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

[symmachy]

[She's just a sly motherfucker. Scatty pulls her shirt away from her skin a bit so she can see the blood. Oh man, she had tried to not get dirty. She starts towards his room, speaking quietly, smirking.]

Haven't even gone on our first date, and you're already inviting me to your room. Rather forward of you, Mister Banner.

[hulkbusted]

[He closes and secures the door before following her, trying really hard not to enjoy the view too much.]

That's Dr. Banner if you're going to be formal about it, and we'll have a hundred or so rodent chaperones.

[A mouse peeks out from his bedroom before turning around to race under his dresser.]

[symmachy]

[She rolls her eyes. Well excuse her. She pauses just outside the bedroom door. She looks a bit embarrassed.]

You, ah. Have to invite me in. Formally.

[hulkbusted]

[He grins at the eye rolling only to lose it when she tells him he has to invite her in. So some of the vampire myths are real after all...

He moves past her into his room.] Scathach, I invite you in. Is that formal enough?

[symmachy]

[Only a few of them. Because he shared the house with another, he could invite her through the main threshold, but his personal quarters were a different matter. After the invitation, the redhead lopes easily into the room.] It would appear so. Thank you. Now, where are these mice-free towels?

[hulkbusted]

[Bruce pushes the door closed, in part to keep the mouse infestation semi-contained and points to the half-open door on the opposite wall.]

Through there. I can offer you free run of my drawers too. [He coughs and hurries to cover that.] For a clean shirt. Take what you want, it won't be fashionable, but it'll be clean.

[symmachy]

[A short nod, and she goes to the closest drawer. Pants--no. Socks--no. Ah, shirts. She pulls one at random (green, not white, but she doesn't really care), and heads to the bathroom to strip and wash and change. And, of course, talk to him as she does so, the door left cracked open.]

Have you lived here since arriving?

[hulkbusted]

[That is just a cruel, cruel thing to do to a man who's been on his own for the better part of six years. "Better" being entirely relative. Bruce catches himself peeking at the cracked door and goes to sit on the edge of the bed facing away from the door.]

Yes. Kevin scooped me up off the network and gave me a place to stay. He says one of his teachers corresponds with a Bruce Banner where he's from, so he knows about me and the Other Guy.

[symmachy]

[She's just mean sometimes. After a minute or two, she goes back into his room, hair wet and sticking to her head, dirty clothes draped over her arm. Whether or not she's wearing her shorts is a mystery, as his shirt is longer than them anyway. Scatty runs a hand through her cropped hair and deposits her bundle on the floor near the door.]

He sounds like a generous guy.

[hulkbusted]

[Bruce turns to see her and widens his eyes a little because seeing her wearing his shirt with nothing else visible conjures some explicit images of ways to get her into that state. He pauses a beat to collect himself before clearing his throat and nodding.]

He is. I think he's also very lonely. His power forces him to be very isolated.

[symmachy]

[Rein yourself in, Bruce.

Scathach frowns, sitting on the bed beside him. She props her elbows on her knees and rests her chin on her hands.]

What is his power?

[hulkbusted]

[He regrets not getting dressed while she was in the bathroom, but talking about Kevin helps.]

This is between us. Anything organic he touches turns to ash.

[symmachy]

[She doesn't regret it.

At the news, She doesn't let her mutual interest and disgust show.]

Organic as in alive, or straight from the earth?

[hulkbusted]

[He still remembers being with Betty and the warning beeps from his heart rate monitor.]

I haven't tested him, but so far what I've seen is that his power acts on living or once-living matter. It could apply to carbon-based compounds, and I think for safety's sake it's best to assume it does.

[symmachy]

[Scathach is pretty sure she's made of carbon. There goes that idea.]

He must feel so alone.

[Is that empathy in her voice? You bet it is.]

[hulkbusted]

[Hearing that adds some depth to Bruce's perception of her, and boy does he have empathy for the feeling too.]

Yeah, I think so, and I think that's why he invited me here, since he's familiar with Bruce Banner in his world. I guess I'm kind of a lonely guy most places.

[symmachy]

[She angles her head so she can look at him through her lashes. Inspecting.]

And do you feel lonely here?

[hulkbusted]

[Bruce glances over at her and down to his hands where he's absently rubbing them together.]

Not right now I'm don't.

[symmachy]

[Scatty is honestly surprised by that. She knows she isn't always the best company. But she's pleased to hear it anyway.]

Good. Humans are social creatures. It's unnatural for them to be alone.

[hulkbusted]

[Bruce snorts, but he's still jarred by the reminder that there's a human/non-human "us and them" thing going on in his bedroom.]

I have a boatload of unnatural going on.

[symmachy]

[At least she's closer to human than some other immortals.]

Do you, now. [Cat-slit green eyes are back on him, as is her full attention.]

[hulkbusted]

What? The giant green rage monster isn't enough? [He shoots her a look before shifting his attention back to his hands again.] I've been alone since the accident. I hurt someone I loved when it happened and when I tried going back, I hurt her again.

[symmachy]

[She's silent for a moment, and looks away as well.]

I loved someone, a long time ago. He went to war while my sister and I fought one another. He couldn't stand up to an entire army on his own. I saw his body, I thought he was dead. I couldn't save him. [A beat.] Someone else did, though. He resented me for leaving him to rot in the service of another. And so he tried to kill me. [She stops abruptly. She didn't want to say that she'd killed him, for real, the last time they'd met. But if he asked, she wouldn't lie.]

[hulkbusted]

[Bruce tries to imagine Betty in that circumstance - nearly dying, hating him, trying to kill him, and the image evokes a pain so visceral that he almost expects to see the knife in his gut when he looks at himself.

He snakes a hand across the space between them and lays it palm up next to her leg in a silent offer.]

But he didn't succeed. Did you have to kill him?

[symmachy]

[Even a creature without the ability to feel knows when she should be hurting. Probably the only reason she had survived her encounter with Cuchulain was because she couldn't experience the same pain Bruce was imagining.

Haltingly, her fingers find his palm, her touch light and unsure.]

I did.