If there's anything Crozier is met with once he comes across Billy, it's some slight surprise in the other's gaze. It wouldn't have been surprising for Crozier to go around like this, no-- if it wasn't for that initial encounter Billy had with him here. Crozier had seemed kind of done with the entire thing. Yet here he is.

Huh.

"Did you tell everyone that, Mr. Crozier?"

He figures it's likely the case, especially since neither Crozier nor he were even personally involved in the fight - but then again, it's possible he's getting extra warned since he's a mutineer..

"I believe it was only two of us that were fighting."

Cryptic it may be, but he catches onto the other man's meaning easily enough.

"Trust me, I want this just as little as you do." He sounds sincere enough about that. After all, it's not like he doesn't have a vested interest in keeping Hickey around and alive. This isn't really conductive to that in any sort of way. "And I have been trying to do what I can to keep such things from happening."

What I can being the keywords there. Surely Crozier realises just as well as him that Hickey isn't one to easily listen to anyone. Even when things are being said or suggested for Hickey's own good. If he had just listened to Billy about Crozier the first time around..

"But this time he was not the one starting it."

There's a moment where the man is quiet, like he's thinking, but then he slowly speaks up again.

".. I will do what I can to make sure he doesn't get any plans about revenge or a second round." An easy enough thing to promise, mostly because he doesn't want to think about what could happen to Hickey in the end if this would only escalate. There is no way it would end well. "Though I hope that means you will do the same with Mr. Jopson."

Billy is not the only one with a certain influence and he knows it.

"I know none of you would mind if the town was rid of Mr. Hickey, after all." He doesn't think Crozier is lying about not wanting more fights, but this fact does make it a little harder to fully trust the other so easily.

Billy's expression may have been pretty neutral so far, but it's definitely slipping now. It's right around the time Crozier starts speaking of what Hickey did to him that Billy starts looking obviously surprised.

"He chained--"

His expression starts going through a mess of complicated emotions right after, in fact, before it ends up at something that mostly seems to look exasperated.

This makes so many puzzle pieces suddenly fall right into place.

"When he said he brought you into camp, I assumed that was just part of his obsession with you." It made perfect sense to Billy in that context. It had been clear to him long ago just how badly Hickey wanted to get close to Crozier. He isn't even ratting anything out about Hickey, because it's that obvious. "I did not imagine it was because he wanted to attempt to control that creature."

Which, for the record, sounds like just as bad of an idea to him. An even worse one, in fact! The worst part is that Billy needs so very little information to realise that's what Hickey was trying to do, because he knows the guy too well. Cornelius, why do you have to be like this.

Crozier's words check out with the assumptions Billy made so far. Even if he doesn't have the full picture, somewhere between what Hickey himself told him right after the fight and what Crozier is saying now he can piece together quite a bit of it. Enough to know that everything somehow managed to spin even more wildly out of control after Billy himself died.

There's another thing he can piece together, though.

It proves Crozier's own thoughts right, because something falls about the other man's expression. It's the sort of vulnerability Billy doesn't like showing in front of other people, but something about the thought of this instinctively brings it into his expression, in the sort of way he can't hide or shove down.

"... And then he died, didn't he."

He doesn't buy into Hickey's delusional ideas, after all. He knows there is only one inevitable outcome of an encounter with that creature, especially for anyone foolish enough to think they can control it.

It renders him quiet.

The talk of this, and the quiet on Billy's end-- they make him think of something else after a moment. Something he isn't sure whether to bring up at first. Crozier is being more reasonable than Billy expected him to be about all of this, but he doesn't know if he can actually trust the other man. He's inclined to lean towards not - if not just out of instinct. There's a reason he didn't talk with anyone about his obviously failing health, after all. Why would the lieutenants care? What could the doctors do? Suggesting the mutiny had felt like the only possible step, because Billy knows that no one is going to look after you. If you want something done, you have to do it yourself.

In this case, however, he realises that all of this is far out of his hands. Even more so in the light of what Crozier is telling him here. Billy can't do this alone. It would be doomed to fail. But reaching out, confiding in someone-- it's terrifying, and he can feel the emotion rising within himself in that typical way it always does lately. Hot, burning, like flames licking away at him on the inside, threatening to spill out. His hands feel impossibly warm inside of his gloves.

"Mr. Crozier."

It's reflected in his tone. It sounds like it's hard for him to even speak, but he does it anyway, pushing himself onwards.

