(semi-)closed;

[notarat]

Who: Billy and others.
What:
When: At various points after the town meeting.
Where: Around Milton.

Content Warnings: Mentions of homophobia, murder, identity theft and cannibalism.

( various starters for post-town meeting talks in the comments! i'm totally open to threading out stuff with more people, just hit me up through a pm to this journal or hit me up on plurk at queeningsquare!)

Comments

[notarat]

"You could at least pretend you aren't having a great time right now," Billy dryly points out.

He isn't even looking at the other's face, but it's like he knows perfectly well what sort of expression he's going to find there if he would. Hickey's tone is saying enough, all by itself. Billy just knows the other man is enjoying some great schadenfreude right over there.

"For all you know, they will come to talk to you as well."

Maybe not Crozier, though.

Billy is fairly convinced Crozier is only going to approach Hickey at this point to toss the man into a lake or something.

[friendsfordinner]

"Why the hell would I do that?" Hickey points out, laughing brightly in response. Absolutely no, he is not going to pretend he's not having a great time. This is hilarious! He will happily enjoy Billy's suffering for just a little bit longer. This is the day of dealing with nonexistent consequences, baby!

"The only one who'll try to come and talk me out of this is Little. And I've got a few strings I can pull to shut him up and keep him from harassing us."

It truly is annoying how smug Hickey sounds at that assessment.

[notarat]

Billy inhales. Exhales. He tells himself to be the bigger man here.

.. by dumping salt into Hickey's next cup of tea later, of course. And by smugly telling him 'why the hell would I do that' next time the other is in the mood for sex.

It truly is the thought of those things that gets him through this moment of Hickey being exceptionally annoying - even by his standards - in the aftermath of a town meeting that was already bad enough by itself. Besides, there's something to address that sounds a little more pressing than Hickey being annoying.

"What do you mean, a few strings?"

What have you been up to with Little, Hickey... Does Billy want to know this?

[friendsfordinner]

"He owes me."

Hickey's eyes shine with the brightness and confidence that this is a wonderful plan and he's the smartest boy in the world. It's not and he isn't, but that hasn't stopped the overwhelming ego and arrogance of Cornelius Hickey before.

"Y'know how you were mad at me when I sliced my hand open? When we ran into that sea creature, Nor'pogo, back in Lakeside? Well when I dealt with that creature, Lieutenant Little was there. I knew what to do." It's a god, gods deserve tribute, this is obvious. "He didn't. Managed to keep him safe and uneaten by the beast thanks to my quick thinking."

'Hey Hickey, why didn't you tell Billy that when he got mad at you for slicing your hand open in the first place?' Priorities, okay. Sometimes the main focus is defending your actions that made complete sense and weren't ill-thought out at all.

"He knows I saved his life. And I promised him I'd keep away from Irving. The way I see it, Little's in my debt. And he's just the sort of man who won't forget a favor given."

[notarat]

".. I see."

It doesn't sound necessarily impressed - or surely not as impressed as Hickey would like anyone to be in the face of his clearly wonderful and genius plans - but it doesn't sound as judgmental as Billy can be either. The fact that it's Little involved in all of this greatly helps with that. It means there's no real downside to these plans, because Billy is fully aware that Little has the temperament of a sad, wet dog and wouldn't hurt Hickey even if it was to save his own hide.

He even admits: "I suppose it can't hurt to have someone around with a more favorable view."

You know, especially with how big Crozier's grudge must be at this point. It balances things out, if not slightly.

Besides, on a level of more personal advantages-- "It might give him less reason to talk to me about any of this either. No need to talk about how you are a devil and therefore I should not let myself be involved with you or anything of the sort if he might now think you are not all that bad."

[friendsfordinner]

The fact that Billy's response to this latest scheme is more along the lines of 'quietly resigned' instead of 'outright judging Hickey and all his choices,' tells Hickey that it is a perfectly wonderful scheme and he is the smartest person on the planet. Billy thinks it's fine (sort of)! Everything's going to go perfectly well!

"He's probably going to talk to you anyway," Hickey points out, with a little shrug. Maybe his focus won't be on how Hickey's the devil and how Hickey will turn Billy to temptation the way that Irving might focus on, but Hickey's not an idiot. He did kill and eat a guy. That's probably something other people would judge.

"At least there's a high chance it's not as bad as it could be."