[Video]

[histruename]

[It's been a while since Hellboy's shown his face. Not since the zombie attack. Truth be told, he hasn't felt all that social over the last week or so. Liz is gone again. He's not really sure how he feels about that. But her absence has got him thinking, and too much thinking lead to old habits that really do die hard. He spends most of the week at the bottom of a bottle holed up in his living room, staring at the intricate star chart that had been given to him by a stranger. Trying to make sense of things. Just trying to figure out how this fits into the big picture.

He thinks a lot about Liz, and the seed of an idea she planted just before she disappeared. She'd wanted to start some type of Bureau here, and maybe that wasn't such a bad idea. If there's one thing the Foreigners needed, it was organization. And if there was one thing Hellboy needed, it was a distraction. This could very well be a recipe for both.

Though he's dubious of his actual organizational skills. His strategy for everything was almost always to plunge in head-first without any kind of preparation. He was nothing like Bruttenholm or even Manning, but he could damn well try. He'll do it for Liz.

So he cleans himself up a little, or about as much as Hellboy ever does, and puts on his best game face. (Which, when your face is mostly stuck like that, is never hard.)

The feed starts with a steady silence and a level, golden-eyed gaze. Then he realizes the thing is actually on and begins.

Here goes nothin'...]

Anyone who knew her, Elizabeth Sherman disappeared about a week ago.

[He can't say for certain she's back in their world. There's no way of telling that for sure. He tries not to think about it too hard.]

Before she left she proposed getting together an organization similar to the one we worked for back in our world here on the Turtle. For anyone who's not familiar, I'll give you a quick run-down.

It's called the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, an organization that studies the paranormal around the world and is responsible for fighting off any big nasties that might pop up in the meantime. Ghosts, demons, vampires, you name it.

Most of our employees are researchers, like to paw through rotting manuscripts and study trolls. Me... they just send me in when things get messy. Though I've trained plenty of new agents before.

I'm not really the administrative type. So if anyone's willing to help get this off the ground, I'd appreciate it. What we really need are people interested in the actual research end of things. Though field agents aren't a bad thing either.

I know a few people spoke to Liz in her first message. I'd like to speak to them again if I can. Just let me know if you're interested and what you might be able to bring to the table. Maybe we might start making sense of this place.

[Yeah, this sure won't be his father's Bureau, but it might be something.]

Comments

[bothbarrels]

I hope you made it through the invasion relatively unscathed.

[histruename]

I'm pretty hard to hurt. You?

[bothbarrels]

With my armor on, same. I feel fortunate that I have it.

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[cravats]

[Lyall is quite interested in this! Though his lips do quirk suspiciously at the idea of ghosts and vampires being 'big nasties'.

And the gentleman making the post has a most unusual appearance, but Lyall is far too mannerly to comment.]

Hello, sir. My name is Professor Randolph Lyall, and at home I was involved with Britain's Bureau of Unnatural Registry, which sounds somewhat similar to your BPRD. We were responsible for tracking Britain's supernatural inhabitants, in addition to investigating any crimes relating to them. I could be described as the 'administrative type', though I also enjoy research, and I would be happy to help.

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[histruename]

[They were examples, Lyall. Maybe some day he can tell you about his tangles with Hecate or the Baba Yaga. And vampires? Can be pretty damn nasty.]

Professor, nice to meet you. Call me Hellboy. [He really wasn't expecting someone with these kind of credentials. It's definitely not a bad surprise.] Sounds like you're just the kind of guy I'm looking for.

Mostly I'm trying to find a way to pool our resources. We need to find out more about this place, and try to be better prepared for the next time things start getting ugly around here.

video;

[cravats]

[Oh, he'd love to hear! And he knows the nastiness of vampires quite well, but it tends to be confined to machiavellian politics and wardrobe-related putdowns back in London.]

It's a pleasure, Mr. Hellboy. [He doesn't even bat an eyelash at the name.]

I'm afraid I'm not aware of any recent incidents- I've been here less than a week. Can you enlighten me? I agree that it's best to be prepared.

video;

[notdreaming]

[ Oh. Kara chews her thumbnail as she considers the message. Agent Sherman was kind to her, and she really had been looking forward to the work. Now it seems like a far-off dream. But he did say he wants to talk to her, so even if it seems a little hopeless she puts her hand down at her side and turns on the video feed. ]

I spoke with Agent Sherman about doing research. I'm Kara.

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[histruename]

Hi, Kara. I'm Hellboy.

