Just What I Needed - The Cars

[playingtough]

WHO: Billy Hargrove and YOU
WHERE: Peanut Party
WHAT: A new home?
WHEN: During mandatory ship time
WARNINGS: S3 ST spoilers - in the thread with Sonic



Beach

Billy's found his room, and while he slept in there the first night, it didn't take long for him to... not. Once he found the beach, he made that his place to hang out when he wasn't needed in the cockpit. Which would be soon, just not now. Shame. He wants to test out the engine on this thing. Despite what Keith said that that they didn't have a lot of control over where they went, Billy wanted to push the limits.

For now, he's in the water. Swimming laps in various techniques for it, and diving down to see if there's anything in the water. He's only in his boxers and a shirt, not comfortable enough anymore to be shirtless if anyone comes across the beach and sees him. It's bad enough the wet fabric clings to his scarring like it's taunting him.

So Billy takes in another breath and goes for some more laps, with flips to clumsily kick off the bottom for the next.

FOOD

All that training works up an appetite. So he heads to the diner area, fiddling with buttons. The first bowl gets tossed because that's clearly glitter. He makes a face before getting a container to try out the other buttons. He gets... paste. Okay, upon poking, it's not paste as much as it feels like tofu?

"Son of a bitch. If the aliens think I'm eating tofu, they can go eat a dick," he complains without a thought of who might hear him. The paste looks a little better, and when he taste tests the bit on his finger from poking it, he gives a nod of his head.

"Now that's more like it. Tastes like a spicy chili."

He gets a decent amount of that and another paste (mixed vegetable), before pushing it into the microwave and setting it. That gives Billy time enough to grab a drink - cola. "Get rid of the tofu bullshit, stupid aliens. Bring in beer instead."

OPEN

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[spinsandneedles]

"Smells like plastic, with maybe a hint of jalapeno? So probably."

He beep boops some buttons on the microwave, aaand now it's time to play the waiting game. Which means it's time to play the small talk game.

"See, I don't know what California is? But you're not the first person I've met who said that crazy portal stuff was from their world. There a lot of you here?"

[playingtough]

A lot. How many counted as a lot. He's silent, listing the roster in his head. "Including me? Six of us here. And one's my sister so if you get any ideas in bullying her, I'll kill you and put you over a barbecue."

That didn't sound like an empty threat. He also didn't know if this hedgehog was someone with more powers than being bipedal and talking to humans.

"California's a state. West coast of the United States. Best place because of the beaches and sunset and nice weather all fucking year. Unlike that hell hole Indiana."

[spinsandneedles]

Six, holy crap. Literally what are the odds of that?

"Bro, I have no idea who your sister even is. Don't worry about it, though. I don't make a habit out of bein' a jerk to people. We're all in this mess together, makin' enemies is about the last thing I wanna do."

Plus his mortal enemy is already here and he's been preoccupied with being paranoid about that.

"I do love a good beach. So, is Indiana where this ...Hawking place is? Hawkins? It was something like that, right?"

[playingtough]

"Hawkins. Right the second time. And if you don't mess with my sister, then you're smarter than you look." Then his mouth is busy working over the warm paste because he is hungry after all.

"But yeah. Hawkins Indiana. There's me, Robin Buckley, Chrissy Cunningham, Steve Harrington, Eddie Munson, and Max - she's my stepsister." He points the spoon at Sonic for a moment, then takes another bite. "Hawkins doesn't have a beach though, so until recently, I've been living in a little shack down on the beach here to make up for it."

[spinsandneedles]

Smarter than you look says the guy who grew that moustache on purpose. Sigh it's fine, Sonic will just let it slide.

"Chrissy I know, she's pretty cool."

DING goes the microwave, or whatever weird alien noise it makes. Sonic grabs his bowl of sadness sludge, gives it another cautious sniff. He looks thoroughly unimpressed but he grabs a spoon regardless.

"Can't blame you for the beach shack. Might suck once it starts gettin' colder, though."

[playingtough]

Hey, his mustache is cool for his time. Get with the 80s, guy!

"She is pretty nice." Though the bar for 'nice' is low for Billy. He keeps that to himself, though. He tucks in a few more bites with a grimace. At least it's... filling? And has flavor. The texture was starting to get to him. Another bite and he makes a face.

