1964-06-28 - Planning for the Planners
Summary: In which Billy and Teddy talk about plans for the Planners HQ
Related: If there are no related logs, put 'None', — please don't leave blank!
Theme Song: None
billy teddy 


Lorna and Vic have left so Teddy starts taking the bowls and stuff into the kitchen. "Want any more ice cream or should I put it in the freezer?" he asks, glancing back at Billy.


Billy helps with the grabbing up the bowls and shuffling stuff into the kitchen, to load up the dishwasher. Once this is done, he scoots over and wraps his arms around Teddy's waist from behind and gives a squeeze as he rests his face against his boyfriend's shoulders. "I know you have to put up with a whole lot of crazy and weird to be with me." he says softly, "I know its not exactly the sort of life you were probably expecting. But thanks for putting up with all of it."


Teddy smiles and leans back a little against Billy. "Things got crazy soon as I discovered I could shapeshift. I didn't really expect anything different after that. Though the thing with Vic is a little weird." he admit. "Not so much that he's what he is but the whole 'this is my brother' and 'this is my nephew' thing."


"Oh, believe me, its super weird. Its not every day even in my life where your parents do something I-do-not-want-to-think-about that results in a magical offspring getting made." Billy laughs softly and kisses Teddy between the shoulder blades, tightening his arms. "It would pretty much be a first for me, in fact."


"Well, it is a first for you." Teddy points out then pauses. "Wait. Are you saying her showed up while they were having sex? I thought they were doing magic?" Pause. "Wait, they were doing sex magic? There is such a thing?"


Billy looks visibly pained, "I do not have any specific, actual knowledge of *what* they were doing when he showed up, and let me tell you I am really, super okay with that." Oooh, parents having sex. Augh. "However. What I know of magic is… First, there is sex magic. Second, I figure that for a magical being to be created on accident, something profound and fundamentally creative about the magic being worked would have to be happening. That's a lot of magic that falls into the 'accidental byproduct' category, for them not to notice, they'd have to be awful distracted…"


They might not be his parents but there's some things Teddy doesn't need to know. "Got it. Enough said." Moving Billy's arms from around him, he turns around so they're facing then moves them back. "So I was thinking. We need a headquarters cause I don't want it to be here. This is our place."


Billy settles in against Teddy's chest then, and goes back to resting his head on the blond's chest, "Hmm? What kind of headquarters? The only real reason why I thought this was it is because it seems a natural place to meet for me to open up a wormhole from. But if you don't want people hanging around? Did you have something in mind?"


"To visit like last night is fine. But not coming and going like it was a headquarters for the team. And yeah, I do." Teddy says, pulling Billy against him. "Remember we talked about making the apartment bigger? Well, if you can do that, you could do it for a headquarters, right?"


"That's still theoretical." says Billy cautiously, though his tone is a little distracted. After all, he's hugging on Teddy and that's always going to mess with his focus, "I have an idea for how I think it would work, but still have to try. It might go weird."


"And that would be different from the rest of our lives, how?" Teddy asks. Yes, it's rhetorical. "If you can manage it, we could give everyone a wardrobe that opens onto the base. That way we could all get to it easily but we'd each have our own homes to ourselves. And I don't want anyone wandering around here when we might be in the middle of something." he adds with a grin.


At that, Billy hesitates, pulling away just enough to peer up at Teddy in the face, "That… I don't know about. I don't know if its a good idea to make permanent wormholes, it's like making swiss cheese out of reality. Its one thing for me to open wormhole to where-ever, because I always close it. Similarly, like, if I make a space bigger that's one thing, but its localized." He squints then and grins, "You seem to be thinking headquarters means everyone has free reign to come and go, I saw it more 'where we hold pre-arranged meetings'."


Teddy shrugs a little. "It would still be nice to have one. A place we could hangout, train, that kind of thing. And couldn't you make it so the wormhole only opened when they opened the wardrobe?" Magic is all Greek to him so it can do just about anything, right?


