[Open] Beat The Heat

[doubled_speed]

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."

Comments

[doubled_speed]

Dude, he's used to being stared at from behind tinted shades that can hide expressions. He's not intimidated by that in particular.

"Given I'm a card carrying Avenger, pretty damn often. Though these days I specialize in recovery efforts. But that's not the point."

[sunglassesincluded]

"Often." Wesker repeats. "So it's not a solution that takes care of the problem for good." He almost sounds disappointed, though can't bring himself to be surprised. Humans are flawed creatures after all.

"What is the point, then." According to Tommy, at least.

[doubled_speed]

Oh come the fuck on. Nothing is perfect.

"Not being a monster," he says quite easily. "I'm not going to be a monster. I refuse to be like the people who tried to make me into a weapon."

[sunglassesincluded]

That's an odd answer to receive. Certainly not an opinion Wesker agrees with. But he can see how regular humans might see people like Tommy and his brother as potential monsters. Humans are foolish and tend to refuse to acknowledge their own inferiority when faced with those that are simply better.

"And yet they won't see you as anything else." He is certain of that much. It's much more preferable to just embrace the assigned role.

[doubled_speed]

"Dude, I wear a fucking costume and catch people from DoomBots," Tommy points out. "There are actual action figures sold of me. Yes, they see me as something else."

But not all of them. It's enough to be a hero though.

[sunglassesincluded]

Now this sounds like something straight out of a cartoon as far as Wesker is concerned. 'The adventures of Speeder Boy and Spider Boy' or whatever these are called.

"So you are being useful and the people appreciate that. Cute." Wesker comments. "What will happen when there are no more DoomBots?" No more need for heroics.

[doubled_speed]

Excuse you, it's Speed and Spider-Man and they have never teamed up. Not a lot at least.

"Dude, you've never met Victor Von Doom. There will ALWAYS be DoomBots. Even after Doom died for a bit, there were DoomBots.

[sunglassesincluded]

"You misunderstood the assignment." Wesker replies, crossing his arms. "Let me clearify: On my home world I am the only human to undergo a mutation without turning into either a zombie or a rampaging monstrosity. I took a step forward in human evolution and retained full control of my body and mental capacities. And I am being hunted for it despite of the influence my former research had on fighting viral outbreaks and earlier mentioned monsters."

"Our situations are not the same, Tommy. The world wants me dead for what I am. No costume will change that."

[doubled_speed]

No, he just didn't have the context. But he's intrigued here.

"Not there. But here you could do something slightly less dickish man."

They don't need to suffer for what Wesker goes through back home.

[sunglassesincluded]

The older man looks doutful at that suggestion. "And what. Make friends?"

He's not here to make friends. Not that he's any good at that particular task to begin with. Albert Wesker simply is not a man that has friends. Casual talks without an actual objective are strange enough and he finds himself engaged in those here more often than in meaningful exchanges. He was brought here with a task. And he wants to finish that task.

[doubled_speed]

"Not make enemies," Tommy suggests.

He doesn't think Wesker makes friends. But he kicks at a fallen stone.

"Maybe keep there from being a fucking witch hunt."

[sunglassesincluded]

"Isn't it already too late for that?" Wesker points out, hinting at earlier points of this conversation with a short wave of his hand.

"The first hunters are already after me. All I can do now is assure you that should they catch up, they will regret it."

[doubled_speed]

"It's called apologies," he points out. "Maybe I won't forgive what you did in my mind, how you... How you acted. But the others might not be so pissy if you called a truce."

[sunglassesincluded]

Wesker nearly laughs at that.

"So you're expecting everyone else to be better people than you are. Nice double standards, Tommy." He will totally judge Tommy for that attitude. Especially since he keeps calling himself a hero.

[doubled_speed]

"I'm expecting you didn't force other people through the same sorta trauma," Tommy points out. He's not obligated to forgive that when he'd TOLD Wesker not to do it. When he'd tried to get him to stop.

[sunglassesincluded]

"Only the ones that annoy me enough to deserve that much of my time." Wesker notes almost casually. By default he has no qualms with anyone. But the moment someone goes out of their way to become a bother for him all bets are off.

Which is why he gets along with Dr. Takemi as well as he is capable to get along with someone. She doesn't bother him and they both go about their respective work without constant interaction. Wesker can agree with that type of work ethic.

[doubled_speed]

"Oh fuck you," Tommy grumbles under his breath. Wesker was the one who was being an asshole when they met the first time. In Tommy's opinion at least. "Annoying someone doesn't justify violating their minds."

Because Tommy... hated people knowing what Wesker did. He'd... He'd been okay when it was only Jon that knew for sure. But Wesker? He hates that more.

[sunglassesincluded]

That certainly is a pleasing reaction in wesker's book. Though he makes sur eto not let that show.

"In some cases it does. And you can't blame me for how that experience was set up. You should have known what awaits in those tunnels." Given that Tommy has been around way longer than Wesker. He could simply have stayed away like others have.

[doubled_speed]

"You CHOSE to hurt me with it. There were other things you could have seen," Tommy said with frustration.

And honestly, ending up there wasn't so shocking.

[sunglassesincluded]

“I could have.” Wesker agrees. “But people are rarely shaped by their happy childhood memories.”

There is also little of interest in those. Wesker prefers to learn useful information.

[doubled_speed]

"Oh fuck you," Tommy hisses. He hates this man for what he did. It's not even remotely okay. "Just fuck you."

[sunglassesincluded]

The man remains unimpressed. "Has this immaturity ever gotten you anywhere?"

[doubled_speed]

"It's hardly immature to not want someone getting off on your literal torture," Tommy counters. "Has your dickishness ever gotten you anywhere?"

The answer was going to be yes, wasn't it?

[sunglassesincluded]

"Further than getting hung up over past matters that hold no relevance any longer." The past is just that: The past. Wesker rarely thinks back and these days actively tries to avoid considering just how much of his life has been set up and arranged by Spencer. The old man is dead. And with him the influence he held died. Wesker selected the useful pieces of his past to direct his own future going forward. And, if all goes according to plan as it should, that of mankind as a whole as well.

But unlike Wesker, everyone else here seems to thrive on their respective pasts. Which naturally makes these information valuable tools to him. Did he still defend his own memories? Of course. But not because he feared anyone learning about his past. No. It was because everyone else puts way too much importance on times long passed by. Which is bound to turn into a bother for him.

[doubled_speed]

"The past is what shapes us and leads to where we are now. It's still a part of us," Tommy counters.

And that Wesker is so desperate to distance from his own probably says something about Wesker's own levels of trauma.