2015.03.02 - Home Sweet Home Pt. 3

Lois just let Jack inside just as she got dinner ready. Bruce of course is in the living room watching over Loki which has become the usual lately. Getting up, "Hey there, Jack. How goes?"
Moon Knight is sitting behind the sofa, which assuredly makes sense to him. He listens though as Lois greets Jack at the door.
Lois Lane closes the door behind Jack, and walks back to the kitchen, humming. A few minutes later, she's got a plate full of pulled-pork sandwiches, and brings it into the living room, setting the large dish on the coffee table. "I'll bring in napkins and plates for you and me, Bruce. And water for you Jack?" She doesn't want to be rude. There's plenty of food for everyone present, even counting the unconscious and the hidden.
"Water's fine. Moon Knight, please come out from behind the sofa," he adds completely casually. Wait, Moon Knight's behind the sofa? Either way, Jack tugs off his jacket and hangs it on the back of Lois' door. He's wearing a plain white shirt underneath.
"Thank you." Bruce says towards Lois rather unaware that Moon has lingered around. Might been while he was sleeping in the chair or something. "Huh?" he steps behind the sofa to look for himself.
Marc Spector drawls unconcernedly, "It's not Moon Knight right now. And I don't want to be underfoot." he does stand up though, and unlike before he's a grey-green monochrome figure in stark lighting that doesn't match the room. His face is shadowed by a brimmed hat instead of a cowl, and he's wearing a trenchcoat and suit instead of a costume. He looks like some sort of noir PI throwback. He inclines his head to Bruce, though.
Lois Lane stops halfway out of the kitchen, plates in one hand, glass of water in the other. Instinct has her trying to douse Moon Knight - or whatever he was calling himself - with the water, even as she registers that Jack and Bruce know the man. "Who are you, and how did you get into my apartment without me knowing?!" she grouses. She sets the plates sown on the table. "I'll get a towel - and some more water. Sorry Jack." She head back into the kitchen, and returns with a full glass and a towel. Te towel she tosses at Marc's head.
"Give me a name, then." Jack shrugs. "He's the last person who had the mask. Maybe we can make some progress on working out how to get the magic out of the mask and back into the Loki."
Bruce gets partly doused by that water as well but isn't overly worried with it. Taking a napkin he wipes himself off best he can at least. "He helped us get the mask." he tells Lois. "Moon Knight also known as... well I don't know his real name."
The be-trenchcoated man wasn't really expecting a warm welcome, but the water unceremoniously flung into his face is a surprise. He twitches unconsciously, slightly forward towards the front of the sofa as if to shield the two snoozing there-- but just ends up spluttering when the cold water hits him instead of any sort of attack. His oh-so-cool hat ends up dripping merrily with water, at least until the towel ends up draped over top of it. "....Thanks." he says, and if the rest of him isn't, his voice at least is dry. He starts to mop off the wayward contents of the glass, answering, "And my name is Marc; I'm not entirely sure how I got here, but you were out, Miss Lane." 
She might notice that one of her potted plants has a slightly different pot than she's used to it having, and that her armoire looks freshly dusted, if she's really paying attention. Marc nods to Jack in sheepish agreement..considering even his skin is uniformly greyish green and not responding properly to the light in the room, it's a good bet he has the mask right now, though he hadn't meant to be keeping it quite this way. At least he's not going psycho like that kid did, at present.
Lois Lane doesn't look sheepish at all for splashing Marc. He deserved it. "Hello Marc." Lois is still a good host, despite her guests being.... abnormal. She eyes the slight changes in her living room - and sighs. "Are you hungry? You're welcome to help yourself." She quickly fetches another plate for her surprise guest. "So, I'm assuming you don't always look non-Euclidian? Do you have the mask, then?" Yes, she's misusing non-Euclidian. "I want to get Loki back to normal."
"I'd say...he has the mask." Jack moves to sit down, although he doesn't reach for any of the quite excellent food on offer. He's a cheap date, as it were.
