revivalproject | One Night in Bangkok ~ Murray Head

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One Night in Bangkok ~ Murray Head

WHO: Billy Hargrove, Tommy Shepherd, Max Mayfield, and YOU!!
WHERE: Agrii Ship
WHAT: Agrii New Tick
WHEN: New Tick things
WARNINGS: Billy’s got a ~~gun~~ weapon

The message gives Billy time. Time to pack up his axe, tape player, vase of shells, sleeping meds, and Tommy’s blanket he had been borrowing since coming out of the Warrens. In exchange, he had left one of his for his boyfriend in the diner. He hopes, while arranging all this stuff in his room on the ship, that they’re not going someplace with fireworks like last year.

Billy couldn’t be that lucky.

Under Pressure ~ David Bowie, Queen

This is almost worse than last year’s arrival.

The snow village was one thing, but this? With the aliens cheerfully greeting them, slinging a red and blue striped scarf around his neck? No. He doesn’t like it. One of the Agrii get too close to try and help with the accessory, and Billy pushes them. That gets him the space he wants and he moves at a quick pace further into the ship.

Even with his more… aggressive approach to the Agrii, some are still… bowing to him? As he walks. It’s enough to take some of speed out of his step. Why were they bowing to him? Fucking aliens. Was it something they had done down on Temba? The Warrens come to mind, the trip down into the depths of them with the rest of the group, but then he remembers the ordeal of the ship. Helping Soldier with his axe. Was it related to that? There was no telling.

But Billy walks slower, keeping quiet as he moves from the arrival party and bowing aliens.

Despite all of the decor glittering around all of them, Billy’s noticed something else. Even with all of the festive decorations and merry music, something doesn’t feel right. It feels… tense. Like the crest of tension right before a fight breaks out. That’s a feeling he’s familiar with and it puts him on edge a little himself as he tries to make his way towards the living quarters. There are different colors decorating Agrii, like they’re part of factions. It vaguely reminds Billy of politics back at home, how Neil had been a staunch supporter of red in the red versus blue Billy himself only half paid attention to on the television.

Video Killed the Radio Star ~ The Buggles

Now this he remembers from last year. The gifts. Everything was clearly labelled, but Billy couldn’t resist testing a couple not marked out for him. Which results in him getting a little zap from one of the robots roaming around on patrol. With a devious grin, he pushes one off of the table before retreating away from one of the robots starting for him. "Quit it, quit it, it was a joke!" he shouts at it when he’s got enough space between himself and it.

Finally he finds a large and flat one for him, a small box wrapped in orange, and one more pink one shaped with what he hopes isn’t a book.

Please don’t be a book.

He goes for the flat, large packaging first, ripping the paper until his mouth drops open enough to show his shock. In his hands is a brand new Hawkins High varsity jacket, with his name embroidered in fancy script on the right side. There’s a basketball patch stitched onto the right arm, and the ‘Class of’ in matching fancy script over the bold numbers of ’85’.

His own letterman jacket. Something Neil would’ve never paid for back home. Something he’d never get now. It doesn’t even cross his mind that they’re in Tommy’s colors, too. Happy coincidence.

Shrugging it on (perfect fit, holy shit), Billy moves onto the other packages. The orange wrapping gets pulled apart and a small box opened to find some brass knuckles. They fit his fingers great, and feel like a great weight. His axe was great, but what if he lost it? There were plenty of people in the city that were stronger than him - maybe this would even it out.

And then the last one, Billy pulls to him. More wrapping paper to litter the ground and he blinks at what are clearly DVD cases. Ten of them with various movie titles he recognizes. But what kind of shit was this? He cracks open Halloween and pulls out the disc to inspect it.

"Is this some weird fucking Frisbee?"

We Built This City ~ Starship [Closed to Tommy]

Message 1: mDe fort no boom in our room. thats where i’ll be if you need me tomothy

Message 2: < 3

And he has. Billy’s taken as many pillows and such as he could find to act as squishy walls. Over the top is a sheet, then a blanket, pulled down and tucked under the wall of pillows to help keep it in place. Inside, there’s a couple of pillows for them and a blanket, the tape player with its headphones ready to go, and the bottle of Billy’s sleep medications.

Oh, and something wrapped up in some green cloth under the tape player.

