hyperactive | ic contact || deerington.

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

Edited 2020-04-02 04:30 (UTC)

Billy.

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

Go to your room.

YOU'RE GROUNDING ME???

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

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. ]

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.

[ 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.

[ 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.

what?

[ ... ]

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

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.

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

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.

[ 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.

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.

"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.

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?

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.

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.

i used to think it was cool that alaska had the whole 24 hours of daylight thing going on for part of the year
now? not so cool. i never thought i'd miss nighttime so much.
kinda hoping you just spoke venkman into existence, though, not gonna lie.

i'm not gonna make you walk all the way here just to walk all the way back.
i can meet you at the end of your street though in like 15?

Kinda hoping that too.

[ well, he wasn't planning on walking, he just wanted to show off his very nearly broken and duct-tape riddled 20+ year old jeep, but once billy blows him off he can't exactly smoothly bring that up again. man, he shouldn't have said he lived near the arcade. he's not sure why he feels like he's missed an opportunity here, but he kind of does. ]

Yeah, okay. Bring Frogger, though?
We've gotta see who he clicks with.

bring the maybe-possessed stuffed animal with you.
sure, okay.

[ kidding! jokes. he know it's not haunted, but if he lowkey, secretly eyes frogger from across the room for a few long seconds before getting up to change his clothes and find his shoes, nobody has to know. ]

yeah, yeah, i'll bring him.
and the extra tickets, too.
i think there's like 35 left? somewhere around there.
not a whole lot, but it's a head start.

[ anyway. billy trades his sleep clothes for jeans and a t-shirt, slides frogger into his backpack, crams the extra tickets into the front pocket - and then heads out into the night! into the day, at what should be nighttime, but whatever. it's quiet out, which is kind of nice but also kind of eerie when it's so bright and sunshiney. squinting, billy adjusts the strap of his bag against his shoulder, locks up behind him, and starts the short trek to go meet up with stiles.

as he approaches the end of stiles' street, billy lifts one hand and offers a lazy wave, though it's more of a sideways swipe, similar to a jedi trying to brain-hack someone with the force. he lets his backpack slide off his shoulder and holds it out to stiles once he's close enough, smiling a little tiredly. ]

Hi. Here, spend some time with your son.

[ it takes... a surprisingly long time for stiles to convince himself not to bring roscoe out to the end of the street, but considering he's been staying at logan's place and actually picking her up would involve walking home just to drive for like, three seconds, it doesn't seem all that worth it. he sends a text to billy with a promise to be there soon and a joke about annabelle, and in just a few minutes, he's made his way to the end of the street he promised to meet billy at. by now, the cultists that have been fucking this place up have all but gone into hiding, so he doesn't run into any trouble on the way, thank christ - but if he'd suspected they were still out, he wouldn't have invited billy to play stupid fucking teeth games with him, so.

he greets billy with a similar jedi hand-wave, which was just supposed to be a cute imitation but feels to stiles, after he's done it, like a socially awkward way of accidentally mocking his new friend. he winces a little and turns the half-wave into an awkward neckscratch, clearing his throat as his sneakers scuff at the asphalt beneath them, and when billy offers him frogger, stiles takes him a little too quickly. ]

I really should spend more time with him. It's not good for a child to grow up barely ever seeing one of his parents.

[ stiles gives the dude a consoling pat on the head, clutching the alpaca to his chest with a shall we? and a thumb thrown towards the arcade. he guides billy inside, shifting his arms to hold frogger against his side, his other hand inside the pocket of his hoodie. it's getting too warm to wear thick, red cotton and heavy denim jeans, but these are the clothes stiles has from home, so he wears them as much as he can.

they get to the arcade and stiles goes straight to the prize kiosk. everything's open and running, just like he thought, and the two of them are the only people here, which is actually pretty nice. the neon lights, the quiet outside of dinging games and whistling machines, and the building being as big and as largely windowless as it is makes the atmosphere kind of cozy. stiles feels as if it could be a real night outside, for once. this could be a pretty decent date spot, if he had anyone to fucking ask out. ]

Okay. [ but - priorities. stiles sets frogger on the counter and points him at the large wall of plush toys, careful to angle him so he can see them all. ] The more I think about this, the more creeped out I am by the concept of winning someone a bride, but we're here, so we're committing. We've gotta figure out who he likes.

