What It All Comes Down To

[doubled_speed]

WHO: Tommy Shepherd, OTA
WHERE: Around Temba
WHAT: Coming Down From It All (Post House of Billy)
WHEN: The first week post event [Forward Dated]
WARNINGS: CW: Referenced sexual encounter in thread with Kyle, Referenced child abuse in thread with Kyle.


A. Keeping The Diners Supplied The Diner
"Delivery of fresh produce."

Tommy's tired. Perhaps that's why he's coming in later than normal with supplies for this meal shift. Perhaps that's why he looks frazzled and his hair is limp and he's not racing in with all speed. Clearly it's not the heavy crate loaded down with all sorts of foods from the green house, because that's never slowed him down before. But sleep after something like what they'd gone through was... Well, unlikely.

"The cyanana harvest is starting, so I'm thinking about trying to figure out how to make some sorta pudding out of it. That's a thing, right? Banana pudding or something."

He'd been enough out of it on entering that he didn't even know who it was he was talking to. Like hell he'd thought about how the kitchen help rotation was working now. Nor did he care. He was too tired from all his dreams to care.


B. Healing Power of Horticulture The Greenhouse
If there was one place that Tommy often found peace, it was the greenhouse. Today Tommy was trying his best to work there without getting too complicated with other people. For this he'd done the best thing he could do: working the mint wing. The advantage that came that the specific wing was sealed off from the rest of the greenhouse to keep it from spreading too much. Tommy moved slowly through it with a woven rush basket, humming quietly under his breath some German pop music he remembered from back home. While he moved he clipped little sprigs of mint to pass on to Glownies as a treat.

The advantage of the sealed area was that when the doors opened, Tommy knew someone was there. He could hear it. He turned to look at the door and frowned.

"Can I help you? I thought I was soloing the mint today."


C. The Solitary Island Closed to Aeon
It took a while for him to find her, but Tommy had wanted to have an excuse to get away, but he didn't want to be put into a position where his stupid brain could interrupt him. There had been someone interested after all, and so he'd raced through the city until he found her.

"Aeon," he said, offering a hand up for a high five. "You doing anything? Because if not, island time."


D. Wild Card
[Feel free to hit me up on Discord or Plurk to discuss places Tommy could get cornered. Or just have someone come to his actual home. Other options are to find him lazing by the fountain, on top of a tall building, or hiding out with the glownies which he normally does not visit.]

Comments

A: bruising that produce

[kyley_b]

To be fair to Tommy, Kyle was not exactly working with his usual cheerful exuberance. He'd been head-down and quiet all day, nervously awaiting the moment Tommy might appear.

"Yeah, banana pudding is totally a thing."

He came around to help with the crate, determined to act totally normal.

[doubled_speed]

Oops. Kyle. Literally there were two people who he didn't want to run into right now. And here was person number one on that short list.

"Kyle," Tommy said, his voice cracking a little at seeing the other guy.

[kyley_b]

Fuck. Kyle really thought that he was going to be okay, but that voice. He knew that tone, and it broke his heart.

"Hey, dude." Same greeting as usual, but he dropped his eyes to the produce and went to take the crate.

CW: Referenced Sexual Encounter. Wow, already a CW.

[doubled_speed]

Loved. He'd been loved there. He'd been happy. And Kyle had been a part of that. The same greeting as before.

And it HURTS.

"I, uh, don't know how to make banana pudding. I should ask someone."

A

[thesepreciousthings]

"You bet your buns it is," Starling smiled, wiping her hands off on the dish towel hanging from her apron. She'd been rolling out a crust for a tart when he'd come in, and there was a large bowl of sugared berries at her elbow. "I'm pretty sure we've got everything we need to cobble a recipe together out of our substitutes. ... You want some caf, kiddo? You look wiped."

[doubled_speed]

A tart? Damn, Clarice was SO much better of a cook than Tommy was. He looked quite gratefully toward that tart.

"I'm thinking I should gift you this whole fucking place, Clarice. You make me look inept."

Because he was, but hey, he'd tried.

"Caf? Like, do you have coffee or something? I could use it. Fuck, it's like... I think I self-medicate with it back home."

[thesepreciousthings]

"That's what Cobb calls it, yeah..." She gestured toward their stash of the closest thing the place had to coffee. She wasn't one hundred percent sure what it was made of, but it worked, and that was what she cared about on rough mornings.

"And you're not inept, honey, I just have a lil' more experience. C'mere, I can show you if you want. Trickiest part is getting the dough right."

B - Greenhouse

[cannot_flinch]

"I'm not here to help," Ikora admitted, her hands folded behind her back. Ophiuchus was going plant by plan, scanning them. "I can if you need it but I was mostly here to see the green house."

She hadn't gotten much of a chance to explore this part of the city before they had fallen under Billy's spell. "I admit, though, I'm not much of a gardener."

Her hands were more suiting to killing than cultivating.

Ikora tilted her head as she looked him over. "You're Tommy, right? Billy's brother. Thank you for what you did. I don't think I could've reached him."

[doubled_speed]

The little droid, robot, whatever, Tommy notices and watches more than he does Ikora. He doesn't want to look at her, not after her thanks. He didn't want thanks. So instead he beeped and whistled out a greeting to Ophiuchus in the language that Cal and Poe's droids used. He wondered if it would work.

Only then does he stand to look at her.

"Yes, I am. And maybe you could have."

[cannot_flinch]

Ophiuchus stopped mid-scan and looked over at Tommy, shell spinning slowly. "You don't have to whistle to get my attention," the ghost said. If he had a face, he would be frowning which could be heard in his tone. "I understand Binary but I speak English perfectly. And hundreds of other languages too."

