[OPEN] Kindness For Children

[doubled_speed]

Who; Tommy Shepherd, Open
What; Small Pranks and Halloween Plans
Where; Apartment Common Rooms, Courtyard Outside of Apartment Buildings
When; Week of October 10th
Warnings; None Anticipated

I. An Homage To Loki | Apartment Building Common Rooms

It was that time of the year again, perhaps the hardest for Tommy in some ways. With what would be Halloween (and thus his birthday) approaching, a black mood was settling over the speedster. He wanted nothing more than to flee, to hide, to fall back on old habits and avoid it all. But there were those who would disapprove of that he thought. Gar for one thing for caring about Tommy. Wanda and Enis as she'd been at the Sphere, who had worked so hard to realize his dream of an amazing haunted house. And the one friend he hadn't intended to make.

It was this last missing friend whose opinions kept Tommy from running from the season. This last one was the one whose opinions motivated Tommy now as he moved through the common rooms of... Well, he doesn't remmeber which apartment building he was in right now. He'd been laying his little playful traps in them all. What mattered was that right now he was busy in the reading nook, putting down a bowl of wrapped hard candies. This joke here was a simple one. They looked like peppermints, and each one was actually powerfully flavored with cinnamon. That should shock someone pretty seriously, right? And if that wasn't enough, buried under all of the candies was Tommy's best attempt at drawing Loki's face, complete with horned helmet.

"Okay, what next," he said to himself. "Too bad there aren't books here. I could put fake fortunes or treasure maps in them. Damn."

II. Making Your Own Holiday | Courtyard Outside of Apartment Buildings

Somewhere along the line of his little pranks and watching his couriers run about, Tommy had come to a conclusion.

There needed to be more little things for the kids, and Tommy wanted to give them something he didn't reliably have back home. Which was why he was out in the courtyard now, standing by large, rolled out strech of paper weighted down at the corners with rocks. In his hands was a plate with globs of paint on it: orange and black and purple and green. And on the paper below was a few words sketched out lightly in pencil.

'Fall Candy Quest!' the sign did, or would, proclaim, along with a date and time for later in the month, and little sketches of spooy things like bats and cauldrons, as well as images of different candies.

Comments

[monochromatically]

Mono tilted his head at the question, the answer being as usual that he didn’t really know. “I dunno, never really did any painting before…” He looked at the poster again curiously. “But I wanna try if you think it’s okay that I might not be good at it?” Because it could be interesting to try new things. Luna had been asking him what he liked doing, and it felt a bit awkward sometimes to not have many ideas or answers.

[doubled_speed]

"If you're not good, I'll paint over it when it dries," Tommy said with a dismissive shrug. He's not that bothered. ANd he wants his best employee to experience more of the world.

[monochromatically]

“Oh, okay!” He responded, feeling a little better to hear that Tommy could at least fix it if he messed up somehow. Sitting on the ground next to the trays of paint and the poster, he put his message bag aside and adjusted the brim of his hat enough to keep it from getting in his way of seeing what he was doing. “So what do I gotta do first? Want me to fill in the stuff you drew that doesn’t got colours yet?”

[doubled_speed]

"Yeah. The words are the best place to start," Tommy noted, moving to kneel by the kid. He needs to get another paper plate to start putting paint on so that Mono could help him. "I'll start on the creatures and stuff."

[monochromatically]

“Okay! I can do that, I think.” He responded with a look of determination, tilting his head at the letters as Tommy began pouring out more paint for him to start. The letters would be easier compared to the creatures anyway, since he wasn’t sure what the best way to paint some of those would be. So dividing the project that way seemed like a pretty good idea.

Taking up a paintbrush, he began to carefully fill in the letters as best as he could. A look of complete concentration on the child’s face, before he glanced at Tommy after he got one letter mostly filled in. “Like this, right?” He asked, wanting to make sure he was doing okay.

[doubled_speed]

Tommy had turned his attention on toward the things he was going to start painting. It wasn't until the guy spoke up that Tommy looked over.

"Looking good. Maybe when the letter dries go back over it once more."

[monochromatically]

Once Tommy responded, he gave him one of his clumsy, tilted smiles and looked back at the letters he was painting. “Okay! I’ll do that and make sure they look really good.” He responded, sounding at least a little proud of himself for having gotten the hang of it pretty quickly.

[doubled_speed]

"Any work you do is going to be great," Tommy promised, because he already had evidence of that. With that he went back to the bat and was silent for a bit.

"Do you wanna talk about being gone for a while?"

[monochromatically]

“Thanks, Tommy.” He responded with a little clumsy attempt at a smile. The confidence his boss had in him was nice! Especially when he’d never really done anything like this before. So the boy was happy to continue filling in the letters, being very careful to make sure everything looked even and filled in like the pictures Tommy was painting in.

