sixthiterationlogs | [MINGLE] Saints & Sinners Masquerade

[MINGLE] Saints & Sinners Masquerade

WHERE: Corn field next to the inn
WHEN: 31 October, all day and night
OPEN TO: ALL - MINGLE
WARNINGS: Please warn as appropriate in your subject lines
NOTES: Please make sure you have read and understand the event details! If you have questions, drop them here. RECOMMENDED BUT NOT REQUIRED: Put your SCRUBS COLOR in your OTA subject line for folks doing bingo. Time your OTA for the harvest feast, the masquerade, or both. Costume matches and details for folks who did not get matched are here.

This morning, our intrepid villagers awoke to a surprise of the nicer kind: A bundle of clothing left at the foot of their bed, tied with a bow. There is also a note: Put on your new outfit and join the festivities in the corn field next to the inn.

You may be thinking, what corn field next to the inn? The one that sprung up fully-mature overnight, of course.

In the middle of the field, villagers will find an autumn feast: Tables piled with harvest time food and drink, warm and rustic decorations, the day's sunshine fending off any chill in the air.

Tuck in and enjoy, villagers, but take note: Things often look different in the dark, and you might be one of them.

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"Oh, uh, I wasn't in the orgy. We didn't have an orgy." Bruce blushes which goes along well with the red of the cape snugly around his front at the moment. Obviously he was incapable of having an orgy, and they were trying to fight a war, so. The less he thought about an orgy with Thor and Scrapper the better. His life was weird.

"The guy who ran the slave planet and cut our hair also had a few ships, and his best one apparently was the orgy ship without any guns. Which we didn't know until we stole it and then people were firing at us. He wanted the Hulk back big time." The lack of guns really put a damper on a good fight. "I mean, if I don't focus on the slave part and being Hulk for two years and almost dying a dozen times and Asgard blowing up, it was a pretty interesting space adventure."

"Good. You're not allowed to be in an orgy without inviting me." Those are the rules he made up just now, and they'll have to stick to them. Not that he sees the village devolving into an orgy anytime soon because-

Actually he can't think of a reason for that not to happen.

There are enough pretty people that are bored, enough hormones- he shakes off the thought and tugs Bruce in, alien arm curling around his shoulders, claws squeezing gently. "That sounds- shit, Bruce. From now on you aren't allowed to go to space without me. Alright?"

Bruce just laughs. "I promise if I'm ever in an orgy, I will invite you." He will never be in an orgy, he can't even conceive of it. He hasn't had sex in thirteen years, that's a little over his realm of contemplation. "To go from one woman ever to group sex is a pretty big leap for me, I'll substitute you in." He pauses and then looks at Tony. "Wait have you been in an orgy?" Oh my god, why is he asking, he probably has been.

Even now in this weird situation he appreciates physical contact with Tony and tries to cuddle in as much as the awkwardness will allow. "You say that like you didn't go into space without me. Maybe if we go into space together it'll be less terrible."

"Several, when I was younger. It was the 90s, kind of a blur but I do remember if only because of how possessive Ty was after the fact." Tony shrugs, like he's shrugging off the mess that relationship had been, like he's shrugging off however that particular scandal made him feel. It happened, he owned it, he's been doing better as he moved forward.

"Bruce-" He sighs, angling his head to tuck Bruce close. "I didn't have a choice. I had to save Strange. I knew you were safe- or I thought you'd be safe on earth."

"We would have never been friends when we were young." He shakes his head. "Not for bad reasons, just ... very different lives." Bruce met Betty quickly in college and that was it. They didn't do parties much, they studied and watched movies on a sofa and led very ordinary lives, outside of their unordinary work projects. Before her he was even more of a shut in. "You would have found me so boring. I'd never been to a party before living in the tower." Cocktail parties, when they had projects trying to get funding, but he left as soon as he could. He smiles and wraps an arm around Tony. "I'm glad we met when we did."

