revivalproject | OTA Log: Sometimes People Hide

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OTA Log: Sometimes People Hide

WHO: Reeve Tuesti and You
WHERE: He Row Soup Lies
WHAT: Avoiding the storm, tending to others
WHEN: November 6th-11th
WARNINGS: N/A

The Strangest Stuffed Animal

Not all of the stuffed toys lying around amid the blanket are just what they seem. One of them a bipedal, black and white tuxedo cat with a green cape, striding across the room toward the nearest person in a blanket. Somewhere in the background a man in a torn up suit, no doubt messed up by the crash, watches the stuffed animal approach, but doesn't say anything for now. Instead he watches with concern over how the doll moves, limping to whoever is there and reaching out to pat their arm with a pudgy paw.

There there, the doll seems to say. It just wished to provide comfort.

Hot Chocolate and Hiding

He hasn't been outside for days, not since he got here. It had been a burden, it had been a mess, it had been a whole thing. And Reeve, once he'd arrived, had found a place far from the door, sat down with a mug and Mini-C nearby, and watched the door.

It took a lot for him to even consider tearing his eyes from it. Outside was… too dangerous. He couldn't risk it. He had seen his own fears out there, and he didn't wish to face them again.

Reeve sips his cocoa and then jumps to his feet when he sees someone come in. The cocoa is passed off to Mini as Reeve grabs a blanket and heads for the door, ready to throw the blanket over the arrival.

"How is it getting out there? Come, let me get you a bowl of soup and some cider."

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The poke made Tony wince, but it wasn't so surprising that just asking wouldn't make these nightmares leave him alone. He'd been asking for a very long time and shouldn't expect anything to have changed just because he was pretty sure he was still awake. It was the shifting and dip of the weird toys and the blankets that Tony could feel that made him shudder, though, figuring out quickly what Mini was intending and trying to press tightly into his bow down against his knees. Tim had died in his arms so many times in these dreams, and he knew what that always meant, that Tony hadn't been strong enough to get it together, get sober, and actually help someone for once.

Tony never could just leave him out in the storm, though. He took a deep breath to steel himself, and eased up out of his tight ball enough while chanting, "Okay, okay, okay," not sure if he was trying to reassure Mini or himself. When he finally managed to brave a peek the doll's way, under the hem of the blanket, Mini looked...well, not normal. But not like what the corpse of a doll might look like. Tony went, "Okay," one more time, this time in acceptance, leaning back less tentatively to let Mini into his blanket, waiting for the horror to reveal itself.

With the blanket opened up and offering welcome, the doll crawled right on in. If nothing else, he wanted to do this. Especially since, given he was created with the body of a plush toy. Which meant that part of his nature echoed it.

Stuffed animals were comforts. Cats curled up with those they cared for when they were upset. It worked double for him. So Mini crawled in and immediately started to snuggle up to Tony, patting his chest in a comforting way.

The 'okay' loop was a difficult bug to overcome, but watching Mini get himself comfortably cuddled was an effective interruption despite Tony watching him warily. He still didn't like that limp, and couldn't pinpoint what had caused it, but the snuggling demanded a thin smile before Tony was gingerly scooping Mini up to cradle in his lap, knelt in the pile of less lively toys with the blanket draped over both of them like a shroud. "Hey," he managed to say instead and gave his own comforting kiss to Mini's soft face before trying to smooth the fur back into place. "Hey, everything's okay. What happened to you, huh? I can fix it."

In the darkness of the little nest that Tony has created, it's impossible to show Tony the tear that made one leg less secure on his little body. But the doll allows the kiss and snuggles back against him.

Reeve, of course, had the quiet question relayed to him by Mini, and so it was him that voiced the doll's answer while he tended to the soups. He'd give Tony a bowl later.

"The crash led to some tears to his fabric," Reeve provided, though he didn't near. "I do not have the materials to repair him at this moment. When the storm passes I shall acquire them."

The voice made Tony hiss, shoulders rounding further again, anticipating some awful, dying rattling and not what turned out to be Reeve's reliably measured accent. Still, he looked to Mini anxiously, hoping for some confirmation that this was entirely real, and Tony had found some kind of safe haven, and the body of Reeve he had seen outside wasn't haunting him until he finally felt guilty enough.

"Few tears aren't so bad," he murmured, "No need to get hysterical about it. Just gotta wait out the storm, you'll be good as new in no time, you're fine, what's this?" One of them had demanded a cuddle, after all, so clearly this wasn't for Tony's benefit, Tony was great.

Mini is happy to reassure, his paw gently patting the side of Tony's face. There there. It's okay. They're okay. Everything is okay.

"They are hardly inspiring hysteria in either of us," Reeve chides with that usual testiness he has for when Tony is being silly. But it soon softened, even as Mini returned his attention so snuggling.

