seekevolution | The Amulet

Oh, he will. There's pizza and coffee brought in a little while later and though he ignores one doctor on the screen as he pokes around with his stuff, he can't ignore Bruce and that look of concentration on his face.

"Eat this. Don't argue. A turkey sandwich isn't going to cut it. I got vegetarian pizza for our friend down there too. DUM-E is bringing it in." That will likely result in a fire. At least it'll be fun to watch?

"Hmm?" Bruce lifts his head and looks at the food, blinking. It hadn't been that long- with a glance over at the nearest clock, he corrects himself. It has been hours. "No arguing here," he agrees, grabbing a piece of pizza and taking a large bite. What he doesn't notice is that it's coffee, not tea, and even decaf gives his heart a little whirl.

"...decaf at least, right? Not that industrial strength sludge you drink? And are you determined to kill Mohinder by sending DUM-E?" The robot does have a knack for fire, somehow.

"Yep, decaf," Tony replies with a grin. He's not an idiot. He likes to push Bruce's buttons but he does it in big ways. A little caffeine here and there has been played with before after all. Boring. He even slipped caffeinated soap into his shower once.

Now that had been fun!

"And no. DUM-E won't kill Mohinder. We need him for our mad scientist experimentation and--" On screen, DUM-E has actually managed to back poor Mohinder into a corner. He's never been privy to Stark's lifestyle -- save for one small fundraiser he attended a year ago. He's never met the man's mechanical puppies! "Whoops. JARVIS, intercom. DUM-E! Down boy!"

FUN!? That had been anything but fun! Bruce had spent most of the day jittery and on edge and way too much energy because of it! Very different definitions of the word fun, here.

"Mohinder!" Bruce calls out through the intercom. "It's okay. It's one of Tony's robots, he won't hurt you. You're not Tony. He's just bringing you a pizza, that's all." With a little look at Tony for scaring the other. Warn him next time!

Hands flat against the wall he's pressed against, it dawns on Mohinder that he's being watched and he scans the ceiling for signs of a camera. When he finds one, the light blinking red, he can't help but think of what it'd been like to work for the Company, constantly and forever being watched.

It makes his skin crawl but he smiles just the same, especially when DUM-E backs down and leaves the pizza on the table. It looks almost like the poor thing has been reprimanded! He almost feels badly for it. Almost.

"Bruce?" There's hope in his voice, and relief. And the next words flow out in Hindi. "Are you all right?" Because yes. Mohinder is concerned for Bruce.

Bruce responds in kind, his Hindi much smoother than it had been before meeting Mohinder. "I am fine, I promise. Are you feeling well? I am safely enough distance away." However, still more formal than any native speaker.

He leans forward, as if Mohinder could see him back, watching his friend with concern. The idea of not being able to go down and properly check on him, even to speak to him, feels wrong.

Skirting the path the robot had taken in retreat, Mohinder smiles shakily at the camera even as Tony, behind Bruce, complains about the language.

He speaks German, Italian, Japanese, French, Mandarin, Spanish and Portuguese...but Hindi? He's going to have to learn.

"I believe I've felt better. But thank you. This is a lovely space. I'm not sure I know how to work most of it, however."

"Tony, please, really?" Bruce casts another look before sighing, turning back to focus on Mohinder. "It is like dealing with a child, at times! Tony's Tower is like nothing else, so do not feel bad. It took me almost a week to understand all of the settings on the shower." Trying to cheer his friend up, even if it is a losing battle.

"I am working on the--" He has to pause, realizing he isn't certain of the word. "Scans?" Asking for the word.

"Skaina. Your Hindi is very much improved," he praises because it's always important to give praise to students. Once a professor, always a professor. "Would you like help with them? I've resources down here to run simulations as well... I'm just not quite sure what to look for. If you're speaking about my medical scans--"

He hears Tony groan and cuts himself off. "All right Banner. I'm out of here. I'll be upstairs tinkering around with the amulet itself if you need me." Biology. Hardly an interesting science!

