revivalproject | Steve Rogers

Entry tags:

Steve Rogers | OTA

WHO: Steve and You?
WHERE: Agrii ship in the water area
WHAT: A pool party!!
WHEN: Around debates time
WARNINGS: Not sure, will edit!

Steve has been trying to get in touch with the Agrii for days now without any luck. So far it's mostly just been hanging out by the water. And a few of them can really hold their breath a long time, it seems. They seem uneasy if he swims too far, so he sticks by the shallower bit of the pool for now.

If nothing else, the lush greenery is a nice change of scenery, and some days there's all this bountiful delicious food, such that he hasn't had better since before arriving here.

So, one day, after fruitlessly searching around by himself and not finding any better leads, he invites a few fellow He-Rows over for what appears to be a pool party. It's open to anyone who happens to make it through the thick botany, and he's definitely trying to encourage the younger Agrii to come play with them. Food and drink are just from the mess hall, and the games are simple ones like a hand-drawn deck of cards, and sitting on each other's shoulders trying to knock off your opponent.

If anyone wants to play that game with him, he'd definitely make a better root than pusher - don't worry, he'll be sure to keep his balance, so long as your character wants to keep playing.

Partway through he gets tasked with going back to get more ice or snacks or something, so feel free to bump into him then or in his yellow speedo (that he most definitely did not pick out himself) and towel, gathering supplies. You'll definitely score an invitation if you ask.

Then, when the 'party' starts winding down, Steve's maybe a little disappointed in not having made much progress, though he's sure a few of the younger Agrii might be coming around to them, so it's not entirely a fruitless endeavor. But he's gotten his hands on a piece of paper and graphite, and he might even ask your character to stand still for a second, as they look really nice under this foliage, and it'll just take a few minutes, if they don't mind.

[ OoC: Feel free to respond to any of the things Steve is doing or throw up your own toplevel so other people can tag you at the 'party'! ]

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Damn but Tony is dramatic. Maybe Tommy should try and get the guy back in his corner. But would he understand Tommy's reluctance to be romantically involved with a teen? Maybe not.

Tommy flops down fully next to the guy and sits there, legs stretched out.

"I need to thank you. For the things you taught me. They were a lot more helpful than what Beck did. Without you i couldn't have fixed Sunshine's tape player, and it made him happy. So I guess in a way you did too. Guy felt like he'd ruined everything through the symbolism of a damaged tape player. Immediate karmic punishment, instead of weird fucking luck."

That was a lot of words that had nothing to do with all of the aliens that Tommy had experienced, but Tony wasn't sure if that meant the first claim was a lie that Tommy didn't want investigated, or that he just had perfectly adapted to blocking out Tony's voice. The skill must have been incredibly finely tuned if Tommy did also learn anything from Tony. He slid a slow, dubious sidelong look Tommy's way, like he expected this graciousness to be some kind of ruse. So far, it did seem genuine enough for Tony to risk trying to talk again, "S'there a difference between 'karma' and 'luck' that's supposed to matter there?" Neither of them were empirically quantifiable forces, unlike a guy with poor coordination dropping his own tape player into the toilet.

Okay, so maybe Tommy got a lot less laid than he implied because he was thinking about a certain young surfer. So it really was a connected thought to talk about.

"He made an agreement with some people from where he's from. And the moment he broke the agreement he ended up getting knocked on his ass, which damaged the tape player. You and me? We know it's a coincidence. Shit like that has to be. But he thought it was immediate karmic retribution for breaking his word."

"There's the third one, 'coincidence'. Doesn't exist. In fact, I'd say ignoring the terms of a contract is almost guaranteed to get one knocked on one's ass. We can draw a straight line from point A to point Beatdown," Tony replied, with another brief touch to his chest like he was wounded that Tommy would even accuse him of believing in coincidence. Shameful. Expecting Tommy to follow, he continued at pace, "As long as you don't start dyeing your hair, this kind of dabbling, I'm sure it's healthy. You want to have more in common, the spirituality thing, that's a big one, relationship is tough to maintain when you don't have some kind of mutual understanding about that."

Tommy rolls his eyes. Man, don't be weird about it.

"Yes, you could absolutely draw a straight line. But the damage. That's why he thought there was a more significant connection.

