Audio

[playingtough]

_{[Oh he's angry. It's a sort of grief he doesn't know how to handle so it boils over in the worst way for Hargrove.]}

WHERE THE FUCK IS MY SISTER?!

_{[There's a crash of something, though there's no telling where he is at the moment. Oh wait, the sound of metal weights crashing to the floor as he topples the rack. Yeah, he's upset.]}

WHERE IS SHE!? HER NAME ISN'T IN THE PHONE!!

_{[That last sentence as some bits of air between the words as he knocks something else over. Then his heavy footsteps are moving again.]}

I'M GOING TO RIP THOSE FUCKING ALIENS APART. THEY CAN'T KEEP DOING THIS SHIT!!

_{[And then he's yelling, the phone drops away as he lets go to do... something. A something that becomes very evident with the found of glass breaking and more yelling.]}

Comments

[audio]

[in_extremis]

HEY! [Loud enough to hopefully get his attention back.] HEY!

Yeah, focus up. Hi. What's she look like?

[playingtough]

_{[Theres the sound of glass falling and something getting kicked before Tony gets his attention back.]}

Red head with a skateboard! Youngest out of us from Hawkins!!

_{[Still very angry sounding. Of course.]}

[in_extremis]

what about her eyes? What colour are her eyes?

[playingtough]

What the fuck are you talking about? MY SISTER IS MISSING YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE WHERE IS SHE?!

[in_extremis]

I'm not the one that took her, sweetheart, you're going to have to walk me through it.

[playingtough]

Walk you through what? My sister never showed up for that stupid not-Christmas fucking holiday, never came to the fucking cockpit of the ship. I figured she was on some God damn stupid alien mission again but her name's never fucking disappeared after going on one! SHE'S MISSING--

_{[Thankfully whatever insult he's carved up for Tony this time gets overshadowed by the sound of something else hitting the floor. Probably one of the weight benches picked up and slammed into the ground.]}

[in_extremis]

That's a long time, you must have been really worried about her.

[playingtough]

OF COURSE I'M FUCKING WORRIED! JESUS, DID YOU MISS THE PART WHERE I SAID SHE WAS MY SISTER?

_{[Billy, stop yelling at people. But it's difficult when the coiled currents of grief and rage shoot through his system like this.]}

[in_extremis]

If you'd tell me about her, maybe it'd stick.

[Audio]

[ziedrich_bearer]

You more a beer or a liquor man? Or do you like that red-drink alcohol stuff they make here?

[Yes, that's a weird question to ask someone, Gladio. Why is there the sound of glass bottles where you are? Don't ask.]

[playingtough]

_{[Hearing Gladio be so blasé about the situation doesn't help Billy's temper. His right-hand knuckles are bleeding, but there's the crash of something else heavy getting hefted up and thrown to the ground.]}

SHUT THE HELL UP! WHERE'S MAX AT, GLADIO?!

[ziedrich_bearer]

I don't know. Home, I would presume. Like Noctis is. Breaking things... hasn't helped before. Not for many of us.

[He sighs. Heavy and tired and sad.]

So I'm bringing booze, and we're gonna drink, and we're going to find something to destroy that we can really go to town on. And when our bodies ache from that and we're tired, we move on to full contact brawl.

[playingtough]

SHE'S NOT SUPPOSED TO GO BACK SHE'S SUPPOSED TO BE HERE! GOD FUCKING DAMN IT!

_{[Breaking stuff isn't helping, but that and the anger is tiring him out, so perhaps it's not a complete waste of time after all. But he doesn't answer Gladio with words, but there is the metal clanging of weights hitting the floor.]}

[ziedrich_bearer]

Yeah. I get that.

[Wine. They needed to be wine drunk. But he doesn't have that as easily. Redfruit drink then. He collects a few bottles. No glasses.]

You can't go back to where she is, just like I can't go to Noctis. It's bullshit.

[playingtough]

_{[Theres a lot that Billy needs. To stop wrecking things, to own up that his sister went home, and maybe a tight hug from his boyfriend. Probably a good, cathartic sob, too. But no, he’s making a mess of the civics center.]}

WHAT IF SHE NEVER COMES BACK HERE? SHE‘S SUPPOSED TO BE— _{[Theres a brief pause as he throws the target practices down,]} —SAFE HERE!!

