The Vacation You Didn't Ask For

[doubled_speed]

WHO: Tommy Shepherd, OTA for everyone, come spend time.
WHERE: Risa, pleasure planet to the Starfleet
WHAT: Tommy enjoying time around, eating his fill, all that
WHEN: During Risa Adventures, prior to second contact in their rooms.
WARNINGS: None

The Feedening

Advantage to being on a world that isn't Agrii whatever the fuck was the most simple and important thing. Food. All of it. All of the food and amazing and Tommy spends the morning at a table in a sidewalk cafe, enjoying hot and cold breakfast foods. And at a deli in the early afternoon enjoying a number of sandwiches and side. Then a few other shops where he had other small meals.

But mostly there's the restaurants at night. Where Tommy tries literally everything. Sea food, steaks, soups and stews. The guy even enjoys a Klingon restaurant, because why wouldn't he? And every time, everywhere Tommy goes, he's at a table covered with food with eyes of other patrons staring, shocked by how much food the young man is putting away. And, of course, if someone familiar comes by he grins and waves them over.

"Hey, I can spare a dish or two. Wanna join?"


Pool Side Drinks

Not that speedsters have much use for bodies of water when they can just run over the wet stuff, but Tommy finds a good bit of his early evening at the side of the pool. Clubs are nice and all, but he can just sit and watch people in skimpy clothes, and do it with a fancy little drink and it even had umbrellas in it. They had given him THREE, at his insistence. And a nice cut of fruit that he's never seen before but it is sweet AND spicy and he loves it.

Probably too young to be drinking, but like Tommy cares. Instead he smiles as he watches people, and when he sees someone he recognizes he raises his drink to them.

"Hey there. You should get one of these. The fruit is killer good. Wish we could take a plant of it back."


Secret Nerd in His Element

The one thing Tommy will NEVER admit is to his specific area of nerddom. The one, old, totally fucking horrible show that he totally never should have watched. But it had been a vulnerable time in his life, getting away from the Super Juvie. And the Young Avengers hideout had, apparently, the full boxed set of Star Trek. All of it. Even the terrible movies. And Tommy, in the course of living alone over the years and only needing, like, four hours of sleep a day, had watched them all. Multiple times. To the point of being able to quote favorite scenes, but not whole shows. So really, once they had ended up on Risa, he'd known where he was and been so eager to enjoy the place.

Which included interacting with the local culture, in this case, arguing with a Ferengi. Mostly because he had some serious qualms with their culture.

"Yes," he was saying, voice perfectly even as the Ferengi at the bar with him looked to be seething. "I do think women should be in business. In fact, I've met a few women who not only managed a business, but started it. Right from the ground up. And made themselves wealthy in a world that, like you, might not appreciate them. And the clothes. Damn, a lady in a nicely cut dress is sexier than woman without clothes."

The Ferengi has had enough, and momentarily lunges at Tommy, teeth bared. Looks like there might soon be a fight.

Comments

[out_of_order]

The droid almost sounds smug, being called smart. And then as both he and Cal watch food as good as vanish in front of Tommy, the two exchange a look.

"...whoa." Okay, that was impressive.

BD-1 looks at Cal's plate, that he'd barely dug into, beeping inquisitively. The padawan snorts. "No, I don't think I can compete with that," he chuckles.

The droid gives something of a shrug and then hops around plates before nudging another towards Tommy with a foot.

[doubled_speed]

See, Tommy loves droids so much more than people. They were... strangely easy to understand. And he definitely grins at BD-1 and Cal as he licks his fingers clean. But he grins at the new offering and pulls it closer.

"In ways, I'm more like Beedy than you, dude. I think in nanoseconds, even smaller unites if I try, and run at supersonic speeds."

[out_of_order]

"That sounds pretty amazing," Cal replies. "So does it take effort to not move at speed?"

BD-1 in the meantime has found a way to have some fun seeing food disappear ala Tommy. He's already looking around for the next thing he can push over. It's just getting a little trickier because of how many empty plates are in the way.

Cal grins when the droid looks over at him, and he pauses from eating to help stack some plates to the side. Just don't mind the fact that they float off by themselves to do it.

[doubled_speed]

So much effort.

Tommy sighs and puts a fork aside, ignoring the floating plate. Know and work with mages and telekinetics and you just take that in stride.

"You know what a snail is?"

[out_of_order]

Trilling a thanks at Cal, BD-1 resumes his plate pushing. Cal gets back to his food, nodding at Tommy.

"Assuming they're the same wherever you're from, you mean like...these creatures with shells, right?"

[doubled_speed]

"Yeah. The things that move slow. That's... how I see humans. If I'm not focused on moving at the same speed as you, it's like... you're moving through molasses."

And it can be frustrating.

