revivalproject | [Open] Beat The Heat

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[Open] Beat The Heat

WHO: Tommy Shepherd, You
WHERE: Temba Fountain, Beach
WHAT: Tommy's Gone Nocturnal Creature
WHEN: Mid July
WARNINGS: None (Unless you count Tommy replicating a Super Soaker)

I. Don't Play In The Fountain | Temba Fountain
Midday. The hottest part of a stupidly hot summer. Sometimes it was just important to cool off. And given Tommy's been working hard all day in the greenhouse and diner, he needed a method to cool off so desperately.

Maybe there was somewhere else he could go, something else he could do. But damn, that fountain had been looking good each time he walked between the greenhouse and the diner. Until finally Tommy couldn't help it.

Which was why he was currently floating in the fountain, eyes closed, trying to keep his stupid body's accelerated metabolism and thus body temperature a bit lower in the hottest part of the day.

II. Stars Over Sands | The Beach
Night. The coolest time of the day, and probably the quietest. Which of course meant it was a time that Tommy absolutely got into his own damn head. There was problems that came from being a guy who only needed four hours of sleep on a world with a thirty hour day. So he had to take up some new hobby to handle the nights when he really wasn't able to sleep.

And there was something that was making going 'home' harder to do. So here he was, stretched out on a towel on the beach, just beyond the high tide line. His eyes were raised toward the stars, watching them. He doesn't even move when he hears the slide of sand that might mean someone approaching.

"Can't sleep?" he asks, his voice soft. Maybe he accidentally asks it of a lobster. But if he does, who could ever know?

III. Water Ambush! | Around Temba
Usually replicator rations should be used rationally in Tommy's opinion. Usually he used his own for getting food products for the diner. But for right now Tommy needed something for fun. Which was why people might come around corners and find themselves suddenly getting sprayed from an orange and green super soaker. And there was Tommy too, grinning and laughing.

The good news was that Tommy's speed meant that he could read things easily when someone came around a corner. In what would be a second or two for another person he had hours to experience, which meant he could come around a corner, make sure the person wasn't carrying something that would be ruined with the spray of cold water, and so his targets weren't going to have that to complain about.

Complain in general, though, that's possible. He even grins and winks after squirting someone.

"You're welcome for cooling you down."

IV. Frustration | Pink 10
The best way to deal with frustration, in Tommy's opinion, was toying with powers he doesn't trot out as often. Running was supposed to be freeing, comforting. But fuck it was too hot, especially at night, to be dealing with that too much. So instead, in the hotter parts of the day when he's got nothing better to do, he sits back under an umbrella he's rigged up from some massive cup leaves and toys with explosions. Given no one lived near this area or passed through as much, Tommy didn't see the danger.

So here he was, every now and then rushing into the mess of the ruins of this area, piling up bits of rocks and other things into structures, and then he would return to his shade. From there, well, he raised a hand lazily toward the construction, focused, and soon there was a loud noise as things blew apart in small scale explosions or crumbled apart, depending on the material.

Until, of course, he heard someone approaching.

"I can't really keep it down," he says without looking for whoever's arriving, "if that's what you're after. Explosions are noisy."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A lobster. Tommy laughs and shakes his head. What a relief. No real threat.

"Never actually seen one in the water. Always wondered where they went at night. Guess it makes sense. Be careful. They a mildly venomous? I think that's the one for when things bite you. Make you swell up a bit. They keep the creams I make to deal with it at the hospital though."

Answer found he slouches through the water to get back up onto clear sand. Water is better under his feet than around it in this sort of place.

"I was coming to help. Which is not to say I necessarily assumed you couldn't handle it. Reflexes from the work and all that."

Maybe the little shit got lost. Billy knows how it feels, especially after the Calibrations ordeal. Which felt like salt being scrubbed into a wound since it happened after Max left. He had an uneasy truce with Eddie and Steve, but Billy knows it won't last long. Things never do.

