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[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

[playingtough]

He's good at teasing. Just ask his boyfriend, he'll agree. Billy shrugs a little bit. "She needs more work before she shines like she used to. Definitely needs a new windshield, but that's... a big thing I think to ask for. I don't really know if the replicators can do something that big, or if it'll get it right. I use it to make cigarettes sometimes."

A habit that had gone by the wayside unless he got super stressed out about stuff.

The sound of the glass gets his attention and he looks over at the robot working over the ledge. "The fuck is that? Lemme guess, you're from the far off future where robots are a normal thing?"

[in_extremis]

"Pretty normal, sure," Tony allowed with a wry smile, and with a beckoning gesture invited the robot to lift himself up through the window. It was mostly an orb, except for the thin legs that it used to maneuver and raise in greeting. "You can call him D.A.T.A.," Tony provided for him, and with some pride added, "Development And Teaching Assistant. He was supposed to help the Agrii learn more about us, and our language, back when it was harder to communicate." The robot curiously knocked another shard of glass from the broken frame, earning him the ghost of a fond smile before Tony schooled it to turn suddenly back to Billy, continuing sedately, "Tommy's actually got a few years on me. He was still wetting the bed, on my Earth. Probably kicked the habit by now. Hey, the glass is a good place to start. Before I left it, I equipped the forge with what Donnie'd need to make something pretty durable." D.A.T.A. helpfully gave his own camera eye a plinking tap, a bespoke molded glass that must have come from somewhere.

[playingtough]

That wry smile threatens his temper, but Billy looks away and does a couple of breathing things Gladio taught him to keep it from lashing out again. Once he's certain it's not going to erupt (again), he looks back to Tony and... D.A.T.A. Harder to communicate? It was hard enough now, so Billy does not want to know what it was like when it was harder.

The blond does look interested that they could get him a new windshield. "Really? We could make a new windshield?" 'We' being the pronoun used since there was no way he could make it by himself. "What about fuel? She showed up when that egghead guy with the toupee under his nose was around, but I never got to ask him about changing her system out for something that'd run on the crystals around here."

[in_extremis]

Tony's pride dimmed rapidly, and after the briefest eye contact with his robot, he was flicking a subtle hand to send him away again, letting him drop back down the way he had come to help the other bots with the car. "Sure, just a big piece of glass, you'd have to, honestly, convince Donnie it was a challenge," he promised as he racked some of those weights. "I don't know if the crystals are reliable either, if we can get these ships out of orbit. I've never seen anything like them on earth, anyway, or the surrounding systems, I wouldn't count on them being prevalent. Solar, maybe--but even then, on the ships..." He twirled a hand in the air with a frown, not sure that would be viable or even useful.

[playingtough]

"The challenge is getting along with me," Billy voices honestly. He knows he has a temper - obviously - and interacting with him can sometimes be like hugging a full grown cactus. He watches the robot retreat away. Billy flexes his knuckles one more time, then goes over to Tony to help with the weights

A glance at the genius. "So crystals are a no good. Got it. No way to drill for gas here, and hell, oil for her engine is gonna be scarce too. Even if she didn't have damage from m—", he cuts himself off quickly, both not wanting to reveal what happened and also because it wasn't him that did it, "from Starcourt, the upkeep on her isn't feasible here, is it?"

[in_extremis]

Now he had them both getting pessimistic, which was intolerably gauche. Tony had to rally with another wave of his hand, this one a dainty dismissal, chin raised for an easy shrug. "That depends," he rerouted, "on what you mean to actually use her for." Sure, the upkeep sounded infeasible if anyone thought they would be using the Camaro to haul lumber on the broken, neglected roads of a dead city. That was a flawed position from the start. "You probably won't be doing much driving on the ship," he pointed out.

[playingtough]

He wasn’t being entirely pessimistic, just realistic.

"To drive around. It’s what I used to do back home when I could. My tapes blasting music from her speakers as I ripped through the streets. The scenic highway was the best escape from San Diego sometimes and the cops couldn’t keep up with me." And when they did, the punishment that followed both from them and his dad never diminished the freedom he felt behind that wheel.

"She doesn’t haul anything but my ego, but she can handle it. For now… for now she’s been my project when I can work on her. I wanna be able to take Tommy for a spin one day, if he’ll let me. Or a run side by side."

[in_extremis]

While Tony let a faint smile betray that he might have known a little about that feeling, it quickly faded under a thoughtful frown and glance around, like he could see beyond the walls to the ruinous state of the city. Reeve might have repaired some of the roads, but none of them were going to get Billy to that open highway sensation. "You ever consider a bike for it?" he proposed with a hook of his thumb, like there could be one behind him. "Not the same, I know, but--We've already got a couple of prototypes that hover, so the terrain isn't such a problem."

This one got lost, I'm so sorry! ♥︎

[playingtough]

Billy misses the smile, only glancing up at the man after it's faded to watch him look around. He stares like Tony's grown a second head for a long moment, then sobers up to something more polite.

"A bike? Like what Robin's got? Or-" The remark about a hover prototype clears that up. "That sounds like something out of a movie. A hoverbike like in... what's the dumb movie she used to watch with those shitty friends of hers... Star Wars. Some girl and a guy going through a forest on a hovering machine."

Billy had never actually sat down to watch Return of the Jedi, but had seen clips of it as he moved through the living room when Max was watching it.

"Do they go fast enough for them to keep up with Tommy?"

[in_extremis]

This time, Tony's smile was unmissable, wide and impish and held long enough for Billy to consider what he was asking. If Tommy had been here, he would have been eighteen pages deep on the unbeatable technicalities of his prolific powers already. Only then did Tony assure Billy, "I won't tell Tommy the question even occurred to you, and we'll make sure you have a helmet to try anyway. You'll have a better chance without the restrictions of trying to run the car over this terrain."

[playingtough]

The smile unnerves Billy just a little. He wonders for the briefest moment if it had been a verbal trap to use against him with Tommy. Thankfully the assurance deflates the worry that's trying to gnaw at his mind. "I know he's fast. Immeasurably fast, but I don't know anything about a bike that can hover. Without the ground for traction, it should go pretty fucking fast, right?"

It would've been thrilling, he thinks, to have something as fast as his boyfriend at least.