tommy shepherd >>> SPEED (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
expeditiousness) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
sixthiterationlogs2018-09-25 08:59 pm
expeditiousness) wrote in sixthiterationlogs2018-09-25 08:59 pm
we're falling apart to half time
WHO: Tommy Shepherd
WHERE: The fountain, around the village
WHEN: Backdated to Sept. 19 and a few days after
OPEN TO: Errybody in the village
WARNINGS: Might be some talk about remembered trauma/light body horror vis-à-vis medical experimentation, will use subject line CWs if it comes up!
WHERE: The fountain, around the village
WHEN: Backdated to Sept. 19 and a few days after
OPEN TO: Errybody in the village
WARNINGS: Might be some talk about remembered trauma/light body horror vis-à-vis medical experimentation, will use subject line CWs if it comes up!
and these are the lives you love to lead (arrival; fountain; closed to picard).
Waking up underwater is definitely not the most pleasant thing Tommy's ever experienced. It's also not the worst, but it is the most current thing he's experiencing, which is the more salient fact. Does Tommy even know how to swim? It's a mystery, but not an important one, because it isn't too long before he has his fingers wrapped around the edge of the fountain and starts pulling himself out onto dry land, coughing and spluttering.
He's disoriented - thinks vaguely about David and a warehouse and someone (or something) wearing his old teammate's uniform, but the more pressing matter is getting his lungs to work so he can breathe properly again. The air feels heavy here, just like his own body feels heavy, like it's cased in concrete, or like he's trying to run through the water currently soaking through his teal-colored scrubs. What happened to his uniform, his goggles? And just where the hell is he?!
this is the way they'd love if they knew how misery loved me (around the village; open)
Tommy legitimately hates this place. He's now basically living in the sticks, and being forced to move this slow feels like suffocating, each long second stretching out into forever. Will he ever get his speed back again? He tries not to think about it.
Unfortunately, living in the sticks means there are not as many distractions from thinking as Tommy's come to expect from 21st century urban life - no traffic noises, no television, no video games, no cell phones, no apps. If the slowness doesn't kill him, he's fairly certain the boredom will. So he regularly leaves the house he's claimed to explore the village - walking, at a painfully slow pace - and poke his nose into anything that looks even mildly promising.
no subject
Tony had already told her that she was getting close to Vision. So that, at least, was less of a surprise.
"I'll make us tea." She gestured towards the couch for Tommy to sit and then continued towards the kitchen. After setting the pot near the fire she returned to find Arado sitting on the couch, waiting to snuggle up with Tommy.
"You don't have to tell me everything but I'd like to know." At least some of it.
no subject
He tries to ignore the bitterness in the back of his throat that rises up when he thinks about it by not thinking about it. His own birth parents didn't want much to do with him, either - why would a woman he barely knew be any different?
But the Wanda in front of him is clearly different from the one he and Billy and the other Young Avengers had searched for. She wants to know, and she's already been nothing but kind to Tommy. There's probably no harm in explaining to her the weirdness of his life. He sits on the couch and gently pets Arado until Wanda returns.
"It's not really a huge secret or anything," Tommy says, glancing up to Wanda with a light shrug. "I'm a mutant - so's my twin, Billy. I grew up in New Jersey, and I didn't even know I had a twin until a couple of years ago. Normally, I've got super speed, and Billy's got magic." Much like the Wanda and Pietro of Tommy's Earth - that part goes without saying.
"I was in juvie when Billy and the other Young Avengers found me," Tommy continues, "broke me out, gave me a chance to join the team and turn my life around. Be a hero, y'know? But Billy got this idea in his head that me and him must've been Scarlet Witch's reincarnated-soul children. See, the Wanda back home did some reality-warping at one point, and part of that was that she had twin boys with the same names as me and Billy. Reality got unwarped eventually, but me and Billy still ended up with those kids' souls, I guess?"
no subject
She took a minute to collect herself, checking on the water to make sure it wasn't sitting to far from the fire. "Sounds complicated." She agreed when she felt like she could trust her own voice. "I'm sorry that you went through that." Wanda's lip curled and she paused for a moment before standing and taking the seat next to Tommy.
"I won't ask you to treat me like your mother Tommy but I do think we're family." She let that sink in before continuing. "I lost my parents at a young age. My brother and I were fighting for our freedom and we ended up on the wrong side." It was hard to talk about, even though it'd been years since her brother died. "In our attempt to fix it, Peitro died. I've been with the Avengers since then." Recent events were more complicated and Wanda didn't think it was important to mention just yet.
"I don't know what the other me with thinking but I know what it's like to lose family and it never gets easier." Even family that you don't like.
The tea pot whistled and Wanda rose to her feet to finish their tea.
no subject
He listens quietly and attentively to what Wanda says about losing her parents and her brother, and a heavy soberness settles in Tommy's chest. It's hard to imagine Wanda without Pietro, but it isn't hard to guess that Wanda might be very lonely. Tommy ponders for a moment what it would be like to lose Billy forever, and decides very quickly that he doesn't like where that thought leads, so he abandons it.
Moving on.
"Well - yeah, you're obviously way too young and pretty to be anyone's mom." Is that a little weird to say? Oops. Tommy realizes that a half-second too late to stop the words from exiting his mouth; instead, he says more in an attempt to make it less weird. "Uh ... not that you'd be ugly if you were someone's mom?" Nervous, he rubs a hand over the back of his neck. Nice going, Thomas.
"Anyway ... I've got another mom back home and I haven't heard from her in a couple years, so I guess I'm doing OK without one. How 'bout ... you can be the cool older sister instead? Or ... distant cousin I just met?"
no subject
Listening to Tommy fumble over his words was kind of adorable. He was young in many senses but also fully grown, forced to grow up in a situation that demanded an adult. Wanda hadn't wanted that for her children, it was one of the reasons she had joined the Avengers, to protect people from the hardships she experienced, but there wasn't anything she could do about it.
Whatever she might want, he wasn't from her world.
"Thank you and I think I can be an older sister." She was used to being the younger sister. "I'll worry. If that's okay. I don't know you but we're family and I want you to be safe."