05 ☣ TEXT & VOICE;

[angermanaging]

Looking to gather some info. Please respond with succinct list of what you would consider unalterable laws of reality in your home dimension, e.g. gravity, conservation of mass, particular laws of magic.

Will attempt to compile results into meaningful commonalities across dimensions. Maybe there's a universal law somewhere.

Would prefer text response if possible. Thanks.

B. Banner

[The message is then repeated in audio, if preceded by Bruce clearing his throat, for those that can't read English.]


[Voice | 60% encrypted to castmates & established CR.]

Finally got fed up with everyone talking over my head and made a trade to see my future.

[A beat.

In utter, dry exasperation,] You're all nuts. What kind of teamwork was that?

[ooc: Bruce is now post-Avengers! If you're not sure if you're established CR, ping me and I'll let you know if they're included, but feel free to play fast and loose.]

Comments

[angermanaging]

[That surprises him for a second, just because it's information he doesn't know. But he consciously doesn't share that Tony-- this Tony-- has mentioned wanting to do it himself, not someone that ever distributes someone else's information.]

You get pushed into a pool, and then it's like a... very real dream where you're watching yourself walk around and have these things happen to you. [He realizes a moment later that he's never actually asked her this, it being largely irrelevant before, and adds,] Is that when you're from? After the invasion?

[the_other_eight]

[The concept sounds honestly frightening. She isn't like the people she's surrounded by. Pepper is and has always been simply a human being. Humans are generally born and live with a fear of death and the things that could kill them. Being pushed into a pool of water to drown in your own future ... to do that seems either very brave or very desperate.

When he mentions the invasion she looks down, nodding.]

I was on my way back to New York when the invasion itself happened. He'd dropped you off the day before I got back. [Meaning there was now only a day between them.

She'd only had a day with him before they dragged her here. Now he barely trusted her, didn't even believe she was who she said she was.]

Is it worth it? [Is the price worth what you see deep inside that pool?]

[angermanaging]

[Bruce doesn't think of it as desperate. It was a simple practical choice, maybe somewhat distasteful in execution, but far, far better than many others he's had to make. In comparison, it was a walk in the park to the rest of the past ten years. He's frightened only by very specific things, and that wasn't one of them.

A large piece of that is fatalism rather than fearlessness, but Bruce still doesn't flinch.]

Worth it? Yeah. [A slight shrug, indicating his acceptance.] I'd always rather know than not know, [he says simply.] Sometimes that bites me. Seemed to work out this time.

It's nice to be on the same page as you-- as everyone.

[the_other_eight]

[Pepper makes a slight face at Bruce's comment. She's not on the same page as they are. She's not a person who can fight an alien invasion or someone who can negate their and her existence in a single sentence. She's just Pepper.

In the pause she thinks about her theory and thinks about sharing it with Bruce. She's not a scientist though, and if Tony didn't find it viable then why would Bruce. So instead she just offers him another slightly hollow smile.]

I'm glad it helped then.

[angermanaging]

[He's never considered the ability to fight those things an asset, and in all truth is, secretly, envious of those who are able to live a normal existence, free of those choices and those burdens. There's nothing just about being Pepper or anyone else, not to Bruce.

It's not like her to be that terse, or that insincere in her smiles. Bruce pauses, makes the evaluation on whether or not to inquire.]

Everything alright? [he asks finally.]