[Calibrations] Calibrations Still Hurt

[doubled_speed]

WHO: Tommy Sheperd, OTA
WHERE: Tommy’s Calibration Room
WHAT: Calibrations
WHEN: June 10th to July 10th
WARNINGS: CW: Tommy’s Calibrations room potentially contains depictions of child abuse, bullying, and medical experimentation, and dogs used to threaten/harass a child. It depends on what you touch (each will have warnings in strike-through attached).

Arriving in this room means a literal arrival. A door opens, the one to Tommy's room here in Temba. No sooner does one step through the door than it closes behind the arrival, leaving them alone with a Tommy Shepherd who is lounging on a couch against the wall of a very messy room. Honestly, it pretty much relates to his own room at Temba's 'Young Avengers HQ'. At least there's an open window in the room to let in fresh air. The view is weird though as it's of the Las Vegas Strip at night, from a literally impossible angle. It's almost as if the window looks out into the middle of the road itself.

"Hey, welcome," Tommy says, kicking his feet over the arm of the couch. "Just give me a second."

He is flipping through a book, clearly reading. His fingers move quickly, until he seems to get to a good stopping point. Then he stuffs a bookmark in and sits up.

"Forgive the mess. Been busy lately."

And yeah, it's a mess. Not too hard to trip over a pair of goggles with orange lenses in the middle of what should be a walkway to the bed or the bathroom beyond it. Strangely enough even stepping on it owuldn't break them. It probably goes with the silver and green super hero costume slung over a low table stacked with books. Also on that table is a framed photograph of a house Baby Hands Reference.

The rest of the room is filled with scattered clothes, including a worn brown leather belt cw: physical child abuse too big for someone Tommy's size sticking out from under the couch. At least most of it seems to be Tommy's own clothes, but some of it includes shirts that are too small for him, or too big and far too yellow. Yellow definitely isn't as much his color so that's an interesting thing going on. Also on top of a pile of socks happens to be a mass of black and gold fabric that will prove to be a mask. Weird place for it, but okay.

Tucked under the pillow of the bed in the room is a strange metal collar cw: medical experimentation and dogs. It's mostly hidden under the pillow, almost as if to say 'out of sight, out of mind', and yet the placement might well mean it was on Tommy's mind any time he slept. Or maybe that's just reading into things. So maybe don't read into it so much and instead choose to focus on the old CRTV with built in VHS Player in the corner of the room. Is that some old western movie running right now? WHat's up with that?


[OOC: The secret to getting out of Tommy's room before the 'time limit' is to see the mess and volunteer to help clean up while talking to Tommy. Seeing a minimum of one memory can also cause the door to open and allow people to leave at any point. Also if you want a possible different memory or something specific, message me and we can talk.]

Comments

[quark_assassin]

Dustin obediently trails after Tommy, assuming that his own dream specter will be able to navigate a way out, although his confidence wanes by the second as the memory continues to progress around them. He can't help but steal curious glances at the guests gathering, starting to organize around the couple. What kinds of people are invited to a wedding between a mutant and a green alien?

[doubled_speed]

This sure wasn't going well. Tommy sighs and drops his hand from the other him, needing to move away as another girl arrives, this one... Well, she's twenty feet tall if she's an inch. And Tommy, both Tommys actually, smile at her with this fond wonder.

"Seems like the gang's almost all back together," the past him observes.

"Pretty good for no warning, chico," a girl next to him in a skirt, american print shirt, and denim coat says, nudging him.

Past Tommy laughs.

"They never could have done it without us."

The two bump fists and turn their attention back to the get together.

[quark_assassin]

Dustin really shouldn't be surprised, but he is. "--Shit," he gasps, skittering out of the way of the literal giant woman passing them by. His nerves don't calm down until he searches Tommy for a reaction and finds him grinning, like a dumbstruck idiot. Then he's just a little annoyed.

"Ah...your team, then," he asks, making an effort to ruffle the tension out of his shoulders. It seems like they're going to be stuck here for a while, even in spite of Tommy's efforts to end the memory early, so he might as well make a minor effort to sate his curiosity. "Other superheroes?"

[doubled_speed]

"My family," now-Tommy says with a fond smile as he points them out. "Cassie is Stature. You can already see half of what she does, but she also gets small. Dude in a suit that isn't Billy or Teddy is Eli. He's a super soldier. Strong, durable, fast for a human. Retired and wants to go to law school. Girl in the patriotic stuff is America. I didn't know her until later. Stronger, flies, punches holes between dimensions. And the girl in purple is an old flame. Kate, or Hawkeye. Best markswoman in the world. Just a woman with a gift."

The grooms are before the minister now and words are being said and just about everyone is in tears. Not Tommy or Tommy of course. They're clearly too cool for that.

[quark_assassin]

Dustin quirks an eyebrow at the clarification, but doesn't stop Tommy from pointing out the people around them. He's not sure he'll remember who they are when the dream ends; he's not sure he cares, either. But for some reason, Dustin still finds himself paying a lot of attention, willing himself to drink in the details so that he doesn't forget. They're important people to Tommy, so maybe they should be important to him, too.

The vows, though, Dustin does not pay attention to. He's more interested in the team (and is also too cool to be emotional at weddings) - one person in particular.