[The girl on the other end of the console is young, kind of wide-eyed. But Hellboy knows better than to write her off. They're in a tough situation, and this girl's very much a part of it. Much as he'd like to protect kids from the bad stuff, they're all right in the middle of it anyway.]

You really want to do research?

[There's a little surprise in his voice, because personally? He'd rather get a root canal than do his homework most of the time. He's more of a learn from experience type of guy, and field work is way more fun.]

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[notdreaming]

[ She nods. Science was bred into her. She may not have as much experience as her father, but she certainly has his latent talent. Along with the scientific advances Krypton held over Earth. ]

I was going to join the Science Guild back home. I've worked in a lab before.

video;

[storm_warning]

[Ororo's curled up with a bowl of noodles when she catches this message and she brings up a response.]

Hey, sorry about your friend.

[It's a bit awkward, but sincere. HB's done a lot for her and she doesn't like friends being struck with shitty luck like that.]

And I talked with her a bit. I'm no bookworm, but my professor likes sending me out on field work with other mutants. Paranormal stuff can't be that different, right?

video;

[histruename]

It's all right.

[It's... not really, but he'll be okay. He just needs to take his mind off things, not think about what kind of trouble Liz might be in right now.

Yeah. Distractions.]

With your talent, we could use you. Not sure what kind of field work you were doing at home, but if it's different, you can always learn.

video;

[storm_warning]

[Ororo knows that she doesn't much feel alright that her team's not here and thinking about having them around and then gone? Yeeeeeah, she's avoiding thinking along those lines too, so she leaves it at that and goes with the main point here.]

The X-Men were part public relations and part anti-terrorist. The professor was big on appearances, but that didn't keep me from having to zap a few giant robots to smithereens. I'm better with the zapping anyways -- PR's not my deal.

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[sharpes]

... She's gone, huh? That sucks.

[As much as Brandon gave her a hard time, he actually... did sort of like her.]

I've got the whole mutant thing going on. I mean, I'm gonna be splitting my time between a few different things but I could help out once in a while.

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[histruename]

[It does suck, but there's really nothing he can do. At least not until they figure out this place.]

That's fine by me.

[He's vaguely familiar with the concept of mutants thanks to Storm, and what he's seen from her has been pretty impressive.]

What can you do?

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[sharpes]

[He lifts a hand, and electricity crackles around his fingers.]

Think that but Hollywood huge. I can also, uh, make shields kinda. Still working on that.

[tangentdarko]

[That makes Donnie genuinely sad.]

She was going to help me.

[histruename]

[Ah, jeez. Don't be sad.]

Sorry, kid. If she had a choice, she would've stayed.

[tangentdarko]

She didn't have a choice?

video

[depicted]

I'm still interested. I'm not much for paperwork, but I can manage, and I have enough informal training in research.

video

[histruename]

[The name on the console says Dorian Gray, and he remembers Liz telling him about this guy. Hellboy may not be the biggest fan of research, but he's no stranger to Victorian literature. And this guy...]

Dorian Gray. Read your book. Looks like you lived in the end after all. Kind of puts a dent in the moral of the story.

video

[depicted]

[A pause, a flicker of a frown, but not annoyed. And then Dorian shrugs it off. He is talking to someone who looks a lot like how mythology describes the one Dorian supposedly struck a deal with.] The moral wasn't Oscar's greatest concern writing that one down. He had more aesthetic aims in mind. He didn't seem to hold it against me.

video

[shootingshields]

I'm sorry to hear she's gone home, again. At least, we can hope that's what's happened.

I am, of course, still willing to give my cooperation towards your efforts, even if I can't exactly participate as a familiar member.

video

[histruename]

[He's not even sure if home's really the best place for her, but it's better than some of the alternatives. But he's not gonna talk about that. Avoiding the issue is more his style.]

Sure. Good to have you on board.

[Peggy has a good head on her shoulders and she's easy to get along with. In most cases, that's really all he cares about.]

Don't worry about the lack of experience. Way things are around here, you'll be an expert in no time.

video;

[trainwrecked]

[Again.]

Sorry. Maybe she'll come back again, I guess.

I'm not very good at the whole researching thing, though if you can use more helping hands...

[Shrugs. He's here.]

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[histruename]

Yeah...

[He's not sure which would be better, her coming back a third time only to leave over and over again, or her staying back in their world to... what? Nothing good, that's for sure.]

Thanks. We can use all we can get.