'Be Near Me,' chapter 5
Apr. 26th, 2010 02:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivendellroseFandom: Hellboy (movies)
Characters: Abe Sapien, Nuala, Hellboy, Liz Sherman, Nuada, and a small cast of OCs.
Timeline: post-movie-2 AU.
Summary: The trouble with getting what you want is that something unexpected almost inevitably comes out of it. If Abe actually reads fairy tales, he really should know better.
Title: Be Near Me
Warnings: Some violence and unpleasant imagery.
Rating: Teen, or so.
Pairing: Abe/Nuala
Thanks: To![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tavern_wench1 for the world's most awesome red-pen-of-doom beta job on an almost-complete draft after NaNoWriMo, and maymargaret, for giving me the seed of the idea late one night in a pub, working out the general outline with me on a walk around the lake, and generally cheerleading and never letting me forget this damned thing from the other side of the globe.
Link to previous chapter: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4
In the morning, Abe had a series of meetings and debriefings from the previous night’s job. Liz and Red seemed unwilling to bring up their argument of the night before, so he tentatively took it all to be forgiven and forgotten. It was past noon by the time he finished, and when he returned to his quarters he expected to find the children eagerly awaiting him, ready to share whatever project they’d been working on the night before, and to prepare for their birthday party. Instead... the library was empty. Perhaps they weren’t finished with whatever surprise they’d come up with, then, he thought... but when he got back to their rooms he saw nothing, heard nothing. Nothing, except a soft, muffled sound, coming from the boys’ room. He pushed open the door and found Niamh, alone and hugging a fuzzy purple bathrobe around herself, curled up on the floor between her brothers’ beds. Her eyes were wide when she looked up at him, and her fragile little gills fluttered with anxiety.
Abraham sympathized - his own were beating rapidly as well, now, and he could hardly think for the way his heart pounded and his fingers tingled with fear. “Niamh, what is going on here? Where are your brothers and sister?”
She swallowed and scrubbed the back of her hand against her face. “I promised I wouldn’t tell, but it’s been hours. They should have been back by now!”
“Back from where?”
“I told them...” She shook her head, and then took a deep breath. “Yesterday, we got a letter. From... it said it was from Mother. And it said that she wanted to see us, and that we should meet an emissary from her court at a particular place in the forest outside - he would take us to the court, to see her, but only if we came alone, and before dawn. I told them not to go, but they wouldn’t listen to me!”
Abe clenched his fists. This was everything he’d feared for thirteen years, everything he’d hoped to avoid - the one silver lining to the fact that Nuala had never contacted them, never made any effort to see the children. And now... “Tell me everything you remember, Niamh.”
She didn’t remember much of the directions from the letter, and once she had told all that there was to tell, it took some effort to convince Niamh to stay back and not come along with him in his search for the others. In the end, he took her to Liz and Red’s quarters and insisted that she stay there with them, despite their complaints.
“She’ll be fine here - you can leave her with Eve, or one of the other agents. We should be with you - you’re going to need back-up on this, Abe.”
“Liz is right.” Red picked up his gun from the nightstand.
“No. Absolutely not.”
“Abe, don’t be stupid--”
“Please listen to me, Liz. What I need is to know that Niamh is safe. That she’ll still be here when I come back. If someone from Nuala’s court could get a letter to them here, they can most likely get in again, as well. Or have you both forgotten ther last time Nuada was here?” he added bitterly.
Red’s hand unconsciously brushed the scar above his pectoral muscle. “Tough to forget that,” he admitted.
“Then you know that I’m right, Red. You need to stay here, you and Liz both, and watch over the twins and Niamh, to make sure they’re safe.”
“And leave you to go out alone? I don’t--”
“Red.” Liz’s voice stopped both of them short. “He’s right. If they got in once, they can get in again, and we can’t leave the kids unprotected.”
“I could go with Abe, and you could...” Even before he completed the sentenced Red seemed to realize that was not going to be an answer that Liz would accept. “Or we could both stay,” he grumbled. “Fine. But Abe, take one of the other guys with you...”
“I can’t. Not where I’m going.”
* * *
Where before the Troll Market had seemed to Abe like a wonderland, all manner of creature accepting his strange appearance as though they saw him every day, now its crowded hollows and darkened corners were a nightmare. No one gave him a second glance, true, but all around him Abe saw potential enemies. The one creature he’d hoped he might be able to trust, the map-seller, seemed to have vanished without a trace - in place of his shop, a sprawling stall of twisted and subverted electronics did a brisk business. Worse still, no one seemed at all inclined to pay any mind to a stranger unfamiliar with their ways.
“Excuse me... Excuse me? Sir... or madam, ah, if I could just ask you...?”
No one met his eyes, or even slowed about their business. If Red were there, Abe thought, he would have fired a shot in the air, shouted, and instantly had everyone’s attention. Granted, that attention would probably have led to a brawl, but at least the barriers would have been broken and communication could, once anger had been sated and broken teeth collected from the ground, begin. Even in his agitated state, Abe could tell that starting a fight was a bad idea, as most of the Market’s denizens looked as though they’d be willing and able to kill him for disrupting their business, but his own methods seemed to be equally ineffective and time weighed heavily on his mind. Every passing moment in the hands of their capricious uncle was a threat to the safety of the children.
He’d fumbled his gun out of the utility belt when he noticed a commotion at the other side of the market. Amid excited mutterings and exclamations, the brightly-colored crowd parted for a small cluster of decidedly unfriendly-looking figures with black masks and large blades that looked more like over-sized cleavers than any proper kind of sword... and at the center of this contingent walked a willowy shape of white, gold and blue.
“Nuala! Nuala!” Abe stretched up, waving his arm... but the crowd around him did the same, as everyone in the market craned their necks for a look at the queen, or called out to her for audiences or favors. The guards - at least Abe hoped that was what they were - kept everyone at a distance from their queen, but they also, by their bulk, blocked her view. There was no chance that she would see him in all this commotion... and she was moving steadily, if slowly, away. Another few moments, and he would miss her completely, and with her lose his best chance at recovering the children.
Move, don’t think... Abe pushed through a group of veiled and masked beings, leapt on top of a vendor’s cart, and fired his gun three times into the air. “Nuala!” he shouted.
