revivalproject | What It All Comes Down To

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What It All Comes Down To

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.]

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For a second, it looked like Keith might have frozen in time. Then, he finally blinked.

"...A copy...?"

His voice sounded a bit... off. Something about that idea clearly didn't sit well with him.

"Well, it's weird isn't it? I went there and I didn't remember here, and I came back here days later, but older. Was that normal, with the Atroma?"

He really didn't know things about the past, and he didn't want to ask Wanda, lest he upset her with memories of Vision.

"Y-yeah... It's happened... a few times... to me an' Lance..."

Keith took a shaky breath. "If that's... If that's a thing, then... how many copies would there be?" He gave Tommy a really freaked out look.

"I don't know," Tommy answered with a shrug. If he had that answer he'd be happy to offer it to Keith. Instead he just has to, you know, consider how to keep moving forward with this fear.

"I just... what if we can't really go home again?"

"I dunno... I mean, if I'm just a copy of myself..." Keith shuddered a little. "...then I guess it doesn't matter. 'Cuz then... the... real... me... is-s-s s-still back home doing what needs to be done, and I can stay here with Lance and we can live our lives." Which sounded nice, even with the idea that he might just be... a clone... which, in and of itself was a little triggering. He drummed the fingers of his right hand on the wall next to him, fast and steady, but no real musical rhythm, just a nervous movement, but then caught himself and moved that hand to rub it against his forehead.

"That could be... a good thing... right? Maybe? I-I guess?" Keith didn't sound so sure.

It's all really weird to listen to Kyle saying. He seems more frazzled than he's been in a while, and after a moment, Tommy gets it. This had to do with what Shiro had said. The whole thing that had been explained.

"Hey, don't think of it that way, real or not. I mean, sure, that evil Empire shit pulled some stuff on Shiro and if that clone him shows up here I'm in line to kick it's ass too, but that doesn't diminish the realness of you and now you feel. Got it?"

Because Tommy refuses to accept that those made in the image of another aren't real, that they can't be real. Because if they can't, what does that mean for him, someone who got sorta retro-reincarnated. That was like cloning, right?

Keith's eyes widened for a second as he heard Tommy start talking about Shiro and the Empire, which was exactly what was on his mind at the moment. How did he-?

Right. Chill, Keith. Shiro was here. It only made sense that, somewhere along the line, Shiro might feel comfortable enough with someone to tell them about what happened. Or even Lance, for that matter. Keith wasn't alone. He wasn't the only person from his world here. There were other people around to talk about their experiences with people. It wasn't just him. He closed his eyes and took a breath, trying to steady his nerves, then nodded.

"Yeah... I guess." Keith frowned a bit, looking back over at Tommy for a moment. "I mean, I don't think I'm... not real? Like, not like that..." He sighed. "But, Shiro's clone. He was being controlled, and he didn't even know. He thought he was Shiro. He had his memories, and everything. What if we're just going through the motions, and something happens to trigger some sort of programming we don't know about and we all turn into monsters of ourselves? What if we all just snap one day because whoever's in charge decided to flip some proverbial switch and then we..."

Keith's voice trailed off and he looked at the floor. If Tommy knew the story, then he'd know what Keith was having trouble saying.

What if they were all suddenly mind-controlled into fighting and killing each other?

Wow, Keith. Tommy actually found himself wanting to reach out and hug the guy. Which is SO not happening. But he does instead reach out to touch Keith's arm. That's the comfort he feels he can give.

"Hey. That's not happening here because like fuck I'd let them mess with people's heads."

Surprisingly, while a hug might have been met with even more surprise and probably a very tense Keith at first and then slowly appreciated, the arm touch does a lot to calm him down much quicker. It's more similar to the patented Shiro Shoulder Touch TM that Keith was used to from a good portion of his younger years than a hug would have been. It grounded him, dragging his attention out of his scattered and traumatized memories and back to Tommy, forcing Keith to raise his eyes back up again and look the other man in the eyes and truly process his next words.

There was a beat as Keith's pessimistic side argued that it was going to impossible to stop it... how could Tommy prevent it... and all these other questions... but he managed to curb it with a small sigh.

"I don't know if there's really any way to stop something like that, but-" and he did actually finally manage a small smile... weak, kind of sad, but genuine and there... "I appreciate the offer."

He took a deep breath and then quickly shook his head like he was trying to clear it.

"I'm sorry, man. I didn't mean to get all weird like that."

"Dude, here's a secret," he said, pitching his voice like he wants no one else to know this. "I'm stubborn enough to win. Just ask Billy."

Then he's grinning stupidly and moving back just a bit. "You've got me on your side. And Shiro. And your guy, Lance. Probably Billy too if I ask. So it's fine. We're gonna win."

Keith scrunched up his eyebrows a bit in a curious look as Tommy leaned in, and then he actually huffed out a breathy short laugh as he shook his head a little at the comment about stubborn. If anyone knew about being stubborn in the face of overwhelming odds, it was Keith. Sure, he'd talking doom and gloom because he felt freaked out after having been through it before, but that didn't mean he wouldn't try to fight it if it did happen again.

But at least it got him to smile a little. Good going, Tommy. You got him past it.

"Yeah..." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Thanks." Some people might wonder why only five people would elicit a thanks, but Keith had been part of a team of five and they'd pulled off a pretty amazing thing, so he didn't doubt that only five people could save a whole universe if they really put their all into it.

Here Tommy just figured the thanks came from the fact that TOmmy was promising to have his back. Besides, his own team hadn't been much bigger. Just because his circle had grown didn't mean failed to understand the value of a small unit of people you trusted.

"Very welcome. Guys like us need to stick together after all, right?"

Keith smiled a bit, and then nodded.

"Yeah."

For now, though, he wanted to head out and find Lance. Shoulder and arm touches from friends were good, but fiance hugs were better.

"In the meantime... we can still consider banana bread pudding."

That was still a thing, right?

Well, Tommy wouldn't stop him from going after Lance, to find his support.

"We can," TOmmy grinned. "Cyanana bread pudding. Fuck, that might turn out blue."

He has to laugh at the idea of blue bread.

And Keith actually managed to laugh, too. It was hesitant at first, but finally bubbled up into something more relieved sounding.

"Yeah... blue. That would be something." He rubbed at his eyes. "Honestly, I'm getting used to weird colors in my food. You'd be surprised what Alteans eat back home." He pushed himself away from where he'd been leaning against the wall, and then reached over to grip Tommy's arm like he would a friend.

"I'm gonna keep you to that promise, though." He smiled a little, but he meant it. They were a team now. "I'll see you later."

Hey, at least he was laughing about something.

"WIth how long we've been here, I think we're getting plenty of weird colors in our diet," Tommy answered.

When he saw Keith reaching he was more than happy to grip his arm back. Took all kinds of comrade gestures, right?

"Later, Keith. Be safe."

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What It All Comes Down To

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