Pick Me Up, Dust Me Off

[helpdesk_hero]

Life hadn't gotten easier after Utopia. Not by a long shot. Where, after that, does a human being go? Sure, one of the greatest geniuses in the world, but that doesn't mean he has a place in it. Instead he'd gotten to shore, dressed up in casual clothes, and mostly hitchhiked across the country. All the way from San Francisco to here. Chicago. Home.

It's taken two months to get this far, and he's in no great shape. There's a bit of a beard on his cheeks, his clothes are torn up, and he feels like shit. Do you... how do you get comfortable enough to go home in this sort of state? How does he go back and hope they accept him? He feels... miserable. David sighs and sips lightly at the cup of coffee in his hands, keeping them warm. Some person bought it for him, and he's still got to figure out how to get over to Hyde Park and his family's house. To figure out a story.

Two nights he's been in Chicago and he doesn't know what to do. He feels so weak. So useless. Such a broken man after the fall of mutantkind, yet again.

Comments

[zoomandboom]

Tommy took a second to picture that. "Huh," he said. "Nah, it'd be hot coming from you, no matter if you learned it from Frost first. Plus stripping could be dignified, dude. But okay, no stripping for you." Tommy smiled at him and shrugged. "What do you actually like to do?"

[helpdesk_hero]

Oh god, did he just? David flushes a bit and looks away. He doesn't much know what to do with this moment that is happening. Other than try and pretend it isn't.

"I don't know, to be honest. My life sorta got destroyed before I got to learn about myself much."

[zoomandboom]

The blush was pretty cute. Tommy didn't mean anything by it - just harmless flirting. But he couldn't deny that David was hot. Sad, and worn down and a little too thin - but hot.

"Well ... I guess if you'vegotnothingplanned, you've got time to figure it out or something, right?" Tommy said, shrugging and unwrapping his second sandwich to bite into it.

[helpdesk_hero]

He used to be built too. So for him, this is REALLY underweight.

"I suppose I do. Of course, the moment I go home my family is going to want answers from me. Decisions. Action."

And he can't just not go home. Not again.

[zoomandboom]

"So tell them you'll let 'em know as soon as YOU know," Tommy said. "You can always say you're just gonna get a job and figure it out? You could always quit and get a new one. There's always somewhere that'll hire mutants, no matter what." Or former mutants, but Tommy didn't like saying it like that. "I can hook you up with them." Tommy had gotten pretty good at finding the mutant-or-powered friendly places in each city, since he found work there a lot too.

[helpdesk_hero]

"How many places do you know that hire what amounts to someone who is on government watch lists as the former head of the youth division of what the US government classifies as a terrorist organization rather than an independent nation?"

Because he's pretty sure that's small.

[zoomandboom]

"I can't give you a number, but you're not the only one who's in that boat. There's gonna be somebody. It might just be offthebooks, or it might suck. Or we could get you fake papers, if you want. I know a dude. I don't know. It's your life, so you can do what you want." Tommy started to say, again, that David could stay here longer if he wanted to, but he'd already offered. It was probably just going to start coming off creepy soon.

[helpdesk_hero]

He needs time to think. And his family won't give him that. But... safety and shelter might help. If he has somewhere safe to stay he isn't begging. But he's also not getting money from that to provide for his own food. It's... an awkward balance.

"I need to think about it," David sighs. "I expect I'm not exactly going to get a job easily. Even being what I am. I just... need time to think."

[zoomandboom]

Well, if he was gonna say he needed time, then Tommy was gonna remind him he'd offered it. "Like I said - you can stay here however long I'm here. So, take your time to think and figure out what you wanna do. You can go see your family but not have to crash there so you don't have to just handoveranswers?" he suggested.

[helpdesk_hero]

"The second they see me, they won't want me to go," David counters. He'd half worry they'd have him committed out of fear that he was a danger to himself.

[zoomandboom]

"So I'll go with you and bust you out if they don't let you go. Or you don't have to go until you're ready to stay. It's up to you, dude. That's what I'm trying to say, you've got another choice is all. It's not a GREAT choice, but, yanno. It's something, right?"

[helpdesk_hero]

What? David stares in shock. Was that really a thing? Was he really offering that?

"Thank you. You're doing that and I'm a stranger. You're... a good person."

[zoomandboom]

Tommy shrugged. "I'm not. Just ... I don't know what I'm doing either, you know? You've got itwayworse so I'm not like, trying to say I get it. But I've got space. I don't know you, but I know you were an X-Man, and that you probably mostly tried to help people and do the right thing, even if you screwed up sometimes. We all did. Do. So, you should get help since I can help out. That's all." It wasn't that noble or anything. Tommy was pretty low-end as far as goodness went with the good guys. But he did like to help people. It was the only way he'd ever make a difference or matter.