"A bit on-the-nose," Dustin murmurs, focusing his attention on America in her theme-appropriate outfit. "Do you think she's looking for you?"

[doubled_speed]

"She will look for Billy, not me," Tommy says, his voice soft. "If time really moved back home, she'd be here to find him."

And as the grooms share their kiss and Tommy's team cheers, the memory fades.

[quark_assassin]

As he returns to Tommy's messy dreamspace room, Dustin's mind isn't on the happy couple or the touching reunion - he doesn't need the help of his powers to vaguely understand and be transfixed by the idea of America and her dimension-punching abilities. He goes back into it as soon as he blinks the memory's after-images out of his eyes.

"--Maybe she doesn't know where to look," Dustin suggests. An undercurrent of quiet desperation lifts and quickens his voice. "There's gotta be billions, or trillions - functionally infinite dimensions to sift through, right? Or maybe the, um--"

He snaps his fingers a few times and squeezes his eyes shut, trying to conjure the species name. Not Agrii, starts with an 'A'...

"--Atroma," he blurts. "Maybe they've put up some kind of shield, or cloaking, to keep us hidden from people like her. Steal people from other universes enough and you've probably developed a defense mechanism to keep them from looking, yeah?"

[doubled_speed]

Maybe she doesn't. But Tommy doesn't think that would stop her. She'd keep running, keep searching. With Teddy. With Loki.

"My team's done interdimensional searches before, apparently," he says with a shrug. "But I guess the Atroma could do that, if they can do the other things we've heard they did."

[quark_assassin]

"It's just as likely as anything else," Dustin answers quickly. Apparently he can still be full of nervous energy and rambling asides even without his powers, evidenced by how he starts pacing the room, stepping around the detritus littering the floor. "How many other civilizations across different universes have developed this kind of technology, or have the innate ability to travel between them like America can? They must have pissed off at least a few of them by now. Either they've made some kind of deal with them or they can stay isolated - those are the only options that make sense, right?"

He turns sharply to face Tommy, his eyes narrowed.

"--What do you know about the searches your team did?" he asks. "Anything?"

The fact that he's probably not going to remember any of this later seems to have been (ironically) forgotten. Curiosity drives him to ask anyway.

[doubled_speed]

"Since they were searching for me, nope, not a thing."

Sorry about that man. He's got literally no idea how any of it works.

"And they only got me back because a guy kissed an eldritch horror spirit?"

Which was weird. He knows.

[quark_assassin]

Dustin gives Tommy an odd look, and not even for the obvious reason.

"This has happened to you before?" he asks slowly. "The whole...transported across universes thing?"

[doubled_speed]

"Yeah, but... I don't remember it? It was more like... it took me. And I was trapped. I don't know how. I don't remember it. But they told me they chased across the multiverse for it so they could get me back."

It was a big blank in his head.

[quark_assassin]

Dustin frowns in obvious disappointment. More information would be useful, but - well, it doesn't matter anyway, does it? "Just gonna forget it all anyway," he mutters to himself with an annoyed scoff, kicking around the mess on the floor.

Then his attention returns to Tommy. "Maybe they're already looking," he suggests. "Time is relative and shit. Maybe they have to kiss, like, three eldritch horror spirits or something this time."

[doubled_speed]

"Fair enough," Tommy says with a laugh. But he shakes his head and goes to flop down onto his bed. "Man, I stopped hoping to go home a long time ago."

[quark_assassin]

Dustin huffs a weak laugh in return, stooping down to pick up a discarded t-shirt that's managed to stay attached to his foot, idly folding it. He'd like to stay busy in ways that don't force him to infringe on more of Tommy's memories, and the mess that he's already been stepping on and around seems safe enough.

What Tommy says after that, though, gives Dustin pause. "...Do you still want to go back?" he asks, throwing him an odd look.

[doubled_speed]

"Not while Billy is here," TOmmy answers completely honestly. "Then... I mean, I guess I have to take care of all of you idiots."

Even though he was alone here, was sad, was hurt. But hey, you do what you do.

[quark_assassin]

Dustin frowns; he's familiar and come to terms with his feelings about people having family here to rely on, with Omega and Echo at his expense, but he hadn't considered the idea that it could be actively holding people back. What if a solution presented itself, and Billy opted to stay behind? Would Omega and Echo do the same for each other?

But these thoughts are complicated, so they stay in Dustin's head. "Yeah," he says instead, deadpan, dropping the folded shirt on the foot of Tommy's bed. "We'd all starve otherwise."

[doubled_speed]

In a lot of ways Billy was the only person Tommy had. Especially now that he was here and Billy had been the only person he truly had fromt he start.

"Yeah, you fucking would," he smiles. Then he nods toward the door. "You can bounce if you want."

[quark_assassin]

Dustin blinks, does a double-take at the door, quickly glances back at Tommy with wide eyes.

"I--oh." He'd expected more prodding for memories, honestly, but Dustin will happily accept the opportunity to leave Tommy and his personal shit Alone. He takes a step backwards. "Yeah. I'll get out of your hair."

He feels like he ought to say something - about the memory, maybe, or his lost friends, or about Billy still being here for him. But none of it feels like any of his business. So instead, after a somewhat awkward pause, Dustin averts his gaze, sweeps a hand through his hair, and quickly shuffles to and out of the door.