revivalproject | Down Under

Entry tags:

Down Under - Men at Work

WHO: Hargrove, Shepherd, Stark, OTA
WHERE: Swimming through Temba
WHAT: Various posts
WHEN: It's Gonna Be MerMay
WARNINGS: Language, talks of injuries

Vegemite Sandwich - Open

As if the what, thirty-six hours or so weren't enough whiplash for Billy, imagine the surprise of waking up underwater. With fins. Either Kaplan was really trying to make up for what happened in some weird way, or the aliens were doing shit again. Swimming out of his hospital bed, everything still hurt, but it was bearable. His left arm is all wrapped up and splinted, and his torso is just as wrapped, as per Billy's request.

After giving himself some time to make sure all of his injuries and scars were wrapped up, he heads out. The blond isn't really... fast, per say. There's speed to his swimming compared to doing it as a human at least. Seems like the bruises from his fall transferred to his tail though. Damn aliens, they could've healed him up first before giving him a tail. Or Kaplan. Whoever it was that did this shit. Swimming out to the town center and hovering over the fountain, he decides he'd rather be closer to the ground.

"I guess this is to make up for trying to set the place on fire last year with the volcano?" he grumbles, looking around with a hand on his hip.

Fried-Out Kombi - Stark

His exploring of the water leads him down to the southern part of the city. Maybe the southwest? It's difficult for him to tell like this underwater. Whatever, it's not important. What is important is that somewhere here, where the lake is now really filled again, is Billy's lost axe. The one he had dropped during the rage bug thing had Kaplan attack him. It wasn't anywhere on the road, which was a shame.

His heart drops in his chest at the sight of that yawning opening below him. That bright red tail swishes to take him further from it. He breathes in and out steadily, staring down at it. Everything was underwater. There were no rats here to swarm him, nothing to snap out to snag him. To drag him down into darkness while whatever possessed him made his hands do unforgivable things. He swims in a circle above, trying to gather enough nerve to just swim in, to find his weapon.

"It's just a tunnel," he mutters under his breath. "There's no rats, no Vecna thing."

A Man in Brüssel - Shepherd

Later, when it's clear the sun is setting, Billy heads back to familiar territory. His swimming is a little stronger now, more familiar with the natural feeling motion of his fins and tail. There's a quick trip into the civic center to make sure his tape player is okay - it seems to be - and he swims down to the main level. A longing look at all the training gear he wouldn't be able to use for awhile, Billy heads back out to the town square. There's no lingering there, because now he can do something he wouldn't be able to as a human.

Bubbles stream in his wake when the Californian heads to the diner. Not to the doors though, going up around to a window he's more familiar with. Peering in, he knocks on Tommy's window with his good hand. "Shepherd! Open up!" he calls, lowering enough so he can lean against the windowsill with his good arm like he's some sort of fairytale prince or something.

"It's not every day I can meet you up at your window like this after all."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Getting possessed, getting attached to a battle axe, and playing lifeguard on his downtime made Billy sound like he came from somewhere not all that different from where Tony called home, so he chuckled with an inquisitive frown at the question. Besides, Tommy physically couldn't keep his mouth shut, unless the relationship that had him so tied up in knots had been purely physical from the start. Tony was starting to suspect as much, in fact didn't answer either question, instead flipped around to watch Billy curiously as he asked his own, "You a military man?" That was twice now that he had called Tommy by his last name, which was a strangely formal choice given what the flowers Tommy had gifted to Tony suggested. "No..." Tony reassessed, calculating gaze sweeping over Billy's posture, then tried instead, "Boarding school?"

Maybe Hawkins wasn't too different from wherever Tony came from. Maybe it only seemed strange because they didn't have all of this shit in California. He visibly bristles at the new questions.

"No. Can't stand that military like shit. And my dad would never pay for me to go to a boarding school." Why have a school discipline him if Neil could just do it himself for cheaper? "Just a regular high school grad, who was doing a summer job as a lifeguard at the pool."

Then his life went to shit really quick and now he was here in Temba. Billy supposes that it could definitely be worse. At least here he had a second chance and a boyfriend that was just as enthusiastic as Billy was (even if Billy's enthusiasm was more in private than out in the open right now). "What's it to you?" The flashlight clicks on and he shines it down as they approach the tunnel they had initially met at.

