#int ft. bexley

[jroycethethird]

setting: july 31st, just outside bex’s place

featuring: j. royce van doren iii & bexley beck @illputabexonyou

Royce was beginning to worry he’d had the wrong place. Asking a staff member to provide him with an address for a coven member was probably not his best idea. He could have figured this out on his own, they probably had records somewhere on current members that he could have easily referenced, but he decided to leave it up to someone else to look things up for him, just as he did with most things these days. Following the directions given to him to a tee, he found himself pulling up to a place out in Echo Acres, a part of town he wasn’t very familiar with. And leaning now against the passenger’s side door of his ‘64 Shelby Cobra, a single white balloon with the words “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” in the plainest black font on its front in his hand, and an envelope in the other, he was thinking he may have been steered wrong. He’d been there practically five minutes and hadn’t seen Bexley Beck once. He must have looked the absolute fool sitting there like that, but he wouldn’t budge, not until he was certain. Luckily he wouldn’t have to spend much more time speculating.

Before long, she had emerged from (what he now presumed was truly) her home, and Royce didn’t need to suffer much longer. “Bexley Beck,” the coven advisor called out in a jovial tone as she came closer. “Hi there. Royce Van Doren,” he offered his hand in greeting, swapping the balloon into the same hand that clutched the envelope upon which her name was written in his bold, cursive script. “I don’t think we’ve ever had the chance for proper introductions, and I’m sure this may seem an odd way to go about it. But ah,” he motioned to the balloon and gave a well rehearsed charming grin, the kind he gave to his step mother’s friends at the country club when they asked him to join them for a round of drinks between racquet sports. One that he didn’t realize then that she had likely seen on a somewhat similar, albeit aged, face at her workplace. The kind that didn’t quite touch the eyes but could still be construed as charming and genuine. “I heard it was your birthday and figured as the coven advisor it would be good to stop by and wish you a wonderful day in person.” He bowed his head at the admission, as though it were some humble thing. That would be diminished in mere moments as he then offered up the envelope. “I didn’t come empty handed, either. I hope you will accept this small gift, for your birthday but also as appreciation for your contributions during the group events at the camp retreat earlier this month.” A ‘small gift’ which she could open to reveal a rather substantial check. One with perhaps too many zeroes for a normal gift. Certainly a ridiculous number considering her contributions to the event weren’t as much as other coven members, but that was beside the point. He was notoriously bad at gift giving, very specifically bad for his own bank account.

[erenozturk]

He watched Bex rather curiously, surprised by how her awkward honesty endeared her to him. Though it didn’t show — Eren looked as severe and irritated as ever. Still, he shrugged a shoulder before saying, “I’m not good at it either. I suppose we’re evenly matched in that sense.” His eye followed the nudging of her foot, assessing the fire pit for a moment. He had known a basic amount about camping survival, including how to start a fire, but he wasn’t the most outdoorsy person. Still, he was glancing about them and assessing what they had at their disposal which could be easily used for the task at hand. Her rambling hadn’t caught him off guard — it made sense with her overall awkward demeanor. “It’s fine. Don’t apologize for just talking, I think that’s the point of this whole excursion anyway.”

Slipping a hand inside his pocket, he felt for his Swiss army knife, pulling it out and looking for the blade attachment as she offered him the flint. “I already know how to do it, so why don’t you take charge of that. Learn a new skill. I can guide you through it if you want. It’s simple,” he said, “But before we do that we will need kindling, tinder or fuel of sorts. I can look for tinder if you’d prefer to take the kindling? It’s just small, dry sticks and twigs. Should be plenty around.” A cursory glance around them confirmed as much, but he wasn’t sure how dewy the air had been and if that made any of the sticks around them too moist to catch fire.

