Buffets and Birthdays

[doubled_speed]

WHO: Tommy Shepherd, Billy Hargrove, Otherwise Open
WHERE: Various Buffets, Station Hydroponics, various in closed starter
WHAT: Tommy eating his fill (and yours), Growing Things because of course, and showing Hargrove a good time (no they aren't dating what are you talking about)
WHEN: Throughout March, March 29th in closed
WARNINGS: None

I. Eating Your Fill

The advantage of places like this was that Tommy could always get as much as he wanted to eat without having to rely in protein paste to fill things out. And, well... There was always buffets. And man wasn't Tommy enjoying them now, getting himself steadily onto 'must pay double' or 'do not serve' lists. Which was fine with him.

One day might find him in an all you can eat salad bar, piling on all the alien vegetables and making notes on his comm device about what things he might want to get seeds or seedlings for. Another is a place specializing in a wealth of soups, where he's again taking notes (this time on flavor combinations for cooking). Or, if you're really lucky, you'll find him on a day where he's got three different mounds of noodle dishes in front of him, happily chomping his way through them while just sitting back and watching the alien species around him.

No matter which buffet you find him at, one thing is sure. The staff is giving Tommy a disapproving look of some variety or other, he's got a stack of dirty plates near him, and he's at his table alone. Maybe go up and talk to him. He'd be happy for a companion.

II. Growing Pains

Of course to keep himself fed and to stock up the greenhouses of the ships requires something important: some form of trading capital. And where else was Tommy going to find it than through the work he'd been throwing himself at for years? Sure, he could work as an extreme speed courier on a lot of planets they have ended up on, but the space station clearly doesn't need that. With the various types of transportation it's clear that he'd not be the best price per pound for transport, and it wouldn't learn him as much. Which is probably why anyone coming to take up Station Operations on the offer to do some work in hydroponics in exchange for seeds and cuttings will find Tommy there, at most hours of the day.

Today he's humming softly to himself as he goes through and carefully clips small handfuls of greens from some salad vegetable, meant for someone's dinner, or perhaps to prune things back for better growth. But he still smiles in seeing another He Row and waves them over.

"Hey, you here to be my new assistant? They said that there was someone new coming in to work today. I'm happy for a familiar face."

III. It's Not A Date, It's A Birthdatey | Closed to Billy Hargrove

Sometimes the best thing you can do for a bro is to make sure they have a good day. No, more than that. A great birthday. And it's something Tommy had started planning the moment they set foot on the station. Sure, he was fitting it all around his work, but he was meticulously planning something out.

And now here Tommy was, showing up at the hammock where he's more than once seen Billy sleeping near he water on the ship.

"Hey, Sunshine," he says, smiling as he nudges the hammock. "Get on your damn feet. We're going on an adventure."

Comments

[pursuitofcappiness]

"Okay, yeah," he says, nodding along. That sounds perfectly fine to him. And all of it sounds like a pace that he can keep up with, which he's eternally grateful for. If he could afford a fruit basket, he'd definitely gift Tommy a fruit basket after this.

you chill with handwaved explanations?

[doubled_speed]

Wonderful. Tommy goes to collect the items in a blink and then is meeting Steve to hand them over.

"Your sword and shield, my good sir Rogers."

yeah!

[pursuitofcappiness]

"Perfect," he says, as he takes the items. "I'll talk to you soon." Steve works pretty hard, and as far as manual labor goes, no one's more efficient.

[doubled_speed]

Good. Tommy happily goes through the explanations, taking a good amount of time on them. Once that's done he leaves Steve to it.

"Give yourself, like, twenty or thirty checks then come see me so I can verify that it's looking good. If you get an error, call me over right away, okay?"

[pursuitofcappiness]

He nods and then sets to work. He's very good at following basic instructions that don't involve cooking, for some reason, so, he gets into the groove and gets to thirty checks almost before he even realizes it.

He makes his way back to Tommy so that his work can be inspected. He hasn't had a manager in awhile.

[doubled_speed]

Tommy was of course still very busy with his own work, but he looks up, smiling, when he hears Rogers approaching. Gives the guy a nod and everything. Hey there man.

"Let me just look that over," he says with a smile, taking the datapad. And then he nods. "There's one here I wanna check over by hand, but this is not only good results, but good processing. The plants are definitely happy."

[pursuitofcappiness]

"I hope so," he answers. He doesn't feel like he's really done anything but he also thinks plants take a lot longer to show effects. Anyway, he's glad to have been of any assistance.