Still, he doesn't mind trying to keep close here.

"Not sure my hair would take color if I'm honest. Might. Might not. Anyway, just trying to pay you a damn compliment and be grateful. You taught me shit without using it to manipulate me to fuck with people, okay? And it helped me help someone. So thank you."

But wait... He frowns and looks at Tony.

"I already have enough in common with him, and you know spirituality is weird as shit when your brother gets to be a god. But what the fuck do you mean by 'relationship'?"

This time, the thanks might have taken better if Tommy hadn't started swearing at him, making Tony open a hand with an affronted frown for the aggression. "I don't mean anything, I mean 'relationship'. The thing that happens when two forces act on each other," he grumbled in return. "Your relationship with Beck, for example, changed your trajectory, and that's not your fault, so if you're this obsessed just because you hurt this other guy in the process, then, I don't know, just tell him that and apologize. Try roses."

Yes, it had. Tommy winces. He didn't want to think about Beck. The way the man hurt him. But he gets caught up on the roses.

Looks at Tony like he's crazy.

"Billy's nineteen," he says. Except it's a frantic whisper. He's so young, Tony! "I can't get him flowers! And he's straight."

Yep. He hasn't shot himself in the foot and underlined that he might have some feelings.

As far as Tony could tell, the guy's age wasn't particularly relevant, unless Tommy really thought Tony needed to understand how worthwhile this guilt over whatever he did was. It wasn't going to change Tony's perspective, and at the moment only had Tony's eyes widening with a sympathetic grimace for the toll those years had taken. He would not have guessed nineteen. Maybe that was why they were whispering now, because Tony wasn't sure why they otherwise had to be clandestine about some flowers. Searching Tommy's face for some clue as to what the danger was and not really finding it, Tony still respectfully lowered his voice as well to venture, "Straight guys like flowers."

Tommy wants to scream in frustration. Doesn't Tony get it? Surely Tony Stark of all people, one of the most famous bi-men in the world, knows about how stupid it is to flirt with...

Wait. No. Guy hit on Cap all the time, hadn't he? Okay. Never mind.

Tommy glares at the sand and kicks at it a little.

"Straight guys who are that much younger than me and know I'm bi and who are from the 80s at the height of toxic masculinity won't like flowers. Could get me almost punched. Well, he could attempt to punch me, but you know."

"Aren't you sixteen?" Tony answered first, looking genuinely confused by this focus on the other guy's age. Okay, Tommy probably wasn't sixteen, but the difference could not have been significant enough to have doubled down like that. Before Tommy could defend his maturity, Tony was wiping the question away with a slash of his hand to point instead, and try to offer as gently as possible, "I get the impulse, I've got a bad habit about things that are bad for my health, too, but you cannot be wasting this kind of energy on a homophobe. You're worth more than that, sweetheart. Make sure he's happy, sure, I stand by the roses, but you've been spinning about him for too long to be telling me he's a bigot, that's--did you do something? You can tell me, it'll stay between us, I'm in no position to judge. If you still think you deserve a punishment after we talk it out, we'll pay for that bridge when we get to it."

"I'm twenty-four, Tony," Tommy sighs. Come on man, give him a break here. "Or twenty-five? It's really hard to keep track properly here."

Of course it's all mumbled after 'sixteen' so it might slur together in the rush. Because he's still a speedster and he can protest really fast.

"Wait! Woah. I didn't say he's homophobic man! Geez," he says, because he's absolutely going to jump to Hargrove's defense there. He's not a bigot. It's just he's five years younger than me and he's straight and he doesn't need the stress of his best friend being all awkward over shit and that. And okay maybe I accidentally flirted a time or two, it's a habit and he's pretty but just because I made sure he had a great birthday doesn't make it a date like my brother says and Sunshine is still only nineteen."

God, it's driving him up the wall. He shouldn't like the guy. It's not appropriate.

That was not a terribly compelling case, making Tony narrow his eyes searchingly again, waiting for any of those thoughts to counter the homophobia that Tommy had made clear two seconds ago. With a raised lip, Tony could only process all of that information at first with a short, "Okay," not sure which part Tommy was just going to deny saying next. When he could start again, "Okay," it was with a more ready breath, and hand out again to keep level. "He's perfect in every way, and neither of you want to take this further. Cool, I'm glad we're all wound up about it. Have you tried masturbating? I've heard good things."

