revivalproject | Come Sail Away

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Come Sail Away - Styx

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.

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The blanket gets handed over and the space is given again. Billy looks up at the weight of the blanket, a little glare there. At least this one succeeded for now. "I...do... I do not." It was hard for Billy Hargrove to look like shit in his opinion. His eyes were too bright and his hair was too pretty to look like shit. Tae just has no taste. The blond has another stammered sentence ready on his tongue when she produces a lollipop and...

"...Envelope?" He sounds confused, but reaches a shaking hand out to take it

"You kind of do in this moment," she says with a sigh before waving the Agrii away. "Did you bring your sleep medication with you? The pills I gave you?"

Because he was going to need them.

As for the envelope, well, she supposed he didn't understand that. He was American. An American out of the eighties.

"It's a tradition back home, for the lunar new year. Young people are given envelopes of money. We don't have money though, so it's replicator ration."

One with some stipulations on it. That she could only really afford to give up a limited number each month, so you'd have to ask early if you wanted a chance of getting it. But sooner or later, she would pay out, guaranteed.

"They're on the ship. In my room." He'd started sleeping better, both on the ship and in his room in the city. So he had left them behind, thinking he was safe here in the little winter village. But she was right - he was going to need them tonight.

For now, he inspects the envelope and then opens it. "A ration, so I can buy more cigarettes?"

Or maybe lollipops like she gives him. His hands still shake as he messes with the envelope, but he's looking more aware of his surroundings, more aware that he's not in the mall and he's on an alien planet.

Which, really, shouldn't be better, but here we are.

"What's the lunar new year? Is that the Chinese new year?"

"Wonderful," Tae grumbles. They were stuck down here and he didn't have medicine and she couldn't make more. Wonderful. Maybe she can find her pup and ask the kid to magic him to sleep. Or to summon the medication.

"If that's really what you want. I don't suggest it. And yes, people call it that. Japan celebrated it too, once. Before they decided the best way to be successful was to westernize. We still celebrate 'little new year' in some areas though."

He didn't think he'd need them here! Billy wasn't expecting fireworks! Billy gives her a pathetic glare at her grumbling. He pulls the blanket more around him, hiding his 'mop' of curls and pulling his knees up to his chin.

"How the fuck am I supposed to know what Japan celebrates? We just called it Chinese new year over in San Diego. All I know is that there's animals for every year, and it's based on the moon instead of the sun." He had just the tiniest bit of cultural teaching it seemed. "What the hell does it mean to westernize anyways? Sounds like you're trying to be cowboys or something."

"It means being more like America," Tae says with a shrug. "And European countries, but heavily America. It's common cultural practice, for instance, to have KFC for Christmas. It's weird."

And she of course does not do so.

"That's because we're awesome," and even though he says it, Billy doesn't sound like he believes it. Like the words are just kind of croaked out. He does lift a brow.

"KFC for Christmas? American fast-food chain Kentucky Fried Chicken? Man, you weren't kidding about the westernizing then. That is weird." He tries to think of why they would have that as a tradition.

"...Any reason why you guys picked KFC?"

"Not everyone follows that tradition, but it is rather recent. If you count the seventies as recent of course."

Not that she does. That's a long time ago for her.

"A manager for one of the branches back then made ads connecting the holiday and the restaurant. Something like 'Kentucky is Christmas'. There are not so many traditions in Japan for the holiday you see, Christianity is not as enmeshed with society back home as it seems to be with America. So add that with how the 'Colonel' looks a bit like depictions of Santa Claus, well, it start happening. I think a third of the yearly sales at KFCs occur at that time."

She has to think about it, as she's never ordered a Christmas bucket, but what goes with it?

"I think it's some chicken, shrimp gratin, and a chocolate cake of course. And you have to book it in advance. The deal is available for several days leading up to the twenty fifth."

Which makes sense as people don't necessarily hold the day as importantly, it's not even a national holiday.

"Though with how busy Tokyo is, many convenience stores have started to offer fried chicken at that time to cover demand."

"I'm from the eighties, so the seventies are recent for me." Billy feels like he and the other Hawkins people might be the ones stuck furthest in the past. Or maybe that'd be Wesker with his views about alcoholic consumption and age.

Dick.

Anyways.

