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

[silenziobruno]

"Not often, because trees shouldn't be moved." He's never seen people do that with trees back home. It didn't seem right to displace nature, but in a city like Temba, he could see why it was necessary. "But there's no time like the present, right?"

Alberto followed Tommy, not at all deterred. He was used to being brushed off just because he was a kid. "Between two, the tree won't feel so heavy and besides, you're hurt. Do you move full trees on your own every day?"

[doubled_speed]

"Trees get transplanted sometimes. That's just how things happen," Tommy sighed before pausing to look at the kid. He didn't get it. The sheer weight of even a small tree like this one. Tommy was only handling it because of his far higher than human strength.

[silenziobruno]

"I suppose...I didn't see a lot of that in Portorosso, it's a coastal town." It's hard to imagine a tree that heavy, so no, he didn't get it. But It was clear that Tommy had no interest in accepting help, and Alberto wasn't that oblivious. Adults, tsh, sometimes you just had to let them do their thing.

"If you still want one of these petals, you can have this one." The Pathistery didn't have a lot of petals left today, and Alberto knew he could find food somewhere else. There was always the ocean for him, going fishing was no trouble.

[doubled_speed]

Tommy sighs and shifts his grip to only one hand holding up the trunk.

"Here, try it."

Because the thing was definitely too heavy for a normal human Tommy's size to carry. He was fast enough to catch it and Alberto. But that would hurt.

[silenziobruno]

Alberto is only trying to help, it's frustrating to be in this new place and not knowing what to do. Now, however, He's got the vague feeling that the other boy changing his mind all of a sudden is not a good sign, and he narrow his eyes slightly. But ey, Alberto's strong points are rushing headfirst into things and jumping to conclusions like he's doing parkour, so he puts the petal he had just offered to Tommy into one of his pockets and reaches for the tree.

Well, shit. There's at least a brave attempt at holding the tree, but no, that is way too much weight for a tree and for a 14-year-old with noodle arms to hold up. Is that that even normal?

"What is wrong with this thing!?"

[doubled_speed]

Tommy moves with the speed of a thought to grab the tree and lift it easily from Alberto's hands.

"It's a tree, kid. Full root ball with soil and a pot to boot. They aren't light."

[silenziobruno]

"No, they're not but..." He purses his lips because sometimes being small really sucks. "Shouldn't it be too heavy for you too? And you move really fast."

Maybe he had imagined that, but...twice? In such a short time? Alberto might like to come up with stories to explains the mysteries of the world, but he trusts his eyes when it comes to what's real and not.

"I just wanted to help you."

[doubled_speed]

"I'm not quite human, which means I can do things most humans couldn't," Tommy answered with a shrug. "So yeah, it should be too heavy for me to move easily, and it's not like that at all."

But the help makes him smile.

"Listen, you could help me turn the thing around bends, by pushing the back, a bit."

[silenziobruno]

That makes him perk up with interest. He doesn't sound startled by the revelation but honestly curious and even a little relieved. Which might seem odd to someone unaware of Alberto's own inhuman nature.

"That's amazing. Do you...always look like this?" The boy gestures vaguely at all of Tommy. It's hard to ask someone if they're a sea monster and try to be subtle about it at the same time. At the smile and the suggestion of how to help, he smiles again and gives a quick, heartfelt nod. "That I can do!"

[doubled_speed]

"How else would I look? I'm not a mutant with a visual difference. Except for my hair, I'm what would be referred to as 'passing'."

Someone that, if you didn't know better, was absolutely just human. Hell, some people didn't even think his hair was anything other than a fashion statement.

[silenziobruno]

"Any way? Maybe with scales, or blue, with fins...you know. Different." Alberto fidgets a little in places, looking everywhere but at Tommy's eyes, until the strange word is mentioned. "Mutant? Oh." Not like him then, for sure, but also not like humans either.

"I like your hair." He fails to see what's so odd about it, it's white, and Alberto is sure he's seen humans with white hair. They were much older, though. "And the humans here, they don't get angry at you for not being one because they can't tell the difference?"

