Crash Landing- Betty's Debut

[hulk_whisperer]

The floor shook beneath Betty's feet and everyone stumbled from side to side uneasily as they tried to claw their way around the inside of the helicopter. Her light blue eyes were wide as she watched the two massive men hanging from the aircraft's base struggling against each other. Another shake brought her to her knees with a small shriek and she

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[lawyered]

Marshall had been building a sandcastle and definitely not moping about the island's lack of Lily when suddenly Liv Tyler appeared out of thin air. Dropping the large conch shell he'd been using for a shovel, Marshall gaped over at her.

That. Was. Awesome.

He opened his mouth to say, "Welcome to the island, Liv Friggan' Tyler," but then thought better of it. What was the likelihood this was actually Liv Tyler? Well, from the looks of her, she wasn't Arwen -- and that was as far as Marshall got as narrowing down which movie character this was.

After a sufficient amount of gaping, he grinned and said, "Hey, how's it hangin'?"

[hulk_whisperer]

Sitting up in the sand, Betty glanced over at the man who was talking to her. The sun glared in her eyes, and she had to squint, but it seemed that he had been building a... sand castle?

"Not so well?" she replied awkwardly. Her social skills didn't extend much past science geeks -- much less all the way out to beach bums.

[lawyered]

The grin faded a little. Yeah, Marshall remembered when he'd shown up here unexpectedly. While the surprise tropical paradise sorta-vacation thing in and of itself was awesome, it was not awesome being yanked from home and leaving everything you cared about behind. Like Lily. And Ted. And, dammit, even Barney.

"I'm Marshall," he said, and then gestured to their surroundings. "This is Tabula Rasa. It's this island that's sorta magical, like on Lost, and it pulls people here from all kinds of different times and places. I know, it sounds crazy, right?" Marshall grinned again, which was supposed to lend a comforting effect. However, it probably made him look more enthusiastically crazed than anything else.

[hulk_whisperer]

"Like Lost?!" she repeated to herself, and then glanced around the beach. "Meaning we can't get back?"

What if that was the case, and the Hulk couldn't find her in the helicopter back in New York? What would he do to all of the people there? Who would Bruce turn to for help with Mr. Blue out of the picture? She pressed her face into her hands, as the multiple worries that she had gathered over the past week finally broke the gates and flooded over her.

[lawyered]

"Not unless the island wants to send us back. That's how it works." Marshall's grin faded considerably. While he was glad that Robin was here with him and all, he'd give anything to go back home to New York and his Lilypad. As awesome as Lennox's pot was and the free-flowing booze at the Hub, it just couldn't compare with home.

When not-Liv Tyler stared to get upset, Marshall felt really, really bad. "Oh, crap, I'm sorry. I'm really new at this welcoming people thing. I guess I'm kind of bad at it. Sucks to be you. Sorry. But...and this is gonna sound even crazier...from what I understand, it's like there's an us still at home, too, so our friends and family don't even know we're gone."

[hulk_whisperer]

There was a person like her still at home? But what did that mean? She began to think up movies that she'd seen about empty shells beng switched out with their real life counterparts. Feeling-less things who end up destroying or taking over the person's life.

"That is pretty crazy," she said, after a moment, her eye twitching a little. "Why did this happen? What did I do?"

[lawyered]

"I don't know why it happens," Marshall said apologetically. "I doubt you did anything. The island just...chose you. One minute I was hanging out with my friends in our apartment watching a video--" He chortled for a moment, thinking about Robin's video in all its bedazzled, Canadian 1980s pop glory. "--and the next I was here on the beach."

[hulk_whisperer]

"That was probably more unsettling than crash landing here," Betty nodded, sympathizing. "How long ago was that exactly?"

This really was like Lost. She had never watched the show, but coming to work every day, the professors talked about it religiously in the dining hall. Every Wednesday they'd reflect on the week before, and every Thursday, they'd all share their shock over the show from the night before. Therefore, Betty knew more than she really wanted about it, down to the most recent character death. Why waste an hour watching what you can hear in five minutes? She had more important things to do.

"So, we really are stuck here?"

[lawyered]

"A couple of months-- Wait. You were in a crash? What kind of crash?" Yeah, it had pretty much sucked when Marshall was whisked away mid-Barney slappage, but being in some sort of crash was just-- woah.

Marshall's lips quirked up in an apologetic smile and he shrugged as if to say, 'What can we do?'

"Yeah, we're really stuck here. But sometimes people from home show up, like my friend Robin. Maybe someone you know will show up, too,..." Realizing he'd never gotten her name, he asked, "What's your name?" Not Liv Tyler.

[hulk_whisperer]

"Betty Ross. I was in a helicopter crash, actually. We were heading to try and make a landing on the roof of a nearby building, but I don't know if it worked very well."

As far as she knew, the police could be searching the 'copter in her world for her burned remains. Even if she was alive and sound here, her other self (wow, that sounded really crazy) wasn't guarenteed to stay alive. What if the island sent her back and she was already dead? What about her father? Half the soldiers had died even before impact. She'd seen the blood running from their mouths.

"Are you sure we're not, you know, dead?"

[lawyered]

"Well..." Marshall hemmed, stalling for time. There were people who were formerly dead on the island. He had no idea if Betty actually survived her crash or not, but at least Marshall was sure this wasn't Heaven, so she had a fifty-fifty chance of being alive back home.

"I'm not dead. But you should probably know that some people here were dead before they got here. I don't personally know anyone like that, but my friend Lennox has been here a long time and he's pretty much experienced all you can around this place."

[hulk_whisperer]

"That's a round-about answer," Betty replied with a quirked eyebrow. "Well, I guess I'll just hope for the best then, huh?"

Marshall was a nice enough guy, but not nearly as reassuring as she's hoped he'd be. She was alive here, but that really didn't mean much when, back home, she could be burning, or blown up, or crushed... Ugh, why was she actually thinking about all of that?

"Sooo, is this it?" gestures to the land around them, more to prompt him to explain than actually being serious.

[lawyered]

"Positivity is always the answer," Marshall said seriously. A beat. "Unless you're staring down an angry T-Rex or something." His eyes widened. "Did I mention there are dinosaurs here? Because there are! But don't worry; it's totally safe. They're behind an electric fence and everything."

He waved a hand toward the wooden pathway just up the beach. "There's way more to this place. If you follow that pathway, you'll pass a bunch of huts and stuff and eventually you'll end up at the compound. It's got food, clothes, laundry, a clinic -- you name it, it's probably there."