"Maybe it didn't get high enough before the tide. And venmous means it bites you, poisonous is when you bite it." He looks at the other. "You another fucking doctor? They're all shitty here, 'cept one. The other Billy. That bitch in the heels can choke on a tube of a lipstick for all I care."

There's some unintelligible grumbling under his voice for that. "And of course I can fucking handle it. It's a lobster and that's mild compared to the shit I've dealt with. You didn't even see the half of it." And not all of it was Neil.

Billy doesn't even think he can really explain to someone outside of Hawkins.

Huh, okay, he's noting those distinctions. Though he's laughing at the comments.

"Wesker is the biggest piece of shit, yes. I only hear good things about Tae from my brother though, so forgive me if I take his word over yours, Curls. Though I'm glad that Billy hasn't been so bad."

And he might have to admit that he finds those heels hot, because fuck that's something to be appreciated, right?

"I've seen plenty of things on my own. I couldn't help it, okay? It's literally my job. So it's a thing."

Now that he's fully free of the water, he shakes one leg and then the other to work the water off of them. Yeah, his powers meant he was effectively a dog when he needed water off of him.

"Wesker's a doctor? Jesus Christ, what a fucking nut job. I do not want that asshole healing me. He already made a mess of the bar," and of Billy, but he doesn't mention that. On purpose. "If it's your brother that's saying stuff, that's called being bias. Do I have to explain that one to you, too, like the difference between poisonous and venomous?"

He levels his gaze into a bored one. "I don't need saving. I'm not a God damn damsel in distress that needs to be swept into safety. Just because you got away with it in my headscape doesn't mean shit out here. Got that."

Though he has to turn to hide the smirk as Tommy shakes the water off of his legs. "You a damn cat? Afraid to get wet, bitch?" Maybe it would taunt the speedster if he waded further into the water, denim jeans be damned.

"Yeah, he really fucking did," Tommy says with a sigh. Fucking Wesker. Though he rolls his eyes at the idea that Billy would be biased.

He knows his brother enough to know that Billy would not do that. Especially since Tommy hates doctors.

"No, you didn't need saving. Doesn't stop me from reacting that way. Like how your instinct is to be an ass. And you did need help there."

He raises his shoes so he could check to make sure they were dry. Except now he was hearing this shit and rolls his eyes.

"First of all, seriously? 'Bitch'? Literally such a weak insult, and does it even serve a point? Second of all, I prefer to be on top of the water instead of in it."

At this rate, Billy was going to hate doctors too, which would be a problem if he needed medical attention again. Or maybe he'd just go to the other Billy for it, instead of Tae or Wesker. At least with Billy he was less likely to come out worse. Hell, Wesker would probably just kill him to save himself the trouble.

"Did I? I've dealt with that shit all of my life and the shitheads that brought us here thought it was a good idea to let people fucking snoop through my head like they were welcomed." Water sloshes around him as he heads out of the water, not even caring about the sand clinging to his wet skin.

"So you are afraid to get wet. And I called you that because you shake water off like one."

Hey, doctors are hella shady.

"I hate that I keep having to do this but don't blame the Agrii for that BS. They don't set that shit up. There's another group of aliens, the Atroma. They are responsible for that shit."

Listen he liked Ga Re and he is sticking up for her.

"But yeah, it's hell. You run into Wesker in there? Dude is a fucking bloodhound for traumatic memories. Sniffed my worst ones out and then waltzed off. Fuck him."

As for the water thing he rolls his eyes.

"I just don't see a point to going in it. The ocean got boring after the third time I ran to Hawaii and lost my phone in the process."

"No, he was my first guest down in the bunker. Called my life pathetic." And that had gotten under his skin so much that it was still a splinter since getting back out. Maybe that's why he had been so eager to pick that fight in the bar.

"Billy and Tae helped fix me the hell up," though only one was nice about it. Why was Tae so fucking mean to him anyways? "Lots of magic, lots of stitches, and had to get some blood from some bulky guy I've just been calling 'Ambulance'." He lifts up the shirt so the pale scarring over his midsection is visible for a moment before the fabric covers it again.

