entrancelogs | ( semi-open ) love is a many splendored thing

[ To be perfectly honest, if Bruce had any interest at all, Martha would be just the kind of person he would like, and for someone who is virtually a stranger to him (it doesn't count if you see them on a TV show, right), he feels fairly comfortable around her. But it's too much, too complicated, and it's only fair that he's honest with her about it.

He's glad to see she takes it in stride, though. There's no reason at all why they can't get to know each other better still - maybe become friends. Part of him is beyond glad at the opportunity to have something like that with Martha Jones. ]

You could say I was a little curious too, just with a healthy amount of suspicion. [ For what or who he'd find there. Mostly he thought he'd find the person who'd sent him the note, whether it had been a joke or not. But he doesn't mind this outcome - actually he rather likes it, now he's faced with it. ] Good thing it was misplaced, though. I'm glad for a chance to talk to you too.

[They're more or less on the same page with this, then. Martha's at a point where she wouldn't actually be all that opposed to a relationship. Old wounds have healed and she's resigned to being here in Wonderland for quite some time.

She isn't necessarily on the lookout, though, and friends are much easier to deal with. The heartbreak's the same if someone leaves, unfortunately, but she won't let that stop her from befriending people. Especially when it's someone she finds as interesting as Dr. Banner, even just on a professional level.]

Well, how have things been since we last chatted? I was expecting to see you around the clinic. [She doesn't mean to reprimand him. If anything, she'd been worried, as he'd said he'd come by and it had never happened. No doubt an event got in the way, or he became busy with something else -- he doesn't seem like the type to make false promises.]

[ It's been a long road for Bruce in that aspect. For years he'd been alone, quite literally too, never creating bonds or even keeping acquaintances, let alone friends. During all that time he remembers people, but barely their faces. His jiu-jitsu and meditation instructor back in Brazil, probably one of the people he'd spent more time with, and on a regular basis, and Bruce can't even remember the man's name. And the guy didn't really know Bruce's name either.

So it's a process, this whole thing, something that took a while to adapt to. In many ways, he still is adapting, this whole socializing and keeping bonds with others, or even allowing them to exist. ]

I know... and I gave you my word too. I'm sorry. [ He gives her an apologetic look, even if he knows she didn't mention that with the intention of scolding him. ] The events took up some of my time, but I still plan to go there.

[Martha has never struggled to socialize or make friends, although she'd often kept to herself before she met the Doctor. Mainly due to the fact that her family and all of its associated drama tended to keep her busy, and she'd been focused on her studies. Traveling the stars had granted her the chance to meet various different kinds of people and aliens alike.

Which is why she hasn't balked too much at any of the people she's come across in Wonderland. Thus far, Bruce seems like he lists toward the more normal side of things, even if he does seem to be some kind of scientific genius.

They didn't have far to travel, and so Martha leads them into the dining hall as Bruce explains his absence. It's as she guessed, then.] It's fine. If you want, we can go there after we eat so you can take a look around and get a feel for things. [Maybe then he'll remember to come by more often.

Martha glances over her shoulder and winks at him.] Not exactly the most exciting date, but... [That's not what this is anyway, is it?]

Edited 2014-09-27 19:29 (UTC)

[ He does tend to look normal to just about anyone that meets him, and he's had the practice to go by unnoticed so far. It had been difficult at first, lacking the control so that the smallest of things would throw him off-balance, but now he has that, a tight grip on himself and the beast inside.

One wouldn't know from looking at him. He slips under the radar and that's how he likes it. At least for now - small and uncertain as this place is, it's only a matter of time until people do see a big green guy running around, he knows that. But he'll have to cross that bridge when he comes to it. ]

I'm fine with not exciting, actually. [ He flashes a brief grin at her. ] That sounds nice. And I promise, this time, I will drop by more often. I do want to help.

[It also depends on one's definition of exciting, doesn't it? Martha finds the medical field endlessly exciting, but she realizes most people wouldn't quite agree. Dr. Banner very well may, though.

Martha takes a seat at one of the long tables and in a matter of seconds, a plate with steak and potatoes appears in front of her. It's a good, hearty meal, though she waits for Bruce to "get" his food before she starts on it.]

And we can always use it. Granted, there are some days where we don't get a single patient, but certain events do their best to make up for that. [Even if no one comes in, though, there's work to do around the clinic. They have to make sure they're well supplied and see to it that the equipment is all in working order. Martha appreciates the routine and structure that it provides, in any case.]

