Heaven's on Fire - KISS

[playingtough]

WHO: Billy Hargrove and those that join him
WHERE: Mostly Temba's city-center area, maybe the Upside-Down
WHAT: Hey there's an event thingy
WHEN: During the event timeline
WARNINGS:STRANGER THINGS SPOILERS, profanity, event warnings, violence, panic/PTSD attacks, will update as they make themselves known




October 10th

Run To You - Bryan Adams

He’s in the civic center when the storm hits. Billy had seen it coming, but didn’t think anything of it. It’s a storm. It wouldn’t be anything to worry about. Earthquakes (well, volcanoes), those were something to worry about. Storms were not. So he had done his workout as usual as it hit and when he left…

…Well, Billy would wish later he hadn’t. Because upon leaving the civic center with the intention of hitting the diner and then heading home, he heard something. No, not something.

Someone.

He whirls around in place, his hair whipping about wildly as he struggles to see if it’s her. And Billy sees her in the distance. Tired muscles be damned, he breaks into a run, heading right towards the woman. She doesn’t seem to get closer no matter how far he runs.

“MOM!!” he all but screams out, determined to get to her, damn it. It’s hard to see with all of the lights out and the storm blocking out the sun. “Mom!” he shouts again. She disappears into the clouds, reappearing in different positions in the distance, never in the same spot. Billy looks confused, turning to try and track her.

What was going on?!

The ghost of his mother disappeared and he turned, looking for her. “I DONT’ UNDERSTAND!!” he yells, feeling the echo of those words from when he was at the Steelworks building.

October 11th - 12th


It’s The End of the World As We Know It - R.E.M.

It’s not the gate opening that starts it. It’s not the sight of the stupid looking bats or that weird flower dog.

It’s the gigantic thing that he knows from the mall. Seeing that mind flayer on the other side of the gate while trying to get from the cabin to the hotel to make sure there are others okay (hint: that didn’t happen). He freezes, the blood draining from his face to leave his skin white. Billy’s clammy and cold all in the span of a few seconds, but more importantly?

He’s terrified.

Billy knows that that monster can do. He’s felt it. It’s going to kill him when he’s sent home by the aliens here.

It’s here to kill him.

He ducks behind the fountain before darting to be against one of the side walls of the diner. Billy’s curling up, screaming and holding his head and looking like he’s agony. The guy is physically fine, but his mind is not. Guess seeing the very creature you helped create in your world while being possessed by the enemy would do that to you.

October 13th - End

If You Want Blood (You Got It) - AC/DC

No. He can’t be a pussy about this shit. It’ll kill him back home, but Billy has the tools to stop the beasts here. Gladio had found him in the chaos and dropped off an axe. Something about ‘use it if you need it, kid’ before running off to do more warrior things.

The axe had felt heavy in his lap from where he was sitting. But then Billy stood up, testing out it’s weight as he had been trained. It felt good. Felt right. He gave it a few swings before the confidence started growing in him. Billy could do this. He stopped the flayer’s tongue with his bare hands, didn’t he? He could stop the whole thing with his axe. He could stop any of them!

Heading out from where he had bunkered himself, Billy found one of those bat-things headed towards him. It took a few swings through the air (five, if you’re counting), to get it, but hitting it with the dull side knocked it down to the ground to slice through it with the blade.

“Take that you creepy fucker!” he shouted at it, giving it another smack. Black blood stained his boots and jeans as he hit something in it, before he moved on to the next one.

“COME GET SOME, FUCKERS!!” he shouted, wielding the weapon with far more confidence than he had when it had been dropped off.

Comments

oct 11-12

[pursuitofcappiness]

Steve is doing rounds regardless of how stupid of an idea that might be, and finds himself at the diner, knowing that neither of them are a match for the mind flayer - at least, not in Steve's current condition and definitely not in Billy's.

"Billy," he calls, voice quiet as to not upset the bats, trying not to alert the thing's attention. "Come on, let's get away from here. It'll be safer."

Steve's just got a stick in his hand and is otherwise unassuming. He also looks very different, but should be audibly the same.

so sorry rogers

[playingtough]

Billy's seated under the shut window where he and Tommy had shoved a mattress out after the volcano incident. That memory is far away, practically nonexistent as Billy deals with his terror.

A terror that has Billy in his grips as Steve approaches, calls out to him. He's sweating like he's running a race, his heart-rate is elevated in a terrible way. He doesn't even see Steve and barely even hears him. It's like the guy is calling through a dense fog. Because Billy's not mentally outside the diner. He's far away, in a mall in Indiana, staring his death down and hating every moment of it.

It's when his eyes finally focus and sees a stranger in front of him. With a stick. Billy doesn't see the same guy he met in the diner. He sees a threat. So the first thing he does is shout and kick out with his foot, slamming himself back against the wall.

