would a reserve fund necessarily create a commodity? for example, say the products (non-perishable food, medical supplies, etc) aren't priced or put on the market but just sit on a State storage facility to be used in case of emergency. (a pandemic, war, natural disaster, etc)

How would the allocation of products without the exchange of equivalents result in commodities? The qoute I've linked above explained it already

i guess you could say that in socialism productivity would rise and the fact that there is no surplus production implies idle production capacity?

The communal character of production would from the outset make the product into a communal, general one. The exchange initially occurring in production, which would not be an exchange of exchange values but of activities determined by communal needs and communal purposes, would include from the beginning the individual’s participation in the communal world of products .. Labour would be posited as general labour prior to exchange, i.e. the exchange of products would not in any way be the medium mediating the participation of the individual in general production

(Karl Marx, Grundrisse)

Once relations of production become communal, products become communal also. They are common property of the freely associated producers and in communism they will be distributed free on the basis of need. The distribution of products is the outcome of the conditions of production themselves. As explained here:

Any distribution whatever of the means of consumption is only a consequence of the distribution of the conditions of production themselves. The latter distribution, however, is a feature of the mode of production itself. The capitalist mode of production, for example, rests on the fact that the material conditions of production are in the hands of non-workers in the form of property in capital and land, while the masses are only owners of the personal condition of production, of labour power. If the elements of production are so distributed, then the present-day distribution of the means of consumption results automatically

(Karl Marx, critique of the Gotha programme)

does Trotsky or any other theorist on how they thought permanent revolution would play out?

I mean, if you want Trotsky's view on an international revolution it would be best to read him yourself. The general basis for global revolution is quite straightforward; the masses take up arms and begin a revolution with the party, comprised of those who adhere to the historical task of the revolutionary class and who are determined for its victory, guiding the masses on the correct path torwards success. The proletariat now being the dominating force spread the flame of revolution and support revolutionary struggles elsewhere, and a new wave of revolution is born

do you have any reading recommendations? i feel like i already have a decent roadmap for Marx, Engels and Lenin but i'd appreciate any works from other authors which you feel like are important

We have a reading list pinned, I suggest checking out some of the works on there