otherbitches | ic inbox; egregore

Okay, wise guy. Go ahead and explain how you know this lady you never met is a completely lost cause. Even thought we're in a weird magical ass place where people turn into goddamn monsters and we've only been here —

( there's a little waver. a tiny hint of anxiety wiggling through the connection, because oh. Steve has such shitty time concept rn. how long HAS it been? how many sleeps??? he doesn't even have a good guess. )

However long we've been here.

[ It's weird. Billy's anger is so less... accessible. Other things too. If he thinks about it, it feels like maybe he's drifting away, piece by piece. The pieces left behind are confused and frustrated, but, usually they'd be angry. ]

That's how I'd feel, if it happened again.

( so the fête is kind of a blur. Steve remembers it in fits and starts. he remembers Billy talking about how things went down back home, even though it feels weird to have it ringing in his head when he's actually lucid. maybe it's the fact Billy said it at all because holy heavy implications in the chat, Batman. )

Look. I'm not trying to be an asshole here. But you don't know how she feels just because you know how you feel.

[ Will he regret being this transparent later? Probably. But he'd rather win an argument than take an 'L.' But, he probably should've taken an L, because better off dead is pretty heavy. ]

Harrington, your asshole is showing.

How many people did she kill anyway? What makes you think she can come back from that? How many arms did she have? That wasn't a person.

( Steve isn't the brightest but even he can see the parallels here. he's... well it's kinda weird that Billy would say it out loud like that. and this is a brain conversation, but the lack of energy is really strange. three days ago Billy was a walking talking bruise of bad vibes about it. )

Look man. I don't know. I don't know if she can or not. I don't know if she's awake in there, if she knows what happening or if she'll remember any of it or ... or if there's nothing left of her at all. I don't know jack shit.

But if she is in there. We shouldn't just give up on her. If there's a chance then we gotta try. ( Steve has spent 5 fog years running back into mortal danger for slugged Dwights. as far as he's concerned, this isn't really any different. ) So are you coming or not.

[ That wasn't a person. ]

I don't know what the fuck you mean 'gotta try.' Gotta try, what, Harrington? But yeah, yeah, I'll come dig through her shit with you.

I wanna see what you're gonna do when there's only one thing to try.

What do you mean what do I mean. ( he means try to save the lady, dipshit!!! obviously! ) If we give up on everybody that has a bad time then more of us are gonna have a bad time and then next thing you know we're all having a monster party because nobody wanted to stick their neck out and now it's too late.

( while "so I can be smug about this later" is a bad reason to do something, Billy still qualifies as a warm body so Steve will allow it. he really doesn't like wandering the castle alone. ☹️ )

Edited 2025-09-09 03:12 (UTC)

( to that end... it's been more than five minutes of brain yelling at Billy and Steve is still not there. not for lack of trying, either. there will be NO jokes about Steve being too dumb to walk and think, or this friendship is over!!! )

Where the hell is your room. I can't find anything in this freaky fucking castle.

Christ, Harrington. Follow the fruit paintings until you see that weird one with the baby. You need me to come hold your hand?

( billy is lucky this is a brain voice chat. and that Steve is from the 80s, and thusly does not know this 🖕 emoji exists. otherwise he'd have about a dozen of them in the chat right now.

instead, Billy just gets to snack on the sharp crack of annoyance. and the tiiiiiny trickle of anxiety, because... because he used to be good at this. he used to know every street of Hawkins, inside and out. he could get any girl to Skull Rock, no matter where they started around Lover's Lake. but he's so used to everything shifting and moving around him, nothing ever the same twice, it's like he forgot how object permanence works. follow the fruit paintings until you see the weird baby shouldn't be that hard. and yet... )

If you're coming, meet me at the dining hall. ( brain feed OFF. no room for rebuttal. )

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