It's not out of being an asshole, he's just scared. He's never had to deal with an actual flashback this bad before. Not when it's both a flashback and here in the city.

[pursuitofcappiness]

Oof, well, okay, he should've seen this one coming. Billy's head is clearly somewhere else because when he looks at Steve, he isn't seeing him. He's seeing something else. Somewhere else. He should see the kick coming, but unfortunately, he has very little time to react.

He falls backward with a grunt, gets the wind knocked out of him, rolls over in case Billy's coming back, or in case one of the creatures sees him. But he recovers pretty quickly, stands back up, tries to get through to Billy:

"Kid, it's not real. It's not happening right now. Wherever you are, it's not real. Need you to come back to the diner. You remember the diner?"

He clams up as soon as one of the bats flies by. He's pretty sure where there's one there's a dozen - and so he stays stock-still, hoping Billy does too, hoping neither of them are noticed.

[playingtough]

Billy isn’t aiming another kick thankfully. He wanted Rogers away and got what he wanted. When he hears the demobat above, his attention snaps right to it with his blue eyes bright and wild. He doesn’t recognize it like he did the Flayer.

The creature screeches above them, calling out to brethren but it doesn’t seem like it’s noticed either of the humans below. For now, anyways. A couple more fly over the diner and out of sight.

Billy breathing rapidly now, remembering the sauna, the bite of teeth into his sides. The slice of tiny teeth against his hands. God, his hands are shaking so bad.

Steve’s voice gets through that fog again, getting his attention. Not real? But it was, he knew it was. A hand lifts, shaking horribly and that makes it difficult to figure out where he’s pointing. It seems like the fountain.

"Real. Opening, it’s there. The thing. The thing I made." It’s a shaky whisper, filled with terror. Billy doesn’t know if he’s strong enough to try and stop it this time. Especially knowing how it could end. How it would end.

"I can’t— it’ll— the mall, the kids—" There’s the hint, Billy’s in a mall. Billy curls up tight, fingers fisting into his sweat damp curls. "It's going to hurt."

[pursuitofcappiness]

Okay, yes, they're in a really bad spot right now - that part's real, but Steve has no idea about Billy's own Mind Flayer so he just thinks it'd be way too big a coincidence for this to be exactly his vision.

And no, the bit about the mall doesn't escape him. "We're not at a mall. There's no kids outside, just you and me. Billy, I'm not gonna say it's gonna be fine, but, we gotta go inside. If I come to you, you promise not to hit me? Let me help you inside."

He puts the stick down because he thinks it might be sending the wrong message. He can get a new one later, or hell, pick up one of the broken bricks that's littered around from all the debris.

"It's not safe out here," he says, definitively.

[playingtough]

"Inside," he corrects quickly. Talking about it hurts, but it’s bringing him back into the city. Out of the mall where the government or whatever covered up what happened with a stupid report of a mall fire. He’s breathing rapidly and shallowly, feeling the bite of his nails in his scalp and the pull of his hair as well. "We’re inside the mall— fireworks-"

Can he handle even moving? But maybe the diner was safer. That’s where this guy wanted to go, right? The diner. The diner was safe. Plenty of places to hide. Maybe Tommy—

Billy chokes out, "not safe, it’s not safe, the Flayer is waiting, I got away—" They needed to move. Billy can’t stay out here and he finally looks at Steve to watch him out the stick down.

"Diner. We should go—" he swallows hard, trying to focus on breathing right. Breathe. Breathe breathe breathe. "safe. Want to be safe."

[pursuitofcappiness]

"Yeah, yes, that's right, Billy. The diner's safe." Or, safer. Definitely safer than this. They're right outside, and he can go in and hide in the kitchen, away from the windows, away from the bats. There's just the doors leading in and out of it, and maybe the bats are smart but not enough to pull a door handle.

He approaches slowly, cautiously, not wanting to get kicked again, and with both his hands up so Billy can see them. "It's just me, Billy. It's Steve. Rogers. Kinda different without all the height, I know. But bear with me, I'm gonna help you up. We're gonna walk inside the diner. I'm gonna protect you from whatever that is, okay?"

Which, okay, tall order, but Steve is optimistic if nothing else. "You ready?"

Axe Delivery, October 11th

[ziedrich_bearer]

Screaming is what brings Gladio running. The storm had been enough for Gladio to come out, because everything had gotten so bad, so bad that he didn't know what to do with himself. HE barely even had weapons, but hey, that had never stopped him before.

Picking up the ones from the forge (sorry Tony he'll thank you for them later), he'd immediately started looking for his students.

Hadn't expected to make it to the core of town and find one of them screaming by a building. Gladio puts the axe and mace down on the ground and moves to sit by the kid, pulling him into his arms.

Billy can hate him for it later.