Tony's more than a little taller than him now, so it's comfortable nestling into his alien neck. "It's not your fault. If the Hulk was cooperating we could have gone with you." Or Strange would've never even been taken off the planet. Thanos might have been able to take on the Hulk himself, but his flunkies not so much. "Then again the Hulk might have just torn a hole through the space ship and killed everyone."

"We would've." He insists, offhand and easy. "Honestly Rhodey would've been glad for another stabilizing influence. I would've been glad for someone that didn't need or want the flash and...everything."

The Stark Show. The mask he put on that most people took at face value, all style and no substance, all cold charisma and fun times at parties with none of the warmth or intelligence to back it up. None of the heart. Knowing Bruce when he was younger- that might've bought him a little breathing room. A little quiet before everything went to shit. Maybe afterward as well. "I did it because everyone else in college did, nevermind that I was a few years too young to be bothering with that shit socially but- you want to fit in so you're not as much of a freak, you know?"

Maybe, maybe not. No way of knowing. "We kind of, uh. We had to do that anyway. A little. To get rid of the Maw and save Steven."

"I went the opposite way. I knew I was a freak so I accepted it and kept my head down. Tried to stay away from everyone." Bruce already had it in his head as a child he was a freak and something was wrong with him. His father repeating that over and over for years before the incident makes it difficult even now to see it otherwise. He was as young as Tony when he went, but he knows if he'd been a normal age, it still would have gone that way. The multiple PhDs would've sunk him eventually in the cool factor.

"I never really tried to be cool. People and crowds made me anxious. That was true long before I became the Hulk." It was amped up past 100 because anxiety led to death, but the instinct was still the same. "Betty was all I had, and before that I was alone, so." Bruce shrugs. "I could have used a friend, but I think I'd be too scared to talk to you in the first place. You're you." He smiles. "Handsome, charismatic, extroverted. More that I'd watch you dreamily from afar."

Bruce sighs and rubs his eyes. "You know, the reason we started sleeping together was because I kept dreaming of you dying, let's add picturing you dying that way to the list." It's half joking half not.

"I would've introduced myself more or less in the same way- maybe minus the admiration for the hulk." Because the hulk wouldn't have happened yet. Dreamily, though- "I was a hot mess back then, Honeybear."

Trying too hard, drinking too much, working to build a future where he wouldn't have to go into weapons design- it'd been a bitch and a half to manage and he still didn't quite have it figured out before his parents died. The compliments have him huffing with quiet laughter, smile pressed against Bruce's cheek. Ridiculous, both of them.

"Sorry." And he genuinely is. "I'm here, I'm solid, I'll make it back to earth."

"We were both hot messes. We still are hot messes." It's hard to say what might have happened. Maybe they would have been good for each other, or maybe been ships in the night and never interacted when they had the chance. "It is funny if you think about it, we were the same age and science nerds and in the same state." But they didn't meet until they were adults, and Bruce thinks in the end it's for the best. They both changed so much between their teen years and when they met.

"I know, I know. I don't mean to harp on it. I don't like us being separated again." He spent too much time being separated from the people he cared about. His self-imposed exile left him lonely long enough on Earth, and now he has reasons to reconnect. Which reminds him. Bruce hesitates, uncertain what to say, his conflict showing on his face. They're in a ridiculous situation so this is not the time, but anyway. "I, um. I told Nat that I still have feelings for her."

"I wanted to write you a letter. I read an article on you, one of your papers? But Rhodey doublechecked everything I typed up and discarded it as being 'too thirsty'." Which hadn't been a term back then but it was, more or less, applicable to how he felt at the time. A moment of knowing without a shadow of a doubt that this was a man, a mind, he needed to meet-

And then only getting to when the sky's falling in.

He doesn't have an answer for Bruce, not really. People filter in and out of his life; it's just a thing. He'd thought Bruce and the others wouldn't be quite like that but- he hadn't had as good a view on what was happening as he thought. Losing Bruce, getting him back, losing everyone- His arms tighten around him for a moment before he leans away enough to look, reading the tension. It's fucking ridiculous that they're dressed like this, having this talk but- "Should I start looking for a new roommate or...?"

Not that he'd look, he'd lived alone (for awhile) before Bruce showed up, he could do it again.

