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]

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.

[doubled_speed]

Caves are boring. So are mausoleums. Dude, try not to buy into the whole 'I'm a vamp' thing too much.

[architector]

At the time, [He continued, gathering his supplies from the drawer.] I was without a friend in the world with mobs hunting "the demon" all around, and my only protection was their own superstition. [He turned from his task, smiling slightly.] The whole 'being a vamp' thing saved my life once or twice.

[doubled_speed]

Really? That seems weird, that what you are would save you?

[For Tommy it tended to mean trouble, if they could catch him.]

[architector]

It didn't always work. [He shrugged, heading to the seating area of the dorm and motioning for Tommy to have a seat.] But if....I kept them frightened enough. [He breathed a sigh.] Well, desperate times, right?

[doubled_speed]

[Well, whatever. Tommy sighs and looks at Antonio.]

Most times tend to be desperate.

[architector]

When it's about survival, most definitely. [He opens up his sketchbook and looks to Tommy.] Shall we focus on a home rather than living in caves?

[doubled_speed]

Right. Okay... I...

[Tommy closes his eyes and touches behind his ear and focuses on sending the image of a house.]

Like that.

[architector]

[He blinks for a moment. While he has communicated through the network, and at length, getting images of a home fed into his mind was a little disorienting.  After a moment, though, he nods and opens his sketchbook, beginning to roughly sketch what he was shone. Scale would come later, whenever he had his measuring tools at his disposal.]

This home is rather important to you, isn't it?

[doubled_speed]

I've been there a few times. Outside of it. It's where Thomas and William Maximoff were raised.

[The children Tommy and his brother had been before they were who they are now.]

I never lived there. I go sometimes, to look at it.

[To imagine what he might have had.]

[architector]

I see. Something draws you to it, then.

[He begins to sketch as he continues to talk.]

I'll admit, I'm not certain exactly how you are related to Wanda, only that you are her son in another world, yes?

[doubled_speed]

Another world, yeah. In my world she really wanted kids, but clearly my dad couldn't give her them. Her desire was so strong, and mixed with her magic, and sorta... got her pregnant. This house is where they lived together, and raised us until we were, like, five or six, before we died.

[It's a complicated family, Tony]

She... chooses to respect that relationship I have to that other Wanda. After all, it's our souls that are connected, not our blood.

[architector]

[It's our souls that are connected, not our blood. He smiled at the thought.]

Now that is poetic, and I understand what you mean. I have no remaining blood relatives of my own.

[doubled_speed]

[What, poetic? That makes no sense.]

It's not poetic. It's magic. Different things. And I have blood relatives. I just want nothing to do with them.

[architector]

[He chuckles slightly.] You really have no sense of romance, do you?

[His eyes darkened slightly at the last and he nodded.]

I understand.

[doubled_speed]

[Not in that sort of sense.]

What, like dates and all that? For my first date with Gar we had a picnic on the top of one of the pavilions in the Ag domes. At night. That's romantic, right?

[architector]

Yes, but I mean in the sense of beauty, appreciating it all around you, and seeing it everyday things.

[doubled_speed]

[Oh. Tommy is silent for a while. It's a lot to consider.]

I don't know if it's like that for me, that home. It's... It's a home that I never had.

[architector]

Then why recreate it?

[It was an innocent enough question.]

You have many things. Why pine for something you didn't?

[doubled_speed]

Because the home I never knew still has more potential to it than the one I did.

[What? The Shepherds had sucked, they hadn't been parents to him, not really.]

Home isn't something I've had.

[architector]

Home isn't a place, Tommy.

[He'd learned that over the centuries.]

[doubled_speed]

Isn't it?

[Because if it's not, he's got no clue what he's been reaching for over the years. What was the point of working so hard to get that apartment with David if home wasn't a place?"

[architector]

Nothing so simple. It's often attached to one, yes, but home is...where you feel safe, loved, welcomed. I can be anywhere, and often is centered around others, not a place.

[doubled_speed]

[Safe. Loved. Welcomed? That... that sounds like here. Or in David's arms. Weird.]

People are home...

[Weird.]

[architector]

Yes, and where they are matters little, because you know they are there.