The Streets of Fandom | Wednesday Afternoon

[nomoralcrisis]

So yesterday's patrol had been... interesting. Getting to play with his sonic immobilizer was always fun, but being threatened by Tony Stark -- who for whatever reason seemed to think Topher was remotely affected by what he thought -- wasn't quite as pleasant an experience. Shockingly.

But fine, Stark supposedly had a killswitch on the weapons he'd

Comments

[childcrusader]

Sometimes, Billy liked to think that maybe Umbridge had done something to Topher to make him be so terrible. But then, he'd hear broadcasts like yesterday's, and wonder how he'd ever wanted to date Topher in the first place. Maybe he was brainwashed, but there was also the possibility that he wasn't, and as much as he hated to do it, Billy knew he needed to talk to Topher to try to find out what the score was.

It wasn't hard to find him - of course he'd be out, looking ready to shoot people again, but when their paths crossed, Billy wasn't sure what to say.

[nomoralcrisis]

"Well, this is awkward," Topher announced.

Because exes were awkward, right? Or something.

"Patrolling?"

[childcrusader]

"I was just going for some coffee, actually." Despite the fact that they weren't really near the Perk, oops. "Is that okay, or are you going to taze me for being outside without a good purpose?"

Had he been planning on being subtle? Hopefully not.

[nomoralcrisis]

...Ugh. First Stark, now Billy. Seriously?

"Not unless you're secretly working for the rebel morons," Topher said slowly. "Or you punch me."

[childcrusader]

"I don't want to punch you, Topher," Billy said sadly, ignoring the first part completely. "I just think... do you ever wonder if you're going about things the wrong way? I don't know how hurting people is going to get them onto our side."

[nomoralcrisis]

Topher pondered that. "Nah," he said. "I mean, yes, it would be ideal to bring them in after the tasing, my bad, but it seems like a pretty good strategy otherwise."

[childcrusader]

"Or you could try to, you know, just talk to them without hurting them," Billy said. "Maybe being intimidating scares people away."

[nomoralcrisis]

"Except then I get punched," Topher pointed out, pointing to his face, where a bruise lingered as the evidence of yesterday's punching. "Which is unacceptable."

[childcrusader]

"Tazing people is pretty unacceptable too. If you keep raising the bar, people are going to hurt you worse when they see you."

The sad thing was, Billy didn't have to fake not wanting Topher to get hurt. Well, maybe punched a little more until he was thinking clearly.

[nomoralcrisis]

"So I'll carry explosives," Topher said, shrugging easily. "So what?"

[childcrusader]

"Topher! Don't you see how that's going to get you killed?" Billy said sharply.

[nomoralcrisis]

Topher thought about that one. Really, he did.

"...No?"

[childcrusader]

Billy sighed, and fought the urge to try to cast a spell on him to... well, do anything that would make him better. "Do you see how explosives might get someone else killed?"

[nomoralcrisis]

"Oh, well yeah," Topher said at once. "Obviously."

It didn't look like he was particularly affected by this hypothetical, though, was the thing.

[childcrusader]

Yeah, that was going to make Billy scowl. "What happened to you? How could you possibly think that killing people is okay?!"

[nomoralcrisis]

"Dude, what is with you and Tony asking this stuff?" Sigh. Topher despaired for them both. "Look, they're running around being dangerous to everyone. It's better to take them out so they can't, you know, bomb the whole island or whatever."