Audio | UN: SpeedofThought

[doubled_speed]

Anyoneknowhowtoknit?

[Wait, no, he's talking too fast, isn't he? Dammit. Tommy curses under his breath in several languages and then breathes deeply.]

Does. Anyone know. Howto. Knit?

[Ugh, he hates it when he gets hit by these moods.]

Got insomnia and allthatshit. Need my handsandmind busy. Back home I'd go running. Or work waslike building stuff. Hands and brain busy.

[And if he doesn't have something to distract him, he was going to vibrate so much something might explode.]

Comments

[architector]

[He nodded, giving a small wave to the shopkeeper as he headed toward the door.]

What sort of house do you envision?

[doubled_speed]

I...

[He considers it.]

Yellow. Two story. A fence outside. A tree. I don't know. Just... homey.

[architector]

[He nods, committed the initial details to memory.]

A privacy fence? Chain link? Picket?

[He smiled.] A treehouse, in the tree, perhaps a rope swing?

[doubled_speed]

[Chain link earned a sneer.]

Picket. Or something like that.

[A treehouse? Tommy thinks about it, tilting his head.]

Rope swing yes, not a treehouse though.

[Because Tommy didn't think he would have liked them]

[architector]

Excellent, and one or two stories?

[He was starting to get an idea, a late Victorian model with high ceilings and gables. Quite picturesque, really.]

[doubled_speed]

Two.

[He just has a thought in his head of what it might have been like... and then he pauses, shaking his head vigorously. No, he has a better idea.]

The network lets us share images, I've heard. Can I... show you what I'm picturing?

[Because now that he's thinking about it, he knows just what he wants.]

[architector]

[That thought hadn't occurred to him and he nodded.]

Yes, but first, let's head to the dorm. My draft supplies are there.

[doubled_speed]

[It was still a new enough concept to Tommy, if he was honest. the idea of sharing thoughts and images from his mind beyond the shared memories was... hard to process.]

Okay. Yeah. I can do that.

[architector]

[ He smiles again. ]

Good. [He frowned after thinking for a moment, though.]

I take it you didn't grow up in such a house?

[doubled_speed]

I grew up in a house. I want to build something different.

[A home. The home in Cresskill, where Thomas Maximoff was born. The home he should have been raised in.]

[architector]

[Antonio was quiet for a moment, giving the unspoken explanation tell itself through the shared silence.

His movement toward residential from commercial architecture was something similar: his first and only true home had been taken from him much too soon. He'd since dedicated his life to building homes for others.]

I understand. I'll do my best to make it so.

[doubled_speed]

I remember what I want to build. I can show it to you. But I don't remember it in its prime. Only all broken down.

[architector]

I happen to be very good at piecing together a dream home from scattered memories.

[doubled_speed]

Wow, didn't say it was a dream home, man. Just where Thomas Maximoff was born.

[architector]

I was simply stating what normally occurs with my clients, not accusing you of anything, I swear.

[He smirked someone teasingly.]

[doubled_speed]

[Don't teas him. The life he didn't live was a whole other thing.]

I could show you what it looked like.

[architector]

[He nodded.]

Was that not the plan?

[doubled_speed]

Of course it was, I meant now, genius.

[He's just nervous about what to do.]

[architector]

[He chuckles.]

After I have my sketchbook. Which is in dorm number 2. [He smiles.] Would you care for a race you'll most likely win?

[doubled_speed]

[The second the word 'race' occurs, Tommy's away, bolting for the Dorm so he can wait for Antonio]

[architector]

[And Tommy will, undoubtedly, be waiting for him, but only a moment or two. Antonio isn't as fast as him, but he's fast, and not the least bit winded when he arrives.]

Congratulations.

[doubled_speed]

[Tommy raises an interested eyebrow at how fast Antonio arrives.]

Well well well, you're not fully a snail, Mister-Live-Forever.

[architector]

[He smiles, inclining his head in a slight bow.]

I do have my days. [And he motions toward the Dorm's entry.]

Right this way.

[doubled_speed]

[With Antonio opening the door Tommy enters. He finds the first bunk that clearly isn't used and flops down onto it, smirking]

Man, these dorms are not the greatest. Don't approve."

[architector]

I've had better accommodations.

[He's certainly not going to argue the lad's point. He has a good one. He makes his way to his partitioned area, pressing his thumb against the biometric lock on the dresser to retrieve his belongings.]

I've also had far worse. I've lived in more than one cave, and a mausoleum. I'm well aware of the irony.