It just seems that upstream I keep rowing

[dayswithoutincident]

Manage your expectations. It's a simple enough concept, but one a lot of people struggle with, and Bruce Banner is no exception. There's a trick to it, of stepping apart from yourself and finding true objectivity, of having the strength to recognize your own weaknesses and strengths.

What Bruce hadn't realized until recently, however, was that when it came to his own life, expectations involving any degree of reasonable normalcy were so far removed that they might as well have been on another planet. Another planet in another universe, actually, but only if it was one about fifty trillion lightyears away and at least ten thousand years from producing anything resembling intelligent life.

At this point, Bruce isn't sure what reasonable expectations for the average person would even consist of, but he's pretty sure he can rule out accidentally tripping through wormholes to alternate dimensions. What he's also sure of is that it says a lot about him (and how much time he's been spending with Stark) that it hadn't shocked him much to step out of his bathroom and find himself at Pocket Universe Inn. He has colleagues who use robotic suits and giant hammers to fly; it's probably past time to redefine what 'normal' means.

Not that it didn't occur to him that he should probably be a little worried about the whole benevolent way station vibe of the place. There's apparently some kind of celestial philanthropist of unknown motive providing his room and board, but overall it's calm and quiet, and there are dozens of ways out. He hopes it doesn't come to it, but if all else fails, he can take a running leap into the abyss. It's more than he can say for where he came from.

This is his third day, and he's still deep in the thrall of new discovery, a quiet figure skirting awkwardly around other guests on his way outside. On the lawn he pauses, face upturned like a child. The view of the sky is still breathtaking, the infinite cosmos bending around their little island like a stream parting over a stone.

Comments

[shes_biochem]

Simmons has come to realise that she only unearths herself from her room and Fitz for the basic necessities and that's absolutely no way to live. She needs to find some sort of life-work balance again that doesn't consist of her spending every moment with Fitz wondering if she can somehow speed along his recovery against all odds. She's always liked standing on the lawn and looking up into the universe, finding it as troubling as it is soothing.

Today, though, it also comes with a familiar face.

It's also one that's always made her a bit wary. She'd always been glad to not be of a level where she would run tests on Dr. Banner, given the reputation the man has. The only trouble is, for all her fears, there's also fascination and a desperate desire to talk science with him and right now, she's too tired to be sensibly cautious. "Isn't it amazing?" she says, perhaps a bit eager. "I tried mapping out some of the galaxies, when I first arrived, but I don't know that they're any I've ever read about in books or online, before. It's only a shame I can't name them."

[nebaritralk]

"'s what I like best about this place," Chiana confirms as she walks up to the guy's side - human, she keeps hoping, although she isn't sure she wouldn't welcome a Sebacean at this stage, if only because they would know what she is. Not stare. Glare judgmentally, sure, especially if they were a Peacekeeper, but she's beginning to think it would be a small price to pay for some familiarity.

"Also what I hate best about it," she adds, looking up at the cosmos stretching above them. So many stars, and she is stuck here. Wouldn't you hate it as well.

[morethanhuman]

Familiar faces were getting more and more common around the hotel, so much so that Erik was hardly surprised by them anymore. But this face was at least something of a pleasant surprise; someone he knew who had no reason to hate the sight of him. There had been precious few people he'd considered friends aboard the Proserpina, but Banner's dry humor and unassuming personality had made Erik like the scientist in spite of himself— enough to startle a greeting out of him before he'd thought it through.

"Banner," he said with a little nod, earning a startled look that quickly turned bemused. Damn. If he'd paused to think, he'd have reminded himself there was no guarantee this was the same Banner he'd been trapped in space with, but now it was too late to do anything but stand there awkwardly and wait for a reply.

[iron_y]

After the first mysterious doorway he'd been through had disappeared before he could show it to Pepper, when another one showed up just as mysteriously, Tony viewed it with a jaundiced eye. He had better things to do. He had Extremis experiments to run, research to conduct and developments to develop, Pepper to keep happy, Happy to visit in the hospital... Not to mention a certain director of SHIELD to bug -- not with literal bugs, though it might come to that, but Tony had started off by being annoying and persistent with his questions about Coulson, and he thought he was making progress.

Which was pretty damn interesting, he had to admit.

His inquiries into HYDRA were far more discreet, but just as interesting.

So he wasn't ignoring the hotel. It was too useful for that. But he wasn't running through the hallways rubbernecking at the dinosaurs either. He'd sent a few robots through with orders to roam and report, set up some sensors and a few dozen Jarvis-controlled weapons pointed at that door just in case -- And then he let it be.

Oh, he went through one time just to say he had, and one time to rescue Dummy from the maze, and one time because he wanted an ice cream sandwich from the hotel bistro, but mostly he was just too busy for mysterious doorways. The data from the sensors piled up, Dummy seemed to enjoy the outings to the other side of the doorway, but Fury was starting to crack, so he had to redouble his attention in that direction --

But sometimes, late at night, Tony found himself staring at that particular door, especially when the Extremis experiments weren't going well. Thinking about threats and opportunities. Excitement, and fear. And tonight it was just too much.

"I'll be back in a few hours," Tony said to Jarvis, pushing away the 3-D display of the genetic model he'd been working on. That brought the real contents of his workbench into sight -- a bunch of repulsors he'd been tinkering with, and some structural pieces from a new suit. Or a new something. Maybe not a suit, exactly. He grabbed them all, a vague plan for what to do with them already forming, and hurried through the door before he changed his mind.

He wasn't sure if he was proving something, or just looking for a bit of fun. And he wasn't expecting to find Bruce Banner out on the grounds staring at the sky.

"Hey," he said to Bruce, and tossed one of the inactive repulsors at Bruce to see if he'd catch it. "Heads up!" It was a friendly test, really. A moment later, it occurred to him that Bruce might not know him yet -- Loki hadn't. But when he played that conversation through in his mind, he just wasn't interested in discussing space and time and all the things he didn't know about the nexus, not even with Bruce.

"I'm going flying," he said conversationally, instead. On impulse he tossed another repulsor in a high trajectory and watched its perfect parabola toward Bruce's head with a smug smile. The first one had been the warning, and this one was slow; Bruce could hardly miss it. "Want to come?"

If this was some past version of Bruce, well, Bruce was smart. He'd figure it out. "And by the way, 'no' is not an acceptable answer. It'll be fun."