The door clicks and Mohinder arches an eyebrow at the camera. "That man is maddening," he contends, no idea at all that Bruce and 'that man' have become fairly intimate.

"Because of my excellent teacher," Bruce replies to the praise, eyes flickering away. Always humble to a certain extent. However, he does smile, feeling a little pride.

Tony storming out leaves him to sigh, just a little. "At times, yes." Like earlier. They had been pressed together as tightly as could be, warm and comfortable. Tony had wanted... more, Bruce is completely certain, yet he stopped.

Doesn't Tony get what Tony wants?

Pay attention, Bruce. "We are looking for anything out of the ordinary. Abnormal brain patterns, changes in the physical body, anything that seems strange. It's vague, I hate to say, but I'm sure it is going to be focused on the mind considering what you've proven to be able to do."

"It makes sense," Mohinder says, moving to take the pizza before he heads towards the lab that's been set up for him. There are pictures of Pepper in lingerie for screen savers and Mohinder dashes his hand across the surface to clear them. "Matt Parkman, my former roommate, was a telepath. I have a copy of his brainwaves. He'd learned to use his ability to act as persuasion. Useful but always intentional. Perhaps his discipline was just better than mine."

Matt left. Mohinder's gotten use to people leaving, especially those he cares for. His fault, of course, for insinuating himself into the affections of an obviously straight man.

He'd sort of done that with Bruce as well. Mohinder has poor taste. Or perhaps he's always more the friend type. Now who's getting distracted?

"Any way, I'll need some equipment to map my own brain functions."

"We have them done," Bruce offers. "JARVIS has been taking care of that over the last few hours. ...I don't know why Tony has all of this built into his AI but I don't question his genius. Just his sanity at times." He has a feeling Mohinder might not be happy about being scanned without his knowledge because only now does he realize Tony probably never told the Indian.

"I didn't know Matt was a telepath." He knows the name, Mohinder has mentioned him, but this is new!

"Quite the powerful one," Mohinder says with a fond smile. "He and his wife live in Los Angeles with their son. We've fallen a bit out of touch." Mostly because Molly hadn't really understood how Matt could have priorities outside of her. Children are self-centred, and understandably so. Speaking of-- "My daughter-- Mister Stark offered to bring her out. Is that offer still on the table? I've spoken with her on the telephone a bit but I promised years ago that I wouldn't leave her side and--"

He's dangerous, he knows that. But she ought to be safe with Bruce.

"You don't need to look after her. She's bright and will stay out of the way."

Bruce decides to make a bit of a decision himself, regardless of what Tony might want right now. "She's welcome here. Don't worry, Mohinder. I'll take care of her." He enjoys children a great deal and he and Molly have become friends to a degree since he and Mohinder started working together.

"Tony will just have to deal with a little one in the Tower." Giving a warm smile. "We just need to just make sure she doesn't touch you."

"She's twelve. You'll have a harder time getting her not to sneak out and try to see the city," Mohinder says with a half smile. "We lived in Brooklyn until a few years ago. I'm sure she misses it here. The zoo especially."

He's still said nothing about being scanned. He understands why. And he understands why he's alone. He still feels horribly guilty for the things that have happened because of him, however. His hands curl around one of the tools on the desk and JARVIS informs Bruce of a heart rate spike.

"Twelve is a little old to go out on her own," a pause, thinking, "unless perhaps if we sent JARVIS with her." Bruce shakes his head. "This is up to you as her father."

"Either way, can you get those scans of Matt up to me so I can take a look at them?"

"Oh, right yes. New York is a dangerous place. She thinks she's twenty years old, though," Mohinder laughs. Children grow up quickly. Much more quickly when you've only been minding them for a few years. Molly's more grown up than the lot of them, likely. Her young life has been filled with danger from the very start.

