trans_9 | Meet and Greet Part Deux: The Socialing

"You wore an elf cap? Someone should've taken pictures." Okay, so Billy had selected a fairly outlandish outfit too, but his cap hadn't been elf-ish.

"It was humbling. I traveled with the Bene Gesserit to Baghdad, where we fed, healed, and provided for the poor in celebration of Eid-ul-Fitr. Macrohard agents tried to stop us, but my companions used their skills to force their defeat while I calmed the people celebrating. I would've helped them, but my abilities didn't suit the situation." He sounds a little bummed out about that, like the ladies must think he's a wuss.

"The people were happy, sharing with each other for the first time in years. I couldn't have been happier. How was your night?"

"Aye, well, I saw the elf outfit Roxie was wearing, and apparently it got stuck in my head or something, because that's what I got too." Why it was parti-colored, he still has no idea. And he's very glad there were no pictures. At least, not any he's aware of. That would be embarrassing, after all.

The trip to Baghdad sounds interesting, and while he's glad Billy wasn't hurt, he does note the tone in his voice. "Billy - even if ye didn't fight, you did do something to help. I wouldna feel bad about that."

As for his night? "I went to London with Jono, first. I hadna been there in a long time, and it was good to help the people there. Especially the bairns, aye? And afterwards, I did go to Inverness, because..." He trails off, the expression on his face inscrutable for a moment.

"Well," he continues. "I wanted to go to Scotland, but I couldna quite get up the courage to see what had happened to the moors, even if it wasna my Earth. I thought a big city would be...easier."

Edited 2010-01-07 09:03 (UTC)

"I'm grateful that I had the chance, believe me. I just don't like feeling useless. It's an old habit." Billy reminisced about his weaker days for a moment. Needing protection had been embarrassing then, and it was worse now. "Thank you, though."

When Jamie discusses his trip, specifically why he'd picked the locations he did, Billy sympathizes. "I didn't go to that Earth's version of my hometown either. Home constitutes more than just a physical location. Without the familiar people there, it isn't really home. All I would have done there was make myself miserable thinking about what was missing."

"Aye, but I was curious," Jamie says with a sigh. "I really shouldna have listened to myself when I told myself I wanted to go." It's that damn impulsiveness kicking in again.

"Still - I can recreate it here, so it's not so bad. And if we can get our universes back, then maybe I will be able to go back there." And if not - well, he'll worry about that later.

"So now that we're back, what are ye planning on doing?"

"Yeah, at least there's that." Billy chooses not to mention that he's avoided recreating anywhere in Angel Grove in the Sensoriums because he knows it can never be real. Artificial versions of the townspeople and places don't comfort him at all. But if Jamie's okay with doing that, then that's a good thing.

"I'll probably go back to work. With the expanding ship population, we'll need more weapons and tools ready to use at a moment's notice. I have a few classes to work with as well---and sometime in between all that, I need to make time for physical training. What were you planning to do?"

"Aye, well. I've not got a lot to do. I was thinking maybe seeing if I could help with repairing some of the damage in the City." It's said in that sort of tone that indicates he hasn't really convinced himself he wants to do that just yet. But something in what he said causes him to pause, and frown a little.

"There's something else, too, but..." He darts a glance at Billy, then sighs quietly, "It's been a really good day. I didna want to think about it for awhile."

He's got that serious look on his face again.

Sensing the change in tone, Billy glances left, then right. No one seems to be paying attention to them, so he lowers his voice.

"Jamie, what is it? If it's on your mind at a time like this, something must be really wrong."

"It's been on my mind for awhile," Jamie admits. He also looks around, then lowers his voice as well.

"It..." He stops for a moment, then decides that he probably shouldn't dance around the subject too much. "It's about the Seer." Part of him is regretting bringing it up right now, when things are happy. But maybe Billy won't know what he's talking about and he can just change the subject. Hopefully.

Oh, but Billy knows. He's been mulling it over on and off for the past few weeks, and somewhat relieved to know that he's not crazy.

"Did this Seer warn you about an oncoming darkness and tell you to prepare?"

"Aye," Jamie replies, and looks at Billy thoughtfully. "He's spoken to ye as well, then." It's not a question, although it's possible Jamie's wrong and Billy just gathered the information from elsewhere.

"I've been trying to find people who have talked to him," he admits after a moment. "But I'm not verra good at at."

"He did. I meant to look as well, but no one else ever seemed to talk about it. For a while, I feared that I had hallucinated." Not that that was much of an excuse. As a Ranger, one of the first things you learn is to trust your instincts.

"He told me that we would be attacked in our dreams soon, and that we needed to be able to conquer our fears. Did you hear the same message?"

"He warned me verra specifically not to tell others of the crew that didna know - something about not spreading fear. I havena found everyone he's talked to, but I think he may have warned some of the others to not do so." Other than Spiderman's post, and his own searching, people seem to have been keeping it mostly quiet.

Jamie nods in agreement, then. "Aye. I heard much the same. There's a few others that seem to have gotten some different information, though."

"Right, to prevent people from panicking. But that made it somewhat difficult to find other people who knew if we weren't allowed to talk to it." Billy smiled a little tiredly.

"What different information did you hear?"

Jamie nods rather emphatically. "It was verra hard, trying to bring up the subject without bringing up the subject."

He considers the question, trying to separate what he was told from what other people have told him. "One of the things I was told was that Seer would need people of strong spiritual or psychic power to take part in an exorcism, but another person I spoke to mentioned magic was needed, so that was different. And Katara...apparently knows the person who's trying to help protect us."

