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saveourearth2018-09-22 04:53 pm
warped_replica) wrote in saveourearth2018-09-22 04:53 pm
Breaking Lines [Semi-Closed Log]
Date: September 20th
Characters: Benjiro, Jacob, and later Sadie with possibly others? Anyone that would hear about it can talk to Ben after the fact
Warnings: Blood, violence, bullying
The first week returning to school had been the hardest as Benjiro did his best to sustain a lie to friends and classmates alike. He presented it as a matter of limiting allergies that disrupted his attempts to sleep too much to function while not suffering the haze of medication side effects. Professor Petty had helped him put it on record for the school so his other teachers would tolerate the mask. There were some misunderstandings, yet with time it became normal enough that his personal space once more felt limited in the hallways. Wariness of the odd accessory waned over time. It also helped that he had quickly figured out he could eat small portions of food through the day and still manage to join friends and Sadie alike in the cafeteria without going hungry.
There was a lot of teasing of course, but most of the material was spent in those handful of days. Benjiro felt sensitive to it, but he would usually just force a laugh or shake his head and move on in the moment. Redirection worked well to disrupt any sense of isolation, and Sadie provided her support whenever they could be together. Then he had met with Russell and Walter after school one day for a break from the facade, and even that helped his spirits.
Unfortunately, not everyone accepts change.
Between classes as students are moving about in the morning heading to various locations, Benjiro is on his way to Biology when he hears a gratingly familiar holler of his name; “Wotcha, Benji!”
Grimacing under his mask as he cringes inwardly, he cools his expression before he turns his head enough to spot Blaise and his cronies Owen, Kieran, and Bailey heading straight for him. They had taken issue with him when he arrived last year, not liking the fact someone from so far out of town was wasting a seat in local classes. His nonplused reactions to them often left them too bored to mess with him for long, and once Benjiro had made friends, they were even less intrusive. In the last couple of weeks however, their dislike of him had been revived.
Careful not to change his cadence, Benjiro keeps walking as he looks ahead once more and answers cooly, “Hello, Blaise.”
Blaise doesn’t care to be brushed off, and he hurries to step up next to Benjiro and walk with him as the others collect at their backs and Ben’s other side like a pack of wolves closing around a target. “Oh, not feeling well today? If living here makes you so sick you could go back home and go to school there.” His pal Kieran slaps Benjiro on the shoulder a bit too hard to be friendly, “There’s a grand idea!”
Balance and pathway kept steady despite the perturbance and the stench of body odor from one of them, Benjiro answers simply, “No thank you.”
“Oooh, you know, I bet he’s so stubborn cause of that pretty thing he’s got now,” Owen speculates behind Blaise with obvious eagerness. Blaise follows that up, “Oh right right, he got himself a girlfriend. So is that what the game is then?”
“Excuse me..?” Benjiro questions with caution and a sense of revulsion already welling upwards as the group brings Sadie into discussion.
“The mask! You wear it to get pity like some sick sod in a soap opera, and that bint you got is the one you tricked. It’s a brilliant ploy, Benji!” Stunned by the accusation, Benjiro is silent as Owen and Kieran mime and mimic woes and pity with whining tones and falsetto respectively. The sickening thought is only worsened as Bailey laughs, “Maybe Molly’ll go out with me if I tell her I got cancer or some shit!”
Disgusted by the four, Benjiro stops and twists away from them with a subtle glare in his eyes as he faces the teens already a year older than him and certainly bigger, “That’s enough.”
“Or what?” Blaise challenges as he gets close enough to Benjiro to loom over him. The three others quiet in anticipation, but not without the playground ‘ooo’s.
“Nothing. But that’s what you’re good at, isn’t it?” snarks the irritated teenager.
Called out brazenly in front of his little pond crew, Blaise immediately makes a grab for Benjiro, “You bloody Nip!” but finds his hand empty when he evades the swipe for his shirt. Not delaying, Benjiro drops low as he turns and takes off at a sprint down the hallway with his back pack bouncing in the motions. Smaller than them, he’s not going to outrun them for long, but he only has to make it to the classroom to get out of their reach for the time being. After that, he can outsmart them in getting around.