"Of course the ocean is boring if you don't go in it." He rolls his eyes and there's a bored look on his face now. Billy doesn't seem entirely fazed about someone with super speed after dealing with a creature mind controlling him and a girl that broke him from it.

Just thinking about Calibrations made his skin crawl with discomfort. He remembered how Wesker looked at him like he really was just gum stuck to the bottom of his shoe. How Tommy shouted over his dad's voice that he could be better.

He rubs his hands over his arms like he's trying to warm up from a chill that wasn't there.

Yeah Wesker was an asshole about it all. Tommy knew that one pretty deeply. So he just sighs and shakes his head. The guy didn't know how to play nice.

"Big, bulky," he says after having taken a very lengthy few milliseconds to study the scarring, "sounds like Noct's boyfriend Gladio. I mentioned him before. Mopey Muscles? He does some hunting to keep us in meat while Noctis fishes."

Diet had been better since they had arrived. Tommy was grateful for it. And he was also looking at the ocean a bit like he didn't trust it.

"If you're warm," and how the fuck would he be, "I can go get you something. Consider it an apology for egging you on back there. Maybe make us a little closer to even instead of this whole thing where you try and talk me into the water."

"Don't know his name, only met him that one time while I was bleeding out. He carried me to the hospital at least." But it was good to hear that there was meat here, and not just greens and paste.

Fucking paste.

"No, just... chilled," but 'from a memory' goes left unsaid.

Billy feels conflicted on how to react. Should he metaphorically snap his teeth again or take the offer of a blanket he didn't really need.

'You've got a choice, Billy,' Tommy had said. He grits his teeth, the boredom melting into quick anger as he turns away. "Fine, I'll take a blanket," he bites out, like he's trying to sound civil.

There was great food here. Radley had upped the level of the diner food but Tommy was a passable cook and getting better. When he could pay attention.

But the affirmation comes and just like that there is a burst of sand and Tommy is gone. And just as quickly he's back and holding out a thin, shiny, metallic looking piece of cloth. Well it will be when it's unfolded. For now it's still pristine in

"Not long after we got here the Agrii put this cardboard box in the Soup Lies building. Not sure but I might have been the first person to ask them for something. To keep my brother warm. They gave me five of these."

It was almost four years ago. This was the last one that hasn't been taken out of the packaging. In a way it's a larger gesture than Hargrove can imagine.

"Back then we had basically nothing. No comm devices, no ships, unreliable food and water. Real fucking wilderness. Hell we didn't even get a map. You're all so lucky to not have to deal with that shit."

Meanwhile he balances on one foot to lever off a shoe and dump the sand out of it.

"Back then people didn't come in as bad as you apparently did. They're getting worse at this. Maybe even desperate. We've really screwed you guys in some ways, by not being better at this."

Billy's moved a little bit by the time Tommy nyooms back. He's back in the water, now thigh-deep and not caring of his wet jeans. The water was good.

The water was home.

It was filled with good memories that were made with sunshine and sand and water and a love that had left him one night.

The blond does startle as Tommy reappears however, glaring out of habit from him to the... blanket? The expression softens. "That looks like one of those survival blankets that you'd use for camping." It gets snatched out of Tommy's hands but he doesn't wrap it around his shoulders for now. Maybe if that creepy chill comes back.

His focus stays on that blanket for a bit. "Or they were trying to save me a little longer than I get in my own world." Because he's been through this mental song and dance before. Billy knows how it goes. What waits for him.

Yeah. Those scars had looked hella shitty. He gets the other shoe off, shakes the sand out, and sends it sailing over his shoulder toward the blanket. With a sigh he rolls up his pants legs just a bit and then steps into the surf with Billy. Not even as deep though.

"If we can fix these storms, maybe not. Then Billy will probably have all of his power back. No reason he can't see to it that you and that Eddie kid are dropped off somewhen more convenient. The others like you too. No reason not to give fate a middle finger, right?"