"I wonder how expensive it would be to rent some little old warehouse somewhere, and fill it with workout equipment." muses Billy thoughtfully, "To make that kind of a standing spell that can be activated by anyone… I've never attempted something like that. I don't know if its even possible. Teddy, I think you … think I'm way more powerful or skilled at this then I am." He sounds embarassed at that.


"Well, maybe someday then." Teddy decides. "Once you're better at it. It was just a thought. It's not like something we really need, after all. It would have just been cool."


"I'll think about it. I'm still thinking about the additional rooms thing: if I can do that then we could rent a really cheap place and just…expand." Billy nibbles on his lower lip thoughtfully, "Time and relative dimension in space. That'd be the spell. Its bigger on the inside." Pause, "Comes from a sci-fi thing. Do you know what neighborhood we should have this base in? Nearby here, or?"


Teddy shrugs at the question. "Some place we can all easily get to. That's no problem for us. Tommy can get anywhere fast and Lorna and Hope fly. But the others…" He shrugs then hesitates. "Do you think you can ask Stephen about how to do it? Maybe he could teach you. Or just do it himself."


"I… can ask." Billy nods his head slowly, "The way I do magic and the way Stephen does … they go by very different rules. I can't always make sense of what he's doing and to try to duplicate it: I still haven't figured out how to wormhole into the Mirror, and I've seen him do it a few times. But.. I might be able to ask if my guess that this isn't allowed is right or wrong, or maybe he will be able to explain some magic theory that will get my mind around it."


"Never hurts to ask." Teddy agrees. "If nothing else, you learn something. Your power has a lot more rules than mine does. I just decide to do it and it happens. I never needed to know how or why."


"I'll ask Wanda too." Billy pulls away a bit, just to pull open the fridge and tug out a hard lemonade— one of the two kinds of alcohol he vaguely appreciates. "She does regular magic and something like I do too." He grins suddenly, "I don't know that my power has rules — but if I don't know how or why it works its just more likely I won't have a clear image in my mind of what I'm changing. That way leads to the weird. Well. Weirder."


"If it can get weirder, I don't want to be there for it. I'm still trying to get used to what we already have. And speaking of, I want a promise from you." Teddy tells Billy. "Never, ever do any magic when we're having sex."


Billy stares a little incredulously, crossing his arms over his chest, "Wait, what? How are you defining magic? Spells? No sexflying?" He frowns, "And what in the name of all that is holy is this coming from?"


"You have met Vic, right?" Teddy asks with a grin. "I'm too young to be a father. In fact, I'll always be too young to be a father. So I don't want any magical accidents happening while we're doing it." Pause. "Sexflying? What?"


"Vic happened because of a conjunction between Mom and Dad's magic, I'm pretty sure. I'm *absolutely* certain I couldn't make a life. I don't have the juice. Besides, I've figured something out." Billy hesitates a moment, pursing his lips, "How much I want something to happen has a direct relation to how likely the spell will work." And thus, wormholes that make hot guy shirtless. "So me and accidentally making someone seems deeply unlikely to say the least." And then he's floating up in the air, and Teddy finds himself floating up in the air too. And they drift closer, "Sex. While. Flying. Sex in the clouds."


Teddy looks startled as he starts to lift into the air. He's usually flying under his own power. "Well, that could be fun. But, ummm… Are you sure you won't lose your concentration when you… you know?"


"Not at all, but I'm sure I'd get it back before I hit if we're high enough… but really, for me? Flying is instinctual. I don't need concentration. On the contrary." They drift closer, and Billy wraps his arms up around Teddy's neck, "…I tend to have to concentrate to not fly. If I get distracted or, umm, you know, its frankly surprising I've never flown after without realizing it." That's mostly because the whole bed tends to get levitated a couple inches in the afterglow, and Billy's just never noticed.


"Well, I suppose we could try it sometime." Teddy decides. "But I don't know how well it can work. There's nothing to brace yourself on or lean on or anything." He's obviously trying to picture the mechanics of it.


"Sure there is." Suddenly a band of pure force is felt at Teddy's back, grinning. "Besides, not everything needs bracing. All that stuff we did first doesn't really need bracing. Besides, what's the worst thing that can happen? A passing airplane gets a show and it doesn't work so we come home." That said he nods, "But back to your promise I can promise I won't ever do any *spells* during sex, since even if I was gonna make a mini-me it would be with a spell, not my other powers."


