sixthiterationlogs | Hello Darkness My Old Friend

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Hello Darkness My Old Friend

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.

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Bruce hadn't gotten a great look at it before, but now that he had context about why it was there, he stood up. He didn't mean to be rude while they were still talking, but he did have a habit of letting his mind take him places. It wasn't far away, after all, and he could still hear her clear as a bell. He ran his fingers over the board, taking a few mental notes as he went. He was always looking for patterns and connections, because it created a kind of logic that was necessary to come to conclusions.

"Snow storms and floods. Varied weather. It could be natural to the planet we're on, but considering the testing happening, I'm guessing it's more intentional." Pushing buttons and seeing what happens. "Do we have defenses strong enough to prepare for whatever comes next?" Bruce glanced over to her, almost snapping out of his strange trance, blushing instantly. "Oh, I'm ... I'm sorry. It wasn't polite." This wasn't exactly new behavior of his, but she joined the Avengers after he was gone. "Tony and I tend to walk and talk." They were apparently very funny to watch in the lab sometimes, when they didn't realize anyone was watching.

Wanda didn't mind Bruce's sudden exit. She watched him move over to the bulletin board and look over the information that was left there. It was a lot of different things: floods, blizzards, heat waves, the sudden appearance of power, lightening attacks. It was too much for one board but a lot of it was up there in one way or another.

After a moment she rose and followed behind him.

"I don't know of a place in the world that has weather that varies this much." They not only had all four seasons but extreme situations that are usually particular to one area. "Not really. A lot of times we can only react. There was an attack on the inn a few months ago. I don't know how long the repairs took but I think there are still some places that need work." She hadn't been around then and didn't know all of the details.

"You're fine Bruce." Wanda flashed him a light smile.

Bruce relaxed at her assurance and smiled back, tapping his fingers on a few specific words as if they would give him the answers if he stared at them long enough. "We're going to need another board. And more notes. This is a good general stash, but all the details can't fit." And the details could very well be where some of the secrets were. Or not. It was hard to tell, his brain was very full. He just saw a lot of people die, so it wasn't firing at its highest capacity.

"We're going to need to prioritize repairs and defenses. Whatever we do though, my guess is they'll test it in some way. If we built high walls, they'd either knock them down or get around them. It still means we need them." Because whether or not it was a test, it was lives on the line. Maybe. He was tired. Bruce rubbed at his eyes, they were a little bloodshot, but it'd been a day. Looking at her was a reminder he saw her die not too long ago. "Is there, um, a community leader? Sort of like Cap, but for this area."

"We don't have the materials for that." It was a sad but simple fact. "You might find a blank journal if you're lucky but a lot of the materials were taken and used. This is what we could fit over time. Paper is a little easier to run into now than it used to be but its still a valuable resource." They didn't pretty good with what they had.

"Again, materials. Take a look at what's here Bruce. Unless you know how to split wood and turn them into battlements without any extra abilities, it's not going to be a good use of our energy. Winter is coming and we'll have to store enough food for everyone." There were a lot of people in the village.

Wanda shook her head. "Not enough people get along but there are different smaller groups. Kate more or less helps run the inn and makes sure that everyone is feed. Mark handles the gardening. There is a list of people and their skills here. This board is really the only way we have to communicate with each other."

"I understand, in these situations resources are always the problem, but people here seem more competent than most. I lived in third world countries for awhile where people had much less." There weren't experiment, there weren't wild weather patterns, but there was war and famine and starvation. Bruce finagled some things while he was there. It wasn't enough. It never would be. "I do have a photographic memory so I can use that a little, and humans used to only have oral histories to go off of anyway.

"Gathering food and blankets will be priority. This could start picking us off one by one." He had people to worry about now. They could take care of themselves, yes, but he already spoke to teenagers. Kids. Formerly super powered kids, but they had to come first. "Do you think people are holding back from getting together more because they really have nothing in common, or there's just a lack of communication?"

Wanda smiled. "Food and blankets are here. A lot has already been done and it'd be good to take a look around. There is a whole store room of things that people borrow and return when needed." The cynic in Wanda found the system at the inn amazing. "Consumables aren't there, paper and things like that but we have lunch here every day. I try and help preserve food too."

She pointed towards another paper on the board. "This is a list of everyone's talents and things that they're willing to teach others. There is fishing, hunting and so on." There was a lot of communication going on between people but you had to know where to look.

"There was someone making paper he before. That's where most of this came from but he's gone and I don't think anyone else knows the process."

Bruce loved information dumps. It's a lot, but it will all sort itself out in his head eventually. He could really use something to take notes on himself, because the way he frames information in his head is not the same as everyone else. But that's simply not doable at the moment. He nodded as he listened to her, feeling like his brain was on fire, but at least there's some kind of order. It's a start. "Thanks. I'll probably be able to process this all better when I process ... everything else that just happened." Okay, so, never, but at least part of the way.

He glanced over at her, turning to face her. "Outside of those things, how are you? How are the people here? Are they able to keep their spirits up? Are you?" It wasn't always the obvious route, worrying about how people are feeling as well as thinking, but in this situation it is kind of relevant. They could have all the plans in the world and unravel at the seams. The Avengers were very organized and still unraveled at the seams.

Wanda smiled; her expression soft and understanding. "Take your time." It was a lot to take in and even someone like Bruce, who's seen the oddities of the world, should take the time to let the situation settle before diving into sorting it out. "We have a lot of time here." It was one of the few things they did have.

"Me?" She blinked. That wasn't a question that Wanda was used too. "I am as good as I can be. I'm sure that most people will say the same. Some take the situation well and others don't. All the people who arrive here seem to be resilient in some way." It was a lot and people reacted to stress differently.

"How are you holding up with all this?"

"They probably don't want to bring people here who break easily." It wouldn't tell them much about their subjects after it was done. Bruce gave her a small smile. There were many things about the Avengers, but easily breakable was not one of them. At least not individually. As a group? A whole different thing, apparently.

"Honestly, I'm not sure. I just went through ... a lot." Bruce took in a deep breath and let it out. He doesn't plan on cluing her into their tragic future unless she wants to know. It's too much. He witnessed people turn into dust before his eyes, with no knowledge of where Tony was, at the time. It was devastating. It's completely taken over his mind, so the rest of this? Might very well have to wait in line. "Honestly what's going on here is nothing comparatively. Which sounds crazy I know."

"Probably not." She agreed with a silent nod of her head. The overseers were testing them and it wouldn't help to have weak test subjects.

Wanda's lips tugged into a frown as Bruce spoke. "Clint mentioned something bad happened. I don't want to know Bruce but I'm here if you need someone." She'd be honest with him. She really didn't want to know her future but Bruce was an Avengers and someone who Wanda naturally wanted to look out for.

"Don't worry, Wanda, I won't tell you anything you don't want to know." And he meant that. For her, it was not worth it, not even a little. There was nothing that would be gained by her knowing the truth. "Thank you. I'm here for you too."

[ooc: can wrap there?]

[ooc: that's a wrap!]

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Hello Darkness My Old Friend

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