Storms Make Cowards Of It All

[doubled_speed]

WHO: Tommy Shepherd, You
WHERE: Diner, Around Temba
WHAT: Storm related panic attack, Heroics both good and failing
WHEN: October 10th-12th for first prompt, October 13th otherwise
WARNINGS: TW: panic attacks, blood, mouth related body horror, 'animal' attacks

I. Cowardly Behaviors | CW: Panic attack

Storms are the worst. Storms mess with Tommy's head like nothing else does. His powers are who he is, and the amount of times they've been taken away lately have been pretty upsetting. Which of course is why Tommy does the only thing he knows how to do. He hides. Hides in a corner of his new apartment over the diner, hiding under a blanket and shaking.

He's powerless and that scares him. Always scares him. Keeps getting him injured. Keeps reminding him he's worthless without what he can do. So he hides and tries to breathe because his whole body seems like it wants to shake out of his skin. And that's just how it goes.

This is just how his sanity goes.

II. Being A Hero | CW: 'animal attacks', possible explosions, possible blood

Power surges into his system and Tommy does the first thing he can think of. He takes off into the city, running at full speed.

Simple fact of the matter is that he wants to be a hero. More than that, you can do a hell of a lot of damage with speed. Force equals mass times acceleration. A lot of force happens when even someone wiry and slight like Tommy was bowls into something with an outstretched fist at sixty miles an hour. He's heard at mach three you basically turn a person into paste.

Really, the demodog deserves it, and Tommy has no issue at all booting it away from it's intended victim like he's a fucking... Whatever the name for the dude in football who kicks the ball when they kick it is called. Don't ask him. He doesn't watch sports.

"Well, that was fun," he says as he watches the creature go sailing limply through the air. No way it would get up wherever it landed. Then he looks to the person he rescued. "You okay? See or hear any others around?"

Because there always seemed to be others around.

III. When The Hero Needs Saved

What Tommy wasn't expecting once the powers came back in was for them to suddenly fail him again. Especially not when he had been hunting something. Something taller than him. Something with a big, screaming, flower-petal face.

"Shit," he curses as he feels it all flee him again. And he tries to back away.

"Shit," he says again as he throws himself at a tree, trying to haul himself up into it.

IV. Wildcard
[OOC: Tommy's heading into the Upside-Down on the 14th through the Fountain Gate. And he's a hero that specializes in emergency rescues. So if someone needs a rescue during the Mindflayer fights. If someone needs to be rescued and taken out for a doctor, we can wildcard Tommy showing up to rescue.]

Comments

iii

[tyrants_son]

The Light and its connected powers are not reliable at this time. Felwinter wouldn't have been able to sustain its use for long anyway, not for the frequency of creatures. But then Void and Solar and Arc were only ever meant to supplement the suppression one provided with their own weapons. But ammunition runs out, and when you're in between seeking more, then you have very limited options.

It's perhaps quite the reverse for a Demogorgon, having someone come up behind it instead, but then Felwinter is not flesh and blood, and the creature is driven by the fresh promise of a meal. Or at least it was until the back of its head is slammed into, sending it falling forward.

Behind it, the warlord waits, flexing a gloved fist.

[doubled_speed]

Okay, that's sorta cool. Tommy looks down at Felwinter, frowning. And then there's the Demogorgon, growling as it stumbles. Then it turns around, roaring with a spreading of it's five-petaled mouth. Dammit, that's a whole thing isn't it?

"Dude, be careful!"

[tyrants_son]

There's only the slightest tilt of his helmeted head as the creature faces him. His coat already sports a few tears from earlier encounters, but when you're going melee against equally melee foes, you just have to deal.

"Keep an eye out," he says in response to Tommy's warning. And then he's lunging forward at the Demogorgon, hand thrusting forward. Whether it decides to meet him with his face or claws, he's ready, it seems.

[doubled_speed]

What the actual fuck? This guy has giant steel balls doesn't he? Don't answer that. Fucking Exos, they're all mad. In a way that would be hot if Tommy was into that.

The Demogorgon takes the face on challenge and tries to claw at the Exo, intending to overwhelm it with strength.

[tyrants_son]

Exos were built to be war machines, and despite Felwinter's almost wiry frame if one were to compare him with other builds, he still proves just as solid. It had taken a war satellite to do irreparable damage to him. This creature would not do him any lasting impairment so long as Felspring is able to restore him.

He catches those narrow wrists, pulling the thing forward as he jerks his knee up with bone-crunching force at its torso before he slams his head into the thing's throat.

[doubled_speed]

Shit man. That's awesome. Tommy's too busy watching to watch for other threats. Holy shit man. Holy shit.

The Demogorgon screams and rates, and opens its mouth to try and wrap its mouth petals around Felwinter's head.

warning for violence against demogorgons i guess

[tyrants_son]

Felwinter releases its arms then to grab at its disturbing maw as it tries to engulf his face, his own arms tensing as he attempts to pull its terrible mouth in separate directions.

There's no reason to feel pity or regret for his actions here, no second thoughts. These are mindless beasts and their motives have been quite clear. And that's something the warlord will not stand for.

warning for violence against demogorgons

[doubled_speed]

Well damn. The creature hisses and tries to claw at Felwinter, but it's hard to do when its face, and then head, is being torn in two. Which leaves Tommy staring down in shock.

"Dude, did you SERIOUSLY just tear that thing's head in two?"

Yes, of course Felwinter had.

"Bad. Ass."

