-she-knew thing. "They're not girly. They're...
well... I think they're cool. I can't keep one alive to save my
life, which is why I'm not touching yours, but I've always
thought they made any room or house instantly more attractive,"
she said. "I always wanted to be one of those plant moms who
could grow a garden and have fresh air in their home for a
change, but I kill everything I touch," she said with a little
laugh. She was convinced she would find a way to kill a
succulent. "I think it's really cool that you go through the
effort of taking care of all of them," she said with a shrug,
turning back to some of the plants, getting a closer look at the
ones on his desk. That was when she noticed something bright
blue. A butterfly? It was framed, mounted and taxidermized.
"It's so pretty. What kind of butterfly is this?" she asked,
gesturing toward it, scared to touch the frame for fear of
somehow messing something up. Being this close to the edge of
the room also helped her finally get a good look at some of the
drawings on the wall. Some of them were anatomically correct
hearts and organs. Others were unique shapes and patterns and
some just simple, still life pieces. She was very impressed with
them. "And these drawings... did you do these? They're
incredible," she asked, always wishing she had the ability to
draw like that. She could get some rough shapes out that she
could then mask with paint, but drawing was not her strong suit.
She stuck to the simple things that she had practiced overtime,
like her sunflowers and butterflies and stars and suns and
moons. Easy stuff. Then, she noticed the acoustic guitar by his
desk. And an electric guitar by his bed. Her eyes went wide.
"And you play guitar? Ben Solo, you are a man of many talents,"
she said with a bright smile. [/center]
#Post#: 3210--------------------------------------------------
[28] BEN
By: Zellaphone Date: November 1, 2022, 9:51 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[center]━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━&
#9473;━━━━━━━━&#
9473;━━━━━━━━	
473;━━━━━
✸xxxＢＥＮxxx✸
━━━━━━━━━&
#9473;━━━━━━━━&#
9473;━━━━━━━━	
473;━━━━━━━━^
73;━━━━
Ben hadn't meant to insinuate that Rey was pretty while
insulting her legal last name, saying it was too ugly for her...
but he had, and Rey had seemingly caught onto it. She told him
that she was glad to know that he didn't find her hideous, and
he stammered a bit before trying to recover with sarcasm, saying
that he didn't find her entirely hideous. She didn't need to
know that he thought she was the most beautiful person he had
ever seen and already had a rather large crush on her. Rey asked
if it was the freckles that made her almost hideous, adding that
her freckles were always what disgusted people. He raised a
brow, not sure if she was kidding or not. She had to be, right?
Like, she knew that most men found freckles to be attractive,
right? He loved her freckles. “Oh yeah, pigment cells are so
disgusting," he said with more sarcasm, hoping she'd catch on to
it in this case since he didn't want her actually thinking that
her freckles were ugly. He then apologized for her being dragged
to America by Simon, and she tried to assure him that America
wasn't all that different from the UK, but she admitted that was
a lie a moment later. However, she said that it could have been
worse, and he agreed with that, though he acknowledged that
moving still sucked. He couldn't imagine what it would be like
to have to leave everything familiar behind. Rey agreed that it
sucked, comparing her situation to being transported to a whole
new world, which didn't sound far off from what had actually
happened. She said that everything in America was deep-fried and
that she couldn't say cunt without getting funny looks. She told
him that America was weird, but added that she didn't mean any
offense. "None taken, English," he told her. He wasn't about to
pretend that America was perfect when he knew that was far from
the truth. “But deep-fried food is delicious and you can say
cunt as much as you’d like around me," he told her with a shrug
and a little grin. He liked it when she cursed. He then ordered
their pizza, judging Rey just a bit when she asked for olives on
their pizza. What was she, forty? He told her olives were
disgusting, but ordered them anyway. Although, he only put them
on her half. She teased him about the olives, but he pointed out
that she was bound to have foods that she didn't like either.
