Video Broadcast - OTA (Post Storm)

[doubled_speed]

[Hey guys, look who it is. The bright and cheerful and constantly snarky kid. Who is smiling wide, though it looks a bit strained. Good news, his arm has healed since getting back. Bad news, Tommy looks nervous and maybe a hint of stressed as the video starts. But hey, he's in the greenhouse, which is obvious from the greenery around him. And his communication device is propped up against something, because his hands are in the shot, working at the soil around a lush Cyanana plant, clearly working fertilizer into the soil with care.]

So, like... Just because we've got the ships and stuff doesn't mean it's not important for us to maintain the greenhouse, right? We were gone for a while and not all the places in here did well while we were gone. And then I was walking around and realized that we're sorta scattered, the people working here. So maybe people with the skill should, like, coordinate? Because fresh food on the ships is good too. We can preserve shit and put it on the ships for variation.

I also wanna do, like, hydroponics on some of the ships. So if we gets spaced again for a while, we can have fresh stuff.

Guess...

[He sighs and his hand cards through his hair. Which means some dirt is now there in the perfect white strands.]

Guess I mean I'm willing to help organize. Map out the greenhouse, help us figure out schedules and when to work on different plants and that shit. Or not. Someone else can take that charge. I don't much care. It just needs done. Might also need an engineer to help with the ship part. And maybe people to okay adding it to other ships and to take care of the plants.

Anyway uh...

[Let him be useful. He failed as a hero in the storm. Disappointment and frustration flash across his face in the video and then it's gone.]

Thoughts?

Comments

[wearingthestars]

[Doesn't stop the irrational fear of a previously only child from getting the best of him.]

Loving Teddy doesn't stop me from loving you. Or from wanting you around. Needing you around.

[doubled_speed]

[What? That doesn't make sense.]

Listen just... yeah. Teddy gets first dibs. We all know that. Which is why he gets the room with you.

[wearingthestars]

[Well, Tommy only got a sudden twin thrust at him when he was all ready mostly grown, it's hard to explain the older sibling anxiety over losing their parent's love.]

We could still share.

[Which, yeah- real world- kind of weird, rooming with your brother AND your fiance, but...this is a survival sort of situation.]

[doubled_speed]

[Tommy shakes his head.]

Dude, it was probably weird that we were sharing a bed anyway.

[wearingthestars]

...maybe, but...it was still nice.

And even if you don't want to bunk with us...we're still good, okay? I still love you just as much as I did before he came, don't forget that.

[doubled_speed]

[But he doesn't have a place there anymore. He frowns and shakes his head.]

It's not that simple, Billy. Nothing is that easy.

[wearingthestars]

People fall in love all the time, they don't stop loving their family or their friends.

[doubled_speed]

[Who says? Because Tommy was pretty sure his parents stopped loving each other. And never started loving them.]

People... have only so much love in them. And it gets used up. Like, you have x percentage of your love for your future Space-Hubby, and then some for your birth parents, and then your birth brothers, and then Wanda. And by the time you get down to me...

[He's the stranger. The one that never got to be Billy's.]

[wearingthestars]

[Billy shakes his head.]

When my brothers were born, I got super jealous. I was afraid my parents wouldn't love me the same anymore...that they loved the twins more than me. Mom said it's something most kids go through, but- she said love isn't like a pie you slice up. I wasn't losing any love because they had someone else to love.

[doubled_speed]

[He definitely doesn't believe it. But he sighs and tries another approach.]

But you don't know me.

[wearingthestars]

...I want to.

[And he thinks he maybe knows Tommy better than some people.]

[doubled_speed]

Uh...

[He sighs and pulls out of the hug.]

There's not a lot of good things in my history.

[wearingthestars]

[Billy lets him pull away and gives an understanding sort of look.]

I still want to know.

[doubled_speed]

Then... Ask. And when you run off screaming, it's not my fault.

[wearingthestars]

I'm not going to run off screaming.
What is it you most wish I knew?

[doubled_speed]

[Most wished he knew? Well, it's not like he really knew the answer to that. Interesting.]

I don't know, man. I don't think about telling you anything.

[wearingthestars]

Never?

[Billy thinks about so many things he wants to share with his brother from his past.]

[doubled_speed]

Never.

[He's thought about it. He's thought about how quickly Billy would laugh at him and walk off. So yeah, he doesn't think about it.]

[wearingthestars]

...I wanna know more about your life before I met you.

[doubled_speed]

I'm... not ready to talk about the Juvie.

[Tommy shudders as he starts pacing. He HATES the idea of Juvie.]

[wearingthestars]

[Billy winces a little and nods understandingly.]

Before that.

[doubled_speed]

You mean to ask about the Shepherds.

[That's... not a good thing.]

[wearingthestars]

[He nods. He knows a bit. Mostly through what's left unsaid, honestly.]

...if you want to talk about it.

cw: Child abuse and neglect

[doubled_speed]

[They're really doing this then? They're really doing this? Fine. Tommy moves before Billy can protest and scoops him up, carrying him down into the underground portion where they mostly crew mushrooms. It's darker here. Quieter. It's... more in keeping with the mood this brought him too. Once he's put his brother down he starts pacing.]

The first time Mary told me I was a mistake, I was five. I didn't understand at the time.

[wearingthestars]

[Billy hardly flinches any more at Tommy scooping him up, though he does wish he would give a little notice, blinking at the quiet space he's been brought to.

And then Tommy's pacing, and speaking, and Billy pales a bit. He's guessed quite a bit about Tommy's parents, and knows a few hard facts. But hearing that still makes the bottom drop out from his stomach. He can't imagine a parent ever saying anything like that to their child. Let alone imagine hearing it.]

Tommy-....