Tommy seemed to do that every day with how weak he was compared to his twin. But that doesn't matter.

"Meanwhile, just, I don't know. Do your best here? I meant what I said. Back in the dream. Maybe I'm just a sap who believes in second chances though, seeing as I got one."

Billy looks back at the noise of the shoe hitting the sand further up the beach. Smirks as Tommy joins him. Not as deep, but still. He's in the water. It feels like the guy trying to meet him halfway.

"If you take me away from my fate, it might fuck up everything else that comes after it. Ever read A Sound of Thunder?" Something he read while they were still in San Diego, to keep Neil off of his back a little bit longer about his homework. "I remember what you said in my dream. I remember what everybody said."

He takes a couple of steps towards the beach - towards Tommy - but keep the blanket folded over his arms held against his chest. To keep himself from accidentally getting out of line in case the other says the wrong shit. "Water's not so bad now is it? Did even need to hold you at gunpoint to get you in here, either."

Don't mind him if he splashes a little weakly. Or if after a moment he tilts his head in consideration and watches his feet. Probably don't think too hard about how, after a moment, there are perfect rings of ripples moving outwards from his legs until they hit each other and the incoming water and get messed up.

Split attention span? Nah. He doesn't have that.

"I guess that's true. I mean, Billy said some shit happened when Iron Lad tried that stuff. But Noctis and Gladio are from different variations of their universe. Scruffy is from a different one than me and Billy. Maybe... maybe saving you is just what we always would have done in your version of your universe."

Things get hard when dimensions figure in. And Tommy didn't even get to go on the interdimensional road trip like his twin had. Actually, he'd been the goal of it. The prize at the end.

"And no, I haven't. I'm not a nerd."

He is absolutely a book nerd. He just won't admit it easily and hasn't read that. Probably 'the wrong shit to say' isn't it? Good thing he's barreling along at a rate that would literally prevent interruptions.

"I can't swim."

There. An admission. Teeth equal pulled.

"I mean," he says, still going without a breath, "not like other people do. When I trip up or lose momentum and end up in the water I can kick my legs. Poorly. But that doesn't matter when they're going at supersonic speeds, you know? Like a fucking onboard motor. But there hasn't been an energy storm lately which means we're sorta due and if one rolls in while I'm out over the water and I don't notice I'm sorta boned?"

He wouldn't admit this much normally. But he is trying to make some measure of peace between them after that shit he pulled. And maybe he feels guilty for what he saw. Billy's, in a way, like him. Like what he could have been without his powers, and then his brother and team. He remembers the anger. The fear. The need for some measure of control. Though he hadn't been able to before his powers. Just some unpopular weird kid, slightly nerdy, who hadn't fit in. The sort that had curled into a ball and retreated from everyone out of fear, until he'd been forced to find a new mask. The one he wore in the face of everything even now.

Edited 2023-07-23 04:18 (UTC)

"Look like a nerd."

There's an underlying tone of malice under those words, but he doesn't act on it. Not right now. Even though every little bit of him wants to shove Tommy into the water because it felt like the guy called Billy a nerd. "It's called 'required reading," he bites out, though it's a lie.

He sucks in a breath through his nose and keeps where he's standing. Calm, calm down. They're just fucking talking. Tommy's not actively looking for a fight. And when that admission is made? Billy actually looks shocked.

Shocked.

All but two years of his life were in California. It was unthinkable to him that someone didn't know how to swim. So he stares at Tommy for a long moment. Another one. He finally blinks and looks away because staring is rude after all. "You should learn to swim then. In case shit happens, like the storms you're talking about." Storms that he thinks wouldn't effect him because Billy doesn't have any magical powers.

"At least I know you're not afraid of the water," to which he sticks his tongue out, almost like he's going to antagonize the other.

Excuse you, he looks fucking cool because he is fucking cool. He is the most amazingly cool person ever. And the grin we wears when Billy calls him a nerd says he knows it too.