She agreed but said that she didn't have as much of a visceral
reaction to them as he did to olives. He let out a little huff,
but she assured him that she was just kidding, wanting him to
know that instead of thinking she was making fun of him. Really,
he had known that she was just teasing him... but honestly, it
was still nice to get the confirmation. It was nice to not be
teased. "I know," he told her. It was a bit strange to have
someone care so much about his feelings... but he liked it. He
placed the order for their pizza before beginning the tour that
Rey had practically requested, showing her where the hallway
bathroom was first before showing her to his actual room,
feeling nervous. The only girl that had ever been in his room
had been his mother, and she didn't count. Jannah had been
instead his rooms a couple of times as well, but she also didn't
count. Family never counted, but the new, pretty foreign girl
that you had a crush on definitely counted, and Ben had no idea
how she was going to react to everything in his room. While it
was tidy, it was... different from a lot of other teenage boy
rooms that he had seen. He had band posters, playbills, poems,
and sketches covering the vast majority of his walls,
bookshelves filled with old classics and horror/thriller novels,
and plants and other little knick-knacks that some might find
odd or girly on and by his desk. He was afraid Rey was going to
end up laughing at him. He opened the door to his room,
nervously letting her investigate it as he silently stood by and
watched her. Her eyes scanned the room and he grew more and more
nervous with each passing second she didn't say anything until,
finally, she said that she thought his room was cool. He perked
up a bit at that, surprised. He questioned that and she nodded,
saying that his room was expressive, unlike her room which was,
apparently, rather boring. She said that it felt as though he
had made his room his own, which he thought was a bit of a
strange statement. “Well yeah, it’s my room," he said. Didn't
everyone make their rooms their own as much as they could? He
supposed she probably just hadn't unpacked all her things yet.
She looked over his posters on the wall, saying that she didn't
know what half of the posters were, but she knew Fall Out Boy
and My Chemical Romance. He was slightly taken aback by that.
“Bullshit, you don’t know who Iron Maiden is? They’re British,”
he explained, gesturing to one of the posters of Iron Maiden
that he had. Did she really not know bands like Black Sabbath or
Led Zeppelin? Weren't they big in their home country? “But it’s
cool that you know Fall Out Boy and MCR. Do you listen to them?”
he asked, trying to not make her feel too judged... though he
did wonder what her taste in music was like if she didn't know
most of what he listened to. He followed her as she stepped
further into his room, going over to his bookshelf and touching
some of the spines of the books. She told him that they were
cool as well, explaining that even though she wasn't very good
at reading, she thought it was cool when others were well-read,
adding that there were a lot of great stories in the world. Ben
smiled a bit, nodding. "There are," he agreed. So she didn't
hate books. That was good, and she still didn't seem to be
judging any of his tastes, which was refreshing. She noticed
that he had Carrie by Stephen King, saying that she had seen the
movie, wanting to know if the book was anything like the
adaption with Sissy Spacek. Ben perked up again, pleased that
she was aware of the story of Carrie and wanted to know about
the book itself. He shrugged. “It’s an alright adaptation, but
the book is more intense and disturbing and fleshes out the
characters a lot better," he explained, knowing he could go on
all day about the movie's differences, but he wasn't about to
put Rey through that. She probably didn't actually care that
much. “I’m not really the biggest fan of how the movie told the
whole story, but I liked the movie’s ending better," he
admitted. She then commented on his plants, causing him to
become more self-conscious again. She asked if he took care of
them all himself and he nodded, sarcastically saying that Chewie
didn't water them. She laughed and his eyes lit up slightly at
the sound. It felt good to make her genuinely laugh. He wanted
to try and do it again sometime if he could, thinking it was the
most lovely sound he had ever heard. She said that she would
hope that Chewie didn't water them, saying that his room would
likely stick if he did. Ben chuckled at that, agreeing before
nervously asking if she really didn't think his plants were
girly. He had been made fun of for his love of plants before.
Rey seemed confused, asking if that was a thing people thought
and he shrugged again, though he knew the answer was yes. She
assured him that she didn't think his plants weren't
emasculating, saying that she thought they were cool. She
explained that she couldn't keep plants alive, which is why she
didn't want to touch his, but she thought that plants made rooms
more attractive. His demeanor relaxed a bit at that. She went on
to say that she had always wanted to be a plant mom, but that
she killed all the plants she touched. She laughed at herself
before adding that she believed it was cool -- which was
becoming the word of the day -- that he went through the effort
of taking care of all his plants. He looked away from her
briefly, his face feeling warm. No one had ever made him feel
so... accepted so easily. Even Hux made fun of a lot of his
things, though he supposed that wasn't that surprising.