Bruce Banner pulls out the chair for Lois recalling his manners at least. "Nicky was laying with Loki last I saw as well." he says, "Pleasure to meet you, Marc. I am Bruce.. You've already seen my other side." is that a hint so that things don't get out of hand? Take it as you will.
Marc understands the intent of Lois question, anyways. He nods to her and Jack.. "I've got it." he confirms. "..I'd..like to hold onto it until someone can figure out how to get Loki's power back where it belongs. But we'll protect him until then, rest assured." does that mean he's planning to stay, then? He stays where he is for now, though his out of place appearance ripples a bit at the mention of food. He mutters something under his breath that might be, "Hold your horses.." and then adds aloud, "Are you sure that's alright?" and then almost chiding, despite it being at his own actions, "It's not exactly like you had warning."
Lois Lane chuckles. "I consider myself lucky if I get warning before something weird happens." she shrugs, thanking Bruce as she sits down. "So, please, help yourself. There's more than enough." She grabs her plate, and puts a generously loaded sandwich on it. "Can you control the mask, though?" she asks, sounding worried. "Everyone else it gets into contact with kinda... well, becomes a mischief maker, in my case."
"I think he's used to dealing with chaos," Jack muses. "I might be wrong, but I suspect the more chaotic somebody is, the easier it is to handle the mask. I'm definitely not that chaotic." He shrugs. "All of this makes me feel quite, quite glad nobody can take my abilities away and use them without killing me."
Bruce Banner sits down as well, "The mask healed itself? I thought my alter ego broke it." he also takes a sandwich for himself.
Marc nods a bit sheepishly in regards to the food, walking over to collect a plate and sandwich as well. "Thank you," he says though his hat briefly warps to a brighter wool cap and the shadows recede as he smiles appreciatively, "Thank you very much!" He has a few bites of sandwich before the muted tones and fedora return, and he answers, sober again, "I think..I can use it I have to, for Loki. We're kinda scrambled, but we're managing." he grimaces to Bruce. "Yeah, it healed. I don't think just breaking it is enough."
Lois Lane isn't an expert on magic, regardless of what people might assume based on her job. She knows a few things. "Don't powerful artifacts tend to resist being destroyed?" She eyes Marc, looking confused at his sudden pronoun shift. "The mask stole all of Loki's power, including his natural healing abilities. Right now, he's basically human. I'm worried what will happen if he doesn't get his power back soon."
"I figured just breaking it would either not work or be actively counterproductive," Jack muses. "Thor's still looking for magic users." He glances at Moon Knight. "Any bright ideas? I'm no magic user."
"Maybe it resists but.. I managed to break it enough to free the innocent child." Bruce says before taking a bite of the sandwich. He could so go nuts over the taste of this right now. "..mmrf gere..ghhtfh..." he says with his mount full before swallowing, "Sorry. I don't know any magic users either. At least not able to help with this."
Marc's awareness seems to range from vaguely annoyed to entirely oblivious in regards to the shifts in his word choice or demeanor. "Protecting Loki is paramount." he agrees with Lois. To The magic user questions he says, "I know one. He's looking into it, but I don't know if he'll find anything. I don't..have my usual avenues of information right now, because of the mask. But that might be for the b--" he tchs, tensing briefly as his form flickers again, though to nothing distinct. "This is going to end one way or the other, so there's no point in getting up in arms." he points out, apropos of nothing. He wonders to Jack though, "Thor's people don't have an answer?"
Lois Lane takes a big bite of her sandwich, chewing thoroughly before swallowing. "What about one of the Zatara family?" she opines, shrugging. She eyes Marc again, this time looking distinctly worried. "Are you okay?"
"I don't know them. I know one magic user, but he's being elusive in the way only magic users can be. But if somebody knows the Zataras...their rep is pretty good." Jack settles back in his chair. "Thor left to find one. I haven't seen him since, so I'm assuming they're still researching it."
Bruce Banner raises his eyes watching Marc now, "Where is the mask?" he asks him starting to feel rather tense. For a brief moment his eyes flash Hulk green as well as the skin of his face before it goes back to normal.
