Story: "Coming Around" (Part 10 of 14)
Apr. 18th, 2013 12:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis story is a sequel to "Love Is for Children," "Eggshells," "Dolls and Guys," "Turnabout Is Fair Play," and "Touching Moments," and "Splash."
Fandom: The Avengers
Characters: Phil Coulson, Bruce Banner, Hulk.
Medium: Fiction
Warnings: Inferences of past child/domestic abuse. Current environment is safe.
Summary: Phil shows Bruce the cute pictures of the team helping Hulk clean up after the bilgesnipe fight. Bruce finds the whole idea more confusing than pleasing.
Notes: Teamwork. Friendship. Flangst. Hurt/comfort. Dysfunctional relationship dynamics. Trust issues. Safety and security. ALL THE FEELS. Non-sexual touching and intimacy. Personal growth. Family of choice.
Begin with Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9. Skip to Part 12, Part 13, Part 14.
"Coming Around" Part 10
"He does enjoy smashing," Phil said agreeably. "However, I think Hulk is starting to discover that he likes other things as well. If we can get him to explore that further, you may find it easier to get along with him. You do still want that, right?"
"Yes," Bruce admitted, "but I rarely get what I want, so it doesn't matter."
"We'll work on that too," Phil said. Half the problem was getting Bruce to accept anything once offered. He had so little experience with that, he scarcely knew how to respond. "If you can't trust Hulk yet, then trust me. It's my job to watch what happens with my team, keep people safe, and make sure everyone can do their job. You've seen what I can accomplish. Can you at least give me a chance with this?"
"... okay," Bruce said with a cautious nod. Phil heaved a sigh of relief.
"As for communication, well, it's true that Hulk doesn't express himself easily in words. Perhaps we can find some other mode that would work better for him," Phil said.
Bruce snorted. "What would you suggest? Fingerpainting? Smileys? Sign language?"
"We can experiment with different things," Phil said, silently making a note to look into all of those. He had a hypothesis that Hulk sometimes had a subconscious influence on what Bruce said, and vice versa. Given Hulk's limited use of language, some form of nonverbal communication might prove more effective. "We'll figure out a solution eventually."
"How you can be a spy and retain that much optimism is beyond me," Bruce said.
"I believe in heroes," Phil said with a fond smile. He patted Bruce's hand, but did not try to hold on. "Also, I'm a handler. That calls for a different skill set than other types of espionage. Among the more crucial skills is insight into people -- often talented but damaged ones -- to ascertain who might make a promising asset and how to bring out their best qualities."
"Sure," Bruce said, a little too lightly.
"I can tell you without betraying any confidences that Clint was very much a diamond in the rough when I acquired him," Phil said. "Furthermore, I believe that he used what he learned from me to spot Natasha and convince her to come in from the cold." Phil smiled. "I will admit that I did not expect any such ability from Tony, yet he predicted your return in the battle of New York. Perhaps his business background has given him an eye for personnel."
"I'm nothing to write home about," Bruce said. He looked away.
"That's only because so much about you is classified," Phil said. It always hurt to hear how readily Bruce dismissed his own worth, despite all his accomplishments. The man had little better opinion of himself than of the Hulk. "Those of us who know the real you have a much higher opinion."
* * *
Notes:
Acceptance is a challenge for Bruce in various contexts. In particular, he doesn't like himself or Hulk, and he has a hard time believing that he deserves anything that people might offer to him. There are tips for acceptance.
Nonverbal communication or paralanguage spans all the things people convey without words. This includes creative arts, signs, and symbols. Another major component is facial expression; certain basic emotions are almost universally recognizable from expressions even across cultures. These modes of communication can express things difficult or impossible to put into words.
Fingerpainting is a type of nonverbal expression that children often learn. Such simple art can make use of color and shape symbolism to convey more than is illustrated directly. Fingerpainting appears in art therapy, not just as a helpful exercise for the painter, but to give clues about what the person might be feeling or thinking about.
Smileys and other emoticons are abstract symbols that represent emotions. They developed to communicate facial expressions and other feeling-clues in an online environment where people can't see each other but can interact quickly enough to get into major fights and misunderstandings using written words. Notice that many of the smileys still look a lot like faces because the human brain is wired to see faces.
