tampered | (no subject)

Entry tags:

avengers - bruce banner

(no subject)

When; Saturday, 10/27
Rating; Unknown, but Circus-related body horror in many threads
Characters; Bruce Banner, Luke, Serrure, Sif, Asami Sato, open to anyone in City Solutions or with a good reason to be there
Summary; Bruce has ended up treating several of the Circus' victims and now they're cluttering up his lab and apartment. Open post for people to visit Luke, Serrure, and Asami or pester Bruce (and possibly Sif)
Log;

Bruce's lab and apartment hadn't been intended as a makeshift hospital ward, but there they were. He'd set Asami up in his bedroom and Luke and Serrure were still kept in separate rooms to keep their magnetism from dragging their wounded bodies back together.

He's immediately available by network, but at the moment he's in his kitchen brewing up some chamomile tea. More accurately the water's heating and he has his forehead pressed against the stainless steel door of his fridge.

[ooc: Just set up threads for the various temporary residents for easy visitation.]

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[She grows silent again. Finds her way to a chair beside the bed, and takes a seat. Does it always come down to Thor, she wonders. Would he miraculously fix it all with his presence?

Perhaps not. Probably not. But she would feel more at ease having someone to follow, and Serrure...she imagines he would have his brother back, one way or the other.

Tired, she leans back in the chair.]

Of the people who believe I have a hardened reputation, he is the first. I known not how much comfort I would be able to bring.

Really? S'roki likes you! You would bring comfort by being Sif.

Comfort by being Sif - now there is something I never expected to hear. [Nevermind from a Loki in the first place. She lets out a small laugh, but is unconvinced.]

I wonder.

He would not do all of your training things if he didn't. I like you. There are many of my relations I am not fond of and you were never one of them, I mean, you're different, but you are still a friend.

We barely know each other here. You like the idea of who I might be, but our relation, whatever it is, has started here.

[She pauses. And almost fondly.] I had forgotten what it was like, to count on the friendship of Loki. Almost.

You may count on two, which is even better than only one lost one. I'd like to know you better, Sif, especially now as you've discovered who I am, and I needn't keep it veiled.

I suppose we could try that. [This week has been so bizzare in itself, that befriending another Loki should not count as anything out of the ordinary. After all, even the one she knew had been a friend, once.]

[He beams, and sort of lunges sideways to grab her hand with two of his, and squeeze it.] Good!

[Welp. Suppose she could give it a squeeze back. Maybe an awkward pat and all.] Are you always this prone to touching?

I like being close to people. Perhaps not as close as myself and Serrure were recently, but I've really only liked it more after being alone for so long. I missed people, properly people, not standing in shadows at the edge of my cave, right here. I know you're here.

[But weren't there some limits? Some boundaries? Maybe not - if he'd been in a cave...] Your cave?

Oh, you know. Or maybe you don't, did that happen, with your Loki? I suppose not, did it even happen in your myths?

I might not know - the myths I have read have all felt...difficult to believe. [Starting with that obsession for everyone being married and having children.]

What of the whole thing with Baldur? Did you read that? I mean, it is not really...it's not quite accurate, I never intended for it to go so far, and I never wanted death. I can't undo that. You can't change anything when there's been death.

Death tends to be definite, even for us. [A pause.] I have not read that.

Ok, um... [He tries to think through it, and gets distracted.] Which...oh. Baldur. Yes. Alright, well, he'd had some dreams, I think, in which he died, and Frigg had them too, so she asked utterly everything to protect him, except for mistletoe, but I only worked that out, I mean. She was saying it was everything, but I asked. There was a sort of challenge, and Baldur was so good that it felt as if it pressed upon me. Held up as a sort of, well, I wasn't good enough, with the fire, and I'm not good at all. And being ignored, but mostly, it was how everyone was with Baldur, always, tossing things at him, attacking him with swords, and nothing could ever hurt him.

So I had a sprig of mistletoe forged into a proper arrow, a dart, and I meant to, well, prove. I mean, how silly, to make everything safe but that one thing, it's terribly poisonous at all, let alone the arrow, but I just. It was something impossible that I wanted to do. I like impossible things. I like...well, you know, I mean, it wasn't. I wanted to prove it wasn't. But I wanted it, I didn't want anyone to be in trouble for it, so I had it made by someone, but I made the idea, but I gave it to Hodr, who was blind, to shoot. So it would be no-one's fault, and it could just be a clever thing I'd done. Baldur would think it was clever too, you see? But Hodr shot and pierced his heart, and he died and it all went wrong.

[He stops and breathes a moment, and then sighs, deeply.] I wouldn't have wanted...I mean, I ran for it, I had to, and I think they tried to get him back and someone refused to weep for him. I wept for him. I don't know who didn't, why would they think it was me, I didn't want him to die in the first place? It wasn't me. But they caught me in my own net, and bound me with my son's entrails under serpents, all of them dripping onto me and eating away at my face, like my shoulders, burning and melting through and Sigyn brought a bowl, though she wasn't meant to, but I could only fill it so full, holding it up until it had to be emptied, you know. It was...everyone would come and ask me things. That was the cave.

[And all this, she listens to in silence. I did, but I didn't; I wanted to, but I didn't. I wept. I regretted. She wonders if it will be this way for Loki as well. She wonders if they will ever be so cruel in their punishment.

And finds herself preferring they kill him swift and painlessly, than let that happen.]

How many years?

I'm not sure, I lost track. Maybe 2000, if they count years the same? If I did? I don't know, is there water left? [He gropes at the sidetable, his hand shaking slightly,]

I will get you more. [Slips her hand out of his now, taking advantage of the distraction, and walks over to the sidetable to pour him another glass. She hands it over.

And silence settles while he drinks, but Sif knows she has to say something. A story like that isn't told without knowing that it will generate a reaction. Hers...might not be the expected one.]

Some retributions do not match the wrong.

[His smile is slightly watery, but he covers it by drinking some more.] Oh you see, I knew I might believe in you, Sif. It was meant to be forever, but a dear friend let me out. I wonder...I've been wondering. There are prophecies. Must I begin Ragnarok, now I'm out, or may I wait for it to find me? Forever until the end, I meant, of course. The end means it's not forever, but I don't want to end anything.

[She leans against the table, and wonders how many of his words are caused by the drip and how many are true and honest musings. Still, she has an answer for that.]

I have never heard of a Loki following a prophecy, when he could follow his own set of rules.

Ha! Yes. No. [He sets down the water again.] No, I shan't start it. Not on purpose, anyway. They shall have to drag me into it, the gods and the fates.

On your own terms - sounds more familiar now.

It only seems so inevitable, sometimes. I liked it before we didn't know.

I would imagine so. Ignorance being bliss, and all.