"Definitely." If this wasn't such a serious subject, Billy might've cracked a smile. Instead, he nodded.

"Then it doesn't sound like I'll be of much use. And---wait, there's a person other than the Seer involved, who knows Katara? I've never heard that."

"Ye aren't the only one, in this case." Jamie doesn't sound particularly happy about that fact, and doesn't look it either.

All he can do is pass along what he knows. "Aye. His name is Aang. I guess he's from her world - she refers to him as the Avatar, but...she's also verra fond of him." He won't get into exactly how much, but Billy may pick up on how he's stressing the one word.

"He's powerful, from what I'm able to gather, and he's been helping to protect us. It doesna seem he's going to be able to do so for much longer, though."

"Ihey're special to each other, then. I hope they can reunite soon." Billy reflects on this new piece of information. So this person who was probably Katara's beloved had been helping them from elsewhere, and she knew he was there but couldn't reach him. That had to be disheartening.

Closing his eyes and thinking for a moment, Billy ponders the situation. "We can't all fight the Nightmare King directly, but I've gathered that we'll be able to resist him in other ways. By facing our fears."

"Aye, I do as well." It may be disheartening for now, but Jamie is also confident that eventually, they'll be able to work out a way so Aang can be freed. "And if she needs me to help with that, I will." Katara is his friend, after all, just as Billy is.

There's that faint Jamie-is-thinking frown again. "Facing our fears. Aye." He looks over at Billy and questions, "How do we do that?"

"Acknowledging and countering them might help. A fear-magnifying spell was cast on me before, and if I allowed the fear to completely overwhelm me I would have been erased from existence. I was nearly a goner when my friends' voices broke through. With their encouragement, I remembered that protecting everyone was more important to me than avoiding my fear. In other cases, it helped to prove that the fear was illogical." Billy bows his head in thought.

"Unfortunately, I'm sure that my fear is logical, so I'll have to make sure that I remember that my job is always more important."

"Aye, it might at that. I'll have to think on it." There's a few things Jamie doesn't like to think of, but Billy does have a point. If he can bring himself to look at his fears and work to resolve them, maybe they won't hold so much power.

He is a bit confused by something, though. "Wait. How can ye have both a logical and an illogical fear?"

"They're separate fears. My first fear was fish---it's okay, you can laugh if you'd like. I was bitten by one as a child, and after that I couldn't eat, smell, or be near fish without feeling queasy. I fought a fish monster, came to understand that most fish weren't dangerous, and that fear vanished."

Billy sighs. "I'm not sure if I should tell you about my main fear. It might help to talk, or it might implant it deeper in my subconscious. What do you think?"

"Fish." Jamie doesn't laugh, but he does look a bit skeptical. "Ye were afraid of a wee fish." Listening to the explanation, however, it starts to make more sense to him. And it seems like Billy was able to work past the fear.

So when he is unsure about talking about his main fear, Jamie says promptly, "Aye, well. We're supposed to be facing our fears, from what ye said. So I canna see why talking about it wouldna help."

"You're right, then. I think I might have mentioned this to you before, but I should provide context."

Taking a breath to ground himself, he dives uncomfortably into the story. "As I've told you before, I served with four other people to fight monsters back home. Our enemy came up with a plan that she hoped would destroy us once and for all, and it nearly succeeded. She created an evil Ranger with powers identical to ours, but stronger. He singlehandedly destroyed large portions of our base and weapons, and severed our communications link to our mentor, but the evil Ranger left enough behind that we could regroup and eventually break the spell. Behind the evil mask was a lost and lonely person around our age who'd been a victim. We forgave him, took him in, and he's fought alongside us ever since."

Billy bowed his head. "Some time later, I was ensnared by a similar spell. Under the witch's influence, I stole an important item from our base and knocked out our assistant, eventually forcing all of us to surrender our powers. If I'd had just one more minute inside the base, I could have rendered it permanently inaccessible. And I wasn't able to resist at all---for that time, I was nothing but my evil queen's vessel. Luckily the reformed evil Ranger returned to save us, but I've thought back on that incident ever since."

"With just one minute under a spell, I nearly caused a catastrophe for the entire planet, and there was nothing I could do about it. I wasn't released until the witch no longer had any use for me. If I ever spent a significant amount of time in that state, I would ruin things beyond the point of repair. I would cause the deaths of innocent people. That's what terrifies me---the possibility of losing control of myself and being unable to prevent total ruin." Now that it's acknowledged aloud, Billy cringes. How weak that must have sounded. Yet...he doesn't feel better, exactly, but slightly relieved. The enemy is known.

He's quiet, listening thoughtfully - and putting that with what Billy had said when they first met, he thinks he has a better understanding of why that would be such a deep fear.

"That's why ye said ye were so worried about being mind controlled. I thought it was bad just from what ye said then, but..." he trails off, looking at the other man sympathetically. "I had no idea."

There has to be something that Billy can do about that, though. Isn't there? "What if ye talked to someone who knows how to fight against that sort of thing? See if they can help figure out a way to do...well, I don't know what. Something, anyway."

"It's alright. I couldn't expect you to know." Billy sighs and crosses his arms defensively. "That does seem like the logical thing to do. I think I saw someone offer mental defense training over the omnicoms once. I'll ask if anyone can help."

Pausing, he turns to face Jamie fully. "What about your fear? I understand if you don't want to talk about it, or even if you don't know it, but I'll listen if you want me to."

Meet and Greet Part Deux: The Socialing

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