His stunt did achieve at least some of the desired result - he had the attention of every being in the market, some of whom recoiled in shock - others shouted threats or even screamed. Unfortunately, that universal attention also included the masked guards around Nuala, who proved to be shockingly quick on their feet for beings of their mass, weighed down as they were with heavy wood and leather armor. Three of them were on him before the last syllable of Nuala’s name had faded from the air. Under their long, beaked masks, the smell of carrion flowed thick, and dried blood crusted their clothes and their over-sized swords. Rough hands grabbed him, pulling him down from the cart, and he felt coarse edges of cold metal at his back. Through the crush, Abe was sure he heard Nuala’s voice, shouting something in Gaelige... and suddenly, the guards all froze.
There could be no doubt in Abe’s mind, now, that Nuala’s hold over her guards was supreme. She was also quicker on her feet than Abe had ever guessed - in what seemed like barely an instant, she was pushing through the little cluster of guards that surrounded him. For one perfect moment as she threw her arms around him, all the world shrank to relief and gratitude at finding her again, the feelings reflected and amplified in what he felt from Nuala herself. They were together again, and that... that was true magic, to him. Her smooth skin and pale, soft hair, her golden eyes and the way her fingers clutched at him... all this was exactly the same as the last time he’d seen her. She was different, though, in subtle ways - each a painful reminder of the time they’d been apart, and he wondered how much Nuala must have endured in that time. Before, her mind had felt to him like a quiet pool, shadowed, somehow a thing at once elemental and yet essentially fragile. Now, the strength that he’d recognized in her the first time they met was tempered, emphasized - more like a river than a pond, he thought. He had a sense that, under her beauty and gentle exterior, the force of her could, in time, cut through stone.
“I would rather say that the smallest vine can, in time, shatter a boulder,” Nuala told him, apparently picking up the train of his thought as she pulled back from their embrace, her face shining. “But without water even the greatest oak will die. Oh, Abraham, I’ve missed you so...”
“And... And I you. But, Nuala--”
“My brother is freed, Abraham. I tried to send you a message...”
“It seems the messenger was... diverted. We heard nothing.”
Nuala nodded. “The messenger is dead. My guards found her this morning.”
“It must be him, then. Someone took the children last night. All of them but Niamh.” He wished, almost, that he had not still held her hand as he said that - the pain and horror in her mind as she heard the words was almost too much for him to bear. It was so terrible that he struggled to keep talking, trying to block out the anguish in her mind. It only made his own worse, because while he could only imagine what Nuada was capable of, he had a terrible feeling that Nuala knew. “Niamh is safe, albeit... very upset. She stayed behind, when the others left, and she... she told me what happened early this afternoon. Apparently they received a letter that they thought was from you. A pendant was with it...”
“A golden leaf.” Nuala looked stricken. “I sent it with Boann, as a token that my message was genuine. I dared not write anything down, but I knew you would sense that the pendant was mine, and would know to trust her.”
“If they’d brought it to me, I might even have been able to pick up the message you truly intended to send us - or at least known that what the letter said was untrue.” Abe felt dizzy, as if his gills were drying out. “Nuala, I’m so sorry...”
“You couldn’t have known. If I’d sent word sooner, if I’d found a better way... if I’d come myself. I should have known not to trust any but myself with this message, but I was afraid that if I went to you, my brother would know to follow me.” She squeezed his hand lightly, and in that touch he sensed that she felt the same desperate, frustrated protectiveness, as well as the same overwhelming guilt. “I should have found stronger magics to bind him, Abraham - I’m so sorry. Our ways are constantly undone by the world above, now, but I didn’t think... How foolish could I have been, to bind him in a tree when so few of our old groves still stand? But it seemed like the sensible thing to do, at the time, and now...”
“We’ll get them back,” Abe assured her.
Nuala pressed her lips together, trying to control the fear that threatened to overwhelm her, clawing at the back of her throat and pushing at every edge of her mind, whispering that there was no way, no hope, not against her brother and his madness... but she swallowed it all back, and her outward composure showed no sign of the terror within. “We shall,” she agreed in a confident voice. “Together.”
“What do you think he’ll do?” Abe asked cautiously. He wasn’t sure how strong the twins’ bond was, now, or whether Nuala’s people were aware of the telepathic link between their queen and her exiled brother.
She answered all those questions, shaking her head. “I cannot sense him now. He’s locked me out - he may slip later, if he’s distracted, but... And as for a guess to his motives, I’m afraid I have none beyond what we know. That he is angry, hurt by what he views as my betrayal, that he wants to make the Humans suffer, and us as well... and that he is frustrated, and deeply jealous.”
Abe blinked. “Jealous...?”
“My people value children above all things, Abraham, but we do not sire or give birth easily. Our numbers have dwindled for ages, and..." She looked faintly embarrassed, but continued, "and human children are much more difficult to steal away nowadays. Our lifespans, to the Humans, might as well be forever, but what use is forever if you don’t have a future? In his own way, Nuada has fought for millenia to try to give us that future. And yet now, the future we have is in our children.” She looked down at her hands, then seemed to force her eyes back up to meet his. “I do not think that can be a future that he is pleased with.”
“We must find them quickly, then. You have no idea where he might have taken them?”
Nuala closed her eyes, and through their link Abe could feel her searching her mind, letting her consciousness wander as though she were flipping randomly through the pages of a book, willing something to catch her inner eye. “No, I... wait. This morning, I woke with an image in my mind - a city, and a... a dark place, deep underground.”
"Sewers? Somewhere near here, perhaps?”
“Perhaps... but I don’t know where it might be, or even if it is where he has them, or if it is only something else that has meaning to him! There is no time to hunt. We must find them, and quickly.” She closed her eyes, concentrating. “I know what to do. Follow me.”
Moving to the side of the market a few steps away, Nuala closed her eyes, resting her hand on the earthen wall. “Show me,” she murmured in a low tone. “Show me...” The rest of the words were all in Gaelige, whispered too quickly for Abe to follow, and she finished a phrase that sounded almost sung to Abe’s ear. A spell, he thought - She’s casting a spell. For all that he knew Nuala to be a creature of magic, and even though he’d seen some of the strange and supernatural things her twin had done in the past and had been vaguely aware that Nuala herself must have similar abilities, that was nothing to watching her actually perform a spell.
And a powerful spell, too, he realized, as roots grew out of the soil in front of them, twined for a moment around Nuala's hand, and then burst out into a strange, white blossom with dark gold veins and a center so bright that it seemed to glow on its own. That light grew, and then finally popped off the flower with the light motion of a bubble being blown onto a light breeze, and floated, glowing brightly, in front of Nuala. The flower, relieved of its fruit, withered instantly and fell to the ground, where Abe was shocked to see a quartet of blue fairies zip over and gather up the desiccated petals and spirit them away.
