June-July Storm and Calibrations - OTA

[doubled_speed]

WHO: Tommy Sheperd, OTA
WHERE: Around Temba, Calibrations Waiting Room, Tommy’s Calibration Room
WHAT: The lead up to and time around Calibrations
WHEN: June 2nd to July 10th
WARNINGS: CW: Tommy’s Calibrations room potentially contains depictions of child abuse and neglect, deprivation of food to a minor, bullying, and possible references toward unintentional property destruction.. It depends on what you touch (each will have warnings in strike-through attached). One happier memory does occur, though.


Helping Hand (Around Temba - June 2nd, the 36 Hours - OTA)

The message comes and a few things happen. First, Tommy freezes. The storm had been bad the last time. The lack of powers, the way he fractured his ankle, the way he’d seen people he’d lost, the way he’d wanted to hide and never come back. The idea of it happening again scared him more than anything. Add in his new issues with lightning and it got more complicated, not less. Of course while he freezes forever, it’s actually only a minute, and then he’s moving.

While he hasn’t been to his home since things went wrong, he moves immediately there and starts packing a box with all of his things. And after a moment of thought, his brother’s things, and Teddy’s for good measure. Some clothes for them all, a few personal touches to feel comfortable. The painting Vision made for him happened to go into a box too. And once that is all left off in the mouth of the tunnel, he’s back in the city.

He stops at the Greenhouse and spends time harvesting every last thing that’s ripe that he can get his hands on. They’ll need food if they’re going to be there for a while. Then it’s off to the ships. Grabbing anything loose and useful on the ship is the goal to get things back. He then moves around the city, racing up to anyone he sees and stopping to ask an important question.

“Is there anything I can do to help you? Anything you need carried? Hell, I’ll carry you.”

Safety matters, and he’s a hero. It’s going to happen.


Calibrations Waiting Room

Here

Calibrations [CW: Tommy’s Calibrations room potentially contains depictions of child abuse and neglect, deprivation of food to a minor, bullying, and possible references toward unintentional property destruction. It depends on what you touch (each will have warnings in strike-through attached). One happier memory included.]

The room is different than the waking hours, but not much. It’s not actually emptier but it somehow manages to feel it, in an abandoned sort of way. Instead of a queen-sized bed, there’s a twin mattress on the floor, next to which there sits a half-eaten package of off-brand poptarts cw: neglect and deprivation of food. The mattress itself is resting under a window so dirty and dusty that it’s almost impossible to see out through it. Instead of the drawers there’s just a closet, open and mostly bare save for a pillow in the corner. And across from the pillow a beat-up bookbag cw: bullying. Hidden up on the shelf in the closet is a dusty high school yearbook cw: explosions, property destruction, for a school in New Jersey, Go Pumas! The last object of any real note in the room is a discarded belt cw: child abuse. Okay, no, there’s also what looks like a picture pinned to a wall, seemly drawn by a child. It’s on that level at least, it’s made of crayon, and depicts people in very colorful costumes, with something scrawled under it. Welcome to the Young Avengers it reads.

In the middle of it all, metaphorically, is Tommy, looking around the room in disgust.

Comments

[wearingthestars]

Billy turns to join him. He doesn't need to see. He takes Tommy's hand. "We wouldn't have offered you a suit if we didn't trust you, Tommy. Even back then."

[doubled_speed]

Yeah, no, he didn't believe that. The building explodes nearby and with that, the memory fades. And Tommy's back in his room. But no door. No door. Fuck.

"Shit.

[wearingthestars]

Damn.

He was really hoping that would be enough. He shoots his brother a guilty look, like there was something he could have done differently to fix things.

Looking around, there's not a whole lot to chose from , gaze landing on the book bag before flicking back to Tommy. "...Can I?" he asks.

[doubled_speed]

The bookbag. Tommy sighs and nods. Something tells him that Billy's not going to be amused by what he sees. Mostly because, well, he knew his school life wasn't that great.

"I mean, school isn't going to be nice."

[wearingthestars]

"Are any of them?" Billy asks with a sympathetic look. What he knew of Tommy's past...none of it is going to be pleasant.

He gives Tommy's hand a final squeeze and moves to touch the bag.

[doubled_speed]

The room fades around them and instead they're in a high school. A lot like Billy's, even in decent enough condition. Springfield wasn't a bad place, after all, Tommy was just the trash of it. But mostly it looks the same, right down to the guy that could easily be mistaken for a teenaged Billy, right down to the dark hair, standing in the hallway. The torn up bookbag is slung off his back as he opens a locker, and the green-eyed Billy-clone focuses on digging through the locker with nothing more in it than text books and loose-leaf paper. Not like he had notebooks.

"Great," now-Tommy curses. "Pre-powers. The hair gives it away. This... isn't going to be pretty."

[wearingthestars]

That's somehow even more startling. Seeing himself in someone else has always been strange from the moment they first found each other, but to see him looking SO much more like him...

"The eyes were always different," he notes with a curious hum. Identical except for that.

[doubled_speed]

“Did some research on shit after the whole finding Wanda, thing,” Tommy admits after a moment. “About twins. It happens. Melanin distribution, which helps account for eye color and hair color, that tends to happen after you’re born. So it can be a thing with twins.”

He looks down the hall, watching people approaching. Right. This is it. It’s a clear group of jocks, the sort of people that would have caused problems with Billy back in school. Also the sort of group that Tommy would easily fit in with now. The looks on their faces are laughing, predatory. The Tommy that Was doesn’t seem to notice their approach. Which leaves him vulnerable as one of the punks, the largest of course, ‘accidentally’ kicks Tommy’s book bag while passing.