[ Maybe not the exhilarating kind of exciting, but definitely interesting. Even though it's not his area of expertise, he still finds the medical field far from boring, as he knows Martha does.

He sits near her, and lacking any other ideas he follows her choice, getting himself a steak and french fries too, though with a fried egg added in. Nothing too fancy, but then again Bruce was never the kind. And frankly at some points in his life, getting this on his plate would be considered almost gourmet. ]

I thought as much. I mean, there's a lot of us here but not nearly enough for you to get patients every day. Which is a good thing, really - I can imagine the chaos if suddenly a virulent disease went around this place. [ And with a reduced number of doctors, it'd be all the worse. ] During the events usually, I take it you get injuries more commonly than diseases, yes?

[Dr. Banner brings up a topic that Martha's thought about plenty of times during her stay here. Not once has she had someone come to her with an actual illness. All she usually does here is stitch up cuts and set bones. It means that she's gotten very good at dealing with trauma and wounds, but she's probably gotten rusty when it comes to diagnosing a patient.]

I've never treated any illness here. Well, I did at one point give out injections for someone who had a preexisting condition, but no one has ever shown up with the sniffles or with a fever.

[Martha starts in on her potatoes as she reflects on just how relieved she is that she doesn't have that concern on top of everything else. Not that Wonderland doesn't find ways to break its own rules.] Of course, events can make people sick. That frontier event did a bang-up job of that, didn't it? [Martha frowns to herself as she considers how many people died from sicknesses on those wagons. It had all turned out fine in the end, yes, but she'd felt extremely helpless at the time, with no good supplies or tools to work with.]

Makes you wonder. [ He picks a few fries out of his plate and eats them thoughtfully, before reaching for his fork and knife to start eating the steak as well. ] I mean, who knows how this place works? Maybe people can't actually get sick - not outside of events, at least.

[ Or maybe they've just been lucky enough that no viruses carried on with someone being brought here, but with the hundreds, if not thousands of people that must've come here, the odds of that happening are slim to none.

He shakes his head a little at the mention of that particular event. ] That was a... special case, though. That's just the nature of the Oregon Trail, the whole dying of dysentery, cholera or measles. Also, as you probably noticed, how people got sick and died in the space of a few hours, no more than a day in some cases, and miraculously didn't contaminate anyone around them. [ Also coming back as ghosts. That had been fun too, and different. ]

[If they're thinking about the nature of disease, then they should all actually be getting more sick here than they do back home, since they've all been brought from different worlds. That's a variety of illnesses and most of the people here wouldn't be vaccinated against the ones that came from other worlds. Instead of some kind of epidemic, however, there's nothing at all. Wonderland must have seen to that.

The Oregon Trail had definitely been a special case, and if Martha thinks about it that way, she can't really blame herself for not being able to save people. Bruce does a good job of helping ease some of those worries.]

You're right, they weren't the sort of things anyone could really cure. Just a part of the "game." [She sets her utensils down to make those air quotes.] If anyone here has lived through some kind of outbreak, though, then we might at some point have to worry about a more serious spread of disease.

[Hopefully not, but it's definitely a possibility and therefore something they should try to prepare for.]

[ She can't, and she shouldn't. Even the supplies made available during that event were purposefully scarce, no matter her knowledge there was only so much she could do. In most cases, the best anyone could offer was a little comfort, and hope that the person wouldn't suffer too much through it all. ]

Think it would be worth a survey? [ He cuts up the meat in small pieces, helping himself while she speaks, and pausing to reply and continue the conversation. ] I know a while ago there was a questionary going around, but it was more... oriented towards the supernatural. It wouldn't harm to do one about diseases and outbreaks.

[ And they could try and keep an updated database of all the residents in Wonderland in that regard, with some basic information too. Of course he doesn't expect everyone to be cooperative, but it's a start to at least try. They could even try to ask for blood samples from a few potentially more interesting cases. ]

[Martha recalls that questionnaire, and it's one she had willingly answered. She has no idea how many other responses it got, but the idea is worth considering, at least.]

I don't know how many people will want to talk about some of the more unpleasant things they went through back home, but I suppose it's worth a shot. [If they agree to keep it all anonymous (at least to a point), then that might help people feel more comfortable with it.

