ArchivedLogs:Form

Form
Dramatis Personae Bruce, Hulk, Rasa
In Absentia	2016-02-07 "Well... there's only one of me."
Location <NYC> Harbor Commons - Courtyard - Lower East Side
This courtyard is the lush central hub of the surrounding Harbor Commons, bound in on three sides by rows of duplexes and triplexes, cutting upward at the sky with the sharp thrift of a minimalist's style, neat lines and bountiful windows, boldened with accents in wood towards the upper stories, stone towards the base, the whole of the compound sealed in by a low stoneworked wall that opens entrance gates to the streets beyond at its two far corners, smaller gates at building back doors. The fourth side of the courtyard is open to the East River, the ground forming a slight decline, controlled on one side by micro-retaining walls to form wide steps where picnic tables sit beneath the nominative shelter of a trio of dogwood trees, accessible by ramp. The other side is allowed to slope at its natural angle, a wide open yard space, until its cut off at the river's edge, where a massive pair of oak trees stand, a staircase leading away up one of their thick trunks. The yard itself is carpeted in an organic flow of emerald grass swirled through with wending channels of smooth-paved cement walkways, flowing naturally away from the building's front entrances, where some are arced by trellis, some flanked by hosta plants, fern and lilies, a few laid in gentle switch-backing ramps for wheelchair access, before forking off at matching angles to sites of small garden installments. Bird feeders and baths suspended from the necks of small lamp posts, a rock-lined koi pond, a sleek gazebo tucked to one side in simplistic varnished wood, its southern side overgrown with a mass of thriving grapevine and a caged-in barbecue pit under its sheltering roof. A play area and proper garden are within sight off another branch, until finally all paths spiral in like wheel spokes to a shared common house at the center of all traffic flow. The sunny afternoon starts to disappear behind the artificial horizon with the city's artificial horizon and Rasa comes wandering back into the commons. Ze has a bag slung over one shoulder and another strapped to hir back, the handle of one of hir axes peeking out of the back. While still partially dwelling in the past apocalypse, ze is moving on, starting to wear colors again. Ze has blue knit leg warmers over neon pink leggings. A tulle tutu peeks out under a striped skirt, a mid temperature winter coat over the top. Ze shuffles into the commons, glancing around before heading toward the stairs up to the tree house and planting hirself in a sitting position. Ze pulls a small cigar out of a pocket in hir coat and lights it, watching the glowing embers flare up as ze puffs. Down by the riverside there is movement--an immense green shape lumbers up the embankment, partially hidden still by the curve of one of Treehaus's trunks. The Hulk freezes when they see Rasa, green eyes wide and uncertain. They hold an easel in one massive hand and an enormous marker in the other, and for a moment look like they don't know quite what to do with these items. Finally, they back away behind a tree standing beside the river, which can in no way conceal their bulk. "WHO YOU?" The question is--not /shouted/, exactly, but the lungs behind the voice are huge and the sound stentorian. Rasa slowly shrugging hir bags off hir shoulders as ze settles in to relax, the cigar not requiring much to keep it lit now. Ze inhales the thick smoke around it, eyes half lidded, amber reflecting the orange glow. Hir skin is covered in white feathery hairs and iridescent scales, the bulk of this fur causing hir clothing to look more filled out, while a mop of pale peach and white hair takes the place of a hat over hir scalp and ears. Ze doesn't really register much of the lumbering until the Hulk comes around into hir peripheral vision. Hir spine stiffens as turns hir head to look him over, head tilting. "Rasa." Ze gulps hard and pulls the cigar away. "Fuck. Who are you?" "ME HULK," replies the green titan, edging out from behind the tree. "HULK DRAWING THE RIVER. PRETTY. SHINY. WHAT YOU DO?" They're peering at Rasa's cigar and the smoke rising from it, brows furrowing with concern. "YOUR STICK IS ON FIRE." "... Drawing the river?" Rasa moves slowly, getting to hir feet and facing the behemoth. Ze pauses as ze looks at the marker and the easel and is ... stunned into silence. Eventually, ze finds hir voice. "It's not a stick. It's a bunch of leaves that have been dried and rolled up purposefully to be on fire. They smell good. The smoke is tasty. Are you really drawing the river? Like... that's what you do... on a Saturday afternoon?" "SMOKE TASTY?" Hulk's dense, bushy eyebrows raise up high. "YOU EAT SMOKE?" Despite the volume, their question does not sound all that /incredulous/ as merely curious. "HULK DRAW RIVER. RIVER NICE." They