video

[handing]

[Well, might as well get to it. The video starts, revealing a calm, put-together woman with a easy smile. This isn't Pepper's first public broadcast, and she's got what she wants to say down pat.]

Good afternoon, all.

I'm Pepper Potts, and apparently I've been brought here to be your new Chief Morale Officer. I'm aware that the idea of maintaining morale among a group of people who have been stolen from their homes against their will is at best humorous, and at worst a slap in the face. I'd still like to make something of it, however--not for the captains or whatever power brought us here, but for us. Whatever the reasons for our kidnappings, I'd rather not give anyone the satisfaction of our suffering while we're here.

As I've only just found myself here in the past few days, I'm still finding my way around, as it were. I understand that there are people who have been here for some time already, so if anyone could give me an idea of some of what you've been through, I'd be grateful. I also would like to hear from anyone who has also been assigned jobs related to morale, given that the title of "Chief" implies there's a group of us. Lastly, the brief job description I was given mentioned I might be working closely with the Navigation and Public Relations Officers; I'd like to get in touch with you as well, to get an idea of whom I'll be working with.

Thank you all for your time and your cooperation.

Comments

Re: video; private.

[hyperkinesia]

[ At least here she won't have a lot of opportunities to be idle. The lulls never last long, and soon there's something new going down, either on board or on the planet they happen to be orbiting. Not a very comforting thought - Bruce would rather have too much free time on his hands and have to figure out what to do with it than having things as they are now.

But it's not like any of them have much of a choice. Best he can do is just accept the situation, adapt and move on to the best of his abilities. ]

I figured you'd have been told already. [ He doubts there's anyone on the ship who hasn't heard of the incident, and who doesn't know who the monster is by now, even among those who came through the ingress after they left Caducus. It's only to be expected that one of them brought it up to someone asking about major events. That event in particular was pretty major - figuratively and literally both. ]

It's definitely something, yes. [ Normally it even would be a good thing. As it is, Bruce isn't so sure whether the planet would have survived if he and Clark hadn't basically punched each other into the ground until it split apart completely. Maybe it would have even if the Hulk were by himself, it just would've taken longer. ]

Yes. I was attacked by a group of natives. They wanted us off the planet, and I was trying to get as many people to get back to the ship as possible. [ A horrible mistake on his part. ] I shouldn't have been there in the first place. I should have known better.

[handing]

I put it together. [Although no one she'd spoken to seems quite sure of what Bruce truly is. Pepper almost tells him as much, but what good would it do? People have called him a monster and an alien, but not a human--and in the strictest sense of the word, maybe Bruce isn't one.

Maybe. Maybe she isn't either. That's the thought that truly keeps the rest unsaid.

But even with that in question, there are other things that come with an easy certainty. Bruce questions his reasoning for being out in the danger, looking back upon it with the eyes of regret--but Pepper isn't so mired in what happened that she's willing to ignore the root cause.]

You were out there because you were trying to help people. [If the natives had gone after Bruce, they would've attacked others. If they'd done enough to trigger him, then how would an ordinary person have ended up at their hands?] You can't blame yourself for that.

[hyperkinesia]

[ Bruce hasn't been asked about it himself, hasn't been told what people think he is or isn't. He's had a lot of people asking him why or how it works, this ability of his, and he's skimmed the topic in some cases, and gotten into further detail in others. But he's never seen reason to tell people that bottom line? Yes, he is human.

Or he was, at some point. Now, he's not even sure anymore. ]

Right. Well, I can blame myself for knowing more than enough about my condition to know that putting myself at risk like that was stupid at best, reckless at worst. [ He appreciates that Pepper is trying to make him feel better, he honestly does, but... it's not helping. And it won't work, either. ] I'm sorry. I just... I've talked about this more than I'd like to in the past month and a half. It gets a little... tiring, I guess.

[handing]

I do understand that. [And in a sense she's sorry that she's going to have Bruce talk about it at least once more. But she isn't satisfied with how he's answered, for reasons that go beyond his circumstances. Part of her knows that it isn't entirely fair, taking her own situation and applying it to him--and yet she's lived with a superhero long enough to see that drive, what draws them to putting themselves at risk time and time again.]

But you also don't seem like the kind of person who's willing to just stand by when you can help. What happened was beyond your control, and I'm not trying to say that makes it excusable. We both know better. But what else were you supposed to do?

[hyperkinesia]

Gone back to the ship when they told us to, for one.

[ It's really not the first time he's told these things, or asked that question, even. And whether or not she means it rhetorically, the fact remains that there is an answer to it. It's because there is an answer to it that he knows that there was a whole lot of 'what else' that he could - and should - have done.

His staying on the planet was foolish, stupid, thoughtless. He never thought the natives would've become so aggressive, but by the time he realized it, it was too late. There was no path towards the ship that didn't put him at risk of being cornered by them - and that was exactly what happened. ]

Sorry. I know you're trying to help, but... [ He smiles tensely, shrugging a little before he tries to change the subject. ] What else have you been told so far?

[handing]

But you can't forgive yourself for what happened. [That's the short of it, Isn't it? That Bruce can't see past the damage, the lives lost, all the changes he could have made, the different paths to take. And maybe in the end that's the better thing, that he carries that heavy burden on his shoulders. What kind of man would he truly be, after all, if it only took a few words to make him believe he'd been absolved from that amount of guilt?]

That at one point the people on the ship met a group that tried to use them for some sort of sacrifice--and that there's a monster on board. [Not like the creature Bruce sees himself as, but something far worse.] A predator that no one could stop, but that the crew managed to capture by chasing it in groups.