Such an emphatic answer did earn a chuckle, even if it did leave Tony with his curiosity unsated. A signal to Tony specifically, maybe, which seemed all the more likely as his laugh was quickly drained and he was flipping back to look noninvasively ahead at the reminder that he was supposed to be keeping his distance. "Nothing, forget it," he muttered. "Watch out for little fish in a swarm, they've got a nasty sting."

Billy did seem fired up over simple questions, both given how he answered, and how his spines flared up on his back. Almost like Tony had threatened him. But then he calms, reminding himself that Neil isn't here. Temba is safe and the asshole couldn't get him here.

"Sorry. It's a... sore subject." Tony couldn't know after all, unless Max had blabbed to him, but even she knew better.

His swimming slows to a stop and blue eyes regard Tony. "You're coming with, right?"

Did Billy want to go to boarding school? 'Never pay for me' did sound kind of bitter; maybe from the outside, it seemed much more charmed, but even that didn't stop Tony from looking puzzled at Billy over how charged the idea seemed to make him. He couldn't even ask without risking that spread of those spines again, so the question obviously died as his jaw clicked shut again. In his uncertainty, he was baffled by Billy's question, and he lagged with a, "Uh..." before he glanced around and remembered they were talking about a cold, lonely void right in front of them rather than the figment of one back home. "Right. Sure," he was agreeing quickly to catch up, before he could process that he didn't think he was coming, and that probably wasn't a good idea, Billy only got the one flashlight. Now he was committed. He slid ahead before any of that was too obvious, asking, "It didn't go too far, did it?"

Absolutely not. Boarding school wasn't a place for guys like him. Or maybe it was and Billy just didn't want to get his attitude adjusted by force. But he knew Neil wasn't about to drop that kind of money on his son, not when he could try to adjust that attitude himself for free.

He swims after Tony, with the flashlight clicking on to light the way for the two of them. Should've brought a second one, but one was better than none he supposes. His spines and fins are splayed out like shield, so he makes sure there's decent distance between himself and Tony so he doesn't poke and hurt him. "I don't know. Too busy being bounced up and down in the air. Shepherd says I can use Kaplan's guilt to try and get car parts from him. Might ask him to get the car off the beach instead."

The beam of light moves around in a steady pattern - one he learned to use on the pool to keep an eye on things as a lifeguard.

That pattern was reassuringly predictable, letting Tony sink lower into the dark with only a few cautious glances back Billy's way to make sure he was still swimming smoothly and not getting locked up like Tony had found him out here. The comment about the twins, though, had his shoulders tensing, earning Billy a different kind of sideways glance to check if he was serious before Tony muttered, "Don't do that." Tommy should have known better. Tony should have talked to him about it, after the first incident with the bugs, to make sure he wasn't so hurt and ready to be cruel now that the wound felt fresh again. "You can't trust magic like that," Tony explained, abstracting the guilt out of the issue. "I can move your car. I know a guy."

Billy is moving slower, but Tony both with him and talking to him keeps him going. Sometimes the flashlight pauses on a deep crevice on the tunnel wall, sometimes on Tony's tail to watch for electric crackles. Then it's back to the pattern.

"Don't do what? Ask him to move my car?" It seemed like a reasonable enough task to just ask someone that had the means to do it, actually do it. "And everyone knows a guy. Rogers mentioned he could help. I just figured magic would make it easier. She's already roughed up real bad and it felt like asking him to move it would be better than asking him to magic up replacement parts she needs."

The conversation is good, it's keeping him pretty distracted from the mental darkness metaphorically threatening him.

"Yeah, easy until she ends up at the bottom of this pit, too," Tony pointed out. If it was easy to magic up a car, there would be more of them around. That couldn't be worth the risk. "If you love her, you'll handle her like she deserves," he said. "We'll let Steve lift it so he can show off for you, but I'll have a trailer for you in no time, I've got a 'bot that can haul it. Easy."

Billy snorts. "I doubt Kaplan would put it down here. She does deserve to be fixed up to her original glory and to not be on the beach covered with a tarp. Gladio and Steve can lift it if you think they can do it. What's a bot? Fancy name for a car with a trailer hitch or something where you're from?"

He wasn't into the tech stuff like his sister's friends were.