"Wow, he's so fucking far from perfect. Dude's punched me in the face before. Repeatedly. He's broken. He's just... broken in ways I get."

Ways like Tommy is broken. But he's young. And straight.

"And it's not that neither of us want to take it further. It's that he's straight and that's a 'no' for him, and he's a teen, which is wrong for me to be into. I'm a good guy, or I try to be."

Though he is blushing because wow he's literally getting into sex talk territory with Tony. This is a thing that is happening. Dude is literally old enough to be his dad. But only kinda sorta.

"Of course I jerk off, geez. I'm not dead below the waist just because I live under a particular set of morals."

The unassuming lounge of a very casual sunbather was finally abandoned for Tony to sit up and twist to properly face Tommy, because that was a very serious admission and he did not seem to be aware of it. Tony's friends punched him, repeatedly, and he expected them to do it again, because he deserved it. Tommy must have thought he deserved it, too. Tony offered a hand, laying the other along Tommy's neck to hold his attention as he said again, "Tell me what you did."

Woah, that got intense out of nowhere. What the literal fuck? Okay, logic it out, Shepherd. You have an infinity of seconds before Tony can even blink. Take a pico or two to make sure you understand what he's after. Probably not your jerking off habits. Or the whole age thing because no one seems to get it. So the punching.

Oh.

"Don't make a big deal out of it, please. It was during Calibrations and he was really fucked up. After what I saw in his head I can get it. I didn't see that until that night though. Anyway, he was clearly tense so I tried to get him distracted by destroying the dresser in my room. Hate the scrubs in there, reminds me of super juvie. Anyway, I got him taking his energy out on it because he was so wired because he was relatively new and he got pissed at this picture he drew and balled it up and threw it at me and man, he needed a fucking outlet."

So the dresser, which Tommy hated himself.

"Dude had been possessed by a monster that made him do horrible things and he was just so... You know how it gets. When you need to do something and it just itches up under your skin. Learned his name while he was doing it, decided I didn't want to use 'Billy' because of my brother. Pissed him off, fairly I guess. Probably some trigger from other shit in his past."

His father. Tommy knew it was his father. Had to be. Same was Tommy was over 'Thomas'. Throwing out threats and laying down authority. That was what it was like.

"I sorta just... egged him on. I'm not a good guy without my powers and in confined spaces that remind me of that place. I was in a mood and I needed the distraction too so I needled him in little ways and I deserved getting decked for it. He's never tried again. He was new, he was confused and scared, he was literally coming in from mind possession and his own death, and fucked up, man. Like... Fuck, he wasn't much different from how I was when the others broke me out. He's come so far since then. Never laid a damn hand on me. Grabbed my collar to try and be the big man sometimes, but you know me. He only gets a hand on me when I let him."

One of them had said that this guy was likely going to punch Tommy, and Tony was pretty sure it hadn't been him. Tony was also pretty sure that only one of them cared very much about Tommy right now, and it wasn't the one rambling about how reasonable it was that someone was violent with him. They had to meet somewhere in the middle, about someone that they both cared about, and Tony withdrew his ignored hand in an empty fist to grasp for the obvious. "If I told you that Billy--your brother, the other one, not this--that Billy said that Teddy had been hurting him, you would not be telling me that he 'needed an outlet'," he pointed out. Immediately, he was slashing his hand through the air with a warning glare for all of the reasons Tommy had for that not being a realistic situation, of course Teddy wouldn't do that, blah blah, don't talk. "We can talk about the reason, we can try to deal with it, but it would not be Billy's job to endure it."

It's no one's job to endure it. Tommy knows that. He grew up knowing that better than just about anyone. Which is why this is such a bullshit argument that Tony is making. So why's he making it. The guy is smart, so why is he having so little fucking faith?

"First of all, Billy would destroy anyone who treated him like that so it's a really bullshit argument," Tommy points out. At least make a reasonable argument. "Secondly..."

Well, he could say something quickly, but instead Tommy falls back into the higher speeds he's capable of, trying to think. What's Tony on about right now? Fucking hell. He traces the conversation back and...

