westwhere

WHO: Ben and Anyone
WHEN: Backdated to October 26th-early November ish
WHERE: Can be vague / multiple locations
WHAT: Ben's hearing screams and has tossed this doll out so many times
WARNINGS: haunted doll, unintentional gaslighting, mild obscenities

One more Look
The doll was innocent enough. Handed to him by some child with dead eyes that didn't quite meet Ben's gaze as it lifted up doll in offering. Ben had picked it up, noting the uncomfortable resemblance to his brother Klaus, even down to its clothes, little goatee, and hair color, curls and length. Ben was about to return it to the child when...the child was gone. He left the doll out in the street. Somehow, though, that didn't stop the doll from finding Ben later.

It was the middle of the night, so only the people he's staying with would be aware, when Ben finds himself brought awake by the screaming doll. They, though, can't hear it. He grabs it from the foot of his bed and inspects it.

"Shut up," he tells it, firmly, like if he was talking to Klaus himself. Then he stuffs the doll under his pillow and slams his head on it.

At the Ghost
The next time, Ben rushes out of a place, carrying the screaming doll out in front of him. It doesn't move, and no one else can hear it, but he still doesn't understand why not. It's so loud. And very much Klaus. Only Klaus would be this obnoxious.

"You hear it, right?" he asks the first person he sees, and shoves the doll in their face. "It won't stop!"

Before I'm gonna make it Leave
Ben tosses the doll into the road, figures it will get trampled by passerby, ground into the dirt, but just in case, he grabs for a random person and points to the doll a few feet away.

"You see that, right? That I'm just leaving it there. It's doomed."

If he has to, next time, he's just going to burn the damn thing.

[OOC: Will do [, (, past, present, prose, whichever is most comfortable - I will follow. Feel free to contact me on plurk

metaljean, on this journal, or discord midknightcat to discuss ideas.]

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Allison watches this with a level of curious amusement. She's not sure where Ben picked up this doll of his, but given the way he's behaving she's starting to think it's not just any doll.

"You okay, Ben?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," he insists.

"But it keeps following me. There's something wrong with that doll."

"What do you mean, something wrong?" Allison frowns as she goes to move closer and get a better look. She hasn't really paid much attention to it, but things that are weird around these parts usually have something up about them. "It doesn't have any body parts in it or something, does it?"

Ben's face scrunches up.

"No. Nothing like that." Pause. "Have you found dolls with body parts inside?" He looks put off by that.

"Just mean something wrong because I keep tossing it out, and it keeps showing up in my room."

"Not me, but Five was carrying around an undead finger for a while."

A pause because she knows that's going to need explanation:

"No, I don't know where he got it or why he kept it but I don't think he has it anymore."

Ben's face scrunches up to that, with confused disgust.

"What does an undead finger even do? Does it move on its own?"

"Not that I saw? Honestly, Five got into a lot of questionable stuff before I got here. But you know how he gets when he's on his own."

Spiraling down into his own world of paranoia with no one to be a counterweight about why you can't just murder everyone, or in the case of the current situation, pick up things he probably shouldn't pick up.

Ben breathes in and opens his mouth, then stops, only able to say, "Yeah. Five is good at getting into trouble. Only one that beats him there is Klaus."

His own words cause him to look at the doll on the street, and he turns away and starts to put distance between himself and the doll. Five isn't the only one to spiral, but Ben mostly has his head on right.

"What other weird things have you seen here?"

"Harpies made of tar. Dead things that don't stay dead. This weird black water that is apparently trying to absorb us all."

Allison shakes her head.

"Honestly, all of this has been crazy. It's hard to nail down just one."

Ben purses his lips together and looks at Allison for a second then admits, "I only know of the black water. It's annoying as fuck, too."

He shakes his head. "Maybe we're all just bad at getting into trouble."

"I can't deny that one. We have stumbled into three apocalypses at this point."

Four, technically, for Allison, but Ben Prime hasn't gotten to that one. And she still can't help but feel that this world is in the middle of an apocalypse - a slow one, but an ending all the same.

"It's like we can't avoid them."

"Has it really been three?" Ben thinks that over, face scrunched up. He knows it's been more than one. This world probably does count, though it is a lot less flashier than what they're accustomed to. It's usually way more obvious.

"Or they're just drawn to us. Like we're trouble magnets. Or apocalypse magnets."

"I'd like to lose my magnetism if it's all the same to them." Allison shakes her head. "Honestly if we keep landing in apocalypse after apocalypse, we're going to lose our minds."

And that's not something she wants for any of her siblings. She wants them to be able to make it out to the other side and rest.

"If you figure out how to do that, let me know. And make sure to demagnetize Klaus, while you're at it," Ben mostly teases. But really, if they could figure that out? He's signing them all up for it.

"Will we? Or have we been doing this for so long we'll go crazy if our lives aren't on fire?" He doesn't want it for them, either, no matter what. There is, certainly, something in between that might be more suitable for them.

She gives a bitter laugh, because honestly, she feels like if things don't slow down, she's going to spin out. She thinks about what Lila told her, about having the spins and not being able to ground herself in reality without her daughter, and she knows that more apocalypses would be worse for her, not better.

"Maybe for some of us that would be true. Probably definitely for Five." Though she doesn't necessarily want that for him. "But not me. I need to be done."

That Ben can respect. "Why couldn't I haunt you for seventeen years?" They know why, it's just something he says in jest. She's one of the more practical ones out of their family, though.

He reaches for Allison's hand. "Then let's do this. Let's figure it out, how to get your life to something calmer. Together." He starts to grin, clearly pleased at the idea of getting to physically be part of the world saving antics, and finding a real, long-term solution.

"You would have had way more fun."

He could have come with her to all her movie sets. And he would have gotten to meet Claire too. Her heart still sinks every time she realizes that none of her family ever got to meet Claire. But lingering on what might have been is always more bittersweet than reality.

She squeeze his hand in return and nods. "I would really like that. Maybe with you being here, we might be able to get you home in one piece."

"It would have been saner, at least." Ben laughs to that. He hadn't even thought of meeting Claire until this conversation, but yes, he would have been able to meet her.

Ben's lips lift into an almost smile, the mirth never reaching his eyes, then it falters completely as he squeezes Allion's hand back. When he's speaks, it's hesitant and worried.

"Has...anyone considered I might not be able to go back?" Obviously, he won't tell Allison and Five not to try - they likely won't be able to stop themselves. And if anyone can figure it out, it would be the Hargreeves siblings. Also, knowing them, though, it will go horribly wrong.

Allison has considered it. She's also considered that Five might not want to go back - that other friends of hers might not want to return to their own worlds. It's more complicated a feeling than she would care to admit, but she needs to go home.

She needs to know if she saved Claire.

"We'll figure it out." Distract and deflect, that's what she's best at. "And if there's no way ... then we'll see."

She doesn't want to make any promises she won't keep.

That is probably the best way of handling it, of course, even Ben knows that. Thinking of it now won't do either of them any good.

"Right. We'll figure that out when it comes to it, then."

One thing, for sure, he would never ask Allison to stay behind or keep her from Claire.

OTA

before i'm gonna make it leave

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probably wrap for something new for 2024?