"When the storm passes we shall all be better."

That definitely sounded like Reeve and not some nightmare Tony would make him into, making Tony finally draw himself up and push the blanket back from his head, chancing a look Reeve's way again. If he had looked immaculate, Tony thought, he would have made for a much more discordant presence, encouraging Tony to climb to his feet. Reeve had been just standing over there this whole time while Tony ignored him to have an ineffectual, selfish breakdown.

"How long have you been here?," he asked, which could have just meant Tony hadn't see Reeve when he had come in, to excuse his behaviour. What he really wanted to know was if Reeve had been cultivating this strange little haven while Tony was busy accomplishing absolutely nothing trying to get Cal's ship back online.

Well then, good thing he doesn't look immaculate. He looks liek a mess, but he's alive, that much is obvious. But he doesn't really... well, mind that the man had a break down. A lot of people had.

"Since well before you entered. Have some soup. It helps," Reeve suggests, and he'll get a bowl but he doesn't intend to force it on the guy. "The Agrii provided it, so it's weird."

"What isn't?" Tony replied, and he wasn't sure what could have been comparatively weird when up against those flavoured gels that the ships dispensed, or anything he unwillingly experiences while on the Agrii ship. He risked making his way closer, carrying Mini high against his neck, defensive and protective in case this did turn out to be an elaborate apparition. "Where is everybody else?" he ventured cautiously.

Truly fair enough, Reeve can understand that. Reeve notices Tony approaching and puts a small amount of soup into one of the bowls. And starts with hot chocolate.

"I do not know. Once I found the status of this place, I haven't left. I... am not brave enough to face my fears," Reeve admits as he holds out a bowl.

Mini, as of the moment, has buried his face in Tony's neck, clearly comfortable here. This is family.

Nothing horrid happened when Tony came close enough to take the bowl, but he still looked slightly suspicious of it, considering the possibility that this was the thing that would reveal the truth of this nightmare to him, like eating fairy food. So far so good, though, he braved the last of the gap between them to thank and greet Reeve with the press of his cheek to Reeve's, hands otherwise full. He was warm, he must have been alive.

"No tears?" he checked, not quite managing his wry smile, not as concerned about what Reeve may or may not have been brave enough to manage so far. Anyone who had managed to make their way from the ships at all, Tony was discovering, was plenty brave enough.

Well, that was a bit of contact he didn't... know how to deal with. But Reeve allowed it for now. He's too concerned.

"Not anymore," Reeve admits. "It's been a few days of me hiding in here, helping whoever comes in."

So no, he doesn't find himself brave. But he'd had Mini, and the little one was all the best at keeping him going.

If others were coming and going, Tony was getting a better impression of what state exactly Reeve might have been in, and 'hiding' had some telling implications. Not any that Tony knew what to do with, but he tilted his head slightly, then put the soup aside to offer, "I'll go get what you need to fix up Mini. Not far from your house now, is it? I can get you some clean clothes. A hairbrush. You have one of those, right?"

What? Reeve looks horrified at the very idea.

"You would head out into that storm to do something so frivolous? It's unwise. Do not. I am not so vain as to want to deal with looking a bit mussed."

And Mini? He would be patient. They both were.

Now Tony was sure that this was Reeve, and he wasn't dead like Tony was still trying to deal with, and Tony didn't know what that emotion even was, never mind how to express it. Reeve was given the chance to exercise that patience, because Tony stared at him in the generous time he had to actually respond to that direction, mouth slowly opening like he very much wanted to say something and, for once, couldn't properly dislodge the fatal backup of words he usually seemed to have. Between Extremis still not working and the exhaustion he could feel cottoning around his brain instead, every reaction felt very irritatingly sluggish to Tony.

Not that he was likely to not do something just because Reeve said it was frivolous and unwise. Mini was torn, it wasn't that frivolous. Something about that finally made Tony's teeth click together, like a flip switched, managing to knit a few words together; "I knew a man, lifetime ago, who--we were together in a place kind of like this, and we were definitely going to die, lined up against a wall and executed, and it was just us in this--this cabin, waiting to die together. When I think back on it, when I think about him, I can see him so clearly, getting up every single morning to shave and wash his feet and press his clothes. Every morning, alone." That sounded incredibly loud in this empty room by the time Tony was done, leaving him unsure why he had shared that at all.

What a story. But... he doesn't know what to make of it except a simple answer.

"Tony, it's not that simple for me. My concern for your life and sanity outweighs my discomfort. And Mini will agree with it."

The doll nods his agreement.