"Required reading doesn't really work out when you're kicked out of school for vaporizing it and have to get your GED instead."

Yeah that's a whole story there. Tommy's powers had not come in gently. Or slowly. For now he just kicks at the water come.

"Being afraid of the water is stupid when you can walk on it. And it wasn't like Mary and Frank ever took me to the beach. Or a pool." Or anywhere. "And the super-juvie didn't throw me into one either. Never really dealt bodies of water until after my powers so learning wasn't high priority."

Even with his disaster work he had never been as useful with water stuff. But asking for lessons was admitting a failing. And a vulnerability. He was shit at that.

"Seems stupid in retrospect. My maybe-boyfriend lived on a fucking tropical island and since I wasn't supposed to use the gates often I literally ran there, bypassing defenses on the way, and I never asked for swimming lessons. Stupid, right?"

Maybe he would when he got home. There were plenty of mutants who could swim without mutations to ask.

Nerd.

"Well that sounds like a problem for the school. Beats doing pointless homework," but it looks like that little nugget of info interests Billy despite him not saying anything. He watches Tommy with that bright glimmer in his eyes, even before it slides back into a nonchalant look.

A small snort. "Maybe I'll get you some water wings replicated and kick you out into the ocean." He couldn't, of course, if Tommy didn't want to with how fast the little freak as. A freak that doesn't know how to swim. "You know, if you're worried about those energy storm things, you should be able to swim. So you're less vulnerable or whatever the fuck you freaks deal with. And then you can swim underwater and see what's hiding in the sand."

Despite the insult thrown in, Billy almost sounds concerned.

This was the guy, after all, who'd been the only one to get out of his dreamscape with Billy. Who had told him he could be more. When was the last time he had someone rooting for him anyways?

Not even remotely. You know you wish you were as cool and sexy as he is.

"Really is," he says, grumbling to himself. Some mistakes keep hurting, even years later.

"Seriously, there is nothing you can do to get me into a pair of floaties." Because sure it didn't need said, but it needed said. Though the word 'freak' earns a good bit of tension from Tommy. A straightening of his spine, a clenching of his jaw. It's the sort of posture of someone taking offense and having trouble dealing with it.

"Yeah, let's start with there's no one to teach me, and follow up with you're not going to use that word again, not at me. Got it, Curls?"

Because he doesn't care if it's true from Hargrove's perspective. He's not tolerating it more. It's made him angry enough that he can't even hear the concern through the anger.

Edited 2023-07-27 00:53 (UTC)

At first, Billy doesn't realize he's used something that's not an insult, but more akin to a slur. But why would he? Eddie wears the name as a badge of pride and there aren't any mutants in his world. He bends over to wipe some of the sand off of his legs and when he straightens, he sees the tense way Tommy is standing.

It's not... blatant, but Billy knows someone tensing for a fight when he sees it.

"What word? Freak? You're super fucking fast, and that's not fucking normal, like people like me that go slow by comparison."

"Yeah, I am a super fucking fast mutant. Which is why racist assholes love to remind me just like you did. 'Mutie freak'. Favorite fucking term in their books. And I'd you were from my Earth, I'd have dumped you in the deep water. But you don't know better. So this here? This moment? This is you knowing better," he says, the words low and dangerous. And punctuated by a far more obvious sign of displeasure.

The vibrations of his legs in the water, quivering with restrained power, is making the small waves at their feet start to actually froth. And heat a bit. But he's mostly keeping under control.

"Me and my brother, you don't call us that. You wanna improve yourself, you have any aspirations toward that, start with the hate language. Drop it. Get creative with insults. Leave people breathless before the creativity. But no slurs."

The water kicked up around them starts to settle as Tommy takes a step back, takes a few deep breaths to try and calm himself, and wraps his arms across his chest in a clearly defensive manner.

He hasn't heard that word used on him except in memories since he got here. Strange how he didn't know it still carried so much power over him.