Turning the corner, he sees the open doorway he wants well off down the hallway a split second before he nearly collides with another classmate. Surprised, he staggers and veers to avoid crashing into her, and his delay attempting to get back on course costs him dearly.
Slammed in the side by Blaise, he’s carried a meter right into the brick wall to be pinned by the larger teen’s weight and bulk. Air knocked from his lungs in the impact, he’s not able to steady when dropped to his feet before a meaty pair of fists slam between his shoulders to put him on the ground.
Within seconds, more phones are out and recording the onslaught as the bullies lay into Benjiro, and a crowd gathers to encircle the spectacle. A few call into the fray to stop or encourage Benjiro, but most onlookers are gossiping or watching to see how the violent spectacle plays out.
The four are standing around him, stomping and kicking in turns to force Benjiro against the seam between the wall and floor. A strike hits his face before he can bring an arm up to shield himself, and immediately the sharp pain of his cheek cutting on his teeth releases the taste of blood. He tries to crawl out from under them only to be grabbed by the ankle and drug back and twisted over. Panic sets in as each blow promises a new bruise or worse as a rib gives, and the feeling of being trapped by this painful attack resonates with something in him. Numbed by the hollow feeling, Benjiro lashes out suddenly with the precision of a martial artist. He sweeps the legs of one flunky to drop him to the floor and immediately uses that anchor to turn where he lays on the floor to angle for another attack with a kick that lands at the side of Blaise’s knee with a sickening pop to send it bending inward.
Blaise screams in pain as he falls down with the medial ligament of his knee torn through, and the three uninjured dive on top of Benjiro. Only now, he’s fighting back, so the first gets a kick to the stomach as he is redirected over him into the wall. Twisting to try to get up, the other two slam onto him with anger now driving them for injuring their leader as the crowd starts to chant.
Characters: Benjiro, Jacob, and later Sadie with possibly others? Anyone that would hear about it can talk to Ben after the fact
Warnings: Blood, violence, bullying
The first week returning to school had been the hardest as Benjiro did his best to sustain a lie to friends and classmates alike. He presented it as a matter of limiting allergies that disrupted his attempts to sleep too much to function while not suffering the haze of medication side effects. Professor Petty had helped him put it on record for the school so his other teachers would tolerate the mask. There were some misunderstandings, yet with time it became normal enough that his personal space once more felt limited in the hallways. Wariness of the odd accessory waned over time. It also helped that he had quickly figured out he could eat small portions of food through the day and still manage to join friends and Sadie alike in the cafeteria without going hungry.
There was a lot of teasing of course, but most of the material was spent in those handful of days. Benjiro felt sensitive to it, but he would usually just force a laugh or shake his head and move on in the moment. Redirection worked well to disrupt any sense of isolation, and Sadie provided her support whenever they could be together. Then he had met with Russell and Walter after school one day for a break from the facade, and even that helped his spirits.
Unfortunately, not everyone accepts change.
Between classes as students are moving about in the morning heading to various locations, Benjiro is on his way to Biology when he hears a gratingly familiar holler of his name; “Wotcha, Benji!”
Grimacing under his mask as he cringes inwardly, he cools his expression before he turns his head enough to spot Blaise and his cronies Owen, Kieran, and Bailey heading straight for him. They had taken issue with him when he arrived last year, not liking the fact someone from so far out of town was wasting a seat in local classes. His nonplused reactions to them often left them too bored to mess with him for long, and once Benjiro had made friends, they were even less intrusive. In the last couple of weeks however, their dislike of him had been revived.
Careful not to change his cadence, Benjiro keeps walking as he looks ahead once more and answers cooly, “Hello, Blaise.”
Blaise doesn’t care to be brushed off, and he hurries to step up next to Benjiro and walk with him as the others collect at their backs and Ben’s other side like a pack of wolves closing around a target. “Oh, not feeling well today? If living here makes you so sick you could go back home and go to school there.” His pal Kieran slaps Benjiro on the shoulder a bit too hard to be friendly, “There’s a grand idea!”
Balance and pathway kept steady despite the perturbance and the stench of body odor from one of them, Benjiro answers simply, “No thank you.”