turn the easel around to show Rasa a stark line drawing that seems too simple to be /anything/, really, but somehow does convey the sense of sluggish water moving past jagged rocks. "HULK DRAW....NOW. SATURDAY NOW." They hold out the easel. "YOU WANT DRAW, TOO?" "No. I just inhale it. It does still... taste because I breathe through my mouth... I can't believe that we're talking about this," the last part is quiet and muttered mostly to hirself. Rasa brings the cigar to hir lips and demonstrates, pulling in some of the smoke and the blowing it out a moment later. "No. I don't want to draw. I... want to talk, if that's okay." "BREATHING SMOKE HURTS!" Hulk straightens up, only a little alarmed--after all, Rasa does not appear to be coughing up any lungs or dying of asphyxiation. "YOU NOT HURT?" Puzzled. Then, even more puzzled. "WE TALK NOW. ALREADY. CAN TALK MORE." Rasa draws in a breath full of regular air and then turns to stub out the cigar, "Look, I'll put it out so we can stop talking about it." Ze wets hir lips and places the extinguished cigar on the stairs next to hir bags. Ze straightens up. "So. Um. We have met before. In the summer. In Central park. There were cops?" Ze considers for a moment, lips pressed tightly together, wrinkles shifting the scales on hir forehead. "Oh. I looked different. Do you want to see?" Hulk does not look visibly /less/ confused at Rasa extinguishing the cigar, but they do not ask any further questions about it. "HULK NOT LIKE /COPS/. THEY USE LOUD THINGS, HURT HULK." They narrow their eyes and study Rasa, taking a couple of lumbering steps forward. "NOT REMEMBER YOU. SHOW HULK, HOW LOOK DIFFERENT." "Yeah, Cops are assholes." Rasa agrees, stripping off hir coat and leaving it with hir stuff. Hir fur starts to shorten and takes on a blue tinge. Ze slips out of hir boots, letting hir bare feet, still scaled in pseudo-chitin. Ze lowers hirself a little, reaching back to divide the layers of clothing ze is wearing to let hir tail swing free. Ze wets hir lips and looks up at Hulk, hir eyes golden now. "Is this more familiar?" Hulk watches Rasa's transformation, wide-eyed. Eventually (before the change is even complete), they tilt their head, the light of recognition coming into their eyes. "HULK REMEMBERS NOW. YOU HIT THE COPS. THEY HIT YOU." They lean forward and look more closely at the metamorph. "THEY NOT HURT YOU? WITH LOUD THINGS?" "Sometimes," Rasa replies, a bitter tone in the back of hir throat, "If you don't move... the cops don't shoot guns... the loud things." Ze straightens up and wraps hir arms around hir chest. "They hurt me in other ways. Told everyone about me. Lost my place in school. Nothing... that won't heal. People will forget. I'll ... school later." Ze looks up and makes eye contact with the large Hulk. Hulk growls suddenly. "HULK NOT MOVE!" This does come out in a roar as they slam a massive fist into the ground, the impact reverberating and causing a small cascade of stones down the riverbank behind them. "HULK NOT DO ANYTHING, THEY STILL HURT HULK!" They seem to calm a little after this, though still scowling. "SCHOOL...HULK NOT KNOW SCHOOL. YOU NEED SCHOOL?" When Hulk roars and pounds the ground, Rasa jumps back and out of the way, landing on all four limbs and watching Hulk carefully, hir eyes wide as saucers. "I know! I was yelling at them not to. Dumb fuckers wouldn't listen." Hir tail snaps to and fro with agitation. Ze stays low and mobile, still tense even though Hulk seems to calm. "It's a place... where you learn more stuff to get a job. Make money. Pay for home... food. School is... helpful, but not necessary." Hulk actually lowers their voice after Rasa leaps back--as low as they can probably manage without whispering. "You said if Hulk not move, they not shoot. Not true. Cops bad." Their shoulders hunch inward and they crouch down until they're almost sitting--still taller than the average human by a head and thrice as wide. "Oh. Hulk friends, have school. Have job. Hulk not have school. Learn stuff from friends." "I said... sometimes. Sometimes means that it is not always helpful. Sometimes cops just shoot when they are scared. They like to shoot at things bigger than them. Scary. I stayed small. Did not fight. Looked weak, even though I am not." Rasa's response loses steam, hir attention drifting away from Hulk, licking at hir lips. "Yeah. Yeah, learn from friends. I will just read all of B's books and talk to hir about things. I can... learn that way. Maybe." "Hulk can't stay small," Hulk mumbles. "Always big." Then, head tilting, considering. "HULK HAS A FRIEND. HE SMART. YOU CAN TALK TO HIM AND LEARN THINGS." They set down the easel and the marker, sitting down cross-legged. For a moment nothing happens--then, quite abruptly, their form fluctuates and starts shrinking, the color of their skin fading from rich leaf green to a slightly sickly olive. The transformation leaves one Bruce Banner, wearing only the (extremely elastic, evidently) purple athletic shorts Hulk had worn. He blinks, swaying in place and holding himself up with a hand braced against the ground and the other clutching his head. "Dear sweet Guan-yin that feels awful." He looks around, squinting in Rasa's general direction. "Uh. Hi." Rasa moves in close when the Hulk begins to fade away, leaving only the somewhat shrunken form of Bruce Banner. Ze moves in closer and sits down cross legged in front of him, ignoring the cold nature of the ground for now. Ze rests hir hands on hir knees as ze stares him down, considering. "I never seem to mind, but then again, you and I are not the same. You got a name? You need mine?" Bruce frowns, hand still tangled in his mop of wavy black hair, though he ceases squinting once Rasa moves closer. "Me? I'm ah, Bruce Banner. I don't.../need/ your name, but isn't that how introductions usually go...?" Brows furrowing deeper again, he studies Rasa more closely. "Wait. I know you, don't I. Head...isn't at its best." "It wasn't really a question ... well, it wasn't well phrased. It was more to determine if you remember what he knows. Hulk." Rasa considers, still studying the new guy's face. "M'name's Rasa. Rasa Djalili. And yeah. You know of me. We've run into each other a couple times." Ze wets hir lips again, fidgeting and staring him down. "I only look like this to help the other guy remember. Not my usual winter look." "Oh, no...I don't. Remember what--" Bruce shakes his head, finally disentangling his fingers from his hair. "Apologies, I'm not really used to talking about Hulk. Not a lot of people know. About us. Being us." His eyes narrow further. "I'm afraid I still don't remember you exactly where I've--/oh!/" His brown eyes snap open wide. "Oh. You were at the park that day." "And in the coffee shop a little while after. You ran away." Rasa reaches back and scrubs a hand against the back of her neck. "Not... going to run away again, are you?" Ze wrinkles hir nose. "I can fill in details if you need them. Watched you change twice now." Ze knits hir fingers together in hir lap. "Not a stranger to changing either. If... that helps." Ze inhales and stretches hir neck, the fur around hir face paling back to a white-peach shade, hir scales forming. Bruce nods. "I remember now, yes. And no, no I..." He looks down, running his hand through his hair again. "Even if I wanted to run, I haven't got the strength to right now. But I don't. Want to. Run." He sits up straighter and watches Rasa change. "That looks a lot more nuanced than...what we do. What happened at the park--what /usually/ happens--is entirely outside our control." He sighs heavily. "Even so, you have my sincerest apologies for having put you in danger. And legal trouble." "Well... there's only one of me." Rasa gnaws on hir lip as ze gets comfortable, hir feet taking on extra layers of fluff now to protect them from the ground. "I have seen what you do... before. I just - well, that guy is terrifying. Hulk seems to be more of a force of nature. I actually have no idea whether that - did you know he was drawing the river? That's just - I can't get past it. Huge, green guy making pretty pictures of nature." Ze shakes hir head and lifts a hand to rub at hir nose. "Ah. I, uh, appreciate the apology, but after much thought and mulling it over, and in the end, I don't know if there's anything I would change. I'd still tackle the police officer. I'd still accept the arrest afterward. It's just... what and who I am." "Hulk is...somewhat like a child--not exactly, but close enough." Bruce scrubs the back of his knuckles over his chin. "Which, don't get me wrong, /is/ terrifying, because he's like a child with the strength of...honestly, I don't even know the full extent of his strength. I'm pretty sure he doesn't either." He looks at the easel, tracing the line of the river's edge with his fingertips as if doing so would help him remember. "I should /thank/ you, really. If you hadn't intervened...he might well have killed that officer. It was a brave and selfless thing you did." "I... Am not fully sure I did it for the police officer. I don't have a whole lot of compassion for people who continue to make a situation worse by shooting at someone. I ... I did it for you -- for him." Rasa glances at the picture as ze gets to hir feet and begins gathering up hir things, coat first, then bags, sliding hir feet into hir boots when ze is in danger of being lopsided. "Didn't want that on either of your consciences. We freaks have to stick together, you know, even when we're having a bad day." "I wasn't thanking you on the officer's behalf." Bruce smiles for the first time, if a shallow and rueful smile. "I'm constantly terrified he's going to hurt someone. I don't think he'd want to; I certainly don't. But you're right." He nods. "So if you need help--look me up. I work at Stark Industries, we have a very thorough and very solicitous directory."