"I'm not saying he'd mean to..." Tony muttered as he sank down along a muddy ridge, letting his tail skim along it with a crackle when the electricity found shells or rocks to jump to. It should have been easier to convince someone not to trust the wiggling fingers and light tricks when he'd been on the bad end of it already. Why was everyone else so enthusiastic about it?

"Robot," he corrected apologetically, which was an admittedly broad offer to have made. "One of the ones that had been handing out gifts when we were on that frozen planet. They're insanely strong, might be able to just carry the car out of there, honestly, but no need to risk a beautiful gal's paintjob."

Thankfully Kaplan had only set fire to his arm, so the electricity doesn’t bother him. Only enough to make him flinch here and there. But he has to stay close because he’s the one with the flashlight. "I know he wouldn’t. Not intentionally. I believe Tommy when he says Kaplan isn’t like that."

The swimming stutters for a moment and then he goes after Tony. "I didn’t see any of them. I was dealing with other stuff." Like fireworks. Fucking fireworks. "She’ll need new paint. She’s in rough shape because she got T-boned back home."

"Didn't you get any gifts? That couldn't have felt fair. Tell you what, if we don't find this thing, maybe I will make you another one. For Christmas," Tony offered. It was started to feel a little hopeless as the water just got darker, and the glint of swimming schools of fish keeping their distance felt more like watchful eyes.

He touched a shocked hand to his chest at the brutality this poor car had already faced, getting a better picture of the problem that had to be solved. At least he could say, "Paint won't be a problem, firefly. You like red? Of course you do, look at you. We'll just park her--" He hesitated, skipping from the reluctance to return to the forge, to the reminder that Donnie wouldn't be there anymore, neither reassuring and both making him lag before he could finish, "There's plenty of space at the forge."

Billy scoffs. "Of course I got gifts. Just because I'm an asshole doesn't mean the Agrii let me go empty handed. I got a surfboard." And something else, but he doesn't really tell anyone about the vase of shells. No one needs to know, and it's from a precious memory. He flicks his tail, noting a glimmer barely in reach from the light's beam. "We'll find it. I don't want your work to go to waste."

And he was used to the axe by now. It was Billy's axe and he didn't want to have to relearn another that might have different weight or some shit.

"She's blue, actually. Kinda like the water in California's lakes. Red suits me, blue suits my Camaro. She just needs to be fixed before I give her fresh paint." Which was obvious. He notes the hesitation and watches Tony for a long moment. "Plenty of space there, but sounds like you have some kinda issue with this forge place."

Maybe that was why Tommy thought Billy was so aggressive, because he said it enough times to be convincing. So far, he hadn't actually done anything to prove either of their claims, so Tony raised an eyebrow at the title Billy gave himself, not looking like he was buying the macho performance.

"What?" he was surprised enough to ask, and had to quickly cover, "No, no issue, made sure the place could function myself. Empty now. All ours. You surf?" That was a stupid question, so Tony also darted away a little too eagerly on his search, static dancing along the rocks until they suddenly gathered in a cracking spark. "Oh, hello, dear," he murmured, spinning around to try to spot the metal peaking out from where it had been buried.

Billy had grown since showing up in Temba a year ago, given people that had faith in him doing so outside of the people that were also from Hawkins. So far there's been no reason to put Tony in his metaphorical place, so no aggression was needed.

There was always a 'yet' there, though.

"No, I just got a surfboard for decoration." A roll of the eyes. "Yes I fucking surf. I'll do it again here if we get changed back." Though there wasn't a downside to swimming. But Tony's darting ahead with the stream of light and Billy swims after.

It's only then he catches the glint of metal that Tony sees. It's buried on a shelf it looks like, covered in dirt and rock. "That might be it."

He probably deserved that language. More so as he looked reluctant to touch the dirt, hands up primly, until he glanced back at Billy and his bandaged arm and his shoulders dropped in resignation. He still started by patting at it cautiously, dislodging some of the sand and rocks, making sure nothing had made a home in the mound before risking pushing his claws further in to get a hold around the metal. The whole shelf seemed to shift as Tony heaved, lashing tail bubbling with the heat of his charge.

