((OPEN)) Have you hugged your physicist today?

[hyperkinesia]

Who: Bruce Banner and YOU
Where: Library, kitchen, dining room, gardens, basement lab, etc. ANYWHERE.
When: From the 16th to the 19th, state your date!
Rating: I don't expect anything past PG
Summary: Bruce is seeking the comfort of simple physical contact. Arms brushing, hands holding, hugging, anything. It doesn't even matter if he knows you or if he's never seen you before. He craves for it so much he might not even notice he's doing it at first.
Note: I'm alright with both brackets and prose, pick your poison.
The Story:

[ It starts with nothing but a feeling, something itching at the far back of his mind, something that's entirely different from the kind of clawing and scratching he's normally used to. But he brushes it aside, he doesn't think much of it - not until he starts crossing paths with random people on the hallways and the gardens and finds himself reaching to touch strangers he's never even seen before.

Most times, he manages to draw back and rush away before actually doing anything. Other times he finds himself detouring just so he can brush his fingers against someone else's, or feel his arm bump lightly against theirs. But somehow it's only when he's alone that he starts to fully realize that something's happening. The mind is quick to make the association, though knowing that this might very well be one of these events doesn't really help him in stopping this craving for touch from happening.

So instead he starts seeking solitude. He hides in corners of the library, and he uses the kitchen and the dining room when there's no one else around. The rest of the time, he retreats to the lab and stays there, surrounded by what's as close to familiarity as he can get, and at least there if someone approaches him, it's people he's more comfortable with. Relatively speaking. ]

Comments

[seekinghome]

Ed twitches slightly, not expecting to be touched but doesn't comment. "Well, right now I'm taking a break from some of the more advanced stuff--" Examples of which can be found piled on the table. "--in favor of working on Latin a bit. Not that I don't already know some, but I should probably learn more, especially if I'm going to be learning some other stuff from a couple of the people here."

[hyperkinesia]

Somehow the slight twitch flies right over his head, and since Ed doesn't say anything to his hand, Bruce leaves it there. It's a relief, honestly, even if it's a touch that's barely there. He tilts his head curiously, eyes glancing over the other titles before he looks into the open pages as well. "Latin? What do you need it for here, if I can ask?"

[seekinghome]

"Ellen offered to teach me hunter stuff. That being the variety that involves demons and other monsters, rather than the kind that involves killing animals for food. I already know how to do that one. Some of what's done involves a verbal component." Ed isn't sure how much he'd be using what he's learning, but given the events here, he wouldn't be surprised if it comes in very handy.

[hyperkinesia]

"Ah yeah, I was told there's demons here," not that he doesn't believe it, but he does sound a little skeptical about it. He hasn't met any of them yet anyway, not that he knows of.

"And latin's used for that? --can I?" He gestures at the chair next to Ed's.

[seekinghome]

"Yeah, I met one. He behaved well enough before he decided to start poking buttons; at which point, my brother evicted him from our room." He nods as he talks.

"Go ahead. Apparently, a lot of the symbolism that's used in alchemy is also used in hunting, so I've got some grounding already, it looks like. I'm not sure how much is the same between my world and theirs though. Anyway, I'm assuming that at least part of the verbal component is in the form of exorcisms."

It feels so weird to be talking about doing such a thing seriously. What has his life become?

[hyperkinesia]

Weird. Can they even use that word here? The whole place is as far from normal as one can get, to just about anyone who's been dragged in here, he's sure.

"Must be." He sits down, standing close enough to Ed that their arms brush every once in a while, but not so near it gets too strange. Hopefully. "All I really know of that is from movies, TV shows... exorcism's not a real thing where I'm from, then again-- neither is alchemy, not as a science at least."

[seekinghome]

"Alchemy kinda doesn't work on Earth. At least, not the way it works at home. There may be variations of Earth where it works although probably differently." Ed takes a moment to stretch, having been seated in the same position too long.

"There's more to alchemy then just using it to make gold, but that's what people way back when on Earth were obsessed with." He rolls his eyes. "Plenty of actually useful things to do with it."

[hyperkinesia]

"Makes sense, if you have different universes. You can never be too sure what's possible or not in other versions of Earth, especially after what we've seen here."

He takes the open book and pulls it a little closer, glancing over the text. "People are people in that aspect. Money, wealth, power... people will be greedy here, there or anywhere."

[seekinghome]

"Yeah, but too many people making it, makes the value of gold go down because it's no longer rare, leaving them back where they're started. But with more useless crap laying around."

Ed brushes his bangs out of his face. "Which is why it's illegal back home. The government would like for the economy to not go to shit."

[hyperkinesia]

"Seems like an easy enough concept to grasp. And yet there are always those who don't."

He leafs through a few pages. "So what kind of symbols would even be used for both alchemy and exorcisms?"

[seekinghome]

"Hunting in general, actually. I don't know what all would be used for both, but at a guess, I'd say the ones for death and maybe life. Various substances like salt and silver."

[hyperkinesia]

"Hunting, right. Because there's more... more than just demons, I'm assuming." It's a safe bet. Between that and angels, anything else isn't that much of a stretch. "Guess I should start carrying a little bag of salt with me."

[seekinghome]

"Oh yeah. Dunno what all and not sure I want to know." He pauses thoughtfully for a moment. "Do know that one things that exists in that world are zombies, given advice I was given on dealing with the things as a result of talking about a past event."

[hyperkinesia]

"I'd say the same, if it weren't for the worry they could very well be walking around this place." His eyebrows arch slightly. "I mean, between that and demons, nothing seems too farfetched. Vampires, werewolves, ghosts even..."

[seekinghome]

"Provided they behave, we shouldn't need to worry too much, outside of events fucking with them, anyway. I mean, given the whole 'people coming back' thing, it's not like killing them would do anything permanent."

Ed twitches a bit. "The Devil's Trap is staying on my floor when this is over though. No reason to not take precautions."

[hyperkinesia]

"Behaving is the key here. These kinds of creatures are no more than fiction where I come from, still more often than not they don't really care that much about others."

It does happen in some cases, fair enough, with vampires or werewolves. But demons he can't really remember any nice ones.

"Devil's Trap, really? That's a thing."

[seekinghome]

"In the world a bunch of people here are from, yeah. Of course, demons are real there, so they kinda need something to use against them."

Okay, he should probably respond to the first thing, before he got distracted by the second. "They aren't real where I'm from either. And I didn't say that they'd necessarily care what we think of them. But it's not like they can just leave once they've finished with their mayhem to avoid retaliation. Not to mention, if they kill anyone, the victim will come back to life and be able to announce who got them. So it's in their own best interest to not piss off too many people."