[ It doesn't faze Ben that much, that Arya has been to other strange worlds before this one. It's common enough, in this place. Klaus had been somewhere called Hadriel... and he knows that strange things happen in this place. Tricks, hallucinations. Substances with certain effects. A furrow forms between his brows, listening to Arya and he considers for a moment before shaking his head: ]
No, i haven't eaten since this morning, and I've lied to somebody since then so it can't be the food, but there are a lot of other ways we could've been drugged. It could be airborne.
[ Ben realizes how that might sound, that he might be giving wrong impressions about himself, and so he adds: ]
It wasn't a big lie. I told my sister I had slept well, but I didn't sleep well, I had an awful nightmare and woke up crying.
[ Wow, it just keeps on getting worse, doesn't it? He hadn't meant to go into quite that much detail.
But he can't worry that much about it because this kid is here, saying how easy it was to kill people, how many more people she wants to kill, and he thinks maybe this is different, in some ways, to the killing he'd done. It's... personal. Deliberate. Ben rubs at the back of his neck, feeling a crawling unease. But it is not at Arya, precisely. More at whatever sort of world had made her into this version of herself. ]
It... was never easy for me. It was always so painful, and disgusting, and I- I never wanted to, but I felt like I had no choice, and I felt sick after, every time.
[ His face is full of nothing but sympathy, though. Because surely, Arya had felt she had no choice, either, in one way or another. She'd been brought to this. Children don't just want to kill. ]
I've killed a lot more than seventeen people. I've killed a lot more than thirty people.
[ Just so that she understands he has even more blood on his hands than her, that he'd meant what he said about not judging. Quietly, voice full of sadness: ]
no subject
No, i haven't eaten since this morning, and I've lied to somebody since then so it can't be the food, but there are a lot of other ways we could've been drugged. It could be airborne.
[ Ben realizes how that might sound, that he might be giving wrong impressions about himself, and so he adds: ]
It wasn't a big lie. I told my sister I had slept well, but I didn't sleep well, I had an awful nightmare and woke up crying.
[ Wow, it just keeps on getting worse, doesn't it? He hadn't meant to go into quite that much detail.
But he can't worry that much about it because this kid is here, saying how easy it was to kill people, how many more people she wants to kill, and he thinks maybe this is different, in some ways, to the killing he'd done. It's... personal. Deliberate. Ben rubs at the back of his neck, feeling a crawling unease. But it is not at Arya, precisely. More at whatever sort of world had made her into this version of herself. ]
It... was never easy for me. It was always so painful, and disgusting, and I- I never wanted to, but I felt like I had no choice, and I felt sick after, every time.
[ His face is full of nothing but sympathy, though. Because surely, Arya had felt she had no choice, either, in one way or another. She'd been brought to this. Children don't just want to kill. ]
I've killed a lot more than seventeen people. I've killed a lot more than thirty people.
[ Just so that she understands he has even more blood on his hands than her, that he'd meant what he said about not judging. Quietly, voice full of sadness: ]
Why do you need a list?