savevoid | [CLOSED] Week 14 Day 3

CHARACTERS: Abe (

icthyo), Hellboy (

hellshaped), and Liz (

quitting)
DATE: Week 14 Day 3
RATING: vampires
SUMMARY: The BPRDs do what BPRDs do best: Punch some undead jerks in the face.

It's strange how things like this can make a person feel right at home.

Hellboy hated vampires. They were always creepy and cloying and snobbish -- as if they knew something he didn't, as if they were better than him. The former is arguably true; the undead are all children of Hecate, and he can only imagine what annoying and baseless stories she told them about him. The latter, though... the moment a bloodsucking dead thing is better than him, he's quitting.

Of course, he already quit a long time ago. Sometimes it's hard to forget that, especially when he's with Abe again. And with Liz -- it's bizarre seeing her older than she was last week, but she's still younger than the last time he'd seen her, before the last time she quit the Bureau and flounced off to God knows where.

(The irony is not lost on him.)

He's still adjusting to the idea of not needing to be overly protective of Liz, adjusting to the idea of her being a capable (if not new) agent. It'll come back soon enough, but then he'll have to remind himself that she's a rookie now, and not a seasoned field agent...

Sometimes Hellboy really hates this temporal pocket dimension crap.

But he's not really thinking about any of that right now -- he's seen something out the corner of his eye as he plods slowly down the abandoned street, the clicking of his hooves echoing in the dusk. He's alone but not really; he keeps seeing shadows move and he's got a pretty good idea of what that could be. The air just feels right for it. Familiar and unwanted all in the same moment.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Liz's knowledge of vampires came purely from reading and from listening to people with infinitely more experience than she. Sure, it made for some theoretical knowledge - yes, crosses worked, but sort of like a magnifying glass worked on an ant, wherein in that particular simile, the sun became faith: something the whole thing wouldn't work without. Which was probably poetic in some manner, but anyway. Stakes, decapitation, literal sunlight, all the standard stuff you'd probably learn just going to the movies.

None of that made for practical know how. Would she have the quick thinking to use the crucifix she had now tied around her wrist instead of her neck? Would fire kill them outright? How the hell could you find the right place and angle to stab a moving target in the heart?

In any case, her lack of experience as a field agent now was an irritating and dangerous elephant in the room. She'd almost rather go back to the time when her lack of any particular ability didn't actually cause her this amount of aggravation.

Back when being alone was a breathtaking slip of the leash and not deeply unsettling.

Especially in that situation, in that town, on that street. Where every shadow seemed to shift before her eyes, take on liquid shapes that froze when she tried to look at them directly.

And so when she saw a very large, red shape in the distance and picked up the pace to a jog, she was struck by a strong surge of relief. Not only at seeing someone she knew because right at that moment that was pretty goddamn welcome... but at having at least one friend big enough to see from a distance.

Slowing down to a walk as she caught up to him, the closest thing to a greeting Hellboy got from her was:

"Become an agent, they said. See the world, they said."

Be taken to another dimension with more time warps than Rocky Horror? Not what they said.

The fun part about tackling vampires when you don't hold God in high faith (haha) was that crosses don't actually do much. That's where the misconceptions come in—a couple people die to vampires with crosses clutched in their hands, and the world at large stops thinking they work. The undead are probably laughing at that at whatever dumb undead congregations they have. Look at these hapless humans, look at how weak their faith is.

Condescending jerks, that's what vampires are.

But it's a better mindset than being afraid of them. Abe had been scoping things out from ahead, walking back to where Hellboy was with an impromptu stake (read: broken table leg) resting on his shoulder. Seeing Liz there along for the ride—past her rebellious teen stage and settling into her own as an agent—was a nice surprise. Being able to actually talk to her without running the risk of freaking her out was also pretty cool.

What's odd is seeing her at an age where she was the veteran in his eyes. Back then, e was the guy who stayed back at headquarters while she go investigated mysterious cattle mutilations, his 'job' mostly consisting of reading and being an abnormality.

The roles are a little more reversed, but the ground is less uneven than when she'd been a literal child. It just meant he'd have to watch her back a little bit closer. He approaches casually, catching the bit of conversation and quipping in as well. Quietly, because they're not safe (they're never safe), but a quip all the same.

"Can you imagine how recruitment would go if we were totally honest?"

At least they're in some kind of contemporary year, this time. Hellboy probably couldn't handle another space adventure with space zombies in space. (Though he's all kinds of grateful that happened before Liz showed up -- screaming dead people on fire is probably not a thing she needs to see.)

"Vacation packages get a little better in about another decade," he says, slowing down when he hears Liz approach from behind, glancing over his shoulder with a small smile, one side of his mouth lifting slightly. Insurance as an field agent continued to be laughable until the day he quit, though; not that it mattered, since he'd never need it. The only times Hellboy ever got sick were when he was hungover or enchanted to some degree.

HMOs don't really cover enchantments.

Ah, and then there's Abe -- Hellboy gives him a look that amounts to What, you didn't get one for me? when he shows up with the table leg, then gestures between him and Liz. "I guess I don't have to introduce you two again."

If there were a list of things Liz would never want to have to put up with in her life, screaming dead people on fire would come somewhere near to the top of it. So she could be thankful she wasn't around for that one. If she knew to be. Which she didn't.

So right now there was very little to be grateful for.

Well, a couple of things. People. Not that she'd tell them that.

"Wow, there's a relief," she retorted (quietly) to Hellboy, nodding at Abe with a small grin in greeting. "A week on the Jersey Shore, that's just what we all need to get over this."

It was odd, really, she thought, turning her attention more to Abe - she remembered now being fourteen and feeling that weird sense of unease around him, not knowing how to deal with it (and so doing what she did much of the time with things she couldn't deal with: avoided him). Now she could barely have imagined feeling like that. That in itself was what made her uneasy - that weird dichotomy between what was and what shouldn't have been.

And that too, she utterly sidestepped.

"Ready to play Van Hellsing?"

[CLOSED] Week 14 Day 3

i don't know what i'm doing

does anyone ever

i don't know what y'all are talking about, i'm great at this

wow well check u out