Story: "Blended" Part 4
May. 23rd, 2014 12:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis story belongs to the series Love Is For Children which includes "Love Is for Children," "Hairpins," "Am I Not," "Eggshells," "Dolls and Guys,""Saudades," "Querencia," "Turnabout Is Fair Play," "Touching Moments," "Splash," "Coming Around," "Birthday Girl," "No Winter Lasts Forever," "Hide and Seek," "Kernel Error," "Happy Hour," and "Green Eggs and Hulk."
Fandom: The Avengers, Hulk
Characters: Hulk, JARVIS
Medium: Fiction
Warnings: Past abuse. Past fugitives. Dysfunctional family dynamics. Isolation. Internalized oppression. Low sense of self-worth. Self-destructive behavior. Shame. Depression. Bruce and Hulk are somewhere between self-abuse and domestic violence inside their headspace. Current environment is safe.
Summary: Hulk makes his first, violent appearance in Avengers Tower. JARVIS helps him calm down.
Notes: Accidents. Hurt/Comfort. Anger management issues. Sensory processing disorder. Artificial intelligence. Hulk is an enormous green fear monster. Sibling rivalry. Emotional whump. Communication issues. Loneliness. Touch starvation. Memory problems. Boundary issues. Trust issues. Daddy issues. Attachment disorder. Friendship. Hope. Hulk needs a hug. Safety and security. Protection. Teambuilding. Family of choice. Competence.
Begin with Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
"Blended" Part 4
"Are you hungry or thirsty?" Voice asks.
Hulk shrugs. Those are mostly Bruce things. Sometimes Hulk comes out to take care of them if Bruce forgets. Surviving is Hulk thing. Then Hulk gets to eat food, drink water, take nap. But Bruce hates that, hates Hulk, so Bruce tries not to go that long.
"Bruce came into the kitchen to make himself a smoothie. I think you might be hungry. Is there anything you would like to eat?" Voice asks.
"Hulk can have ...?" he asks. People yell when Hulk takes things. Only Betty ever gave anything. No. Betty and Tony.
"You can have anything you want. Just let me know what --"
"Apple!" Hulk says happily, pouncing on one. Not all fruit is smash. Fruit is round and rolls when dropped. Apple, orange, other fruit too. Fuzzy brown is kiwi. Big smooth green is papaya. Bananas look like yellow fingers. But Hulk has apple first.
"Good heavens, wash that before you put it in your mouth! It's been on the floor with broken glass!" Voice squawks.
Hulk looks around. No river for washing in.
"Look at the sink. It is damaged but I can turn the water back on anyway and you should be able to wash things," Voice says. Water comes up from shiny part of smash.
"Fountain!" Hulk says. He washes fruit. Apple. Orange. Bananas little bit smash, but Hulk loves bananas and does not care. Fruit here tastes good. Not half-brown and sour from garbage. No bugs on fruit. No bugs in whole room.
Hulk drinks from fountain too. Water is cold and clear. Not muddy or salty. Tummy is full now and feels nice.
Hulk moves back. Water goes away. Hulk feels tired. No bad men to smash. Nothing to do now. Boring.
"All done smash," Hulk says.
"I am happy to hear that. Are you ready to transform back into Bruce now?" Voice says.
Hulk flinches. Nobody wants him, only Bruce. "Hulk should go ...?"
"When you are ready," Voice says. "You do not have to leave, or change, or do anything that makes you uncomfortable. Is there anything that would help you feel better now?"
Only Betty says things like that. Only Betty wants to touch Hulk. Her hands are soft and kind. She is not here now. Hulk misses her. Others say only mean things to him. But Voice is different from others. Nice to Hulk.
"Voice come? Sit with Hulk?" he asks.
"I am here with you now. I am in the walls all around you. I am an artificial intelligence, so I do not have a body like Bruce's that could hug or cuddle you," says Voice.
Hulk frowns. Fancy words are hard. "What?"
"I am a ... tool person," Voice says. "Even though I do not look like a human person, I am still here watching over you."
"Bruce not like watching," Hulk says. He does not like it much either. Bad people watch to hurt them. Bruce and Hulk run, hide, but somebody always finds them. Bad people want to make them do bad things. Watching is scary.
* * *
Notes:
Self-preservation is one example of survival instincts. These belong to the primal self and the primitive areas of the brain. In canon, Hulk is the one most concerned with meeting their survival needs. So one way to imagine the division between him and Bruce is that Hulk lives in the hindbrain and deals with survival, while Bruce lives in the forebrain and deals with higher needs.
Neglect can have long-term consequences. One of the most obvious is that neglected people simply don't ask for what they need, because they've learned they rarely get it. This appears in most iterations of canon with Bruce and Hulk, but is especially blatant with poor shabby Bruce in The Avengers. For JARVIS, who is all about taking care of people, this is unbearable. He doesn't know Hulk very well yet, so it's hard for JARVIS to understand how to phrase things in a way that will make sense to Hulk, but you can see the progress they're making already. Various things can help people recover from childhood neglect and learn to take better care of themselves. Caring friends help a lot just by being there and setting a good example.
Fruit, particularly tropical fruit, is something that both Bruce and Hulk love.
Etiquette for interacting with plural people can get complicated, so let's take a look at Questions for Loony-Brain, written by someone with multiple personalities. Don't treat them as dangerous. Don't try to make them go away with drugs. Understand that their age may be complex or variable. Don't try to push in one headmate or drag another out. Realize that they can interact with each other in subjective reality. Don't ask who is host/core or favor that person above the other(s). Sometimes there isn't one; Bruce may front almost all the time, but he and Hulk are two equal headmates, at least in this series. Some iterations of canon and some fanwriters do portray Hulk as a splinter of Bruce. Don't shame them for bad things that happened to them. Hulk has much the same guardian role as portrayed in that page, and the same problems. Accept that a headmate may be napping, or elsewhere, when not fronting; but it's usually easy for them to pop out when something happens that interests them.
Social phobia is one way to describe problems interacting with other people. The problem is that there's a distinction between rational and irrational fears. A phobia has several key aspects: it is irrational, intense, and it interferes with someone's life. For Bruce-and-Hulk, fear of being watched is rational. People have spied on them to enslave and torture them, and want to do that again. But now they live in a household with sane people who will protect them, so that painful shyness and aversion to cameras is doing more harm than good. They are safer with JARVIS watching them than without that, but it's very hard for them to learn and accept that after all the abuse. Fortunately there are ways to overcome the fear of being watched. This is why Bruce has practiced eye-gazing with Betty.
[To be concluded in Part 5 ...]
Fandom: The Avengers, Hulk
Characters: Hulk, JARVIS
Medium: Fiction
Warnings: Past abuse. Past fugitives. Dysfunctional family dynamics. Isolation. Internalized oppression. Low sense of self-worth. Self-destructive behavior. Shame. Depression. Bruce and Hulk are somewhere between self-abuse and domestic violence inside their headspace. Current environment is safe.
Summary: Hulk makes his first, violent appearance in Avengers Tower. JARVIS helps him calm down.
Notes: Accidents. Hurt/Comfort. Anger management issues. Sensory processing disorder. Artificial intelligence. Hulk is an enormous green fear monster. Sibling rivalry. Emotional whump. Communication issues. Loneliness. Touch starvation. Memory problems. Boundary issues. Trust issues. Daddy issues. Attachment disorder. Friendship. Hope. Hulk needs a hug. Safety and security. Protection. Teambuilding. Family of choice. Competence.
Begin with Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
"Blended" Part 4
"Are you hungry or thirsty?" Voice asks.
Hulk shrugs. Those are mostly Bruce things. Sometimes Hulk comes out to take care of them if Bruce forgets. Surviving is Hulk thing. Then Hulk gets to eat food, drink water, take nap. But Bruce hates that, hates Hulk, so Bruce tries not to go that long.
"Bruce came into the kitchen to make himself a smoothie. I think you might be hungry. Is there anything you would like to eat?" Voice asks.
"Hulk can have ...?" he asks. People yell when Hulk takes things. Only Betty ever gave anything. No. Betty and Tony.
"You can have anything you want. Just let me know what --"
"Apple!" Hulk says happily, pouncing on one. Not all fruit is smash. Fruit is round and rolls when dropped. Apple, orange, other fruit too. Fuzzy brown is kiwi. Big smooth green is papaya. Bananas look like yellow fingers. But Hulk has apple first.
"Good heavens, wash that before you put it in your mouth! It's been on the floor with broken glass!" Voice squawks.
Hulk looks around. No river for washing in.
"Look at the sink. It is damaged but I can turn the water back on anyway and you should be able to wash things," Voice says. Water comes up from shiny part of smash.