Marc Spector waves off Lois' concern. "I'm alright. It's not the mask." he'd explain further, but people don't tend to consider him the most mentally stable at the best of times, let alone when he's wearing a cursed chaos mask. Better to just be reassuring since things are under control.. or channeled, anyways. And he's not sure he can afford to leave, as things currently stand. He starts to reply on the subject of magic users, but then the stark shadow masking the top of his face turns in Bruce's direction, letting him see clearly that the polarized monochrome of Marc's outfit extends to his skin, which is also a greyish green. "I'm wearing it." he answers.
Lois Lane takes another bite of food, smaller this time. Not for the first time, she wished she had some power so that she wouldn't feel left out. "...I'll be polite, and not ask the hows and whys." she says finally. She shrugs. "You're welcome to stay here, if you want to stay close to Loki. I trust you not to hurt him or me."
"I suppose it's best it stay with you. I don't want to have to fix New York again...and she doesn't want to have to be fixed." A pause. "I asked her opinion, but I didn't get anything helpful." Which isn't unusual, in Jack's experience. "Cities are good at defining problems. Fixing them, not so much."
Perhaps he is confused or something but Bruce goes silent trying to control his anxiety. No.. he won't try to rip the mask off him unless he does something stupid. Trying to keep his mind not focused on the mask he begins eating more of the sandwich. Yes.. Doctor is hungry and feeding the beast dying to emerge to break the apartment.
Marc bows his head, humbled. "You have a very generous heart." he says quietly to Lois. though he glances to Loki, still sleeping. Perhaps that's not doing full justice to the woman who would take in a wayward godling of mischief, let alone allow the hulk and a lunatic at her table. Jack's the most benign of the lot of them, objectively. He does catch Bruce's worried eye, but returns his attention to his food as well rather than call attention to it.
Lois Lane waves off Marc's words. "Hey, just being a good host is all, even if you snuck in here." She chuckles, showing that she's not upset at Marc at all, and all is forgiven. She spares a glance at Loki herself, smiling fondly for a moment. Was life easy and normal? No, not in the least. But, she liked being constantly surprised. She takes another bite of food.
"Sorry for blowing your cover, Marc, but I'm hard to sneak past." He shrugs a bit. "So. Action plan is to bug the Zataras and see if they can work out, or know somebody who can work out, how to fix this? Like I said, I don't do magic." He talks to cities. He doesn't call it magic?
Bruce Banner continues to eat his food staying silent. Though after a moment he begin to cough as he chokes on something dropping the food onto his plate. Smacking himself on the chest to get it to either come up or go down his eyes flash Hulk green staying that color.
Marc Spector smirks a bit, waving off Jack's apology. He does know of Jack's abilities, but he'd never thought much about exactly what caused them; mutant? Scientist stuff..? He only knows it's not divine in nature. He's about to ask a question when he turns to Bruce. "Hey, you okay? Do you need some--" though then he springs to his feet, edging between Bruce and the sofa. "Hey..." he says a bit more urgently.
Lois Lane keeps, just a little. "Bruce, hang on, do I need to Heimlich you?" She looks very worried; she didn't need a enormous green rage monster in her living room. The landlady would get so pissed. "Hey big guy, we aren't going to let Bruce hurt himself, okay?" She stands up, and goes around Bruce, wrapping her arms around him in a proper Heimlich posture. If he gives her the go ahead, she'll start trying to dislodge the food.
If Bruce Hulks out...Jack tenses visibly, although he doesn't move. He's thinking through what to do if Bruce hulks out in his friend's apartment, and contemplating what's in the apartment underneath Lois' apartment. And the one under that. Dropping him through the floor might not work...
