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

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?"

So far really, only a few people have actually given Billy somewhat of a chance despite all of his poor first meetings with them. Tommy's one of them, and after the ordeal in his headspace, Billy really thought maybe he could change and be better. Not immediately of course, but the baby steps were still steps or some shit.

"I should've punched you more, but didn't want people to come running to your aid." Billy wouldn't have had anywhere to hide if Tommy's friends decided to repay the favor somehow. Blue eyes look at the other. "Why the fuck are you sorry? You didn't do anything to me."

Apologies were for chumps that were weak, or so that's how Neil made him feel every time he had to make one to Susan.

"What could be a downside? Being shoved in a girl's bedside drawer?"

Yeah, that's a definite proper choice. Tommy actually smirks at that comment.

"You're not wrong. There are a few people that might have taken that up with you after we got out."

And Tommy as not told a single one of them who fucked up his face. Didn't while he was done there, wasn't doing it now. There was some real importance to the fact that Tommy hadn't wait anything too. His brother probably would have... Well, it was better to not bring Billy into it.

"I could have," he said. "And I'm sure you've had some assholes throwing around this power around you as a threat before."

He didn't mention Neil's name. That would be a bad choice. As for the other thing, Tommy's grinning.

"I mean, not just the ladies. But there's other issues. Accidental destruction, heating things up, noises, accidentally falling through solid objects, and of course it uses a lot of energy and we're not exactly rolling in noodle shops here."

It doesn't take much to get Billy to want to fight. He had felt the itch for it in the bar with Wesker, like heat running through his veins to his hands. It was what he knew - when someone did something you didn't like, you punished them for it.

He stiffens at the subtle remark that he knows about his dad. Just thinking about Neil makes him pace a bit, coming out of the water again so he can move. Calibrations had brought up some of the worst memories, but kept the others under wraps. But it wasn't like people couldn't put two-n-two together.

Billy tries not to think about the belt in the kitchen, with Max watching in horror. He starts walking, not sure where he's going but he's gotta get his own itching energy out somehow. "Sounds like some bullshit out of a movie," comes the off-hand remark. Billy's trying to listen, but he finds himself concentrating on the ocean's surf more than the words being told to him.

Tommy shrugs as he moves to walk by Billy. He doesn't bother to fetch his shoes though. He's already got messy feet. He'll deal with them later.

"I mean, there aren't a lot of movies about super heroes because why would there be? I guess there's DC stuff but it's really niche stuff my brother reads. A lot of people want a hell of a lot less of us."

But he shrugs. He's used to that.

"There's an action figure of me, back home. I don't get any money from it. So BS."

Shoes are stupid on a beach. Coming down here, Billy didn't even bother with his. He hadn't expected to spend this much time here anyways. He doesn't acknowledge Tommy walking with him. Just shoves his hands into his pockets as the water rolls out over and over to greet them and pull away, the wind tossing at his curls.

"Yeah, people want more guys like you anyways." He thinks of Tommy in the same category as Eddie and Steve - people like them and praise them for heroics. He could feel the phantom sting on his cheek from where Steve punched him. "Heroes, or good guys, to stop people like me."

It shouldn't have been said so matter-of-factly, like it wasn't just Billy's opinion. But it was just the same thing as what went on in Calibrations - Neil said something enough that there was no way it couldn't be true at this point.

"I blew up my school."

It's out of left field. But it's true. Just... an accident.

"I spent time in juvie. People have died because of me. And honestly, got more than a few reasons to not be a hero. But I was given a choice after I made the greatest mistake of my life and when I almost made more."

He looks to Billy.

"When I say, Curls, that you have a choice? I say it because that same choice was offered to me. Other people can offer it to us, but only we can pick which path to walk when they set them before us."

That gets Billy to look at Tommy. That was out of left field. What the fuck.

And he listens, until it feels like he's being lectured. It has a 'I found God and turned my life around' feel to it, almost preachy and it makes Billy's skin crawl. All of what Tommy talks about going through sounds like something he should've gone through. Sure, he didn't blow up any schools, but he had a hand in what was sure to be the destruction of the mall, and definitely some murders.

No wonder Neil never showed to his funeral.

Billy looks out to the waves again. "Are you a superhero or a fucking preacher? I'm not converting to cults with the talk of turning into a good person."

Tommy laughs.

"Nah, Cults are more the magic side of the family. I'm saying maybe the people you're suggesting are so amazing kind of haven't always been like that?"

And that if they can't turn shit around maybe he can too. Hell, half of Tommy's family were recognized as terrorists for a while.

"I'm saying maybe give yourself a chance. That maybe a different environment might not be so fucking bad if you try and look forward. Geez."

The word 'freak' rest right on his tongue, so potent, he can taste the venom from it that would hurt Tommy. Talking about magic and shit like this like it's so easy. Like it doesn't make him a freak.

But he thinks about actually being better and it's something so small but Billy bites it off of his tongue and swallows it down before he can say it. The thoughts almost have him missing the rest of the conversation.

"I am looking forward. Forward to trying to change while I'm stuck here before I go home to fucking die." And it's only with that death that people back home even think for a moment that he wasn't as bad as was. That there was more than just the asshole shield he had put in place for protection.

He looks at Tommy. "Hard to give myself a chance if I don't have anyone in my corner giving me one either."

Yeah, hard to change with a sword hanging over your head. Tommy gets that. Nothing he can do about that at all. He kicks at the sand as he keeps walking. Well, he keeps walking until that last thing. Then he stops.

"There's definitely at least one person here in this corner, Billy."

The first time he's used that name meaning Hargrove since the highly tense moments at the end of the Calibrations memory. No nickname. Just his name. Just him.

At first, Billy doesn't notice that Tommy's stopped, since he looks away after the last thing he says so he can see where they're walking. It's only when he hears his name does he stop.

Not 'Hargrove'. Not 'Curls'. It's his actual name. Tommy said it, at least once while in his headspace.

It meant whatever Tommy was talking about, he was taking seriously. He turns halfway to the other, not moving to close or widen the distance. The wind whips at his hair and clothes.

"...Why? You barely fucking know me."

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sliding tackle into this tag

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CW:

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