"I never knew how big the KFC thing was. I thought that was really just for Americans, but it's not something we do for Christmas. That's usually a home cooked meal with family." Amazingly, talking about a fast food chain called Kentucky Fried Chicken is what's grounding him right now. KFC, of all things.

Edited 2024-03-01 01:44 (UTC)

Okay, that's... a point.

"We do have a lot of small town America boys from the eighties don't we? It's quite strange."

Then again they had seemed to know to deal with those demon things.

"As capitalism moves toward late-stage capitalism, corporations spread and grow out of levels of power that are reasonable I suppose. Many things that you would think of as 'American' are widely exported at this point. Though our McDonalds have some offerings yours do not."

"I'm not a small town boy," he corrects. Definitely feeling better. "My dad dragged our family to a pathetic small town in Indiana from San Diego, California. West coast, best coast." That's grumbled out.

"Huh. I wouldn't have figured that. So you like KFC? I would almost rather have that instead of this envelope." And now he gets to the lollipop to unwrap and stick in his mouth. He holds up the envelope briefly.

"You really giving me one of your replicator rations?"

Ah, that makes more sense. He has that vibe from what she's seen of American movies.

"I prefer healthy eating," she says dismissively. Of course she isn't eating something fried like that. Unless it's tempura. That's better.

Though Tae was definitely amused a the idea and holds out her hand.

"If you don't want it, I'll take it back. I can use the rations."

He's pretty enough to be in those American movies she's thinking of probably.

"Chicken is healthy."

It feels like a gotcha, even if it really isn't. He doesn't see how something fried is too terrible.

Her hand gets his attention. Billy thinks of the times he was nasty at Tae, from meeting her on his arrival, and to the other few times after that. Billy holds the envelope for a little longer, then holds it back out. "Maybe next year. When I haven't been like such a dick to you."

"Yes, it is, relatively speaking. It's the deep frying that renders that point moot," Tae counters. "Of course you're before the era of all of the studies that came out which speak to the negative impacts of excessive consumption of transfats and deep frying and so many other things. And I'm, unfortunately, a doctor."

Which meant she was very aware of what was good and not good for her. Still, she looks at the envelope.

"How old are you?"

He ignores her little lecture about the frying of chicken. That stuff was good, but he did like some baked chicken. It was nice and juicy that way, too. Whatever, that didn't matter in this conversation.

The envelope is held out. He's not going back on his decision.

"Eighteen. I'll be nineteen in... whenever March is here."

Baked was far better, and a grilled was way better when she could get it too.

"Alright then. Keep it for now. Use it when you feel like you've earned it."

His hand still doesn't move. "You might as well just keep the IOU until next year then. Gonna be awhile to get an attitude check fixed after all." Which was true. Rome wasn't built in a day, blah-blah-blah, Billy's heard it all from people all his life.

The only difference now was that he felt like he could, even if he was on borrowed time and it wouldn't matter for anything when he was sent home. "Just keep it. Give me a reason to visit you and show I'm better and not... a dick at least."

Fine. If he's going to be a stubborn child. She sighs and plucks the envelope back. She tucks it into her pocket.

"Sleep. Doctor's orders. Maybe you'll be less cranky then."

"I'm not cranky," Billy protests. But he is tired. Billy scoots down onto the bed. He doesn't like the effect fireworks have on him now. He misses the days where all he had to do was survive home and look good out in public. It was so much easier then.

The blond rolls onto his side with a soft grunt. "I'll be fine. 'm tired though. Maybe I'll drink myself to sleep or something the rest of the time we're here so I can sleep without the meds."

Not cranky? Tae actually gives him a look there. He's cranky.

"Just get some rest. I advise avoiding alcohol if you can as it does not actually help with PTSD episodes. But mostly, just the rest."

She might need to get the guy some LSD though. That can help.

Yeah, but it's easier to say he's not cranky because it's easier to just pushback all the time. All the more reason he doesn't think he's earned the gift she tried to give him. He pulls the blanket up around him and cocoons himself in the warmth.

"I'll sleep, I guess. But I'm not giving up my alcohol." Not yet anyways. Then Billy is rolling over to face away from her, and shuts his eyes in an attempt to sleep.

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Come Sail Away - Styx

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