ain't gonna hang around 'til there's nobody dancing

[symmachy]

Who: Scathach & Bruce.
When: Friday evening.
Where: His place.
Summary: Date night.
Warnings: WHO KNOWS.

[It wasn't a date.

Well, maybe it was. Mostly, it was dinner between friends. That was what she preferred, even though she had dressed up a bit, as befitted a semi-formal occasion. Not unarmed, of course, knife strapped high on her thigh, invisible to anyone watching. She was just a young woman walking alone just before sirens went off, looking far too casual to not be up to something.

At least, that was how she imagined she looked. Most people were already locked up in their houses, safe from the nighttime monsters. She considered lingering, but didn't want to show up covered in blood again. It would be rude. His shirt was folded neatly over her arm, washed and ready to be returned. Scathach ran a hand through her cropped red hair as she arrived, and gave a cursory knock at the door. She wondered where this would go, if she'd really get to meet this mysterious "Other Guy," but knew it was rude to ask.

Sadly, that had hardly ever stopped Scatty before.]

Comments

[symmachy]

[Gross. But humming to herself, she turns from him and starts loping down the beach. She knew that there were sometimes packs of huge, mutant wild dogs running down the sand--and as luck would have it, it isn't too long until she stumbles upon a group of them tearing at the carcass of something recently killed. Without hesitation, she literally throws herself into the pack, making them scatter, howling and barking.]

[hulkbusted]

[He follows at a jog, or at least his version of a jog, setting a pace that would best be matched in a car by most people. When he sees the pack of dogs, he does hesitate for a moment because... dogs, but when one snarls and snaps at Scatty, he bursts into motion again, leaping to catch it by its scruff and toss it far out to sea. He's not aware of the effects of the Pull, but the dog is... briefly.]

[symmachy]

[The dog disappeared so much faster than the boulder had, and again, it's impressive. Her arms weren't very long, so she could only put so much force behind a throw, for all her strength. Scathach takes the nunchaku from her belt and starts whipping the polished wood at the beasts, hitting them in their vitals, sending them down one, two, three, five. As exciting as a one-on-one match could be, there was nothing quite like going up against a hoard of foes all trying to kill you.]

[hulkbusted]

[He'd like it better if there were more of the dogs; it's hard to know where to hit when Scatty is beating her way through them so quickly. He settles for snatching up any hound that tries to flank her, at one point grabbing one by the hind legs and whipping it into another hound in a strange imitation of Scatty's weapon.]

[symmachy]

[She sees him from the corner of her eye and laughs. That was cute. She lets up a little, allowing the Hulk to beat on the rest of the pack. He didn't seem nearly as rage-filled as Bruce had made him out to be, but maybe she just hadn't spent enough time with him yet.]

[hulkbusted]

[The circumstances make a difference. There are enemies to direct his aggressions at, and Bruce let him out deliberately rather than in a flood of stress hormones and adrenaline. He's still volatile as his near miss with a fit of temper after Scatty won their race demonstrates, but it's all about context.

And right now the context includes picking up mutant hounds in each hand and smashing them together before throwing them out to sea.

When they're all down, he isn't even breathing hard and turns in a circle looking for more opponents, finally coming to a halt to give Scatty another searching, considering look.]

[symmachy]

[And she looks back at him. Inspecting, deciding. He was different from Bruce in basically every way, definitely an "alter ego" if she had ever seen one. Scatty gives him a mock bow, holding out her hands to one side.]

After you, mo chara.

[hulkbusted]

[He tilts his head at mo chara before coming as close to speaking as he's gotten since he came out to play.]

Heh.

[Then he turns away from Scatty and breaks into a run, looking for something else he and his new friend can play with. Rather than finding a new playmate, it finds him when his foot comes down in a pit that was sized more to catch something more human-sized. He stumbles and falls forward, catching himself with his forearms on the far edge.

A swarm of small crab-like creatures erupt from the walls to climb over him, looking for a place to sink in their pincers.

He's preoccupied with the sudden pests, but Scatty might notice something large rising up at the water's edge.]

[symmachy]

[She can't help but give a self-satisfied smile when he laughs like that. Her goal had been to get him to like her, somehow, and it seemed as if that was working. So far. Bruce had said something about him being volatile.

The redhead jogs along with him until he stumbles. She freezes, watching for a moment as the creatures swarm him, debating whether or not she should intervene. If the jellyfish creature's stings hadn't penetrated his skin, she doubted that these pincers would. But maybe it isn't best to take the chance. She draws her nunchaku again, preparing to hit them off one-by-one when the shadow falls over her.

She looks up. And grins.]

I'll take this one.

[hulkbusted]

[Small swarming things are not enjoyable. He hoists himself out of the pit to flail at the creatures in a manner that is unavoidably rather comical. The pincers can't pierce his flesh until one resourceful crab-thing makes its way up to his shoulder and gets hold of his earlobe. It manages to make him bleed, which turns out to be unhealthy in another way, his radiation-infused blood serving as a swift-acting poison to the little creature.

The shadow-casting creature lashes out at Scatty surprisingly quickly with a claw the size of a bus stop bench.]

[symmachy]

[She casually takes half a step away from him, just in case he's about to spew blood on her. That didn't look like fun at all. She's almost distracted from the huge claw barreling down in her general direction, but she manages to dodge and grab on to the bumpy exoskeleton of the crablike creature. And she's riding it up, up, and away until she's hanging over its huge bony head. From this point, she proceeds to drop down on to where its face should be and starts stabbing the shit out of it.]