From the tone alone, it was clear to Tony that Reeve was about to say something very serious and concerned, which made even the fact that Tony had said anything at all even more awkward, so Tony was already leaning back slightly and ready to dismiss this posture out of hand from the moment Reeve said his name, and said back at him, "Reeve," as he continued. Concern was not what Tony was trying to engender. As Mini, the traitor, agreed, Tony rolled his eyes until they landed on the door, where they looked slightly skeptical as he clicked his tongue. "I'm fine, it's just rain, not a problem," he said, but too quietly for it to really be an argument of the point, more of an argument for his sanity. After all, nothing had hurt him out there, and Reeve was right here, so he definitely hadn't seen any bodies anyone had to be concerned about, he was perfectly sane.

He remained like that for a beat, watching the door and listening to the thunder, fingers working restlessly through Mini's fur, before his gaze slid back to Reeve, a question on his face. Eventually, he managed to voice it, "What if we're supposed to do something, to make it stop?"

"Then go out there and make it stop. But I beg you, Tony, do not do it on my behalf."

He doesn't want Tony to feel the pain of that storm, of the fear. Reeve offers over the bowl of soup.

"Please eat."

If the ever evolving list of things Tony wasn't supposed to try to say to Reeve now included sharing anything (which, granted, nobody wanted to hear unless they were being paid to deal with it, and even then Tony always managed to make it incomprehensibly disjointed), or solving the problem (less expected, Tony had a more difficult time processing that one), Tony felt he was quickly tapping out his excuses to indulge in Reeve's safe house. Automatically, he took the bowl back up, at least that was a reason, but he was looking around then, assessing the room and the strange toys he had largely ignored to kneel on. "Okay, yeah, okay," he muttered absently into the bowl before he finally was sipping without engaging on any particular level with what was actually in the bowl, starting to wander away from Reeve instead, still carrying his doll. What did anyone even need to fix a doll? Tony could make that, that was nothing.

Oh Tony, none of the conclusions being drawn are correct at all.

"When the storm passes, I won't mind if you would be willing to take the walk. But for now, please don't put yourself at risk for me. If something happened to you because you were helping me, I would be shattered."

And Jon would probably kill him. But Reeve follows, slowly, at a bit of a remove.

"Do you want hot chocolate? The Agrii have provided that for us as well."

If Reeve wanted to stay at a remove, following Tony was not going to keep him there. Abruptly, Tony turned again, stalking back into Reeve's space and pushing the soup aside once more to gesture impatiently, demanding, "Where's your phone?" Tony's was back on his ship, abandoned under the assumption that if Extremis wasn't working, the network wasn't working, and he wouldn't be needing to pull it apart any time soon. He could use some hardware now, though. He did, at least, realize that Reeve was trying to talk to him, and mumbled, "Uh, sure," wiggling expectant fingers.

Tony, please, just... Never mind. Reeve doesn't know what to say about all of this, and it leaves his heart aching. He doesn't know what to say or do about any of this.

"Yes, of course," he says, taking out his communicator and handing it over to Tony. He trusts the man with it.

"But you should eat. The soup is strengthening, in the weird way Agrii things tend to."

Testing that trust, Tony immediately cracked the case open in his one free hand, flipping it around as he started back toward the toys again to peer into the board and pick out a pin to use. It wasn't going to be the most efficient sewing process, but it would get done--wait, what? Tony finally set Mini back down in the soft bed of blankets and cuddle dolls to work the pin he needed out of the communicator, and looking back at Reeve, puzzled. "They tend to what?," he asked, not sure they had the same experiences with 'Agrii things'. So far, most 'Agrii things' left Tony exhausted.

Reeve bites his lip, trying not to freak out over Tony's behavior. He's just lost his communicator hasn't he? But... But Tony produces an answer and Reeve smiles at him that fondness he can't stop offering the man when he does something kind. He'll have to tease thread from a blanket here very carefully, and contrive a way to get the whole thing done.

"You remain amazing to me, Tony," he smiles as he hold shis hand out for the pin.

"I mean that it feels good to eat. It's not truly fortifying, and it's a bit salty for my taste, but it's comforting just to have a bowl of hot soup, don't you think?"

That smile could have made Tony cry (that was just the exhaustion, his eyes were tired, of course they felt like that, and Tony rubbed at one with the back of his hand until they didn't anymore), gratified that he seemed to have done something right, and had him quickly handing over the tiny, extracted metal pin, even though, wait, no, he was supposed to be the one doing this. At least working out another one to use gave Tony something to look at that wasn't Reeve's face.

"The food the ships make is really...efficient," he said, not sure anymore if that meant he was agreeing with Reeve about the Agrii's talents. "I thought you were saying, with all of this other stuff getting in our heads, I just, I'm--" Paranoid, but that was edging too close to the insanity Tony was definitely in control of. Quickly, much safer, "Does he feel it?"

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