[out_of_order]

Cal frowns, but he nods. He can imagine how that is. He's even experienced it through the Force, whenever he let himself move through it, and the world around him nearly came to a stand-still. Except that was by choice, and more often than not, an advantage used in battle.

Now trying to imagine maintaining a constant focus to be able to sync with the world around you? That's something else. But maybe in a way it's not too different from how some Jedi attuned themselves to the Force.

"I can see how annoying that could be. That level of focus is pretty impressive though."

[doubled_speed]

"I exist in an entirely different world than most people do. Everything's so... painfully slow," Tommy answers. In fact...

"Drop a fork. Take a fork, dangle your arm at your side so that it's close to the ground, and drop it."

A demonstration is clearly in order.

[out_of_order]

Tilting his head, Cal sits up a bit, picking up an unused fork. BD-1 trots over to the edge of the table to watch as Cal obliges, just as curious as he is.

"Okay," the padawan says as he holds it out and then lets the fork go.

[doubled_speed]

It happens faster than a human eye can process. There's a blur in the air that is leftover light bouncing off of him, but mostly there's just a gust of air and not only is the fork balanced on BD-1's head, but so are seven other forks and there are nearby diners looking VERY confused.

[out_of_order]

The resulting prompts an honest laugh from Cal as he sees BD-1 decked out with forks. He glances around as he senses the confusion, still grinning as he looks back at his droid buddy, who hops back along the table, shaking his head off with a series of flat beeps.

"Point made," Cal chuckles.

[doubled_speed]

"Not really," Tommy shrugs. "I can run faster than Mach Four, I'm strong to boot, and I think too fast to function around normal people."

And the ONLY person here who could think on his level was gone now. He missed his Pops.

"You should eat more, dude."

[out_of_order]

"But you're still managing, somehow. So maybe we should thank you for your patience since we're nowhere near your level," Cal smirks.

At Tommy's prompting, he looks at the remaining dishes of food, and down at his own that he'd only barely gotten halfway into.

"I'm working on it. I think just looking at all the dishes you've already emptied is making me full."

[doubled_speed]

Tommy almost wants to laugh. Not many people ever consider just how much patience it takes Tommy to survive around people like this. How hard it is to work with the fact that he's so tired of waiting FOREVER to even have someone say the next word fo the sentence.

"I haven't had a real meal in forever. I've felt starved."

[out_of_order]

"Oh, I'm not blaming you. But this is pretty good." Especially given what they've had to eat back on Agra 10. That Cal had only just gotten used to Greez's cooking just made it a little more difficult.

"I don't think I've ever really gotten to eat at a place like this before. Guess we'd better enjoy it while we can."

[doubled_speed]

"I only get to eat places like this when I lift Stark's credit card."

Not that Stark was ever around to protest.

[out_of_order]

"Someone who can afford it, I'm assuming," Cal grins. "Sounds nice. Have you hit anywhere else? I was kind of overwhelmed just trying to pick a place to eat once we took a look around here."

[doubled_speed]

"Who he is doesn't matter," Tommy dismisses.

But there you go. Life was just like that. They didn't have Tony around so why should he care?

"I've been to about a quarter of the restaurants here."

[out_of_order]

Cal coughs, just glad he hadn't been trying to swallow down too big a bite of steak then. "Heh, only? But really, I guess I shouldn't be surprised."

If he had to eat as much as Tommy and were as deprived of a decent meal, he'd probably be looking more into the places to eat too. Given his habits have been more on the frugal side from his days in the Jedi Temple, he's spent more time trying to see to practical things like supplies.

"You'll have to tell me what places are good."

[doubled_speed]

"I know. I'm a freak like that," he dismisses. Because it makes him feel better to do it before other people do. "But I'll make a list. Some of them are in weird languages. I don't think most people are willign to try Klingon though."

[out_of_order]

"Not that I can claim being a food expert anyway. I'm not familiar with Klingon cuisine, but hey, if it's good maybe I'll try it."

At least he's finally finishing up his dish, although he gives BD-1 a look before laughing weakly as the little droid's started to push another dish towards him. "Really, BeeDee?"

[doubled_speed]

"Uh, not all of Klingon food is dead before you eat it."

Still, Tommy laughs and reaches out to pat the top of BD-1's head.

"You're just the best little guy ever.

[out_of_order]

"....oh." Yeah. Okay, that's something to keep in mind.

BD-1 trills proudly, and again Cal laughs.

"He is. Don't know where I'd be without him. Also I think he's just having fun seeing plates empty when he puts them in front of you."

[doubled_speed]

"Should I just eat slower?" Tommy asks, smiling at the little droid.

[out_of_order]

The noise the droid makes sounds like a question even without Cal's translation of 'Why?'