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[Annabeth's face pops up, curls a mess as usual, but considering the turtle developments, she doesn't look nearly as cross as usual?? There's the sounds of water splashing around somewhere in the suite, but she doesn't appear to care.]

It goes without saying that the turtle's health started improving at last. [Because powers! And it's swimming again!] I know various numbers of us were tasked by Evandau into investigations, and I don't know how all the other situations turned out, but Doctor Soranik Natu, Rogue, Percy Jackson, and myself found something probably worth sharing.

We were assigned with investigating a string of robberies initially, but really, the important part is we discovered a series of incomplete archways in several different homes and attempted to recreate one in its entirety.

The whole "world between Life, Death, and Dreaming" thing everyone gets on arrival? Start taking it literally, if you weren't before. Keeliai as we live in it here is the Life plane. The archway opened up a portal of a kind, and said portal took us to the Death plane.

[A blob of water floats across the screen, blurring Annabeth's face, but it's still possible to see her turn around in a huff, and from somewhere off screen there's an "Oops, sorry!" before the water flies off. She continues unperturbed.]

It was basically a version of Keeliai gone awry and ruined, everything rotting away, and we found markings in the form of some kind of blood magic, directly over where the Emperor's Palace is in this plane. Scans proved it to be kedan blood in origin, some of it fresh, and the pattern was being drawn by - you know, what we're here to fight, in a magical attempt to kill Tu Vishan. We were able to wipe the incomplete blood slate clean and stop this part of his illness before leaving the plane. [By 'we' she mostly means Ocean Jesus did A Water Thing.]

Unfortunately, or fortunately, the way in seems to be gone. The archways all disappeared once we got back, as did that particular methodology in creating them. [Melted pins ahh. A pause.] The Death plane is probably where our infamous threat is hiding. Its domain, so to speak.

Tu Vishan's health is picking up, but this - this situation here, with this thing we're up against? It's definitely not over.

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Yeah. I'm just not, used to being able to explain it.

[Bruce runs a hand briefly over his face.] It would've endangered someone at home to know that much. It's still weird that that's-- not true here. [Nine years of habit was hard to break.]

[She shrugs a little, but in a kind of understanding rather than being dismissive.] I spent my first six months here keeping the whole demigod thing under wraps, and we definitely don't talk about it to people back home who don't already know.

I guess there's not really a lot to lose here. Or at least, not as many consequences over not keeping things secret. It can still be weird, though.

Edited 2013-08-14 04:14 (UTC)

I didn't realize... that was a secret.

I keep having people recognize me. Or not me, but they know enough. [With an undeniable note of bitter sarcasm,] Hearing about myself in other worlds turns out to not be that helpful.

Not anymore, here at least. Leo and Percy blabbed. But most mortals don't even believe in the gods anymore back home, so.

[She scrunches her face up. She's heard of the whole alternate universe thing, but fortunately, never experienced it herself.] That might make it more difficult to keep on the down low, yeah. Another you that someone already knows.

I can't call myself a believer, [he admits, with no trace of self-consciousness.] But things are a little different here.

It's been impossible. I'm sort of-- famous. In the future. And in other worlds. [His distaste for it is obvious.] I get a fan club.

[She shrugs.] Different worlds. Different Earths.

[She's not sure whether to be a little amused or not, if only because he's clearly full of NOPE. But Annabeth's always kind of wanted to be in the spotlight, wanted to prove herself and stand out.] Famous for your brain, or for him, too?

[He wishes he could be so sanguine about different Earths, but it's a little more personal for him, really.

Bruce wants the exact opposite of standing out. With or without the Hulk, he doesn't like spotlight. He likes recognition, of course, just like anyone; he likes being acknowledged for his intelligence and his work and his contributions. But famous is another story entirely.]

Both, I think. Mostly him. [The NOPE is even clearer.] It's not-- it's not me, you know? The work I do, that's, that's mine. Tearing up a city block-- why would anyone think that merits fans?

[She's had about a year to adjust to it, which probably helps.]

[Above all else, Annabeth just wants to be remembered. She wants permanence. And she can do that by making herself memorable. To leave an impression and stand out - which to be fair, she's probably well on her way towards at this point, with her signature all over Olympus alone, to start.]

[She sighs a little, but not in exasperation.] I'd hope it was your work. We all do things we might not be proud of, things that get attached to who we are - but you're right, he's not you. [A pause.] A fan club for something like that kind of sucks.