Teddy looks behind him to see what Billy conjured up but he turns back when he doesn't see anything. Magic. "Well, that's true. I wouldn't want a plane to see us though." In fact, he doesn't really look all that comfortable in general. "But okay, that's fine. I just don't want something popping into existence like Vic did."


"Hey, if you're not into it, we don't have to do it. It just sounds like fun." Billy shakes his head a momen, then nods, "Though I'm too young to be a father too, you said you'll *always* going to be too young?" That makes him frown a bit.


"Maybe sometime." Teddy allows. After he gets used to the idea of floating in mid air which is just weird when you're used to having wings. "Well, yeah. I don't want kids even if it were possible. Which it's not anyway so it's not really an issue. Unless you're planning to magic yourself into being able to have a baby." Pause. "You're not, are you?"


Setting them down, Billy pulls away to grab his hard lemonade again, and take a big swig, "I hadn't thought that closely about it, though I could probably gender-swap now that I've *been* gender swapped… but I was sorta planning on adopting or something eventually." He wrinkles his nose a it.


"Adopt?" Teddy asks, blinking at Billy. "You think they'd ever give a kid to two guys? Or if you wanted to pretend to be heterosexual, a single one with another guy as a roommate?" He shakes his head. "Never happen, Billy."


Billy waves a hand dismissively, "All that's easily handled." he says expansively, "Well, it will be, at least, when I fully get a hang of the whole 'reality warping' thing. I mean worst case scenario you're a *shapeshifter*. We can go get married and you turn into a girl if someone came over to check in. But, really, I'm sure I can whoosh up a solution."


Teddy shakes his head again. "I could if I wanted to. But I don't. And the idea of you turning into a girl and being pregnant for nine months is…" Ick. "And you think you can just changes the laws of the country with magic because you don't like them? I think Stephen would have a lot of problems with that and he's not the only one."


Billy blinks and laughs, shaking his head, "I didn't say anything at all about changing any laws. Jeez, what a hassle. That sounds like the absolutely most complicated possible way to approach the problem." He shakes his head more, turning and heading into the living room.


Teddy watches Billy's back a moment before shaking his head. Opening the fridge, he pulls out a bottle of that lemonade and heads into the living room as well. "So where to Vic and Kellan live? So we can think about a place to put a headquarters if you can't make one in another dimensions or something."


"I have no idea. Really, Kellan just agreed to team up temporarily— a trial run— so basing the headquarters based on where he is lives, or where any particular person lives, seems like a bad idea." Billy nurses the hard lemonade a moment, "I think we should probably just pick the kind of real estate we want. Something out of the way in an okay neighborhood but not fancy, something where a landlord wouldn't be very engaged…"


"The piers." Teddy suggests. "Not the best neighborhood but out of the way and I doubt a landlord will be poking his head in so long as he gets paid on time. Noise will be less of a problem too. A warehouse would be big enough too for training stuff. Even a pool if you magiced it in."


Thoughtfully, Billy nods slowly, "I just worry a whole warehouse might be expensive, even with this being our moonlighting gig." He nibbles on his lower lip thoughtfully, pulling his legs up under him as he considers, "But I don't know anything about the piers or warehouses."


"Neither do I." Teddy admits. "I just thought it made sense as a place for a headquarters. I have no idea how much a warehouse would cost to rent. But anything smaller wouldn't really have room for stuff so we might as well just have meetings here. Or we can rotate whose apartment we meet in."


"Well, remember I'm thinking of TARDISsing it. Bigger on the inside." reminds Billy with a slight shrug, "A smaller place then can be made big, but unobtrusively, so no one suspects it, if we rent like… some office like a PI might have in a shared office building."


"I thought you said you didn't think you could do that? Or was it the open wormholes that was the problem? Or everything combined?" Teddy asks, looking around the apartment. "Does that mean we can get an extra room in here after all? Could you do it with a wardrobe like I was thinking? Make it really big inside? Would we be able to pick it up and move it even if there was a swimming pool inside it?" The questions come one after another without really waiting for an answer. Magic, so confusing.


