trans_9 | Cascade [Open party time!]

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Cascade [Open party time!]

Billy had just launched another portal in that maze of mazes, exhaustion setting in. Surely this time he would land on another moving platform of death?

Nope, just the exterior of the finished bathhouses. All polished, systems running, and just about ready to open! Given how sore and exhausted he was, that sounded like an excellent idea at the moment.

With a quick message to the rest of the crew, he set out the 'Open' sign for the first time and took advantage of his owner status---the prime waterfall spot could be his!

((ooc: The bathhouses are now open! Feel free to mingle around, relax, and have a party. Or cause trouble, but that might invite more trouble. Just start a subthread with your character's location and have fun. For reference there are individual showers in front, followed by hot tubs centrally located, saunas further back, and private baths along the side. The showers, tubs, and saunas have smaller sex-segregated units along with a central group unit that's larger.))

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Oh, he did keep the towel. No worries. The naked party attendance earlier was strictly involuntary. Billy tightened the towel and slid in with a quiet sigh, leaning his head back.

"Don't worry about it. All the cloth and garments here are sanitized to keep the water clean, and we want everyone to be comfortable."

Billy rubbed at his shoulder, right on the first of several jagged scars that he'd mentioned a while ago. He closed his eyes in thought, thinking of how to help Alex---would this angle work?

"Other than that, how have you been doing? Things were looking up before I got abducted."

Alex kept up to his neck in the water, partly to relax his shoulders, and partly to hide his own scars. He stared for a moment at Billy's before closing his eyes and offering a smile. "P-pretty good, actually. Zetta's s-supposed ta help m-me p-practice w-with my powers, s-so if I do s-slip up, I c-can't hurt him. K-Katara's gonna h-help me w-work on c-controlling m-my emotions too."

Maybe with their help he could feel a bit less like a ticking time-bomb waiting to go off.

Billy let himself slip in up to mid-chest, exhaling softly. That felt just a little better.

"That's great! I'm glad you're going to be able to talk to us more." It wasn't a question. He had full confidence that Alex would succeed. "You're eating well too, right?"

Alex nodded, "I-I've b-been telling my f-friends to let me know i-if they're down t-too. It's less w-weird if I know the p-person."

He reached up and rubbed his shoulder, trying to loosen the muscles. Slowly he opened his eyes again, somewhat lazily, and stared at the water. "H-how about you?"

Billy noticed that tension they both had, frowning. If only they were in the waterfall tub! It would have been perfect for Alex's shoulder, but he knew the other teen wouldn't stay in a facility with women. He nodded,, glad to see Alex's life going well, then turned to one of the panels on the side of the tub.

"Do you want me to activate the jet for your shoulder? It's helped mine somewhat, but I've never wished for a real chiropractor harder than I have on this ship."

He leaned back against the tub. "I'm...recovering, I suppose. I ate after being released, and I've been thinking about my problems during the tests. I think my avia registered as a danger because I started to slip into depression again. Another podpop with no one from my home hurt, but by now I don't expect to see them again. What hurt me more was seeing everyone so bothered by that mission."

Alex's eyes widened with surprise. He hadn't realized it had jets available. "Please!

"A ch-chiropractor though, I-I think I'd be too w-worried about him s-snapping my neck instead of c-cracking it."

Alex sobered up a bit at the mention of the things troubling Billy. "T-Tavros and I h-haven't g-gotten t-ta talk m-much about the m-mission, b-but I got a sense it u-upset him a b-bit. Th-though he's b-been looking on the up side. H-he learned a b-bit more about h-human s-society b-because of those fake memories."

Billy just smiled and activated the jets, starting a gentle flow over Alex's shoulders and back. That should do the trick.

"That's good to hear." He'd only met Tavros fleetingly, when they were both de-aged to childhood, but he sensed that he was a good troll. "That's what everyone at home used to say---when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Definitely something I need to work on."

He peered at Alex. "So you're all right now that he's back?"

Alex leaned his head back and sunk against the jets with a long sigh. His eyes were closed as he let the jets massage his back for him. He smiled and sighed again before answering, "I-I am. I m-missed having him around. M-missed h-having you around." He opened an eye and looked over at Billy, "o-once, GLaDOS let m-me r-remember you, 'c-'course."

Alex looked like he was being helped by the jet. Excellent.

The memory-altering wasn't so excellent. It served to remind them of the fleeting nature of all. Everything they had? Removable at any second.

"I wasn't sure that I was going to pass her test," Billy admitted, head tilting down toward the water. "After what I've sustained, I almost thought I'd be going back into stasis. Part of me even wished for it, but I wouldn't give the tests anything but my full effort. I wanted to make it back for you all. No matter how much it hurt me to keep going, to give up would be worse."

Alex frowned a bit, still looking up with his eyes closed. "G-good. I'd m-miss you a l-lot if you d-didn't make it b-back. B-besides, w-what would Engineering do if y-you were g-gone for g-good? I c-couldn't i-imagine the p-place without y-you."

It didn't even occur to Alex that it might be putting too much pressure on Billy. He was, after all, the head of the department. More importantly to Alex though, he was his closest friend in the department.