Fort No Boom is go. He repeats, Fort No Boom is a go.

Billy picks up a glass of water he brought with him, chugging half of its contents before pacing a little. They knew about the fireworks in advance, but would it be a different reaction knowing it ahead of time? Would it be easier now that he had someone with him from beginning to the end? Unlike last year, where Tae and Tommy stumbled upon him after the panic attack started.

Damn. He’s already feeling a little nauseous with dread. He continues to pace, with one hand going up to gently scratch at the scarring on his left arm.

Faith ~ George Michael [Closed to Max]

‘come to cockpit.,Shitbird’

It was a space for the two of them. Billy and Max have had a couple of sibling talks in here, and without their permission, or some dick with Engineering overriding it, they can sit here and talk with someone accidentally walking in on them.

It’s also quiet, if you ignored the hum of the ship’s workings around them. It’s just a hum, nothing compared to the Camaro when she’s fired up, but this is… nice. Soothing at least.

Billy’s got his feet up on the dash, the notebook on his communicator open as he practices the texting. Still slow, but there’s been improvements at least.

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She groans again at the comparison. Not that far off, Hargrove. Not that far at all. She lets him pick it up. NOt like she intends to wear it.

"While you were off seducing all the girls in town at the pool, Steve and I worked at Scoops Ahoy in the mall. That was my uniform. I hated it so much. Especially working with Steve. I had to do the job to pay my parents back for sorta wrecking the car. And a few others. I wanted to save up to go to France, but god... My sophomore year was weird for more than apparently there being demons lurking in town or whatever."

"Seducing all the girls and being the best at it," Billy adds with a smug grin before letting her continue. The grin turns bigger hearing about Steve's own uniform and if Robin's was anything to go by...

He'd almost pay money to see Steve in his.

But that's not what really gets his attention. Billy's interest piques at the mention of wrecking a car. "What the hell did you do to wreck a car, Robin? And what kind of car was it?"

Yeah, he probably was being the best at it. He was still new and interesting then, and she'd seen him without his shirt on. She knew girls were probably in to that.

"Uh... Well, technically it was, like, five? And one was ours. God."

She closes the box with the clothes and leans back a bit.

"Yeah, it was probably still gossip then so... Uh... Did you hear about the way that someone hit a number of cars coming in to crash prom the school year before you showed up? Blew in and danced with a weird senior girl and blew back out because the teachers were chasing her for being an underclassman at senior prom?"

Girls were totally into that. Being a lifeguard at the pool was the second best thing to happen to Hawkins (the first best thing was him moving there in the first place).

His gaze flicks from the gift box back up to her face as she starts into the story. "Eh, not really. So now you gotta tell me because that sounds an awful lot like some shit you'd do, Buckley."

Robin groans because of course he wanted her to tell it.

"Listen. I rebelled. It went poorly. I lost all my saved up money for it. Got to dance with a girl though."

Of course he did! You can't lead in with that and expect him to not want to hear about it.

Billy regards her with a small smirk and a glint in his eyes. "Was it worth it? Even if you lost all the money you saved up for?"

"God no," Robin says with a sigh, fingers going through her hair. "Looking back, no. But..."

But if she'd followed her strange dream back then...

"But I guess if I had done what I planned, I never would have really come to know Steve."

"What did you have planned?" The question is out of his mouth before he can stop it, genuinely curious for what Robin had been up to back then. It was… nice, getting to know the Hawkins people better like this. He and Eddie had always been… generally neutral towards each other, Robin as well, but he didn’t know either of them. He and Steve were getting along better, too. And Max he considered his sister now, and not just stepsister.

"And did you know this version of Steve or King Steve?"

"I was going to spend the summer, at least, in Europe. Without telling my parents. Just get a ticket and go. Bus to airport to overseas. France. Spain. Take this girl with me. Because I didn't want to go alone. At the time I didn't realize I had a crush."

God was that ever an awakening when she'd realized it. That her plans had been vaguely romantic.

"And I had classes with the late, unlamented King persona. God, he was such an ass. I was so jealous of him. The girl I was crushing on had the BIGGEST crush on him. And then on you too, which was frustrating too. But whatever. Most of the girls had a thing about you if they liked bad boys or popularity at all."

"And no passport? Figured you would've at least researched what to do before going. But it's cute you wanted to take her with you. Planned on getting some good Kodak moments?"

