003: Video

[hulkbusted]

[It's after the night siren and Bruce is looking frazzled, irritated, and... like he forgot that he'd been getting ready to sleep, since he's wearing boxers and glasses and apparently nothing else. As he settles his NV, a pair of mice skitter across the desk he's set it on. There are little movements in the background and Bruce has to stop and hop around, cursing under his breath as something apparently runs over his foot.]

Okay, look, the Darkness thing I'm up on, but is it common for random objects like, say, my pillow to turn into mice?

[ooc: Loki'd]

Comments

[hulkbusted]

[Bruce looks down at pulls a face before leaning off screen to grab a plain white t-shirt. He has to shake a mouse of it before he pulls it over his head.]

Two out of three so far, so I guess maybe that counts as a habit. Maybe I subconsciously want to show Siren's Port my chest.

[spiderlilies]

[ Her lips twitch just slightly in distaste at the rodent. ]

Well, whatever you can get away with, I suppose! Things have changed substantially since my time.

I can't say I envy your predicament, though! I can say with certainty, that isn't a normal thing around here.

[hulkbusted]

[He's lived with worse than some mice. When your alter ego dumps you in new countries with nothing but some shredded pants (if you're lucky) you learn not to be picky.]

My predicament is the result of a kid with too much power, it turns out.

When is your time? You don't look even as old as me.

[spiderlilies]

A child? Is there no one to look after them?

[ Chuckling just a bit then, she'll acknowledge his flattery with a smile. ]

I come from the late nineteenth century, darling. 1888, to be exact.

[hulkbusted]

He's kind of a god. I don't know how many babysitters there are for kids like that.

[He's certainly old enough to know that telling a woman over drinking age that she looks younger is almost never amiss.]

1888... okay, that's a new one, but Leonard up there is from the 23rd century, so I'm willing to entertain the idea that the time travel pendulum swings both ways. You seem like you're adapting, have you been here long?

[spiderlilies]

[ Brow raised, Ann's head tilts with intrigue. ]

A god? That's... a new one. Though, yes, people and beings show up from all sorts of different times and places. I shouldn't be too surprised, having known a grim reaper myself, I suppose?

I've been here... oh... [ Pressing a finger to her cheek, she does the math, gaze venturing off. ] Seven months, I think? Technically.

[hulkbusted]

Close enough at least, straight out of the Norse pantheon.

Which question do I ask you first? A grim reaper? I didn't know there was more than one.

[spiderlilies]

[ Knowingly, she smiles. ]

There's several, to my understanding, and they handle their affairs with death like a strict business. Additionally, they all wear spectacles for some reason that I never quite understood.

[hulkbusted]

Spectacles, really? I'm not sure how I feel about myopic death.

[spiderlilies]

[ A sound nod. ]

Mm-hm. Blind as a bat without them - but that shouldn't be the most worrying thing about them, believe me. [ Grin. ]

[hulkbusted]

I'm more afraid of death picking the wrong person than I am of dying. [Even if a even seriously myopic death would have trouble missing the Hulk.]

[spiderlilies]

Well, death wouldn't be a permanent fate here, in any case. Hopefully, that will ease your concern - even if it hurts a little, still.

[hulkbusted]

Let's back that up a little. I've heard a little about the Core bringing people back from the dead, but you sound like you know first hand.

[spiderlilies]

Ah. [ Somehow, she didn't expect to get onto this subject again! It somehow amuses her, how it catches her by surprise. ] Well, yes, unfortunately.

[hulkbusted]

I'm sorry. I ask a lot of questions.

But now it's like it never happened?

[spiderlilies]

[ With a smile, the lady shakes her head. ]

It's fine, really. Aside from the memories attached, yes. There was no physical sign of trauma, nothing at all. I may be in better health than I was before, even.

[hulkbusted]

I'm glad there's no lasting physical trauma. Was it something with the Darkness or are there other hazards I should be aware of?

[spiderlilies]

I'd actually died in my own world, before arriving.

[ By the hand of a reaper, no less. And ironically enough, that same one has been claimed by the Darkness and currently awaits his return. ]

The Darkness had no place in that.

Though, without explanation, I did disappear from this world for several months. The Core's intentions... They are unpredictable. Frankly, that intimidates me more than anything.

[hulkbusted]

I... [He shrugs at the NV and sits down to lean his elbows on the table where the NV is propped.] I'm sorry. Are you okay here?

You aren't the only person I've spoken to who speaks of the Core as though it has some intent of its own.

[spiderlilies]

[ She'll shrug, herself. ]

There's no need to be. My nephew is here, and I should be just fine as long as we're together.

As for the Core, it's perhaps easier to think of it that way. That there's purpose to everything that happens to us.

[hulkbusted]

Siren's Port isn't really what I pictured for an afterlife and some nebulous Core doesn't sit right as God.

[spiderlilies]

No... This place is something else entirely. I'm not certain what I'd call it - except for what it is.

[hulkbusted]

Do you remember anything after you died? Before you came here?

[spiderlilies]

Nothing telling, I'm afraid. I recall something much like a dream, exhaustingly cycling through memories and important faces.

[ But she smiles. ]

Are you simply curious? Or are you thinking of someone?

[hulkbusted]

Curious. I was raised Catholic, but not much of it has stuck.