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Video Broadcast - OTA (Post Storm)

[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?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Pretty sure caring about me isn't how anything works. So it's not an Or. It's a universal given.

I care about you! You don't get to tell me I don't.

[Tommy just shakes his head and rolls his eyes.]

You're a bleeding heart that cares about everything and everyone. I'm just... guilt. You care about me because you feel guilty. You feel responsible for what happened to me. You feel guilty because you didn't know I existed. You feel obligated because we have the same face. But I'm not your brother. I'm not Tommy Kaplan and I'm not Thomas Maximoff. I'm cast off trash and you need to fucking recognize that. Because the sooner you get to that point everyone gets to, the easier this is on me.

[The guilt part is fair enough, but Billy shakes his head fiercely.]

Don't call yourself that! You are my brother. You're part of me.

Will you just stop it?

[Tommy spits those words out, angry and tired.]

Fuck, why can't you just get it through your head? You were the first person in my life that fucking wanted me for me. Do you... do you have any idea how much it hurts when you get bored or distracted or hurt and flounce off and forget I fucking exist? Can't you be fucking merciful for once and stop dangling this hope in front of me? Curse me, hate me, hit me. Be like everyone else. Because I'm strong. I've survived that shit. No one can break me, Billy. No one but you.

[Billy flinches back. The anger in those words makes him want to flee, but that would be the very thing he's trying to prove he won't do. He's never set out to hurt Tommy, but he knows he has.]

...I'm sorry. I am. I never wanted to hurt you- I- I'm just- we're just kids- I don't what the hell I'm doing, I'm just...I'm trying-

I don't want to break you.

[But there you have it. Tommy wilts and flops down onto the ground and frowns up at his brother.]

I don't know what to tell you, B. But sometimes it's... easier to just know this shit like I do. To know that people are going to fail me. When they do it, you're not as... you know, disappointed.

[Billy frowns right back, and after a moment he kneels down to put them back on level ground.]

...I can't promise I'm not going to mess up again. I really wish I could. But can I promise I will always love you. No matter what either of us say or do, or how often we see each other. I love you. And I'm trying my best to do right by you.

[Why should he believe it.]

That doesn't change the fact that with him here, there's less of a place for me.

I don't know what to say to make you believe me. But there's not.

I know...sharing a room is weird, but...what if we made a sort of...house? We could have our separate spaces, but still be a...family unit kind of thing?

[Family unit? Doesn't seem the wisest.]

What, you wanna haul all of our shit out of the hotel and move into one of those, like, abandoned shops? you and T get the office so you can get your business on?

[Billy flushes a little but nods.]

Something like that... I dunno. We could make it something nice...

[And if he doesn't want to play the third wheel who can't even ask his own brother for hugs because those belong to Teddy?

Tommy sighs and looks at the ground. Because as much as he hates how badly his brother can hurt him, he also can't say no.]

Yeah. Fine. Scout a place out you two like the look of.

[He can ask for all the hugs he wants. Billy would be happy to know Tommy actually likes them.

Billy offers a small smile, and tries to push away the tear tracks from his face.]

'Kay...We can all look.

[Like Tommy is going to ask for hugs. He's used to the things he wants being denied to him as a punishment. So nope. That's not happening.]

I don't fucking care where I stay. I can sleep on the Twin Roses. Just... you know, find a place you like.

[Billy's still a bit sensitive to Tommy's more abrasive tone, but he nods again, and tries to act like it doesn't bother him when Tommy acts as though he doesn't want or care about any of it.]

...I'll try.

[If he wants it, if he cares, he's going to be ruined. He doesn't want hurt like that.]

You do that. And B... Trying to fix me isn't the best choice. I'm not really fixable. I'm too broken for that.

[That particular phrasing seems to spark some sort of recognition in Billy, brows creasing. He remembers thinking similar thoughts in his darkest moments.]

...you're not broken. And you don't need to be fixed.

[Maybe... Tommy has a lot more dark moments than Billy really understands. He's just learned to live with his depression in the moments between seconds that no one else can see.]

You're so fucking wrong. But like you even get it.

I get it.

[There's a soft instance to his words.]

[How could he? He's had such a GOOD life. And his pain, his mental stuff, is different. Because he went catatonic. Tommy just went... feral survival.]

[It's exactly the sort of reason Billy tries not to talk about it. He doesn't feel as though he has any right, given how much worse the others have had it. He's had a good life. What right does he have to be anything but happy?

He tries to smile, and nods, giving a dismissive shrug to his own words.]

Right. Sorry.

[That's... not how the world works. And someone needs to teach them that.]

No.

[Tommy remembers him then, seeing the little shrug. Remembers how dead to the world one of the few people he loved in it had become.]

I'm... not being fair. To you. At all. I should be. You're a good person. And you deserve better than me. That's all I'm saying. I'm not good, and I pulled you down to my level again.

[Billy's quickly shaking his head.]

It's fair. [Though Billy's not nearly so quick to agree about being a good person. He wants to be. But he continues to feeling lacking. Tommy though, he's so obviously good, it kills him that his brother can't see it.]

I try to be as good as you are, Tommy.

[As good as him? Tommy's on his feet and he looks offended.]

You're the BEST person I fucking know! Don't you dare fucking insult Billy Kaplan. I fucking punch people who insult Billy Kaplan!

Video Broadcast - OTA (Post Storm)

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