[hyperkinesia]

[ He tips his head in a gesture that isn't even that close to a nod, but should show at least he acknowledges her conclusion. She's right, of course, that much is abundantly clear right now, as for all that Bruce can keep his emotions in check, guilt has always been something that tends to bleed through the cracks of his facade. Especially when around those that know him well enough to see the signs.

He's glad she lets the matter drop there, and is all too relieved to focus on what she brings up next. The mention of a monster immediately brings the Ploiatos to mind, and she confirms that with her next few words. He shifts a little, moving closer to the camera. ] Right. [ Tugging down his collar, he reveals part of the vein-like black marks drawing up the side of his neck, reaching right under his jaw. They go farther down his arm too, but thankfully that part's covered up by his clothes. ] It did this, when it touched us once. Two touches would kill someone. Guess I was lucky.

[ Very loose definition of 'luck'. ]

[handing]

[Letting it drop isn't the same as letting it go; Pepper can indeed see all too clearly how this guilt has clung to Bruce, seeping deep and now refusing to let go. And what's worse, she can't tell him in good conscience that he shouldn't feel that pain, or carry that weight. Saying he had the best of intentions, though true, still felt to her a hollow argument in some ways.

As if she were trying to comfort Tony by telling him that he hadn't known what Stane would do with his weapons, or whom they'd been pointed at.

It's that experience that makes it clear to her, she cannot ease the burden for him. Time and his own efforts might, but she sees how Tony struggles with it still, not only as Iron Man but the creative force behind a company now devoted to making the world better through technology. Bruce--well. He doesn't have quite the same opportunity, either in their world or on this ship.

What he does carry is a mark, one that has Pepper staring wide-eyed when Bruce reveals the strange sort of scar to her. Worse is when he describes its power, to mark first, then to kill with only that small preamble. He calls himself lucky and of course he is; he's still alive. But that does little to cheer Pepper, as she is fully aware of that thing's presence on the ship.]

And there isn't any way to get it off? [The black veins or the monster. She swallows, assuming that it would be too dangerous to let the creature out even if it was in an effort to force it towards an airlock of something of that sort.] Where is it being held?

[hyperkinesia]

[ He'll work through it, somehow. He'll have to. It's not like he has that many options, even if he's never had an incident with consequences this catastrophic before. He'll just have to find a way, like he has a number of times before, and probably like all those times before, it won't involve him actually talking to anyone about it.

The counsellor on board has already tried, and Bruce only ended up closing in on himself even more. Not only does he not want to burden anyone else with the weight of it all, he also doesn't feel nearly comfortable enough to expose himself like that. Not even to people he knows, people he might be closer to. ]

No. I had it checked, by the way, and it's not actually doing me any harm. It's just... there. [ He tugs the collar back up and leans away from the camera again. ] And it doesn't bother me much, honestly. Some days I don't even remember it's there.

[ That is, until he looks into a mirror. Thankfully he has no recollection of the experience either, so it's not like it comes with its own set of traumatic memories. ]

It's in one of the locked rooms. I know what you're thinking: why not just throw it out the airlock? But that could be dangerous to other ships, I think. Or even our own ship. We don't know nearly enough about this creature to know if it would survive that kind of exposure, or worse yet, if it could even continue to function in an environment like that. [ The last thing they needed was to have that creature tearing apart the outside of their ship or something like that. ] It doesn't comfort me much, honestly. Having it here. But I don't like the other options, either.

[handing]

[Maybe it's a good thing then, that some of those people he's close to tend to pry at whatever's sealed shut around them.

The promise that the scar isn't hurting Bruce only does so much to reassure. His earlier words ring through her head: once to mark, twice to kill. It feels so much like animals that are caught and tagged, only so that the scientists could find them again later. Does this creature, whatever it is, do something similar? Do the marks call out to the thing in some way they can't detect, taunting it with the promise of whatever it might gain from touching them again?

Still, if Bruce can avoid those thoughts, all the better. He's calm enough about this, and Pepper doesn't want to shatter that. Bad enough he's already thought through aspects she hasn't, calling her out on what she hasn't said.]

Was it that obvious? [She glances down with a sheepish grin, because of course that's exactly what she'd been thinking. But Bruce is right; it's easy enough to see once he's pointed it out, and she sighs quietly as she resigns herself to his logic.] And there's no way to...I don't know. Communicate with it, figure out what it wants?

[Why it hunts and it kills, with such ease as to be frightening.]

[hyperkinesia]

[ The same thought has occurred to him, too. That the creature can somehow get a sense of where the marked people are, how to get to them. So far it seems that as long as it's kept away, it can't do anything to them, but what if it managed to get freed again? Would it know to hunt down for the marked ones first?

He does his best to ignore those thoughts, though. Even if he knows that people can be brought back, he remembers that the only two people who got touched a second time really died, never to be resurrected. So, he can't really be sure that it would just be fine. But there's just no point in mulling those thoughts over now, not when the thing is locked away and there's nothing else they can do about it.

He smiles a little at her first words, shrugging a little. Sometimes it's just easy reading between the lines - sometimes people's real thoughts and worries are so similar that it's nearly impossible not to see them mirrored in each other. ]

Not that we know of yet. It can't talk, or if it can, it's not like us. It certainly can't understand us. I guess we could do tests with certain energy pulses and see if it responds to any of them, but that would involve setting it free. Or at least getting someone else in there. [ Obviously not something anyone would want. ]