Maybe next year he could ask the aliens for an instant camera. He wouldn't be any good with it like the Byers guy, but it wasn't like there was a Temba Times newspaper or anything.

There's an easy smile with a bit of his old smugness in it. "Well I'm pretty sure ninety percent of the female population of Hawkins had a crush on me. Hard to resist the good looking body I had then."

"Oh, I was saving up for that. Those are simple," she dismisses with a wave of her hand. "And I did research, duh. Libraries aren't hard to get to."

But god, she's so embarrassed now.

"Your body isn't that impressive. You don't even have any, you know..."

She gestures over her own chest to imply what she means. She's not Steve. She can't say boobies with confidence.

Billy puts his hands up in a surrender move, grinning still. "Excuse me, Skylark," he remarks before laughing.

"And that's why I said ninety percent, because you, Max, and Susan aren't interested. "And of course I don't have tits, I have pecs and they are delightful, thank you very much." He had a boyfriend that had a thing for them after all. Not that she - or anyone for that matter - knows that.

Skylark? She looks so damn confused at that. She's not even remotely a car person so she couldn't begin to fathom the reference.

"I'm sure there were other people not interested. I mean, Chrissy would see through you."

Okay, maybe she developed a crush on Chrissy before she left. It was only fair.

"They aren't delightful. And please don't call them pecs. They're just muscles."

Maybe he'll explain to you one day, Robin (he won't). But it's a good nickname and fits with her actual name being bird themed. At least she's not bird-brained.

"She would, but she'd be nice and humor me. And I wasn't going for her, I wanted her to go to you." Just as much as Billy needed someone; how Eddie and Steve needed each other, the blond knows that Robin probably did, too. It was only fair.

"Well that's what pecs is short for. Pectorals. But if you want me to talk about muscles like that, I can keep doing that for you."

Stop harassing Robin, Billy. She's your friend!

"But I figured you'd be okay with me calling them 'pecs' instead of 'tits', though I won't blame you for looking at them if I called them that."

Wanted Chrissy to go to...

Robin blushes.

"Chrissy was straight, Billy. And really religious I think. That never would have happened. And I don't want to hear about your pecs. Or tits. Or whatever. You've got all the..."

She gestures.

"Boy body."

Don't think he didn't catch that blush there, Skylark.

"Yeah? Did you ask her?" comes the rebuttal. "Because there are a couple of people around that thought I was soooo straight. If only they had asked."

Though if they had, Billy might not have answered truthfully. "I was raised Lutheran and look how I turned out. Wait, don't use that. And I know I got the hot boy bod. Be glad I can't flex them to make them jump and really gross you out."

Yeah, well a blush isn't enough to really get her caught, right? Hopefully. Please don't tell people.

"If they'd asked you would have said no. Except for that boyfriend of yours," Robin points out, rolling her eyes. "You know how dangerous it is to be forward about that stuff back home."

Billy might be an asshole but he’s reformed more now and knows better. He won’t be like Steve.

He bristles at the mention of how dangerous it was back home. "Of course I fucking know, Buckley," which comes out defensive out of habit. Billy grits his teeth, counts to five and starts again. "I would’ve said no back home. Maybe here now, depending on who asked I probably would’ve answered with yes."

"I'm sorry I figured it out before," she says honestly. Taking that chance from him had probably been really bad. But she wanted him to know she got it and she didn't blame him for how uncomfortable it had been. "But I'm glad that I don't have to be alone here."

Billy picks up on the tone but still raises a brow. "Are you? Though it's not like it's a bad things here. I've already got some people saying they'd put my dad in the ground if he shows up here."

And she probably remembers seeing what she did for the memory storm they had.

That infamous temper settles before it can spark hotter and he reaches over to gently push her shoulder. "I'll be a wingman for you any day, Buckley. I actually was trying with Chrissy to guide her your way." But then she had left because of course. Damn shame - Billy was certain they'd be a cute halftime show couple. Band and cheerleading."

"I really am."

And with that she opens her orange box. Which means she's looking at a crossbow and bolts. Huh.

"I guess you could use this to get him first. If you want. Geez, who thought it was wise to give me a weapon."

Which was so much better than being told that Billy was trying to help her out romantically.

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One Night in Bangkok ~ Murray Head

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