dear_mun | (no subject)

Trying to reason with your mun huh?

Never seen that before. [Except yeeeeah. He has. It doesn't usually work out well tbh.]

More like a polite ultimatum.

How do you deal with yours?

[ She has an idea, but she's curious enough to ask anyway. ]

That's a lot of apocalypses. Is that even the right word?

Sounds like the right word to me.

My world's sort of a magnet for trouble.

No, it's usually one apocalypse or crisis after another. Conflict driven storytelling rules and all.

Figures. Guess it's a good thing I like to keep busy.

Yes, I suppose it is.

[ So, yeah, completely weirded out by this. ]

Where do you think you'll be going? Adventures in survival horror? Few people are -- uh, foolish enough to put anyone with a Gamma problem in slice of life games.

[ She's met other forms of Bruce in her lifetime, but it never really gets old. ]

I wouldn't really call it a problem, Bruce. I actually kind of like it.

[ Understatement of the century. ]

But you're right. No slice of life for me. I had enough of that in my world. I'm looking for something a little more exciting.

[ Like it. ]

[ Betty you're nuts. ]

More exciting is doable. Lots of places cater to exciting.

Edited 2013-08-12 03:48 (UTC)

[ That's not the first time someone's called her crazy. ]

Guess I'm in luck then. What about you? What caters to your tastes?

I-- I work on a prison ship. [ He fidgets a little. ] Been there almost a year now. I'm a warden. The irony's pretty thick, sometimes.

A warden in a prison.

[ She really doesn't know whether to laugh or sigh at that one. ]

Do you enjoy it?

It's not a conventional prison.

[ Well, that's the most loaded question ever. ]

The work is long, exhausting and often emotionally taxing. I haven't made a lot of progress with my assigned inmate in a way that others might deem normal.

But it could be worse.

And Hulk? What about him? Where does he fit in all of this?

Well, last time Victor Creed ran rampant, he got to come out and get some exercise. We're-- well, we're integrating better.

The mutant? [ She smiles. ] Bet he didn't stand a chance.

I'm glad you're getting a handle on it. The Bruce I knew never seemed to manage that.

He had other issues. Less of a support structure. Was kidnapped and sent to another planet, and his best friend thought it'd be better to create a splinter personality than work to help him honestly integrate.

The crap I deal with isn't even close to your Bruce's damage, even if it has the same root issue.

[ Comic Bruce's life sucks. ]

I think that makes you the lucky one.

[ And really, she's kind of envious of this other universe. It's got to be better than hers. ]

Is Creed your responsibility at the prison? Or does that privilege belong to someone else?

No. He's someone else's problem, thank God. My inmate's Poison Ivy. She's-- enough to keep a person busy.

She sounds like it.

[ And if he's anything like the Bruce of her world, he's probably dating her. Time for a subject change. ]

So what do you do on your time off? Do you actually have fun?

[ Illicit relationship with his inmate that is totally a terrible life choice? ]

[ Got it in one. ]

I work in the medical facilities on board the ship.

[ That's 'no fun ever', sorry. ]

That's still work, Bruce. Not fun.

At the last port I found a hotel, a beach, and I didn't work for four days.

[ So that's... something? ]

Once in forty years isn't enough.

Be forty-three in December.

[ Small, lame joke is small and lame ]

You're not helping your case.

Guess not.

So should I ask about the, uh, new all-over sunburn?

Is it distracting? Here.

[ And just like that, no fuss, no muss, she reverts back to her original form. ]

Is that better?

It's definitely-- [ easier ]

I've only just gotten to the point where I can keep my wits, going back and forth. It's... been a long road getting there. How did-- you-- it-- [ She shouldn't be like this, leaving him flustered as he tries to go forward. Betty was wonderful and perfect and not broken like he was. ]

I've heard a lot of awful protests in my time, but this is going in the top forty.

You should feel proud of yourself.

Top forty? Wow. I'm getting better.

[ Sarcasm. Isn't it great? ]

It's a little fudged, I have to admit. You can only hear, "but I have a wife and kids" so much before you have to relegate it to its own category. Otherwise, it'd have to be, I don't know, top five hundred. Maybe.

[Yes, it's the best. But you gotta know who the super duper supervillain(ess) in the room is, Betty. Do you know yet? SPOILERS: It's Mystique!]

If you're going where I think you're going, would you mind doing me a favor? He's a little hopeless without someone to look after him.

[She doesn't even need to explicitly say what the favor is, she's sure.]

[ Oh, Betty, no. Not you too. It's like they're cursed to follow that jerk around forever. Well, okay. Maybe hers isn't a complete tool. ]

I will.You going to come take him off my hands eventually?

[A soft note of laughter.] I don't think that would work. There's rules against that. [Playercesting and canon limits and all that.]

So I thought if I asked... [Instead of ordering. Though she's clearly teasing as she says it.]