"Its the opening permanent wormholes I'm not sure about: I could do that but I don't know if its against a rule or something. The last thing we want is Stephen showing up to banish us all for accidentally creating an eldritch horror." Billy then shrugs, "If I can do it there, I can do it here, but I want to practice *there*. I don't want to break our apartment. I… don't know, on the picking it up thing."


Teddy nods at the explanation. "And you don't know if you could make a wormhole that opens and closes with the opening of a door." he clarifies. "Okay, I think I understand. Much more complicated than my powers."


"See, I know I can make a wormhole that opens and closes with the opening of a door— that's all my wormholes." Billy elaborates with a slight shake of his head, "Now, making one that opens and closes— *and then opens again* is something I don't know if I've ever done. The spell would have to be standing: persistent. Normally when I close a door, the spell is gone. I'd have to make one that stuck around waiting to be opened again, repeat.


Teddy considers that a minute then nods. "Okay, that makes sense. I bet you can figure it out. You can practice that in the mirror, I guess. That's what it's for, right?"


Billy stares at Teddy for a long moment, "Practice. In the mirror." He laughs, and reaches over to swat Teddy. The only thing I practice in the mirror is come-hither looks." He snorts, "But since you need all of an upnod to get you in the mood those are for when you get old and need a blue pill." This has the ring of teasing, but again with the future reference.


"Blue pill?" Teddy asks blankly. But he's used to Billy's odd references that he doesn't get. "The mirror dimension, I mean. You said that's the place to practice magic where it's safe. Mostly safe."


"Ooooh." Billy smacks his forehead, "Blue pill is for erectile-dysfunction. Eventually." he says absently, "Yeah, I'm gonna practice in the mirror dimension. And there, wormholes will be easy. Oh! By the way, so I talked to Dad. He said you can't go there— its too distracting— but while it resets, its not perfectly safe. But! The wards are reflected into the mirror so in the apartment its *very* safe. I'll be practicing trying to expand the gym, and I'll leave you a note both that I'm there and when I'll be back. On the fridge."


Teddy doesn't look comforted to discover that he was right and it can be dangerous. But they did compromise so he just nods. "Just be careful. And start off small. I did small changes before I tried anything really big." At least after the first time where he screwed up. "And hide behind something in case it blows up."


"First thing I'm going to do…" Billy nods his head, in agreement with careful, "Is to see if I can make a graham cracker box double tall on the inside and test out the properties. See if I can make it so it doesn't carry all the weight while holding it. See if its even possible to have a distorted reality shape— but the fact that I can wormhole at all makes me infer that it is."


"That sounds like a good plan." Teddy agrees, mostly because graham cracker box doesn't sound too dangerous. "Will it stay that way till you put it back to normal? Do your wormholes eventually close if you don't close them? We don't want to have stuff inside a big room then have it collapse into a small one and everything goes smoosh."


"These are all good questions I don't have answers to." replies Billy with a wry grin and a shrug, "Though it depends on wormholes and closing. The first ones I did would eventually close btu they were designed to be temporary. My current generation can stay open almost indefinately."


"Oh, okay. I forget you still don't really know what your doing." Teddy admits. "That just because you can do one thing really well, it doesn't mean you can do that with everything we want done. It's like you have a whole bunch of powers and have to practice each one to get good at it."


Billy hesitates, consideringly, "Yes… and no." he decides, "The more I get good at any particular skill the better I am in general at anything else, because an essential skill is the spellcasting itself. The visualization and concentration. That applies to everything. Now, particular effects… if I've done something like it before I'll be better able to visualize the effect and have a better idea of how its done."


Teddy nods. "That makes sense. Something things were harder to shift but the better I am in general, the easier most things are." After a yawn, he drains the bottle and stands to take it into the kitchen. "Ready for bed?"


"Oh yes." Billy hops up and guzzles down the rest of his hard lemonade, then drops it off in the kitchen trash before heading towards their bedroom. "Verrry ready." he says with a dimpled grin over his shoulders.


Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License