"Thanks..." he said quietly, feeling entirely unjudged. When he
looked back up, Rey was examining the framed butterfly on his
desk, which had been yet another thing he had been nervous about
her seeing. However, she called it pretty, even asking him what
type of butterfly it was. “Oh… it’s a morpho didius, or, uh… a
giant blue morpho," he explained, trying not to get too excited
about her curiosity when it came to some of his things. Again,
she probably didn't actually care that much. “They’re not really
blue, though. Their wings just reflect blue light," he said,
unable to help himself from adding that one little fact. She
then looked back at his wall, commenting on his drawings, asking
if he had drawn them himself and calling them incrediable. Fuck,
this girl was going to kill him. She was giving him far too much
credit for anything and an ego boost he wasn't sure he deserved.
“They’re not that good," he tried to argue, looking down at the
corner of his rug to avoid her eyes again or looking at his own
drawings. They were just little sketches he had done at times he
had been bored. The only reason that he put them on the wall is
that he believed they matched the whole aesthetic he was trying
to go for with the skeletons, skulls, butterflies, plants,
atomically correct hearts, and other parts of the human body.
She then noticed his black acoustic guitar by his desk and his
black and white electric guitar by his bed, her eyes widening as
she questioned his ability to play the guitar, calling him by
his first name as she said he was a man of many talents. God, he
felt like he was burning up from all of these compliments and
all of this attention. He wasn't used to anything like it
really. Or, at least, not from a pretty girl. Teachers
complimented him a lot, but it wasn't the same, especially when
he also knew that they spoke behind his back about his
'behavioral issues'. He shrugged once more. “None of my shit is
that big of a deal," he tried to insist, believing his words to
be true, though he was proud of his guitar abilities. “I’m sure
you’ve got talents, other than being bad at reading and keeping
plants alive," he said, teasing her lightly to help cope with
all the praise he was getting, looking back up at her.[/center]
#Post#: 3213--------------------------------------------------
REY [29]
By: winterssmary Date: November 2, 2022, 2:07 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[center]━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━&
#9473;━━━━━━━━&#
9473;━━━━━━━━	
473;━━━━━
✧ xxxxＲＥＹ xxxx✧
━━━━━━━━━&
#9473;━━━━━━━━&#
9473;━━━━━━━━	
473;━━━━━━━━^
73;━━━━
Rey smirked when Ben so openly said cunt, saying she could use
the word as much as she wanted around him without judgment. "I'm
definitely not above trying a deep fried Oreo or whatever you
maniacs call dessert around here," she said playfully. "And I
think we should destigmatize the word cunt in America. Starting
with that guy who always walks directly in the center of the
hallway so that people have to part like the blood Red Sea
around him when trying to get to class. You know who I'm talking
about?" she asked, looking to him for confirmation. Maybe Ben
knew the kid's name, since he had been at the school for longer.
"Yeah, he's a right cunt," she concluded with a nod. After that,
they ordered their pizza -- despite a brief debacle regarding
Rey's choice of toppings -- and Ben took her to see his room as
she had requested. When he opened the door, she found that she
was looking at posters, playbills, drawings, writings, plants,
and so many little knickknacks and treasures. It all really took
her by surprise. She had only seen rooms look so lived-in and
personalized on television. The foster system didn't exactly
allow for much in the way of building a safe space at home. She
complimented Ben's space, telling him that she loved how
expressive it was, since he was able to make it his own, unlike
what she had managed. He seemed to think that was the most
obvious thing in the world, pointing that it was, indeed, his
room. "Right. Yeah. I guess it's just a little new for me. Even
when Simon kept us in one flat for several years, I was never
allowed to have much of anything in my room save for a few
pictures I had taken and a lamp," she explained. Her rooms had
always felt more like hotel rooms or temporary hostel dwellings
rather than her room. She looked over the posters, saying that
she didn't know most of the bands on them, but she knew Fall Out
Boy and My Chemical Romance pretty well. He implied she was
lying about at least not knowing Iron Maiden, since they were
apparently British. She had probably heard the name once or
twice, but didn't know a single song. "Does it matter? It's not
like you're familiar with every American band," she pointed out
with a little smile. "I know Black Sabbath... sorta. I've heard
Paranoid at the very least and Ozzy's been on a lot of TV
programs," she admitted a moment later. Ben then added that it
was cool that she knew at least two bands, wondering if she
actively listened to them, obviously trying to find some common
ground. She was happy to take the olive branch. "Some, yeah.