Mohinder keys in passwords for Bruce and sends them up to his friend's terminal.

"That ought to unlock my computer and show you where the files or kept. You might also give Matt a call. He's an amicable fellow. Just-- I'd rather you not tell him what I've done."

"I don't know how I feel about bothering Matt unless we are desperate. The man has a life separated from all of this mess; I'm not about to drag him back in." Bruce, even as he speaks, he's remotely accessing Mohinder's computer.

"Where are these files I'm looking for?" Bruce asks. But then he goes quieter, frowning as he searches. "...have you thought about what you will do if this is permanent? I know someone you could train with, if he's willing..."

Edited 2013-12-11 21:41 (UTC)

"You should see them in the folder marked 'Company,'" Mohinder says, glad that Bruce is willing to leave Matt completely out of it. Though, by completely... Perhaps he wouldn't have minded someone to talk to that knew how he felt.

So when Bruce follows up with being trained, Mohinder is both a little stunned and afraid.

"Bruce, if this is permanent, you and I both know that I will finish out my live exactly where I am. I am much too dangerous."

Bruce's hand misses it's swipe entirely at Mohider's declaration. He stares towards the feed, needing a second to find his voice. "No, you won't! We will find a method to make sure you are a free man. I promise you, Professor Xavier will be able to help if there is no way to remove this."

Actually... Bruce looks at the screen. "If this is something mental, he very well may be able to help no matter what."

Mohinder doesn't bother to look up at Bruce's image coming through on his own screen. He can tell in his voice that the other is unhappy with what he just said but Mohinder's become ever more the realist with his life. A very small, polite smile appears on his face, however.

"If you'd like to consult with him, by all means. I'm not sure I'm cut out to be this way."

Mohinder might be a hermit in theory, but he still craves to be around people.

"Don't, Mohinder. Don't... Don't start with that. I know that look because it's the same one I have when discussing something like this. Give me this one chance to make it right. After that, you can not believe something will work but we only just started. You believed in our work, the work I put into it, so why do you suddenly not trust what I'm doing now?"

Bruce is leaning forward now, staring at the projection. In this, in THIS, he feels a certain passion that actually pushes at the edges of his comfort zone.

In the first smart thing Mohinder might have done in his life, he doesn't speak up. He blinks at Bruce's imagine on the screen, internalizing his pain even if it flashes on his face.

Why doesn't he trust this, Bruce?

Because a few weeks ago, he'd been deliriously happy. Someone cared for him that he had wanted for so long. Someone wanted to share his time outside of a lab. Discovering that it had all been because he wanted it rather than the other way around is just as bad as inadvertently killing those guards.

Nothing is right. He's lost. He's alone. There's nothing Bruce can do right now to fix that.

"All right," he says finally. "All right."

Bruce doesn't even know where to begin with that whole situation. He enjoys being around Mohinder, even more than Tony, as Mohinder is both someone who cares for him and he can understand. There are parts of Tony he will never understand, very important parts.

Both of them had kissed him, both quite passionately though he is a poor judge, then both had left him to his own devices. The whole situation is very stressing and confusing, which is why he is focusing on the problem he believes he can fix.

"Thank you." Filled with quite relief. Bruce sits back, rubbing his brow. "Lets.. Just start with Matt's scans. I've been staring at yours for a few hours before the pizza came."

"Pizza-- Oh!" Don't mind him. He's just going to stuff his face and talk about biology and science and sink into a very comfortable chair as he and Bruce puzzle out Matt's scans with his own. It might take a few hours, but it feels right and it feels so easy. He's always had that with Bruce.

Though the scans don't match up completely, Mohinder's brain waves obviously different from the detective's, they're a close enough match that it provides a place to start from.

At least he knows now that what the amulet did to him was indeed rewrite sections of his genetic code to allow him to have a psionic power. Unfortunately, it seems two fold. Touch telepathy and persuasion. What a difficult web to untangle.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject