Hello Darkness My Old Friend

[notsoangry]

WHO: Bruce Banner
WHERE: South Village Fountain
WHEN: 9/17
OPEN TO: Open to all!
WARNINGS: None yet

BUNKER/SOUTH VILLAGE FOUNTAIN

In the tube, Banner was unconscious. Nothing so restful as a simple dream, that would be too kind, instead his mind was restless. It was a waking nightmare, seeing people turn to dust before his eyes, seeing the looks of pain and loss on the few people in the world he still cared about, and the friend he knew best was missing, gone, who knows where. Everything was wrong. And now he was here. His hair was newly short and gray, his figure average and unassuming, and he woke up suddenly to propulsion that he couldn't possibly be ready for.

This wasn't really the first time he woke up somewhere he shouldn't be, in a place he couldn't remember; this was a common situation. It wasn't even the first time he was in the water, struggling to breathe, his limbs wildly flailing. But it was a rare occurrence that this moment of concern didn't follow with the feeling to the tip of his toes of the other presence waiting. Then again, he and the Hulk had issues. Issues not even close to being addressed. It meant he was vulnerable. It meant many things. Banner finally got himself together and swam up, figuring out which way was up, and broke the surface gasping. To where? To here. Where was here?

Exhausted and with a heavy heart, he sat on the edge of the fountain and breathed deeply, running hands through his wet hair. Nothing seemed familiar around there, but hey, it wasn't a planet geared toward trying to kill him or freak him out. So far. Don't jinx it, Banner. He sat there for a long time, he had no idea how long. He was in no hurry to move. The world was too much right then, and whatever this was, it was a few steps above.

The strangest part of everything was the clothing. The extras. Normally he woke up naked. So there was that one small good thing. It took him awhile before he was up and walking, but eventually it happened.

INN

At first he simply walked around. Nothing was familiar. In fact, he was fairly certain it seemed dissimilar from anything he'd known before. Some things were the same, yes, but Banner couldn't see how the Hulk brought him this far. And he was wearing clothes. What the hell was happening now? Was this another trick from Thanos? That made sense. He clearly liked to torture people. When he saw the inn, he paused. He tried to avoid people most of the time. It was too dangerous, he was too dangerous, except now he wasn't at all and that meant people he walked into could in fact be dangerous to him. He tried to reach out to see if the Hulk was still ignoring him.

There was nothing. No touch. No moment of anger or denial. No feeling whatsoever. Nothing. He was the only on home. At first he couldn't figure out what that meant. All these years later, how could it be? All the years trying to get here, and it just happened when he woke up. Stunned and overwhelmed, he could only stumble over to the outside wall of the Inn and lean against it. Not going in, just hovering there, and then he started to crumble down until he was sitting on the ground, staring off into space.

What was he feeling? Relief? Loss? Fear? Confusion? All of it.

Comments

[notsoangry]

A familiar face. A name that rang true. She might very well be from his world, it seemed more likely by the moment, but Bruce couldn't remember a time they spoke or ran across each other. And he had a sharp memory for that kind of thing. It would come to him. "A few years back? You've been here that long?" It was a surprise, but the thing was, not necessarily a bad one. He hadn't gotten around to that yet, but this might be the best case scenario, and therefore a long term wish.

"It's a movie, sorry. You spend most of it thinking the main character is on an alien planet, but it turns out he's just in a far future of earth where man's become mute and regressed, and apes have become sophisticated and in command." Bruce hadn't seen the new ones. He hadn't been to the movies in a long while. "I've just spoiled you on the ending, but we wouldn't be able to watch it here anyway."

[womanofvalue]

"Unfortunately so," Peggy notes, her tone making it very clear that she's not pleased about that length of time in the slightest. Honestly, if she had her way, she would have fought or found her way out a long time ago, but at least she's got a good support here.

While he's speaking, she fetches the teapot and a trivet for it, setting it down with the cups as she listens to him talk about the movie. "It's all right, I didn't have much time for movies outside of the news reels anyhow," she confesses, though bloody Howard was always trying to make her watch his pictures.

[notsoangry]

Bruce ran a hand over his face, trying to fathom being here that long, but he'd also just been missing for years trapped in the Hulk, so it wasn't that unusual for him to lose a lot of time to nothing. He would have to learn a little more about this place to decide if it was better or worse than what was waiting for him, but he already liked it better than an endless supply of sadness and dust.

"Do you think it's an experiment? Taking lifeforms and putting them into a pen to see what they'll do. We've been doing it for centuries." He had his share of lab rats, and it was why his brain went there first. His fingers touched the weight on his wrist thoughtfully. This was more sophisticated tech than everything else he'd seen. The way he came in. He slotted the thoughts together in order.

[womanofvalue]

"Quite possibly," Peggy admits, setting a few pieces of dried bread down on the table. They're not going to be the scones she wants them to be, but she's also not talented enough to be able to make such a thing. She'll have to simply make do. "Enough oddities have happened that I could make a case for this being some sort of experiment."

"What I don't understand is why the people who are here," she admits, sipping her tea. "Especially since some people stay a while, like me, and others tend to pulse in and out." Perhaps they were needed, somehow? Only, that's insulting to her, because why not need her?

