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."

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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."

"Fucking Christ, don't talk down to me, fucker." Well, apparently he didn't take it well, but not so badly that he'd attack Tony. More dirt and rock fall from the natural wall as Billy claws his fingers into it like he's using it to stop him from lashing out.

He keeps after Tony, feeling mentally lighter as the physical pressure starts easing and the light above trickles through to start illuminating the tunnel around them. "The fuck is a force quit sequence? Sounds like nerd shit."

Because you're a nerd, Tony. A big science nerd.

Not exactly what Tony meant for Billy to focus on, but it was focus nonetheless, and sounding increasingly tenuous as Billy lashed out more, so Tony wasn't going to work against it. "Sure, I guess, if you're some kind of off-the-grid mountain man type," he said. "Then I suppose you'd call that kind of process 'hit it with a hammer until it stops'."

"You're talking about technology shit? I don't know anything about that stuff save for what my Camaro runs on and maybe what they were teaching in science classes. Basics of conducting electricity and stuff. I have no idea what the hell you're talking about though."

Maybe if he had made it into Hawkins lab alive or something he'd know more about computers. But he knew cars, knew the basic functions of radio and television, and that was it. He didn't need anything else.

Edited 2024-07-06 21:06 (UTC)

"An insulator, then," Tony offered. "Can't freak out, if all that energy can't get through. Hey, here's another electricity lesson." They were far up enough now that the wall wasn't so sheer, and sand was collecting on the ground where they were starting to cast their own shadows. Tony heaved up the axe that was practically glowing with all of that energy that had nowhere else to go, to plant it back into the ground and disperse it before it fried the hair off of Billy's head.

Well, Billy still didn't know what a force quit sequence was, but at this point, he doesn't think he cares about it anymore. Whatever it was, it couldn't be important if it's not being explained to him. Must be some sort of future bullshit he'll never get to see.

Once they were further out of the tunnel, Billy twists around to watch Tony with the axe. The metal was practically it's own flashlight now, charged up with Tony's electricity. He watches it get grounded and disperse, but he swears he feels a little tingle as it dies off around him, like the end of a firework. "Discharge. I know about that part. Grounding wires, lightning rods, stuff like that."

He holds out his hands for the axe. Expectant. "I made good enough grades, my tech just isn't up to speed with someone like Tommy's. Is that when a force quit sequence is from?"

'Nerd shit' had sounded like a dismissal to Tony, so when Billy asked again, he had to visibly reroute, mouth open and eyes narrowed thoughtfully. Like the light, it was like Billy got something in his head and couldn't get unstuck from it, and Tony trying to explain what he meant was apparently not what Billy needed to hear. That was a rigidity that Tony recognized. The corner of his mouth ticked up in a private joke before he tipped the axe Billy's direction and explained, "It's a computer thing. Brains, computers, same problem, they'll get trapped in these loops that don't let them do anything else, just the same output over and over again. With the computer, though, we can anticipate that, build in something to force it to stop everything it's doing. Force it to quit."

It probably did sound like dismissal, but it was just Billy not understanding the lingo Tony was using. He takes the axe and handles it with the grace of someone who has practiced a lot with it since given by Gladio.

"Yeah, computers exist but they're not mainstream in my time yet. We've got tape players and cassettes and video tapes. I had no idea you were talking about computer things. That's stuff for the nerd clubs and science labs where I'm from. I guess I gotta figure out how to get my brain to force quit things from my memories I can't get past."

That must have been a difficult task for someone who wasn't so easily fixated. When one was prone to obsession, though, it felt like a black hole, so Tony watched Billy curiously, fingers drumming on his chest before offering, "If it doesn't happen immediately...that's not because it's not working. Once you find something, and it doesn't get you out of the loop the first time, it's not a failure. It's a process."

A difficult task for someone who could get fixated on events that lead to his eventual death back home. Nights where he tried to sleep without the sleep medication Tae prescribed him were horrid ones filled with nightmares. Billy supposes one of those nights couldn't have been all that bad, since one of them had moved his feet to the diner where he and Tommy had confessed to each other.

"Well, then if I'm stuck in a loop, I need to figure out how to not be in that damn loop." He makes a grumbling noise, folding his arms across his chest. "Any tips for dealing with that kind of bullshit?"

The first one must not have been much of a tip, and Tony had to tilt his head in consideration, trying to solve Billy's code. It hadn't exactly been a positive suggestion. This time, with a glance around like it could help him gather his thoughts, he offered, "At some point, you're going to have to find something bigger than you. Right now, that thing going around in your head, it's so big, it's like trying to control a live wire. Bigger'n that. Something that's impossible to perceive, that you'll never understand, that was here before you and is going to be here long after you're gone, and, this is the important part, something that you know you love. Some people call that god." Maybe that was Billy's thing, and Tony's eyes narrowed slightly in what might have been a smile. That would explain why Tommy sounded so spiritual lately. "For me, that's just the future. This awesome, beautiful thing, that is always going to be there, and I can see in everything. I can see it in you right now, and I can feel that love, and that thing rolling around in my head doesn't seem so big anymore." The most time Tony had ever spent in a church was in the basement, after the street lights had come on, nursing a cup of burnt coffee. He still knew what all of that must have sounded like, so with a sardonic quirk at the corner of his mouth, he concluded, "Hallelujah."

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Down Under - Men at Work

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