If You Can't Find Hands, Make Them

[doubled_speed]

WHO: Tommy Shepherd, Open
WHERE: Greenhouse, Diner, Civics Center Pool
WHAT: Preparations for the Agrii, Pool Boy Shepherd, Faking He's Okay
WHEN: March, mostly mid to late month
WARNINGS: N/A

1. If You Teach A Bot To Weed... | Greenhouse

New helper bots? You better believe Tommy was going to find a way to get them to help him. Not until he tried to name them of course. Give them a chance to be their own people. Life gets weird when you have a sibling and parent who are synthezoids. But anyway, here they were, Tommy and one of the droids that he'd basically affixed some of the Sh'Ka gardening tools to, and Tommy looked exceptionally frustrated.

"No! Not that! That's a good shoot!"

Maybe he was not the best at programming. Building? He was getting better there. But how did you teach a machine what was good and what was bad without being there the whole time.

"Dammit, this might have been a really stupid idea. Maybe the Agrii can do datapoints?"

He looks so frustrated though. And maybe still more than a bit tired. Maybe he wasn't doing this for the Agrii. Maybe he just wanted help.

2. Okay Maybe Just Cleaning | Diner

This, at least, had less of disaster written all over it. The bot seemed to already be doing so well at sweeping and was even wiping down tables well.

"What do you think of Roberto?" he called out to the little machine, which ignored that since it didn't have the right verbal input. Tommy sighed.

"I miss droids that would talk back," he says to himself before he returns to chopping salad at the counter so he can watch the bot work. "You're not really friendly even if you're friend shaped. Though I think some people would be offended at proper AI running things here. So much prejudice against sentient machines."

3. Pool Boy Shepherd Doing All Your Work | Civics Center Roof

Okay, maybe it's not fair to call him a poolboy. But hey, he's by a pool, he's in short shorts and a crop top and flipflops, and he's cleaning up the top of the Civics Center roof. Actually, Tommy's been at it for a few days now. If he's learned anything about the Agrii, it's that they like water, and he wanted to make sure there was a safe place to do that at. He had heard stories, he didn't remember where, that the remains of the flooded area that he and Vision and Katara had reduced back in their first days here could be dangerous. Who knew if the Agrii could handle that.

But hey, if Tommy knew one thing, it was what went into a fucking baller rooftop tropical getaway. He may have 'borrowed' those of wealthy people the world over more than a few times. So on any given day he could be seen at one of many kinds of work. One afternoon it's using a pump system to pump the less than clean water from the pool. Another it's scrubbing the thing thoroughly, usually with some sort of cleaning towels on his feet while he ran around it (friction was a good cleaning method). Another afternoon it's spreading some weird stinky putty stuff that would dry hard that the old guy Reeve gave him into cracks and holes and letting it try. And of course there's the trying to restore the tile work to it.

Frankly, he was giving himself a crash course in pool repairs.

And when he wasn't working on restoring the whole surprisingly deep thing (it made sense now that he knew some Agrii), he was working on the area around it. Some of the plants that had grown up over the top of the building he was carefully trimming back. In other places he was putting young potted trees with wide leaves to create cooling shade, and anchoring their pots down for safety. There were even some things that looked like his attempts at dragging some kinds of cushions up to the roof for reclining. He was trying, even if he wasn't certain exactly what was needed. And after his funk, he deserved applause for doing this much.

Comments

Pool Boy Shepherd Thing Hargrove's Job

[playingtough]

Might as well be a pool boy if you look and act the part, Tommy. Billy's made his way up to the roof after getting the bandage around his knuckles changed. He grins seeing his boyfriend up there, moving from one spot to another with a blink.

"So, local farmer, chef, speedster, boyfriend, and now pool boy? You trying to stay on my good side in those shorts babe? Because it's working. Not that you gotta do much to impress me, because if you didn't impress me, we wouldn't be dating."

[doubled_speed]

Tommy was... not fully expecting his boyfriend up here. But at least he gets the chance to smile, if tiredly, at Billy.

"I'm not doing it for you, Sunshine. If we're bringing the Agrii down here, and I'm still not sure it's a good idea, then they need to be able to hydrate. Like you. But they might not hanle the sea, you know?"

[playingtough]

Billy scoffs and walks over to press a smooch to Tommy's forehead. "No need to cover it up. Sure the Agrii will probably like it, but you just wanna ogle me while I do laps, or, let me ogle you from a lifeguard seat."

He goes to the edge to look over Tommy's work. "Good job so far. If you squint, you can't even see the mess you've been making with the putty stuff." Ah, a teasing smirk thrown over his shoulder. "You want any help? Which is me telling you to give me a task before you run yourself ragged." Which is a thing he knows Tommy can do now.

[doubled_speed]

"Those sound sort of fun. The ogling each other options," he admits with a slightly more genuine smile.

Though he snorts at the criticism.

"I'm not a builder. I relied on York to help with the greenhouse. And Tony. I did my best. And do you really know how to fix a pool? You're a beach guy."

[playingtough]

"We don’t even need the pool for that part. I’m good at doing that anywhere, especially if you’re the target of my gaze." He lets his eyes rove down and then back up before looking to the pool again.

"Heather," he almost chokes on her name as he says it, "and I were the lifeguards for the public pool at Hawkins, which meant we were in charge of maintenance, too. You go the chemicals for chlorine yet? Or something that passes for it?"

[doubled_speed]

Really? Tommy looks at his boyfriend with a playful smirk. It's good to be appreciated.

"Chemicals for... what? I don't know. Can the Agrii even handle that? Shit. I should talk to the doctors shouldn't I?"

[playingtough]

Oh he definitely appreciates Tommy, mentally and physically. They’ll talk about that soon, but not here.