Eren's words didn't do much to reassure Bex's nerves, but she tried her best to not get discouraged. "I mean, I don't mind it, really. I-it's nice to meet new people, you know? At least, I think so. I'm really bad at...doing that, so it's kinda nice to just have it done for me." She rubbed her arm awkwardly a moment before glancing around at the task before them, nudging the empty firepit with her foot. "How about starting a fire from scratch? I...definitely don't know how to do that. Do you? I've done it with a lighter and, like, scraps from the dumpster before, and I've read about how to do it with two sticks. But! They have to be specific types of sticks, did you know that? Or we can find some flint, but then we'd still need another, harder rock to make sparks with." She wondered if she was talking too much again, but it was a part of who she was, really. She looked back over at Eren sheepishly. "Sorry. I tend to ramble sometimes."

She bent down in front of the fire pit and started digging through the provided supplies. "Oh! They did give us some flint. Here-- do you wanna try it?" Offering him the flint from the pack, she gave a grin. Was it too much to hope that she could make a friend from this? She was trying, really.

[erenozturk]

Oh he was in hell. It was the only explanation. Sometime during all the madness, Eren Öztürk must have died. Spontaneously combusted. Keeled over unsuspectingly. Maybe he took a severe dodgeball throw to the head and hallucinated the rest of this event while in purgatory, while whatever personification of right and wrong duking it out for who owned his soul forever. Why the latter won was beyond him, but surely he was in one of those daunting rings of hell being subjected to the greatest torture of his life.

That is to say he was forced into two paired tasks.

It was beyond him as to why he of all people would be dealt such a task. There were plenty of gregarious people out there, plenty who would have gladly stepped into his shoes. But they had to choose him, a grade A grouch with a penchant for unfriendliness, to be coerced into spending mandatory “bonding” time with another person he didn’t know. As he wandered to the place he was supposed to meet his next paired partner, Eren wondered exactly what he’d done in life to deserve such misery. “I didn’t get into recycling until more recently,” he reasoned quietly to himself. That must have been it, having only within the past few years become a bit more environmentally conscious.

Grumbling to himself, he was already fiddling with a cassette tape pulled out of a leather satchel dangling by his hip, shoving it into the Walkman he always carried with him and lifting the soft headphones over his head so he could drown out everything in music. That was until he approached, pausing A Flock of Seagulls’ “I Ran (So Far Away)” (as he wished he could) in time for Bex’s apologies. With a soft sigh, he raised a hand, pulling the headphones down to rest around his neck before waving her words off dismissively. “It’s fine,” he said after a brief moment, tone just a tad softer than normal. It wasn’t her fault whoever she was initially paired with didn’t show up… He could try to be pleasant as he made up for that for her. “Nice to meet you Bex. Easy and short sounds good to me. I’m sure you’re eager to enjoy time off from all the mandatory things, anyway. I guess the sooner we get through this, the sooner we can be on our own.” He spoke rather bluntly, but not entirely unfriendly. At least not as blatantly as he could be.

And I ran, I ran so far away. I just ran, I ran all night and day. I couldn’t get away.

He sighed as he remembered the lyrics of the song he’d been listening to, feeling a little too real in that moment. Shaking the thought off, he gave her a sharp nod as he sniffed, “So… Where should we start with this survival stuff?”

Who: @erenozturk Where: In the woods somewhere, for the pair-up event survival tasks

Bex was notoriously bad at meeting new people, it made her anxious in ways that often led to her simply leaving the social situation or telling the other person that she wasn't going to be around for long. Which was usually true, but she didn't really have either of those options anymore. And especially not in this situation, where part of this whole camping week competition thing was to meet her assigned partner and perform a task with them.

Except that Bex's partner never showed up. She waited patiently for them to assign her a new partner as she paced, waiting. It felt unfair to whoever was going to get stuck with her, not just because it was her, but because it would be their second time.

So when the guy she'd been assigned to partner with finally showed up, she was already apologetic. "Hi, sorry. Are you Eren? I'm Bex." She glanced around nervously before returning her gaze to him. "Umm, sorry you have to get stuck doing this twice. I thought maybe we could do an easy one? Something we don't have to, like, spend all day doing?"