The Times, They Are a-Changin'

[histruename]

Characters: Hellboy and OPEN!
Date: June 9th - 14th
Location: All over Keeliai
Situation: Hellboy reclaims his bearings


After his short trip through the city, still damp from the basin he'd been summoned from, there was no denying things have changed. There’s a palpable darkness hanging over Keeliai, a new wariness in the eyes of its people, a shadow cast by the blackened palace looming on its horizon. Cultists hiss and scream with their signs and weapons on street corners. Others scurry past like scared animals, head down, looking at no one.

Less than a year ago, Keeliai was a different place, but they had known what was coming. Evandau had warned him of the ancient force of evil they’d been brought here to fight. And back then, Hellboy had offered to go find it, to do everything he could to stop it. But things are rarely that easy.

Evandau had said that the thing had to come to them, that they had to sit and wait with their hands tied before they could even think to fight it. It pissed him off then, and it pisses him off even more now. Because this is the end result, and innocent people are paying for it in blood.

He’s lost too much time. It’s time to get back to work.

Soon as he gets his bearings, gets some much-needed rest and scopes out his new suite in Earth, Hellboy takes off into the city, wanders back to the old noodle shop in the Metal Sector he used to frequent. The shop’s still there, and so is the old man who runs it. Business is bad, and most of the kedan have been relocated to the former Foreigner housing, but things like this just never change.

It's nice to have an anchor in this place, something familiar where lately, he hasn't been afforded that luxury. Keyun has always been nice to him. But now he's much more withered than before, his veined hands trembling over the hot bowls, spilling some of the broth.

Times are hard, and maybe there's still very little he can do to help. But in a small way, Hellboy's glad he's back, because these are people worth fighting for.

((Feel free to ambush Hellboy in the street, at the noodle shop, or even at the market perusing for charms and other odds and ends. He'll be looking for people to talk to about the happenings around Keeliai that he's missed, and will offer to pay for a meal or drinks to whoever's willing. I may put up some headers later for ease of use.))

Comments

[histruename]

"Met him a little over a year ago," he says, reaching for his own pair of chopsticks and giving Keyun a nod of thanks. "We got thrown in a cell with a handful of other people. Got caught poking around the tunnels below the shell."

[duelkatana]

In a cell? Leonardo recalls getting separated from Raph in those tunnels a year ago, but his brother had never brought up the fact that he'd been captured and locked up while they were apart. Seems like kind of an important thing to leave out.

"Raph and I went down there to look around," he says carefully, settling the chopsticks in his fingers. "We got separated for a while... but he never mentioned getting caught."

Around that time... there was more than one Raph. But interdimensional cousins isn't a topic he wants to get into with this guy. Either way, he's going to have some very pointed questions during his next console call with Raphael.

[histruename]

Oh, jeez. Now he's pretty sure he got the kid in trouble. But Hellboy can't help being a little amused, the corner of his mouth ticking up into a would-be smile as he slurps up a mouthful of hot noodles.

Though he never had the luxury of siblings or growing up with other kids, he did have Liz to look out for. And he knows what Leo must be feeling. But this was an honest mistake, and by now it's far in the past.

"Now I didn't mean to get anyone in trouble," he chides with a good dose of humor. "Evandau has a habit of overreacting. All of those people were good guys just trying to get some information."

And with the way they withhold info in this place, he can't blame them.

[duelkatana]

Leo dips into the bowl and brings a helping of noodles to his mouth, intent on drowning the doubt in his stomach before it builds up too far. He's right: Leo's seen Evandau's ego firsthand, and besides, it was a while ago. It's how his brother (or cousin) handled being locked up that he's concerned about.

Figures that Raph - any Raph - would leave an impression on someone in a jail cell as opposed to anywhere normal.

"I hope he didn't give you a hard time," he says with a raised eyeridge, but his expression should indicate that he's already pretty sure of the answer.

[histruename]

Hellboy shakes his head, chomping on another mouthful of noodles. Once he swallows he says, "He seemed like a good kid." Angry, maybe a little troubled, but a good kid all the same. "Reminded me a little of someone I know."

Liz. Well, Liz as a teenager. She'd been just as angry, just as troubled. Just as afraid of standing still. But no one could blame her for that. And Hellboy's sure Raphael has his reasons, too.