[doubled_speed]

"Oh yeah, there are mutants like that. David's friend Victor? Green all over and has scales and spikes and lots of things. His mutation makes him sorta lizard like," Tommy answered. So yeah, he'd have no issue with scales or blue or fins. having problems with that was stupid.

"If humans here gave me issues for being different, I'd kick their asses. Simple as that. We ain't got time for stupid racism. And I think people would probably have to go through Billy's big-blue-dog Lauri-Ell to give anyone grief for being different."

[silenziobruno]

"I never talked to them, but I think I'd like Victor too." He needs more friends with scales, even if they're different species. Lizard people solidarity, you know. And Tommy had the right view on life, and Alberto will sure appreciate it once he's brave enough to share that he's also outside what one would consider 'normal'.

"It's not nice to judge others because they're different. Lauri-Ell is great! So big and so strong. Maybe she could help you move the tree more easily."

[doubled_speed]

Normal is a stupid word and he doesn't like it. Tommy is dismissive of 'normal'.

"I'm not working with her," Tommy insists to Alberto. "But thanks for your help."

Sure, the kid isn't strong, but he still cares to point it out.

[silenziobruno]

Alberto thinks it's a confusing word that badly describes anything. Normal for him is having a tail and scales, living and breathing underwater. Here, in an alien world, the concept of 'normal is even stranger.

"All right, if you are sure." He won't insist any more then and gives a small at that last bit. "But do you still want a Pathistery petal? I'm not hungry, you should have it."

[doubled_speed]

"I'm very sure," Tommy answered, but he shook his head at hte offer.

"Man, don't do that. Don't tell me you don't want to eat the thing you got yourself to eat. Don't take food out of your mouth for me."

[silenziobruno]

"If I need more food, I can do to the beach and fish. Besides, it's just a leaf." Just because he's hungry like, all of the time, it doesn't mean Alberto has no tolerance for staying hungry for a while. Been there, done that. The hazards of living on your own.

"You need it more than me." Albert is trying to sound reasonable, and he gestures to Tommy and the tree. "You're injured, and you're doing all the work. How are you going to get better if you don't eat?"

[doubled_speed]

Really, fish? He can definitely be down for more fish. Still, he doesn't think this is something he can do, that he can take.

"Time. Give me a few days, maybe a week, and I'll be fine, promise. Perks of my mutation."

Of course he needs more fuel.

[silenziobruno]

Fish is really tasty and very good for the health. Tommy might say he doesn't need it, but since Alberto is already fishing on the regular, it's not difficult for him to get some extra for the other boy.

"So your...mutation..." The word is still new to him, but he's trying to remember it. "...it's moving and healing faster than others? How fast can you go? Faster than a Vespa? "

Before Alberto leaves the Greenhouse he's going to place the left somewhere Tommy can see it, regardless.

[doubled_speed]

"Way faster than a Vespa. I can run faster than sound," Tommy answered with a grin. Come on kid, be impressed. Tommy likes being impressive.

[silenziobruno]

Tommy was in luck, the kid was actually very, very impressed. It showed in his face. Green eyes widening and mouth opening into an 'O' of surprise.

"That's AMAZING!" Someone faster than a vespa??? Incredible. He had no idea how someone could also be faster than sound and didn't quite understand how that worked, but he was pleasantly surprised regardless. "And your feet don't hurt?"

[doubled_speed]

Wow, kid is awesome. He quite liked it.

"Not really. My feet are really durable. It's part of my mutation."

[silenziobruno]

He's very enthusiastic about everything, and he doesn't meet people with such cool powers every day! He's also glad that they have seemingly got over the first more awkward 'you're-not-strong-enough-to-help' bit of the conversation.

"You must be one of the most powerful mutants out there then."

[doubled_speed]

Well, he wasn't strong enough to help. As for Tommy, he wasn't strong enough to hold back the bark of laughter.

One of the most powerful mutants out there.

"Dude, I'm pretty sure I'm not even Alpha level."

[silenziobruno]

Ey, he doesn't know better but he loves speed. To him, that would be the coolest and most important superpower.

"Alpha...what? There are levels? Who's at the top?"