Temba's Where The Heart Is

[doubled_speed]

WHO: Tommy Shepherd, OTA (Some closed or limited starters)
WHERE: Temba: Greenhouse, Diner, The Twin Roses
WHAT: Tommy got hurt in Not Temba so now he's staying home for traditional work
WHEN: Early August
WARNINGS: Tommy's attitude is going to be testy due to leg soreness/pain

1. New Plants Need Time | Greenhouse | OTA

Green. Tommy had never thought he'd feel so attached to the color. Yes, it was part of his uniform but this green space, this peace... It was magical in its own way. Somehow he hadn't noticed it in himself back home, the way that when he was stressed he ran to not only natural wonders, but ones that were in some way green. But here, on Agra 10, he had found some measure of peace in the greenhouse right at the start, and in a strange way, the place felt like home.

"I'm back babes," he called out to the plants, dragging along the bubble-olive tree that Obi-Wan had helped him dig up back in the other city. He needed to get it to the place where it would have its final resting and a chance to adjust. "I've brought new friends. Once I've got them in, we're going to do a prone. And it's almost harvest time, so everyone do your best."

There was peace, calmness, happiness to be had in finding the greenhouse still standing after all the stress in life.

"Now if only I had more hands," he mused as he kept going, limping along slowly. Stupid hurt leg. But he'd power through it. He always had.


2. Food Makes Family | The Diner | OTA

Okay, so maybe he hasn't done this in a while, but that doesn't mean Tommy doesn't know what he's doing. Okay, maybe he doesn't know what he's doing very WELL but dammit he's trying. And, with people everywhere and some of the diner help staff working their asses off exploring and Tommy no longer easily able to do that, he had come to do it instead. This afternoon he was falling back on a classic. Anyone who had an issue with soup as a side today was going to get serious glares from him. For now Tommy was working on making fresh noodles from one of the Coruscant grains he had just ground into flour for the purpose.

With the back door to the kitchen open he could hear someone enter the building and he called out from the back as loud as he could to let them know he was working.

"Hold on and there will be a fresh salad or fruit if you want. I'm working on a noodle-soup. Come on back!"


3. Welcome to the Roses | Twin Roses | Closed to Twin Roses Crew

Home. Tommy was one of the lucky ones and he didn't even know it. He had brought some new plant samples to try in the Twin Roses hydroponics system and had no clue that the ships had been juggled. Then again, save for the first assignments, this had really been his ship. It was, in a weird way (especially when considering his claustrophobia) home. He moved easily and confidently through the ship, not expecting that the people on it could be so different. And once in the hold he moved right to his hydroponics unites.

"Hey kiddos," he greated them. he'd heard once that talking to plants helped, and given they had to live in the more artificial environment of the ship, he didn't intend to not do it. "Got you some new friends seeing as the sorta pea-pod vine things weren't working out. Say hi."

And now it was time to get them started.

Later on, after he was done with that task, Tommy busied himself in the laundry area, sitting on top of the washer with a bowl of chocolate protein paste with slices of fruit cut up into it, eating as the machine worked on cleaning his clothes. His injured leg hung to the side, keeping all weight off of it.

We anyone to enter he would look them dead in the eye.

"What, never seen a dude washing laundry before?"

Well, they might have, but given Tommy was literally wearing only a pair of what looked like booty shorts, there might be another reason to be staring. Be glad he wasn't standing, because that shining silver script 'juicy' on the ass might just make some people react less happily. But hey, free shirtless dude. Comment on the faint scars on his skin and there might be trouble though.


4. A Mind Is A Beautiful Thing To Use | Young Avengers home | Closed to Quentin Beck

Learning for himself had never been something Tommy was good at. It was just something that was universally true. He'd been bad at school because even before his powers had come in he'd had some attention issues. After school had been brutal. And then, well, there hadn't been school at all. The Kaplans had stressed the importance of him getting his GED and it had been pure stubborn desire to get a job and his own place that had Tommy getting his degree.

But complex issues? Tommy had always thought himself too stupid to learn really useful and valuable things. He hadn't thought about how one putting together thousands upon thousands of electronics, even according to instructions, was teaching him things. Between that and watching Tony, helping Tony, having Tony put up with him, Tommy had started to think he could learn it. Except he'd run into a road block. How was he supposed to learn the basics?

Less mobile as he was after getting hurt in Not-Temba, his mind turned back to the thing he wanted to learn. So he did the only thing he could do. He borrowed some supplies from Tony's forge he would apologize when Tony got back and sat down in his home, trying to puzzle out different resistors Tony had put together into the systems.

"This is so fucking stupidly complicated," he hissed in anger. How could he have been so fucking smart in that damn fake-city!?

Comments

Food Makes Family

[demjiin]

Kaz has always used a cane in Temba. But he's leaning heavily on it to try to keep as much of his bodyweight off his bad leg as he can and is hardly moving his knee at all today. If Tommy is unhappy because of an injured leg meaning he can't explore Not-Temba, then he has company in that department.

"Don't worry about food on my account, just black coffee."

Kaz gabbed a chair, probably made a loud noise as it was dragged across the floor, then set it in front of another chair. He made a pained expression as he sat down, then used his arms to assist lifting his bad leg into the other chair. Usually he made his own coffee, but today he could barely move. TThat he was at the Diner at all was a pretty big concession to pain.