"They're close by." Nuala tugged her hand against the roots and tendrils that still bound her hand to the wall. When she finally pulled away, Abe could see livid puckerings like small bites on her wrist and hand, and a few remaining droplets of amber blood gathered on her pale skin.
"Nuala--"
"It's nothing." She took a silk handkerchief from her sash and quickly bound it around her hand.
"But--"
"That light will guide us to our children, Abraham. A little blood is small payment for that."
"But... you're their queen. Shouldn't they want to help you regardless of payment?"
Nuala looked at him strangely. "I am their queen, so I understand their needs. The balance is what matters - a gift for a gift. Nothing comes without a price, here, Abraham. Come, we should hurry - the light won't last forever. All of you, follow us," she added to the guards. "I fear we may need as many hands as we can get, if we're to stop him."
The raven guards bowed as one, and Nuala nodded back to them, then hurried after the little glowing globe into the darkness of the underground.
* * *
Something... tickled, at the back of Niamh’s mind. The sensation was like waking from a dream with the distinct impression that something had been important, vitally important, but finding herself unable to call it to mind completely - it danced at the edge of her thoughts, tugging, pulling, always grabbing her attention away from whatever she tried to concentrate on, but never revealed itself. It was something... something... Something to do with water.
Niamh sighed and pushed aside her dictionary. She’d been studying Akkadian out of some of the books in her father’s library - a difficult enough project was usually plenty to distract her from anything, let alone something she didn’t want to think about. But today, the image of her brothers and sister leaving the night before preyed constantly on her mind, and nothing she did could seem to banish them, or the nagging thing that whispered in her thoughts. It was... dark. Concentrating on it made her feel cold, made her skin feel almost gritty. Like bad water. Water in a... storm drain? No, not so dirty as that. Not so... new. This was old water, water that was colder than any she’d felt before. Water in a city, yes, but deep, in a... A wave of almost-nausea washed over her, as she could almost taste the metallic, earthy, fetid water on her tongue, feel it on her skin, skin that was... Niamh shuddered. She felt slimy, and yet that feeling of grit overlaid it, as though something was itching at her as well.
“You okay, there, kiddo?”
Niamh forced a weak smile at Red. “Just worried. They’re still not back.”
“Your dad’ll find ‘em.”
“Yeah, I know, but...” Niamh trailed off. An image coalesced in her mind, distorted but distinct - a bright light through a grid, seen through water. A grate, the thing between the water and the light was a grate. The water around her... around them. It had to be around them, around her brothers and sister. Their father could sense the history of objects with his hands, could read things about people through them as well, and he’d said that their mother had some of the same ability, that they’d been able to read each others’ minds to a certain expect, when they were together. Niamh and her siblings had never felt anything like that, but what if this was it? What if she could sense them... feel in her mind wherever they were?
“You sure you’re okay?” Red repeated, watching her closely. Liz, across the room talking to one of the Human agents, turned and looked at them, concerned.
“I’m fine. I’m just tired. I’m going to take a nap.”
Liz crossed the library and touched her shoulder lightly. “You sure you don’t need anything? If you want to talk about it...?”
“No... thanks. I’d rather just sleep. I was up late, waiting. You’ll wake me when they get back?”
“Of course.”
The feeling was growing clearer by the moment in Niamh’s mind, as though now that she’d recognized it for what it was, more and more detail could come through. A rumbling vibration - the sound of street traffic above wherever they were - shuddered through her, and there was a feeling of distance, and a vague memory... a memory of the path they’d taken the night before. Niamh took in a slow, deep breath, ‘watching’ the memory attentively as it twisted in her mind. Their father had said to stay... but he hadn’t known where they were. If she’d told their father the night before, if instead of going to bed she’d gone straight to him and told him what they planned, the guards could have stopped her brothers and sister before they even left the bureau, and everything would have been fine. It was her fault they’d gotten out, her fault they hadn’t come back. Her fault they were... wherever they were. Trapped.
However much they’d wanted to go last night, however confident they’d been in themselves and their decision, her siblings were stuck now. It wasn’t a panicked feeling, particularly, but there was a vague sensation of not being able to go further, out, anywhere. It was muffled, though, and strange... If this was the kind of sensation her father got from objects, Niamh wondered how the hell he managed to understand anything useful out of them. It was all so confused - wordless, random imagery and incoherent impressions, with a dull, weirdly distant emotional quality that felt almost... Almost like the time she’d caught a bad cold, and had to take strong cough medicine so she could sleep. Drugged. That was the feeling. Dizzy, almost, and disconnected.
They’re in trouble, and Dad doesn’t know where to find them. If I went back, I could have Liz and Red call him... but what would I say? They’re somewhere in water, and they feel like they’re confused? They’re in the dark, under a city, and and the water is very cold and strange? Not helpful at all. If the feelings she was getting were to be any help, she’d have to go herself. Niamh paused, her hand on the door of the bedroom she shared with Neasa.
Liz and Red are probably listening. Her father had told them to watch her, to keep her safe.
She opened the door slowly, and then closed it again without going in, and slipped quickly and quietly down the hall. The back way out, the way she and her siblings always used when they wanted to avoid their father, was still open from the night before.
* * *
In another time, Abe would have been fascinated by the extent of the tunnels and pathways that existed down under the city of Brooklyn - stretching out from the Troll Market, they seemed to extend in every direction, almost indefinitely. What was more interesting was that the paths seemed not to follow Human logic or, in fact, any kind of sane progression that Abe could understand - paths that seemed certain to lead them onto a dead end trailed out for miles, and he was almost certain that four turns in the same direction had, in fact, brought them to a completely new area he’d never seen before, rather than taking them back to the beginning as he’d been sure they would. Magic, he reminded himself. There is a magic here that does not need to be obvious or showy. It’s as natural to Nuala and her people as breathing.
Her people in this case were the eerily silent raven guards. Two walked on either side of Abe and Nuala, huge swords raised while the other four clustered behind them, immense gloved hands on their sword-hilts, at the ready for attack.
“This part of the tunnels is not well-known to my people,” Nuala murmured, her eyes locked on the small golden globe that floated ahead of them. “We do not travel through here unless we must. Strange things live in the darkness.”
“The perfect place for Nuada to hide, then.”