"Kid. What's wrong kid?"

[playingtough]

It's probably the last thing anyone expects finding Billy. His fingers dig into his scalp with the curls getting caught around his fingers. The flayer thing found him. Billy created it and now it's here. Of course he wasn't safe in this city. It would've found him eventually.

He just didn't realize how soon. Six months give or take? Six months of freedom and it was all gone now. Billy knew that thing was going to stomp its way out here and finish the job the Agrii saved him from.

There's a clatter of metal nearby, and it breaks some of the panic attack, but it's not enough. So when Gladio wraps his arms around him, Billy starts thrashing. "NO! NO LET ME GO! NO! FUCK, LET ME GO!" He starts breathing erratically, sobbing and still thrashing thinking he was in danger. He wasn't even in Temba at the moment. Billy's mind was back in Indiana, in Hawkins, the mall.

[ziedrich_bearer]

Yeah, this wasn't high on his check list for the state his pupil could be in. But Gladio's strong, strong enough to keep holding the kid.

"It's me, Billy. It's Gladio. I've got you man. Nothing's going to hurt you. I won't let it."

Poor kid is having a trauma response, and Gladio needs to get him into the here and now.

[playingtough]

For whatever it’s worth, Billy keeps struggling against the hold on him. It’s clear though that while the blond is strong, he’s not as strong as Gladio. Between the breathing, screaming, and thrashing, he tires out. The thrashing turns into shaking; the screaming into sobbing; the breathing into hiccups.

He hears Gladio faintly, coughing and finally feeling arms around him. It’s grounding, pulling him out of the mall and back into Temba. But Temba wasn’t safe anymore, was it?

Billy is full body shaking even as he comes out of his own head, still hiccuping. "Can’t— it’s not safe— creature— fountain— gate—"

[ziedrich_bearer]

Damn man. So broken, so hurt. Gladio keeps holding him, and doesn't mind letting him cry. So he's not going to let Billy down right now. Not at all.

"I can keep you safe for now, kid. This is... This has something to do with the shit back in your world, doesn't it? Steve said there was something bad, like demons. This that?"

[playingtough]

Billy knew he was hurt, and maybe broken. Just Never this bad. He didn’t realize how bad Hawkins had effected him. The sobbing finally peters out, left with him only shaking. "F-Flayer," he finally chokes out. "Big one on the other side. In my world—"

He almost can’t say it because of how close the outcome feels. "–kills me. Hurts. Cold and dark. Fireworks all over the mall." Billy’s hands raise up, the light catching over the slivering scars that trace across his wrists and hands. "Flayer kills me."

October 13th

[doubled_speed]

"You're pretty good with that."

One second he wasn't there, the next he was. Sure his powers weren't being reliable, but even slightly functional meant Tommy was of course out there, being a hero. And he'd found Hargrove so immediately.

"You know, sora hot when you're kicking ass man."

[playingtough]

At first, Billy thinks he's just hearing shit. After all, he saw the ghost of his mom, why not hear the whisper of his friends? But then he spies Tommy flickering around with that speedy ass of his.

He spins the axe in a clunkly manner in his hands. Whatever. Billy feels cool with it. And it's doing a number on these fucking freaks right now. One of the gorgons leap at where Tommy had been, and Billy turns its neck into a stump. There's a wild look on Hargrove's face, eyes bright because he's fight back against these demons. His demons.

"Yeah? Don't get caught staring, these freaks won't let it slip past them." He aims his weapon at another and misses as it dodges to the side to leap at him instead. Shit—

cw: exploding demodog sorry not sorry

[doubled_speed]

Yeah, well, he looks cool with the thing too. Tommy had made that point rather clear, even if he knew he shouldn't have said it. Then he moves and pulls Billy out of the path of the jump. He turns after the thing, hand raised, and eyes narrowed.

And the thing explodes. Which is gross and worth it at the same time.

"Ugly ass things."

BOOM!! 💥

[playingtough]

Billy plants his feet, thinking to bring up the handle of the axe at almost the wrong moment. It was going to be too late—

Until it wasn’t. He’s nabbed to the side. Billy almost falls, the axe head clangs against ground for the moment. The moment is all Tommy needs, who explodes the creature. Gore squishes to the ground around them and the blond straightens.

"Looks like I’m not the only one that makes kicking ass look good." The words come out with ease and without thinking. He smiles, eyes bright even with some of the blood staining his skin. "Guess you don’t need any sort of weapon like the rest of us."

[doubled_speed]

Really? Tommy blushes just a little. Good thing he can look away and not get caught.

"It's my job," he says with a shrug. "And I am a weapon, man. Speed is power, man. I'm more durable than a car. I can literally run through these things."

[playingtough]

Billy makes his way over, things squishing under his boots as he joins Tommy. "Yeah, I know speed is power and shit. Surprised you're not taking more out doing your track star thing while I get to pick the little ones off."

