revivalproject

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_{[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.]}

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_{[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?!

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.

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.]}

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.

_{[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!!

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.

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.]}

I know. Fuck, kid, I get it. My friends are all back in a literal apocalypse. My fiance went 'home' which for him was the afterlife. I get it. It hurts. It's impossible to carry the weight of it.

But each day I get up and ask myself 'can I be as strong as he would want me to be?' Not 'how do I live for him', not 'would he want me to grieve' but 'can I live up to his expectations'.

So I ask you this. Can you be strong for her even from a distance?

_{[Gladio was in the same boat as Max. For him, it was Noctis and for her it was Billy. For just a brief moment he thinks of her being in the mall as that creature towers over him. He shakes his head violently before upending something else, but then there’s a meaty thump of Billy falling over.

He breathes heavily, a little dizzy from the head shake.]}

It doesn’t fucking matter does it? She goes back to Hawkins and forgets any of this shit happens. All of the good I’ve done and stuff. She goes home and gets fucking put under by the same bastard that kills ME!!

[Oh Hargrove, don't you get it? They're work living for. Their hopes and dreams for you are worth it.]

Guessing you don't believe in souls.

Don't you bring religious shit into this, Gladio!

_{[It's not really religious but his dad tried to raise him in the Lutheran with little results, so it's not difficult to get to that conclusion.

There's no audio indicator of him getting up, curling tight on himself for a long moment.]}

[Nor is there an audio response from Gladio on the device. He's run a long way across the city to get to the kid, but he's good at not panting as much. So instead his voice comes from the doorway.]

What's religion got to do with it?

_{[The glass is broken in the door, with the shards of it and little splatters of blood drops on the floor. Billy's uncurled by the time Gladio's arrived, and is now sitting up and hissing. Why? Because he's trying to pick shards out of his knuckles. He turns his head in a sharp movement to glare over at the door and his mentor.]}

Souls. You mentioned it. Souls go to heaven or hell to God or the Devil after the person dies.

"Your world has a singular god? And and I don't know what a devil is. My universe, we have six gods. Currently four are dead, in my lifetime alone. And even they can't deny souls the respite of the time after life."

So he doesn't think it's that relevant to what Billy is talking about.

"One God if you believe in him, and the Devil as a fallen angel who traps bad souls in hell." Having more than that sounded confusing and stupid. Like those ancient mythologies like Egyptian and Greek. Another hiss and he shakes his fist as if that'll help with the pain or getting glass loose.

But he's sitting and not breaking more things.

"Sounds like a shit ass pantheon, if I'm honest," Gladio says with a shrug. Sure didn't sound like the kid was really all that invested in that either.

HE approaches and sits down, handing over a bottle of the red fruit alcohol.

"I'm going to take care of your hands now."

Billy wasn't invested. If there'd been any kind of God, surely they would've helped Billy leave with his mother. A sullen look is given to Gladio's arrival next to him, and he all but snatches the bottle away with his good hand.

"What, no lecture?" he asks with attitude before taking a long pull from the bottle.

In Gladio's experience, gods don't get that involved except in the fates of those they think most important. It's annoying.

"What would be the point? I know the state I was in when Noct left. I broke just about every fucking punching bag here. May have done a lot more if I hadn't been trained from a very young age in how to channel my anger."

That explained the lack of punching bags in the room then. He wonders what it would’ve looked like, seeing Gladio let some of his grief and rage loose. The liquid swishes in the bottle and he takes another drink.

Hopefully Gladio doesn’t want it back.

"That’s what older men do. They lecture me, put me back in my place and I don’t do it again." Out of actual learning of out of fear? The bottle gets set down with a sharp sound and the rustle of paper comes from Billy as he pulls out a folded piece of paper. With the hand Gladio isn’t tending to, he hands over a letter written in Max‘s handwriting. "It looks like she wrote this after I’m gone back home."

"Sounds like the older men in your life were more shit than I already thought," Gladio says with a sigh. That went and figured, didn't it? One didn't learn when fear was in place.

THe paper gets handed over and Gladio looks at it.

"This is private stuff. Between you and her. You sure this is okay?"

"Id make up stories about getting in fights with people to tell at school." All the stories gave the vibe of 'my girlfriend goes to a different school, you wouldn’t know her' but everyone ate it up anyways.

When Gladio doesn’t take the letter and only questions if it’s okay, Billy pulls it back. "No. She’d probably beat me up for sharing it." He takes another drink from the bottle, coughs, and sets it down.

"We finally got our shit together here. Now if she shows up again, I gotta start from zero. Again."

How had people fallen for that? Gladio can't understand it at all. The system really failed this kid.

"Then let's not go for that. Little sisters can be shocking good at ass kicking," he says, from serious experience.

Still, it's a point. And Gladio wishes he could hug the kid.

"You'll be starting from a better place I think."

They knew better than to try and gossip around school about it. A pretty boy strutting through school that had no holding back in fights? They saw what he did to Steve after all.

"Doubt it. I don't know if you've noticed, but we're both fucking stubborn, Gladio. She'll push back each time I try to show her I changed. She won't believe it. Then she'll leave again." And something else will take the brunt of his anger again. Munson had the first time, the gym equipment this time. He sniffs hard and rubs his face with his hand. It feels like a good technique to hide the tears threatening to fall.

That's a point. Gladio didn't like it, but it was there. So he thinks about it.

"I'm sorry," he says, his voice soft. "That's shit. But this whole thing is shit. Is... there any good here for you?"

"Tommy." It's an immediate answer, but he doesn't look at Gladio. The pretty blues are on his red drink - or what's left of it. "Mostly Tommy. Me and that Tony guy are getting along and... Steve and I are getting along better."

Which was something, with how much the two of them were at odds when he showed up. He remembers last summer, with Steve trying to wingman for Billy until the latter finally confessed that he and Tommy were already together. And that they were happy.

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