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[hyperactive]

[ if he wasn't already suspecting this connection before, the name "tommy" kind of secures things. on the one hand, stiles feels like kind of a scumbag for prying into this, even with permission - but on the other, he doesn't want billy to miss out on talking about his brother like a normal human being instead of as a missing person case. he hesitates before he answers, but not for long. ]

From what you told me, he seems pretty cool.
What kind of stuff does he like? Hobbies or whatever.
If he shows up here, I'm gonna need to know how to make a good impression on him.

[billiam]

[ the thing about tommy is that billy has only known him for a little under two years, and that's including all the times tommy just up and left for a while. this last time has been the longest they've been separated from each other since before they knew each other existed, though.

two years is a pretty decent amount of time to get to know someone, and yet - billy knows very little about tommy, which he's not just now realizing, but moreso being reminded of. man, he's kind of a garbage brother, isn't he? maybe it's part of the reason tommy left, on top of everything else. ]

he's... kind of all over the place?
super active and into running and... speed training, haha.

[ that's a stupid joke only billy will get. ]

he also likes traveling.
and flirting.
and throwing himself into the middle of situations with zero concern about what he might or might not be interrupting.

[ can't just say his brother's a giant cockblock, that's weird. ]

anyway, he's not really that hard to impress.
he's the kind of guy that always has to be doing something, so if you can keep up with him, you'd probably be fine.

[ ... ]

i'm definitely the better twin, though.

[hyperactive]

Man, he kind of sounds like me.
In, like, an idealized sort of way. Where I run on purpose and flirt successfully, rather than run because I have to and get ignored by people I like when I try to say hello.
The need to keep busy and the inability to read a room is definitely up my alley, though.
He seems pretty rad.
Not as rad as you, of course.

Can I ask which one of you is the evil twin, or is that the kind of stale baby boomer-tier humor that I think it is?

[billiam]

who said he's successful?
i said flirting to be nice, but it's more like 30% flirting 70% hitting-on, 99% failure rate.

[ okay, so he's just shit-talking tommy a little, but that's just... what they do. tommy did have some kind of thing going on with a girl he went to juvie with, and billy's pretty sure kate was starting to like all of tommy's blatant flirting, too.

anyway. billy pauses for a minute, maybe a little bit too long. he knows stiles is just kidding, keeping the conversation going, but between himself and tommy - hands down, billy would say he's the evil one. not necessarily that he is evil, but that he's... done some things that have scared some people, he's used his powers to do things he shouldn't have in retrospect, even though his intentions had been pure.

he's the scarlet witch's son, and while billy would defend her until he's blue in the face, there are still plenty of people who still fear and hate her - and he's just like her, with similar power, so it wouldn't surprise him at all if people feared and hated him by association. ]

it's me, i'm the evil one. 😈
the worst.

[ hopefully the emoji does its job and makes that seem a thousand percent less serious than it really is. he moves on quickly. ]

why do you have to run?
are you on the track team or something?
soccer? football? whatever other sport requires you to run?

[hyperactive]

Oh, good. Same person, then.
I definitely like him more than I like you. Sorry about it. You're getting ditched the second I meet him.
I bet he'd get sick on food abominations with me. LIKE A FRIEND.

[ billy asks why stiles needs to run, and yeah, he was thinking of the suicide runs coach sends him on every time he goofs off in econ and gets his punishment thrown at him once practice rolls around - but truth be told, he's been running for more immediately life threatening reasons over the past, like, year and a half. he's not about to dive into all of that - the scars he's been getting, the things he's seen - but there's a second of hesitation where he thinks of scott, of his dad, of all the things he left behind at home. the things he misses and the things he doesn't. ]

I'm on the lacrosse team, yeah.
Not to brag, but I did once score a game winning goal, so if you want my autograph, now's your time to ask.

[billiam]

like a psychopath, maybe.

[ tommy probably would chug pizza soup just because billy wouldn't, and tommy has to be a little shit like, all the time. ]

why would i want the autograph of some guy who's gonna ditch me for my lame-o brother?
by the way, he becomes your responsibility at that point.
this is your only warning.

[hyperactive]

Psychopaths can have friends.

[ actually, that's kind of not true in his experience. they just have nephews they take advantage of, or gaggles of cronies to emotionally manipulate. or a family to be psychopathic with. all bad news all the way down. ]

If you want to leave him in the hands of someone who will absolutely try to bring out the worst in him, I am more than happy to adopt your brother.
He will legally become my son.

[billiam]

so you divorce me just to become - what?
my... dad?
you know what, nevermind.

[hyperactive]

Billy.

[ yes. that's apparently what he said. don't call him out. but also: ]

Go to your room.

[billiam]

YOU'RE GROUNDING ME???

[hyperactive]

DON'T TAKE THAT TONE OF VOICE WITH ME?
KIDS THESE DAYS? NO RESPECT.

[billiam]

TONE OF VOICE??
TONE OF VOICE WHEN THIS IS A TEXT.
UGH YOU'RE SO LAME DAD THIS IS WHY MOM IS COOLER THAN YOU.

wait who's mom?
actually, doesn't matter.
don't speak to me or my son ever again.

[ and attached is a zoomed in picture of a pastel green stuffed alpaca, somewhere across billy's room. it's facing the wall. ]

[hyperactive]

DON'T BRING YOUR MOTHER INTO THIS!!!
YOUR MOTHER
WHO'S NAME
is
Vanessa.
She's an olympic athlete. Has a field's medal. Starting her own indie game development team.
Likes chicken fingers but not enough to steal mine.
She goes to another school. In Canada. But she's definitely real, and I'm definitely married to her. For reals. Don't blow this for me. Billy.

