( Ben turns back around at a loss and finds — smiling. amusement, a small laugh shivering across the stranger's face. out of all the strange and inexplicable things he has seen thus far, between crumbling landscape, immovable time, misshapen surroundings, and shadows that move without sources...
someone laughing is somehow the most impossible phenomenon Ben could have thought of, if it made it on the list at all.
me too. a connection, a mutual understanding, an agreement. it's warm, just gently, and that feels significant in a climate such as this — barren, devoid.
Ben swallows and his face relaxes back enough to allow a smile to stretch, but it is brief, possibly lost on all parties present.
he watches openly as the other man leans into the glass, eyes flicking over the scene of the stranger breathing upon it — and thankfully, it isn't the expression of a gawker that Ben gives. he looks watchful, but fascinated, observant in a clinical way. he bends at the waist to level himself with the mirror, looking at the words being finger-scrawled across the glass. backwards, as it happens, momentarily leading Ben to think there is something wrong here— Until his brain picks out the word 'ekow' and realizes...'I woke up', just as the breathed fog begins to shrink away. English, plain as day, and not complete nonsense. this is the best news Ben has heard all day.
the realization is easily telegraphed on Ben's face, the expression of scrutiny and assembling details, before spreading back with understanding. Ben nods finally, moreso to himself, before looking at the man.
all right, then. Ben doesn't think he will have the luxury of time to play 'how to spell an entire sentence backwards," letters and all, so these responses will have to be short.
but as he considers his answer, he doesn't appear to struggle to decide, rather pauses to evaluate the truth of it. his lips curl in quickly between his teeth before his mouth relaxes, exhaling with intent against the glass on his own side. )
I ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ʀᴇᴄᴀʟʟ.
( Ben's penmanship would befit an architect, all uppercase, legible. Ben is not often a man to be misunderstood. what he doesn't understand is where he left off, in the looking monotony of where his life had left off. he remembers much of his life, mostly all of it — but in those last days, it all bleeds together in a dark blur.
Ben lifts up higher and breathes against the glass again, animated with an afterthought to add: )
no subject
someone laughing is somehow the most impossible phenomenon Ben could have thought of, if it made it on the list at all.
me too. a connection, a mutual understanding, an agreement. it's warm, just gently, and that feels significant in a climate such as this — barren, devoid.
Ben swallows and his face relaxes back enough to allow a smile to stretch, but it is brief, possibly lost on all parties present.
he watches openly as the other man leans into the glass, eyes flicking over the scene of the stranger breathing upon it — and thankfully, it isn't the expression of a gawker that Ben gives. he looks watchful, but fascinated, observant in a clinical way. he bends at the waist to level himself with the mirror, looking at the words being finger-scrawled across the glass. backwards, as it happens, momentarily leading Ben to think there is something wrong here— Until his brain picks out the word 'ekow' and realizes...'I woke up', just as the breathed fog begins to shrink away. English, plain as day, and not complete nonsense. this is the best news Ben has heard all day.
the realization is easily telegraphed on Ben's face, the expression of scrutiny and assembling details, before spreading back with understanding. Ben nods finally, moreso to himself, before looking at the man.
all right, then. Ben doesn't think he will have the luxury of time to play 'how to spell an entire sentence backwards," letters and all, so these responses will have to be short.
but as he considers his answer, he doesn't appear to struggle to decide, rather pauses to evaluate the truth of it. his lips curl in quickly between his teeth before his mouth relaxes, exhaling with intent against the glass on his own side. )
I ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ʀᴇᴄᴀʟʟ.
( Ben's penmanship would befit an architect, all uppercase, legible. Ben is not often a man to be misunderstood. what he doesn't understand is where he left off, in the looking monotony of where his life had left off. he remembers much of his life, mostly all of it — but in those last days, it all bleeds together in a dark blur.
Ben lifts up higher and breathes against the glass again, animated with an afterthought to add: )
I ᴡᴀs ʜᴏᴍᴇ, ᴛʜᴇɴ ʜᴇʀᴇ.