“Shit, Shepherd, can’t even keep the hallways clear of your trash?”

“Fuck off Anders,” Tommy says reflexively. His mouth gave him lots of problems with this group in particular.

[wearingthestars]

Oh, Billy can recognize exactly the sort of people approach, and even now his whole posture changes subconsciously to try and make himself less noticeable, as though this memory could some how hurt him.

His eyes narrow as that hurt is instead directed towards his brother, flashing him a worried look as he snaps back, knowing the sort of reaction that kind of talk would usually earn.

[doubled_speed]

Billy's completely right, about the sort of attention he'd earn. But it's too late to stop that. The larger guys ring around Tommy. His reward for the sass? Anders shoving Tommy roughly against his locker. Which lead to a far more pained noise than the motion should normally warrant.

Billy would know, wouldn't he?

"Who said you could talk, Sheep?" Anders demands, even as then-Tommy turns around, hate in his eyes.

"Who said you could stop me?" Tommy counters, his voice hard. Only to earn a punch to the gut which immediately has Tommy on the floor.

[wearingthestars]

Something like electricity flashes at Billy's fingertips. It can't be real here, inside a mindspace, but it flickers with Billy's outrage, and he winces, turning his head before the hit.

"Tommy-"

[doubled_speed]

"What?" Tommy asks, his voice sharp and yeah, he's not pleased. But there you have it. Gotta take the good with the bad. "Going to talk about how we're similar now? They did it because I was poor. Because I was a target. Because i had focus issues and my grades sucked. Because I didn't bow to their whims."

Billy got bet up for actual bullshit reasons.

Another blow, leaving then-Tommy on the floor.

[wearingthestars]

The sharp voice quiets Billy, who flinches again with the next blow, magic flicking and flaring up to try and shield then Tommy.

All bullies have bullshit reasons. There's no good reason to hurt people like that.

[doubled_speed]

No good reasons, but even Tommy is turning away from it as he gets pummeled just a bit more. Before hands are picking him up and pushing him into his locker, stuffing his bag in with him. Yeah, Tommy got the even more cliche stupidity of getting shoved into his lock. See, there was a reason that modern lockers were taller and thinner: to try and keep this from happening. But his school? It's old.

"Assholes," Tommy curses once the door closes. "Fuck you!"

[wearingthestars]

Billy bristles and glares after the bullies, fingers passing over the locker, trying to open it.

"Why'd you never say?" They've talked about Billy's history with all this before, but Tommy's never given any indication he's been through the same shit.

[doubled_speed]

The memory of the locker doesn’t give, even as the bullies wander away and the sealed in Tommy starts kicking at the door regularly for eventual attention.

“What would the point be?” Tommy asked. “You got beat up on for stupid reasons. Why should I diminish your experiences? Especially after blowing up the school.”

[wearingthestars]

"So did you. It doesn't diminish anything." Honestly, knowing Tommy really understands feels like a bonding moment. A horrible bonding moment, but-...

"I'm sorry they did that to you..."

[doubled_speed]

“There’s a reason my school got blown up. I didn’t mean for it to happen, but it wasn’t entirely my fault, even if my powers were involved,” Tommy sighs, moving to tap the locker door. No response. But eventually, a knock from inside. Like Tommy knew there would be.

“No one from before your team came from me even cares that I’m alive. Or that I was gone.”

[wearingthestars]

Billy really hopes that's not true. Even if they never made it clear to Tommy, he wants to believe there's people out there who Tommy had an impact on. Because he can't imagine his life without his brother in it. And he remembers that hopeless feeling all too well, but outside of school hours he could return home and find someone who cared.

"...Well you're stuck with us now."

[doubled_speed]

The first people Tommy ever made a lasting impact on, save Lisa, was Billy and his team. And Billy’s family. And a few Kree and Skrull who deserved getting hit.

“Yeah, if you say so,” Tommy answers as the halls around him go to mist. Back in his room now, a door finally arrived. Tommy just flops down on the floor and pulls his legs up to his chest, hugging them a little. So many secrets in this space, why did his brain have to give them up.

[wearingthestars]

Billy's eyes skirt to the door and then back to his brother, moving to sit on the floor beside him and lean into his side.

"...You okay?"

[doubled_speed]

No. He tried so hard to hide all of this stuff from Billy, that he doesn’t like that it’s out there now. Sure he played up some of the stereotypes people would have about kids like him, about people who ended up in jail and went out partying and threw themselves into the life of a hero with such abandon.

He just... well, he hadn’t wanted Billy to ever see how bad it was. Even talking to him about Frank had been hard.

“This place keeps... it keeps taking and forcing things. And you’re not going to respect me if you really know who I am.”

[wearingthestars]

"Tommy..." Billy sighs, thinking for a moment, "...I want to know you. The good parts and the bad. That's part of building a relationship. But...I don't want you to have to share anything you're not ready to. You know all my secrets."

Well...most of them. There's one glaring one they haven't got around to yet...

[doubled_speed]

“It’s all bad parts,” Tommy shrugs, and his eyes cast about the room. “This whole place is a trap of bad stuff. You don’t need to see any of it. I dealt with it a long time ago.”

He’s lying of course. He just got to the point where it’s not constantly on his mind.

[wearingthestars]

"You know that's not how that works," Billy argues. You don't just deal with it and move on. That stuff stick with you, whether you want it to or not.

"But I don't want to see anymore in here. You can tell me in the real world. If you want to."