tushanshu | [Video]

[Ghosts. At first, Hellboy's not all that surprised by them. Over the last few years he's spent plenty of time with ghosts. When he's alone, it's kind of nice to have that kind of company again. Ghosts don't care much about the future, only the past. No speculating, no worrying over what's gonna happen next. It's strangely relaxing.

So over the last few days, when he's not checking up on Liz, he's found himself some new pals. He keeps to himself. They play cards, he drinks, tells old stories, and they come and go as ghosts tend to do.

It's not until he gets a chance to do some roaming around Keeliai does he realize how widespread the haunting really was.

It's a little unsettling, to say the least. He's pretty used to this kind of thing, but ghosts don't usually appear this solidly and in this great a number. Not unless something especially big and nasty came around to stir them up. Though if what they say about this place is true--about it existing somewhere between life, dreaming and death--maybe it's not that rare.]

Guess we've got ourselves a ghost problem. They seem pretty harmless, but if anyone has any trouble, I know a few ways of getting rid of them.

And don't waste your time with the guys in the masks. I think they're just out to make a buck.

[That pissed him off a little. Earlier he had seen a guy with a ridiculous mustache claiming to be an "expert" try to chase an especially irritated poltergeist out of a florist shop by banging pans together and doing some kind of crazy Macarena. And he tried to charge ten juulan for it. That was just painful.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Interesting. Sure.

[Not exactly the word he'd use for it.]

What would you call them, then?

A pain in the ass.

I'm sure they feel the same way about you.

Probably.

Never bothered to ask?

[He stares at her quizzically for a moment, wondering why she even wants to know all this. He guesses some people just have a morbid fascination, and it's always a little irritating when those people start asking him questions.]

Don't need to.

[morbid fascination is one way to put it.]

Okay. So say one of those huge pains in the ass comes out of nowhere and doesn't want to talk. What's your plan of action?

I'm curious. Don't meet a lot of heroes these days.

Listen, kid. I don't know what cult or rock band or whatever else you might be from, but I don't do interviews.

Fine. How about a trade? You tell me your techniques, I tell you mine. I hunt ghosts ... when I have to.

[He raises a brow, considering this. It could be possible. She could also be lying, but what difference did it make, anyway?]

Can't say I've got much of a technique.

Just run at things, axe in hand, and aim for the soft spots?

[He tilts his head, the corner of his mouth twitching into something that looks more like a grimace than a smile. His tone is wry as he brings his stone hand into the view of the camera.]

Don't even need an axe.

[she peers at that hand intently. probably a little more intently than necessary.]

Stone, or metal that looks like it?

[He'll just... put that hand back out of sight now.]

Yeah, it's metal. Lost the arm in a plane accident. But they had the technology. Said it'd make me better, stronger, faster.

[Okay, so he's just being a idiot now. Yeah, he knows what that hand is and where it came from, but he'd rather play dumb a million times over than talk about that.]

Looks like it was all to your advantage in the end.

[pop culture references: right over her head. she doesn't see anything out of the ordinary with that kind of thought process, so she pretty much believes it.]

Must be powerful magic - or technology, but I've heard they're basically the same thing - that keeps it from smashing to pieces against the really nasty things.

[Good. Then he'll just keep running with it.]

Yep.

Your magic?

Or someone else's?

Kid, you ask too many damn questions.

I get it. Sensitive topic for you. Let's change subjects.

[she'll have to find out another way.]

So you hit them and they're gone, huh? Sounds about as corporeal as the ones I'm used to. They go down with a couple hits themselves; none of this ... phasing stuff.

[He glares at her for a long, silent moment, asking himself why he's still talking to this girl. Well, she said she hunts ghosts and seems to know a thing or two. Maybe it's just his curiosity come to bite him in the ass again. Who knows.]

No. Ghost hunting where I'm from has more to do with sitting in old houses with a bunch of psychics and looking for cold spots. Nothing this obvious. They just call me in for the bad stuff.

Like demons?

[she still thinks he's got a hint of the coil in him, but - that doesn't seem to exist outside her world, so maybe not. maybe he fights the equivalent, though. as far as she's concerned, 'bad stuff' includes them and ... well. her.]

Or are we talking zombies, here?

[Yeah. The coil may not be a thing outside of her world, but there's definitely something about him that someone with that kind of sensitivity can feel. It's not all malevolence. Not all of him. A lifetime of living as a human has smothered most of the demon side of him. But it's there. Somewhere deep and buried, but there.]

Demons, zombies, vampires... You name it.

Edited 2012-11-11 05:54 (UTC)

[she looks interested, but not quite as intently so as when he held up the hand ... or when she first saw him before and immediately thought certain demon emperors had followed her here. but that last handful of seconds aside, up until that point, she'd gotten along just fine with demons.

may as well continue that semi-goodwill as long as it's an option.]

Your world sounds ... interesting. Someplace I'd like to visit if we ever get off this turtle.

Yeah, it's something.

[He's pretty jaded on the subject. Not to say that the stuff didn't interest him, he just concerns himself with getting rid of monsters more than anything. And if there weren't horrible things in the world, his life would've been a lot different. Better? Maybe. Maybe not. But after everything he's been through lately, why someone would want to visit his world solely because of the monsters is beyond him.]

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