( open ) I toss and turn, I can't sleep at night

[hyperkinesia]

Who: Bruce Banner & YOU
Where: All around the mansion and the grounds
When: During the second half of August
Rating: PG13 for likely mentions of trauma and violence, will update if need be
Summary: Bruce slowly tries to cope with Wonderland, Ultron, Sokovia, and the mutant event. It doesn't always work well.
The Story:

[ Coping is a pretty word. But like a lot of complicated words, it's pretty on paper, with a clean cut description added at the front like a dictionary, explained just right. Here, this means that in the English language, and that's how it all works.

But it's not. Adapting words to reality makes it obvious just how some things can't be described with precision, how fallible language can be. Bruce finds himself at a loss as of late, lost between what he feels and what he thinks, what to do or say in face of the experiences he needs to work through.

By comparison, the mutant event really shouldn't have affected him that much. But then it does, because he was so put-together then, he had principles, a purpose, something he genuinely believed in and was willing to fight for. Now? Now he's back to normal. His normal, messed-up and lost self. Well— slightly better now, but does it make much of a difference? He's still completely out of sorts, and he doesn't mean just in Wonderland. He means in life overall. Like he doesn't entirely belong there, or anywhere.

He tries hard to cope, though. Just a pretty word, but he does. Mostly this means burying himself neck deep into science, work, whatever he can study in this place. When even that gets too frustrating and leads nowhere, he heads out for a walk around the mansion, tries to eat something— loses his appetite after a couple of bites but forces himself to finish anyway. Can't have him getting so hungry he'll lose his handle on himself.

The gardens are pretty but it all seems a little hollow to him, still he'll make his way there, sometimes walking one of the stray dogs currently being looked after by Sam and those who'd shown interest in helping. The beach is, by far, one of his favorite places, considering it's usually more deserted, and he finds himself the quietest and farthest spot to sit by himself, eyes fixed on the horizon.

In the meantime, he keeps an eye for familiar faces. People he knew during the mutant event, people he felt like he'd shaped a bond with. Some of them he does want to get to meet here, and the ones he'd had less than pleasant encounters with he also hopes to find. Even if there's one in particular he's keen on avoiding, but that's something to worry about later. Way later. ]

Comments

for Natasha

[hyperkinesia]

[ It's late in the night. Not too late, but definitely not early. Not the kind of hour one would be knocking at someone else's door— but here he is.

Bruce has spent the past few hours twisting and turning in bed, trying and failing to fall asleep. In fact he feels like he's been spending the past few weeks in that state, only managing to doze off when well and truly exhausted, and that's not a good thing. It's too risky, and he should've worried about that long before now.

The thing is, he doesn't know what to do. Exercises won't help him like they used to, mechanisms he used to follow obsessively to make himself fall asleep no longer produce any result. He's so tired at this point that even his eyes hurt, like the light burns holes through his pupils and straight into his brain.

And he's desperate enough that in a fit of fear and frustration and admitted neediness, he walks down the hallway and stops in front of Natasha's bedroom, in sweatpants and a sweater that look too loose on him, lifting a hand up and knocking on the door. The tapping of knuckles against wood is soft but loud in the dead silence of the hallway. It's like it wakes him up from some sort of hypnotic state, and immediately he regrets being here. Bothering her with his issues.

Once she opens the door, she might see him turning around and getting ready to walk back to his room again. ]

[determinedest]

[Frisk is in the garden. They have been picking flowers for the past hour or so, laid out a lovely array of multicolored blooms as if assembling a bouquet. They might be. Who knows? They've gathered together a clump of dandelions, contemplating whether they might make a chain out of them, when a man walks by with a dog.

The man is unfamiliar to them. He looks like an adult, which doesn't make them predisposed to call out. But the dog seems to have caught a glimpse of them, and they've never been one to resist the lure of a dog.

They draw out of hiding tentatively, hand extended for the dog to sniff. They keep their eyes downcast as they address either the dog or the man or both.]

Hello.

for Sharon

[hyperkinesia]

[ Bruce hasn't really caught up on sleep yet, he hasn't really gotten anywhere with coping with things either. Part of it may be because he's just unwilling to face things and instead keeps avoiding them, like that's gonna solve everything. He should know by now that time doesn't heal all wounds; some of them just sit there and fester until they're ugly and something he can never recover from.

Not that that stops him from ignoring them anyway. There are things he can do now, and those are the things he focuses on. He may not sleep much, but that just means he has to double his efforts to stay in control, which means a lot of meditation, a lot of training, a lot of exercise.

He's just thinking of going for a jog early in the morning when he remembers an offer he got not so long ago, and grabbing his phone, he sends out a text to Sharon before he even gets out of bed. ]

Hey. Up for a run?

Beach

[mypartnerintime]

[Max is feeling pretty bummed out about the event too, but for a different reason. She walks along the beach during her favorite time of day, when the sun is setting, camera held tightly in her hands.

If she was born in Genosha instead of Arcadia Bay... things would've gotten screwed up, too. Maybe in all the universes, all the Maxes just have screwed up lives... All the Maxes have to deal with their crazy unexplained power...

She's so lost in thought that she doesn't notice Bruce sitting near the shore until she's close enough to call out to him.]

Hey, uhh... Bruce. [Embarrassment creeps up her neck, coloring her cheeks pink in the light of the setting sun.]

idek but this is happening

[finewithhalf]

[He might come out to the beach because he wants privacy, but he doesn't own the place. After he settles, there's a teenager who closes in on him, sitting cross-legged in the sand and staring directly at him. She squints, glances toward the colors building at the edge of the horizon, and shifts slightly to her right.]

I'm gonna need you to not move for a minute.

[She opens a sketchbook without asking permission or introducing herself first. That would just waste time.]

[intelligently]

( It's while Lydia's walking her dog that she finds Bruce walking one of the strays. It's the first time since she'd talked to Sam that she'd seen anyone doing it, and hopefully that meant there were others doing it too. It's also the first time since Bruce had been back that she's seen him, though she knew he was back. And he was unlucky - he'd been, gone, returned, left again and then returned again, each time without memories of the last. Anyone that was here was unlucky but at least remembering people and what you'd done was something - memories turned out to be precious.

That was why she wasn't going to say much. He didn't remember anything he'd done, or anything they'd said. It could be awkward and uncomfortable having that happen. If he had to start fresh so would she )

Does this one have a name?

( There's possibly one called Peanut that might like to know him again too )

[blackbirdsing]

[ Sarah's been coping about as well as she can be with the mutant thing, and she wasn't even a mutant. She was a human, with a human brother, who happened to love a mutant. It couldn't have ended any way but badly, really.

The beach is a place where she feels the most like she can breathe, with the water and everything looking endless, like she could float away and get rid of this place - even though she knows she can't. She was doing okay, slept through a night, but then got over confident and that it was all behind her. She'd woken up twisted in her sheets and she's been at the beach ever since, knees drawn to her chest.

She does notice a man out of the corner of her eye, but she doesn't bother him to begin with. Upon a second glance, she does recognize him. She doesn't mean to frown in his general direction, but she remembers him from the whole sleeping curse thing. It sort of makes her wonder if he ever figured out a way to help people cope with the nightmares. Maybe it could help with them in general, if so.]