Open Lab Log

[angermanaging]

Characters: Bruce Banner, a bunch of teenage boys that agreed to help, and anyone that would potentially stop in.
Date: BACKDATED to a variety of dates over the past two weeks. We're playing fast and loose with the timeline here.
Location: Stark Industries in Fire sector.
Situation: Bruce got several volunteers to help set up the proposal for the hydroponic garden, and presumably they'd all run into each other at some point. Presumably, also, some people that know him would like to stop in and make sure he hasn't actually moved into his lab, with the amount of time he spends there. (He hasn't.) Feel free to make your own thread starts and tag around to anyone!!
Warnings/Rating: None.

Comments

[tendnottoweep]

[ Natasha might just be dropping in to check their security and refresh herself on the layout of the building, but she does stop by to say hello to Bruce while she's here. They haven't actually met in person, and it seems like a good place for it, on his own ground where he's relatively comfortable. She pauses in the doorway, rapping her knuckles lightly on the doorframe to alert him to her presence. ]

Mind if I come in, Dr. Banner?

YES I was so excited about this tag!

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[He looks up immediately, and is faintly surprised.] --Yeah, sure.

[He shifts on his stool to face her and slides the glasses off of his face, a sure sign that he's giving her his attention and not his work. Bruce doesn't ever feel threatened, exactly, because how could he, but he admits he's intrigued and slightly wary of Natasha. He doesn't understand the relationship they have in the future, and she works for everything he detests, but. There's something about how readily she returns his subtle extra layers of conversation that makes her interesting to talk to, and if they're on a team together then he should probably get more comfortable with her.

Not that Bruce says any of this. She just gets a politely interested look.] How are you doing? It's been a while.

:D I AM SO HAPPY TO HEAR THAT.

[tendnottoweep]

[ Natasha smiles and steps inside, moving toward him until she reaches the edge of his workbench, where she pauses, studying the contents for a moment before turning her attention back to Bruce. ] I've been... laying low. Waiting on something I've been working on, which is more of my job than you'd think. I see you've been keeping busy.

I was literally thinking that we needed to do another thread.

[angermanaging]

[At the moment his lab table is covered in bits of tubing and valves, in what looks like an elaborating piping system in the middle of the planning stages.]

No, I can, uh, appreciate how much waiting you have to do. [He has more than enough experience ducking surveillance to understand how much patience it takes.]

I've been trying to lay low myself, but I need information, and that requires... leaving my hermitage. [A slight, self-mocking smile, given in good humor.]

[tendnottoweep]

[ Natasha smirks quietly - it doesn't surprise her that Bruce has experience with surveillance from the other side of things. ]

Anything I can help with? The information?

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There's so much to investigate that I've just been... been picking one thing to focus on at a time.

I might ask, have you spoken to the Emperor? Or any of her... people. [Bruce himself is still reluctant to approach anyone official, because it's antithetical to staying under the radar. His innate suspicion of any government trying to use him for their own purposes extends to Keeliai's.]

[tendnottoweep]

[ She shakes her head, lips pursed. ] I've been trying to stay under her radar, so I've mostly left that to the Captain. Commander Evandau and I had... a conversation, but it wasn't productive. [ Because she'd just been arrested. And was trying to decide if she should blame him for Clint or not. Really, it's a miracle no blood was shed. ]

[angermanaging]

I haven't been eager to speak with anyone, either, but it does seem like the most obvious resource. I've heard that others have gotten things out of her if they approach it right.

[Bruce doesn't sound all that hopeful or encouraging, but he rarely sounds that way to start with.]

I'm getting some conclusions on my own, in testing, but it's-- it's slow.

[tendnottoweep]

[ She tilts her head, a gesture carefully calculated to display innocent curiosity. It's not intentional in Bruce's case, just habit for Natasha, and it shows in the fact that her tone doesn't change - still low and honest, rather than the higher pitch she tends to use when she's playing someone. ] What're you thinking?

[angermanaging]

[There's a long pause as he thinks it over. Bruce isn't someone that shares his theories readily; he's too used to working alone. But he really has no reason not to share here, and he's been consistent about advocating open sharing of information about their situation since he arrived. He just needs a second to put it together in his head.]

I think that the things we're seeing with plants dying, water quality, mold-- all of that are symptoms of, of a disease. One that's infecting the turtle itself. This is just an idea, but I would guess that Tu Vishan being ill affects all the life living on it. That it sustains it.

[This is a long speech for Bruce, but he keeps going, because no theories should be put forward without your supporting reasoning.] I found evidence of tumor-like masses underneath the shell. I can't tell from the readings I took if they're actually tumors, but it does make me think that the source of our current problems is a lot deeper than the surface.