Oh.

Okay.

"Tony, my dad was pretty free with his fists growing up. Among other ways of punishing me for basically existing. I would never hang out with someone who would do that shit to me. But I'm lost man. Is all this weird shit because he hit me once the day we met, or because of how I said I thought he might react over a guy liking him?"

Tony must not have known Billy as well as he thought, either, which was what made him hesitate with a frown instead of try slashing his hand again to cut off the argument he had already tried to prune. He only had a vague impression of what Billy was like when he wasn't pulling his punches, and that was mostly a haze beyond a brief stint with a heart attack. He was slow to catch up and take a breath when Tommy did finally work out his second point, clearly forcing himself to focus with a furrowed brow, trying to put aside what he must have been projecting and what he did actually understand about Tommy. They clearly hadn't learned the same lessons from a beating from the old man.

"I guess that depends," he eventually had to admit, "If we have to pick one, which one do you think it's weird that I'm concerned about?" Assuming either situation should be examined in perfect isolation still made them concerning, Tony thought, and meant any other external factors like who was egging on whom should be equally irrelevant. Scientifically.

Honestly, Tommy isn't sure. But if he had to pick one...

"I don't know. I guess it's just weird that you're concerned. Or maybe it's weird that you'd think I'd let it happen. Because I wouldn't. And I don't think he'd actually hit me, if I liked him. But it might destroy our friendship. And that I can't... I don't want that."

And that's something that he felt like kept getting brushed off. Sorta a 'if you lose them then did he care'? And Tommy thinks it would be more like 'you'd lose him because he's afraid that the only reason you care is for his body'. Which isn't true. Even if it's a nice body.

Maybe it was weird that he was concerned. Tony started to take a breath, only to abandon it and slouch back again, arranging himself mechanically back into his magazine cover repose where he could be facing back out over the water. When he was ready to argue, he picked instead, "If he does throw a punch, I don't really care how good his aim is. He could fall over himself in the effort, that doesn't change the fact that his intention was to punch you, like he has before, and like you said he could again, but if you want to talk about what your speed is topping out like lately instead, sure, hit me, give me some numbers. We've cycled back around to, he's not into it, you're not into it, so we can talk about something nobody wants or you can start doing some equations."

Okay, he's still going to think about it, but he nods. Yeah. If the guy does, well, Tommy will respect that point. The other thing though...

"Honestly, I don't know how to do the math to calculate it. I can tell you I've broken the sound barrier before."

Tony snorted a humourless laugh and rolled his eyes, not sure why Tommy was giving up so easily now. Maybe he recognized the validity of the concern, it was just the source he was rejecting. With incredibly steady precision for someone who didn't even seem to be looking at it, he drew the cone of a sonic boom in the sand by his hip, carefully annotating so every reference was clear when he wrote it out as an equation. "I've slept with plenty of people that I care about," he said as he did. "It's not the sex the ruins the relationship, it's the part where you're an asshole."

No, Tony was right. And Tommy hated it. And he didn't want anyone to tell him he was wrong. Which didn't matter because he also wasn't going to be with the guy so it was fine.

"I've tried not to be an asshole," Tommy observes as he looks at the equation. It's not easy for him. He gets this stuff on an instinctual level. But damn, this is complex. "I think it's the part where they don't love me back that ruins it."

The contradiction was obvious enough to Tony that he rolled his focus with a loose tip of his neck Tommy's way, expectant and already peeved like Tommy had just set him up with a lame riddle. "That means you already failed step one," he was the one that had to acknowledge, apparently. "You're an asshole. You pick guys that you think are going to deck you, you can't tell me you're surprised when that's who you get. You can love them with your whole heart, but that means it shouldn't stop when it's not enough to change their wiring. And, here's the thing, your love going in has conditions: it's for a person that he isn't, not yet, so why should he be giving any back?"

"I disagree," Tommy says with a shrug. "Because people never stay the same. People always change. People aren't static. We change. We grow, and are never the same person twice. If we can't care about someone including who they are as they change, then we aren't a good fit."

Surely that makes sense, right?

"What's this factor mean?"

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cw: sexual discussion because yep we got there, lol

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cw: discussion of child abuse (again)

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