"Probably need to ask the Agrii themselves. But the chems are for keeping the pool clean of germs. A weak acid so we don’t get E. coli. and swimmers ear and shit. Also no chlorine means algae creeps in faster." Billy looks thoughtful for a moment. "I think Heather told me that in a pinch you can use bleach as a substitute but that’s better for small pools, not the big ones."

[doubled_speed]

Oh. That's interesting. He tilts his head.

"Maybe I'll ask the doctors about it. For now I need to make sure this holds water properly, and that it doesn't get too hot for them. Does that make sense?"

[playingtough]

"Makes sense to me. Does this pool have jets to keep the flow going? It helps keep it cool and also the water from getting stagnant."

He hops down to take a better look. "How can you tell if it can hold water or not? Probably gotta fill it all the way up for that, right?"

[doubled_speed]

Tommy just... stares. Like he fucking knows.

"Um... This really isn't my field of experience, babe. I've tested the water at least to a decent depth. Isn't that enough?"

[playingtough]

Billy turns to look up at Tommy, grinning a little at him. "Babe you are so hopeless with this stuff."

He gestures around him. "We fill it a little at a time. Check for leaks that way. Time consuming but overall better than filling it all the way up and realizing a mistake is towards the bottom and having to empty it."

He pads over to one wall to run his hands over it. "Anything you’ve done in here so far? We can check around it, and work our way around the pool before we start the filling process."

[doubled_speed]

Yes, yes he really is.

"But I've got a heart of gold," Tommy points out. Still, he hops down into the pool.

"I had to manually pump out all of the old water in here, if that helps. It was holding that much pretty well."

[playingtough]

"And an ass fit for a centerfold." He grins where he's crouched to check the wall. Then Billy looks up at the guy and straightens up. If it was holding water well enough, then it sounded like the structure was fine. Using his arms to hoist himself up, Billy gets back on the level with his boyfriend.

"I guess that means we need a hose to let this fill up. We can start it tonight and check it in the morning. It'll take awhile to fill up, which should give us time to get the chemicals."

[doubled_speed]

Tommy snorts in delight at the suggestion. Yeah, he did look amazing didn't he?

"I'm going to have to figure out how the piping up here filled this thing aren't i?"

Tommy sighs. He could temporarily grab engineering he supposed. That's got to help, right?

[playingtough]

"Pretty sure you think about piping a lot," he tells Tommy in a flirty tone with a smile. He does look around. "All we should really need is a hose that can go from a faucet to the pool. Or rigging like an aqueduct."

Padding away, Billy finds a large room. "What’s in here?" The door gets pushed open and what the blond expects to find… isn’t in there.

No sink, no towels, no pool chemicals or long rods with nets. It looks more… automated in the room. "What the hell?"

[doubled_speed]

"Dork," he teases his boyfriend before following. And...

"I mean, it's a future science city," Tommy says with a sigh. "Guess I'll have to ask Tony or that Reeve guy."

[playingtough]

"You love it, don’t lie to me." But his focus has shifted from flirty and fun to the system before them.

"Reeve? Met him once. Who do you think would be better for it, Reeve or Tony?" Or maybe he could puzzle it out himself. He does go over to what looks like the main system. "There’s gotta be an 'on' button or switch, right?"

[doubled_speed]

"Yea, I do," Tommy smiels as he follows.

And he's not really sure who would be better. Especially now that he's looking at this.

"Tony's a genius. I don't know Reeve much. So no fucking clue."

[playingtough]

"Yeah, Tony is a genius," he agrees. Some of the buttons get pushed, but nothing really happens. He sighs and stops. No sense in pressing the wrong thing and making something bad happen.
"I think I'll ask Reeve about it."

He doesn't know how that conversation will really go, but he's supposed to broaden himself in meeting people, right? Maybe. "It's either that or we're gonna need a lot of buckets and a human chain."

[doubled_speed]

"Alright then," Tommy says, fingers carding through his hair. He really hadn't expected this much of a problem.

"Or just me and one bucket," Tommy counters. He's okay with exhausting himself.

[playingtough]

"No," he says holding up a finger and giving Tommy a look. "You're not wearing yourself out for this. We'll figure out a different way or just get this up and running. It won't be that much of a problem."

Billy... Billy looks serious about this. After seeing how ragged Tommy had run himself when his brother was missing, his boyfriend doesn't want to see the speedster like that again. "There's the turtle guys, too, right? Maybe I can ask them if Reeve and I can't get this thing up and running."

[doubled_speed]

"Yeah yeah, you want to take care of me. I appreciate it. And I wanna take care of these aliens that I really didn't want coming down here," he says with a sigh.

[playingtough]

"Taking care of them shouldn't come at the cost of yourself and you know it. You don't have to be a superhero for everything babe, we'll find another way. Okay?" He sounded kind of pushy when he started speaking, but softened up in his concern for his boyfriend. "Speaking of that, how about you take a break with me and we go have some lunch together?"

He moves out of the room and holds his hand out to Tommy, even making a grabbing motion.

Seems like the blond wasn't really asking as much as he's telling the speedster that they're going to lunch.

[doubled_speed]

Yes, he knows it. But does he care? That's a mystery to be explored, isn't it?

"Lunch, huh? And what am I making for you?"

YEs, he does have to be a superhero for everything. That's his value. He knows it.

[playingtough]

Definitely to be explored. Maybe not right now, but definitely in the future. Again, his hand makes a gimmie motion for Tommy's because of course he wants to hold hands while they walk. Even if that walk wasn't long if Tommy wanted to go fast.

"Who said anything about you making something? What if I want to be the one to try cooking this time?"