#wxlters

[patervulpis]

hey, thank you for following me! - wxlters

no problem babes!

@wxlters​

[majorxbennyxboy]

I’M FINDING ANOTHER SPYMASTER (with love from the mod of wxlters)

you sound like my dad“You’ll have to look pretty hard, considering I’m the only one this army has…”

@@wxlters​

[majorxbennyxboy]

🥀 How would they handle the death of a loved one? (Specifically Caleb) [wxlters]

*soft gasp* u went thereoh my

wellIt is of course pretty variable depending on the precise circumstances, especially for the. initial reaction but. Y'know, whether Ben’s even there when it happens or has to hear about it, or be told by somebody. Whether it’s sudden or takes some time. Injury vs.Illness. Whether it happens in battle or if it’s more like what happened to Sackett. What else is going on at the time, what happened immediately before and what happens immediately after…

…all that would tend to influence Ben’s exact reaction, but, ignoring all of that, here’s how we’ve seen him handle some other deaths throughout the series:

Pilot - right off the bat, he’s just lost his Dragoons. Proceeds to never talk about it except to occasionally cite the loss as a point of motivation. One of the notable instances is when he’s basically a ball of frustrated rage over Charles Lee because that’s who’s responsible. It might even be a small, contributing factor, as to why his judgement in that particular matter was clouded.

Sam - finds out his brother is dead…gets a little teary during the conversation…and proceeds to never talk about it except to rarely cite the loss as a point of motivation. Most notably during The Battle of Setauket after hearing that his father is bound for the same prison ship where Samuel died.

Nathan Hale- we don’t see the…right when he learns about this, I don’t think. There’s been speculation that when Washington talks about Nathan in Mr. Culpeper, that’s Ben hearing about Nathan’s death for the first time, but I’m not so sure. Either way…the few instances he mentions Hale? Yup- point of motivation, notably in his dealings with Andre.

Mr. Sackett - ( don’t think about That Scene but w/Ben finding Caleb instead of Sackett don’t think about- *brokenly* dammit )  This is actually the Most?? Openly distraught we ever see Ben. It’s a massive contrast to how he usually responds to things. He is literally frantic and sobbing and…then it’s over. By the next scene he’s composed but raw and he’s angry, snapping at Washington, and then he totally shuts down until, somewhere within the next two(?) episodes, Caleb drags him back out of it. At which point Ben proceeds to never talk about the incident aside from a handful of references…notably, including citing the loss to Anna as a point of motivation.

Sarah - okay I know this wasn’t a ’love’ this was an emotional entanglement, but still. There’s a moment of shock and then there’s freaking rage because the responsible party is within reach for once and then? D o e s n ’t  T a l k  A b o u t  I t. Not having seen S4 yet, I don’t know if Ben ever brings this up again. (though I do know there is a brief reference between Anna and Randall)

*I hope to goodness I didn’t leave anybody out um*

So there just seems to be a bit of a pattern.

Ben, to me, doesn’t grieve. His reactions are quick and violent and over in a matter of minutes at most- more often it’s seconds. ( Sackett, again a unique case, was actually the longest onscreen reaction, as far as I know ) and then he just carries these things with him. Every loss becomes a reason.

But, this is Caleb, and that’s different.

Because there’s another pattern:S1. Ben does his best to defy Scott and winds up looking at a Court Martial looming ahead. Right. He can live with that. But then Scott burns the intell from Abe and Ben…gives up. He thinks it’s a lost cause, and then Caleb comes at him with an idea and convinces him it can be done.

S2. Ben does his best for Washington but disappoints him. There’s frustration in every quarter. He knows Lee is a traitor but his attempts to do something about it make things worse. The loss of Washington’s trust leads to Sackett’s death, news of Abe’s arrest leads to the loss of Ben’s position as Head of Intelligence. He is sinking, and Caleb convinces him to try.

They wind up thinking Hewlett’s dead and that finishes Ben off, he just shuts down.Abe’s already dead, in his mind, and with him the entire Ring. And then Caleb comes at him with an alternative plan and convinces him all isn’t lost.

There are also moments with other characters - Ben’s flat-out losing it there for a second in Men of Blood, “I can’t go back (to Washington) with this, I can’t go back there-” and Abe is the one to…not at all tell him anything comforting honestly, but at least delivers the Worrisome Idea with confidence. - and Anna proves a steadying presence more than once as well.

( now, I know S4 was rough on the Caleb and Ben thing because you’ve basically got both of them drowning at the same time, but I think it also turns into Caleb being the one to come through for Ben )

Ahem, rambling.

Then there’s just the fact that Caleb is Ben’s person, the one he can trust and talk to and depend on. They’re brothers, blood-related or not.

So. Ben’s tendency to freeze under duress, his closeness with Caleb, his somewhat obsessive tendencies and inability to Process Things?

He wouldn’t “handle it”.

I mean, there’s no doubt he would get the job done. The Cause comes before anything else. But we’re talking, you wanna see some hyper-focused- snappy, angry Ben Tallmadge oh gosh.

If this happens before S3, or at least before The Debacle of S3, then there’s this whole Courier problem and Ben probably has to go inform Abe and Anna of what’s happened (unless, of course, it happens in such a way that they know about it- say, if Caleb was killed by those rangers in S2)

But if it happens after Anna’s moved to the Continental Camp it’s likely things are strained between her and Ben purely because they tend  to clash under tension, but they’d likely also eventually come around and Anna would kind of take on that saving grace role. Some horrid scene of an intense argument that finally breaks a wall or two and leads to emotional hugging or leaning or something. It would Hurt.

 Overall though I just feel like Ben would be very, very different if Caleb actually died or was killed. And he might improve with time but he’d absolutely never be the same character.

[geniosuicida]

wxlters ;

   " I thought lawyers burst into flames    if they entered this building. Sorry,     that was lame even for me. Jennifer    Walters, right?"

[ironfuckingmaidenbitch]

sounds good to me. like a short icon chat or something?

Sure, you start?

[shieldedsavior]

☆ thewendybirdhasreturned, gloktober, sheisblackwidow, techqueensmoak, wxlters

   some things can't be taught. books don't cover    how to get over losing a man. no amount of    training can prepare you for everything you're    going to see in a war. practical experience is    what's going to pull your ass out of a firefight     without a scratch. you have to know what to do    and when to do it, and sometimes the only way    you can know is by doing the wrong thing first.

   navigating whole foods requires a similar strategy.    he's not sure what half of this is -- he suspects    that it's not even food -- but he examines the labels,    anyways. last week he brought home something    that he thinks might've been seaweed, but he's not    about to find out. it took two days and a can of febreze      to get the smell out of his apartment.

   he picks up a can and frowns at it; he's looking for    something to use in soup later, but keeps striking    out. this looks promising -- but he's not sure.

              ❝ do you know what this is?❞