Racist? All he did was call Tommy a freak, how was that being a racist? It wasn’t like he pointed out how Tommy was white or anything. Just super fucking fast. But apparently it’s upsetting for the guy as the seawater starts to froth around his legs.

Frothing water isn’t dangerous, but in this moment Billy knows it’s not supposed to be. It’s supposed to be a warning.

He gets scolded about the term he used. How Hargrove isn’t allowed to use that word towards Billy or Tommy. It makes him bristle, how this guy talks to him. His gaze slides into a bored look, an instinct after dealing with it for so long. Tommy only saw the memory of his parents interacting, never how Billy sort of turned off when he was lectured or scolded.

Despite that, clearly this is important to Tommy. A splinter that Billy‘s pushed in and at the point where he could push too far if he wants. It’s tempting, it’s right there, and there’s no way it could be a slur because he uses it on Munson all the time.

That makes it okay, right?

The water stops frothing angrily and Tommy‘s stepping back to out more space between them. Billy simply watches, all manner of things spinning through his head to try and figure out how to respond. But he doesn’t pick any of them, simply watching Tommy as the other hugs himself. He doesn’t say the word again, but he doesn’t say sorry either.

He's still shaken. Upset. Trying to calm himself down. It'll be alright, okay? He'll be alright. Yeah.

"Frank called me that, after my mutation came in. I lost track of how many times. He couldn't hit me anymore because I wouldn't let him. But he could still open his mouth. He called me a mutie freak twelve times on the last day I saw him. There are people that will go to protests, carrying around signs, talking about how 'Muties' and 'freaks' like us should be sterilized so we can't breed."

That makes him laugh. That last word. It's the word they use too. 'Breed'. Like they're animals and not people.

"There have been targeted attacks against us. People have died. Children have died. A whole bus of-"

He shakes his head. How many nights after drinking had he held David's hand as he processed the survivor's guilt when it bubbled up? How often had he stood tall even though other people like him talked about his soul-mother in the worst ways? How many...

"Call me a bitch. Call me an asshole or a prick or an idiot or a self righteous egotistical do gooder or a sociopath if you really wanna dig the knife in. Never call me a freak. Insult me for who I am, not the circumstances of my birth that I can't control."

The former was fucking easy to do anyway. Tommy had a wealth of flaws.

Edited 2023-07-27 15:04 (UTC)

And while Tommy works at calming himself down, Billy hasn’t moved. He’s still watching him with that bored look though, the sparks gone from his eyes. He hates being scolded. But this… this wasn’t the same. Tommy was setting a boundary with him, like Max did not long after he showed up here. Steve had been firm about Billy respecting her boundaries, too.

A couple of steps are taken towards Tommy, but doesn’t get too close in case the guy doesn’t want him to come near. Billy doesn’t even need to ask who Frank is. Frank is Tommy’s version of Neil.

The laughter catches him off guard. The blond doesn’t expect it, especially with it at the forefront of hearing about people killing others that were like Tommy.

"Well, you are a self-righteous prick," he finally points out and he’s so quiet. That dead look in his eyes as he finally looks from Tommy back to the ocean. Some of the light comes back and the realization hits because that was a terrible thing to say. He’s broken kid‘s arms, done horrid things, but if you don’t count being mind controlled, he never killed anyone.

And he is not counting being mind controlled.

"Didn’t even let me stay in my own headspace and you egged me on until I started punching you."

See, there's the insult he deserves. Tommy's laughter this time is more genuine, less disgusted and bitter. He's not an animal now. He's just a self-righteous prick.

"Dude, I dress up in green a silver and run around to rescue people. I'm definitely a self-righteous prick. You're not wrong there. And the punching was deserved, we can both agree there."

He isn't backing away anymore. Instead he lowers his arms and kicks a little at the water.

"Sorry about the whole almost boiling some water shit. I've got a really really different sort of fight or flight reaction. But you weren't going to get it if I just said it and ran off."

Even if he'd been desperate to run off.

"There are serious fucking downsides to being able to vibrate, you know?"

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sliding tackle into this tag

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CW:

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