( Savrou ) IC Contact

[hyperkinesia]

I N B O X

IC Voice Mail « The number you've just dialed is imaginary. Rotate your phone by 90 degrees and try again. » [ VIDEO | AUDIO | TEXT ] OOC Contact • PLURK: extreminator • Journal PM

Comments

[niffin]

I appreciate that word, and I understand that there's only so much you can convey. This kind of thing doesn't even happen where I'm from; I can't imagine living it.

For what it's worth, you don't come off as Mr. Hyde or anything.

[ Or like anyone that needs to be full of bullets. There are implications there that she doesn't know how to begin to address. Do you send a "I'm sorry you got shot" card? Is there a protocol for that?

The problem, when she gets down to it, isn't with Bruce. But Alice can't shake the sense of threat that still crawls up her spine. It's a risk. It's a risk that she never even suspected, or thought to look for, and she's terrified that she won't be able to keep pace with it. It makes her want to bite.

It'd be easier if he'd willingly transformed. Then it wouldn't be an unknown. Then she'd have the least idea how to handle this. ]

When you say that you can produce a controlled transformation, can you describe what that means? Practically. Are you capable of contacting people, still making rational choices? Can it lead into a full-blown incident?

[hyperkinesia]

People usually refer to me as Jekyll, actually.

[ And he's a doctor and everything too, figure that. Not that he ever turns into the Hulk for the same reasons as Jekyll did in the book, but she gets the gist of it, he figures. ]

I can control him. I decide his actions and direct his thought process. He can recognize people like that - friends, acquaintances, enemies, and so on - and he won't go on a rampage throughout the ship. Of course as you can imagine, even a tamed elephant can destroy a few things in its path, but I'd say that's better than punching a hole through the hull.

I get that you're worried, believe me when I say I'm always worried myself. Being in an enclosed vessel with all kinds of people while traveling across space isn't exactly what I'd pick as the safest place to be, but I've adapted. It's the most I can do. Giving lessons won't really make me more of a risk to anyone.

If anything or anyone triggers me aboard the ship, it won't be the students I might have.

[niffin]

That was sort of the joke.

[ She has to joke, or she's going to shout.

Would it be safer to just be him, all the time, so you wouldn't accidentally transform? She wants to ask it, but she won't, can't bring herself to. Despite everything, that's not fair to him, and she knows it.

It would've been safer for everyone if she'd stayed a spirit — but that's not a life that's worth living. ]

If you do ever punch a hole in the hull, please make a skylight. [ Wouldn't any hole be? ] And if you run into any students you think might be a danger to others —

[ Chara. She means Chara. ]

— Please let me know. I can always see about moving them to a different group. I want to have your back here, and I'm still grateful that you put your name forward for this.

[ And she's going to start screening a hell of a lot more carefully. ]

[hyperkinesia]

[ Whatever reaction she'd have to all this, it wouldn't be a first to Bruce. Really, he's probably seen them all at this point— especially on board the Moira.

She could ask it of him, but he wouldn't do it. It wouldn't have been safer, for starters, not to mention that the only way to keep a transformation going indefinitely would be to continue provoking and spiking the Hulk, offering triggers for the adrenaline to keep flowing. And Bruce has had people wanting to do that, not in the same way that Alice is thinking, but people wanting to cage him up like an animal, only to release him and the monster into the middle of a battlefield. It's nothing he'd have ever agreed to, not in any context. ]

I'll keep that in mind. [ He can't help but smile at the attempt at humor, forced as it might be. ]

I'll let you know, yes. And if you happen to know of any students I should be particularly careful around, tell me. I won't go around spreading their name or anything, I'll just keep an eye out for them, and if I feel like I can't handle the situation, you can see about taking them from my classes.

[ He genuinely understands her concern there. And he knows people well enough to know that there are dangerous, crazy types who would love to poke at Bruce just to see the other guy, and would even relish in the chaos and destruction he would leave in his wake. He's met people like that before, even. ]

[niffin]

[ There's a common thread there. About anger, about becoming someone that you're not, in ways that are at once all too literal. There's a common thread, and it's the kind that she's never going to spool into view. ]

Thank you. I think a lot of these kids could use someone looking out for them in a good way, too.

I recommended Alphonse Elric ask after advanced tutoring with you. I think you'll find him both enthusiastic and skilled. I'll stay in contact.

Hope your evening goes better from here, Dr. Banner.

[hyperkinesia]

I'll try my best.

[ He knows this entire situation must be much more difficult on the kids than on the adults on board, especially when some of them are taken away from their homes, their families, and find themselves with no support whatsoever here. The least they can do is to try and offer some of that support, to be sure they know they're not completely alone and they have people they can depend on and go to if they need anything. ]

I know him, actually. He's made his interest very apparent already. But thanks for the heads up.

And thanks. I'll talk to you later. And let me know if you need help with anything.