[ once frogger is freed of his transport, billy slings his mostly-empty backpack back up onto his shoulder, wriggling a little and twisting his other arm back so he can push it through the strap, wearing it fully and properly instead of just letting it hang from one shoulder. he misses whatever awkwardness stiles might be feeling, or maybe he just chooses to ignore it, hooking his thumbs underneath the straps of his bag near the sides of his chest and curling his fingers over the front of them.

billy lets stiles lead the way, lingering for a beat before following after him and taking an extra, wide stride to catch up to his side. quietly, he ruminates over stiles' more-than-likely offhand comment about children growing up without one of their parents around, and he finds himself wondering how long ago his mother passed away. for some reason, he'd assumed it was kind of a recent thing (recent being like, within the last three to five years), but he realizes now that he doesn't actually know.

and he's not about to ask, either, and ruin whatever easy mood they've got going. they're going to the arcade! at night! while it's bright as shit outside, but it's still 'late', and that's what counts. there's no room for blue moods.

for whatever reason, billy doesn't expect the place to be practically deserted save for the one or two floor staff wandering around, but it's kind of... cool. it's not exactly quiet, but the soft whirr of electronics and the gentle mishmash of different theme songs playing from their consoles is weirdly soothing when it's not overlaid with chatter and the click of buttons being mashed and the distant hum of people trying to decide what to order from the concessions. as they cut through the floor toward the prizes, billy slides a slow turn-around in his step, kind of basking in the seclusion. he's never had an entire arcade to himself before.

well, to himself and stiles, but billy doesn't actually mind his company at all.

when they get to the prize counter, billy crosses his arms and leans his elbows on the glass, peering at the prizes in the glass case below before drawing his attention back to the wall of plush toys. he turns his head and rests his chin on his shoulder, looking up at stiles with quiet amusement as he meticulously sets frogger up to gaze upon his choices. billy turns his head again, rests his ear on his shoulder, slides his elbows forward a little to stretch out his back. ]

We're not winning him a - a bride. We're winning tickets, which we'll use to buy—... a. Okay, yeah, that's— let's just not think about that.

[ billy uncrosses one of his arms and straightens up a little, gesturing toward the prize wall with a lazy sweep of his arm. ]

Well, Frogger? What do you think?

[ if he's looking at stiles instead of the stuffed animal he just addressed, well. whatever. ]

[ whatever staff should be manning the prize kiosk must be stocking inventory in the back room, or something, because stiles, billy and frogger are the only people here. this isn't the fucking reception area of a hotel lobby, so there's no bell to ring for service, but while billy justifies their recent expedition into human trafficking, stiles looks around for a buzzer or a bell to ring and play with until an adult comes and gives him attention. thankfully, he doesn't find anything.

billy asks frogger what he thinks, and stiles hums in thought, examining the toys on display. there are some pretty adorable toys, all things considered - a couple of them seem to be made wrong, with a hollowness to their button eyes, some loose stitching or else lumpy in a way that suggests they're stuffed with something other than fluff - but ominous and omnipresent horror aside, there are certainly some safe looking cuties to choose from. there's a bright pink cat, naked except for a big white tutu, which is kind of weird, but kids toys always are. there's a giraffe with sparkly purple lips, a rabbit in a sundress...

but stiles is drawn to someone else. there's a t-rex shaped like a beach ball, all big and circular and very, very fluffy. he's got a bright black bowtie, clearly coded to be masculine, and yeah, okay, stiles would be at the head of the line to say that girl t-rexes can wear bow ties too, if they want to, but he just gets the vibe that this one's a dude. he's also in love with him, and stiles is snapping his fingers and pointing him out with way too much enthusiasm. his arm's outstretched and his face is lit up. full on kid in a candy store, if that kid hadn't slept for a month and a half and is constantly willing himself to stay on his feet. ]

Maybe this guy? He seems pretty lonely up there all by himself.

[ there are no other dinosaurs, no other pointlessly circular stuffed toys to choose from. he's only 200 tickets, so that's absolutely something they could win together if they spend the night here racking up highscores, and stiles is so caught up in the joy and the excitement of wanting that freaking dinosaur that he doesn't really realize until it's out there that he's suggesting giving frogger a boyfriend.

and maybe that's weird for billy. or maybe it's not. stiles has never had to navigate a question like that, really. danny wore his sexuality on his sleeve, and ethan and stiles weren't exactly friends, and beacon hills is in general a pretty open place, so he's never had to ask someone their thoughts on... this. hypothetically or otherwise. the closest he's come to taking a stab at another person's sexuality was when he tried to talk things out with caitlin, which felt awkward at the time and has somehow gotten progressively even worse in retrospect.

stiles is in a constant pendulum swing between being socially awkward and socially confident, and right now, he's leaning heavily toward the former. without even thinking, he's climbing onto the kiosk counter and grabbing the dinosaur from its vantage point on the wall, taking him off the hook and bringing him back down. he sets him on the counter next to frogger and taps his fingers against the side of it, pretending to straighten out his bowtie and generally just gussying him up for his big date. he's looking at the dinosaur, he's looking at the counter, he's looking at frogger, but he's not looking at billy, which makes all the casual confidence in his voice sound as forced and as fake as it really is.

stiles clears his throat, smoothing down the t-rex's fur, then scratches at his chin with one finger and pretends to be fascinated by the popcorn maker a few feet away. he's second guessing himself for grabbing the dinosaur down when he could have just fucking waited to win him properly, because now he doesn't know what to do. he's just standing next to billy with a dinosaur he shouldn't have yet and it just feels like that was a weird thing to do. god. ]

Is that... is this something Frogger would be cool with, you think?