Bruce looks confused. "Thirsty?" Listen, he not only is oblivious to references in their own time, and lost two years, and also he isn't up on the lingo for probably almost the entire decade he was gone. "Like thirsty for knowledge? But specifically science with me?" That kind of made sense. He knows he's missing something.

Bruce laughs, because he can't tell if Tony is being serious so he assumes he's not. Because that is insane. Also he's nervous. "She didn't say yes, she needs time. And even if she does, it'd take months of dating before that. A year even. People don't just move in with each other." He scratches his jaw and shuffles a little. He's uncertain, about the situation, but also about Tony's reaction. He knows Tony and Nat aren't on the best of terms, and his friend's opinion matters greatly to him. "Nat and I both have a lot of baggage to unpack, I'm pretty sure it's going to be a long uphill battle." But he wants it. It's the only thing he's wanted selfishly for himself in a long time.

He grabs Tony's claw, because it's the only way to get to his hand. "I'm not going anywhere, Tony. I wanted you to know, because I've never had a friend to share things with. And partly because I might be panicking."

"Desperate? Intensely attracted to your sexy brain." He huffs, waving it off. Past him had a crush, it did not at all factor into his current friendship with Bruce. Too much happened between then and now for it to really matter, what they've got is about as rock solid as anything he could ask for, anything he could expect with Rhodey.

People don't just move in together and Tony just. Cocks his head, brow lifted, giving Bruce a look because- he'd more or less moved in on Tony's invitation, Pepper moved in on a whim- they may have been not dating for a decade before they actually got together, but still- Bruce's caution doesn't make sense to Tony- at least for himself. For Bruce? it fits. Even with Natasha. Especially with Natasha. "Communication, Compromise, Consent. Three C's of a relationship right there for you. Talk to her, be open about your issues, give ground where you can but don't be the only one doing the giving."

It doesn't matter what he thinks of Natasha- this is something Bruce wants. He actively wants this, he's working for it and- Bruce usually doesn't do that. Tony's thoughts don't matter here at all. "What's there to panic over? She likes you for you. You both have baggage, sure, but you'll get through it."

"You kids and your slang these days," Bruce teases. Tony is only a little younger than him, but Bruce often feels like his brain's age is eighty and his body is only slowly starting to make its way to the mind. He's pleased though. The only thing he ever lets himself be proud about is his intelligence, when it's not actively hurting others. "Our brains have now officially met and become partners, so it worked out."

Bruce gives him a what look back. "We don't count, we already lived together in the Tower and practically slept in our labs some days." The comfort they have with one another is unprecedented for Bruce. "You're an exception." In so many ways. He and Betty did things properly. They dated, fell in love, moved in together, and got engaged, all in patient and thorough steps. But that was a very different woman and a very different relationship.

It's great advice that Tony gives, and he smiles warmly at him. Normally he'd bring attention to it, but he's trying to walk a tight rope, since he doesn't want to remind Tony of Pepper, and bringing attention to how mature he is about relationship advice would do that. "Communication we were terrible at, which is why I told her up front instead of walking around it. I don't know that she ever fully knew it was both ways." Bruce doesn't hide his thoughts or feelings well, but he also doesn't communicate them well. He was too focused on the cant's and not the cans.

He sighs and crosses his arms. Over the ridiculous cloak and the ridiculous costume. "I don't know. Because she might say no. Because she might say yes. It's been over a decade, and she's ... Natasha." Out of his league, in his mind, except it's her choice to put him in her league, and he can't argue with that. "What if she gets to know me and finds out I'm not as interesting as she thought and doesn't like me?" He's not sue if he's more afraid of rejection or getting what he wants. His insecurities do not help his anxiety.

Normal is, at the end of the day, horribly relative. Subjective? Dependent upon a multitude of variables that slid up and down the scale of neurotic bullshit in a complicated equation of life experience that shifted from person to person. But he'll take, with grace, that he's an exception.

He does tend to be.