[hulkbusted]

[Why can't he get the fun ride on the big crab thing instead the swarms of small, hard-to-smash ones? He throws himself to the ground and rolls, crushing more little pests under his bulk.

The huge monster, parent or big brother or whatever it might be, lashes around with its claws, slamming one into the sand near the Hulk, but it can't dislodge Scatty. It makes no sound, but somehow there is a sense that it is in great pain as her blade comes down in its face again and again.

One moment she's riding the back of a giant crab the size of a bus, the next, it is collapsing under her, falling to pieces... No, falling apart into thousands of individual crabs like the ones swarming the Hulk.]

[symmachy]

[She can't help it. Scathach screeches as the monster suddenly disappears from beneath her. She was on her way into the water, and even if it was incredibly shallow, She did not want to go there. So she's trying to run over the crabs, cursing in Gaelic with every step. She didn't care that they were trying to grab at her clothes; she just really wanted to avoid the water. And she manages to land on the shore, taking a moment to look triumphant before her body is under siege, and she's cursing again and literally stomping around, trying to keep them away from climbing up her legs.]

[hulkbusted]

[Scatty's screech grabs his attention away from the nipping wave of crabs he's already dealing with. They aren't fighting fair and for reasons that make sense only to the Hulk, this offends him.

He forgets about the crabs still mobbing him and jumps up, running toward Scatty. There's a glint in his eye that says he's not thinking about how rude it can be to just grab a woman on a first date.]

[symmachy]

[It seems impossible to not see him coming, but that's just what happens. She's so focused on the crabs and trying to keep them from overtaking her that it isn't until he's right in front of her that she really sees him. So much for thousands of years of training. And she knows what's coming next, and knows that she can't get out of the way in time. So Scathach braces herself, tightens her muscles and folds her arms towards her chest, hoping he won't actually try to break her in half like Bruce had said he might.]

[hulkbusted]

[It might actually hurt his feelings if he knew what Scatty was thinking - his big, easily wounded, volatile feelings - but he doesn't, and she's even gotten herself into a posture that makes it easy for him to snatch her up in one arm, holding her against his chest when he first crouches and then leaps with enough power behind it that for the long seconds they're in the air, they might as well be flying.

When he lands, he sets her on her feet and tries to brush lingering crabs off of her, but his big hands aren't meant for careful or delicate work.]

[symmachy]

[It's like being crushed against a brick wall, to be honest. A strangely smooth, green brick wall. With heat radiating off it. She isn't sure she likes the feeling, but then again, she didn't have much of a choice but to put up with it. And then he's jumped and she feels her stomach flip. She hated flying of any kind. They aren't on the ground fast enough, and she takes a second to suck in a deep breath even though she knows it won't do anything to help her stomach.

And then he's brushing at her, but it's more like gentle punching. Her bones might have snapped if she'd been human. And no, his hands weren't meant for delicate things; he rips both her shirt at her stomach and her pants over her thigh. Rude. She looks down at herself but knows that she shouldn't say anything about it, so instead:]

... Thanks.

[hulkbusted]

[He looks like he might have some idea that he's not gentle enough and takes a step back before slapping a hand down on his leg where a crab had snuck its way into his tightly-stretched shorts. His grimace of disgust is almost comical on his huge features, but it drops away to be replaced by a grin when she thanks him.]

[symmachy]

[It is comical, but she refrains from laughing. He didn't seem to take well to it. So she's relieved when he smiles, and pulls her shirt away from her torso a little so she can assess the damage. It wasn't awful, even if a chunk of freckle-peppered skin is visible now. She'd just have to make sure she didn't accidentally get stabbed, as it probably made a very good target.]

[hulkbusted]

[He bends to peer at the hole he made in her shirt. Maybe she should get tougher clothes like Cap's or a suit like Tony's. Then his grin spreads and he pokes at the hole with one big finger.]

[symmachy]

[If she'd been able to really feel anything, she might have been ticklish. But even though she isn't, she jerks back a little bit, and wraps her arms around her stomach, staring at him with a small pout. But then she breaks into a grin and laughs, and her arm whips out to poke him back.]

[hulkbusted]

[He takes a surprised step back in response to Scatty's retaliatory poke. She poked him. She poked him. Other than the Avengers (forget Natasha) who would even think about just poking him?

He has a finger raised to poke her back when that part of him that's Bruce warns that he might hurt her. A pout flickers across his face before his smile returns and he huffs a laugh at her, just pointing to the hole in her shirt instead of poking it.]

[symmachy]

[She had expected him to come at her again, but she doesn't mind when he stops. This could escalate quickly, what with her being so competitive. It was probably best that they didn't start punching boulders again.

Scatty rolls her eyes a little and tries to smooth the shirt back into place, but her belly is still pretty visible.]

I guess I didn't like this shirt much anyway.

[hulkbusted]

[Bah, who needs shirts? He slaps an open palm on his chest to make that point, then takes a few steps back and lowers himself onto the sand to watch the water. The swarming crabs have taken away some of his joy in smashing. Stupid cheating crabs.]

[symmachy]

[She cocks her head to the side and raises an eyebrow. She just shakes her head at him. No, she was not going to take off her shirt. That is like, third date material. But she does plop down on the sand beside him, pulling her legs to her chest and resting her chin on her knees.]