Sign language spans a variety of gestural rather than vocal languages. There is a spectrum from more concrete to more abstract communication. Vocal languages are almost entirely abstract, meaning the sound bears no resemblance to the concept, with rare exceptions in onomatopoeia. Sign languages tend to be more concrete, although they can be highly abstract. It's just easier for signs to be concrete because of how the words are shaped with hands or other body parts to look like what they represent, rather than for sounds to be concrete. Plains Indian Sign is among the more concrete examples, probably because it was used for trade; the more concrete, the easier to understand even if you haven't been told the meaning. I once watched an expert in this language do a demonstration of that effect, and yes, everyone understood him quite easily. Baby Sign Language capitalizes on similar concepts to teach basic communication before the mouth and brain are ready for spoken words.
"Come in from the cold" refers to a spy returning from exile, or more generally, to someone joining a group or gaining social acceptance.
[To be continued in Part 11 ...]
Fandom: The Avengers
Characters: Phil Coulson, Bruce Banner, Hulk.
Medium: Fiction
Warnings: Inferences of past child/domestic abuse. Current environment is safe.
Summary: Phil shows Bruce the cute pictures of the team helping Hulk clean up after the bilgesnipe fight. Bruce finds the whole idea more confusing than pleasing.
Notes: Teamwork. Friendship. Flangst. Hurt/comfort. Dysfunctional relationship dynamics. Trust issues. Safety and security. ALL THE FEELS. Non-sexual touching and intimacy. Personal growth. Family of choice.
Begin with Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9. Skip to Part 12, Part 13, Part 14.
"Coming Around" Part 10
"He does enjoy smashing," Phil said agreeably. "However, I think Hulk is starting to discover that he likes other things as well. If we can get him to explore that further, you may find it easier to get along with him. You do still want that, right?"
"Yes," Bruce admitted, "but I rarely get what I want, so it doesn't matter."
"We'll work on that too," Phil said. Half the problem was getting Bruce to accept anything once offered. He had so little experience with that, he scarcely knew how to respond. "If you can't trust Hulk yet, then trust me. It's my job to watch what happens with my team, keep people safe, and make sure everyone can do their job. You've seen what I can accomplish. Can you at least give me a chance with this?"
"... okay," Bruce said with a cautious nod. Phil heaved a sigh of relief.
"As for communication, well, it's true that Hulk doesn't express himself easily in words. Perhaps we can find some other mode that would work better for him," Phil said.
Bruce snorted. "What would you suggest? Fingerpainting? Smileys? Sign language?"
"We can experiment with different things," Phil said, silently making a note to look into all of those. He had a hypothesis that Hulk sometimes had a subconscious influence on what Bruce said, and vice versa. Given Hulk's limited use of language, some form of nonverbal communication might prove more effective. "We'll figure out a solution eventually."
"How you can be a spy and retain that much optimism is beyond me," Bruce said.
"I believe in heroes," Phil said with a fond smile. He patted Bruce's hand, but did not try to hold on. "Also, I'm a handler. That calls for a different skill set than other types of espionage. Among the more crucial skills is insight into people -- often talented but damaged ones -- to ascertain who might make a promising asset and how to bring out their best qualities."
"Sure," Bruce said, a little too lightly.
"I can tell you without betraying any confidences that Clint was very much a diamond in the rough when I acquired him," Phil said. "Furthermore, I believe that he used what he learned from me to spot Natasha and convince her to come in from the cold." Phil smiled. "I will admit that I did not expect any such ability from Tony, yet he predicted your return in the battle of New York. Perhaps his business background has given him an eye for personnel."
"I'm nothing to write home about," Bruce said. He looked away.
"That's only because so much about you is classified," Phil said. It always hurt to hear how readily Bruce dismissed his own worth, despite all his accomplishments. The man had little better opinion of himself than of the Hulk. "Those of us who know the real you have a much higher opinion."
* * *
Notes:
Acceptance is a challenge for Bruce in various contexts. In particular, he doesn't like himself or Hulk, and he has a hard time believing that he deserves anything that people might offer to him. There are tips for acceptance.
Nonverbal communication or paralanguage spans all the things people convey without words. This includes creative arts, signs, and symbols. Another major component is facial expression; certain basic emotions are almost universally recognizable from expressions even across cultures. These modes of communication can express things difficult or impossible to put into words.
