ximilialog | ( burn it to the ground )

Entry tags:

( burn it to the ground )

CHARACTERS: billy butcher + ota
LOCATION: the station
DATE: early march
CONTENT: drinking, being horrible, being awesome
WARNINGS: language and maybe some violence

01. UNFORTUNATE INVASION (CLOSED TO YENNEFER)

( there's a lot of fucking people packed into this station and more showing up all the time. you can't step outside without running into someone who might ask a question or might wanna talk about everything and nothing. billy's gotten used to the solitude of his room, enjoying the respite he has. he can lock the door and shut everything out and pretend that he's back home, just waiting to get up and get dressed and take care of business.

of course, his business here is the business of orbs and he's not sure he really likes it. but, it's not like he can fucking change it either. he can't just open the door and take a space walk home. he's stuck and that's a fucking nnoying.

the bed's are too thin, the walls a weird color but it's still his room and billy take advantage of that by tossing a ball that he'd found on the last planet against the wall. he's splayed on his bed, betting himself that he can hit certain spots and then doing it before the ball comes back and he catches it.

he's won a lot of money against himself. he's very wealthy now. be jealous. )

02. MESS HALL

( maybe billy's gonna live here now. maybe he's going to move his shit out of his room and live in the fucking mess hall because he is certainly not going to live with that fucking woman, whoever she is. what kind of a name was yennefer anyway? did whoever birthed her mishear her mother naming her jennifer?

it's stupid. that woman is stupid.

for once, while he's in the mess, he's not drinking. well, he is but it's water. he's made himself a plate of food and he's sitting his ass on the table instead of the bench, tapping his foot while he tries to clear his head. if there's new people showing up, billy wonders if that means they're going to be punted to a new planet sometime soon to save another fucking orb.

he shakes his head, growling under his breath because what fucking luck. maybe he will take that space walk. )

03. WILDCARD

( if you'd like to do something else space station related, hit me up. i'm at jortles for questions. )

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I don't know what the fuck happened to them. I don't know if it was transformed or something else. They were just dust.

( it had been kind of horrifying, if he's honest. )

And no, not the ones on the station. You see any dust monsters when you woke your ass up?

It's a fair question. There could have been many more on this station at an earlier point.

[ But that also leads her to wonder if said transformation had had something to do with the orb being taken, if its absence had contributed to others being changed the moment it was removed from its place of existence. ]

If I had, we'd be having a very different conversation right now.

Doubt we'd even be having a conversation at all.

( since people turning to dust around him would have kind of put him in a shitty mood and he wouldn't have wanted to chit chat. )

But, apparently there were people here before the first of this...group got here. I don't know what happened to them so don't fucking ask me. But we weren't the first.

Consider that delightful thought.

[ She can only imagine, now, what might have occurred if she had been able to find her room unoccupied; she'd weighed over the idea of sleeping, but now she knows that might not be a possibility when she has an unexpected roommate to contend with. ]

A group on this station before any of the current number were even brought here? And they just disappeared? [ That isn't unsettling, Yennefer thinks, interest piqued more in the line of conversation than the person providing her with the information. ] Has anyone so much as made an attempt to learn what happened to them?

Didn't I just say that I have no fucking idea what happened to them? I've asked a few people, they don't know. They point me to the commander and the fuckin' AI and I ain't asking them. I don't trust them.

( he trusts the people that have chosen to be here a little more than he does anyone else. at least they don't have a reason to steer him wrong. )

We haven't found any bodies though so I'm guessing they weren't killed and hidden to be found to freak us the fuck out.

The AI. [ She's heard that term already, otherwise she wouldn't have the remotest clue what he's referring to — and would likely pretend as if she's familiar with it while waiting for him to give her any helpful information in context. ] Hard to trust what could very well be responsible for bringing us here without our permission.

[ His answer does pose an interesting question, though, and one she might dwell on later provided he's not still throwing that ball aimlessly against the wall; she wouldn't put it past him not to do it solely to irritate her. ]

Bodies can always be made to disappear.

( oh, that's comforting to hear from someone who's going to be sleeping in the same fucking area as he is. he eyes her and then shakes his head. )

They can. But this place is fucked up and yet, we all chose to be here.

( he doesn't really know why he'd done that all things considered. )

We're all here because we regret shit, right? Wanna change it and make it all better?

[ It's a fair point, but one she doesn't want to bring herself to concede to him — and not only because her regrets are her own, ones she isn't going to confess to or share with just anyone.

The only response he elicits immediately is a small press of lips from her, the shift of her gaze as she glances out to a distant point of the room, her tone softening to something more reflective. ]

Not everything can be undone. Or undone so easily.

[ Her voice, her eyes too, sharpen a little more once they return to him and her skepticism begins to filter through. ] Do you really think each and every single one of us here will get what we've asked for once all of these orbs are found? Or considered what kind of power exists that would be capable of making that happen?

No, I don't fuckin' think that. I've been telling people that exact thing for awhile.

( he doesn't trust the people in charge of this shit and he thinks they're being used. maybe one or two people might get what they want but everyone?

not a goddamn chance. )

But you obviously thought there was some kind of fuckin' merit in it because you're here, same as me.

Some will grasp at even the slimmest chance of opportunity in order to undo a wrong.

[ She intentionally doesn't include herself in that reasoning, but there's likely no need to — not when he's already identified her as another member of the group, someone who has arrived for a unique purpose that falls under the canopy of regrets sought to be undone.

