Public Network Video - (Plus Two Private Messages)

[doubled_speed]

Public Video - [Posted During Ship Lock-Up]

[The video comes on and there's Tommy, a touch blurry around the edges. The background changes behind him constantly. One second he's pacing in what was clearly the dorm of the ship he's on. The next second he's in a mess hall, the protein paste machine in the background. Then the hangar. Then the bridge. Back to the mess and dorm and mess. This will be true for the whole video. There is no denying that he's very agitated, like ready to run up the walls. Or through them if he could.]

Dudes, who in the world decided this was the best plan that there was? Like, seriously, this plan? It's bogus. Being locked up on a ship is one thing. I wanna go to space. Space is fucking cool. All the stars and planets and traveling and that shit. But here, on the fucking ground, and there's like no way to go and travel between them and the space is small and itissosmallandthewalls are everywhere andican'tgetthrough

[He's shaking harder now, as he comes to a stop. This is miserable.]

Yo, Agrii or whatever. I don't fucking CARE about making friends. I can do that on my own time. But I want the fuck out. Let me go back to the greenhouse. I swear I just found a door that led to a whole section of a floor that was just fucking MINT. I like mint. Let me at the fucking mint.

justletmeoutofhere!



Private Message to Billy - October 13th

[He's calmed down a bit at this point, and it's important that he does this. That he seems calm for this. Because Billy deserves it.]

Yo, happy birthday, bro. Was gonna make you this whole salad with things from the Garden. But some ASSHOLES in charge here absolutely decided to blow birthday plans. I'm sorry this all sorta got blown up. Who you on wherever you're on with? I'm with Wanda. Which, you know, awkward. You know where V ended up? Whatever, not like it matters. Just be okay, right?



Private to Vision - October 13th

[This one has a more nervous looking Tommy. Like he isn't even sure he should be sending this.]

It's today, right? You sorta said that the math would come out to today, yeah? So you know, I don't hold it against you. Forgetting. And not, you know, doing the whole thing you said you would. But it's fine, right? I get it, that you'd want to. So don't worry about me, okay? Just make sure you wish Billy a happy birthday. This will probably be the first time he has to celebrate it without his family or friends or all that. It would mean a lot, I think, for you to reach out.

Because, you know, it's a good Dad thing to do. And he's used to having a good dad. So, you know Vision, do your best. We're nineteen now, so I guess throw that in too?



[OOC: If anyone of Tommy's cohort wants to run into him while he's recording messages, that's cool too. Just hit me up at churbooseanon and we can set it up.]

Comments

[doubled_speed]

Oh. Then he wasn't seeing things. Tommy frowns and turns his attention fully onto the dispensers. Time to get more chili flavor.

"It's... it's okay. Because you didn't mean it. And it wasn't like I don't have dreams like that anyway. There was a place they kept me for a while. It was supposed to be juvie. It wanted a weapon."

[seeingscarlet]

Wanda, on the other hand, busies herself with getting some water. There's no tea, so cold water will have to do.

"The white rooms, yes? You shouldn't have to see that place anymore. I can...I can make sure that you don't while we're here." She's still not looking at him. "I am not trying to mother you or be overprotective, I just...you don't deserve this. I want to give you that choice."

[doubled_speed]

'I'm not trying to mother you'.

Tommy manages not to laugh. Because he wouldn't mind if she did. It's own complication and all of that.

"If I don't remember what happened there, I don't know that I'd keep making the choices I make, the choice to be a good person. That place is part of who I am."

[seeingscarlet]

There was really no other way to take it: he'd sounded annoyed, and obviously it couldn't have been meant literally. That's physically impossible.

"It isn't about forgetting. No one can do that. It's about not letting it torture you and keep you from sleep. We're already locked up. It shouldn't be worse."

[doubled_speed]

"You really don't want in my head," Tommy insists. "Could be a headache."

And he's definitely hurting in his own way. He wants it, but he can't risk what she might learn.

[seeingscarlet]

"And I would still do it, if you asked me to. One of us should get some rest. But it's your choice."

She scrubs a hand over her face. "Either way I am not going to let this happen again. I'll stay awake and try to sleep after everyone else wakes up."

[doubled_speed]

What? No, she needs to get sleep. Tommy looks absolutely worried. And resists reaching out to her. It's not his place.

"I'll pass. But maybe... we can set you up somewhere comfortable to sleep away from the rest of us? There's the hold. I could carry bed stuff there for you. And talk to people at bout a schedule so you can sleep when the rest of us aren't, but you don't have to be alone all the time."

[seeingscarlet]

It seems like a reasonable enough solution to her. If she is the problem, then she needs to take steps to make sure she doesn't accidentally hurt someone (again). Wanda's pretty sure Tommy was already having a nightmare, but she's absolutely certain that she just made it worse. He didn't deserve that. Neither do Sansa or Vash.

She's certainly survived worse than staying up all night.

"I think that would be best, but I was going to move my things in the morning. I've caused enough problems without waking the others up too. And I...Vash and Sansa already know what I can do, but I don't want to tell Krista yet." She shifts nervously. "She might get upset. And we can't get away from each other like this."

[doubled_speed]

"I'll move them for you in the morning. But if you want, for right now, I can help you stay awake. I'm good at annoying people into consciousness."

IT's the best he can give her, and he always tries his best when it comes to people who are important.

[seeingscarlet]

"You aren't annoying, Tommy. But if you don't think you can sleep...I would not say no to company." She manages a shy smile - she still feels absolutely terrible about all this. She hasn't had a power-related accident in so long that it had seemed like those days were behind her.

Apparently not. Maybe they never will be.

"Are you hungry? I can try to make a snack."