More Fall Out Boy than My Chemical Romance. The sound is really
cool, but I'm not always in the mood for it, if that makes any
sense. Though I adore pretty much any ballad I've heard from
both of them," she said, hoping that was enough for him to be
able to relate to her. She knew that, since he had their
posters, he likely loved most of their work and thought they
were awesome all the time, but her liking them in general should
be good enough, right? She just wasn't as big of a fan of the
faster, more intense sounds like that. Not all the time, anyway.
She liked softer music most of the time. She stepped further
into the room, looking over all of his other stuff. She took
special notice of his books, looking for titles that she
recognized. She recognized a few classics from discussions in
her English classes in the past and she knew the names of a few
of the thrillers. While Rey wasn't a strong reader, she was
still very familiar with Stephen King just by virtue of having a
television and access to the internet. The man was legend, even
if the genre could be a bit much for her sometimes. She
complimented his collection of novels, saying that she could
respect a good story even if she had a tougher time reading
them. She always wished she could be a strong reader just so she
could experience more than just TV and movies with ease. Ben
agreed that the stories were good. She commented specifically on
Carrie, since it was one of the movies that she genuinely liked
and one of the only Stephen King works that she wasn't afraid to
watch alone. She asked if the Sissy Spacek adaptation was
accurate. Ben seemed to perk up a bit, happy to explain his
opinions. He said that it was a decent adaptation, but that the
book was more detailed, disturbing, and did a better job with
the characters. She nodded. He added that he liked the ending of
the movie better than the one in the book, but that the book
obviously did a better job of telling the story. "Oh. That makes
sense, I guess. It's a big book. It's probably hard to fit
everything important into an hour and half. Especially with the
way movies were in the 1970s," she said with a nod. She still
enjoyed the movie though. It was tragic and sad for her to
watch, but still a good story. Rey then shifted the conversation
to the plants, learning that Ben took care of them on his own.
She thought that was rather sweet, but she dare not use the term
sweet, especially when he asked if she thought his hobby was
girly. It was obviously a source of insecurity for him and,
while she never found the act to be emasculating, she didn't
want to use language that make might him think otherwise. She
explained that it was cool that he kept all of them alive,
especially since she could never cultivate that sort of talent
and killed everything she touched. She was jealous of his
talent, but that was alright. She noticed the light red on his
face, but didn't dare comment on it, not wanting to further
embarrass him. He was being vulnerable by just letting her see
his room, she realized all at once. He was so insecure about a
lot of his things. This was a big deal. She didn't want to ruin
it by making him feel like he made a mistake. He thanked her, a
little sheepish, as if he didn't know what else to say. She then
noticed the framed butterfly on his desk, commenting on how
beautiful the shade of blue was, asking what kind it was. She
had never seen anything like it before. Not back home and not
since she had been in America. He told her the species name,
saying that it was commonly called the giant blue morpho
butterfly. She nodded. "It's really pretty. The wings are so
shiny," she said with a grin. He tacked on an extra fact,
telling her that the wings weren't actually blue, which
surprised her. She looked up at him, listening as he explained
that they simply reflected blue light. She hummed. "Oh, really?
I didn't know that... kinda wish I could do something like that.
Wouldn't it be cool to have this, like, shiny illusion of bright
metallic green instead of our skin color?" she pondered with a
little giggle. She shook her head a moment later. He already
insulted her for having her head in the clouds and, while he had
apologized, she figured that there had been some truth to that.