Because he's not going through the gate to take anything out. Billy can't. He can't deal with the Flayers, so he lets someone else do it. A demobat squeals as it dives and Billy barely ducks it before it's turning around. This time the Californian nails it, feeling its weight added to the axe as the blade only gets halfway through it.

"God this place was supposed to be better than Hawkins. You know that, right?" The blade finishes the job as Billy slams it on the ground. "How the fuck are we supposed to get this stop anyways?!"

→ 11th-12th

[ephemerios]

Now that she's aware that what this shit is, is the origins of what gave her her troubles and eventually caused her death, she's a hundred times more nervous about it than she had been already. Anxiety that makes her think every small, fast moving shadow is a mass of spiders, or everything moving out of the corner of her eye is the creepy figure that killed her, or when it's almost quiet she can also almost hear distorted clock chimes. Instead what she hears is screams, and when she moves closer to the scene (bot not too close to avoid surprising him too much, because she knows her presence is going to be startling when he's in the middle of it), she sees a face from Hawkins — and she knows very well what is generally going on by looking at him. She's been there before recently.

“Hey.” She starts out gently. “Did you see something or encounter it otherwise?” She knows better than to ask if he's okay, because she knows he's not. She asks the question because maybe she can help. She's not sure how yet.

[playingtough]

Yep, Billy Hargrove is screaming, fingers clenching in his hair hard enough against his scalp to have blood go under his fingernails. He doesn't even seem to notice Chrissy at first, dealing with the panic that threatens to rip him open from the inside out.

It's the well-timed 'hey' between the screams that cuts through it and he whips his head about to look at her. Billy looks haggard and wild, like a dog that's been kept outdoors for too long. She seems...familiar. But Billy's not sure if it's his head making things up or not.

Blue eyes blink owlishly at her and it's only then that he realizes that he's breathing shallowly, nearly hyperventilating as he just...stares at her. "Thing... the gate," and a hand lifts but it's difficult to see where he's pointing because of how bad he's shaking. "Flayer."

Billy had no idea if she knew what he was talking about. But he doesn't care.

Above them somewhere, out of sight, a demobat can be heard screeching, like it's trying to find someone new to attack. The sound of it makes Billy tense and look up, swallowing hard.

[ephemerios]

Even the general direction he points in is one she's not about to go investigating in. No thanks. Not with anything called a flayer. Hard pass.

A tone of uncertainty when she speaks, because frankly this whole situation has her more anxious, yes, but also because the screeching in the distance is not a great background noise to hear. “We should take it inside, probably.” She also finally glances upwards at the screech. “I don't want to be out here when that thing sees us, and that's probably the last thing you need too right now.” Which is a bit 'yeah no shit sherlock', but sometimes reminders help when you're having A Time with panic.

[playingtough]

He was only pointing to indicate where it was, not where Billy wants her to go. He doesn't want anyone going to the gates. The flayer was behind them and it wasn't safe. It wasn't safe. His breathing picks up again as his heartrate does. Billy clasps his hands on his arms, shaking all over like a leaf caught in a windstorm

He looks at her, watches her with eyes both bright and haunted. It's not really clear if the blond is seeing her or something else, but... he hears her. "Inside. Inside is... safe." It's inside the diner; it has to be safe. It's where Tommy stays, isn't it? So the diner is safe. So he nods and starts trying to get up. Billy struggles to get his feet under him. It all seems to hurt even if it really doesn't. It's just his brain and the panic playing tricks on him.

[ephemerios]

She nods slightly. “Inside is so much better.” Has she been inside yet? No. Is she willing to bet she is right? Yes. And you better believe the first thing she's doing in there is just lying on the floor.

She offers him a hand if he needs to steady himself to get up. As she does, she asks a question she already knows the answer to, but it's something to hopefully distract him even a little bit form his current state: “Billy Hargrove, right? I'm from Hawkins, too.”

[playingtough]

Inside was better. Safe, closed off. The beasts couldn't get in there. Billy takes the offered hand and he's shaking so bad that he almost doesn't grab it. But he gets up and to his feet, putting his hand on the other wall to keep himself stable. There's a nod. "Y-yeah. Billy. Used to be a lifeguard at the pool."

She's from Hawkins too. Maybe that's why he sort of recognizes her. A year under him or something maybe. A familiar face surrounded by strawberry blonde hair and ribbons for a cheerleader maybe.

There's a thump of a demobat landing on the roof above them. Somehow it senses the two of them, screeching down at the pair. Billy's hand tightens on her, too tight and he pulls. These don't trigger him as bad as the flayers do, but it's still something Wrong and Not Good. "Diner!" he manages to choke out, getting himself into gear to run towards the corner so they could get to the door.