That in mind, she still believes that it cannot be as simple as the exchange being presented to them, her gaze lifting to his face. ]

But everything always has a price.

Of course it fuckin' does.

( and he thinks that price is them going through hell for these stupid orbs. he shakes his head. )

I'm pretty convinced it's not going to happen. We're going to bust ass getting these things for these people and for what? What's the point? On the off chance they can make a miracle happen?

So then why stay? Why not choose to go back, if you believe our efforts will ultimately be fruitless?

[ She hasn't had cause to dwell on it much yet, but surely the same power that was responsible for bringing them all here in the first place — from many different realms, no less — could also just as easily be the force that returns them to where they were first taken from without expending any significant strength.

She considers him for another moment, eyes narrowing slightly. ]

You may be somewhat convinced that what they've offered us is impossible, but not entirely. Otherwise you wouldn't still be here.

Nothing else to fuckin' lose, I guess. And maybe the small chance that they're telling the truth is enough to keep me here.

( because it's not like everyone's getting offered this sort of thing. it's not like there's any other way to fix what had broken. he shrugs. )

Because it's my last ditch effort to try and figure some shit out and I don't have anything else going on that I need to take care of. Besides, killin' a supe but that can wait. He's gonna be around for awhile.

Some might call even the smallest chance of trust too much.

[ Yennefer simply doesn't operate under a generous mindset when it comes to most things, and she's less inclined to give all of this — Viveca included — the benefit of the doubt. Even so much as agreeing to the deal she'd been extended had involved a moment of desperation, of wanting to find a way to go back to how things were before she'd urged Ciri to conjure that portal.

She scoffs quietly, glancing off toward the foot of the bed for a moment, but his words bring her back. ]

Why do you think he deserves killing?

Because he does.

( he's a fuckhead, yennefer, and a whole lot more but he's not going to go into that with someone he doesn't know. )

If you think being here is just a little bit too much trust, why are you here? What's your big regret that you're trying to fix?

A sound argument.

[ She's not looking to listen to his listed-out reasoning for why whoever this person is might have what's coming to them, so when he doesn't expand on that sentiment, it's practically a relief to them both.

But that doesn't mean she's going to divulge her regret to someone she's only just met either. ]

You tell me yours first. Is that what it is, then? Not having killed him when you had the chance?

No, that's not what mine is.

( and he's not completely sure if he wants to tell her either. he doesn't know her and he doesn't know if he wants to share this part of his life with her.

because he's very protective of beca and if she says the wrong thing, billy doesn't know if he'll be able to control himself. not that that would be her fault.

but he's him. )

But mine's personal.

And mine isn't?

[ Which seems to be the implication from what she can measure, at least in regards to him demanding that she tell him the specifics of her regret — the thing she would strike a bargain in order to see undone. Just as he's incredibly reluctant to reveal such an intimate truth to a near-stranger, so too is Yennefer not about to divulge that secret to someone she's only just met, especially when there's no indication of how sharing that information would actually benefit her in the long run.

Instead, she stares him down, one eyebrow quietly arching, mostly to see how he reacts to being put on the receiving end of that kind of reaction. ]

I don't know, is it? Why don't you tell me and I'll be the judge of that?

( it's a pretty blatant attempt at information and he doesn't honestly think she'll fall for it. but he still tries because he wouldn't be him without the trying. he laughs though and shrugs. )

I ain't gonna wheedle and plead for you to tell me, you know. I don't give that much of a shit.

Pity. I might have liked you better if you were willing to beg.

[ Based on the tone of voice alone, it's not entirely clear whether she's being serious on that front, and she narrows her eyes, a tight-lipped smile paired alongside it before she finally shifts to recline against the bed she's claimed for herself, resting both hands on her stomach after her head nestles against the pillow. ]

Douse the light before you go, would you? Unless you'd care to stay so we can continue this conversational impasse.

I'm not going anywhere.

( just because she'd told him that, he's going to stay because he's a fuckwad. he doesn't have to talk but he's not getting up. )

I was here first.

Then at least consider shutting the fuck up so I can actually get some rest.

[ There's no aggression in her voice, though, not even anything that could be described as an order; mostly, she just sounds tired, worn down, as she gives him a pointed look with both eyebrows raised before readjusting her head against the pillow. ]

I've considered it and I think I'll do whatever the fuck I want to. I was here first.

( ah yes, the classic line of how to get what he wants. )

Put earplugs in.

[ Yennefer merely stares at him, a look that has prompted lesser men to quaver and practically piss themselves where they stand.

It's quite another thing to be met with someone who is entirely unmoved by comparison, but she doesn't regard him with any more consequence than someone who has the potential to be a significant annoyance — and only as long as she deems it necessary to withstand.

Without responding in any other fashion, she shifts to roll over onto her side, facing the wall instead, though she doesn't close her eyes, merely giving the illusion that she's going to sleep. ]

( billy stares back for a long moment before he lays back down on his bed and stares up at the ceiling.

he doesn't say anything though he's very tempted. instead, he closes his eyes and decides to just rest.

not sleep though because he doesn't trust her and doesn't want to wake up in some strange situation or with something drawn on him. )

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( burn it to the ground )

01. UNFORTUNATE INVASION (CLOSED TO YENNEFER)

02. MESS HALL

03. WILDCARD

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