“Oooh, you know, I bet he’s so stubborn cause of that pretty thing he’s got now,” Owen speculates behind Blaise with obvious eagerness. Blaise follows that up, “Oh right right, he got himself a girlfriend. So is that what the game is then?”
“Excuse me..?” Benjiro questions with caution and a sense of revulsion already welling upwards as the group brings Sadie into discussion.
“The mask! You wear it to get pity like some sick sod in a soap opera, and that bint you got is the one you tricked. It’s a brilliant ploy, Benji!” Stunned by the accusation, Benjiro is silent as Owen and Kieran mime and mimic woes and pity with whining tones and falsetto respectively. The sickening thought is only worsened as Bailey laughs, “Maybe Molly’ll go out with me if I tell her I got cancer or some shit!”
Disgusted by the four, Benjiro stops and twists away from them with a subtle glare in his eyes as he faces the teens already a year older than him and certainly bigger, “That’s enough.”
“Or what?” Blaise challenges as he gets close enough to Benjiro to loom over him. The three others quiet in anticipation, but not without the playground ‘ooo’s.
“Nothing. But that’s what you’re good at, isn’t it?” snarks the irritated teenager.
Called out brazenly in front of his little pond crew, Blaise immediately makes a grab for Benjiro, “You bloody Nip!” but finds his hand empty when he evades the swipe for his shirt. Not delaying, Benjiro drops low as he turns and takes off at a sprint down the hallway with his back pack bouncing in the motions. Smaller than them, he’s not going to outrun them for long, but he only has to make it to the classroom to get out of their reach for the time being. After that, he can outsmart them in getting around.
Turning the corner, he sees the open doorway he wants well off down the hallway a split second before he nearly collides with another classmate. Surprised, he staggers and veers to avoid crashing into her, and his delay attempting to get back on course costs him dearly.
Slammed in the side by Blaise, he’s carried a meter right into the brick wall to be pinned by the larger teen’s weight and bulk. Air knocked from his lungs in the impact, he’s not able to steady when dropped to his feet before a meaty pair of fists slam between his shoulders to put him on the ground.
Within seconds, more phones are out and recording the onslaught as the bullies lay into Benjiro, and a crowd gathers to encircle the spectacle. A few call into the fray to stop or encourage Benjiro, but most onlookers are gossiping or watching to see how the violent spectacle plays out.
The four are standing around him, stomping and kicking in turns to force Benjiro against the seam between the wall and floor. A strike hits his face before he can bring an arm up to shield himself, and immediately the sharp pain of his cheek cutting on his teeth releases the taste of blood. He tries to crawl out from under them only to be grabbed by the ankle and drug back and twisted over. Panic sets in as each blow promises a new bruise or worse as a rib gives, and the feeling of being trapped by this painful attack resonates with something in him. Numbed by the hollow feeling, Benjiro lashes out suddenly with the precision of a martial artist. He sweeps the legs of one flunky to drop him to the floor and immediately uses that anchor to turn where he lays on the floor to angle for another attack with a kick that lands at the side of Blaise’s knee with a sickening pop to send it bending inward.
Blaise screams in pain as he falls down with the medial ligament of his knee torn through, and the three uninjured dive on top of Benjiro. Only now, he’s fighting back, so the first gets a kick to the stomach as he is redirected over him into the wall. Twisting to try to get up, the other two slam onto him with anger now driving them for injuring their leader as the crowd starts to chant.
no subject
He didn’t even know they retained a lawyer.
Positioned down on the floor seated upright against an open space along the wall for recovery and more support where Professor Petty can easily watch him, Benjiro had started to partially doze from sheer exhaustion when he hears the door swung open. He lifts his head at the sound of Sadie calling his name, only to be stunned by the slam against the desk when Jacob stands with a spike of anger audible. Maybe he’s just that out of it, but it sounded like the wood of the desk cracked just then.
Bowed forward from the wall to keep his chest muscles slack to reduce the pull on the ribs, Benjiro looks up as Sadie comes into his view fully and reaches her hands down to him. Phone set aside, he raises the arm opposite his hurt ribs to take her hands and grasp at least one in a tight squeeze. His hair is hanging uncharacteristically over his face, but it serves to make the forming bruises less apparent across his forehead with one half of his face swollen and already quite dark at the cheek. His bare arms show bold patches of discoloration as well after shielding his head most of the time.