She eats some of her steak and quite literally chews it over.] I could also keep some kind of log in the clinic that people could come fill out if they saw fit. [Or she could ask people to write in it when they happened to be there anyway. Regardless of what they end up doing, at least this is something else she can occupy her thoughts with.]

[ It's true, not everyone might be open to discuss some things they experienced, but in this case it's not so much about personal stories as it is about a medical record of sorts. Still personal, of course, but it's more focused on the kinds of viruses they've been exposed to, which of those were recent or not, something that could help them figure out if something more dangerous got carried over.

Because fair enough, Wonderland seems to have some kind of system in place that stops them from getting sick altogether, but as they've all learned one way or another, there's nothing sure about this place, nothing permanent. Today they're all fine, tomorrow their immune systems might all be put to the test, be it an event or something else. ]

That could work. We can come up with something, leave it at the clinic, and make an announcement about it maybe. And you can always fill those out for any visitors you get there, even if it's just to patch up a cut or ice a sprained ankle. [ People do tend to not oppose so much to answering these kinds of questions when they want to get help and treatment. He smiles a little apologetically at her after a moment, though. ] Sorry. Not very interesting dinner talk.

[Martha has come across patients who are very protective of their privacy, but others may be all too happy to share their medical history, at least the main points of it.] It would probably help if we can keep it semi-anonymous. I don't have any intentions of sharing specific details about someone's medical background anyway, but... [People are paranoid. As it is, Martha's had HIPAA laws drilled into her head so many times that she would never think to release that kind of information except in a broad, statistic-based way.

When Bruce apologizes, she laughs (closed-mouthed because she's got a bite of food she's chewing) and then shakes her head. Once she's swallowed, she speaks up.] I find it fascinating, actually. [If their conversations are always as productive as these first two have been, Martha's not about to complain.

She works on cutting up the rest of her steak and considers how to change the topic to something more casual.] Want to tell me a bit about yourself instead? All I know about you is the sort of thing you'd put on a résumé.

Edited 2014-10-22 16:39 (UTC)

[ He chuckles a bit, taking that moment to help himself to a few pieces of his steak and some chips, downing it all with a gulp from a sudden and conveniently filled glass nearby. ]

I don't doubt you do. [ He knows after all, he knew even before how much Martha likes being a doctor. This kind of thing he's sure she doesn't mind-- but that doesn't mean they can't talk about other things besides work. (It still counts as work, even in this place.) ]

Alright, well... I like sci-fi. [ He arches both his eyebrows, adding a small shrug as if unsure if that's relevant to what she was asking. It's not like he has a whole lot of ideas on how to answer that, even if he was the one to prompt the change of subject in a way. ] I practice jiu-jitsu, if that's worth mentioning?

[It's uncanny, the way that the first thing Bruce mentions about himself is that he enjoys science fiction. Just a coincidence, no doubt, but it does take Martha off-guard for a moment.

He then goes on to say that he practices a martial art, which is something else that they have in common. Whoever decided that they should spend a night together, even if it's just as friends... well, maybe they knew what they were doing.]

I practice t'ai chi. [She quirks a smile.] A friend of mine taught me here.

[As Martha moves her food around on her place, she considers whether she should tell him a bit more about herself. If he's a fan of stories about going into space, well, she's got plenty to tell him. They've become fast friends and it's hardly a secret, so what's the harm?] If you like sci-fi, I should tell you that I've actually traveled through space... and time. A bit. [She says it casually and then shrugs her shoulders before taking another bite of food.]

[ He knew that already, of course. But there's something about the way she delivers it, so casual, as if it's no special thing at all, that it catches him off-guard.

Which is a good thing, really. This way Bruce doesn't have to try too hard to pretend to be surprised. Though he still puts some extra effort on that, eyebrows arching upwards as he looks at her, eyes slightly wider. ]

... really? [ A healthy amount of shock and amazement, or at least he hopes. Then he offers a guess that really isn't a guess at all, but he tries to make it sound like it anyway. It's not a too far-off assumption after all. ] Friends with the Doctor?

[Bruce is shocked, but it's the sort of shock that indicates that he's been here for a while. Which Martha already knew, of course, but if he'd been a new arrival he might have fallen out of his chair. She can surmise that space travel isn't common where he's from, but he's heard stories from others here.

Which is something he admits to when he asks about the Doctor. Martha smiles instantly, because any mention of the Doctor usually inspires that in her.] That's right. I traveled with him for a while. Now I work for a military organization that handles alien threats.