[Bruce likes making an effect. He likes accomplishing things, doing good-- real, measurable good that is not morally tenuous. Things like providing food and health care are ideas he can get behind, and if he has to be remembered for anything, if he has to be publicly acknowledged, he wants that to be it. He'd tried to find a way to induce radiation immunity, wanted that as his hallmark to the world.

Now he's being remembered for the opposite, and he loathes it.

Hearing her blatantly agree that the Hulk isn't him soothes him somewhat, used to having people argue with him on it as he is.] Sometimes they know me for that, too, but the giant green monster makes the news more often. [He can't help the note of sarcasm.] Doesn't help that at home, I haven't been-- been able to publish in years. Part of being a fugitive.

Fugitive? Why? [She can make assumptions, based on what she's gotten from him so far, but she doesn't want to do that in this case.]

Edited 2013-08-21 08:17 (UTC)

They want to make it a weapon. What's-- what's inside me. It was a one in a million chance, no, more, that the radiation I was exposed to resulted in this, and the U.S. military thinks it's the key to making the next batch of soldiers.

[The bitterness deepens and grows stronger with every word.]

[She frowns. She can't say it's all that a surprising reaction, given what she knows of the 'Hulk' already; weaponizing something that powerful and with that potential even makes sense from their standpoint.]

So you ran. [She can't say she blames him, and that comes out in her tone. But she knows what it's like to live on the run, too, even if it wasn't fugitive status so much as just being a runaway.] And they're determined to find you. [She sighs, not exactly pity, because she knows he wouldn't appreciate something like that - but maybe something sort of sympathetic.]

[It's true that he doesn't want pity, but this much he can accept.

He leans back in his chair, folding his arms, stoic.] Yeah. It's a... it's a mess. More complicated than you know. [He doesn't want to come out and say, Betty's father is obsessed with chasing me, and we made it together, all of us, I have to take part of the blame, it'll never end, but it all runs together in his head.]

I've never been able to stay in one place before, [he admits.]

At least no one here's after you. [Even if they seemingly know about his issue, which he'd probably not prefer.]

[But she won't really pry into the complications, either, since this much is still a lot. It's something she likes about her relationship with Bruce.] Feeling antsy? [It's partially rhetorical, a route to shift the subject if he's so inclined, but after so long on the run, maybe it's actually kind of nice for him.]

Edited 2013-08-22 07:25 (UTC)

[That's a huge bonus that isn't lost on Bruce, it's true.]

Not... antsy, exactly. [He's a little self-conscious to be discussing it, just flat out unused to being able to, but he approaches it with his usual level good humor.] I don't really like-- moving. But it's been a weird adjustment. I have a, a job I actually like and everything.

[He shakes his head.] It's all just, unbelievable.

[She grins a little.] Sounds like a good kind of weird, at least.

This place itself isn't too much a stretch, considering other places I've been. If anything, I'm more surprised the giant turtle's friendly. [Considering a giant turtle back home would probably sooner eat people than let them live on his back.]

Yeah. It's-- yeah. [A brief huff of laughter, as awkward as ever, like he's surprised to hear it come out.] It's good.

The, uh, the magic parts, and all of that, is a stretch. For me. But the people are-- [A slight shrug.] Pretty much the same as anywhere. Human or kedan, or whatever.

Science and magic kind of mix back home, but I can't even explain how, exactly.

Everyone's pretty adaptable here for the most part, human or otherwise.

Yeah, the, the explanation is sort of what I need. [A hint of a wry smile.] So far, looking for one on my own is... slow. [He won't stop trying, but it's laborious.]

Have you found anything substantial so far? I mean, I know you managed to make those PSDs, so that counts for something.

I'm not sure. Developing a body of theory has never been my thing, and with all the rules so inconsistent here, it's... like I can't trust which way is up.

But there's definitely something. It's almost like the nascent energy doesn't see a difference between magical threads and circuitry.

You think you know how something works here, then another thing comes along to change your mind. [s i g h]

Maybe it doesn't.

I don't think I know how anything works here, [he says in exasperation.]

Plausible, but what do we do with that? Cross-reference the laws of physics and the laws of magic and see where they overlap? If they overlap.

[She can't help grinning a little over that, despite the exasperation.] Pretty sure nobody does 100%. Not even the Emperor.

It's a start. Though, the laws of physics could be different from universe to universe, too. So where are we comparing it? [That's mostly a rhetorical-raising-the-issue question.]

Maybe she knows, but it doesn't help. There's always limitations. [He drums his fingertips on his desk, speculative.]

I could take a poll. Survey everyone. Whatever comes up most often, we can probably reasonably expect to be a near-universal truth. Gravity, for example. [He hopes gravity is a universal truth, or he's quitting.]

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