You can't hide from your problems | Calibrations

[wearingthestars]

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.

Comments

[plate_builder]

It's his first mind room. Reeve had wandered in randomly, confused and dazed. And the room most definitely confused him further. Sure, it might be a room like a nerdy teenager might have, but Reeve's... well, he's never met a nerdy teenager who didn't live on a farm. So this is beyond his understanding. Yes, he notices the boy on the bed, the posters, everything, but to him, it's still only a dream. A strange one, but a dream.

So rather than talk to the boy with the eyes like a dream, and moves to the desk. Yes, he's nosy, and his interests tended toward written word. His fingers move to the homework, wanting to riffle through the pile and see if there was anything he could answer.

[wearingthestars]

The figure on the bed watches, but doesn't say anything, and the moment he touches the pile the world shifts around them. A school hallway, lined with lockers, and what looks to be that same boy, a few years younger maybe, being throw back hard against them, struggling to escape from his tormentors.

"You don't need to watch this," Billy says, trying to distract his attention away from the display. "It's all ready over."

[plate_builder]

"Is there a problem with the watching?" Reeve says, but he turns his head toward the boy with the stars in his eyes.

"Was this something you suffered through?"

[wearingthestars]

"...You can if you want to," he allows, looking a little uncertain, and he nods. "...It was a long time ago. It doesn't matter."

[plate_builder]

"We are the results of that which we have lived through," Reeve counters.

Clearly it matters, if this was someone's dream. if this lingered in the mind. It was important. His attention turns to what is happening.

"This is a school, correct?"

[in_extremis]

This house was familiar to Tony, something about the scent and energy of it, the sound of the street outside and the way the sunlight hit the window; he hadn't been in this room before, but it wasn't hard to place. Of course this was Billy's room, Tony would have imagined it this way himself, but maybe with a few more posters of Thor from that one calendar shoot. Between the ones he saw, though, and the collection of action figures, Tony immediately grinned, swaying toward the shelf with the toys with a curious squint, sure he hadn't seen a few of these before and feeling a scattershot of homesickness burst and melt through the cavity of his chest. This was his city, and those were the people he adored most, but before he snatched up any of them he quickly turned to drop down heavily on the edge of the bed, hand on Billy's back to lean over what he was reading. "Hey, nerd," he greeted. "What's this garbage? I don't see Iron Man anywhere. That shit'll rot your brain."

[wearingthestars]

That seems to give him pause, and he nods, looking back to the scene.

There's a few other stragglers in the hall, but they barely even glance towards what's happening. He may as well be invisible as they jeer, and a blow connects with his eye, sending him toppling over.

"Typical school," he agrees belatedly, "Not my favourite place."

[wearingthestars]

Billy looked back with an easy smile. "He wasn't in this one," he apologized, and if Tony looks a little closer, what he's reading should contain a few familiar faces. Billy. Teddy. That one might be Kate. All of them older than the kids he'd left behind. And new faces as well.

"Do you want to read it?" Billy offered, closing the book and offering to him with a smile that's made eerie by those eyes.

[in_extremis]

"Hey, look at you," Tony mumbled, not sure if he liked this development-- it could have been a print limited to Billy's dreamscape, but the idea that this comic might be something that exists in the future that Billy and Tommy kept hinting at was not appealing. It must have been something Billy would have wanted, but Tony had read enough of these picture books ostensibly about himself and his friends to know that they really were a bunch of garbage that was sometimes a challenge not to take personally, a very real effect on the public image, and also had to mean the Young Avengers had made a significant cultural impact that got the attention of not only a few comic publishers. That wasn't really a future Tony hoped for them.

He almost didn't notice Billy's eyes, focused on this anxious spiral, but looked his way to try to snap himself back into a grin only to raise an eyebrow instead. "Uh...Damage might already be done," he noted, gesturing vaguely to his face, not sure if this was a trait Billy had noticed for himself yet. "Seems to be a lot of space in there." Tony did take the magazine though, sliding it closer across the bed.

[wearingthestars]

"Mmm?" Billy's head tilted a moment before seeming to understand. "Oh. That? Don't worry. It's future stuff. For me too. Way far away. Not a big deal." As he said it that space stuff seemed to spread, Billy glancing to dark, starry fingertips with a frown before shaking it away, back to his previous appearance.