Yeah, he was probably done with this for now. The bowl scrapes against the tabletop while he makes a face at it.

"Yeah, my sister and Robin came and chewed me out about it until I agreed to move back into the city for the winter months. So I'm living in the civic center for now. Found a room that might've been someone's at some point. I guess if need be, I could come stay in here, too. Bed and beach all close and now fucking snow in here."

He practically throws his spoon into the bowl. "So do hedgehogs usually talk in your world? And are blue? Because that's not a normal thing where I'm from."

[spinsandneedles]

Sonic grabs himself a seat and takes a bite and immediately regrets it. The flavor isn't horrible? But the texture is a nightmare. Ohhh my dude this is gonna be a struggle.

"Talking hedgehogs are totally normal back home, we're not all blue though. From what I've heard, people like me aren't a thing where most of you guys are from. It's been kinda weird."

[playingtough]

Yeah, texture is something to be improved on by a lot. Maybe he could ask Tommy what could be done with it to make it more...appealing. At some point anyways.

"Yeah, and it's weird on my end too. Never thought I'd meet a blue talking hedgehog. And if your color isn't the norm, what is? Purple? Green? Most hedgehogs were I'm from are brown and their spikes are like a white color."

[spinsandneedles]

Save us Tommy from the bad mouthfeels.

"Blue isn't abnormal, we come in all kinds of colors. Off the top of my head I know other hedgehogs who are pink, one's kind of a silvery-grey, one guy's mostly black with red stripes."

[playingtough]

Hedgehogs. In all colors. What kind of fucked up place did this guy even come from? And the word 'freak' is right there, right on the tip of his tongue. It's ready to dive right off and out into the open because Sonic, and others like him, are freaks to someone like Billy.

So he bites the tip of his tongue until the word vanishes in the pain of the pinch. The spoon gets picked up so he can shovel another unwanted bite in to keep him from saying that terrible word. "Sounds... weird." Well, it's not the word 'freak'... "To me, anyways. There's... no one like you in my world at least. Or like the others you know."

[spinsandneedles]

Sonic's world may be freaky, but at least it's not full of face eating monster dogs. Just a round guy with the most horrible moustache ever.

"It's cool, I totally get it. Outside of the one human here from my world, nobody else has ever seen anything like me before. Nobody's freaked out on me yet though, so that's good."

[playingtough]

Yeah, the flower-faced monster dogs were a real bummer. Wait til Billy tells you about the one from the portal that wrecks a mall and kills him. All of that non-stop fun at your local Hawkins mall!

"Yet," Billy echoes because he wants to. But figures he doesn't need a repeat of Tommy sliding into his DMs to scold him. Sure, the guy apologized but he's also set a standard by accident. An accident that inevitably holds Billy himself to a higher standard because he can be good. If he can keep his attitude and words under control that is.

So far, so good it seems.

"Yeah? Who the hell is from your world here?" This should be interesting. An interesting conversation and neither of them seemed to have introduced themselves.

[spinsandneedles]

It wouldn't be the first time he met someone who got horribly murdered in Indiana!

Even if Billy does decide to be a giant douche, Sonic would probably let it slide anyway. He's one of those annoying good guys who's super big on second chances. And third chances. It's come back to bite him in the ass more than once but it usually works out in his favor.

Also these guys are clearly the best at conversation.

"You might have seen him on the network, he's the bald guy with the nightmare moustache. Dr. Robotnik, but back home we call him Eggman. Cuz that's what he's shaped like. Also half the robots he builds are egg shaped, too."

[playingtough]

Seems like a common experience in Indiana. All the more reason to go back to California!

Billy's still getting... accustomed to people being nice. Or letting his attitude slide off of them. And people giving him second and third chances. Any chances.

When Sonic describes the guy, he sits up straighter. Gets this grin on his face. "Oh him. Yeah he doesn't like me much. I called him out for putting his toupee under his nose instead of on his head."

[spinsandneedles]

Get used to it, buddy. Sonic's gonna give you so many chances it'll make you puke.

Eggman bashing makes him perk up a bit. He even manages to choke down a second bite of his chili slop.

"Hah, as you should! He doesn't like much of anyone, but there's not as much he can do about it here as there was back home."