"I.. fear there is a chance of history repeating itself. I spoke with him after that ominous dream the other month. The one with that-- that terrible being in it." Because he had woken up from it in bed with Hickey, but there are some parts of this Crozier definitely does not need to know. "His reaction to it was odd. Mr. Hickey seems to think we are here because we are special. It.. could be that he might try to also reach out to whatever forces we are dealing with here."

He's well aware their interests aren't necessarily directly aligned here. He doesn't believe Crozier cares one bit whether or not Hickey gets killed by something way above human understanding all over again. But there's an angle to approach this from now that might make cooperation on this a little easier.

(It's not manipulation. It's not even Billy feeling smart. If anything, something about him seems a little desperate as he speaks. He just wants to hold on to whatever happiness he finally managed to find here.)

"You have seen how many people he is willing to drag along in those plans. It would be better if we could prevent it."

Initially there's a moment of quiet, with the man very much looking like he's thinking about it - but it doesn't take too long before he's already shaking his head in response.

It's not like Billy hasn't calculated in the chance that Hickey could be keeping that information from him, but.. considering the way the other has spoken of future events, and even also claimed that Crozier knew more than him, it leaves Billy pretty certain that the other man does not know of his own end.

Thinking about that enough also makes another thought come to mind.

"I'm not sure if knowing that would stop him." It sounds almost ridiculous, but.. then again, living in this place almost makes the ridiculous normal. "He would likely just convince himself that this time will surely be different."

It wouldn't be the first time he saw that man continuing to chase after something that he had been told was hopeless, after all.

He slowly shakes his head, before adding: "I don't think that anyone is capable of doing that."

It's just the sort of person Hickey is. Like an unstoppable force. It makes Crozier's own admittance that he doesn't know what to do about it either very unsurprising. Even if some people they know might think Crozier is some sort of superhuman who can do anything, Billy is far more realistic in his assessment.

Still, it can't hurt for at least someone else here to know of this too, so he at least isn't carrying that knowledge by himself. And if Crozier is going to step up at least a little bit again, he's the best candidate for it.

"So far it does not seem too bad." Yet, anyway. He frowns, thinking about it. "But.. I must admit I did not see the signs of it before either. Back during the expedition. I feel that if he had already been thinking about the creature that much back then, he would have confided about it in me."

They had discussed so much, after all. They planned an entire mutiny, without even a real mention of the creature itself in that particular sense along the way.

"It is possible something.. accelerated his interest in it after I passed, though I am obviously not certain what that could have been. As long as that threshold is not crossed here, perhaps there's a chance."

Gain to be had in a creature that seemed intent on nothing but destroying everything around it. It makes Billy want to roll his eyes - not at Crozier, since he doesn't doubt the other's words here, but at Hickey's own tendency to overlook the obvious downsides to plans - even if he manages to resist the temptation.

"What gain was that, Mr. Crozier? Power?" If the man maybe imagined that he could somehow control the creature, turn its destruction into something Hickey himself could aim at whatever he wanted..

The idea seems so farfetched to Billy, who's much more grounded in reality, but he can't imagine anything other gain to be had there.

Crozier's words would sound insane to Billy, were it not for the specific person they are about. It's something he can't really grasp on a personal level, never having cared for the divine nor ever having seen the creature as more than a very direct threat on all their lives, which would make the thought of anyone else thinking that way a ridiculous idea.

But he has seen the signs on Hickey. He knows what the man is like. It's certainly a new level of delusion entirely, but if Billy stretches the things he has witnessed in his mind, it's not impossible when it's Hickey.

(It's still stupid, though, and he certainly feels the exasperation that always sits right alongside the affection.)

"Then there is nothing any of us can do," he concludes. Some of the exasperation slips out into his tone, though it doesn't seem aimed at Crozier, since there are no barbs in it. "Unless you happen to be capable of somehow giving him divine inspiration."

He silently regards the other man for a moment, as if contemplating either Crozier's words or the ones Billy is about to say in return, but then he slowly speaks up again.

"Thank you." There's nothing deeply emotional about the words, but there's an honesty to them.

After all, he isn't delusional enough to think Crozier is doing this for him, let alone for Hickey. But intentions don't matter when they're working for the same outcome here - and he knows he'll need all the help he can get with this. So having anyone else at all that realises this is the true risk and is willing to help work to avoid it is something he is genuinely grateful for.

"I will do what I can on my end as well." There's a pause, followed up by a slight nod. "... Then I will take my leave, unless you had more to ask."