Re: [TWD: Beau & Ford]
[Ford was used to silence on his side, it was other people that were unpredictable. People tended to go in different directions. Sometimes people got angry, like he was playing a joke on them, other times they assumed he was stupid or (bizarrely) deaf. Ford could actually try to muddle through speech, but more often he just avoided it altogether. If he was silent they might think he was stupid. If he stuttered through every word, they would definitely think he was stupid. It made a bad impression, and he was usually so embarrassed by the attempt he couldn't stand there for more than five minutes. He was going to have to be locked up with these people for a while, and he didn't want them to think he was stupid.
He gave the other guy a shy, faintly uncertain look, and rubbed at the back of his neck. Both? he mouthed, his eyebrows up like a suggestion.
He lifted his broad shoulders up and down in an apologetic shrug, and then he looked down and tapped on his yellow name tag. "Hello my name is: FORD"]