Well he wanted to keep his mind occupied and caused himself to choke. Bruce knew his other half wouldn't even let a bullet do them in so food won't either. Though as Lois does the Heimlich the food does spit out onto his plate. "OK..OK.." he says now taking his drink taking a big guzzle of it. Indeed.. No Hulking out and tearing up an apartment building. How would he even explain that to SHIELD? -I choked and therefore tore up an apartment building-
Marc Spector 's clothes were starting to spike out strangely, and his trench coat was flaring with a greenish glow, but he relaxes with a sigh as Bruce settles. Reminded that they never do know when the other proverbial shoe may drop, he heads back and hastily eats the rest of his sandwich.. thankfully without choking.
Lois Lane pats Bruce on the back, gently. "Easy there Henry, no need for Edward." She winks and sits back down with a sigh. She's got a little grin on her face, as if she's delighted to have saved the day - or her apartment, anyway. "So, now that we've had are daily recommended dose of panic..."
"Thanks, Lois. We're on too high a floor for me to just drop him into the sewers," Jack quips. Although from his tone he not just could do that to Bruce? He would. Like a shot. If it was necessary. "No offense, Bruce, but we don't need a rampage."
Sitting down it takes Bruce a moment to compose himself. "Thanks." he says lightly now wiping his mouth. "None taken, Jack, and I'd have understood. Can't speak for the other guy."
Marc Spector wonders to Bruce around the end of his sandwich, "It happens just like that..? Whenever you're in danger, huh..?"
Lois Lane goes over to Loki for a moment, checking on the sleeping Asgardian. She makes sure his breathing's steady, before she readjusts the blanket on him. "It's a reflexive action, becoming the other guy?" she asks Bruce.
Jack settles back into his seat. "I think a lot of powers stuff is...reflexive, like that. Or somehow programmed in. Think about it too much and it stops working so well...always best to relax into it."
"Not really a power." Bruce tells Jack before glancing over to Lois. "Some say its a lot of pent up aggression. One time I tried shooting myself in the mouth an the other guy spit out the bullet. See if I die then well so does he.. So he does whatever he feels like to keep it from happening. If I feel others are in danger or myself it just happens. Or if someone really ticks me off I just about black out and wake up naked." he blushes, "Not that you needed to know that last part."
Lois Lane's eyes widen. "You... what? Oh, Bruce." She stands up, walking over to put a comforting hand on the man's shoulder. She squeezes gently, unable to find any words for a moment. "If you need anything, just ask okay?" she manages finally.
"I woke up right as some idiot who couldn't be bothered to hook up a brain scanner pronounced me dead once," Jack noted. "Took to carrying a medalert after that." From his lighthearted tone, he's trying to elevate the mood a little.
Bruce Banner looks up to Lois, "Thanks." he then smirks a little bit to Jack. "One thing I have to my record it that I've tore up buildings and maybe hurt people a bit but.. I've never killed anyone."
Marc Spector seems to be of decent humor about the lot of them, though he snrks at Jack. "That must have surprised him; but why'd he think you were dead if you were well enough to wake up?"
Lois Lane looks over at Jack. "I'm going to assume that you're not what we call a normal human." she says dryly. She sits back down, crossing her legs casually. "Must have scared the doctor senseless."
"For some reason, it really confuses medical types when the person they're looking at doesn't have a pulse." Jack flickers a grin at Lois. "What, you thought the guy who talks to cities was *normal*?"
Bruce Banner now goes silent rather intrigued about this. A man with no pulse that talks to buildings, so many of SHIELD would find this interesting.
Marc Spector ,meanwhile, is startled. "No pulse?" he starts to ask, but clears his throat. "..Probably none of my business, just.. wasn't expecting that."
"Normal? When is *anything* in my life normal?" Lois gestures around to emphasize her point. "I have an Asgardian prince sleeping in my living room, and then there's all of you." She shrugs. "I just figured you were a particularly odd shamanistic type, is all. Like a Tibetian monk, only more urban.
"There are a few shamans around who can do some of the stuff I can do," Jack shrugs. "But I haven't met one who can do it all." And he glances at Marc. "Cyborg," he says by way of explanation. Not that he LOOKS like one...except for the feet. But it might explain the eye glowy stuff Bruce saw.
"I am normal... My other side is just pissed at everything." Bruce smirks getting up taking his own plate to the kitchen to clear it.
