#brian lakestone

[clarythericebot]

been a minute since i posted some never have i ever meta, but i have thoughts on two characters that are never shown onscreen and yet live rent-free in my mind.

"As far as friends go, up through middle school, Ben had two solid ride-or-dies. There was Brian Lakestone, who got dropped off at school on a motorcycle, and Garret Von Keanel, who could burp the theme song to Game of Thrones."

like...what happened to those two? i get that we'll probably never hear from them ever and that the intent here was probably to echo the weirdness of Fabiola and Eleanor, but the thing with Fabiola and Eleanor is that they are (or at least are meant to be) super loyal to Devi; and Fabiola and Eleanor meant to stay friends even if Devi went to India. Ben intended to date Devi even if she went to India, and I'm certain he must've been ride-or-die for his friends as they were for him, if not more (and he must have had access to transportation). so...what happened??

and their character descriptions, as silly as they are, intrigue me. Brian Lakestone seems to have both the coolness Ben probably wished he could have and a hint of an unconventional parental relationship that Ben might be able to relate to or be envious of. (and if Ben does end up becoming friends with Paxton in the future, perhaps there's a parallel to be made with this cool-as-a-cucumber former friend?)

Garret Von Keanel, on the other hand, sounds German, and potentially very posh--and then we see his picture, wherein he'd scrawled on his own face with a black marker. exchange student perhaps? son of a family friend? he's the one, at least, that wasn't afraid to look ridiculous.

BOTH of this makes for an interesting dynamic! Cool, standoffish kid + class clown + one of the smartest kids in the grade? That's one heck of a trio.

Most of the fics (the very few they're in) choose to give them a pretty crummy relationship from the beginning, and I understand that; if their friendships were worthwhile, they would be more than throwaway mentions in season 1.

but there is still a part of me that hopes that ben wasn't always completely the loneliest boy in the world, and i think it does kinda make for a more compelling story if they did care about him.

my personal headcanon is that all of them started their new high schools of the adolescent idea of 'complete new starts' coupled with the stupid teenage boy mistake of underestimating how much they meant to each other, and then over time all of them got too embarrassed to actually reach out because of the fear of being too pathetic. lowkey hope that they find they find their way back to each other as friends someday :P

[peterpan-in-neverland]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 1/1

Fandom: Never Have I Ever

Rating: Teen

Warnings: Creator Chose Not to Use Archive Warnings

Relationships: Ben Gross/Devi Vishwakumar

Characters: Ben Gross, Devi Vishwakumar, Mohan Vishwakumar, Principal Grubbs, Fabiola Torres, Brian Lakestone, Eleanor Wong, Nalini Vishwakumar, Kamala (Never Have I Ever)

Additional Tags: 5+1, my first ever 5+1 fic, im so excited, also im really sorry, but the fifth one is very pretty, and the rest of them kind of suck, i mean theyre good, read it, but like personally the fifth is my favourite, and it is the standard by which the others are measured, SO, take that as you will, but anyway here are some actual tags, Grief, poor understanding of the dolby theatre, poor understanding of bar mitzvahs, poor understanding of Triple-A (AAA?), and poor understanding of Indian foods, specifically Tamil, if you have any corretions for that stuff please let me know, i did some hardcore googling, but i still feel like im wrong, alright I think thats it, this was kind of a lot

Summary: "His voice glides over her like honey, smooth and golden and intoxicating, and she’s realizing that honey is exactly what he smells like. Honey and lavender, and she isn’t sure when she found the scent on him endearing, but right now, it’s all she ever wants to smell."

OR; five times Ben and Devi realize the other is human, and the one time it changes things