[The corner of Ben's mouth twitches, curving for just a moment with reflexive pleasure; she is so bright, sometimes, when she is herself. All of herself, not just the pieces others want her to be at any given moment.
There are always problems. He will not leave her to them alone. Now, by way of reply, he reaches for his communicator and searches back through his entries as he answers until he finds a story about princes and princesses. He offers it out to her so she can hear it, rather than tell it again now.]
Much of what you know of me now was, once, completely counter-intuitive to me. The use of my name, for example. Others insisted it was more "normal" to introduce myself as Ben instead of X5-493, but it was a long time before I could believe them. It was not what I knew to be the way the world worked.
But they all used their own names and insisted I use them as well. Beginning to use mine felt... like edging out onto a ledge too narrow to possibly hold me. Except that it did.
[ Spam ]
There are always problems. He will not leave her to them alone. Now, by way of reply, he reaches for his communicator and searches back through his entries as he answers until he finds a story about princes and princesses. He offers it out to her so she can hear it, rather than tell it again now.]
Much of what you know of me now was, once, completely counter-intuitive to me. The use of my name, for example. Others insisted it was more "normal" to introduce myself as Ben instead of X5-493, but it was a long time before I could believe them. It was not what I knew to be the way the world worked.
But they all used their own names and insisted I use them as well. Beginning to use mine felt... like edging out onto a ledge too narrow to possibly hold me. Except that it did.