[doubled_speed]

Coffee, huh? Tommy nods and moves to the kettle to start it boiling. Don't ask him for something more than a French Press style, because it's what he's got. As for the heating, Tommy put his hand near the kettle and let it vibrate, letting his powers start to infuse energy, and thus heat into the water.

"I know a root you can chew that relieves a little pain, if you want."

[demjiin]

A french press sounds fancier than Kaz is used to. He also likes his coffee to be as bitter as possible which is why he made his own. Usually, Kaz would say nothing about pain remedies, but it was obvious to anyone with eyes that he was in pain today. He grimaced at Tommy's suggestion.

"The only pain killer I'll sometimes use is a bottle of whiskey. I don't like the feeling that painkillers give me.

[doubled_speed]

Fancy? Tommy never thought so. It was just a practical thing in his opinion. He lifted his hand from near the kettle so he could get the tool out and start putting grounds in it.

"Alright then. Ain't gonna yuck your yum on that or whatever," he said as he finished his measuring. "Plus it saves me the run."

[demjiin]

Which was yuck and yum? That made no sense to Kaz. It's also worth mentioning that Kaz was a street kid, and while he didn't mind paying for nicely tailored suits, he still would sleep on a cot.

"Taking a painkiller will leave my wits working slower than I'd like. Plus I didn't have much access to them inn Kettterdam anyway."

[doubled_speed]

Water goes into press and Tommy leaves it all to work.

"Alcohol would make your wits slower too," he points out. "This stuff hasn't been messing with my head as much."

And that was impressive given his body normally rejected all stuff like that and ran it out pretty instantly.

[demjiin]

"True. And if I drank to the point of being drunk every day, then I wouldn't have to worry about my leg because I would have been killed off years ago."

You weren't allowed to go soft in the Barrel and survive.

"I might take the edge off the pain once in a while, but I'm not getting drunk. Most of the painkillers that I've tried are about the same as being drunk anyway, though I guess they're easier than on the liver."

[doubled_speed]

"You need aspirin," Tommy suggested to the other. Because that didn't mess with the head. "Of course medicine here is limited. Sorry about that."

He'd offer ice if he had any. Instead he just turned to look at Kaz while the coffee brewed.

"I'd offer to carry you where you need but well, I'm not allowed right now."

[demjiin]

"That's the second time someone has suggested aspirin to me. Apparently, I need to try to find some out there."

Kaz gestured so that 'out there' was pretty much everything that didn't include Temba. Of course, when Tommy suggested carrying Kaz, he got a response as dry as dust.

"I may be a cripple but I also have my pride."

Beat.

"Doesn't carrying weight slow you down anyway?"

[doubled_speed]

"I'll talk to Billy," Tommy offers. "He might be able to warp you some."

Pride, Tommy knows about pride.

"Not in the slightest, if it's not that heavy. You're not that heavy."

[demjiin]

Kaz was more neutral now.

"If you're not carrying any weight, would that mean you'd be as fast as, say, a hummingbird?"

[doubled_speed]

"Faster," Tommy answered with a shrug. "Hummingbirds aren't even that fast."

[demjiin]

Kaz's dark eyes glittered now.

"So if you're not carrying any weight, do you think you could hide something from someone who's standing in the same room?"

[doubled_speed]

Really?

There was a minor breeze that went through the place and Tommy was just holding a cutting knife that he absolutely hadn't had before then.

"Yeah, I'm good at that.

[demjiin]

Now Kaz did smirk. Oh to be able to take anything at all from the same room someone was already standing in, without even being close enough to pickpocket them was too sweet.

"Then that leaves the question of who to dupe."

[doubled_speed]

What? Tommy pauses and looks at Kaz.

"What?"

[demjiin]

Kaz still has that smirk.

"Who to dupe. If I can get them to talk to me then that's where their attention will be. While the attention is on me, you could hide something in that same room, and they wouldn't know you'd been there."

[doubled_speed]

"I'm not really interested in returning to a life of crime, Kaz," Tommy pointed out. With the coffee finally in there long enough he pressed the plunger, picked up a cup, and moved carefully over to the other man.

Only then did he pour.

[demjiin]

Kaz gave Tommy an exasperated look.

"You'd also be hiding it from me, too. So unless you were planning to pin the crime on me, which wouldn't work because I'm the one involving you in the first place, then it wouldn't be a crime at all. Hell, you could just move something across the room if you didn't want to hide it."

[doubled_speed]

"And what would the point be?" Tommy asked, his voice cautious. Like, give him a reason.

[demjiin]

That exasperated look turns into an 'are you really this dumb or are you just pretending to be?' one instead.

"The point would be doing it because you can."

[doubled_speed]

Tommy hates that look. And it earns a dark look in response. Don't push that button, Kaz.

"You know, if you spoke clearly, I'd understand you better. Are you suggesting a prank, or just being an asshole, or setting something up so you can take stuff later?"

[demjiin]

The answer to that is all three but for now, Kaz isn't going to pursue actual theft.

"I thought you just said you were faster than a hummingbird. Actually moving something that's in the same room that someone's in would make for a prank that would be hard to top."

[doubled_speed]

"You're basically suggesting pretending there are ghosts."

[demjiin]

"I wasn't going to acknowledge anything, ghost or otherwise."

Meaning a suspicious breeze, things being moved around, whatever happens when Tommy is moving really fast.