"Sorry. That was stupid. Anyway, so what color are the wings?
Just black or grey or something?" she asked. She looked back at
the wall after a moment, noting his drawings, asking if he had
done them. She said that they were incredible, looking over the
anatomically correct heart that had been sketched. Ben averted
his gaze, looking at the ground and arguing that they weren't
that good. Her eyes went wide, not sure if it was more in
frustration or shock. Or both. Probably both. "Are you kidding
me? Anatomy is so hard to get right, but you make it look easy,"
she said with a scoff. She understood modesty, but denying your
own obvious talent was a bit much. "I can only draw vague
figures and outlines to paint over but this -," she said,
gesturing toward the heart sketch in question. "Wow," she
breathed. That was about the time that she noticed the guitars,
commenting on that as well. She was surprised that Ben had so
many talents. She had one. Ben had a lot going for him. Why
didn't people take the time to get to know all of this about
him? She knew he made it hard, but she was already beginning to
see that it was worth it. He was fascinating. He insisted that
none of his stuff or talents were impressive. She shook her
head. "Don't sell yourself short," she said sincerely. He added
that she had her own talents, save for just being a terrible
reader and assassinating innocent plants. She laughed,
shrugging. "You're not wrong. I can put away an entire batch of
cupcakes all by myself. And I'm an expert at stumbling," she
said playfully. [/center]
#Post#: 3216--------------------------------------------------
[29] BEN
By: Zellaphone Date: November 3, 2022, 11:19 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[center]━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━&
#9473;━━━━━━━━&#
9473;━━━━━━━━	
473;━━━━━
✸xxxＢＥＮxxx✸
━━━━━━━━━&
#9473;━━━━━━━━&#
9473;━━━━━━━━	
473;━━━━━━━━^
73;━━━━
Ben's grin grew as he watched Rey smirk after he said cunt,
giving her permission to use it around him as much as she
wanted. She assured him that she wasn't above trying a
deep-fried Oreo or whatever American maniacs called dessert,
which Ben took note of even though he doubted he'd ever be the
one to take her to get some. He wanted to, though. He chuckled,
and she went on to say that America should destigmatize the word
cunt, starting with the guy at their school that always walked
in the middle of the hallway, making everything have to part and
go around him. She asked if he knew who he was talking about.
"Timm?" he questioned, though he was certain that was who it
was. That assshit truly didn't give two fucks about most people.
Rey concluded that was him, saying he was a right cunt, which
made Ben smirk. “He is a cunt. Most of our fucking class is
cunts," he agreed. Ben ordered their pizza after that, but not
without letting Rey know that the olives she had chosen as a
topping were disgusting, which earned him some teasing from her.
It was all in good fun, though, which he appreciated. After
that, he started the tour that Rey had wanted, taking her to his
bedroom and opening the door, waiting anxiously for her
reaction. Surprisingly, she liked his room, saying that it was
cool and expressive and that it looked as though he had really
made it his own. It was that last comment that confused him
slightly, and he pointed out that it was his room, so of course
he had made it his own. Didn't everyone make their rooms their
own? Rey explained that it was just a little new for her since
Simon had never allowed her to have much more than a few
pictures and a lamp in the room she had before moving here. Ben
furrowed his brow slightly at that. That... didn't sound right.
What the fuck kind of guy was this Simon? He sounded like a real
asshole, which he hoped wasn't the case. He didn't want Rey
living with an asshole... but he didn't know the whole story.
Maybe he was just a bit more strict than the average parent.