[Though her role in it isn't very combat-based. Martha finishes off her plate of food and then glances up at Bruce again.] How do you know the Doctor?

[ To be fair, space isn't that distant a concept back home either. Even just his experience in New York would've been more than enough for him to be more open to hearing about something like this out of the blue, but knowing who Martha is, as well as having spent a good number of months in this place so far, does help quite a lot in that regard too. ]

I met him, when I first arrived. [ For a moment he has to pause, trying to remember how much the Doctor had told him, and how much had he learnt from watching the show. Had the Doctor himself ever told him he was an alien? He can't for the life of him remember. So he'll just go with the things he knows he told him for sure. ]

He mentioned that, the whole... space and time traveling. Also mentioned some bad guys he ran into - Daleks, Cybermen? I remember those two at least.

[It doesn't at all surprise Martha to hear that the Doctor's been making friends. That's more or less what he does when he's left to his own devices (and when he isn't feeling sorry for himself for one reason or another).

Martha smiles when Bruce mentions two of the Doctor's most common enemies. It's more the fact that Bruce remembers that inspires that, rather than any love she might have for those two species.

In fact, both of them are an absolute nightmare to deal with.] They tend to be the most persistent about giving him trouble, so that would make sense. We had the Weeping Angels here once, although that was my fault. [She pulls her mouth to the side and draws in a hissing breath, sheepish.] I think that was before your time here, though.

You had them here?

[ The surprise in both his voice and expression are impossible to hide, though immediately he curses himself for it. The Weeping Angels, though their form of attacking people was usually more passive than others, they were still... one of the most terrifying races he'd seen on that show. Probably the most. He still remembers his eyes lingering on every statue he walked past for days after he watched that one episode.

But he's not supposed to know that. He's supposed to be confused and ask what those are, but now it's a little too late. So... adapting. Pretending the Doctor mentioned those, and hoping that maybe, just maybe, Martha won't bring this up with him, or if she does he won't remember that he didn't in fact talk about those with Bruce. ]

Those are the... the moving statues, right? When you blink, or when you're not looking.

[Something here doesn't quite compute. If the Doctor had told Bruce about the Weeping Angels, wouldn't he have mentioned that they had been here in Wonderland once? Martha would think so, but the Doctor also has a way of getting carried away and flitting from topic to topic without following each point through, so it's possible he forgot.]

That's right. They can only move when they're not being viewed, but they move incredibly fast.

[Martha's second encounter with them here in Wonderland had gone well enough, in that she hadn't let them catch her this time around. But others hadn't been so lucky.]

Normally, they send people back in time, but here in Wonderland they drained out a person's life force, so people were aging decades in a matter of seconds.

[ Considering what he had to work with, it was his best option. After showing surprise he couldn't really act as if he hadn't heard of Weeping Angels before, but having been told they'd been here would mean he wouldn't act all that shocked. And well, she looks a little confused but makes no mention of it and just moves along, so he'll call it a win. ]

Alright, that's... a little more unfortunate.

[ No less complicated, but their usual MO didn't exactly kill their victims, so much as took them somewhere else where they still lived out their lives. Granted, they could be deadly if they wanted to, but that was in different circumstances.

Much like this is - a different circumstance. ]

Can't say I'm too shocked. We all know how events here work. If they didn't make things more difficult on us, then that's when I'd be surprised.

[Unfortunate isn't even a good word for it. It had been a horrible event to go through, but Martha had benefited from having previous experience. Others hadn't been so lucky, and that's something she still feels guilt over.

It's been months since that all happened, though, and the people here are nothing if not resilient. They have to put each event behind them in time for the next one to steamroll them.

So at Bruce's comment, Martha only nods and then watches as her dishes magically disappear. She swears, this place is going to make her lazy. Except for the part where she has to climb seven flights of stairs to her room, anyway.]

Are you finished? [She glances over at his mostly cleared plate.] We could head down to the clinic now, if you'd like.

[ Even distracted with the conversation, he still manages to eat in-between, not in any particular rush but keeping up with her all the same. He finishes the steak quickly, and by the time her plate disappears and she looks over at him, only a few fries still remain on his own.

With a nod he picks them up, taking a last drink from his cup before it all vanishes from the table too, then he starts standing up, eating those last fries before he answers. ]

All done. [ He waits until she's standing too, then gestures for her to lead the way. She knows it better than him, after all. ] After you.

( semi-open ) love is a many splendored thing

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