Shelter From The Storm

[doubled_speed]

WHO: Tommy Shepherd, Dustin, You?
WHERE: The Diner
WHAT: Sheltering from the Blizzard
WHEN: During the Blizzard
WARNINGS: CW: Discussions of accidental explosions

I. Keeping The Food Going

For once there was a proper way for Tommy to distract himself from the madness of the storm. And he always needed the distractions. The storms made him less himself, took away his power, took away his strength. Tommy hated nothing quite like the storms. He'd been hurt so many times during them, been lost, been broken in his heart and mind.

"Here," he says as he whips the space blanket off of his shoulders and draped it over another person's shoulders. "I'm trying to get the fire going to cook. Just, uh, give me more time. I've got some dried meat you could nibble on if you need."

II. Judgements Spoken | CW: Discussions of accidental explosions

It was later in the day and things were settling down when it happened. Tommy finally had an open fire going near one of the vents in the kitchen so people could stay warm. It was sorta cramped staying back there, but they would do what they had to do. But he was getting ready to settle down and then it happened.

A shadowy figure seemed to manifest as Tommy was moving to sit down. One he recognized. A high school aged girl, who looked scared, and unerringly right at Tommy, who paled.

"You're not real," he hissed at the ghostly form. "You're not real. Like all the storm images. Go away!"

Comments

[quintet]

"Looks like you're not the only one who's left her siblings to die."

Quintet considers that, for a while, and then stretches up out of her blanket-nest. Her weight makes a thump as she drops from the diner-table she'd been curled up on, and as she takes distance from him, the phantom seems to blur and fade in her wake. Soon there's nothing left of him but the memory of a wolfish grin, and the shape of the blanket where he'd been.

Meander would never have said that. He would never, ever, have even brought it up. Ergo, she doesn't have to give a shit about some dog she never met.

"Look, I— I get it," She settles at Tommy's elbow, between him and Dustin, wrapping her tail around her paws. She doesn't know what to think about his own spectre, has no notion of what a 'mutie' is nor can she really throw any stones about the destruction of school property, when it comes to that.

But she's no fool.

"My name. When I was born, there were five of us, and now there's just me, so... I understand. Family is the most important thing there is. But listen, if you trust your brother, and you know he's capable, then there's nothing to worry about. And if you don't, or he isn't, then worrying still won't help."

[quark_assassin]

Dustin remains remarkably quiet. This is probably a blessing for everyone involved, but internally, he's having an awful time of things. He can't process anything about Tommy's gushing for Billy's medical training and accomplishments without feeling deeply cynical. Quintet's specter continues to be horrible. The talk of family - well. He doesn't remember his birth family, and Tommy and Quintet have already seen how he's sabotaged the relationship he could have had with his adopted mother every time she appears and berates him for fucking it up.

There's nothing for him here.

Sullenly, Dustin attempts to take a small sip of broth and just about manages to choke it down, coughing hard enough on the uptake that he has to put the rest of the bowl down before he spills it all over the goddamn place.

[doubled_speed]

Tommy of course snatches up the same metal cup he's been using to throw at Meander and hurls it, once again missing wildly. It hits a chair and rolls away. Fuck that damn thing.

"You don't get it. You were a part of their lives growing up. You lost them, but you got to have them first."

And he hated that reminder that he hadn't. Something he doesn't want to touch so he looks instead to Dustin.

"Hey, take a moment," Tommy says, taking the bowl away so it doesn't spill. "you'll be okay."

[quintet]

"Actually we were three days old at the time, since you're asking," Quintet replies, abruptly angry. Why did she even think opening herself up would help? She was talking to a particularly hateful asshole and an anti-social juvenile who was almost literally vibrating with stress! Idiot! Idiot cat!

Tail lashing she gets up again, and watches the thrown cup miss— again. Fine. Fine, so we're not letting it go.

She might as well take out her anger on something that deserves it; leaving Dustin to his coughing and Tommy to his comfort, she abandons warmth and hops down among the chair-legs and shadows, seeking the lost projectile. The spectre of a maned wolf stands, stretches, and makes to follow her—

"MACH!"

And is abruptly arrested by the rapidly ascending cup as it slings directly through his spectral head. It strikes the wall with an enormous BANG, and sticks, half-embedded in the paneling up near the ceiling. What is visible much flattened by the violence of the impact, the plastic walls bent and mushroomed out, no longer cup-shaped. The spectre, intangible as it is, is unhurt— but also seems not to know what to say in response.

[quark_assassin]

Dustin is too busy hacking his lungs out to say anything back to Tommy at first, although he thoughts should come through pretty cleanly in the acidic glare he shoots his way. You'll be okay. Such an easy thing to say, with absolutely no evidence to back it up. The last time Dustin was this sick he nearly died. If the storm continues suppressing his abilities and his ASIS chips don't kick back in, what's keeping it from finishing him off this time? He doesn't know.

All spiraling thoughts are promptly arrested by the consequences of Quintet's temper tantrum. The cup hitting the wall overhead makes a noise like a gunshot, and Dustin reacts accordingly, yelping and flinching into a tight ball on the floor with his head protectively tucked between his knees and his forearms.

"--The fuck?!" he sputters, voice partially muffled by his legs and now also the blanket. "Shit--attack--what--?!"

[doubled_speed]

Well that was a whole thing. It even made Tommy flinch to hear that loud noise too. He's left a bit shaken by it, but then he has to catch his breath because Dustin needs an anchor right now.

"You'll be okay," Tommy repeats to Dustin, wrapping an arm around him before looking to Quintet.

"Sorry. I'm... I didn't get to know Billy until I was sixteen. I get touchy."