And the Emperor, she has to know more about it than she's letting on.

[tendnottoweep]

[ Natasha listens quietly, nodding from time to time, and smiles a little at that last addition. ] Oh, she does. One of the people who's managed to get more out of her mentioned that she told him... the more we know, the more we're in danger.

He's since disappeared.

[angermanaging]

What? That's-- I'm sorry, but that's, that's just a convenient excuse. Maybe there is something that makes it true, but I find it hard to be sympathetic to someone that's keeping us in the dark about the reason behind our abduction and forced service.

[Bruce might feel a little strongly about being manipulated.]

[tendnottoweep]

Isn't it? [ There's a thin, sarcastic smile. Yes, it's possible, but she's a spy. For her, information is what keeps you useful, keeps you alive, and deliberately keeping them in the dark is hard not to interpret as a direct threat. ]

...invisible. That's the only other thing he said about whatever we're up against where I could see it. And you're on the right track with the disease theory. Whatever this is, it killed all the other turtles a long time ago.

[angermanaging]

[He's so glad to find someone that shares his feelings on this and is as no nonsense and straight forward as he is about it. Bruce still doesn't trust her at all, but she's not bad to share conspiracy theories with. He himself resents having information kept from him because he refuses to ever be an unthinking pawn again; it pings his issues in all the wrong places.]

I... haven't heard that. Either of that. Where did you hear that about the others dying?

And-- thank you, for sharing. [Bruce imagines that she doesn't do it with just anyone, so he feels the need to say thanks, but he doesn't try to draw out the gratitude either. As far as he's concerned, those are the only words it merits.]

[tendnottoweep]

His name was Raylan Givens. Assuming he was telling the truth, he got it directly from the emperor. I don't think it's widely known - I found it buried in the responses to an unrelated network post a couple months ago.

[ She simply inclines her head in acknowledgment of the thanks. She trusts his discretion, at the very least, and he's one of the few people here who might be able to do something with that bit of information. ]

[angermanaging]

I knew I should've read through the logs more thoroughly. [He shakes his head, slightly exasperated with himself.] I've had so many things to do, and so much of it the network is just... trivial.

[It's a lot to slog through, but he's not surprised that she'd done it.]

The Emperor had to have known this was coming. The disease. It makes me wonder why they're so determined not to go back to the mainland.

[tendnottoweep]

Having been there, I'm not sure there's much for them there. This latest landfall was somewhat less... bleak than the first one, but by and large I think Tu Vishan might be the best they can hope for.

[angermanaging]

But there has to be more than what we've seen on the mainland, [he persists.] Even if it's all like that, then what happened? What's the history there?

We got dropped into a different world's political climate. If I'm going to be a pawn, then I want to know who's using me.

[tendnottoweep]

I'm afraid I don't have those answers yet. I don't know that anyone does.

And that seems to be the common viewpoint. Unfortunately, it's not one the Emperor has much sympathy for.

[angermanaging]

[It's pretty hard to get Bruce to be openly annoyed with something, but there's an undeniable undercurrent of it to him now. He folds his arms and leans back against the bench.]

She really doesn't. I also heard something about clones. Do you know anything about that? Because cloning me is a really bad idea.

[tendnottoweep]

I haven't been able to verify it, but given that new arrivals started showing up in the palace after the original cloning facilities were destroyed... It would make sense. If it's true, you're already a clone, Dr. Banner.

[angermanaging]

But how could they-- how is that possible? My genetic code doesn't take kindly to being altered.

How are they doing any of this?

[tendnottoweep]

[ She shakes her head. ] I think you're probably better equipped to answer those questions than I am.

[angermanaging]

[That snaps him out of his frustration, as it suggests a plan of action.]

I'll focus on that next, [he decides, folding his arms.] After the garden is able to sustain itself, I need to look into the cloning. Because this is getting ridiculous. And it's the most obvious lead we have.

... I don't know what kind of relationship we really have in the future, but, while we're here. [He meets her eyes seriously, but without any demanding or pleading, just levelly.] Are you willing to work with me on this?

[Her investigative, him researching. It'd make sense. And Bruce doesn't take for granted that because they're nominally on the same team that they'd cooperate. As far as he's concerned, the Avengers is some word that's been thrown at him, and he'll treat his teammates on an individual basis.]

[tendnottoweep]

[ She nods almost immediately, expression calm, jaw set. ] Anything you need. Whatever they're not telling us, I lost my partner to it. You could say I'm invested.