Lois Lane chuckles at Bruce. "Well, can I say I'm a bit envious of him? Being able to let loose like that? Sounds like fun to me..."
Marc Spector ..does want to keep the mood light, as he's an interloper.. but even if he's not the Hulk, he does know what it's like to not be in control of your own body, and he has a hard time laughing.. so he doesn't. "It's great to cut loose and do whatever you want, until you find out it won't actually be -you- who's doing it.."
Lois Lane ponders that, :I suppose you're right. I mean... Sometimes I get frustrated because I have no powers." She shrugs. "And while I love my job as a reporter - I think it would be exciting to see the world through eyes like yours."
Bruce Banner looks at Lois, "I wasn't always able to change. I was once just a boring nuclear physicist that worked for the government. An accident changed me forever."
Marc laughs quietly.. he nods to Bruce.. he really seems like a gentle soul, when he's not...green and furious. But he on the other hand.. "You remind me of me, kinda." he says to Lois. "I wanted to be something like this since.. geez, since I was a dumb kid, I suppose. It never really stopped. And I won't tell you that getting weird powers is always a curse or something; I've heard of you. You get half the nutcases in the city after you anyhow, so what would you have to lose, right? But.." he frowns, shaking his head a bit. "Powers like his, especially." he glances emphatically to Bruce. "Losing yourself, knowing you can't get out of it...I wouldn't recommend it."
Lois Lane looks at Marc, with a sardonic grin. "Maybe attracting weirdos is my superpower." she jokes. "So... is everyone in there named Marc, or...?" Not that she'd have a problem with that. At this point, multiple personalities was tame.
Bruce Banner does happen to notice him talking to himself or something. "I talk to my other self sometimes. Though all he does is growl in my head." he sips at his drink. "Are you talking to yourself or is the mask talking to you?"
A breath of a laugh sounds from Marc.(?) "Not a bad super power for a reporter in your line, I guess." he opinions. "And.." he looks a bit sheepish at how casually she lays it out. Well, if she was going to think he was crazy, the damage was probably long since done for now anyhow. "No.. we all have names." he blinks at Bruce. "No kidding?" he's surprised... from what he'd heard about the Hulk, he wouldn't have guessed it. "Just us..I can feel the mask, but it's not...talking." he shrugs, still feeling self conscious with the subject. He knows what he knows, but unlike Bruce there's no proof when he switches; he's wondered himself sometimes weather it was real or not.
"Well, all of them are welcome here." Lois says congenially. Hell, after talking with an incarnated Goddess, among others, there wasn't much that would be considered too weird anymore. "Just so long as everyone behaves."
"I should probably head home." Bruce tells her, "You can call me though anytime you need me to watch Loki or Nicky."
Marc nods to Lois, and carefully fails to mention the reported ficus. "Of course." He hesitates a bit, and the mask-augmented appearance flickers a few more times through crescent-y spikes to Norman Rockwellesque everyman to top hat white tie and tails before back to the noir look. "..We all heard." this last with a bit of challenge as if he was trying to bully at least some of these others into minding their manners. "Thank you.." he looks up at Bruce. "They have your number?"
"You can crash her if you want, just find a place to flop." Lois shrugs. "I can pull out some extra blankets, I have lots."
"I've been sleeping in your chair. Comfortable of course." Bruce tells her, "I feel as if I should pay rent or something."
Marc Spector says seriously, "We can. Pay rent."
Lois Lane chuckles. "You don't need to, really. It's strange having so many people here, but... now it actually feels like a home." The woman smiles. "...Maybe after things calm down.... I might think about having my own family."
Bruce Banner hasn't seen a gentlemen caller coming in for Lois but he doesn't question such. "A baby of yours would be cute. And I don't mind pitching in. Not that my apartment is too far."
Marc Spector hasn't had the best history of familial bliss, so opts not to comment on that one. He does say a bit wryly, "We won't take up much space, anyhow."
Lois Lane chuckles. "I might need a bigger place." she comments wryly.
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