Calibrations ◊ The Chain by Fleetwood Mac

[playingtough]

WHO: Billy Hargrove & open
WHERE: Billy’s Calibration Room
WHAT: Calibrations event
WHEN: June 10 - July 10
WARNINGS: Memories are marked with CW/TW to help out



Mingle Post: Runaway by Bon Jovi



It’s a living room. A simple living room filled with 80s aesthetic of a Californian home. Except…

It’s broken. There’s large fissure that breaks the room into two halves and Billy sits on a worn couch that straddles it. There are framed pictures on the wall, but in each of them, the woman’s face has been torn or cut out. There’s holes in the wall the size of a grown man’s fist. There are lines like thin black veins jagged over some of the walls before they fade off.

On a coffee table in front of Billy, are a simple set of Chevy car keys with a metal California keychain attached to the ring. There's a glass enclosure over them, preventing someone from just grabbing them. To keep Billy from grabbing them.

No running from this, not for him.

On each of the four walls, there’s one open door. Thick fog rolling in different hues of red, with ashy flakes of grey, keep anyone from seeing what’s beyond the door’s frame. Things can be heard though. At one door, a plate smashing [cw: domestic abuse]; another has the sound of the ocean’s surf; door number three has no sounds but there’s heat, like a freshly opened sauna; and the last one has a telephone’s dial tone [cw: abandonment/child abuse].

He looks up at the... visitor and his blue eyes harden. “You shouldn’t be here.” But it's clear the guest can't leave the way they magically appeared.

Comments

[sunglassesincluded]

Blue eyes are met with dark shades and a neutral impression carried by a tall man that radiates nothing but confidence as he steps easily into the center of the room. Wesker first regards Billy himself, then casts a look around, almost appearing bored, if not even disgusted.

"Hm." Is all he replies and he turns to the loudest noise around. Plates being smashed rarely indicate good memories. And those are the most telling ones in the end.

When Doves Cry by Prince [cw: domestic abuse]

[playingtough]

Billy doesn't move when the stranger enters, though the bright blue eyes track the man's movements. It's only when he starts getting close to the door does the couch creak when he gets to his feet. But then Weskers gone through it, into the cloud of red and grey and ash.

It's a dining room. It seems to be apart of the living room the man just came from, decorated in a similar aesthetic. At least in here, there's only one hole punched in the wall, but it looks like someone attempted to patch it up.

In the center of the memory, is a small and circular dining table, set with dinner for three. A young, perhaps about twelve or so, Billy sits in dark blue jeans a buttoned up blue shirt. A man with dark, short hair argues with a slender woman with curly blond hair hair like Billy's, both standing next to to the table.

"Where were you last night?" The man demands of her, hands already curling into fists. The woman holds her ground, even as he shouts at her, "where were you?!"

"I told you, I was with Wendy!"
"Stop lying to me!"
"I'm not lying t-"
"You saw him again didn't you?"

Billy's father crowds up against the woman, grabbing her arm hard to keep her from running. She manages to wrench the grasp away while shouting back, "get away from me!!" then proceeds to grab her empty plate from the table to smash over her husband's head.

It cracks over his skull and he takes a step back. It just fuels his anger, all zeroed in on his wife. "You...you whore!!" He doesn't even notice Billy getting to his feet to get between them. The adolescent runs at his dad, colliding against him to try and hold him back.

"Stop it!" Billy screams as his dad shouts the word 'bitch' at his mother. "Don't hurt her! DON'T HURT HER!" The man wrestles with his son for a moment, maybe two, before throwing him to the side and going back for the woman. Billy hits the floor but scrambles to his feet to look up in time to see his father punch his mother in the face. She goes down and he races towards her.

"MOM!!"

And then the room goes dark, with the exception of the spotlight that shines down on the broken plate. Then that, too, fades into darkness, revealing only the door Wesker came in as the way out.

[sunglassesincluded]

Wesker takes the scene in wordlessly. He doesn't feel bad for the boy or his mother. Neither does he feel anger towards the father. In fact, he feels nothing towards any of these beings. A gathering of ordinary humans portraying just too well why humanity failed to evolve further. Because failures like these were permitted to exist and live on and create more of their miserable kind.