The question does get a little pause, though. His face scrunching up a bit with concentration as he tried to think of what to say to that. There was something a bit scary about admitting what he’d learned about himself to people, even as those he had seemed more prone to reassuring him than being upset at him… “I dunno… It was kinda bad, so I dunno if it’s a good thing to tell people about.”

[doubled_speed]

"You okay?"

Really, that's all Tommy cares about.

"We missed you, you know. Me and the kids. You're really important."

[monochromatically]

“Dunno… I guess I’m better here than I was there.” But okay was a stretch, perhaps, knowing what he did about himself now. It was scary, and no matter how determined he was to not become that thing? It still bugged him knowing that it could happen and would when he went back.

But he glanced up from the letters he was working on when Tommy said he and the other kids had missed them. “I’m sorry I was gone. I didn’t really remember this place and you guys when I was there, but I realized when I got back I missed you guys too? At least when I knew I was here for sure.” His return had been quite confusing, to say the least… And damaging. He was surprised he didn’t get in trouble for it. Then again, the harbor district tended to get ignored a lot of the time, maybe no one minded since not many people were there like the rest of the city.

[doubled_speed]

Tommy got being scary. Perhaps more than some people did. He just didn't think it was something Mono wanted to hear about.

"Glad you missed us," Tommy said with a smile. "I'm sorry pretty amazing. Hard to not miss me."

[monochromatically]

Mono would honestly find it more than a little surprising to think Tommy might know what that felt like. It still confused him to have learned things about some people here. He only ever imagined most of those adults who were around him, always helping him or making him feel better about things, like heroes. But for now, the boy remained oblivious to that, tilting his head at his boss with a clumsy attempt at a smile. “You are! So I’m I could see you and other people again.” He responded with a little nod, “And that I could help with your neat poster!”

[doubled_speed]

Okay, Tommy wants to snort in amusement at how nice it is to have someone fucking agree for once.

"I hate to say it, but it's usually best not to agree with someone so quick if they call themselves amazing."

[monochromatically]

“It’s not?” The boy had to stop working on his painting again, with a little confused scrunch of his nose. “But I never saw any reason to not think you’re amazing?” Why would someone say they were amazing when they weren’t? That was just silly… Right?

[doubled_speed]

"Well, I'm just awesome so that makes sense. But people usually say it when they're conceited."

And he's not conceited, clearly.

[monochromatically]

“Oh… So con-seated is bad I guess?” It’s a funny word, but he supposed based on how Tommy said it, that it must be. “I don’t think I called anyone awesome that wasn’t, though, so I think that’s okay.” At least not based on how he viewed the people he thought of like that, anyway.

[doubled_speed]

"Yeah," Tommy agreed. Man, it was hard to think of how to explain this to the kid. HE's not a great teacher.

"You're probably okay, yeah. You're good at things like that, Mono."

[monochromatically]

Honestly, Mono was happy enough with being told he was probably okay with how he’d been handling ‘awesome people’ without knowing what conceited meant. Plus, it was nice to be told he was good at knowing when people were awesome, so the boy smiled one of his slightly clumsy smiles and went back to painting in the letters. “Thanks! I just kinda watch people, and then I know if they are or aren’t.” Watching for a long time before approaching, it was a caution that paid off most of the time.

[doubled_speed]

"Watching people isn't a bad idea," TOmmy said. IT was a hobby some people had back home. "Good at malls. NOt that there is any malls. here."

[monochromatically]

“Yeah, they don’t got any really big stores here.” There were larger supermarkets and stuff that had been abandoned in the pale city, but they would be pretty good for watching people. “So I mostly just watch em around the city.” It had only gone kinda wrong once, so that was a pretty good track record. “So usually I got a better idea if they’re okay or not before I talk to em.”

[doubled_speed]

"Exactly. If there was, we could handle the deliveries for them," Tommy pointed out. That was something he wouldn't mind doing. It would feel more helpful.

"I'm glad you're cautious though."

[monochromatically]

“It just seems smart. Sometimes people are different from how they first look. It’s good to watch to make sure they aren’t gonna change on ya.” Sometimes more literally than one would think, but it was that caution that kept the kid safe and got him far back in his world. People here were pretty okay, though.

[doubled_speed]

Oh man. Tommy frowns and then looks at the kid directly. "No one stays one hundred percent the same. You know that, right? Like, we change from the things we live through."

[monochromatically]

Mono blinked a bit, tilting his head slightly. “Yeah, I know that… I mean a different kinda changing.” Less life experience and more… disguised. There was an old lady in a schoolhouse in his world that was unassuming, if unsettling, at first… and then if she spotted you, she wasn’t. So when Mono spoke of following people to make sure they weren’t going to change, he meant something different from what Tommy was thinking. The boy was always afraid someone or something from his world might show up here, or be like that, since no one seemed to know when or where anyone was going to come from next.