"The others would carry on, I'm sure they would," Billy said quietly. "Angie and Kaylee know the most, they're the default deputy leaders by now. I'd hate to leave them, but I trust them. There's a file left for them in the event that I'm taken from the crew suddenly."

What he failed to mention was that there were similar files for all his friends, both crew members and his friends from home (if they still lived). Something like a last will. After everyone he'd seen die and fade, he knew to be prepared.

Billy was used to balancing the pressure by now, at least. He reached back and activated the jet between his own shoulderblades, aware of that tension too. "But I intend to stay here as long as I can. You're too important to leave," he declared, all seriousness now.

Alex raised his head to look at Billy with a bit of a blush and a smile. "S-surely, n-no. I-I'm just... I'm j-just, m-me." Him? A big deal? He couldn't fathom it.

Alex would be truly shocked to see a letter for him. He knew that he mattered greatly to Luna, but he could see the rest of them getting on no more than a day's mourning.

"Alex," Billy said in his low voice, "that's exactly why I wouldn't want to leave you. You're a great friend, and I owe you a lot."

He laid a hand on Alex's arm, gentle but steady. "It might sound hypocritical coming from someone else who doubts himself, but you're worth far more than you say."

Alex watched as Billy laid his hand on Alex's arm. Rather than jump this time he managed to keep himself from doing no more than a minor twitch. "N-no, i-it makes sense... I g-guess, s-since I feel the same way 'b-'bout you."

Billy nodded, satisfied, and withdrew his hand---though admittedly he worried about how sensitive his friend was to touch.

"Thanks, Alex," he smiled tentatively. "Uh...hey, would you prefer that I stop touching? I don't want to make you uncomfortable."

Alex shook his head with a small smile. "N-no. I-I want to r-relearn, th-that a t-touch doesn't m-mean pain. I-I won't if I don't l-let others t-touch me s-sometimes." He sighed and readjusted himself so his shoulders were on either side of the jet again.

That Billy could understand, though his issues weren't as deep as Alex's. "I actually jumped the first few times my friends from home touched me," Billy admitted. "I had to realize that I was being comforted, not bullied again."

He was quiet, not wanting to pry---his somber eyes suggested that he thought Alex's issues went deeper. "Just let me know if it's too much for you, all right?"

Alex's stomach churned at the thought that Billy had to deal with similar trouble as well. It had taken a lot more than the first few times for him. He knew his friends here weren't going to hurt him, but it was like his skin had it's own mind, and wanted to run every time it was touched. He nodded gently, "I-I will, b-but I actually rather like the c-comfort. I-it's just... fear."

He stared at the churning water and sighed, "I know that you or K-Katara won't h-hurt me, b-but I d-don't think m-my body's r-realized that. E-even my f-friends from home c-couldn't touch me w-without me j-jumping."

"Ingrained reactions are like that," Billy sympathized. "I'll give it all the time you need."

And he certainly wasn't going to ask why the fear existed, though he speculated.

Alex gave a small smile and said, "Thanks, Billy."

He sunk into the water up to his nose for a moment before rising back up. "I-it should b-be easier now, a-at least. F-Father isn't h-here to r-re-enforce it.

That startled him, but he tried not to show it. Alex's father had made him afraid of touch? That probably explained some of the markings.

He was at a loss for words. Billy lifted his hand from the water slowly, to show Alex what he was doing, then stretched his arm ever so lightly across Alex's shoulders.

"He won't have another chance to," Billy swore almost under his breath.

Alex shied from Billy a little, going a bit red. Normally he really wouldn't have minded, but he felt a bit awkward having nothing but a towel around his waist.

Alex sighed, holding his arms, "I-I'm a-afraid of him c-coming out of th-those pods. Wh-who knows wh-what he'd d-do to me. H-he'd p-probably b-blame me f-for dragging him i-into this."

Billy noticed and dropped his hand to his side---oops. He tried to calm himself, knowing that negative emotions wouldn't do Alex any good.

"He wouldn't be allowed to do anything to you. We'd make sure he had different rooming arrangements, and the rules against violence would apply to him too." He tried to sound encouraging. "Besides, if he tried to blame you it could be easily turned against him. You didn't drag him into this. He'd have died if he didn't have a connection to you."

A dark look crossed Billy's face. That was one of the aspects of their rescue that he hated to think about.

Alex sighed and rubbed at his arm, "H-he'd still b-be here." It was his father. Being around would be enough for his father to have an influence over him. The sheer fear would be enough to drive him insane.

"My b-bones are weak, b-both b-because I n-never ate enough, and 'c-'cause of all the b-breaks. I c-can't remember half of them." He closed his eyes, still rubbing at his upper arm as it practically ached in memory.

It was a hard fight for Billy to keep his anger in check. How dare the man treat his son that way.

"It won't happen again. He might have raised you, but that doesn't give him control of your life. You have people who will stand in his way, people who care deeply about you." Billy tried to meet his eyes here, voice gentle.

"I know that doesn't fix anything, but I hope it helps somewhat."

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