Is Somebody Out There? Will Somebody Listen?

[Ben London]

Trudge: to walk laboriously or wearily along or over. My thoughts exactly, Ben said to himself, as he trudged up the steps of one of the 50 million towers of this huge castle. He had no idea where he was going, but he didn't really have a destination either. Ben was just...well...trudging.

And a treacherous trudge it was indeed. As he reached the top of one of the towers, he stood out in the cold air with the wind whipping his hair out pf his eyes. It was a miracle that for once, his hair was not blocking his view. Ben sighed deeply and just looked out at the grounds. Despite the cold, it was rather beautiful, and the sun was just starting to set, casting a reddish glow across the castle. Just beautiful.

"Wooo!" Ben hollered suddenly. He listened to his own voice echo around several times and finally disappear. But then he yelled again. Just because he could.
"Is anyone out there?" he called.

((Very, very open!))

[Keagan Gerislynn]

"Who wants to know?" Keagan called back from a dark corner inside the tower where she sat with a notepad in her lap. She had found this tower while searching for her cat, BK, earlier in the term and had claimed it as her own. It wasn't that the tower seemed to be much different from any of the others; the largest appeal was that it seemed to be the most abandoned tower she'd come across. Abandoned equaled private in her book, and she had found that to be true for the last three months. Until today, no one knew of her "secret hiding place" - she'd been very careful not to mention it to Dean, even.

It seemed, however, that she'd been found out. There really was no use hiding. Besides, perhaps there was a new friend to be made.

[Ben London]

Ben looked round quickly, trying to find the source of the voice. His eyes landed on a girl sitting a little ways away from him, but he smiled and waved. Walking towards her, the 6'3" teenager squatted down beside her, so he wouldn't tower of her. His height was a burden and frankly, it irritated him. Begin so tall made him look gangly, a very unattractive thing to be.

As he knelt beside the girl, Ben spoke.
"I wasn't expecting an answer," he joked with a grin, "I'm Ben."

((Bleh, crappy, but I g2g -tear-))

[Keagan Gerislynn]

Keagan crossed her ankles out in front of her as she smiled up at the rather tall boy before her. A quick scan told her that he was definitely taller than Dean's 5'10". Translation: a giant to this sixth year Gryffindor who stood at a mere 5'6". She raised her right hand in a return wave, but it felt awkward due to the pencil she held in it.

"I figured I might as well answer if I was sitting right here, though it might have been entertaining to just watch and see how long it took you to realize you were being spied on. Personally, I think this makes a better first impression." Dropping the writing utensil into her lap as the boy (who she could now refer to as Ben) knelt, Keag sat up a bit straighter, smiled brightly, and extended the hand to shake his. "I'm Keagan."

[Ben London]

"I would have yelled for ages and never even known that someone was watching me," Ben replied, rolling his eyes. He shook Keagan's hand, smiling too.
"Pleasure to meet you, Keagan," he said. Ben's legs were starting to ache from squatting, so he decided it was probably safe to just sit down beside the girl. She didn't look like she was going to try and eat him or anything, but you never know.

"So what were you doing out here in the cold?" Ben inquired. He thought he was the only crazy one that actually enjoyed the cold, but perhaps there were some other crazy folks here too. Ben was already starting to love this place.

[Keagan Gerislynn]

"I'm sure you would have." There was a sarcastic lilt to Keagan's voice as she responded to Ben's eye roll, but it left after she shook his hand in her standard, one pump manner. "The pleasure's mine," she answered, but couldn't hold back a soft giggle that bubbled up following the use of the somewhat old-fashioned formality.

The Gryffindor scooted to the side a bit to provide ample room for the tall boy to sit before replying. "Doodling, mostly, sketching some of the landscaping. The cold was starting to get to me, though; my warming charms weren't holding up too well against the chill that's settling in with the onset of night."

[Ben London]

"Ah, so you're a doodler. My doodling skills are minimal," he replied with a grin, and then undid his cloak from around his neck and held it out for the girl if she wanted it, "If the charms aren't working, you can have this. I'm quite warm." OK, so maybe it was a little weird that Ben was offering her his cloak, but he didn't want her to be cold when she didn't really have to be. He was a nice guy, so what?

"Can I see what you doodled?" Ben asked, curious to see what she had produced while in the cold.