“That’s pretty fucked of him," he said, unable to completely
hold back his concern at Rey's comment. She began to look over
his posters, which made Ben nervous again. Was she about to
laugh at his taste in music? She admitted that she didn't know
what most of the band posters were, but she did know Fall Out
Boy and MCR. He was a little surprised about that, and he
questioned if she really didn't know Iron Maiden, pointing out
that they were British. If you mentioned Iron Maiden around
here, there was a good chance that most people would know who
you were talking about. Wouldn't it make sense for it to be the
same in Britain itself? She asked if it mattered, saying that it
wasn't like he knew every American band. “I am when they’re as
big as Iron Maiden,” he stated confidently. Rey smiled, saying
she was aware of Black Sabbath since she had heard Paranoid and
had seen Ozzy on television programs. That made sense and was a
bit of a relief. It was a little concerning that bands he saw as
larger than life weren't even known by her, but... he supposed
he'd just have to get over it. He had gotten fired from the
record shop he used to work at because of his judgment towards
other people's tastes in music. "Well, that's a relief, at
least," he said before stating that it was cool that she knew
Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance, asking if she listened to
them. Rey said that she listened to them a bit, but explained
that she liked Fall Out Boy more than MCR since she wasn't
always in the mood for their sound. However, she liked any
ballads both bands had. "So you prefer ballads?" he asked before
shrugging. He liked ballads as well. "That's fair, I guess," he
said, keeping her preferences in mind. Did he wish that she
liked the exact same music as him? Sure, but he'd have to get
over it. He knew from the start that she probably wouldn't have
the same tastes as him, which had been a big reason as to why he
had been afraid to show her his room in the first place. Rey
began to look at his books next, making him anxious that she was
going to call him out on how many classics he had or romance
novels, but she didn't. Instead, she complimented his
collection, saying that even though she wasn't good at reading,
she admired those that were, saying that there were many good
stories out there, which he agreed with, relaxing further. This
was going... strangely well. She then pointed out that she was
familiar with the story of Carrie by Stephan King, wanting to
know if the movie from the 70s was anything like the book. Ben
perked up, more than happy to talk about something he knew and
liked. He explained that the film was an okay adaption, though
he wasn't crazy about how they told the whole story. He said the
book fleshed out characters better and was more intense, but
admitted that the movie had a better ending than the book. Rey
said that his explanation made sense, mentioning how big the
book was and using that as a point to how it had probably been
difficult for them to condense the story into a film, especially
with how movies were in the 70s. Ben nodded, trying to not get
too pleased with how all of this was going. "Do you like horror
movies?" he asked, hopefully. Maybe they could find some common
ground somewhere. Rey shifted the focus to his plants after
that, asking if he took care of all of them himself. Worried
that she was finally going to start making fun of him, he made a
sarcastic comment about how Chewie certainly didn't water them.
Rey laughed, which was a lovely sound, saying that his room
would probably stink if Chewie did. He agreed with that before
pausing for a moment. He asked her if she didn't think that his
having plants was girly, knowing that kids at school thought
such things about him. However, Rey quickly assured him that she
didn't think that at all, telling him that she thought it was
cool that he could keep so many plants alive since she tended to
kill everything she touched. She told him that she loved it when
people kept plants, and had always wanted to do so herself, but
couldn't. He felt a blush on his face from her compliments and
from how easily she was just... accepting him and his likes. She
wasn't judging him at all, which was very new for him. It was
nice. Very nice. He thanked her sheepishly, not sure of what
else to say, but it didn't matter since Rey was already focusing
on something else, asking him about the framed butterfly on his
desk which was something else he was sure he'd get made fun of
at school. He told her the scientific name for the butterfly
before saying it was a giant blue morpho. She nodded, saying how
pretty it was and how shiny the wings were. He explained that
the wings weren't actually blue, but rather reflected blue
light, thinking that was an interesting fact that she probably
didn't actually care about. She proved him wrong, though,
humming and saying that she wished she could do that because she
thought it would be cool to have metallic green skin. He quirked
a brow at that, the corner of his lips twitching upwards into an
amused smile. She was so weird... but he liked that about her.