[ This version of herself she likes. ]

Then I'll keep an eye on him until I can get him back to you.

[ And because she knows how they are... ]

And I'll make sure he doesn't marry any alien queens or knock up the first woman that crosses his path.

Thank you, Betty.

[She appreciates that. She feels better knowing that Bruce has at least some version of her there for him, that's he not totally alone.

The other part is concerning enough that she falters, though.] Does that-- happen? [A moment's hesitation, and then,] That's never been... an issue. [What with his inability to have sex, at all. Makes it hard to be worried that he's sleeping with someone else.]

[ On the one hand, it's kind of sad that it's her life that's got the faithless bastard in it. On the other, she's glad that this Betty doesn't have to know what it's like. ]

The one I know has had three kids, been married about half a dozen times, and has more ex-girlfriends than Tony Stark. I've met them. He likes to sleep with them whenever he's trying to reconcile with me.

[That legitimately shocks her for a second.] That's awful. I'm so sorry. [It's not hard to tell that she's sincere in the empathy.]

I can't imagine... Bruce would never do something like that. [He can't, but even if he could, she can't picture it.] The last time I saw him, it'd been five years, and he was still-- it was like nothing had changed.

[Maybe she'd worry about him less if she thought he had a better chance of moving on from her. Finding comfort somewhere else. But Betty suspects that that's the last thing Bruce wants.]

It's not your fault.

[ The last thing she wants is to hear any version of herself apologize for him. ]

I'm glad, you know. That you've got a better one.

[ She means it, too. Not that he sounds perfect. Five years? Who disappears for five years? But if he came back and nothing changed, well, that's something. ]

Hang onto him. I've been to other realities. He sounds like a diamond in the rough.

It's not, but it's still not right.

[That quiets her. She's never thought of her Bruce being the best of all possible choices, and it makes her sad for him, all of the versions of him, for what that says about their circumstances.]

I hold onto him as much as he lets me, [she admits softly. Trying to lighten things, she adds,] Maybe I should be asking him to look after you. He will, you know. I don't even really need to ask.

[ She snorts, amused at the thought. Maybe she's not the strongest there is, but she's pretty damn strong now anyway. ]

He should look after himself. My days of needing it are long gone.

[ If there's anyone who might understand, it's Betty. She doesn't feel awkward admitting what follows. ]

It might look strange, but it's the best thing that's ever happened to me. I'm free now. Nothing can hurt me. No one has to coddle me. I can defend myself. And I've got a big ass sword. Not gonna lie, the sword's awesome.

[She does, instinctively, understand the appeal in being able to be that autonomous. Not needing her father looking over her shoulder, not relying on anyone else for protection. To have her words be a real force to be reckoned with, not easily dismissed because she's the soft-spoken general's daughter who has no clout. Even Bruce, who had always listened to her, had never always really heard her. What she said didn't get through.

Betty does think she understands it. But there's also a strange echo to her words, reminding her of the Hulk she knows-- where invulnerability to physical harm acknowledges nothing of mental harm.]

I'm happy for you, [she offers, hesitant but sincere.] If it's a good thing for you, then... But I still hope that you don't have to be alone.

[There's that word. Alone. Betty's sure she'll understand the weight it carries behind it for them, not just Bruce's use of it but their own fate, because when Bruce is alone it means that they are, too. There isn't really anyone else.]

[ Betty’s always been alone. First as a child, with her mother dead and her father always busy with the military. He may have loved her, but a general doesn’t have the time nor the inclination to play with dolls or talk about teenage drama. Then as a young woman, deeply in love with a brilliant young man whose passion for science took him from her in a whirlwind of violence and confusion. Later as a slightly older, wiser woman, when that same man remained distant and untouchable, consumed by his work and his obsessions. And now as a Hulk, hated and feared by most who see her, alienated by time and circumstance from a man she loves as much as she hates.

Some people are meant to be alone. Betty knows this. It’s simply taken her this long to stop fighting and accept it. ]

Of course I do. I’m a Hulk.

[ She smiles, edged with a kind of bittersweet pleasure that’s all the more poignant for the pain that comes with it. ]

And Hulks just want to be left alone.

[Even in her world, it says something about her life that Betty consider's Bruce's continued absence over the course of years not enough obstruction to give up on him. It was less alone than she'd ever felt since her mother's death, and her father's subsequent emotional abandonment of her. She hadn't been false with Leonard, not at all, but in her heart it was still the knowledge that Bruce existed and cared for her with utter, unflagging devotion that was enough for her to hold against herself.

That was as not alone as she ever really expected to be. But Betty didn't bemoan it. It was a choice she'd made, one she didn't regret, and she understood too well how easy it was to fall into the trap of thinking that it was wanted instead of chosen. From her own experience, and from Bruce.]

I've never thought that was true, [she refuses, quiet, eyes soft and watching her.] I think it's just easier to say.