"Important question here for a moment while I act adulty and serious for...a minute? Maybe ten." He rests his hands on Bruce's shoulders, nudging him until he's less fidgeting and actually looking at him. Ridiculous fucking costumes aside- serious heart to heart moment about to happen here.

Why do they always happen at the weirdest moments?

"You love her. You want a relationship with her. But would you be content to have a friendship with her if she chose to keep things platonic?" Tony's willing to put his money on yes- much as he wants this to happen to make Bruce happy, he and Natasha are emotionally complicated people. It's a chemical mixture that's bound to implode. Their issues have issues, and this is coming from him.

"I know, I'm sorry I brought this up while dressed like this, but we're geniuses, we can look past ridiculous things." It is pretty ridiculous, but it's not the strangest thing they've done. This is a bizarre forced Halloween party. Outside of the fact he can't see Tony's face through a mask, which he really wish he could. His friend is far, far better at hiding his thoughts, but Bruce is usually good at reading him.

He rubs the back of his neck. "Love is ... pushing it. I have a very strong romantic attachment to her, and I love her as a friend and person, but we're not in love. We could be. We could also be a disaster." Bruce is a pessimist and he can't imagine a world where he is allowed to be happy. "But I do know that Nat and I are both people who do not have feelings for others easily or often. The fact that we developed those feelings for each other, despite reasons we shouldn't, is significant." Neither of them are in and out of relationships or romances. They are picky and guarded and difficult.

"I could absolutely go back to being friends with her. I gave her that option if it's what she prefers. I just want her in my life, however that happens." And he means it without a doubt. Bruce doesn't need romance or relationships. He's been platonic for a long time now, and before Betty he was too. "But I still want it, because this is my only real chance to be with her, Tony. The Hulk will always be in the way back home."

"...I'm still not seeing why you're panicking. You've thought out the possible outcomes and are still willing to shoot for it. You could be great together." There's an understanding that comes with being othered he can and can't quite get. Parts of it, at least, and he knows pretty damn well the risks that come from trying to be one person's everything from both sides of that particular equation. F-, do not recommend, unfun. So if this works?

He'll...probably find it in himself to be glad for them. Bruce? Certainly. Natasha? It might mean letting her into his space more than he'd like but- compromise.

He could, would, compromise to keep Bruce happy.

"Go for it. Worst comes to worst stuff is a little awkward while you settle back into being friends." Because he's about 80 percent certain they could come out the otherside more or less intact. More to the more than the less if his math is anything to go by.

"I'm panicking because this is a risk, and you know I avoid risk. And it's been so long, I'm not sure I'll be good at anything. The relationship parts in general. I was happy with Betty and we were great together, but that was a simpler time." Risk is terrifying. The good and bad potentials are both equally anxiety-provoking for him. It's a blend of caution and low self-esteem that's tying him into knots. It's easier when they're together, because all he can think about is how he wants to be with her. Separated, the doubts gnaw at him.

"I'm also ...." Bruce bites his lip and then looks over at Tony with a faint smile. "You're the best friend I could ask for, Tony, and I know you are willing to do a lot for me. But I don't want to put you in a bad place with what's gone on between you. I wouldn't ask that from you." It's not that he doubts Tony is going to do it for him, but rather in general, he wants Tony to be happy and okay. Considering he came down on him pretty hard about Bull, albeit for different reasons, it's a precarious balancing act of how much he can expect from his friend. Or how much he should.

"Bruce, seriously. Just- do for her what you do for me, plus you know. Romantic physical intimacy." Which shines a very particular light on their relationship but that goes under the long list of Shit Tony Does Not Think About For The Sake Of His Own Sanity. It gets longer and longer every single day. Good for him that there's always a million other things to think about that may or may not end up on that list eventually.

"...I've put up with shittier people than Natasha to keep my friends happy. For awhile Rhodey dated some real assholes." He's not digging into it, they aren't his stories to tell, but- the point remains. "I'm pretty apathetic where she's concerned, Bruce. Let me know ahead of time if you're going to have her over so I can clean up."

AKA, Hide all of his notes and projects and lock them up. He doesn't put it past her to snoop but he doesn't really expect it either. Habits are habitual for a reason.