Even as he tries to calm Sadie with physical contact, Benjiro is not so ready to ignore his professor. Anxious, he tries to smooth the disruption, “Sorry, Professor...! They weren’t even nearby. The videos must have circulated completely... T-they’re just worried, please let them stay for a minute.”
no subject
"...alright. They can stay," he concedes, "but I don't want any more door slamming. And if you're expecting any more visitors," he adds directly to Ben, "Please give me some warning."
With that, he starts to sit down, frowning at the new damage to the desk. He glances at his hand, then grabs a few papers and moves them over the cracked wood.
no subject
The mounting anger makes her chest feel tight in a way that is both very similar and very different to the sensation Sadie has started to associate with her purring. And just like her purring she has little chance of stopping this. In the quiet of the office Sadie let's out a loud, deep growl, that starts up again as soon as the noise dies down. If someone was to walk past the office it would sound like Jacob was keep a small but furious tiger in there.
James moves his stare from Jacob back to Sadie as she starts growling, yep definitely a good job she didn't start doing that in Maths, he's just going to close the door behind him and turn back to Jacob.
"Erm, Sadie said there was someone at school involved in," He jeasture inelegantly at his growling sister, "... That. I didn't think it would be you."
no subject
Barely able to reply, Benjiro blinks as he hears an unexpected sound coming from very close to him. He turns his head to look up to Sadie in surprise as he registers a rather threatening growl emanating from her. That’s certainly new for him to hear, but it makes sense when she has gained the ability to purr. His eyes flicker briefly away to the door as he hears it close - good. Her brother is truly reliable.
His hand squeezes her own tighter, trying to muster up the energy to show her that he isn’t too bad off as he manages to smile lopsidedly, “…I look that bad, huh?” Benjiro braces as he raises his other hand to take both of her hands and tug downward with a bend of his elbows, the pull slowly strengthened to request rather than force. A tilt of his head, and he verbalizes that request, “Come down with me…please?”
no subject
"All I did was help break up the fight and get Ben cleaned up." And experience a flashback that wasn't mine, he adds silently.
no subject
"What's going to happen next?" He asks Jacob with quiet concern, "Will Ben be alright?"
Sadie keeps half an ear on her brother's conversation even as Ben tugs on her hands. Not wanting him to hurt himself Sadie quickly moves closer and sits herself on the side of the hand he offered her first, not letting it go even as she continues to growl.
"I'm going to kill them." She grits out through her growling.
no subject
Bringing his arms back down lower is relief enough as he sags against the wall fully once more when Sadie grants his request without delay. Grateful to have her position herself close to his less injured side, he makes no move to take back that same hand, and instead gives her hand a longer squeeze, “Thank you...” Thumb lightly rubbing against her hand after, he turns his head at a tilt to look towards her.
Benjiro barely raises a brow and blinks at her words, then hums from his dry throat, “If I were you, I’d share the sentiment...but, then you’d be me. And, I think you would tell me that it’s not worth your future when their own already look dim.” Then, sliding a centimeter across the wall, he leans a bit closer to her to add, “Besides, I think I’ve had all the excitement I can handle today. Maybe wait until tomorrow?”
His focus is on Sadie primarily, but even he is partially awaiting an answer to the question from James. He has some idea, but he wants to know the expectations of his professor.
no subject
"I'm talking about a schoolyard fight, not anything that happened in it, kids."
no subject
James goes to sit on Ben's other side now that that's been sorted and pokes Sadie's leg, tilting his head in Jacob's direction. Sadie blushes now that she isn't as angry. "Sorry about the door Professor...and the desk."
Sorry for the delay!
A relatively positive prediction from Jacob alleviates the worst of the gnawing anxiety regarding his fate at school, however, that end clarification does make the knot in his gut twist a little tighter. The guilt pulls at his lips in a frown, and he responds with remorse, “I do not ever want to do that again... Number or not.” He would rather stay himself and not slip back into the cold calculations.
With James coming to sit with him as well, he manages a tired smile for his friend. Then, Sadie mentions the desk and Benjiro looks with confusion up to his professor, “....did the desk actually crack?”