Come Sail Away - Styx

[playingtough]

WHO: Billy Hargrove, Tommy Shepherd, & everyone else!
WHERE: Agrii Village
WHAT: to the New Tick! AND BEYOND!
WHEN: Jan 10th - Jan 17th
WARNINGS: Silent Lucidity by Queensrÿche Section contains spoilers! Any other spoilers will be marked, along with content warnings ♥︎

"I thought that they were angels
But to my surprise
We climbed aboard their starship"

Thriller - Michael Jackson
"You try to scream
But terror takes the sound before you make it"

January 9th

It’s pretty known amongst the Hawkins crew and some others in the city, that Billy Hargrove is pretty awful at keeping up with comms from the phone thing that rarely leaves his pocket. He’s maybe communicated on it…twice? Maybe. That’s not the strange part.

And being lured back onto the ship, flying up through a portal and all of that, that’s not the strange part either.

Getting down to the snowy planet with these multi-armed aliens is the strange part. And after his dealings with the Upside Down back home, Hargrove isn’t sure he wants anything to do with them. Were they friendly? Was it a trap? Mostly the blond tries to keep others between himself and the Agrii as they head into the village.

Major trust issues.

He glides this way and that around people before finally ducking into one of the cabins. On his person, there’s not a lot. The Walkman for certain, with a couple of extra tapes shoved into his pocket to change it up.

[Hargrove can be approached coming out of Peanut Party, dodging around your character, or going into the cabin!]

Surfin’ U.S.A. - The Beach Boys
"A bushy bushy blonde hairdo
Surfin’ U.S.A."


January 10th, Presents

Well, Billy doesn’t like it here. It’s too cold. He hates it. He keeps the cabin very warm, when he’s in it, needing a safe spot from the cold and the memories that threaten him in it. But when the Agrii open the mysterious… barn?

Either way, it feels warm, so he goes in. He’s surprised by the sight of presents. Sure, he’s gotten gifts before from his family, but he’s not expecting anything great. Practical, maybe. That’s what Neil would get him. It’s when he comes across not one but two for him, wrapped and set to the side. One is huge and immediately Billy knows what it is. So he goes for it, pulling down the long, thin package to unwrap the paper from it.

It’s a surfboard and those pretty blue eyes light up at the sight of it. He had been in Hawkins for a year or two and figured he’d never go surfing again because of… well, things. Things that happen. But now he had a brand new one, with what felt like a fresh coat of wax on her. She was ready for the waves and suddenly Billy wanted to hop on the shuttle and go back to Temba, everyone else be damned, to take her on the water. 

But he doesn’t. Because Billy Hargrove knows it’s too cold for surfing there right now.

So he sets the board aside and goes for the other gift. It feels heavier, but it’s a familiar weight. When it’s unwrapped, Billy says nothing. He stares. Stares at the blue vase in his hands filled with sand and shells. The memories flood back like an incoming tide as he holds it. Doesn’t even realize he’s tearing up silently as he looks at it. The memories of the woman on the beach with him, collecting the shells and ocean’s stars from where they washed up on the sand.

One tear manages to get past his defenses to streak down his cheek.

Silent Lucidity - Queensrÿche [Stranger Things S3 spoilers]
"You're lying safe in bed
It was all a bad dream spinning"

January 10th, Fireworks
CW: PTSD, possible violent reactions to other characters, descriptions of past incident, self-harm in the form of scratching

He’s just left the… not-quite-a-gingerbread house when they start. Bursts and flashes of color in the sky above, raining down colorful sparks in the air. People usually see something beautiful and fleeting during events like this, and enjoy it, but Billy isn’t.

The first burst of light above gets him to stop dead in his tracks. He looks up, eyes wide but instead of being filled with awe and joy, it's terror. He can see the sparks turn into neon in his vsion, lengthening until they look like the neon signs of the mall. Billy's entire body is shaking as a vision of the creature from the mall looms up and blacks out the neons, the sparks, and everything until it's just that thing.

The thing he was controlled by until he was saved and defied it.

The shaking intensifies before it's hitting him and he screams. Doubles over, arms going around his body to hold where he knows he's bleeding. One hand scratches hard at his arm. Billy doesn't want to be possessed again, can't let it happen again, he has to keep living here—

The blond screams again, pained but... defiant, too. Doesn't realize that none of what he's seeing is happening, that he's just curled up in the snow trying to keep from dying to a creature that's not actually there...

Live And Let Die - Wings
"When you were young and your heart
Was an open book"

January 12th - 13th, White chocolate

He figured having a little bit of chocolate before going to sleep would be a treat. After the ups and downs of this whole ordeal, it was a wonder Billy was functioning at all at the moment. So a bit of white chocolate and the guy tucked himself in for a night burrowed under blankets.

That's not who emerges out of the cabin the next morning.

The clothes are big on him, this scrawny kid that hasn't hit being a teenager yet. The wind tosses his dirty blond curls as he walks around in too big clothes (he had found shoes that sort of fit at least).

"...Mom?" This wasn't San Diego. They didn't get snow in southern California, not like this. And he's never been in a cabin before. He can't even smell the ocean here. "Mom, where are you?!"

Never calling for his dad. Always calling for his mom because there was a little part of him still beating in his heart for her.

But whirling around in this strange place, he starts to jog, trying to find her. "MOOOOOM!!" he calls, feeling very alone and very small, like he did at home.

The Kids Aren’t Alright - The Offspring
"The kids are grown up, but their lives are worn
How can one little street swallow so many lives?"

January 10th, Closed to Tommy

Stars aren't anything new to Billy. They were all over in Temba, and Billy had snuck off more times than he had fingers and toes to go to the beach to look at them there. But now out here, there were so many. Like a pinch of a universe displayed before them. He pulls his sweater closer and straightens out the blanket he had brought before laying back on it. There were some snacks from the dining hall that Billy had swiped before leaving. The aliens gave him the creeps. Made him think too much about the Upside Down bullshit.

This was... nice. Billy's spot was over by the Glitter Food's shuttle, nearly out of immediate view. Almost like he wanted to be left alone as he stargazed. Something that was just familiar on this planet filled with aliens and people that he tolerated and shit.

Though the snow made him miss California.