It made her easy to talk to, in a way. She apologized, stating
that her comment had been stupid, though Ben hadn't thought that
at all. Silly? Yes. Stupid? No. She asked what color the
morpho's wings really were, asking if they were just brown or
gray. “Their wings are made up of diamond-shaped scales that are
iridescent," he explained, more than happy to talk about
something that he had knowledge of. She then looked back at his
walls, asking if he had done the drawings on them, calling them
incrediable. He had to look away from her, feeling a faint blush
on his face again. She was complimenting him an awful lot, and
he wasn't really sure what to do about it except deflect. He
assured her that his drawings weren't that good, but she
disagreed, saying anatomy was hard to get right, but he made it
look easy. She said that she could only draw vague outlines and
figures before gesturing to a heart he had drawn, clearly amazed
by it. “I— They’re just little sketches… but thanks, I guess,"
he said awkwardly, glancing over at her here and there. He
really didn't know what to do with himself. He hadn't been
expecting so much praise from the girl he had a crush on when
showing her his room. She then saw his guitars, commenting on
them as well and saying he was a man of many talents. He tried
shrugging off that statement, trying to insist that his talents
weren't that big of a deal, mentioning that she was bound to
have talents as well, teasing her that she had talents other
than killing plants and being bad at reading. She laughed,
saying he wasn't wrong, telling him that she could eat a whole
batch of cupcakes all by herself and that she was a pro at
stumbling. He couldn't help but laugh shortly at that. "Those--"
he began before chuckling and shaking his head. Those weren't
real talents. Not the kind he had actually been referring to.
“You’re pretty good at soccer, I’ve noticed," he admitted,
thinking that it was her turn to be complimented. When he had
watched her practice yesterday, he had been rather impressed.
“And you said you painted when you introduced yourself in
homeroom," he mentioned, wondering how good she was.[/center]
#Post#: 3219--------------------------------------------------
REY [30]
By: winterssmary Date: November 3, 2022, 9:00 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[center]━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━&
#9473;━━━━━━━━&#
9473;━━━━━━━━	
473;━━━━━
✧ xxxxＲＥＹ xxxx✧
━━━━━━━━━&
#9473;━━━━━━━━&#
9473;━━━━━━━━	
473;━━━━━━━━^
73;━━━━
Rey was having a lot of fun with the cunt banter. She laughed
when Ben agreed about that Timm guy being annoying, taking up
way too much space and being an entitled twot. "I'll drink to
that... or... I would. I keep forgetting that's another American
thing. But you get the point," she said. Afterward, they ordered
their pizzas before beginning the tour of his room. She
complimented the style of his room, noting that it was all very
expressive and personalized. She wasn't used to that and
explained that, because Simon was so strict and rarely let her
have things, she never was able to do much with her room. It was
empty and bare, save for a few small pictures and a plain lamp.
She didn't mention her stuffed rabbit, but that wasn't any of
his business. Ben said that it was pretty fucked of Simon and,
while she was a little surprised at how blunt he was, she felt a
little vindicated at the comment. It was fucked. Ben was right
and making her feel like she was right to be annoyed by it all.
"It is. Simon's not exactly a great guy. I'm not allowed to
really buy anything to put in my room, so unless I can make it
somehow, I just go without," she explained. "And it's really
hard to make stuff when all of my crafting things were left
behind in England," she said. She still had her sewing machine
and her easel, but she lost a lot of her materials and fabrics
and her embroidery stuff and her crochet needles and so on. They
talked about some of the bands on the wall and Rey pointed out
that she knew a few of them, but Ben seemed the most taken aback
by her not knowing Iron Maiden. They were British, apparently,
which was his only excuse. She countered that by saying that he
didn't know every American band just because they were from the
same country. He argued that he would if they were as big as
Iron Maiden apparently was. She shrugged. "Sorry to disappoint.
I know it's a medieval torture weapon but that's about it," she
said. She assured him that, at the very least, she was familiar
with Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne, which seemed to offer him
some relief. "See? I'm not all bad. I know something about the
rock and roll," she said, intentionally trying to sound clueless
in order to maintain a playful attitude. He was glad that she
knew MCR and Fall Out Boy, asking if she listened to their music
actively. She explained that she did, but she had to be in the
right mood for it most of the time. She added that she loved a
lot of their ballads. He questioned that, but said it was fair.