[Keagan Gerislynn]

"Doodling's easy; it's getting into the nitty gritty of detail that's tricky." Keagan grinned back, but the grin faltered a little as he undid his cloak and offered it to her. It was a little awkward...but the cloak looked inviting. 'And it's probably toasty warm from his body heat,' she thought, debating whether to accept it or not. Finally, she reached out for it and wrapped it around her shoulders. What reason did she have not to?

"Thank you," Keag said as she did, smiling shyly. She had been right; the cloak was very warm indeed. She was wary of sharing her drawings with people, mostly because she lacked confidence in many of her abilities. However, she felt she owed him something, so she paged through the notebook to the image she liked the best and held it out to him. "It's nothing spectacular," she noted with a shrug. The picture, drawn only in the single shade of the graphite pencil, was simple; the lines were basic, but there was something real about it nonetheless. The sixth year was grateful she'd honed her shading skills, for if she hadn't, her pictures would be rather bland.

[Ben London]

Ben smiled warmly as Keagan took his cloak and then handed him the notebook so he could see what she had done. His eyes widened slightly at the sight of her drawing. It was actually really good. It wasn't extremely detailed, but there was just something about it that really intrigued Ben and he really liked it.
"Wow, we've got a Madame Artiste on our 'ands 'ere." Ben put on a phony French accent and then returned to his normal voice, "That's actually really good. I like." He smiled again as he passed the notebook back to the girl.

[Keagan Gerislynn]

The color had begun to rise to her cheeks the moment Keagan handed off her drawing, but it skyrocketed when she noticed his eyes grow ever so slightly wider. "Nah," Keag replied, her American accent evident in the sounds of the word. She was entirely conscious of the fact that her face was far redder than it should be, even out in the cold; the wind could not reach where she was sitting, after all. However, she did not try and hide, though she looked away from him as she accepted the book back, closed it, and hugged it to her chest. "It's just a hobby."

[Ben London]

Smiling still, Ben leaned back against the wall and brought one leg up, resting his arm on it. He looked out at the sky, that had gotten considerably darker in the past few minutes, except for the streak of pink that was struggling to stay alive. Glancing sideways, Ben saw Keagan hugging her book tightly.
"And a hobby you should continue," he suggested, "I really liked it. Drawn anything else fun?"

((omg, this is so crappy, it buuuuuurns.))

[Keagan Gerislynn]

As Ben shifted his position, Keag shifted hers as well, drawing her feet up under her. She didn't like how her legs looked so much shorter than the boy's; it made her feel like a midget, though she was far from being one. Following his gaze, Keagan was amazed by how the details of that sky had changed so drastically from the one she had drawn such a short time before.

"It's so beautiful," she murmured before registering that she was once again being spoken to. She flushed again, slightly, before responding. "I draw quite a bit. Well, I have in the past anyway. This pad is nearly brand new, though, so the rest of my stuff is back in my dorm." She hesitated before continuing. "I'd be willing to show you some of it, maybe, sometime, if you wanted." It wasn't often that Keagan felt comfortable enough with someone to share her artwork with; perhaps it was a fear of criticism, but Ben seemed more appreciative than critical. Maybe that was the difference.

[Ben London]

Ben was surprised that Keagan offered to show him more of her work, after she had been so apprehensive about even showing him one picture, but he gladly took up the offer.
"Yeah, sure, I'd love to see some more," Ben replied with another boyish grin.

Going back to her first comment, Ben nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, it's gorgeous. I love sunsets. Definitely a major weakness," Ben stated, blushing slightly, but laughing at his own girly attitude towards sunsets, "I used to love watching them when I was a kid. They're so...mezmorizing."

[Keagan Gerislynn]

Keag nodded as Ben grinned. She grinned, as well, after he gave his own opinion of the sunsets. It wasn't often she met a boy sho was willing to admit to such feelings, and it was even more rare to find someone who seemed to blush nearly as easily as she did.

"My appreciation has formed more recently; you don't catch many sunsets in Providence." That was probably the thing she loved most about living at Hogwarts for most of the year - being away from the city, that is. There was just so much you missed out on among the skyscrapers, flourescent lighting, and traffic noise.

[Ben London]

"Providence...," Ben repeated, trying to remember where on Earth that was. He had been terrible in Geography at the Muggle schools he attended and clearly hadn't learned much in that class.
"You'll have to excuse me," he said, starting to apologize, "But, where is that exactly?" Ben was curious now, to hear where she was from. She clearly spoke with a different accent than himself, and he knew it was American of some sort. But where?

((Bleh. So sorry it took me so long to reply, I just couldn't think of anything to write. Clearly, I still can't XD))