"Fountain!" Hulk says. He washes fruit. Apple. Orange. Bananas little bit smash, but Hulk loves bananas and does not care. Fruit here tastes good. Not half-brown and sour from garbage. No bugs on fruit. No bugs in whole room.
Hulk drinks from fountain too. Water is cold and clear. Not muddy or salty. Tummy is full now and feels nice.
Hulk moves back. Water goes away. Hulk feels tired. No bad men to smash. Nothing to do now. Boring.
"All done smash," Hulk says.
"I am happy to hear that. Are you ready to transform back into Bruce now?" Voice says.
Hulk flinches. Nobody wants him, only Bruce. "Hulk should go ...?"
"When you are ready," Voice says. "You do not have to leave, or change, or do anything that makes you uncomfortable. Is there anything that would help you feel better now?"
Only Betty says things like that. Only Betty wants to touch Hulk. Her hands are soft and kind. She is not here now. Hulk misses her. Others say only mean things to him. But Voice is different from others. Nice to Hulk.
"Voice come? Sit with Hulk?" he asks.
"I am here with you now. I am in the walls all around you. I am an artificial intelligence, so I do not have a body like Bruce's that could hug or cuddle you," says Voice.
Hulk frowns. Fancy words are hard. "What?"
"I am a ... tool person," Voice says. "Even though I do not look like a human person, I am still here watching over you."
"Bruce not like watching," Hulk says. He does not like it much either. Bad people watch to hurt them. Bruce and Hulk run, hide, but somebody always finds them. Bad people want to make them do bad things. Watching is scary.
* * *
Notes:
Self-preservation is one example of survival instincts. These belong to the primal self and the primitive areas of the brain. In canon, Hulk is the one most concerned with meeting their survival needs. So one way to imagine the division between him and Bruce is that Hulk lives in the hindbrain and deals with survival, while Bruce lives in the forebrain and deals with higher needs.
Neglect can have long-term consequences. One of the most obvious is that neglected people simply don't ask for what they need, because they've learned they rarely get it. This appears in most iterations of canon with Bruce and Hulk, but is especially blatant with poor shabby Bruce in The Avengers. For JARVIS, who is all about taking care of people, this is unbearable. He doesn't know Hulk very well yet, so it's hard for JARVIS to understand how to phrase things in a way that will make sense to Hulk, but you can see the progress they're making already. Various things can help people recover from childhood neglect and learn to take better care of themselves. Caring friends help a lot just by being there and setting a good example.
Fruit, particularly tropical fruit, is something that both Bruce and Hulk love.
Etiquette for interacting with plural people can get complicated, so let's take a look at Questions for Loony-Brain, written by someone with multiple personalities. Don't treat them as dangerous. Don't try to make them go away with drugs. Understand that their age may be complex or variable. Don't try to push in one headmate or drag another out. Realize that they can interact with each other in subjective reality. Don't ask who is host/core or favor that person above the other(s). Sometimes there isn't one; Bruce may front almost all the time, but he and Hulk are two equal headmates, at least in this series. Some iterations of canon and some fanwriters do portray Hulk as a splinter of Bruce. Don't shame them for bad things that happened to them. Hulk has much the same guardian role as portrayed in that page, and the same problems. Accept that a headmate may be napping, or elsewhere, when not fronting; but it's usually easy for them to pop out when something happens that interests them.
Social phobia is one way to describe problems interacting with other people. The problem is that there's a distinction between rational and irrational fears. A phobia has several key aspects: it is irrational, intense, and it interferes with someone's life. For Bruce-and-Hulk, fear of being watched is rational. People have spied on them to enslave and torture them, and want to do that again. But now they live in a household with sane people who will protect them, so that painful shyness and aversion to cameras is doing more harm than good. They are safer with JARVIS watching them than without that, but it's very hard for them to learn and accept that after all the abuse. Fortunately there are ways to overcome the fear of being watched. This is why Bruce has practiced eye-gazing with Betty.
[To be concluded in Part 5 ...]
I can remember to comment sometimes!
Date: 2014-05-24 12:11 am (UTC)Re: I can remember to comment sometimes!
Date: 2014-05-26 06:42 am (UTC)Yay! Feedback is candy.
>> There's something sad, but perfect about it. The "wash that" comment made me smile because JARVIS sounds likes a person. <<
I'm happy to hear that. JARVIS is a person and even though he is not human, his parents are, so it carries over.