Billy swims up to Tony's side, keeping a polite gap between them as the metal gets revealed. It's not clear if he saw Tony's hesitation, but the blond doesn't have any of it as he brushes it away from the shoulder and haft sections. The older guy gets his grip first and Billy swims back a fraction as the shelf almost threatens to fall.

Billy's only got eyes for the axe, shining the light over it quickly. No, he doesn't notice if the beam of it hits Tony's eyes before he swims back again at that tail lashing around. "Watch what your doing with that thing back there!"

A little much, for just a tail heating up the water around them, but hey. He did say he was an asshole.

"Yeah, yeah..." Tony grumbled, and didn't slow at all from the complaint, because he almost had this thing loose with one more good yank. He almost dropped it again when he was suddenly bearing the weight of it, and had to swing it clear as the rocks came cascading after, clouding the water and thundering in the fall away down into the darkness.

Billy's spine spread in annoyance, which he tries to mentally stamp down since Tony was trying to help - but it's difficult. He moves to help some more, clearing off more rubble and such while Tony works at yanking it. The blond loses his balance when the older guy finally manages to get it free. With the rush of dirt and rocks that came after, Billy ducks out of the way, moving under and around the mechanic.

In the flurry of movement in trying not to get caught by rocks, the flashlight falls from his hand, illuminating the darkness below as it sank quickly before it finally vanishes in the depths.

"Shit," Billy whispers, feeling the anxiety of it stir in him quickly. Out. They had to get out and they had to go up--

The beam twirled, and barely cut through the water, at first a glow, then a glimmer, then leaving them in a murk with only the sparks dancing around the metal of the axe that swung from Tony's hand illuminating the water around them. He could practically feel the charge of anxiety like he could sense the electricity, primed for it since spotting Billy's strange trance, then his fixation on the light, and from the vice clench around his own heart as the water went dark. Still, he purred, "Plenty where that came from, nothing to worry about," like it was the lost property that was the primary concern here, and they could focus on what a non-issue that was. "We can make another one, no one will even notice. You're a mechanic, right? Not even a challenge." He was already drifting up as he talked, his voice that had been so often short and sharp like a scalpel smoothing and rumbling like the constant fire of the forge.

"But I can't see—" He hates feeling this rush of fear through him, how it makes it feel like his chest is try to shut like a clam. Billy felt the same way when the demomonsters came through the portals. Frozen with fear because he's about to be pulled down--

Gills rapidly open and shut as he shimmies to the side far enough to clench his fingers into the dirt. "Never made a flashlight. I can fix my car- hey, wait for me!" Billy can hear Tony's voice drifting slowly up and away from him. His fins spread and he swims after Tony, trying to feel the swish of water first before hitting the tail.

"Don't leave, please—" Fancy that. Billy Hargrove knows how to say please. Granted, he's currently terrified, so maybe it doesn't count too much.

"That's okay," Tony continued talking, in the same even, inviting murmur that he might have used against Billy's ear if they were at a party instead of this dark void, "we don't need to see anything, we know where up is, it's always there, very reliable, one of those natural forces that I was trying to tell you aren't worth messing with, you respect them and they respect you." He could hear that desperation, but didn't slow, drifting up steadily to draw Billy after him and the sound of his voice, even if he wasn't really listening.

That soothing voice is working. Billy never thought an older guy would try to help like this, even with his similar experiences with Gladio and Soldier. He swims up close enough to feel the push of water from the tail and follows after with one hand still on the wall.

"I...I know that up is reliable and always there." There just had been a time when it wasn't there and he just been smothered in his own head until it was too late. He's practically using his hand to claw his way up after Tony, using the grip to ground himself as they continue upwards.

"...How can you stay so calm?"

"Hey, that's great," Tony was ready to answer, and if sounded patronizing or sarcastic, he pressed on anyway, accepting Billy turning on him instead of the dark as an effective distraction if he didn't take it well. "What else do you know?"

By then, they had already gone from black to grey, the pressure that had pressed in so subtly easing around Tony's chest and making it a little easier to answer even if he didn't exactly feel calm, "I've got a kind of force quit sequence installed. Maybe you know it, goes, 'God, grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change', blah blah..." He rolled his free hand in the water to finish the prayer for him. "That's the important part, anyway. Natural forces, right, we're not changing them, we're letting them work for us."

Down Under - Men at Work

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