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

[unraisehell]

She doesn't notice the blush on account of how hard she laughs at that thought. "I like you, Bruce. I'm Wynonna. Great-granddaughter of Wyatt Earp."

Who, according tot he history of most worlds, never had children. So that's a new one.

"I think I'd make a pretty awesome action figure, for the record."

[notsoangry]

Bruce is a little startled that she laughs, and his smile after that is warmer and more genuine, crinkling the corners of his eyes. He's not used to people laughing at his real jokes, let alone when he's just rambling. "I like you too, Wynonna, great-granddaughter of ... Wyatt Earp, no kidding?" And he found he did like her. Open and forthright people were the easiest to like. "And you have a magic gun that kills demons. I'm not sure I can top a background like that, so I'm not going to try."

It sounded less destructive than his, so there was that. "I'd offer to whittle you one, but I almost failed art class, and I don't know how to whittle."

[unraisehell]

Many people might see Bruce's blushing and awkwardness and either needle at him relentlessly for the effect, or label him Handle With Care and drop the innuendo and bawdy jokes.

But she's got half a lifetime of being the big sister of Waverly Earp, Girl Genius, and a year of working with Jeremy. She's accepting that half of what they're going to say to each other might go over the other's head, but he seems nice enough. And her Daddy Issues run just deep enough that his brand of salt-and-pepper friendly-science-teacher hotness isn't a bad thing, either.

"Art was the one class I didn't fuck up too badly," she admits. "Of course, they usually didn't let me have the sharp objects or anything flammable, but honestly that was a pretty fair decision on the school's part."

[notsoangry]

His best friend was an expert at innuendo and jokes, so Bruce was used to it. He tended to prefer personalities that were more extroverted and engaging than his, at least to interact with, because it was generally entertaining. It usually led to him wistfully wishing he could be at all like them, and just watching with admiring eyes, which he was going to start doing pretty soon as he got to know her better. Some people had that spark in them and were special.

"It's probably a good call in general. At least when you blow things up as an adult, they can blame it on you and not the school." He smiles. "We had three fire extinguishers in my lab at Harvard, and believe me, they all ended up being used." He could joke about those explosions, because on the whole they were little ones, and no one got hurt. Experiments had a tendency to go a little off when dealing with chemicals.

"Uh, what's the magic gun ... made of? Do you know? I know probably magic, but maybe there are elements that can be replicated."

[unraisehell]

"No idea," Wynonna admits, sheepishly shrugging. "We know the metal's something a little more than the average Colt, and the only other sample of it, we had to use to kill some spider-bitch sister-wives. Yeah, I don't know the hows or why of that either," she continues, entirely aware of how strange it all sounds.

But then, they're sitting in an Edwardian era inn on another planet, so.

"I don't have any more booze, but maybe if we both look new and pathetic enough, someone else will share."

[notsoangry]

"Fascinating." Bruce wanted to see that gun. "I have a friend who had this hammer, and the hammer could literally only be carried by someone considered worthy. I don't know the rules of what is worthy, but only two people have been able to lift it. We all tried, and at least two other people were probably worthy in my mind, but the hammer didn't agree. He could also call it from anywhere with his hand." Thor was a singularly fascinating person. An alien god who was way too nice for his own good. They bonded a lot recently. "It was destroyed. But it was a magical weapon, I'm not sure if we dissected it we would have any scientific reasons for how it works."

He considered what she said. "How about this?" He scrunched up his face, giving her his best impression of a sad face with his dark eyes. "Please take pity on us, we're lost and thirsty." Bruce had a sense of humor that only Tony usually got to see, but she reminded him of Tony, so she got to see it too.