{action}

[sublimating]

[Bruce has skipped his jog in the morning to sleep in a little; there's no point in going on a long run to work himself up and wear himself out when the whole day is basically a long expanse of serene idling and keeping active. he's always tired when he goes to bed, which is the goal.]

[and he wakes up with a start at what sounds like a cannon going off, and then another, and there's sounds of alarm all around him; and his heartrate shoots up, so fast and so hard that he thinks he might lose it, and he thinks: use it, don't get used by it.]

[which is why a giant green manlike figure comes bursting out of what used to be one of the shelters, tearing it apart; the Hulk roars, earth-shaking though the earth is already shaking, arms wide and in a ready stance for whatever may come at him. and then pauses.]

[there's nothing to fight but a volcano.]

Comments

[antiapocalypse]

[ here's another girl who was sleeping in the shelter, enjoying what, in her second year of college, still feels like the rarest of pleasures: being able to sleep in, because she didn't schedule any classes before noon. ]

[ but, of course, that pleasure is short-lived this morning, and the next thing she knows everything is exploding and the shelter walls are coming apart all around her and okay it's not like they were made out of reinforced steel or brick or anything but-- ]

I was really hoping to go through life without ever knowing how the three little pigs felt.

[ she's working on getting outside, where it's safe, and so unprepared for the sight that greets her when she turns to face the shelter on her left and--

--and sees this big towering green monster, just standing there, and then he roars and she can feel it in her bones and that is just -- so not okay ]

[sublimating]

[he crouches down and then flings himself easily over a hundred feet in the air, swinging one massive fist to smash a flaming rock right out of the sky. welcome to consciousness!]

[antiapocalypse]

[ thanks! she'll just be flinching like crazy, and only realizing after a beat that he not only didn't hit her but apparently wasn't aiming for her.

it's a weird realization that doesn't do a lot to help with the sick feeling in her stomach.

she's been around so many monsters before, and she's been in over her head, too -- but this feels different.

she doesn't need him to effortlessly catch a punch to know that he is so, so, so much stronger than Adam. ]

[sublimating]

[he lands again with a huff of air, far more harmless debris skittering into the sand around him, and he hunches on all fours, glaring up at the volcano. he doesn't seem to notice her]

[antiapocalypse]

[ that must be nice, because she can't notice anything but him. she flinches and -- comes up behind him, maybe, just. watching. cautious and nervous ]

Do you -- I don't mean to interrupt...

[ and then she stops, because this is ridiculous, she can't talk to you when there's a volcano erupting in front of both you and her ]