Nuala nodded. “He must have known that I would seek him in his usual hiding places first, giving him time to consolidate his power here.”
Something moved in the shadows, and before Abe could even reach for his gun, the two front guards had pushed him and Nuala behind them, their swords high. The stink of carrion, blood, and old wood and leather rolled from them as they moved. Abe stretched, trying to see over the shoulder of the one in front of him, but he could see nothing.
“What kind of strange things, exactly, were you talking about?” he whispered to Nuala.
Lit only by the gold sphere, now hanging directly above them as though waiting for them to move again, her eyes were huge, the irises only the thinnest possible ring of gold around pupils widened in fear and shadow. “Trolls. Wild fairies that eat flesh and bone. And worse things.”
“Worse things. Oh, good.”
He really should have known better, Abe realized, than to comment - that did always seem to work as a summoning of sorts for whatever danger was referred to. Sure enough, the guards were suddenly in motion, a thick sound of something jelly-like and strangely creaking moving in front of them, beyond Abe’s sight, and the smell of the raven guards abruptly seemed almost comforting compared to the rancid-sweet stench of whatever they fought. Abe caught Nuala’s hand, squeezing it tightly.
At least we have the guards, he thought. I’m sure they can handle... whatever it is.
My brother killed eight of them by himself, when he came back to our father’s court, was Nuala’s unnerving response.
Three of the six guards fought in front of them, now, and every so often Abe caught a glimpse of the thing - no, things - that they battled. Their flesh - it didn’t appear to be skin in any way Abe recognized - was dark red shot with yellow and black veining, and the body shape was roughly quadrapedal. Beyond that, he couldn’t see enough detail to be sure of anything, beyond the huge, lidless white eyes that gleamed in the shadows as they attacked.
The raven guards were powerful, quick on their feet, and unusually graceful for beings of their bulk, particularly factoring in the size of their weapons, which would have been absurd if they hadn’t also been wickedly sharp and coated in the rust-colored remnants of dried blood. Three of them should have been a force strong enough to fight any monsters living in the sewers. But first one, then another fell to the things in the dark, and as two stepped from the back to take their place, Abe finally got a good look at what was attacking them.
It looked like a horse that had been flayed alive. Black blood oozed, and yellow pus and fat deposits hung loose on its flesh. And it was mad with rage. Having never spent time around domestic animals other than Red’s cats, Abe had never considered a horse particularly dangerous. These certainly were. Ragged hooves cut and kicked, and as one bit into the shoulder of one of the raven guards Abe could see long, yellowed teeth that dug deep into flesh and grated against bone, ripping and crushing.
Through it all, the guards made not a sound. The animals made up for their silence with a wailing, creaking sound that was nothing like anything Abe had heard before.
One of the guards in front of Abe and Nuala fell to his knees. Blood gushed from beneath his black mask, matting the feathery mane that covered his neck. With a screech that reeked of a charnel house, the creatures lunged into the gap.
The first panicked shot from Abe’s gun missed, the second clipped a ragged ear but did no harm. The third, blessedly, exploded in horse-flesh. The sweet-rotting smell grew thicker, and white bone showed through the wound, but the creature lurched onward, eyes huge and rolling, either unable to feel the pain or too wild to care. Abe shot again, into the shoulder this time, just as another creature lashed out and nearly knocked the weapon from his hand. Beside him, Nuala snatched her knife free from its sheath and danced forward, twisting beneath the creature’s flailing hooves and burying the blade deep in the thing’s eye. That, at least, it felt. It roared with fury and threw itself forward again, but before its hooves could connect with her, one of the raven guards shoved Nuala back and took her place, his sword angled across his body. Swinging his weapon in an upward arc, the guard cleaved the rope-like neck of their enemy with one blow. Abe grabbed the opportunity provided by that creature’s fall, and took down its companion with a wild shot to its knee, but it flailed still, shrieking, until the guard cut off its head as well.
For a tense moment, the three waited for another attack. Nothing came. But around them, the bodies of at least four of the creatures steamed in the darkness... and five of the six guards lay dead with their enemies.
Nuala, her eyes distant and cold, wiped her knife on a scrap of fabric offered by the remaining guard, then folded the cloth and, with a slight wince of distaste, handed it back to the guard, who bowed his head and tucked it into his armour.
“I see what you mean about this place,” Abe admitted.
Nuala shook her head. “There will be worse. We must hurry - if he has spies this far, he’ll know we’re coming now.”
Characters: Abe Sapien, Nuala, Hellboy, Liz Sherman, Nuada, and a small cast of OCs.
Timeline: post-movie-2 AU.
Summary: The trouble with getting what you want is that something unexpected almost inevitably comes out of it. If Abe actually reads fairy tales, he really should know better.
Title: Be Near Me
Warnings: Some violence and unpleasant imagery.
Rating: Teen, or so.
Pairing: Abe/Nuala
Thanks: To
tavern_wench1 for the world's most awesome red-pen-of-doom beta job on an almost-complete draft after NaNoWriMo, and maymargaret, for giving me the seed of the idea late one night in a pub, working out the general outline with me on a walk around the lake, and generally cheerleading and never letting me forget this damned thing from the other side of the globe.Link to previous chapter: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4
In the morning, Abe had a series of meetings and debriefings from the previous night’s job. Liz and Red seemed unwilling to bring up their argument of the night before, so he tentatively took it all to be forgiven and forgotten. It was past noon by the time he finished, and when he returned to his quarters he expected to find the children eagerly awaiting him, ready to share whatever project they’d been working on the night before, and to prepare for their birthday party. Instead... the library was empty. Perhaps they weren’t finished with whatever surprise they’d come up with, then, he thought... but when he got back to their rooms he saw nothing, heard nothing. Nothing, except a soft, muffled sound, coming from the boys’ room. He pushed open the door and found Niamh, alone and hugging a fuzzy purple bathrobe around herself, curled up on the floor between her brothers’ beds. Her eyes were wide when she looked up at him, and her fragile little gills fluttered with anxiety.
Abraham sympathized - his own were beating rapidly as well, now, and he could hardly think for the way his heart pounded and his fingers tingled with fear. “Niamh, what is going on here? Where are your brothers and sister?”
She swallowed and scrubbed the back of her hand against her face. “I promised I wouldn’t tell, but it’s been hours. They should have been back by now!”
“Back from where?”
“I told them...” She shook her head, and then took a deep breath. “Yesterday, we got a letter. From... it said it was from Mother. And it said that she wanted to see us, and that we should meet an emissary from her court at a particular place in the forest outside - he would take us to the court, to see her, but only if we came alone, and before dawn. I told them not to go, but they wouldn’t listen to me!”
Abe clenched his fists. This was everything he’d feared for thirteen years, everything he’d hoped to avoid - the one silver lining to the fact that Nuala had never contacted them, never made any effort to see the children. And now... “Tell me everything you remember, Niamh.”
She didn’t remember much of the directions from the letter, and once she had told all that there was to tell, it took some effort to convince Niamh to stay back and not come along with him in his search for the others. In the end, he took her to Liz and Red’s quarters and insisted that she stay there with them, despite their complaints.
“She’ll be fine here - you can leave her with Eve, or one of the other agents. We should be with you - you’re going to need back-up on this, Abe.”
“Liz is right.” Red picked up his gun from the nightstand.
“No. Absolutely not.”
“Abe, don’t be stupid--”
“Please listen to me, Liz. What I need is to know that Niamh is safe. That she’ll still be here when I come back. If someone from Nuala’s court could get a letter to them here, they can most likely get in again, as well. Or have you both forgotten ther last time Nuada was here?” he added bitterly.
Red’s hand unconsciously brushed the scar above his pectoral muscle. “Tough to forget that,” he admitted.
“Then you know that I’m right, Red. You need to stay here, you and Liz both, and watch over the twins and Niamh, to make sure they’re safe.”
“And leave you to go out alone? I don’t--”
“Red.” Liz’s voice stopped both of them short. “He’s right. If they got in once, they can get in again, and we can’t leave the kids unprotected.”
“I could go with Abe, and you could...” Even before he completed the sentenced Red seemed to realize that was not going to be an answer that Liz would accept. “Or we could both stay,” he grumbled. “Fine. But Abe, take one of the other guys with you...”
“I can’t. Not where I’m going.”
* * *
Where before the Troll Market had seemed to Abe like a wonderland, all manner of creature accepting his strange appearance as though they saw him every day, now its crowded hollows and darkened corners were a nightmare. No one gave him a second glance, true, but all around him Abe saw potential enemies. The one creature he’d hoped he might be able to trust, the map-seller, seemed to have vanished without a trace - in place of his shop, a sprawling stall of twisted and subverted electronics did a brisk business. Worse still, no one seemed at all inclined to pay any mind to a stranger unfamiliar with their ways.
“Excuse me... Excuse me? Sir... or madam, ah, if I could just ask you...?”
No one met his eyes, or even slowed about their business. If Red were there, Abe thought, he would have fired a shot in the air, shouted, and instantly had everyone’s attention. Granted, that attention would probably have led to a brawl, but at least the barriers would have been broken and communication could, once anger had been sated and broken teeth collected from the ground, begin. Even in his agitated state, Abe could tell that starting a fight was a bad idea, as most of the Market’s denizens looked as though they’d be willing and able to kill him for disrupting their business, but his own methods seemed to be equally ineffective and time weighed heavily on his mind. Every passing moment in the hands of their capricious uncle was a threat to the safety of the children.
He’d fumbled his gun out of the utility belt when he noticed a commotion at the other side of the market. Amid excited mutterings and exclamations, the brightly-colored crowd parted for a small cluster of decidedly unfriendly-looking figures with black masks and large blades that looked more like over-sized cleavers than any proper kind of sword... and at the center of this contingent walked a willowy shape of white, gold and blue.
“Nuala! Nuala!” Abe stretched up, waving his arm... but the crowd around him did the same, as everyone in the market craned their necks for a look at the queen, or called out to her for audiences or favors. The guards - at least Abe hoped that was what they were - kept everyone at a distance from their queen, but they also, by their bulk, blocked her view. There was no chance that she would see him in all this commotion... and she was moving steadily, if slowly, away. Another few moments, and he would miss her completely, and with her lose his best chance at recovering the children.
Move, don’t think... Abe pushed through a group of veiled and masked beings, leapt on top of a vendor’s cart, and fired his gun three times into the air. “Nuala!” he shouted.
His stunt did achieve at least some of the desired result - he had the attention of every being in the market, some of whom recoiled in shock - others shouted threats or even screamed. Unfortunately, that universal attention also included the masked guards around Nuala, who proved to be shockingly quick on their feet for beings of their mass, weighed down as they were with heavy wood and leather armor. Three of them were on him before the last syllable of Nuala’s name had faded from the air. Under their long, beaked masks, the smell of carrion flowed thick, and dried blood crusted their clothes and their over-sized swords. Rough hands grabbed him, pulling him down from the cart, and he felt coarse edges of cold metal at his back. Through the crush, Abe was sure he heard Nuala’s voice, shouting something in Gaelige... and suddenly, the guards all froze.
There could be no doubt in Abe’s mind, now, that Nuala’s hold over her guards was supreme. She was also quicker on her feet than Abe had ever guessed - in what seemed like barely an instant, she was pushing through the little cluster of guards that surrounded him. For one perfect moment as she threw her arms around him, all the world shrank to relief and gratitude at finding her again, the feelings reflected and amplified in what he felt from Nuala herself. They were together again, and that... that was true magic, to him. Her smooth skin and pale, soft hair, her golden eyes and the way her fingers clutched at him... all this was exactly the same as the last time he’d seen her. She was different, though, in subtle ways - each a painful reminder of the time they’d been apart, and he wondered how much Nuala must have endured in that time. Before, her mind had felt to him like a quiet pool, shadowed, somehow a thing at once elemental and yet essentially fragile. Now, the strength that he’d recognized in her the first time they met was tempered, emphasized - more like a river than a pond, he thought. He had a sense that, under her beauty and gentle exterior, the force of her could, in time, cut through stone.
“I would rather say that the smallest vine can, in time, shatter a boulder,” Nuala told him, apparently picking up the train of his thought as she pulled back from their embrace, her face shining. “But without water even the greatest oak will die. Oh, Abraham, I’ve missed you so...”
“And... And I you. But, Nuala--”
“My brother is freed, Abraham. I tried to send you a message...”
“It seems the messenger was... diverted. We heard nothing.”
Nuala nodded. “The messenger is dead. My guards found her this morning.”
“It must be him, then. Someone took the children last night. All of them but Niamh.” He wished, almost, that he had not still held her hand as he said that - the pain and horror in her mind as she heard the words was almost too much for him to bear. It was so terrible that he struggled to keep talking, trying to block out the anguish in her mind. It only made his own worse, because while he could only imagine what Nuada was capable of, he had a terrible feeling that Nuala knew. “Niamh is safe, albeit... very upset. She stayed behind, when the others left, and she... she told me what happened early this afternoon. Apparently they received a letter that they thought was from you. A pendant was with it...”
“A golden leaf.” Nuala looked stricken. “I sent it with Boann, as a token that my message was genuine. I dared not write anything down, but I knew you would sense that the pendant was mine, and would know to trust her.”
“If they’d brought it to me, I might even have been able to pick up the message you truly intended to send us - or at least known that what the letter said was untrue.” Abe felt dizzy, as if his gills were drying out. “Nuala, I’m so sorry...”
“You couldn’t have known. If I’d sent word sooner, if I’d found a better way... if I’d come myself. I should have known not to trust any but myself with this message, but I was afraid that if I went to you, my brother would know to follow me.” She squeezed his hand lightly, and in that touch he sensed that she felt the same desperate, frustrated protectiveness, as well as the same overwhelming guilt. “I should have found stronger magics to bind him, Abraham - I’m so sorry. Our ways are constantly undone by the world above, now, but I didn’t think... How foolish could I have been, to bind him in a tree when so few of our old groves still stand? But it seemed like the sensible thing to do, at the time, and now...”
“We’ll get them back,” Abe assured her.
Nuala pressed her lips together, trying to control the fear that threatened to overwhelm her, clawing at the back of her throat and pushing at every edge of her mind, whispering that there was no way, no hope, not against her brother and his madness... but she swallowed it all back, and her outward composure showed no sign of the terror within. “We shall,” she agreed in a confident voice. “Together.”
“What do you think he’ll do?” Abe asked cautiously. He wasn’t sure how strong the twins’ bond was, now, or whether Nuala’s people were aware of the telepathic link between their queen and her exiled brother.
She answered all those questions, shaking her head. “I cannot sense him now. He’s locked me out - he may slip later, if he’s distracted, but... And as for a guess to his motives, I’m afraid I have none beyond what we know. That he is angry, hurt by what he views as my betrayal, that he wants to make the Humans suffer, and us as well... and that he is frustrated, and deeply jealous.”
Abe blinked. “Jealous...?”
“My people value children above all things, Abraham, but we do not sire or give birth easily. Our numbers have dwindled for ages, and..." She looked faintly embarrassed, but continued, "and human children are much more difficult to steal away nowadays. Our lifespans, to the Humans, might as well be forever, but what use is forever if you don’t have a future? In his own way, Nuada has fought for millenia to try to give us that future. And yet now, the future we have is in our children.” She looked down at her hands, then seemed to force her eyes back up to meet his. “I do not think that can be a future that he is pleased with.”
“We must find them quickly, then. You have no idea where he might have taken them?”
Nuala closed her eyes, and through their link Abe could feel her searching her mind, letting her consciousness wander as though she were flipping randomly through the pages of a book, willing something to catch her inner eye. “No, I... wait. This morning, I woke with an image in my mind - a city, and a... a dark place, deep underground.”
"Sewers? Somewhere near here, perhaps?”
“Perhaps... but I don’t know where it might be, or even if it is where he has them, or if it is only something else that has meaning to him! There is no time to hunt. We must find them, and quickly.” She closed her eyes, concentrating. “I know what to do. Follow me.”
Moving to the side of the market a few steps away, Nuala closed her eyes, resting her hand on the earthen wall. “Show me,” she murmured in a low tone. “Show me...” The rest of the words were all in Gaelige, whispered too quickly for Abe to follow, and she finished a phrase that sounded almost sung to Abe’s ear. A spell, he thought - She’s casting a spell. For all that he knew Nuala to be a creature of magic, and even though he’d seen some of the strange and supernatural things her twin had done in the past and had been vaguely aware that Nuala herself must have similar abilities, that was nothing to watching her actually perform a spell.
And a powerful spell, too, he realized, as roots grew out of the soil in front of them, twined for a moment around Nuala's hand, and then burst out into a strange, white blossom with dark gold veins and a center so bright that it seemed to glow on its own. That light grew, and then finally popped off the flower with the light motion of a bubble being blown onto a light breeze, and floated, glowing brightly, in front of Nuala. The flower, relieved of its fruit, withered instantly and fell to the ground, where Abe was shocked to see a quartet of blue fairies zip over and gather up the desiccated petals and spirit them away.
"They're close by." Nuala tugged her hand against the roots and tendrils that still bound her hand to the wall. When she finally pulled away, Abe could see livid puckerings like small bites on her wrist and hand, and a few remaining droplets of amber blood gathered on her pale skin.
"Nuala--"
"It's nothing." She took a silk handkerchief from her sash and quickly bound it around her hand.
"But--"
"That light will guide us to our children, Abraham. A little blood is small payment for that."
"But... you're their queen. Shouldn't they want to help you regardless of payment?"
Nuala looked at him strangely. "I am their queen, so I understand their needs. The balance is what matters - a gift for a gift. Nothing comes without a price, here, Abraham. Come, we should hurry - the light won't last forever. All of you, follow us," she added to the guards. "I fear we may need as many hands as we can get, if we're to stop him."
The raven guards bowed as one, and Nuala nodded back to them, then hurried after the little glowing globe into the darkness of the underground.
* * *
Something... tickled, at the back of Niamh’s mind. The sensation was like waking from a dream with the distinct impression that something had been important, vitally important, but finding herself unable to call it to mind completely - it danced at the edge of her thoughts, tugging, pulling, always grabbing her attention away from whatever she tried to concentrate on, but never revealed itself. It was something... something... Something to do with water.
Niamh sighed and pushed aside her dictionary. She’d been studying Akkadian out of some of the books in her father’s library - a difficult enough project was usually plenty to distract her from anything, let alone something she didn’t want to think about. But today, the image of her brothers and sister leaving the night before preyed constantly on her mind, and nothing she did could seem to banish them, or the nagging thing that whispered in her thoughts. It was... dark. Concentrating on it made her feel cold, made her skin feel almost gritty. Like bad water. Water in a... storm drain? No, not so dirty as that. Not so... new. This was old water, water that was colder than any she’d felt before. Water in a city, yes, but deep, in a... A wave of almost-nausea washed over her, as she could almost taste the metallic, earthy, fetid water on her tongue, feel it on her skin, skin that was... Niamh shuddered. She felt slimy, and yet that feeling of grit overlaid it, as though something was itching at her as well.
“You okay, there, kiddo?”
Niamh forced a weak smile at Red. “Just worried. They’re still not back.”
“Your dad’ll find ‘em.”
“Yeah, I know, but...” Niamh trailed off. An image coalesced in her mind, distorted but distinct - a bright light through a grid, seen through water. A grate, the thing between the water and the light was a grate. The water around her... around them. It had to be around them, around her brothers and sister. Their father could sense the history of objects with his hands, could read things about people through them as well, and he’d said that their mother had some of the same ability, that they’d been able to read each others’ minds to a certain expect, when they were together. Niamh and her siblings had never felt anything like that, but what if this was it? What if she could sense them... feel in her mind wherever they were?
“You sure you’re okay?” Red repeated, watching her closely. Liz, across the room talking to one of the Human agents, turned and looked at them, concerned.
“I’m fine. I’m just tired. I’m going to take a nap.”
Liz crossed the library and touched her shoulder lightly. “You sure you don’t need anything? If you want to talk about it...?”
“No... thanks. I’d rather just sleep. I was up late, waiting. You’ll wake me when they get back?”
“Of course.”
The feeling was growing clearer by the moment in Niamh’s mind, as though now that she’d recognized it for what it was, more and more detail could come through. A rumbling vibration - the sound of street traffic above wherever they were - shuddered through her, and there was a feeling of distance, and a vague memory... a memory of the path they’d taken the night before. Niamh took in a slow, deep breath, ‘watching’ the memory attentively as it twisted in her mind. Their father had said to stay... but he hadn’t known where they were. If she’d told their father the night before, if instead of going to bed she’d gone straight to him and told him what they planned, the guards could have stopped her brothers and sister before they even left the bureau, and everything would have been fine. It was her fault they’d gotten out, her fault they hadn’t come back. Her fault they were... wherever they were. Trapped.
However much they’d wanted to go last night, however confident they’d been in themselves and their decision, her siblings were stuck now. It wasn’t a panicked feeling, particularly, but there was a vague sensation of not being able to go further, out, anywhere. It was muffled, though, and strange... If this was the kind of sensation her father got from objects, Niamh wondered how the hell he managed to understand anything useful out of them. It was all so confused - wordless, random imagery and incoherent impressions, with a dull, weirdly distant emotional quality that felt almost... Almost like the time she’d caught a bad cold, and had to take strong cough medicine so she could sleep. Drugged. That was the feeling. Dizzy, almost, and disconnected.
They’re in trouble, and Dad doesn’t know where to find them. If I went back, I could have Liz and Red call him... but what would I say? They’re somewhere in water, and they feel like they’re confused? They’re in the dark, under a city, and and the water is very cold and strange? Not helpful at all. If the feelings she was getting were to be any help, she’d have to go herself. Niamh paused, her hand on the door of the bedroom she shared with Neasa.
Liz and Red are probably listening. Her father had told them to watch her, to keep her safe.
She opened the door slowly, and then closed it again without going in, and slipped quickly and quietly down the hall. The back way out, the way she and her siblings always used when they wanted to avoid their father, was still open from the night before.
* * *
In another time, Abe would have been fascinated by the extent of the tunnels and pathways that existed down under the city of Brooklyn - stretching out from the Troll Market, they seemed to extend in every direction, almost indefinitely. What was more interesting was that the paths seemed not to follow Human logic or, in fact, any kind of sane progression that Abe could understand - paths that seemed certain to lead them onto a dead end trailed out for miles, and he was almost certain that four turns in the same direction had, in fact, brought them to a completely new area he’d never seen before, rather than taking them back to the beginning as he’d been sure they would. Magic, he reminded himself. There is a magic here that does not need to be obvious or showy. It’s as natural to Nuala and her people as breathing.
Her people in this case were the eerily silent raven guards. Two walked on either side of Abe and Nuala, huge swords raised while the other four clustered behind them, immense gloved hands on their sword-hilts, at the ready for attack.
“This part of the tunnels is not well-known to my people,” Nuala murmured, her eyes locked on the small golden globe that floated ahead of them. “We do not travel through here unless we must. Strange things live in the darkness.”
“The perfect place for Nuada to hide, then.”
Nuala nodded. “He must have known that I would seek him in his usual hiding places first, giving him time to consolidate his power here.”
Something moved in the shadows, and before Abe could even reach for his gun, the two front guards had pushed him and Nuala behind them, their swords high. The stink of carrion, blood, and old wood and leather rolled from them as they moved. Abe stretched, trying to see over the shoulder of the one in front of him, but he could see nothing.
“What kind of strange things, exactly, were you talking about?” he whispered to Nuala.
Lit only by the gold sphere, now hanging directly above them as though waiting for them to move again, her eyes were huge, the irises only the thinnest possible ring of gold around pupils widened in fear and shadow. “Trolls. Wild fairies that eat flesh and bone. And worse things.”
“Worse things. Oh, good.”
He really should have known better, Abe realized, than to comment - that did always seem to work as a summoning of sorts for whatever danger was referred to. Sure enough, the guards were suddenly in motion, a thick sound of something jelly-like and strangely creaking moving in front of them, beyond Abe’s sight, and the smell of the raven guards abruptly seemed almost comforting compared to the rancid-sweet stench of whatever they fought. Abe caught Nuala’s hand, squeezing it tightly.
At least we have the guards, he thought. I’m sure they can handle... whatever it is.
My brother killed eight of them by himself, when he came back to our father’s court, was Nuala’s unnerving response.
Three of the six guards fought in front of them, now, and every so often Abe caught a glimpse of the thing - no, things - that they battled. Their flesh - it didn’t appear to be skin in any way Abe recognized - was dark red shot with yellow and black veining, and the body shape was roughly quadrapedal. Beyond that, he couldn’t see enough detail to be sure of anything, beyond the huge, lidless white eyes that gleamed in the shadows as they attacked.
The raven guards were powerful, quick on their feet, and unusually graceful for beings of their bulk, particularly factoring in the size of their weapons, which would have been absurd if they hadn’t also been wickedly sharp and coated in the rust-colored remnants of dried blood. Three of them should have been a force strong enough to fight any monsters living in the sewers. But first one, then another fell to the things in the dark, and as two stepped from the back to take their place, Abe finally got a good look at what was attacking them.
It looked like a horse that had been flayed alive. Black blood oozed, and yellow pus and fat deposits hung loose on its flesh. And it was mad with rage. Having never spent time around domestic animals other than Red’s cats, Abe had never considered a horse particularly dangerous. These certainly were. Ragged hooves cut and kicked, and as one bit into the shoulder of one of the raven guards Abe could see long, yellowed teeth that dug deep into flesh and grated against bone, ripping and crushing.
Through it all, the guards made not a sound. The animals made up for their silence with a wailing, creaking sound that was nothing like anything Abe had heard before.
One of the guards in front of Abe and Nuala fell to his knees. Blood gushed from beneath his black mask, matting the feathery mane that covered his neck. With a screech that reeked of a charnel house, the creatures lunged into the gap.
The first panicked shot from Abe’s gun missed, the second clipped a ragged ear but did no harm. The third, blessedly, exploded in horse-flesh. The sweet-rotting smell grew thicker, and white bone showed through the wound, but the creature lurched onward, eyes huge and rolling, either unable to feel the pain or too wild to care. Abe shot again, into the shoulder this time, just as another creature lashed out and nearly knocked the weapon from his hand. Beside him, Nuala snatched her knife free from its sheath and danced forward, twisting beneath the creature’s flailing hooves and burying the blade deep in the thing’s eye. That, at least, it felt. It roared with fury and threw itself forward again, but before its hooves could connect with her, one of the raven guards shoved Nuala back and took her place, his sword angled across his body. Swinging his weapon in an upward arc, the guard cleaved the rope-like neck of their enemy with one blow. Abe grabbed the opportunity provided by that creature’s fall, and took down its companion with a wild shot to its knee, but it flailed still, shrieking, until the guard cut off its head as well.
For a tense moment, the three waited for another attack. Nothing came. But around them, the bodies of at least four of the creatures steamed in the darkness... and five of the six guards lay dead with their enemies.
Nuala, her eyes distant and cold, wiped her knife on a scrap of fabric offered by the remaining guard, then folded the cloth and, with a slight wince of distaste, handed it back to the guard, who bowed his head and tucked it into his armour.
“I see what you mean about this place,” Abe admitted.
Nuala shook her head. “There will be worse. We must hurry - if he has spies this far, he’ll know we’re coming now.”
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-10-26 02:54 am (UTC)"Beyond that, he couldn’t see enough detail to be sure of anything, beyond the huge, lidless white eyes that gleamed in the shadows as they attacked."
<- I can just imagine how Mignola would draw that image
I LOL'ed at the description of Red's attention-getting techniques. (digression) I was annoyed at the use of the nickname "Red," starting in the first movie. Hellboy already has a nickname in comics canon -- his nickname is Boy. And it's the best possible nickname -- it's derived from his actual name, it's one of the most common terms of endearment and also one of the most common pejorative terms (or both at the same time, like when Trevor tells him, "Don't be thick, Boy"), and while it recalls a deep truth about the character -- his humanity and original innocence -- it's also amusingly ironic for someone so burly. All that, vs. a word that simply refers to the color of his skin. (/digression) But I found that I like the way you refer to him as Red throughout this story, because it allows me to plug right into Golden Army canon -- That's just what Red WOULD do, that oafish jerk! LOL -- and avoid the cognitive dissonance of comparing him with the Hellboy of the comics.
I had to go look up "Gaelige" on wikipedia. I think you might consider that a success. ;)
Oh, and I found a typo: "able to read each others’ minds to a certain expect"
no subject
Date: 2010-10-26 03:18 am (UTC)The nickname thing... yeah, it's all about just sticking to the movie-canon. Drove me crazy at times, too, but I started out as a movie-fan and fell headlong into the comics after, so it sounds a little less horrible to me than it otherwise would. I tend to kind of shut off the two canons in my head, honestly - everyone is so different in each that they might as well be separate characters, a lot of the time, so that's pretty much how I deal with them. If I think too much about comparing the two universes I tend to get... actually pretty angry at the movies, so I try to do it as little as possible. :P
Awwww, I do! Though I'm sorry you had to. I almost didn't refer to the language by name for exactly that reason, but I compulsively checked the scriptbook for a few things and since they call the language by name there... it just seemed easier, and more apt to fit in the story, to go with it.
Yar, typo! I'll see if I can get in there and fix that, sorry! I know there are others in there... the first few chapters got pretty well gone-over, but the later in the story we get the more likely you'll run into more of my fingers running wild without my brain's input, I'm afraid. Apologies in advance.
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Date: 2010-10-26 03:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-26 03:50 am (UTC)Although, of course, they are Nightmares, and I'm hardly the first person to do that one... ;)
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Date: 2010-10-26 03:32 am (UTC)Although, I think it might work best of all to read the first comic, then watch the first movie, then read more comics -- that's how I did it. That way, I got a delicious feeling of WTF? when I saw Hellboy pining after Liz, but I was taken by surprise by the emergence of Anung un Rama in the movie, which is more impressive by being live-action (they did a really good job with the flaming crown). It might work best to see Golden Army right after the first movie, without reading too far into the comics -- that avoids my reaction, a frustrated, "But WHY was he DUMB?"
no subject
Date: 2010-10-26 03:55 am (UTC)And yeah, the whole flaming crown bit in the movie... ahhhh, that was lovely. ♥ The visuals in those movies are so fantastic in general. Sooo prettty.... ♥
that avoids my reaction, a frustrated, "But WHY was he DUMB?"
The weird thing is? Even some of the comic material that's written and drawn by other folks for the series does that. Not all of it by a long stretch, but some of them... and it always kind of makes me go "huh?" This is not the Hellboy I know and love in the comics!
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Date: 2010-10-27 01:30 am (UTC)And what comic material are you speaking about specifically? Like, the "Weird Tales" comics? Or something that's actually canon or para-canon?
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Date: 2010-10-27 03:07 am (UTC)And yeah, I was thinking of the Weird Tales - some of the guest comics there seem to be a bit... odd. Not that they're not all fun, but some of them are definitely more toward movie!Hellboy than comic!Hellboy.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-02 10:45 pm (UTC)The one Weird Tale that struck me as WAY too movie-verse was that one where the woman hits on him in the car. And he's wearing boots. Meh.
But "Abe Sapien: Star of the BPRD" was more a parody of movie-verse than comic-, I guess, but even so that's my second-favorite out of both volumes (after "Midnight Cowboy") -- I laughed so hard.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-02 10:47 pm (UTC)Awww, I need to re-read those. I remember really loving several of them.