Fingerpainting is a type of nonverbal expression that children often learn. Such simple art can make use of color and shape symbolism to convey more than is illustrated directly. Fingerpainting appears in art therapy, not just as a helpful exercise for the painter, but to give clues about what the person might be feeling or thinking about.
Smileys and other emoticons are abstract symbols that represent emotions. They developed to communicate facial expressions and other feeling-clues in an online environment where people can't see each other but can interact quickly enough to get into major fights and misunderstandings using written words. Notice that many of the smileys still look a lot like faces because the human brain is wired to see faces.
Sign language spans a variety of gestural rather than vocal languages. There is a spectrum from more concrete to more abstract communication. Vocal languages are almost entirely abstract, meaning the sound bears no resemblance to the concept, with rare exceptions in onomatopoeia. Sign languages tend to be more concrete, although they can be highly abstract. It's just easier for signs to be concrete because of how the words are shaped with hands or other body parts to look like what they represent, rather than for sounds to be concrete. Plains Indian Sign is among the more concrete examples, probably because it was used for trade; the more concrete, the easier to understand even if you haven't been told the meaning. I once watched an expert in this language do a demonstration of that effect, and yes, everyone understood him quite easily. Baby Sign Language capitalizes on similar concepts to teach basic communication before the mouth and brain are ready for spoken words.
"Come in from the cold" refers to a spy returning from exile, or more generally, to someone joining a group or gaining social acceptance.
[To be continued in Part 11 ...]
Yes...
Date: 2013-08-05 07:59 pm (UTC)Yay! It's something I hope to explore eventually.
>> ASL is so expressive, and incorporates facial expressions... <<
That's a part where Hulk does really well.
>> Hell, BRUCE would do well in practicing sign, being non verbally expressive for a change might shake things loose, and having a communication mode in common with Hulk strikes me as a Very Good Thing. <<
Noted for possible future use, thank you. I think Bruce would be good at parts that Hulk isn't -- the fancier abstract signs, for example -- and bad at things like deliberate facial expressions where Hulk excels. They'd have to work together in order to get really fluent, which is a good motivation. I'm with you on the value of a common language for them.
>> The body has a deep wisdom, a wisdom Bruce mostly ignores... <<
Yes, exactly. It's only in recent times that Bruce has been with people who won't physically abuse him, so he's starting to have moments of feeling less threatened in his body, more able to be in it ... complicated by the fact that he never really feels secure in his body because of Hulk. But the safety of the environment and the teamfamily is starting to soak through and that's actually part of what's making Bruce so twitchy, because it's new and unfamiliar and downright scary.
>> And there is Stuff you have to relive and acknowledge before you can release it and move on... In my life a lot of the Stuff has been locked up in my body, and only now, in my 40's,am I safe enough, secure enough, to help my body grow stronger and more flexible, and the victim posture is starting to release my limbs and joints as I make progress in my own healing. <<
Yes, that's much the same as what's happening with Bruce now. His posture is starting to open up sometimes, get a little more confident and less skittish. Game night has helped a lot just by letting him be as scared as he needed, and hide under the furniture if that's what felt right to him.
If you look in "Touching Moments" you'll see examples of how people store tension and memories in different parts of their bodies; that's a Clint and Bruce story. Tony's tension cache will appear in "Hide and Seek." I want to explore some of Bucky's body memories too. He has a lot stored that he can't easily access, though for different reasons.
>> I wish I shared this fandom with my friend L. She would benefit SO MUCH from reading the stories, experiencing the comfort vicariously, understanding she is not alone in the frozenness of the childhood abuse victim grown up. Damn...! <<
It's worth a try. There are at least a couple handfuls of folks reading and enjoying this series who have seen little or nothing of the canon. I wasn't expecting that, but apparently the material works as stand-alone even though I didn't really write it that way. I mean, I put in some extra markers in case folks didn't know all the canon stuff, but I was expecting familiarity.
Maybe give your friend a sample of your favorite parts, or most relevant parts, and see if it appeals?
>> ...I'm sorry. Didn't mean to get so personal... But this feels like safe space, you know? <<
It's okay. Folks are welcome to talk about the stories with me or debate with each other, whatever they want. All I ask is that it stay civil, because yes, this is intended as safe space. My blog is generally -- I don't tolerate trolling or flaming -- but this series in particular is extra protected. I've had a few folks carry on backchannel discussions of stuff they didn't want to post in comments, too. That's also okay.