He doesn't guard a lot of stories closely. Anybody who wants can find out all they want about all the weird shit in his life, sibling drama to world-ending catastrophe (which is actually more sibling drama). But he's picky about dying. "Sending fifteen year olds out and telling them they're heroes is a bad idea. When we won we were extrajudicially executing petty criminals, and when we lost... I'm amazed I'm the only one who didn't make it."
She frowns, aware that he's being vague. She normally doesn't pry, figures the past is the past and everyone has a right to wall theirs off. But if they're permanently paired he'll see everything about her, including the two secrets she hoards. So she persists.
He sighs a little and shrugs. "I'd have a hard time recreating the last little bit. It was... messy. I know one of my brothers thinks he fucked up. Dad weighed him down with the whole team leader thing, another cool move to pull on someone whose facial hair wasn't really working yet. And I'm only as present as I am because another brother's power is 'ghosts.' So I haven't gone to a lot of effort to figure out the details."
"That's a shitty thing to do," she agrees. Leadership in packs is not bestowed by someone else, it's earned, it's taken, it's fought for. And it's often temporary. But putting that on a kid?
"Wait, so you mean it's your other brother that lets you talk to everyone? Or can you only talk to him?"
Ben makes a face. "Only him. Bad system. He was actually here for a while, don't know if you ever ran into Klaus?" With the gap in his own barge tenure he's completely lost track of who did and didn't turn up before. "But that's one topic I didn't mind not getting into with people in general. Dying's gross. Most ghosts never get to leave that moment. I'd rather stay away from it."
"Yeah, the name's familiar, but I don't think I ever got to talk to him. Must be nice being here, though, huh? Everyone sees you, can talk to you." Another ghost question: "You can touch things, right?"
"Oh, yeah, free heartbeat with every warden job offer. I'm basically alive while I'm here." Which explains some of Ben's rather casual attitude to barge politic type issues. Being alive seems like reasonable compensation for anything after being insubstantial so long.
"I do adventures." Dorky ones. "I mean, insofar as a magic cruise ship with a holodeck allows." They're talking a lot about him here, but it's a fair offering. She's stuck and he's not. "And we have art and music and all that good stuff."
"Well, you know those murals and things on the walls?" they're not great, they're done in a significantly 'street graffiti' style, depicting words and initials and a few monster figures. "I did those with a friend. The point's to have fun, I think."
"Hey, cool. I'll have to spend some more time with those." Because he has just kinda taken them for granted. But he's learning. "Kinda starting from scratch on a lot of this being a person stuff," he adds, so it doesn't sound so much like he's been ignoring her work.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2021-06-09 11:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-06-10 12:41 am (UTC)"How did you lose?"
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Date: 2021-06-10 12:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-06-12 08:30 pm (UTC)"Wait, so you mean it's your other brother that lets you talk to everyone? Or can you only talk to him?"
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