He leaves the room without lingering too long and he sets eyes again on Billy after rejoining the young man.

"Uninspiring." Wesker concludes plainly and crosses his arms. "I assume the others are more of the same."

[playingtough]

Billy's head turns to regard the stranger's return, brows pulling down into a scowl. He hears the man and bristles mentally as he sits there on the couch.

"Unsolicited opinions about my life aren't welcomed, dick," he snaps with a roll of his eyes. "It's my memories, I can't exactly make them into something awe inspiring. Who the fuck are you anyways? Some cunt that wears his sunglasses at night indoors."

[sunglassesincluded]

"So you at least are aware that your life has no merit to it. Good." Wesker responds dryly. "Though I doubt you have any ambition to become more than the human chaff you apparently have grown comfortable to be."

Does he answer Billy's question? No. Wesker sees no need to do so.

[plate_builder]

No, he shouldn't, but that's something Reeve has gotten used to. He's done this so often that he knows exactly what is going on, and he doesn't like the look of this room. This is the space of a young man torn apart inside, and he doesn't like it.

"You should not sit there, it's not safe," he says, his voice pitched to soothing. He can't stand to see the young man in a place so likely to get dangerous.

[playingtough]

He doesn't move from the couch, scowling more at the voice. This was an absolute stranger coming into his mind and trying to soothe him. "It's fine. The crack's recent but it's stable." He shifts where he sits on the couch to get comfortable.

"Pick a door I guess. Since the shits that brought us here have decided we all get to share our memories." He leans forward to tap the glass covering the car keys. "This doesn't open until you do, I think."

He had tried to pry it off, with no luck.

[plate_builder]

Seriously? Reeve sighs. This kid is gonna be difficult.

"You sure about that? What if I can open it?" Reeve asks. He can try.

[playingtough]

Despite how threatening the crack is, it seems stable. It doesn't close, and it doesn't widen. It's just present. Leftover from Starcourt, probably.

"Ha. If I can't open it, what makes you think a slender fucking twig like you can?" He leans over and tries to move it, but his hand simply slides over it with no grip. The glass doesn't move, or even budge.

[plate_builder]

Seems stable and is stable are two very different things in Reeve's book. He didn't think it's ever really as stale as you think.

"Magic," Reeve said with a shrug. Maybe this kid's dream is flexible enough for Reeve to manage a bit of it here.

[the_freak]

"...Nice place?" Eddie offers, giving a shrug to explain his sudden and unwanted presence. He looks between the doors and back to Hargrove, "We can run the clock out?" he offers, smirking slightly as he knows that the idea of being trapped with him for however long that is, is probably worse than letting him see a few memories. But it feels fair to offer.

[playingtough]

"Fuck off freak." It's instinct to say that, though he frowns and glances away for a moment. Billy hates this, how people can just walk into his head like this and access what he keeps hidden from everyone else.

"People leave after they go through the doors can come back." He leans forward to tap the glass housing his keys. "So I guess pick a fucking door and get out." Not that it would really be that easy, but maybe if he could rush Eddie through it, it would work like that.

[the_freak]

"Would if I could, dude," Eddie says, but they both know they have no control over this. It doesn't make it any easier.

He eyes the doors, doing a little loop to try and gauge his options.

"Is that the ocean?" he asks curiously, gesturing to the one door and taking a step closer, "I've never seen it before-"

Don't You (Forget About Me) by Simple Minds

[playingtough]

Billy's slowly learning that people coming and going is out of his power. Doesn't mean he couldn't yell at the people who came in. He simply watches Munson step around the room. Over smaller cracks and broken glass and just...through a ruined house that Billy calls home in his head.

"It's Califo—" but his voice fades as Eddie steps through.

It's warm. So warm. Bright, too. The roar of the ocean greets Eddie as he finds himself on a beach, the surf lapping at his shoes. There's a woman in a white dress with sunkissed skin yelling happily with yellow sandals in her hand and a container of shells in the other. She looks so much like Billy.

Then there's splashing coming up behind the metalhead as a very small Billy runs through the water with a surfboard barely handled under his arm, runs towards her. He sticks out like he does in present day, curly hair wet against his head and red shorts bright.