[helpdesk_hero]

Screwed up sometimes? This is David Alleyne. He didn't screw shit up. Ever. He was a good man who did good things.

"Yeah, that makes sense. A lot of it," David agrees with a sigh. "I just... don't feel like I'm a good person worth your attention."

[zoomandboom]

Tommy huffed. "Dude. I'm basically a piece of shit, so, it's not like I'm gracing you with anything special. It's just a place to crash and some food and space to figure stuff out. If you figure it out and you're doing good in a few years or something, maybe do it for someone else." Tommy shrugged. "But anyway. I'll get another blanket and stuff tomorrow if you wanna stay longer."

[helpdesk_hero]

"You don't seem like a piece of shit to me," David counters. But he sighs.

"You're a good man, Speed. Really good."

[zoomandboom]

"Well, you don't know me, either. I could just be doing all this to get in your pants to to make myself look good or something, for all you know," Tommy said with a grin. He shrugged. "But I'vegotmoments, I guess." He might not be the best guy, but there were worse.

"You can call me Tommy," he said.

[helpdesk_hero]

Tommy. Well, he'll try. Mostly, though, he is blushing.

"I don't think you would really want in my pants so that's fine. But you are a good person."

He finishes his own sandwich.

"Do you have scissors and a razor? I hate having a beard."

[zoomandboom]

Tommy scoffed. "Yeah I would. Not in a creepy way where I'm going to jumpyouor harass you or something. But you're hot." He shrugged. He'd have slept with David, or fooled around with him or something. "But you don't have to bang me to stay here, I wasn't doing that," Tommy added, more seriously. Because it wasn't unheard of.

"Uh," Tommy thought. "No scissors, just razors in the bathroom." Tommy didn't grow a lot of facial hair, but he still had to shave, so he had some on hand.

[helpdesk_hero]

Dear god Tommy, you're leaving him flustered. To the point where David is definitely having trouble looking straight at him.

"Trust me, if you even suggested it would have knocked you out. I know how to fight a speedster. Mostly."

Well, he'll have to figure out what to do about most of his facial hair and he sighs.

"Listen, if I just, like, owe you, maybe you'd be willing to buy some small scissors and a an electric razor? My hair is too long too."

[zoomandboom]

"Yeah, good. But I wouldn't anyway," Tommy said with a shrug. "We can spar sometime if you want to get more practiceinthough."

"I have an electric razor. I never use it though so it might be shit. But yeah, sure. Just like, look up what you want and show me and I'll go grab it," Tommy said, pulling his phone out again and handing it over to David.

[helpdesk_hero]

What a helpful man. David smiles and quickly finds some cheap options at a local drug store and takes screenshots of htem for Tommy.

"These? When you have time?"

[zoomandboom]

Tommy scanned the pictures and then pocketed the phone. "Got it. Gimme a minute."

And then he was gone with a whoosh of air and the slam of the door.

Tommy was back in less than five minutes, and it only took him that long because he had to wait to be checked out. Self check out lines were STILL too slow since the machines didn't keep up with him, but still better than waiting for people to do it. But there wasn't anybody in there, so it didn't take long, by normal people standards.

He slammed back in with the same lack of warning and dropped the bag on David before plopping back down. "They didn't have like, sweats or anything but I gotyousomeextrasocks and a tooth brush and stuff too, just so you have it," he said with a shrug.

[helpdesk_hero]

All these years around a variety of different sorts of speedsters, and David STILL doesn't really find himself prepared for that there and back again quality that they live with. The sort of thing that might seem to be, to him, highly impulsive. It's exciting too, he has to think.

Mostly, though, he's left smiling by the time Tommy gets back with extra things too. Smiling and almost tearing up because...

"That's more than anyone's done for me since Utopia. I... thank you, Tommy. You're a credit to mutant kind."

[zoomandboom]

[OOC: Sorry, my computer went in yesterday for repairs, hopefully, and if not I have to figure out credit to replace it, so I'm on a borrowed one right now that takes five minutes to load a page and tends to flicker out all the time, so I'm SUPER slow to get to anything.]

Tommy shook his head, nudging David's foot with the toe of his own. "Hey, don't worry about it. It's not a big deal. I'm just not a COMPLETE asshole. Just, yanno. Mostly."

He flashed David a quick smile and shrugged. "But you're welcome."