[ anyway. ]

Don't take away my time with Frogger, either. I love him.
Even if he is Blair Witching it pretty hard right now.

[billiam]

[ billy just... laughs. it's like, what? eleven something at night by now if not later, and this is probably one of the weirder conversations he's had over text. not the weirdest, but top five at the very least.

stiles is good people. billy likes stiles. ]

okay, actually.
that's a little creepy now that you've made that comparison.
one sec.

[ there's a thirty second or so lull in the conversation, and then another photo. a selfie this time, with billy crouched down next to frogger, who has been turned around. billy's free hand is up by his face, making stupid peace sign, and though he looks a little tired, he's still smiling, with teeth. ]

there.

[hyperactive]

[ stiles thinks two things in quick succession. the first is that this is a pretty cute selfie, something that just kinda hovers in the back of his mind before being nudged away by his next thought - which is that billy looks pretty tired. stiles isn't exactly in a position to criticize anyone for looking tired, these days, but - he does feel pretty bad for keeping billy up if he'd rather get to bed. ]

Now you guys look like you're playing one man hide and seek.

[billiam]

what?

[ ... ]

oh, because he was turned around like he was counting?
maybe we are.
it's called family bonding.

[hyperactive]

No, no. You haven't heard of one man hide and seek?

[ stiles starts writing up an explanation, but - you know what? this place is spooky enough without telling billy that he might be killed by a haunted doll in his sleep, especially when stiles stlil thinks he needs to chase him off to bed. he just - types out a quick nevermind and moves on. ]

Actually, it's kind of late?
I should probably let you get to bed, I guess. I don't wanna keep you from getting your beauty sleep.

[billiam]

i'll go in a minute.
but first tell me what one man hide and seek is

[hyperactive]

Oh my god.

[ stiles doesn't want to do this. it was a stupid joke, something that didn't mean anything, and now that billy's pushing, something about putting this whole thing into words is wildly unsettling for stiles. he wants to tell billy to just forget it and go to bed. there's all this anxiety in him, this guilt and this dread, and stiles figures it's just-- shame from keeping billy up just to explain a dumb joke, but it still takes a second or two for his throat to work well enough to put words to his thoughts. he can't read the message his phone is sending, but that voice to text accessibility is really paying off. ]

Okay, so - supposedly, there's this tried and true method of communicating with ghosts. Demons, specifically.
Evil spirits are desperate for a body. They're trapped between this world and the next longing for the safe housing of a physical host.
One man hide and seek is the game - the ritual - that you follow in order to offer a dolls body as a willing vessel to whatever spooky, malicious ghost that might want it. It's this long and intricate series of steps you've gotta follow involving a bathtub and some salt and a nametag and a bunch of other things, and then, yeah. Boom. Presto change-o.
Haunted Frogger.

[billiam]

[ as stiles' texts come through and start to bump each other up the screen, billy glances back and forth between frogger, still next to him, and his phone. all of it sounds kind of urban legend-y, like saying bloody mary into a mirror three times, or la llorona - but those stories still kind of creepy billy out, and the more he stays there, crouched next to the stuffed alpaca with it's black, beady little eyes, the more he just wants to pick it up and put it outside his bedroom door.

he opts for getting up and padding back to his bed instead. ]

'a bunch of other things', like taking a selfie with the doll?
i definitely haven't done anything with a bathtub or salt or a nametag.
i don't even have a nametag.

[hyperactive]

Well. Good. He's probably not haunted, then.
Probably.
I hope.
Just let me know if the walls start bleeding or if he starts talking about his friends Slappy and Chucky.

[ anyway, wow, he hates this. the weak part of him suddenly wants to ask billy if he wants to come sleep over at logan's with him, but that seems like something of an imposition. he still... considers it though. ]

Sorry. Bad joke.
The only thing haunting Frogger right now is my possessive and needy desire to win him a wife, as you know.
We should hang out at the arcade again sometime soon. Start racking up some tickets.

[billiam]

"you should go to bed" he says, right before talking about bleeding walls and talking, demon-possessed inanimate plush dolls.

[ guess who's gonna be up for a little bit! it's billy. it's fine. ]

i'm up for the arcade any time
and i still have a couple tickets left over after buying
sorry, after adopting frogger, so we've already got a head start.

[hyperactive]

Okay, well.

[ a pause. stiles types what he wants to say, backspaces it, then types it out again, word for word. ]

Wanna arcade it up with me now?
I know it's late, so if you really do need to sleep, that's totally okay, I'm not gonna keep you up past your bedtime.
But I'm gonna be awake for a while, so if you wanna spend an hour or two hanging out before you're tired enough and less haunted enough to pass out, maybe we could spend some more time together?

[billiam]

no, i'm up, i'm up.
and i'm gonna pretend that you didn't just suggest i have a bedtime like i'm ten.
anyway, is the arcade still open this late?
if it is, it's suddenly my favorite arcade.
you know, despite the teeth.

[hyperactive]

We can find out together, I guess? It's usually pretty bright at night, but, like. That doesn't mean much. This place is so bizarre that Bill Murray could be freshly busting ghosts overnight to keep the Arcade safe another day and I wouldn't be surprised.
Worst case scenario, we break in, raid the prize kiosk and run like hell. It'll be fun.

[ he's kidding, he's not gonna do that. if only because his dad would be disappointed in him. ]

Want me to come and pick you up?
I literally live, like, right next door to it, but. I could still come and pick you up.