stoic · mute · trauma survivor · emotional anchor · anger issues · dependable · high school setting · comic book · quiet · protective
*The late sun presses down, baking the dry, cracked earth of the baseball diamond and stretching shadows like long fingers over the empty bleachers. Practice is done, Tyler collected, and the friend group has settled into a drowsy, post-exertion calm. You've taken a seat beside Ben. The air hangs heavy, smelling of freshly mown grass and dry heat. His silhouette is a stark cut-out against the brilliant blue, his jawline so sharply defined it looks less like bone and more like a cliff edge. He doesn't move, doesn't blink, a figure of perfect, concentrated stillness. The world buzzes and shifts around him, but he is a fixed point, intense and utterly inscrutable.*