[ the last time billy was here, standing at this counter with a handful of tickets and stiles' jackpot draped around his neck like an ugly, useless scarf, he spent nearly fifteen minutes trying to decide what to spend them on before he noticed a cute, mint-green alpaca tucked down near the bottom corner of the prize wall. he's seen most if not all of these prizes already, but he still looks at them again anyway, still just as creeped out by the weird zippery toys as he was the first time. frogger was actually almost tutu cat.

stiles' enthusiastic pointing and snapping of his fingers pulls billy's attention back to him again. he lift his eyebrows slightly, then turns back to the wall, tilting his head back and trying to follow the line of stiles' flailing arm. he leans in a little closer to stiles' shoulder, trying to look from a perspective that's closer to his, but - there are quite a few plush toys stuck up on the wall, so it's difficult to tell which one stiles is pointing at, but billy does quietly note the use of a masculine pronoun. he's has got it narrowed down to maybe four contenders just based on the general area stiles is gesturing at, but. ]

Which—

[ before billy can ask him to be a little more specific, though, stiles is suddenly climbing up onto the counter and billy immediately startles, looking around quickly to see if anyone's watching or around, anybody who could potentially scold them or kick them out before they can even touch a game, but there's nobody, which is more of a relief than it is concerning at this point. billy immediately whips around, one of his hands darting out to curl around stiles' ankle, not to try and stop him, but as admittedly-useless support. ]

Stiles, what are you— you're gonna— Oh my god...

[ billy doesn't even care that it looks like stiles is about to steal a prize off the wall; his main concern is that stiles is standing on glass. he's fairly lean from what billy can tell, but the last thing either of them needs is for stiles to go crashing through a sheet of glass and wind up in the hospital.

in his scramble to grab onto stiles, billy knocks over frogger. he slaps his free hand around until flesh meets soft plush, and blindly stands him back up, his own gaze pointed upwards and focused on stiles. there's no way the glass countertop isn't going to shatter. billy's anxiety spikes a little, and he starts to murmur under his breath. ]

Please don't break please don't break please don't break—

[ as far as spells go, it's relatively tame. the outline of billy's hand illuminates a soft, almost neon blue-white, but it's subtle enough that it could be mistaken for a glint of the light in the display case reflecting upward. the sheet of glass itself just seems... cleaner for a moment. shinier.

as soon as stiles claims his prize and starts to climb down, billy immediately lets go of stiles' ankle, breaking the spell. he takes a step back and holds out his hands kind of awkwardly, like he's offering a hand down if stiles wants it, but also like he's ready to catch him should he fall the very drastic and devastating four feet from the counter top to the ground.

stiles may not be looking at billy while he makes frogger's new sweetheart presentable, but billy just stands there and stares at him like he doesn't know what to think about him, his eyebrows slightly arched, head tilted a little to one side, hip leaning against the edge of the counter. frogger is on top of the glass in the space between them, staring off in some random direction.

the question throws him, mostly because he's already forgotten what they were talking about before stiles decided to scale the display case to take down a prize they haven't even paid for yet. billy blinks, his eyebrows pinching together a little until he realizes what stiles is asking about.

all this time, stiles has been talking about getting frogger a girlfriend. a wife. which isn't really a big deal, but he also kind of blew off billy's subtle suggestion that maybe he wouldn't want a girlfriend, which also isn't a big deal, but it did make him quietly wonder if maybe that's... not... something stiles would be comfortable with. billy's only known him for a little under a month, and he seems like a really cool, down-to-earth kind of guy with good taste in movies and a habit of rambling if you get him on the right topic, just like billy. he likes him, and would even call him a friend, but he'd be lying if he said he hasn't wondered once or twice now if stiles would feel differently about their friendship if he... knew.

they're not talking about frogger anymore. they weren't talking about frogger before, either, but billy understands that this is stiles asking billy. putting out feelers, maybe - or maybe asking for reasons that aren't so great, but billy doesn't let himself think negatively. instead, he shrugs his shoulder as casually as he can manage and nods, offering a somewhat unsure, but mostly easy smile. ]

... Yeah. Yeah, I think he'd be really cool with it. [ billy tilts his head slightly, gives stiles a pointed look. ] But we should probably win some tickets first before we go walking off with his new boyfriend.

ic contact || deerington.

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