[doubled_speed]

"I'm always hungry," Tommy admits. He's not going to common the whole sleep thing. That he only needs four good hours. Because those weren't good hours. But he'll get more later.

"Nothing here really counts as a 'snack' though. I miss solid food."

[seeingscarlet]

"It is not so bad if you fry the chicken flavored gel it and serve it with something else," she says with a shrug. It's not good food, but a lifetime of food insecurity means that Wanda's never been one to complain. At least they're not in any danger of going hungry.

"There is fresh food in the fridge...does anything make an oil I could use to fry this?"

[doubled_speed]

Oil? Tommy frowns as he looks past her into the fridge to consider things. That's not exactly his specialty.

"I don't know. Mostly I've been eating the chili flavor stuff and living on it. But I can see if I can figure something out?"

Too bad they can't ask the Agrii. Actually, you know what, it's probably good. They'd give them motor oil.

"I can live with just a bowl of something."

[seeingscarlet]

"Our old machine was better. It made more textures, you could pretend that it was something different...and Vision found a way to freeze the chocolate gel so we could have ice cream sometimes." It had been a surprise for her unwanted birthday, and one of the reasons it hadn't been as bad as it could have been.

"If we put some fruit in it maybe you can pretend that it's a strange chocolate pudding?"

[doubled_speed]

"I like chocolate pudding," Tommy agrees after a moment. To throw her a bone. He considers her briefly, watching. Trying not to be sad for her.

Trying not to ask about the things he saw.

"That sounds like a plan. You want some too? I could help cut things up."

[seeingscarlet]

"I could eat a little. Choose any fruit you think would be good with chocolate." She doesn't recognize all of the produce in the fridge, so she'll defer to his judgment. In the meantime, she'll get a big bowl of chocolate protein gel and start stirring it vigorously. If she can get the texture to not be so weird...

If she keeps moving she can try not to focus on what she'd seen in the nightmare. Not all of those rooms had been familiar to her...but she could easily guess exactly what they were for.

"Just be careful. I don't know how good these knives are."

[doubled_speed]

Worst thing about those rooms? After what Tommy saw, if she asked, he'd tell her. No one else has ever seen the rooms, to his knowledge. No one else can look at him and call bullshit if he told them it was nothing. And... and she'd get it. Which was sad.

So he sighs and heads into the fridge to consider options. And pulls out what looks exactly like a pineapple. Bless.

"Pineapple work for you?"

[seeingscarlet]

"Is that...really a pineapple? Or is it some kind of..." Words. Help. "...space pineapple?" She shrugs helplessly. The Agrii didn't exactly label anything for them. "We can try it."

She glances down at the bowl she's stirring. Should she? Is it even her place when she's the one who made it worse in the first place?

Wanda swallows hard and glances back up at him. "Do you want to talk about it? Or do you want to be distracted?"

[doubled_speed]

"Yeah, really a pineapple," Tommy answers as he carries it over and starts looking for a knife to cut the top off. And when she asks the question, the important questions, Tommy freezes.

"I... Talk about what?"

Evasion? Yeah. He's scared she won't like him as much if she finds out how he ended up there."

[seeingscarlet]

Wanda glances away again but presses on. "The nightmare. I know they're frightening. And I don't think we would have been dreaming about...about that if the Agrii hadn't done this."

She just doesn't want to make it worse.

[doubled_speed]

Oh. Damn. He wasn’t crazy then. That really was something they had absolutely shared. Which she remembered. Damn. He had called her Mom. Shit.

“I... it was where they put me, when part of my powers manifested and hurt some people by mistake. I went to a special jail. Billy and his team busted me out. Which was a confusing time for all.”

[seeingscarlet]

"No. They kidnapped you. That place...no one deserves that. I'm so sorry." If this isn't an uncommon occurrence in his world, why weren't there places dedicated to helping children learn to control their powers? It's hard not to judge her other self for letting her cousin(?) get packed off to a place like that, but then again her other self isn't a psychic. Maybe that's where the sarcasm came from, that she cares now but there wasn't a Wanda there for Tommy when it mattered.

"I'm glad you got out. And I hope they paid for it."

[doubled_speed]

"They didn't kidnap me," Tommy counters, and he's angry to hear it suggested. "That was jail, Wanda. Juvenile detention. I blew up part of my school. This place could contain me. My birth parents, in their overwhelming wisdom, decided to sign me over to their loving care."

And so everything that had happened to him.

"Billy busted me out, with his team. And I ruined that place later."

[seeingscarlet]

Wanda goes pale. Having not lived through being thrown in the Raft, she can barely process a betrayal on that level. "They took advantage of you. You needed help, not...not that. Anyone should have been able to see it."

Did you want a hug, Tommy? Because he's getting one, tight as if Wanda could bodily shield him from the past, from the horror of her own powers. If people in his world are as scared of other-her as they are in her world, they never would have dared hurt her family like that if she'd been present. She should have fought for him. Why didn't she?

Wanda's never going to understand her other self - their lives are too different. All she can do is just try harder to be better and make up for what she's already done. "I'm so sorry. I'm not going to let this happen again." It's understandable that Tommy really doesn't want her in his head after this, so she can't completely prevent him from having nightmares about his past. She's just going to have to be more careful in the future about when and where she sleeps until they're freed.

[doubled_speed]

There is a lot that can be said about Tommy. A good part of it is that Tommy does NOT let anyone hug him unless he wants it. Advantages of super speed. So when Wanda embraces him he wraps his arms around her and buries his face in her shoulder. Because she feels like Mom. She smells a little like Mom too.

Fuck, he didn’t know he could miss that.

“Wanda in our world never would have let it happen either. Or Pietro. But no one knew. The Avengers all broke up and the X-Men didn’t have some of their tech. No one knew.”

He doesn’t want her to feel bad.