"Yeah, for the most part. I think they're pretty. It really
highlights their vocals too," she said. they also discussed some
of the books they had, since Rey was particularly fond of
readers. Anyone who knew a good story was okay with her, even if
she couldn't keep up with the books on her own. She noticed his
copy of Carrie and, while she never read the book, she had seen
most movie adaptations. She really only liked the very first
one, of course, but still. She asked about what he thought of
the adaptation and he said it was alright. He liked the movie's
ending better, but he felt the story was much better conveyed in
the book. She could understand that, saying that it must be hard
to try and include all the important stuff from such a large
book into a ninety minute feature. Ben asked if she liked horror
movies afterward. "I haven't seen very many. I'm sort of a
weenie. But, I'd be more than happy to give them a more fair
shake... so long as it's nothing too scary. I get nightmares
easy," she explained. She wasn't opposed to horror movies and
she liked thrillers, but she knew she had a pretty low tolerance
for anything too creepy. She was already afraid of the dark. How
was she supposed to sleep at night if she had all of these weird
demon faces burned into her memory? They talked about his
plants, Rey trying to offer him reassurance that she thought his
hobby was interesting and cool, not girly or emasculating. He
was plenty masculine and watering a fichus here and there didn't
change that in the slightest. That was when the giant blue
morpho butterfly on his desk caught her attention. It was
beautiful and the wings had a metallic, almost jewel-toned sheen
that amazed her. Ben explained that the wings weren't actually
blue, but that they only reflected blue light. She briefly
entertained the idea of her own skin doing that, giving off a
metallic green instead of the color she had. She saw a smile on
his face at that and she worried, for a moment, if he might mock
her for such an off-the-wall comment. She apologized and moved
on, asking what color the wings actually were. He explained that
they were made of many diamond-shaped scales with an iridescent
tone. Her eyes widened. "Scales? That's so cool. No wonder this
one seems to shiny compared to the other butterflies I've seen.
It's gorgeous. I want scales," she said, rather excited by this
weird little fact. She wondered where Ben learned all of this
stuff, but she supposed he was just one of those people who had
his own special interests and hyperfixations. She was the same
way. She then commented on his drawings, complimenting his
sketches, particularly the anatomically correct heart that she
found. Ben, on the other hand, was rather bashful about it,
insisting that it wasn't much of anything, but Rey wouldn't back
down. He was very talented and should embrace it. Eventually, he
thanked her, conceding. Sorta. She also saw his guitars,
explaining that he obviously had a lot of talents and skills,
which was really exciting and fun for her to learn. But he
didn't think much of anything he did, trying to redirect
everything onto her. He joked that she had to have talents aside
from killing plants and not-reading. She agreed, saying she was
great at eating sweets and tripping over things. He laughed, a
sound that she found she really liked. His genuinely laughter
was beautiful, like music to her ears. But he stopped, saying
that he noticed she was good at soccer. "Oh, no. It's just...
footb- soccer is a really big deal back home. I grew up taking
it more seriously. We played in the streets with complete
strangers and professional coaches and stuff growing up," she
explained. Americans, and especially American men, weren't very
good at football in general. Europe and South America were where
the skill was at. "You know, I only lived a few blocks from the
Chelsea Club, so a few of the footballers would see us at the
park on the way to practice and give us a few tips. It was...
really cool," she said, really happy to reminisce on those
memories. She learned a lot of tricks from a few people who
either worked at the club or who actually played football
professionally. It happened a lot when she was a kid, but less
often as she got older. She didn't think Ben cared though. But
she did need to bring up him practically stalking her and
watching her play the day before. She couldn't just ignore that.
"Oh, and by the way, did you... mean to just show up at practice
yesterday? Cause... like... I know you didn't mean anything by
it, but I... I didn't know then so -," she tried, suddenly
becoming more awkward. She didn't want him to think that she was
calling him out or trying to start a fight or something. She
just... it scared her. And she didn't know how to get that
across without being accusatory. "Maybe next time, if you wanna
hang back, just let me know beforehand. Maybe we could even grab
a snack after practice or something," she suggested, taking the
friendly approach instead. Ben then reminded her that she said
she was a painter when she introduced herself in homeroom on the
first day of class. She had completely forgotten that she
mentioned that. "Oh, yeah. I do paint. I'm not very good, but
it's just a fun hobby for me," she said with a shrug. [/center]
*****************************************************
DIR Previous Page
DIR Next Page