[ It's just incredibly, incredibly bad luck and poor timing. Ben hasn't seen Carlisle, apart from a distant glance now and then, since the events that followed Kieran's blinding. He hadn't been all that surprised, not to hear from Carlisle, despite Qubit's insistence that he would encourage the man to reach out to him. Ben knows better than most that you can lead a man to help, but you can't make him accept it until he's ready. He battered his head against that truth for long enough with his brother's addiction that he knows better, now. He is going to give Carlisle space. And if Carlisle seeks him out, Ben will be there. At least, that was the plan.

So it is poor timing, that just at the moment when he is quite near Carlisle for the first time in such a long time, the power in the Anchor flickers, and then totally gives out. And it is bad luck, that the both of them happened to be passing through some kind of safety corridor, one with lockdown protocols built in. Probably, Ben knows, he should be grateful. It's doubtless protecting them from radiation or who knows what. But the end result is that he ends up stuck, in a tiny narrow room, in the dark, with someone he has been trying to give plenty of space to.

Ben doesn't just accept it. As soon as the doors slam shut, he tries prying one open, tries punching in numbers on the de-powered keypad by it. But of course, none of it works. Of course! Because that's just his life, isn't it? ]

...I can't get it open. Not with the power out.

[ Ben doesn't notice, at first, that anything is wrong with the auto-translation protocols. He speaks English, and so do many of the other people in this place. It's a good long while before he finds himself speaking to somebody and realizing, after a moment of complete confusion in which he thinks he misheard, that he has no idea what they just said. ]

Sorry, what? Say that again?

[ Maybe it's just something misfiring between his ears and his brain, maybe he just needs to hear the sentence again in order to get it... ]

[ Ben doesn't go exploring. He doesn't ever lay eyes on any kind of a mysterious orb. He knows better than to mess with that shit! But the effects are transferred via contact, and he must have touched someone who touched someone who didn't know better.

He doesn't even really notice it happening at first, as the memories drain away from him. He is walking his way towards the library, and then, gradually, he doesn't recognize which way he should be going. Then, he doesn't remember where he was headed in the first place. Then, he doesn't even know who he is that might be trying to go somewhere. It is, to say the least, fairly distressing.

But even without his memory, Ben is still Ben. All his instincts are still there. And his response to feeling overwhelmed and terrified is to be quiet, be still, fade into the background. So he finds a quiet spot to sit and just... sits. Waits. Tries to grope around in the empty nothing of his mind for anything he can latch onto.

He won't recognize anyone who comes to help. But that doesn't mean it will be unappreciated. ]