revivalproject

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[Lookie here, it's Tommy, looking shaken as hell. Makes sense, he's lost more of his people recently and he's NOT doing okay. So you know what that means! Tommy needs a fucking project, and he thinks he's moving on pretty well with the one he's got.]

Yo. So know how I was looking for help making some sorta hydroponics shit in the hangars of at least the Twin Roses and possibly some other ships if people want it? Think I've found people to help me make it. Just...

Turns out we need parts. And one of the dudes helping me? He's stuffy and NOT cool with me taking things out of abandoned buildings if they can be salvaged and lots of other shit and well, anyway some of the stuff we'll need is apparently small and custom.

So basically I'm supposed to ask if, seeing as that replicator thing is now here and all that shit, people might be willing to help out by donating a replication or two a month to helping us replicate packages of the small parts that are important for the drip irrigation something or other thingamabob.

Think about it, bros and bros who aren't amab or who are agender and fuck backtrack need something better. Okay, think about it my fellow kidnapees. Fresh produce. On ship. Whenever they kidnap us.

Hell, I'll even tend it when we're not on ships. If you want your ship to have a hydroponics thing. Just let me in once a 60hr cycle and I'll fucking tend the hell out of those bitches.

Anyway. Uh, call me?

[And he shuts the thing off before he can sound stupider. Dammit!]

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[Tommy sighs and shakes his head.]

I'm a fuck up. You've noticed it, right?

No. I noticed you're headstrong.

[ From one stubborn person to the other. ]

[Tommy sighs. What... what else has he got? If he hadn't been headstrong, if he hadn't DECIDED he has to be head strong, then he wouldn't have survived his life until now.]

That isn't a bad thing

I didn't say it is.

[ Though by personal experience Jon is aware that it's not always healthy.

And yet there it is again. This certain type of fear that just keeps lingering around Tommy. Not quite the Lonely. Not quite the Spiral either. But traits of both twisting together with those of the Eye. And then there is the Vast... But that one makes sense. Tommy has been putting it well on display during the party just how worried he is about his own insignificance. ]

Also it may be something strange for me to say, but I wish I could help you with those fears of yours.

[No. No. The very suggestion, correct though it is, that Tommy's afraid of anything puts more steel in his spine and anger flashing in his eyes. No, he's not afraid of anything. And if he was, he'd never admit it to this creepy old man. Bad enough that Billy and Teddy have gotten to see the glimpses of it that they have. Or that he flipped out the first time they were trapped in the ships. No, Tommy would never admit to the weakness that is fear.]

Like hell I'm afraid of anything. This place has nothing to throw at me that I can't handle.

[Except the, you know, ones he already alluded to near Jon before. The absolute waste he felt he was without his powers. The isolation. The lack of purpose. And this... The fears of his own past and the way it affected him.]

I believe I already mentioned that I can see fear. And I do not speak of the sort of fear induced by anything a planet may throw at you. These are deep, primordial fears.

[ And he will not mention that he literally feeds on them. ]

[Yeah, Tommy was trying to ignore the 'seeing fear' thing because he doesn't want to be afraid. All Tommy can do is almost snarl, baring his teeth.]

I'm afraid of nothing.

[ And all Jon can do is sigh mildly before he answers calmly, making sure to avoid turning his assumptions into questions. ]

Then you don't mind having your secrets exposed, I take it. Having yourself judged. Being made aware of your own insignificance. Finding yourself entirely alone and lost, forgotten by those you care about...

Very well.

[Yep, definitely a spike of fear. But a bit less over the insignificance. He's MOSTLY come to terms with that. It's the secrets that really burn in him the worst. And the being alone, because... he felt that already.]

Do you just get off on this? On people being scared?

[ It's easy enough to tell just when Tommy reacts to his words. ]

Do I look as if I do?

Dude, I got no clue. But weird people get off on weird things.

[It's defensive, really. Maybe if he offends Jon who is asking questions that are TOO GOOD, the guy will go away.]

Maybe I just feed on it and you turn out to be a very wholesome meal.

[ He decides to offer the truth in a way that makes it hardly believable. ]

[What? Dude, that sounds stupid, even to him.]

Your teeth are too nice to be a parasite like that.

Why, thank you.

[ And yet it's the truth. ]

Though to rest your mind, I have no intention to pull your secrets from your mind and lay them out for everyone to see. But they are weighing you down, Tommy.

Yeah, that's what secrets do, man. They're lead weights. Good thing I'm several times stronger than any human.

[This is where, to Billy, he'd make a joke about how it keeps him closer to snail paces. But there's just a bit too much honesty when he says this to Jon. Nothing short of active compulsion will draw anything out of him, though.]

...and yet you would tell me what I wanted to know if I only asked.

[ Yes, he is putting this plainly into the room. ]

Fat chance.

[Tommy flops back down onto his bed behind the counter.]

I'm fine, okay? You can go. No need to hover.

Hrmpf.

