The Wordsmith's Forge

This story is a sequel to "Love Is for Children," "Eggshells," "Dolls and Guys," "Saudades," "Turnabout Is Fair Play," and "Touching Moments."

Fandom: The Avengers
Characters: Phil Coulson, Clint Barton, Natasha Romanova, Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Steve Rogers, JARVIS.
Medium: Fiction
Warnings: No standard warnings apply.
Summary: Bilgesnipe make for messy fighting. It takes a team to get Hulk clean again.
Notes: Asexual character (Clint). Aromantic character (Natasha). Asexual relationship. Teamwork. Canon-typical violence. Fluff. Trust issues. Skin hunger. Comfort. Non-sexual touching and intimacy. Non-sexual ageplay. Communal bathing. Cuteness. Personal growth. Family of choice.

If you've been reading this series for the ageplay, that's most of the story. There's a bit of combat up front and then alllll the fluffy goodness.

A note on feedback: While it's not necessary to comment on every post I make, remember that I don't know who reads/likes things if nobody says anything. Particularly on long stories, I've discovered that I get antsy if there's nothing but crickets chirping for several posts. So it helps to give me feedback at least once, even if it's just "I like this" or "This one doesn't grab me."

Skip to Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7.


"Splash" Part 1


Hulk comes out in midair. Coming out always hurts, sometimes more, sometimes less. It makes him angry, but it also feels good, like stretching after too long sitting still.

Coming out in sky is different than on ground. It is like flying, but Hulk can only fly downward. At first he found this scary. Now he finds it fun. Smashing is more fun though. Hulk always gets to smash after flying like this.

When he lands, ground shakes. What needs smashing? Hulk wonders. Star Man points. There are huge things, furry and scaly, with big antlers. They look like goats and also like lizards. They stink.

Hulk jumps at them. Jumping is like flying sideways. Hulk is good at jumping. Tinman is better at flying. Hulk sees him zapping stinky goats. Green fist hits one before it can hurt Tinman.

Stinky goats do not go smash like robots or cars. It is more like splash. Now there is red everywhere. Goats stink even worse inside. Hulk roars.

This is good fight though. Sometimes when Hulk comes out, everything is too loud and bright and whole world hurts him. Then he can't decide anything, only react. Sometimes men shoot at him. Hulk would rather fight things other than men, even giant goats that stink. Today he does not feel like his skin is on too tight and Bruce is not nagging him to be careful of tiny, nasty men. Hulk is okay fighting these new enemies, no matter how messy they get.

"Hulk, smash those!" says Star Man, pointing at more of them.

"Splash," Hulk grumbles, but goes anyway. He does not want stinky goats to hurt his friends. They are stepping on everything in their path. All of it goes smash under their heavy feet. Hulk will show them smash! Or splash.

Stupid goat chases Red. She is small and fast and very fierce. Red does not smash. She runs close to Birdie and he shoots down goat.

Birdie reaches again but he is out of pointy sticks. More goats come. Hulk charges one and hits its hind end.
"OOO, STINK!" Hulk roars. He is covered in stink. Something like thick yellow oil oozes all over him. Hulk stomps on goat until it is just red slick on gray road. He cannot get more stinky now. Might as well splash.

Hulk looks for more enemies. Most lie still on ground. One fights with Star Man. Shield gets caught in big antlers. Star Man punches goat's nose! It skids back but does not go down.

Hulk shows Star Man how to smash. Splash. Goat does not move any more. Star Man wipes red and yellow off his suit with both hands. Now everyone stinks. "Son of a gun," Star Man says, shaking his hands off.

Nothing left to fight now -- smashing all done. Hulk kicks at loose piece of building. Small people will come squeak over that. They do not like messes. Let them clean up goat bits and bricks. Hulk just wants to go home and not stink anymore.

This is problem. Hulk is still covered in stink. Whenever Hulk goes, Bruce comes. Bruce does not need to be sleepy and stinky. Hulk protects Bruce. So Hulk stays even though he wants to go.

* * *

Notes:

Hulk's speech in canon resembles that of a toddler.  He often speaks with just one or two words at a time, but can string together several if necessary.  He tends to leave out the inflections and other fancy bits that a fully fluent speaker uses. This is partly because he has had little time out in the world to gain experience, and partly because Hulk handles concrete ideas well but abstract ideas poorly.  The instinctive, intuitive, emotional parts of the mind lean the same way. There are tips for encouraging language development.

Hulk is hypersensitive -- sometimes more, sometimes less.  I based this on Hulk's behavior in canon and especially on Bruce's remark in Avengers, "I'm exposed, like a nerve.  It's a nightmare."  Sensory hypersensitivity is a real condition that can be challenging or downright crippling for people depending on its severity.  There are tips for coping with heightened sensitivity.  Closely related is sensory processing disorder: a range of malfunctions in how the brain filters, combines, and interprets the messages coming from the senses.  This hypersensitivity and message scrambling often leads to sensory defensiveness, trying to avoid the overload.  

Hulk easily gets confused, frustrated, and angry because sometimes the whole world just hurts.  And then someone or something usually tries to kill him, so no wonder he lashes out.  This is similar to meltdown and related events from the autism spectrum.  Meltdown can be triggered by physical, emotional, or other overstimulation.  Given Bruce's remark in the movie, it sounds like things were pretty bad before.  (Hulk probably punched Thor for breathing too loud or emitting static electricity.)  Over the course of Love Is For Children, things have gotten better for Bruce-and-Hulk, so the sensory overload is mostly down to annoying instead of maddening.  There are usually warning signs before people have a meltdown, so sometimes it can be prevented.  Ideally, sensitivity is a gift rather than a curse.

Bilgesnipe are monsters mentioned in The Avengers. Various renditions have been made; I like this one, although I've always thought of them as a bit more goatlike with a touch of skunk.

Teamwork improves combat effectiveness.  Here you can see how the growing team bond allows them to combine their strengths better than they used to do.

Back in the Avengers  movie, Tony implied that Hulk was protecting Bruce and had saved his life.  This is true.  Hulk thinks of that as his job, and has since expanded it to other people.  Bruce is having a very hard time understanding this.


[To be continued in Part 2 ...]