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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Take him home. To parents. God, that's a bad idea.

"Okay, we're walking now, away from here, to a place we can talk, and we can lay out just why that's a terrible idea."

"Right. Okay, sure." He finishes putting containers where they ought to be and then turns to Tommy.

Tommy hesitates before offering his hand out. "Come on, I know a place."

Kyle takes his hand with an easy familiarity that feels bizarre. He grins a little shyly. "You'll have to carry me if you wanna go fast, hero. I'm not special, anymore."

"You're still special," Tommy says reflexively. Which was stupid. But he said it anyway as he swept Kyle up into his arms. "You been to the hot springs yet?"

"Nope." Kyle is both taller and older, but it still feels so normal to be carried this way, because as the Human Kite he'd done it hundreds of times. Kyle can't quite stop the pang in his heart that causes.

He was special, there. To Tommy, and to everyone else.

He closes his eyes and hangs on tight.

Hey, Tommy's DEFINITELY older than he was, so it's not as weird as it was before. He did offer a wink to Kyle and moved. He knew that Kyle would know what it felt like, knew how to handle it. No warnings needed.

Tommy was off like the speed of thought, careful to keep to speeds that wouldn't hurt his passenger. Soon the world around them was darker, given the whole caves thing. And then his speed picked up a bit, in spite of himself. Stupid energy crystals feeding into him. But then he was stopping, as the air was warmer, more humid, and filled with the sound of trickling water.

"Onenativehotspring," he declared as he put Kyle down, vibrating with energy now. His eyes were glowing with the residual power in the air that his body seemed to absorb, his hair giving off its own faint glow. He looked, well, he looked keyed up.

"Sorry," the word rushed out, and he closed his eyes to try and slow it. "Energy here. Like power rods. Super charge me."

Without thinking, once he was on his feet Kyle gently cupped Tommy's face with his hands.

"It's okay," he said softly. "You're okay, you don't have to apologise." He let go as soon as he realised he was touching Tommy, looking around. He'd never been to the hot spring, and the warmth and humidity of even just the air is foreign but comforting somehow.

Tommy leans into the touch, it's a remembered action after all. Stupid muscle memory. But then it's gone and it's easier and he walks to the water, still vibrating, the air around him just a bit warmer from his motion, the look of him blurring a bit.

"Ittakestime to burn off," he explained. "Don'tcomehereoften because ofthat."

"Right," Kyle says, standing there with his hands tucked into his pockets. He looks at the springs, then shrugs out 9f his coat.

"So I can just get in?"

"Yeah," Tommy agreed. And then, like he suddenly processed Kyle undressing, turned his back quickly on the other guy. The movement left and after image of light in the air, slow to fade.

Kyle paused, hesitant to undress. Which was stupid, he thought. He'd seen Tommy naked. Tommy had seen HIM naked. What was the big deal?

He chickened out and turned away to undress fully, leaving them with their backs to each other. Nude, he got into the water as fast as he could.

Yeah, they're both hella awkward and weird, right? Tommy waits until he hears Kyle settle into the water. Then he undresses himself, moving in a blur that leaves glowing after images. And then he's in the water, sinking in and letting himself sink as far into it as he can, leaving it up to his lips so he can blow bubbles out before sitting up a bit.

"See, nice shit. Better than showers on the ships."

"More relaxing, anyway." Provided he doesn't think too much about what might be in the water.

Kyle forces himself to sink lower, trying to get his muscles to unclench. One of his feet bobs up to the surface and he wiggles his toes before pulling it back down.

"So. Uhm. How are you?" God, he hates himself sometimes.

Cute toes. Tommy ignores them and shakes his head.

"Not good. The way I woke up, it was because of Mysterio. Fucking illusions messing with my head. But they... I don't know? They pulled from my real memories. I didn't grow up in a nice way, Kyle."

"You've implied as much."

He looks at Tommy somberly. "So basically, the nice upbringing you imagined there got busted open by reality. Yeah. That's pretty fucked up right there. So on top of looking after your brother, you're also stuck dealing essentially with childhood trauma."

Which was absolutely correct. Childhood trauma. Teenaged trauma. Just trauma.

"Yeah. I sorta ended up in this juvie place that mostly wanted to experiment on me. So there was that. And seeing a fake version of Billy there being injured or killed or something. And then there was Frank. That's what really made me realize it."

Frank Shepherd. Fuck that shit.

"Did you wanna tell me about Frank?" Said very gently, because he doesn't want to push. Tommy's hurting, and Kyle's heart aches at the sight.

Tommy hadn't actually addressed the matter of his parents directly with a lot of people. Not even his brother. And Kyle was... about the only one he'd trust. Fuck, it's weird that it's like that.

"My bio parents didn't want, and couldn't handle, a child."

"So they gave you up for adoption, right?" This much he understands, and he's beginning to think maybe the family Tommy wound up with wasn't very good.

"I wish they had," Tommy answered, gritting his teeth. And then he offered his foot up out of the water. There was a scar, faintly visible, across the back of his calf. "Because then there won't be things like this."

Let Kyle do what he wanted to with that.

"So when the illusions I was seeing had his voice, Frank's... That didn't meld with the lies Billy's magic built. At all."

"And it woke you up."

Kyle shifts a little bit closer, barely refraining from pulling Tommy against him. "Dude. I'm so sorry."

"And it woke me up," Tommy agreed. Nothing like cowering away from a ghost of a man who used to hit him.

"Don't apologize. Better I had that then Billy."

"Yeah." It might be horrible to agree with, but it's a sentiment he's heard before - 'better me than my sibling.' Because of love. And as much as it might be terrible to admit, Kyle thought that some people could withstand more than others.

"I kinda wanna hug you right now. Is that too weird?"

Who knew, maybe if their roles had been reversed, Billy would have stood it better and Tommy would be the weak one.

"It's... understandable," Tommy admitted. And he wanted one. But dude, they're naked.

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CW: Discussion of child abuse and neglect

CW: Discussion of child abuse and neglect

Re: CW: Discussion of child abuse and neglect