[doubled_speed]

They do, but Tommy knows plants. They're happy. He smiles and looks around the space.

"Got a lot more work to do, Captain. Think you can fight for the health and safety of a food supply?"

[pursuitofcappiness]

"Sure can," he replies, smiling. "Just tell me when and where, and I'm there." Fighting definitely sounds like something he can do.

[doubled_speed]

"Nothing like a can do attitude from the star spangled man," Tommy laughs, shaking his head. See, this was why he liked Cap. You put a problem before him and he went 'yes I can do this'.

"Plants are going to like you, man."

[pursuitofcappiness]

"Something on this planet should," he answers. But he'll definitely get back to work, as long as there are more tasks. "And I hung up the shield. I didn't tell you that? Back home, I mean. Tony made me a new one here."

[doubled_speed]

What? Tommy looks... confused. So fucking confused. Like maybe Steve's grown another head.

"Things that are hung up can be taken back down. Once an Avenger, always an Avenger."

[pursuitofcappiness]

He looks a little more sheepish. "Well. The one from home - the Tony, I mean - asked for the shield back. And I don't think he's returning it to me." So, yep, they had a fight, he's off the team, for some reason he thinks Tommy will understand that means it's permanent. And not just think, oh, those two again.

i was going to bed but then i read 'oh those two again' and had to do this.

[doubled_speed]

"Oh. You two are at that again," he says, rolling his eyes. "He didn't make the shield, did he? If no, he can fuck off with that. You're Captain America. No one can take that from you any more than they can my powers from me. So, you know, you two will figure it out, rebuild your bridges. I mean, you did back home and that was a SERIOUS BIT OF SHIT that happened with the civil war."

And that was just how it went sometimes.

HAHAA

[pursuitofcappiness]

He winces a little. "Oh, so - you guys had that too, huh?" Yeah, um, well that might explain why Steve thinks they're not going to get along again.

Well, okay. Steve didn't die. So, it's not as serious. But he kinda just assumed it happened the same way at home as it did in Tommy's.

[doubled_speed]

"Yeah. Almost got thrown into jail because we kept heroing without registering our private information," Tommy says with a sigh. "Was worse for mutants of course. Because people hate them for no reason."

Hate us, but he doesn't say that.

[pursuitofcappiness]

"I didn't want that. I hated it. Fought so hard against it that I broke up the Avengers."

And then: "Wait. So, your Steve and Tony... They're okay now?"

[doubled_speed]

Tommy rolls his eyes. Of course they are. It took time, but it happened.

"Over time, after people recovered, while some of us kept working in spite of the law, it became obvious there were a lot worse things to fight than each other. Mutants were included because, yanno, bullshit like that, but there was the thing with the Hulk before that, and then after that it was the next Skrull issue, and then fucking Osborn."

Tommy sneers that name out.

"With the real heroes, the good ones, taking a back seat because we were technically 'illegal' the avengers were led by a literal criminal who claimed to be reformed and worked with an evil group, including then Loki of course. And when Asgard fell... Well. How could we not all come together again?"

[pursuitofcappiness]

He listens to all of this and it all sounds - horrible, like a direct result of something that Steve had wanted to avoid so much. Of course it had all unfolded this way, as he thought it would.

"Asgard fell?" is what he picks at, because the rest can get a pin stuck in it for now.

[doubled_speed]

"Yeah. Over Oklahoma. It was a mess," Tommy says, and his heart sounds a little broken. "Listen..."

He sighs and looks to Steve. No. This is stupid.

"None of this is was the fault of our Rogers, just in case you're curious. Ain't gotta carry it all."

[pursuitofcappiness]

He doesn't seem very convinced, but at least he might drop it so that it won't be Tommy's burden.

"Yeah, I get it." A beat. "--It physically fell over Oklahoma? Did it cause a crater?"

[doubled_speed]

"Broxton or something. Yeah. We... I spent a long time getting people out. It's something my powers are particularly good for.

[pursuitofcappiness]

"That's right," he says. "Do I want to know how it happened? Guess..." Guess Tommy was trying to make him feel better and he's just latching onto how destructive things are in every universe and how he wishes they weren't. "Maybe we shouldn't talk about it."

[doubled_speed]

"Sorry. I am making it worse. I wasn't trying to. I was... I was trying to say you aren't responsible for all of the bad in the world. You help fix it."

Which is always complicated. He'd clearly missed the mark.

[pursuitofcappiness]

"It's okay, I - I get it. I appreciate it, Tommy." And even if he's not responsible for all of it, he still feels like he could do something. He still can't rest. Couldn't look away.