"You did it!!" she calls out while he sets it down. Billy runs towards her, bright and happy as the sun starting to touch the the watery horizon.

"Did you see that?!" he asks as he races over to her. The woman runs her hand through he wet curls and kisses his forehead. "Yeah, I saw that!"

"That was at least seven feet!"
"I don't know what it was but you almost gave me a heart attack." Her hand hold her son's shoulder as he tilts his head. "Ten more minutes, mom?"

The sky, for a brief moment, rumbles with storm clouds that disappear as quick as they appear as worry crosses over the woman's face. "Yeah... ten more minutes." Billy grins and runs back towards the surfboard to get it. The woman calls out, "but any longer than that and dad'll be mad, okay?"

Another grey rumble that comes and goes quickly above.

"Okay!" He's the happiest he's ever looked as he rushes towards the ocean with the board.

"Billy!" She calls again. The child turns to look to her. "Watch out for ripcurrents!"

"I know!" And he races into the water, not noticing his mother's worry. Then the scene vanishes in darkness, with only a spotlight on the vase of shells his mother had been holding. Then that too disappears, revealing the doorframe Eddie had initially come through.

[the_freak]

It's beautiful, and for a moment Eddie's lost in the warmth and impossible expanse of water. But then his attention falls on the woman, and she's beautiful too, smiling like the sun.

The kid has to be Billy, but with that smile he's hard to recognize. They were happy. Mostly. Eddie's gaze lingers on the mother's face, and that rumbling, feeling a familiarity there he doesn't like. He's seen that worry before.

He lingers in the darkness a moment, finally wandering back out. "...no wonder you hate Hawkins," he offers.

[farrahfawcetts]

Steve doesn't recognize the space. No surprise since he's never been here before. He does, however, recognize the guy on the couch and he bristles instinctively. At the sound of a plate smashing, Steve's whole body flinches away before looking at Billy with clear distrust. He shouldn't be here? Yeah. No shit.

"I wouldn't be here if I had a say in it," he grumbles, fists finding their way to his hips. He looks at the keys on the table and then back up at Billy.

"If I am gonna walk into that room and watch myself getting smacked with a plate, we can play 'I Spy' instead..."

[playingtough]

"I'd say get out, but you can't. You have to go through one of these stupid doors first." He glances to the Camaro's keys on protected display. At the sound of the plate breaking, Steve isn't the only one that flinches.

Billy does too, like he's ducking from it himself.

"No..." It's quiet. Like what's in that doorway is a secret. "...It's not you in there." A pause. "It's not you."

This time when he looks up, it towards a collage picture frame. All photos of a family of three, but the woman's face distorted. Marked over. Scratched out. Torn off. The plate cracking sound happens again and another flinch.

"Might as well go through that door if you want to know."

[farrahfawcetts]

Steve notices the flinch but can't bring himself to feel bad about it. Billy smashed a plate over his head after all. If he'd gotten into a fight and had the same done to him, maybe that was just karma. But that might just be wishful thinking. Steve knows the sort of fear he sees on Billy's face. The chances that it comes from something as benign as a fight with a kid are low.

He sighs and brushes his hair off his face before turning toward the door. He hesitates a moment before stealing his shoulders and crossing over to open it.

Let's see what there is to learn about Billy Hargrove.

When Doves Cry by Prince [cw: domestic abuse]

[playingtough]

Steve got a smashed plate against the head from Billy's learned behavior. He knows what's beyond that doorframe, what memory is waiting there. It goes before the memory with the sound of a disconnected telephone.

Billy doesn't try to stop Steve, doesn't even move from the couch he's seated on.

It's a dining room. It seems to be apart of the living room the man just came from, decorated in a similar aesthetic. At least in here, there's only one hole punched in the wall, but it looks like someone attempted to patch it up.

In the center of the memory, is a small and circular dining table, set with dinner for three. A young, perhaps about twelve or so, Billy sits in dark blue jeans a buttoned up blue shirt. A man with dark, short hair argues with a slender woman with curly blond hair hair like Billy's, both standing next to to the table. They haven't touched their meal at all.

"Where were you last night?" The man demands of her, hands already curling into fists. The woman holds her ground, even as he shouts at her, "where were you?!" Billy can only sit and watch in horror, not even noticing the addition of Steve in the space.