Ikora was rather amused by the interaction. The people of Coruscant had treated Ophiuchus as if he was no brighter than a toaster which he was clearly still holding a grudge over.

"Maybe," she allowed. "But your help was invaluable. I hope your bother is healing well."

C

[hooliganstatus]

When he found her, she was sitting on the edge of some rubble, cleaning a very unique-looking gun. The barrel had been replaced by a grapple, and at the sound of Tommy's voice she abandoned the task to return that high five with a smile.

"I'd almost forgotten. Yes. Yes, island time. Please."

She wasn't about to say it aloud, but he wasn't the only one who wanted an excuse to get away.

Re: C

[doubled_speed]

"Come on," he said, turning around and shifting his posture. "Piggyback to your island haven."

[hooliganstatus]

"Ooh, and I get chauffeured, even." She winked at him, then easily climbed onto his back, wrapping her long legs around his waist. She didn't weigh very much at all, being mostly limbs and sinew and chest. She rested her chin on his shoulder and spoke quietly so as not to deafen him.

"Ready for express travel."

B.

[ezra_of_lothal]

Ezra and Tommy have mostly passed like ships in the void of space while they do work in the greenhouse. Right now, he's surprised to see Tommy already there and working. And, on reflection, he's not sure that the politely avoiding each other thing he thought they'd had going is actually a good thing.

"I think my sense of time is all wonked," Ezra admits. But neither does he duck back out immediately.

[doubled_speed]

Sometimes politely avoiding each other is the easier way to do things when you don't know what to say to someone. Tommy tends to prefer ti to making a full on ass of himself.

"Maybe it is. Probably from fake-land," Tommy mumbled, still focusing on the mint and not looking at Ezra, his whole self a roil of so many emotions he didn't know how to deal with.

[ezra_of_lothal]

"Yeah, probably," Ezra agreed, lightly, without any heat or resentment.

He can't really tease out what Tommy is feeling, and he's of the opinion it would be rude to try to consciously use the Force to try to, without a solid reason for it. But he can kinda pick up there's a lot going on under the surface, there.

"Hey, can I ask...do you know what happened there at the end? I didn't want to have to corner Billy, and I supposed to follow Ikora to try to help talk him down." He spreads his hands.

"And then I got blindsided by Obi-wan. Except he was my worried big brother at the time."

B

[lionunchained]

Shiro had been keeping to himself for a bit after everything that had happened. But one thing he was glad about was that they were back and he could see the Glownies again. Amazing how much you ended up missing small glowing horses when they weren't around, especially since he had been spending some time taking care of them.

Of course, he found out that he wasn't the only one who had the idea of harvesting mint today for the Glownies, seeing a familiar face.

"Hey. Seems like we had the same idea."

[doubled_speed]

Shiro's voice. Tommy couldn't help the relief. If there was someone he didn't have a lot of feelings about after the world his brother had created, it was Shiro. No extra weird baggage there. Tommy smiled and lifted the basket, holding it out to Shiro.

"I was going to leave it in one of the buildings in the farm for you, or whoever was working the glownies today. They deserved a treat. I don't know what happened to them while we were gone."

[lionunchained]

Shiro smiled, coming over to take the offered basket.

"Thanks. Great minds think alike I guess," he said with a chuckle. "Yeah, I don't know what happened to them either but I went to check on them not long after we got back and they all seemed to be doing well. Of course, not as well-brushed but other than that..."

A

[tempredmental]

Keith was tired, too. He wasn't working in the back, but had been walking past the backdoor near the restrooms when he heard Tommy's voice. Not seeing anyone else, he made the assumption that Tommy was speaking to him.

Okay, then...

"Banana bread...?" he offered meagerly. "That's something right? Or maybe... banana bread pudding? Since like... bread pudding is a thing, and banana pudding is a thing... combine them?" No, Keith, that's not how that works. Hunk would be disappointed in you.

Though, bread pudding made with banana bread would probably taste pretty good...

[doubled_speed]

Banana bread huh? Tommy frowned.

"Is banana bread made like regular bread? Do you know how to make it? Sounds like it would be tasty."

Yep, Keith's definitely got him thinking here.

[tempredmental]

"I uh... no. I don't know. I mean, I've had it. It's pretty good. But I haven't tried making it."

Keith frowned a bit.

"It tastes a little more like cake than bread, though, so... I'm not sure." He shrugged. "Sometimes, people put walnuts in it."

B

[the_tailor]

Taking care of the plants in the greenhouse was one of Lance's main duties here at this point, so he's here for another round of making sure things are happy and healthy. As he walks into the "mint wing", he blinks as he's addressed.

"Wait... Did I like, miss a whiteboard somewhere saying who's on what duty?" he asks.

[doubled_speed]

"Like I have a whiteboard," Tommy answered. But hey, it was only Lance, the other 'plants are needed' dude. He offered the traditional half wave, half nod to the guy that he often worked around but didn't always talk to.

Sure, Lance talked to HIM a lot, but Tommy tended to full on focus on the plant work.

"Nah. You just know how the mint gets. I keep worrying that if we open the door too much we're going to get another mintpocalypse like the last one I unleashed. But I guess glownies are a good benefit."

Unless this time they brought whatever ate glownies to their doorsteps. Better to avoid that risk.

[the_tailor]

"I gotta say that mintpocalypses are a heck of a lot better than other pocalypses," he replies with a sage nod. Especially after all the actual or near apocalypses he's been through both at home and since getting onto the fleet.

"Need help culling these bad boys down? Or watering or whatever?"