Bruce's eyebrows go way up at that and he tilts his head curiously. "Our relationships is ours, Tony. I'm not duplicating it with anyone else." Listen, he knows that they have murky lines to say the least. Their particular connection can be seen in any variety of ways. Tony isn't the only one who is exceptional at compartmentalizing. The boxes they preferred to check together, close friends and science partners, worked well enough. "Nat wouldn't want me acting toward her like I act toward you anyway." His smile is wry. "We're a little needy." Evidenced by their regular physical contact, even now.

"I would never have her over without warning you." Obviously, considering Bruce is worried to even put Tony and her in the same general area at the moment. They'll have to share him, and he trusts that it'll be okay. He's not going to go so far as to tell them to be friends again. He'll just maybe low key hope for it. Even if he indicated he put Natasha on the same level as some bad people Rhodey dated. This might take a lot of hoping. "It's not like I can invite her over for a movie here anyway." That's a typical date option, and he has no idea what dating will look like here. He'll have to play that by ear if she agrees.

"Nothing is changing for you and me, but since sharing is caring, it seemed like you should know." He squeezes Tony's claw.

"I am not needy." Tony sniffs, arm draping around Bruce's shoulders. "I'm affectionate with people I trust, that's all."

It's a short fucking list as of late, shorter than it's been in awhile but- Bruce has always been on it. Since day one he's had no reservations, no fear, no hesitation in pulling the other man in close once he was sure Bruce wasn't put off by it. "You're touch starved. There's a difference between that and needy, buddy."

Details. A lot of them. "I mean, you could bring her over and talk. That is a thing people do, right?"

"There's only been two people I've been affectionate with." Tony and Betty. He and Natasha are only beginning; they've touched a few times and that's it. He likes it, but he hasn't reached a comfort level where he could reach out to her at any point and feel welcome. Not her, all him. "It's not that I don't want to be, it just ... doesn't come naturally." Bruce's mother died when he was young, his father was abusive, his extended family were cold, and all his relationships otherwise were professional and distant.

"You got me used to it. It could be because instead of ignoring my clear physical 'don't touch me' signals you decided to do it anyway." Bruce laughs. He wouldn't recommend that to anyone else in dealing with him, and he's not about to offer hugs to people in the community. He let Steve hug him and that's because Bruce cares for him a great deal. Even if things are tense.

He hates the costume because he can't see Tony clearly. He's almost entirely forgotten about the embarrassment of his, since he can hide out over here with his friend. As long as Nat doesn't see him. "We went on a walk. It was great." It was too. Bruce felt warm inside afterward, like something so simple could light him up. "I'm just glad I'm past the time in my life where even looking at another person made me feel like I was betraying Betty."

"I gave you space until you were mostly comfortable with the idea. Or I assumed you were comfortable with the idea. So. Mostly? Sort of. Ish." All things being relative to one another he couldn't pinpoint exactly when Bruce got roped into dealing with his skin hunger or habit of reaching out for more than idle contact. Probably the first or second time he'd shuffled over to Bruce as the only solid source of both warmth and caffeine that early in the morning/afternoon/whatever.

Probably.

That's usually how it happened. "That's...I'm pretty sure that's a good date? A normal person date. Sounds like a normal person date." Like either of them are any kind of normal. "Seriously. You've got my- blessing? Approval. Go forth, woo the spider."

"If you waited, you'd be waiting a long time. It's fine, it's better than fine. I was starved for sure." For affection, for kindness, for friendship. Tony gave him all of that, and then the Avengers also added their own support and Bruce was the happiest he'd been since the accident. He didn't regret that part in the least.

Bruce feels better being reassured that was normal, because whether or not Tony is the best guide for this, he's the only guide available for him. He's not going to constantly ask his advice though. Really what this was about was getting Tony's approval, and he has to accept that he's being told the truth without seeing his friend's face. "Thank you. I'm going to try." And he's hopeful, because Nat isn't someone who would give false hope to anyone. He smiles and hugs Tony as best as he can while in the costume.

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[MINGLE] Saints & Sinners Masquerade

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