"I told you, I was with Wendy!" she answers.
The man makes a frustrated sound. "Stop lying to me!"
"I'm not lying t-"
"You saw him again didn't you?"

Billy's father crowds up against the woman, grabbing her arm hard to keep her from running. She manages to wrench the grasp away while screaming back, "get away from me!!" then proceeds to grab her empty plate from the table to smash over her husband's head.

It cracks over his skull and he takes a step back. It just fuels his anger, all zeroed in on his wife. "You...you whore!!" He doesn't even notice Billy getting to his feet to get between them. The adolescent runs at his dad, colliding against him to try and hold him back.

"Stop it!" Billy screams as his dad shouts the word 'bitch' at his mother. "Don't hurt her! DON'T HURT HER!" The man wrestles with his son for a moment, maybe two, before throwing him to the side and going back for the woman. Billy hits the floor but scrambles to his feet to look up in time to see his father punch his mother in the face. She goes down and he races towards her, screaming for her.

"MOM!!"

And then everything plunges into darkness around Steve, with only a light shining down on the broken plate on the floor. Then that disappears as well, leaving Steve in the darkness for a long moment before the doorframe appears again to let him out.

[farrahfawcetts]

What is most surprising to Steve about this whole thing is that he's not surprised. There's just something about Billy and how he reacts to things that whispered of a home life that was less than ideal. Steve just had no idea it was this bad.

He watches, silent as the whole memory plays out. When it is over, he is numb as he walks back toward the couch where Billy's representation is sitting. For a moment he's just silent, digesting the scene. He has so many questions but there is one that is at the top of his mind:

"Did he do that to Max and her mom, too?" He looks at the walls with the fist holes. "Shit, man." He scrubs a hand over his face. "You never stood a chance, did you?"

[doubled_speed]

“No,” Tommy agrees as he arrives. “But that sadly isn’t how it works.”

Maybe it’s not entirely right to refer to him as ‘Tommy’ in the moment either. After all, he’s come into the dream space fully kitted out. Now why would that be? He doesn’t know. Maybe this guy just needs a hero. But there he is, in tightly fitting silver and green, material that encases his strongly muscled form like a glove and even accented some places by having the silver so bright it’s almost reflective.

Tommy reaches up and lifts the orange tinted goggles off of his face, looking a bit bemused as he looks over himself. His body is completely free of the damage Billy had inflicted only two days before, but he was used to that in dreams. This was his mind-self after all.

“Hell of a place, man,” he says, glancing around briefly. The pictures, the holes… bad parents, he can already see that.

If he wasn’t so far removed from the Shepherds his space might look like this too.

[playingtough]

Billy's gaze absolutely hardens seeing the new visitor. Especially in that fucking getup. What kind of comic book did this guy crawl out of? Maybe he made costumes or some bullshit.

And he knows he can't tell Tommy to just leave because, yeah, that's not how that works. The Camaro's keys lay out of reach in the glass. This guy who's face Billy punched in not so long ago was now a visitor.

Now he had to see one of these damn memories before he could leave.

Fuck.

Fuck.

"Just..." He licks his lips, not looking at Tommy. Billy is absolutely tense, almost ready to get up and pace or start tapping his heel on the broken floor under his feet. "Fucking pick a room and get out of my God damn head."

[doubled_speed]

Nah, Kate got this one made. But maybe comparing it to a comic book wasn't wrong.

"Those keys look important. I could try getting them," Tommy says. Maybe this is a puzzle dream. He might be able to shatter the glass.

[playingtough]

"Don't bother wasting your time trying to do that. The glass won't break until you go visit one of the memories. Some motherfucker dressed like a government agent was going to try magic."

He finally glances up at Tommy with that hard look. "You watch a memory, the keys unlock. It's fucking simple."

Billy hates that he's being put through this. With strangers on top of it. He at least knew Harrington, was aware of Munson. But these others coming in...they didn't know shit about any of this. And now this guy was here.

[doubled_speed]

"Okay," Tommy says. He'll take the guy's word for it. As for him, well, he looks around.

And in a flash quicker than the blink of an eye he stood before the door the breaking dishes sound came from.

"You got a thing for red, Curls?"