[playingtough]

Fucking gross. He'll never say how he appreciates it though.

Seeing Sonic perk up immediately after telling his tale of the toupee remark. "I thought about maybe asking him about getting the fuel system in my car changed out for something that works here in Temba. But if he tries anything, I haven an axe."

An axe that was secure in his quarters at the moment because he doesn't need it. Or so he hopes anyways.

[spinsandneedles]

It's all good man, Sonic can practically read minds when it comes to things like that.

"Well, if anyone could do it, it's definitely him. Maybe interacting with normal people more often would be good for him. Knowing him though, he'd probably try to rig up some kind of weird weapon system into it. Dude has no chill."

[playingtough]

"Yeah I don't need a weapon in my Camaro," and Billy doesn't look happy about that thought. "I'll have to use something to bargain with. Helping, maybe. Providing firewood since I've got an axe n' stuff."

Billy gets up and takes his half-empty dish to clean it up. "I'm Billy, by the way. Pilot on here. If I can drive my car, this ship should be no problem." He sounds hella confident for something he's never actually done.

[spinsandneedles]

"Honestly, he'd probably just appreciate having something to work on. Just don't expect him to be overly friendly. Or at all friendly."

Sonic hasn't given up his war with the slop bowl just yet, so he's gonna keep trying to eat it. 'Trying' being the keyword. "Anyway, name's Sonic! I took Communications to talk to mushrooms, so I guess that's what I do!"

[playingtough]

Not that Billy was known for being friendly himself. But he wasn’t on Robotnik levels at least. Or so he likes to think. Sonic wasn’t pissed and/or leaving so he must be doing something okay.

"Talk to mush— oh right. The volcano incident." Where he had isolated himself mostly after situations had happened. "Cheerful shit aren’t you." It’s not a jab or meant mean. Just an observation.

"In case the other Billy is on here, you can also call me Hargrove. Makes it easier to tell who you’re talking to if he is here." Because someone hadn’t figured out how the device worked with showing the roster yet.

[spinsandneedles]

"If I gotta choose between being cheerful and letting all this crap get to me, I'm gonna shoot for cheerful. Not a lot else I can do to help with morale around here." He prefers the sorts of problems he can fix my punching, he can't punch everyone here to get them to cheer up, alas.

"That's Magic Billy. You're Billy with the Good Hair. Tellin' you apart is no problem."

[playingtough]

He makes a dismissive gesture before correcting with, "in general, not just about the situation." Billy supposes at least there's happy people like Chrissy and Sonic around. If it hadn't been for the former after all, who knows how bad the portal situation would've been for himself.

"I'm Billy with the best hair, excuse you." There's a grin that follows that. Is it egotistical sounding? Yes. Is it the truth?

Also yes.

"Yeah, Kaplan is magical as fuck. Helped stitch me the fuck back together when I arrived here bleeding out. Between him and Tae, I get a second chance at being on this side of the ground."

[spinsandneedles]

"Fair enough." Well shit, it's no wonder Sonic and Chrissy get along so easily. But yes, there may be a slight eyeroll at the hair comment, you humans and your head hair.

"Geez. It's a good thing we have people here who know what they're doing, I keep hearin' about people who show up here all busted up.

As for Magic Billy, I haven't really talked to him too much, but I hang out with his brother all the time."

[playingtough]

Don't get so prickly about his exquiste taste in hairstyle, Sonic.

Billy gets up to go rinse out the last of the uneaten paste from his bowl while continuing the conversation. "Yeah, I've only met Kaplan that one time, really." And boy was he a dick then, too.

He throws a look over his shoulder. "Shepherd? Yeah, Tommy's cool." And if Sonic hangs out with him, that means Billy doesn't have to threaten him to be nice to his friend. Good. "He and I would walk the beach sometime when we can't sleep. Mostly after that volcano bullshit."

And he also helped him out with what was apparently a PTSD moment in the showers of all places down in the Warrens. "He's hella speedy though. Like a human version of Speedy Gonzales."

[spinsandneedles]

He can't help it, he's a prickleboy.

"I don't know who that is, but Tommy and I race sometimes! Kinda hard to make a regular thing of it when the Agrii keep locking us up in tiny spaces, though."

Like sure, the ship's big, but it's not big enough for races at ridiculous speeds.