[plate_builder]

This is not okay. Reeve moves to the confrontation, reaching out, clearly intending to put himself into the situation, to stop the conflict.

"I've never seen a school before, not really. And I can't imagine why it should be like this."

[wearingthestars]

"You can't stop it-" Billy warns. Literally and figuratively. They aren't here, not really.

He shrugs a shoulder. "I was different. People don't like that." He tries to look as though it doesn't bother him. It's just part of life. Inescapable.

[plate_builder]

"Neither was I. That doesn't justify this behavior," Reeve grumbles. HE doesn't care that Billy says he can't help. That won't stop him from trying, from trying to reach out and grab the bully and pull him away.

[wearingthestars]

His hand will phase through, unable to truly interact with what's playing out, and a moment later the younger Billy gets a knee to the face, before the bullies scatter. They leave with parting laughter and a hissed 'later fag', seeming quite pleased with themselves while Billy tries to stop the blood pouring from his nose.

"It's okay-" Billy assures him, and they're back in his room, "...Thank you for trying."

[in_extremis]

It wasn't clear what Tony was supposed to do with that information, making him watch the display with his mouth slightly ajar with a question he couldn't form and eyes narrowed. What was Billy's future stuff doing in this weird memory place? Tony settled for keeping a hand on him while he flipped the comic open, like he could feel if more of Billy started to turn into the vastness of space as Tony dropped his attention to the pictures.

[plate_builder]

"Do people... on your world really judge others for something as simple and foolish as something you can't control?"

Sorry, the distinguished Bi is very distressed to have seen this. And looks to the boy with the stars in his eyes with something like sorrow.

[wearingthestars]

Billy looks apologetic, wanting to be able to give a better answer, sorry for subjecting him to the knowledge that a place like that existed if his world wasn't like that.

"Some people. It's...it's better than it used to be. It's getting better..."

[wearingthestars]

Well if he wants to know so badly...

The comic may offer some answers. It doesn't quite swallow up the world the way some of these memories do, but there's a certain compulsion now that he's started to keep reading. Strangely, this part of the story, even the parts that feature Billy, don't seem like memories he should have access to, and yet, here they are.

That looks like Mrs. Altman, set in some void, surrounded by versions of the Young Avengers, trapped and drained inside panels. And then the rules that seem to bind comics break. She spies the narration, and begins to devour it while it pleads for life.

[plate_builder]

That didn't absolve that young man's decision, and Reeve sighs, shaking his head.

"You deserved better. I am sorry you did not get as much. Especially given you are a generous young man. I only have Mini thanks to you."

[wearingthestars]

"Highschool's rough for a lot of kids. It really does get better," he tries to assure, but he smiles softly, "...thanks though. I would've liked to hear that then."

He shrugs off the thanks, though that does remind him- "You got him from the carnival? My magic- this place messes with it sometimes. The storms- I think the caves should have strengthened it, but- I haven't been able to test if what I make there stays. If my magic fades can you still save him?"

[plate_builder]

"If the storm is strong enough to break your magic, then it doesn't matter," Reeve answers, his voice soft and distant. "Because my magic would fade with it as well. If he is destroyed otherwise, or I call it back, the spark of his soul would return to me. I..."

He doesn't know if the storm will destroy that spark.

[in_extremis]

Those were not answers. Tony flipped through a few pages, not recognizing Teddy's mom immediately and really not sure when comics had gotten so experimental or what any of this had to do with Billy, really. Maybe this was his own method of deflecting and distracting in this room; Tony did know him as someone who played dress-up to avoid his own identity. "Is that Loki? What's with you and these guys?" Tony eventually asked, looking exhausted already at the idea of dealing with Kang and then Loki so intimately, back to back. "This hasn't happened yet," was what he did gather, holding up the book. "Is this you?"

[wearingthestars]

"Not for you," Billy agrees, "Not yet. For me though..."

He leaves the rest unanswered, nodding for Tony to continue reading.

And there's Billy, sound asleep as Loki sets events in motion, planting the seed that will have him try to bring Teddy's mother back.

"It's always me, isn't it? Bad things happen when I try to fix things."

[wearingthestars]

Billy's brow creases with distress, but there's very little they can do. The only way to test is to see what happens when it happens.

"...I guess we'll find out," he murmurs apologetically.

[plate_builder]

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