[tyrants_son]

His coat suffers a few fresh slashes, some deep enough to reveal the gleam of metal beneath whatever layers he might've been wearing. In one final heave, the creature's flailing ceases, and Felwinter releases its strange face, stepping back as he looks at the body once it thuds to the ground.

"It can't swallow anyone's head if there isn't a mouth to do it with."

I

[fatedsacrifice]

Gladio had been out in the storm, Noct was damn sure of it. But he had been trying to make sure more fish were okay when the storm rolled in and despite that. He blinked a few times as he got out of the damn water and shook his hands.

Damn it, it was just like when his powers had been zapped back home, and had been zapped from him here. With an aggravated sigh, he heads to the diner to see if folks are there, and if he can help. He didn't have his father's ring anymore either so he couldn't even use that.

But it was gone for good and good riddance, really.

No one seemed to be around, which was a good thing. Maybe people had headed out for safety elsewhere, but there was a niggling feeling in the back of his mind. So he went upstairs and found Tommy's apartment.

He paused, but then raised a hand and knocked.

"Tommy? Are you in there?"

[doubled_speed]

The voice, the knocking, they weren't expected. No one came to check in on Tommy at these times. Hell, he thought most people didn't even know he was here. But he looks toward the door.

"Noctis?" he asks, his voice disbelieving. "Are you real, or are you a fucking storm ghost?"

[fatedsacrifice]

He heard Tommy's voice and the king breathed a huge sigh of relief.

"Uh, I'm pretty real last I checked. I don't even know what the hell a storm ghost is. Wanna clue me in?"

He didn't want to get into the whole ghost thing, Tommy didn't need to know that.

[doubled_speed]

"You know, those things you see when the storms come that aren't really there?"

Surely Noctis had been through an Energy Storm before.

[fatedsacrifice]

"Right." the king replied. Sure he'd seen them but never thought they had a name or anything.

[doubled_speed]

"That's what we call them. And they just... I sorta hate them I guess."

Because they'd caused him to get hurt so many times before now.

[fatedsacrifice]

The king shook his head. "Ya they do have a tendency to suck, can't say I'm a fan." Not to mention all of the trauma they brought or brought back by appearing. And he pushed away the thought that someday someone might be unhappy that they thought about him.

"Are you alright?"

[doubled_speed]

"No," Tommy admits, curling in on himself more. Because how could he be okay? These storms gut him, show him lies, get him hurt. It's a Calibration but worse.

iii (fashionably late don't mind me)

[spinsandneedles]

Tommy isn't the only speedster taking advantage of his returned powers, and he's also not the only one who's powers decided to leave him again at literally the worst time. In Sonic's case, he'd gotten a running start and flung himself in pointy ball form at the monster's head, only for his absurd speed and durability to vanish again mid-air. This is not ideal.

He still collides with the monster with the desired outcome of knocking it off it's feet and sending it flying a few yards, because physics, but then Sonic plops down in the spot the monster had just been occupying and unrolls onto his back. It's fine, he probably hasn't broken anything (else), but he's definitely knocked the air out of himself and he'll probably be dazed for a bit. Also he probably shouldn't have been running on his banged up leg to begin with, but that's also fine. Only a couple wounds have reopened under his bandages! So it's fine!!

Also the monster totally isn't dead, but it's probably equally dazed for the time being so that's also fine! Everything is fine, Tommy!!

[doubled_speed]

Well that's something Tommy wished he could manage. Though watching the other speedy person run into the same barrier as him was... somehow unexpected.

"Dude, maybe climb!" he suggests.

[spinsandneedles]

"Ow."

It takes Sonic a few seconds to get himself sat up, and a few more seconds before he's back on his feet. It's not because he isn't aware of the urgency of the situation, it just HURTS to slam your entire body into a big monster thingy.

But yes, the monster. It's still out there, probably very alive and very pissed. Sonic takes Tommy's advice (after trying and failing to Go Fast after said monster) and limps his ass over to a tree that has a couple branches low enough for him to reach. It's not going as quick as he'd like.

"Soooo, that didn't quite go as well as I'd expected." Of course he's going to run his mouth, this is how he deals with looming death.

[doubled_speed]

Yeah, it really does. Tommy's done that. He reaches an arm down, hoping to offer the guy an arm up.

"Yeah, that's basically been my whole damn day."

[spinsandneedles]

Sonic isn't great at jumping right now due to no powers + busted leg, but he manages to hop high enough to grab Tommy's hand while he tries to scramble up this tree.

"Ugh, this is so frustrating! All I wanna do is run into monsters really hard and not throw my back out when I do it!"

Speaking of monsters, it's making a horrible angry monster noise now, so that's fun.

[doubled_speed]

Tommy is glad to haul him up to wait until their powers come back.

"Welcome to energy storms. They're always miserable. They don't tend to flicker like this though. It's been weird."

[spinsandneedles]

"I guess its better than not having them at all, unless they go out in the middle of a fight..."

Sigh, of course they can't have nice things. Once he's up on a higher branch, he scans the area for their new monster buddy, or any more that may be coming to check out the commotion.

"I wasn't sure exactly what to expect going into this, but things trying to eat me wasn't at the top of my list. They haven't managed to chomp you too, have they?"

[doubled_speed]

"Yeah, middle of the fight is absolutely the problem," he sighs. And that makes him so fucking annoyed.

"No, they haven't chomped me yet. I'm so very lucky about that. And it's been a miracle so far."