[notsoangry]

"They'd be testing us for something, but stripping away powers is an interesting approach." Then they were just normal human beings, not anything extraordinary. Bruce thought having those abilities and tech made them much more interesting, but it all depended on intentions. "I just got here, so none of it's clear yet. But it sounds like you've been here long enough to know the answers, if we ever had them." He shrugged one shoulder at here question. To be determined. "You're offering them something they must still need, while others can move on."

And what would they do with those answers? If someone was powerful enough to strip them of their powers and leave them there, it seemed hard to tell if there was any good end result on this. He remembered to drink the tea offered. "This is great, thank you ma'am. Oh, uh, Ms ... Peggy?" Bruce had a way of tripping over his own tongue given a chance.

[womanofvalue]

"I've never had any powers apart from the ability to make a very good cuppa, but that was learned, not given," she quips, sipping from her cup as she settles in to this familiar song and dance as she talks about theories with someone new.

"Peggy's fine," she assures, giving him an amused look. "I have some answers. I've seen what's been thrown at us, I know who's been here and who is here and have their backgrounds and history. I'm afraid none of it really tracks together in any logical way."

[notsoangry]

"I'd say it's one of the better superpowers I've seen then." Bruce knew superheroes, but he also knew several from the Avengers alone who had no super abilities outside of being well trained and brilliant. Super powers came with baggage and danger. He never knew how to fight before, and the idea of learning how to now seemed impossible. He drank his tea. There was something very soothing about her, he wasn't sure what it was. An air of comfort and competence? Maybe. Or maybe anyone showing an ounce of kindness at the moment was rare and appreciated.

"Patterns for them might not be patterns for us. If we're dealing with aliens, and that seems likely, considering where we are." It didn't feel like earth, that was for sure. He circled the cup in his hands pensively. "Okay, so what's been thrown at us so far, if you don't mind me asking."

[womanofvalue]

She gives him a warm smile as she sips at her tea, thinking that he's likely being overly complimentary about a simple thing, but it does help to fill her with a satisfaction at being somewhat underpowered when you stack her up against some of the things she's seen (or heard about).

"All manner of things," Peggy says, wishing she had her notebook on her to break down the timeline. "Weather disasters, but most recently, we discovered a bunker filled with tubes and lists with our names on them," she says, shaking her head. "Everything has an air of playing with us, honestly."

[notsoangry]

Tubes and lists. Bruce's eyes widened slightly, and he leaned forward slightly, engaged. Curiosity had a way of doing that for him, as his mind churned. "Tubes. The big kind where bodies can be left suspended in, or smaller ones?" Like where DNA could be kept or blood samples. Both were important and meant different things, but also connected. "If we found it, it probably was intentional. They seem very in control of everything happening here." It did feel like a series of games. He felt slightly bad for a moment, for all the experiments and labs he took part in. It was a vital part of science, and they were animals, but so were all of them there at the moment. Scientists could be the worst when detached.

"Do you, and stop me if I'm saying too much, asking too much," he was always quick to apologize, "know how many people are here total?"

[womanofvalue]

"Bodies suspended in some sort of substance," Peggy says, and while she might not be a scientist, she doesn't think she has to be in order to understand the depths and severity of what's happening with those tubes. It's an experiment and they're finally seeing behind the curtains.

The question is whether they're supposed to and that's a question that's been rattling around her mind for some time now.

"I believe it's around fifty," she says, trying to recall her last estimate. "They come and go, but our census doesn't put it too high, I don't believe."

[notsoangry]

"We're the lab rats." Bruce hated the idea of being a lab rat again, but he also had to live with it. He paused and frowned. "I don't have any powers right now. I've come across some very bad people where testing supernaturals was all they wanted. So these people don't have that intention, or we'd still be hooked up to a machine." The Hulk wasn't there, and it was an extra relief because of how exposed his blood would be.

"If our bodies aren't what they're testing, it's our minds." Typically in a test, they had set strategies and goals they needed the rats to do before the experiment was a success. "And that could explain why they let us find the bunker and the tubes inside, it's part of the psychological process. Can anyone go down there?" Bruce had no plans to do it now, but eventually? Maybe. He would need a notebook and a pen for that.

[womanofvalue]

"Yes, if you'd like, we can go." Though she'd just come back from there, she wouldn't deny Bruce the chance to go and visit for himself, even though Peggy finds herself weary and exhausted with the idea of it. Still, she knows that what's new for others doesn't mean she should treat it as a useless thing.

"I always thought perhaps they needed people to test circumstances or ideas. Sometimes, you'll inherit strange powers, but they'll vanish. At others, places on the map appear. There are also samples," she says darkly, which is a personal matter, especially after Howard's lies to her about Steve's blood.

[notsoangry]

"I don't think right now, I'd like to get my bearings before I go investigating." Bruce might miss a few things if he was overwhelmed and trying to take in his surroundings. Better to go with a clear head and the ability to take notes. "But I appreciate it, I probably would get lost trying. Do we have any paper and pens? I do better when I can write observations down." He actually did have a pretty perfect memory, so it wasn't so much as needing it desperately, it just felt more solid to him.

Dark eyes flicker with concern and some fear. "They took powers away, but I guess that wouldn't stop them of having original samples from us, maybe." Bruce spent over a decade keeping his blood away from others, and now he'd completely lost control of the situation. It was unnerving. "I spent a lot of time trying not to be a science experiment, but here we are." It was a little karmic if he was being honest, but he didn't think Peggy here could say the same, so it probably wasn't aimed at him. "What kinds of strange powers?"