revivalproject | [Open] Where There's Smoke There's Tommy

WHO: Tommy Shepherd, You?
WHERE: The open space just south of the Diner
WHAT: Building A Brick Oven
WHEN: Early March
WARNINGS: Explosions possible, which could lead to injuries

I. The Build Phase

This shouldn't be that hard. It was what Tommy told himself as he looked at the materials he'd been gathering for a while now. Some of them were scavenged, some of them were hand made the best he could from a book he'd replicated about construction, some of them were... Well, he'd just got things together, alright? But the goal had been there for a while now, and filled with nervous energy like he was, Tommy needed to be active. To be doing something. To be anchored in the here and now rather than letting his brain run wild.

That was always the danger with being a speedster. The way that his mind worked he could easily mentally live weeks in a few minutes, utterly alone. It was terrifying and in this moment he needed anything but that. So here he was, stacking chunks of rock and packing the space between them with a mixture of wet mud and sand.

"Keep slow," he reminded himself, a mantra whispered under his breath. "Keep slow."

II. The Testing Phase

It had taken nearly a whole week of work for Tommy to get his work done. But hey, there it was, it looked more or less right, and Tommy looked proud at his creation, comparing the details of it to the details of the book he'd been working from.

"Alright, so... This will make Pizza."

Considering it for a moment, Tommy finally nodded and moved to the pile of wood stored by the diner.

Only then did he notice someone approaching.

"Hey! Wanna help me make pizza."

III. Oh, That's A Fire

Shit. SHIT. SHIT!

"It's not supposed to do that," Tommy said to himself, cursing under his breath. Actually, that was getting a bit louder and faster as he started working.

Because there was smoke coming from all the wrong places of his little oven. Which meant everywhere that wasn't the chimney.

"Fuck!" he shouted as fire leapt from the door of the thing.

"Shit fuck," he added creatively as he started picking up handfuls of snow to throw at the flames.

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Somehow that nickname would never get old to him so the king smiled as he walked around. "What idea got into your head to do all of this?"

This kid's head workings were a downright mystery.

"I..."

Tommy considers answering, being honest. That he's alone. That he's angry. That he needs this energy out of him.

"I want pizza," he answered with a shrug as if that's what it is.

Something seems off, but Noctis isn't about to push and accepts what he hears.

"Hey, pizza is always good. Can't complain about good food, right?"

With a sigh, the king puts his hands on his hips. "Alright, where do you wanna start?"

"You really can't," he says as he moves around to the entrance and opens the door.

"I've got dough started. We've got to prepare the sauce and toppings."

It was a good thing that food was a common thing that people could rally around because it just plain helped.

But at hearing what Tommy already had done, to him that was the harder part. "I can chop toppings."

Thankfully he'd learned all of that both on the road with the boys and at the sushi restaurant.

"Awesome," he says, before pointing to a stack of cumatos. "Those please. Fine dice. I gotta mash them after."

The things were beautiful as a starting point.

The king nodded and started setting up a workspace of sorts for himself. It was an old thing he used to do and doing it now brought him some comfort.

"How long has this idea been going on in your head?"

"Years," Tommy admitted, moving to start working some other toppings. "Pizza's pretty much the second best food group."

The king hid a smile but he still nodded. "You got that right. It was always a treat when we could get one. And we always ordered one with as much meat on it as we could."

"Alright then. I'll see what sorts of meat we've got to put on this."

Not that Tommy was certain they had a lot.

"I'm not sure what we could put on there even if Gladio and I could hunt it here." But he was all about chipping in.

"I mean, I'll figure it out with time," Tommy says with a smile as he chops up some vegetables," he says with a warm smile. "I'll manage this."

Noct smiled.

"Then I'll leave that up to you and in the meantime we'll see about making this pizza vision of yours a reality."

Tommy smiles and nods.

"Yeah, because, you know, pizza is just... it's nice. It's homeish."

"Seems like it's almost universal." Noctis replied with a light laugh in his tone.

Cutting up ingredients was the fun part, or so he always thought and here he was doing just that.

"I don't know if it is. The Agrii sure don't seem to get it," he says, but he smirks. "Still, bread, cheese, some sort of sauce? Easy to come up with."

He had to smile. "I don't know that they would now that you mention it. But it's still good to see that it's a thing here."

Especially since there had been free pizzas in the bar at times, provided of course by Cayde.

Yeah, but they were free frozen and replicated pizzas. So not the same thing.

"If they did try, it would taste like peanut butter."

"That's an interesting flavour to be thinking of right now."

Especially with making pizza.

"Not because of want. Because that's what they seem obsessed with."

The king paused with his chopping to look at Tommy puzzedly. "You're telling me that the Agrii are obsessed with peanut butter."

It really was a question.

"EVERYTHING tastes like it, dude. I ate a peanut butter veggie burger. It's brutal."

It had been so hard to handle living on the agrii ship for the period of time they had.

"Gross." Noct replied, not even bothering to entertain the idea one second more than he had to. Instead he focused on what he was doing.

However, the king looked up at the other after a minute. "You're going to put these in the diner for a regular meal, right?"

There was hope in that question.

"Yep," Tommy said with a laugh. "If this works out right. That's the hope. Regular pizza, could you imagine it? It would be perfect."

And he'd feel more at home himself that way.

[Open] Where There's Smoke There's Tommy

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