revivalproject | You can't hide from your problems

Entry tags:

You can't hide from your problems | Calibrations

WHO: Billy Kaplan, OPEN
WHERE: Billy's Calibration Room
WHAT: Calibrations
WHEN: 3 June - 10 June
WARNINGS: Potential Warnings for Violence, Depression, Death and Suicide, but also some happy things

The room you step into isn't all that different from Billy's actually room back home, for those that know it. It looks like the room of a typical nerdy teenager, walls adorned with posters of his favourite heroes, and a desk cluttered with unfinished homework. There's shelves with books, and assorted action figures, as well as a few old games- like operation, which don't seem to have gotten much attention lately, covered in a layer of dust.

Billy lays on his bed with an assortment of comics, reading through them, though when he glances up you might note that his eyes are wrong. All black with fields of stars, like you can see the depths of universe in them.

He curls a finger, and a box beneath the bed scoots further back into the darkness.

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"I fear we shall," Reeve agrees, his voice soft and sad. "I hope we find that this place is safe."

He tries to put on a researching smile, though it may be harder to read with his eyes blacked out like that.

"The good tends to win out, no matter how bad things get."

"And yet bad keeps returning," Reeve counters, and the weight of the statement says he's seen it far too often. On a very deep, and personal level.

"It does..." The light of the room seems to dim a little, those stars in his eyes a little less bright, and Billy frowns, trying to divert his attention back to his comics.

Reeve's eyes cast about for a door, but then return to Billy.

"Do you... need someone to talk to?"

There doesn't seem to be any obvious way out yet.

"..." Billy hesitates, and for a sort moment when he looks up his normal eyes are back, looking uncertain before the stars return and he smile again.

"About what?" he asks, as though he has no idea what Reeve could be talking about.

The man moves to sit on the edge of the bed, watching the young man.

"Anything. I've been through a lot. Seen a lot. It's not that unreasonable for a man of my age and experience to offer an ear to someone younger who needs it."

"...I'm fine," Billy insists, giving a smile, and the room gives a low rumble, making him start and look around anxiously.

"Or perhaps your heart says you are not," Reeve counters, but he doesn't push. Instead he stands. No door yet. He should find some other way to pass the time.

Billy looks a little guilty, but still won't speak his truth, not yet, turning the page in his comic.

"You really are a lot like Tony."

"I believe I shall take that as a compliment," Reeve answers as he moves around the room to look around. His fingers touch shelves but not figures, desks but not computers, walls but not posters.

"I may need to see another memory before I can leave. I ask forgiveness."

"It is," Billy agrees with a small laugh, "He's one of my top 5 heroes."

He watches Reeve carefully skirt the room, giving a soft hum. "It's what you're here for, you don't have to apologize."

"Invasions of privacy, desired or not, should be apologized for," Reeve counters. "It's only polite. And if I had to make a list of heroes, he'd probably be on my short list too."

"I appreciate it," he says, flushing a bit.

He looks pleased that Reeve agrees with him. For all he and Tony been through, Billy's been able to let the bad parts go, but he knows that's been harder for his brother. Tommy doesn't trust easy, and he regains lost trust even slower.

"I feel better with him here...I can handle things on my own, I'm...an adult now, I guess, but- having an adult I know I can count on...one from home, it's..."

Well, Reeve for one is smitten with Tony, not that it will get him anywhere.

"Nice," Reeve agrees, smiling. "Yes, I understand. It's true even for me, at my age. I've a companion this time, and someone I know I can trust implicitly. That sort fo thing matters when the world seems against you."

"Yeah, that helps. I mean, I've got my friends. My brother, and my fiance, and there's...lots of other adults I trust, just...I dunno. It's just...reassuring?"

He sets his comic down, not sure how exactly he wound up talking when he was expressly trying not to. "...Go ahead and pick something. Maybe the way out will trigger once you do."

"Two memories are required? Alright then. What is something you feel you can share without upsetting yourself?"

If he's going to do this so he can leave, he doesn't want to upset the young man more than he msut.

"Maybe? I'm not positive, but...one didn't seem to do it, so..."

He looks around the room, lingering on a few objects, like that dusty game on the shelf. "...I don't know what they all are, but...the hero stuff is probably safe. I think..."

"Well then, let's see what I find."

He moves to the shelf and lets his finger move over one that catches his attention, red and gold. Reminds him of Tony in a strange way.

Strange, isn't it?

The scene shifts again, a group of dejected teens assembled outside of a wrecked up mansion, dressed in strange costumes, seeming fresh from a fight. In front of them stand a few of those heroes from Billy's walls, Captain America, Vision, a woman who used to be known as Jewel, and the Red and Gold Avenger himself, all of them likewise beat down.

"I should probably get home," one of the girls says, and a boy who clearly seems to be Billy agrees, removing a winged headpiece. "Me too."

"You mind flying me?" A large green figure asks, and Billy nods.

"Anybody else need a lift? Cassie?"

"Before you go...I need you to leave your gear with us. The bow, the shield, the throwing stars," Captain America instructs in that stern voice that defies refusal.

"But those are mine," a boy pleads, even as he hands them over.

"Not any more," Captain America says.

Billy sighs. "Come on guys, lets get out of here."

"We're doing the right thing..." Cap insists, turning to view the remaining Avengers as the kids turn away. "Aren't we?"

The others look back uncertainly, and while the memory is from Billy's point of view, looking back and not quite in focus, the now de-masked Iron Man sure does look awfully familiar...doesn't he?

"Tony?" Reeve asks, shocked when he sees the man. In red and gold armor? He laughs at the armor. Yes, he chose a good man to assist him.

"I see tehy didn't want you doing things. Because you're young?"

Billy looks a bit anxious, but nods; he's outed Tony's identity twice now without meaning to.

"They'd lost a lot of people. They didn't want to lose us too," he explains. And looking back...they were so young, he's not sure he wouldn't do the same faced with those kids. "...Cass especially. Tony and her had a talk, she told us about it after. Her Dad was an Avenger, she grew up around them all, and- and he got...killed. By one of their team mates. Tony was scared of losing her...He kind of places the blame for these things on himself...even when he doesn't deserve it."

No, Billy doesn't see the parallel in that statement.

Well, Reeve wasn't going to say anything about that fact.

Still... Reeve can't say that he agrees.

"That does not mean that those who can should not act, just because they are young. One of my best friends that helped save the world? She was maybe sixteen at the time. And she lacked powers of your caliber."

"They come around," he offers with a small smile, "We weren't super good at listening. But...they weren't entirely wrong either, so..."

There had been losses. Major losses.

"I understand them wanting to protect you. But it's your world too," Reeve muses. He's a man that is good at understanding opinions.

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