[ Tommy, that's a challenge. And Jon contemplates that challenge. Yes, the sound decision would be to let it go and leave.

But Jon doesn't always make sound decisions. And sometimes even the Archivist is petty and just wants to prove a point. ]

Tell me.

[ He starts, the Compulsion ringing true with those words already. ]

Your darkest secret, Tommy. What is it?

[Why would he ever do that? Why would he...?]

After I found out that I could make things explode, all I wanted to do was go home. Go home and wait for Frank and Mary to come home. Wait for them to fall asleep. And then blow the whole place up around them. I wanted to wake them up before I did it, to stand there over them and let them know this was what they got, that they deserved it for how they treated me. For shouting at me when I was too young to know any better. For making me wear tattered and torn clothes to school when she could afford a two hundred dollar purse. For not letting met eat enough food and leaving me always hungry every morning and every night. For the way Frank hit me because I didn't do things fast enough.

I wanted them to suffer like I did. Only problem was that it would be too fast. They'd never know. They could never suffer like I did. But there were times in that place they signed me over when I'd imagine they were the dummies or the brick walls or the frozen pig carcasses they gave me to test my powers, to make me a better weapon for them. And I told myself when I got out I'd find them, and their happy lives, and blow up everything they loved, piece by little piece. And I'd laugh. They deserved it.

[ And all of that? Is followed by a few moments of silence from Jon.

Then: ]

I see. That's... Dark.

[ Fat chance, right? He casts a look around, almost innocently. ]

Say, I'm sure there must be a tape recorder here somewhere. Do you see it by chance?

[ And this question? Entirely uncompelling. ]

[Excuse him while he freaks out over having TOLD SOMEONE THAT THING.]

There is absolutely no tape recorder around here. And if you ever tell anyone I said that, I'm going to say you're lying.

Really.

[ Jon doesn't sound convinced, but he is also only half listening. Instead, he is tracking down that oh-so-familiar whirring noise and follows it to one of the shelves, indeed, an orange recorder is doing it's job. So he picks it up and quietly lifts it into Tommy's view, leaving it to keep recording. ]

Are you also going to tell them I mimicked your voice?

[ Just some mild teasing. But the triumphant note should be hard to miss. ]

[There's a flash of fear, terror really. Oh yes, Jon's found something serious there. But that doesn't stop Tommy from acting. Because he doesn't let a lot of fears paralyze him.

He's at and past Jon in less than a blink of the eye, the recorder not even in his hands, just smashed into fragments between them. He may not be able to make explosions, but he's still super strong. Tommy lets the pieces tumble to the ground like so much confetti.]

Get out of my home before I do the same to you.

[ He picks up the sudden and incredibly surge of fear from Tommy, but hardly gets a chance to react before Tommy moves. Hardly a moment passes before Tommy stands behind Jon and the recorder is obliterated. Reduced to small pieces falling to the ground.

And it's his very own fear Jon feels then.

Different from the many other times he finds himself afraid. More urgent. More real. And it mixes with the lingering terror of Tommy into a heavy mixture of very potent dread.

The Archivist exhales slowly, his eyes flicking down for a moment to his now empty hands. They're shaking ever so slightly.

When he speaks, he doesn't turn to Tommy, but once again he wraps his words tightly into his Compulsion. ]

You don't want to harm me.

[ This one, he knows, can be hit or miss. But it's worth a try anyway. And it doesn't stop his hands from shaking or the fear to be so very present. He really shouldn't like the way it feels.

Slowly, he turns towards Tommy, and with that halfway towards the door. It's the latter that holds Jon's attention, even when his words are still directed at the mutant. And these words, unlike the ones before, are by no means compelling. They are but an advice. ]

This is not the right solution, Tommy. This is not the way to handle your trauma. Find help. Otherwise you will never get rid of it.

[ And does he leave the building just then? No. For the most part because he refuses to confirm Tommy's attempt to solve his problems through violence or threats. Encouraging that behavior is the last thing he intends to do. ]

People like me? We don't hurt civilians. But I think we both know I'm not a good person at my core. Maybe I don't want to hurt you. But with my powers, do you think that there aren't other ways I can punish you if you mention this to someone?

[He looks at the wreckage of the tape recorder between them on the floor and kicks at it with his foot. Amazingly, the destruction of the thing, the feeling of power back in his control? It's soothing Tommy's fear and replacing it with the one thing that Maximoffs tend to revel in. Power. Control.]

My team, my brother and his fiance? They already think I'm crazy enough, thanks. And it turns out that if you never see the asshole that beat you as a kid, then you can survive just fine ignoring the trauma. Especially when you're strong enough that people can't hurt you again.

[The emotional scars? The in-built reactions? He can't control them. He hates them. But that's the life he has to live with.]

There's no help here. Not for me, and sure as not for you if anyone hears about this. Because if they do, I might have to show you the parts of me that take after my Grandfather Ultron.

[it's an empty threat. He swore to his team not to hurt innocents. That he was a hero, not a villain. This guy doesn't know.]

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