fluxscape | (no subject)

Who: Tobias and you!
What: Arrival tiiiime
When: 11/19 (During Alternately You event. Because the boy knows how to make an entrance, I guess.)
Where: Info Booth, around town.
Warnings: None yet, but given that Tobias is from the early 2000's so you can expect some, uh. Language that is no longer acceptable in polite conversation.

Arrival

Tobias was in a meadow, perched on a tree one minute, and the next he'd found himself outside an information booth. After a (very short) conversation, he'd tucked himself into some bushes and made the change from hawk to boy, accepting the information and money from Jerry. But once he'd been dismissed, he wasn't exactly sure what to do with himself.

He was alone. No animorphs. No Hork-Bajir. No obvious threat. No clear objectives. The alone part wasn't so bad, but the rest was just confusing. No one plucked him out of his world without a purpose. He looked over the pamphlet with a sigh, and turned towards the park exit. He looked more like he was leaving an exercise class than a fresh arrival, in tight shorts, shirt, and bare feet.

Around Town

Tobias is wandering around town in some new flip flops and a jacket, if only so he would have pockets to stick his money, pamphlets, and phone in. Under it, he was still wearing tight shorts and a shirt at least a size too small, but he didn't seem bothered by the fact that he was a fashion disaster, sticking out like a stone-faced sore thumb.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I've heard of California." Billy nods slowly, shoving his hands into his pockets and shrinking in on himself slightly, a reaction he has a lot of the time when he needs to think about where he came from.

"Hawkins. A lab and then a home."

Tobias knows that body language well. He's worn it plenty himself. "And here?" he asked gently. "Is this place... safe?" He takes a step closer, to offer some semblance of comfort, though he's not fool enough to try touching Billy.

"Yes." Billy nods, sure of that at least. He doesn't step back but he doesn't make any effort to close the distance between them either. It's not that he's wary of touch but he also knows that you shouldn't just touch people without permission.

"The people are nice. Evie, she's my friend, she's really nice."

"That's a relief," he replies softly. "I haven't had to fight in a long time, and I'd rather not start doing it again now. I'm Tobias Fangor," he offers his hand for a shake.

“You have to fight?” The kid looked far too young to be fighting, but then Steve’s friends who had helped with the demogorgon and the mind flayed had been young too.

Billy had been young when he was in the lab.

“I’m Billy.” Just Billy.

Tobias nodded. "Used to," he agreed. "That was a long time ago, though. I haven't had to fight anyone in a few years." He glanced down at his body, realized how weird that statement might come across. "I'm a lot older than I look."

Billy isn't really sure how old he's supposed to look or how much younger he could be but he doesn't say that.

"How old are you?"

"Eighteen," he replied softly. "This is how I looked, the day we got pulled into the war. Except for the fashion disaster, I guess. Rachel'd be horrified." He chuckled softly, even if his face didn't match it.

"We're the same age." Billy tilts his head to one side. "There was a war? Who's Rachel?" He has no room to judge his fashion... disaster, as he calls it because he himself was one when he arrived here. Mostly because his clothes were several decades out of date, but Evie had fixed that up.

"Evie can help you with your clothes, if you want. She's really good."

Tobias nods, and only his lack of facial expression stops him from pulling one when Billy asks about Rachel. "Yeah, there was. Against alien parasites called Yeerks. Rachel was my girlfriend, until they killed her," worse, she'd been killed in the last battle, at the very end. Most days he hated Jake for giving her the order, but some days... some days he envied her. Getting to die a hero and not live with the aftermath of being a child soldier like the rest of them had to.

"Evie?" That was an unusual name. Then again, who was he to judge? His family has literal alien names. "Does she like doing makeovers?" He wondered if she was like Rachel, able to walk through a tornado and come out the other side without so much as a hair out of place. Beautiful and powerful and breathtaking. He held in a sigh.