[duelkatana]

He swirls his chopsticks around the bowl, watching chives and sprouts lazily turn in the shimmering broth. Kid. It's not often he hears someone refer to him or his brothers that way... and he's not sure how it makes him feel.

Leo chooses the bundle of sprouts, settling for a simple, "He is."

[histruename]

Man, this kid is intense. Just as intense as the other one had been. But that's all right. Working at the Bureau meant he ran into a lot of intense people. All of them deeply scarred for one reason or another. All of them good people to the core. And he can tell that just like his brother, Leonardo is a good kid too.

"Younger brother?" He asks, tilting his head curiously as he reaches for his beer.

[duelkatana]

Leo's mouth thins as he decides his answer.

"One of three," he finally deliberates. It's the slow, tempered tone of resignation, colored by a touch of fondness.

[histruename]

"Jeez..."

He feels a little bad for the mother. Four boys, and if all of them are like these two? Ha.

"I always thought growing up with siblings sounded like fun."

[duelkatana]

Leo raises an eye ridge, unsure of whether or not he should be offended by that 'jeez'. At Hellboy's next statement, however, his eyes turn back down to his noodles.

Fun... well, not exactly how he'd describe their childhood looking back at it now, but at the time, it didn't seem so bad. Leonardo can't even begin to imagine what life would have been like growing up without his brothers at his side.

"It had its moments," he says, corners of his mouth twitching upward as he shovels in another helping of noodles. He swallows them down before glancing at Hellboy through his periphery. "Thank you for watching out for him."

For Raph to leave such an impression on the guy, Leo is assuming that their interactions were more than passing the time with idle chat.

[histruename]

"Don't thank me. We were just a bunch of idiots stuck in the same cell for the same thing," he says with an easy shrug before draining the rest of his glass in one gulp. "Never did figure out what the hell they were hiding down there."

[duelkatana]

Leonardo frowns into his bowl. The observer might notice his eyes sweeping the noodle shop quickly, almost as though checking for something; it lasts only a second, and he returns to his meal within the next beat.

"The Emperor had a good reason to keep us out."

It's more of a statement than speculation - he and a small group of Foreigners saw firsthand what the kedan had been hiding down there. He doesn't know what became of their discoveries, but even with Eshai long dead and Evandau's focus shifted to the war, he isn't willing to speak of them in public.

[histruename]

Well that's worrying. After that incident, he'd heard talk of clones. Even asked the Emperor about them himself. Though her answers had been vague as always, and he knows he would know more if he saw it first hand.

Saying nothing, Hellboy orders himself another beer and drinks it in silence. If the kid wants to talk about it, he can. Though he understands keeping thing under wraps.

[duelkatana]

Leonardo lets the silence stretch out. The red man's lack of response gives him the feeling that the message got through, for better or worse. Just because they're all in the same boat doesn't mean some aren't trying to poke holes in it. He somewhat doubts that the lab he found underground is hardly relevant in the grand scheme of things anymore, but it's one of the few secrets he has pertaining to this world, and he'll guard it close.

"What brought you down there?" he asks without looking up.

[histruename]

"Me? I'm here pretty much every day."

Leaning on the bartop, he turns the mostly-empty glass in his hand.

"A couple years back there was a rash of hauntings in the city. Keyun here gave me a call when one of them started possessing his oven. You should've seen it. Noodles everywhere."

He gestures vaguely with his huge stone hand, miming the scattering of enchanted noodles. It's the first time since it's so much as twitched from its spot rested on the bar. If there was any question that the thing was actually attached to him, they're probably answered now.

"And he hasn't left since!" Keyun adds from behind the kitchen wall.

"Hey, you had over a year," Hellboy rumbles good-naturedly. "You missed me. Now I'm just making up for lost time."

[duelkatana]

Despite himself, Leo snorts softly into his bowl. For all of their good-natured bickering - or precisely because of it - they remind him just a little of his own family.

Leo's eyes go to the huge hand briefly, but don't rest for more than a second or two. Some kind of giant stone gauntlet? Weird, but he's seen weirder. Sounds like something Raph would love to get his hands on... he grimaces faintly at the thought of his brother punching holes in the wall with a stone fist.

When he processes Hellboy's comment, though, Leo turns and raises a slight, questioning eyeridge. A year is a lot of time to lose, no matter the context.