[ziedrich_bearer]

Kid, there's literally someone going around trying to kill people by strangling and stabbing them. She's not safe here. In a whole different way.

[playingtough]

But she had ME here! Me and Harrington and you and not fucking comatose back in HAWKINS!!

_{[He sounds like he's tiring out at least. There's another noise of the other target practice getting thrown to the ground and then just his heavy breathing.]}

action: in person, some indeterminate time after the post;

[sinistral]

[It isn't the first time someone has made an angry outburst on the network. It probably won't be the last. But the Soldier feels a certain amount of responsibility for this one, with Billy being one of his trainees. He's good student, but with so much anger held deep inside. The Soldier can relate.

So he goes looking for his student. There are a few places he could be, based on the sounds, and it doesn't take overly long to find him. That, of course, is the easy part; harder will be directing that anger.]

You're getting sloppy. [Not the worst the Soldier has seen, but not Billy's best either. Really though the word are designed mostly to draw his attention, to make a target out of himself instead of the space.] Might be better to try hitting something that can hit back.

[playingtough]

_{[It's really not Soldier's responsibility, given that Billy's temper couldn't really be restrained. Not for a grief like this. He knows where she is. She's not here, she's back in Hawkins, but Billy doesn't know how to deal with these emotions in a way that isn't going to make the civics center suffer. There's more wreckage around him - a weight bench toppled over, some of the targets he and Harrington used for practice thrown against the wall. His right hand knuckles are bleeding.]}

What, like you?! Who could smack me all the way back to the beach if you wanted to?

_{[At least you've got his attention, Soldier.]}

I'm not doing this for training, I'm doing it because my FUCKING SISTER IS MISSING!

[sinistral]

[These kids, honestly. Sometimes they make the Soldier feel every one of his stopped-counting-once-it-hit-triple-digits age. He'd probably have grey hair, except he's pretty sure he can't get grey hair.]

I thought it was pretty clear that I don't want to.

[Not when they're training, and not now.]

And I'm offering you a better target. One that isn't destroying the workout equipment that you're going to want to use later.

[playingtough]

_{[Prepare to feel your age for longer than five minutes, Soldier. Maybe he'll be sorry later.]}

Jesus fucki- I didn't say you wanted to, you warped asshole!!

<sub>[Why was no one listening to him!? His sister was missing! Though all of them trying to talk to him were just hitting a mental wall with him made by grief and rage.

Billy turns his back to Soldier, marching right for the rack of weights to take his anger against that. ]</sub>

[sinistral]

[Between Billy and Tommy it has definitely been a struggle.

And he's trying to be patient he really is. It'd be easier to just walk away.]

So you want to just make a mess?

[Which, maybe he does. The Soldier doesn't see the point but he expresses his own frustrations a different way. He's tempted to call this a temper tantrum, but that observation won't help.]

[playingtough]

<sub>[The two of them could start an epidemic of alcoholics in the city if not dealt with.

The weight rack falls over a very loud, metallic crash that resonates through the room with Billy's yell. It's one of both anger and pain. Which would've been made worse if Soldier had called it a tantrum.]</sub>

The fuck am I supposed to do?! WHAT THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO DO THEN?

_{[It sounds accusatory and aggressive as he turns to look at Soldier. He looks ready to fight, but is warring with the logic trying to scream over the fury that he can't take Soldier in a fight.]}

[sinistral]

[The Soldier might really need to knock some sense into the both of them at this rate. The plus side? He hasn't had time at all to miss Kaplan, too tied up with Tommy and now Hargrove.]

I am offering you an outlet.

[In the form of someone who won't tire, as long as Billy needs to keep going. But it seems doubtful that Billy's processing enough to recognize that.]

[playingtough]

I HAVE AN OUTLET!!

<sub>[Just not a healthy one. It’s a very good thing he doesn’t have his axe weapon right now, or the knife Soldier gave him awhile ago. Unfortunately prt of the outlet seems to be picking up a heavy disc weight and slinging it towards his mentor.

Grief and rage could be a powerful thing.]</sub>