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Post by Skyfire on Mar 30, 2010 7:08:57 GMT -5
Buzz stood and began to pace to relieve his tension, running both hands through his hair. “As far as Hellboy is concerned, I’m not sure. Obviously, if you could see him again, that could help – but going from Good to Evil or Evil to Good isn’t just a one-minute decision, it’s a process. It’ll likely take time.
“As far as you yourself are concerned, if you really want to ‘stick around,’ you need to learn about what you’re getting yourself into. The galactic government, Star Command, the different worlds and peoples, Zurg…” He stopped pacing and shrugged.
Erin leaned forward, excitement written on her face.
Buzz groaned. “Oh no, I said the wrong thing! Erin’s an overenthusiastic, obsessive teacher when she gets going!”
Erin laughed, not bothering to deny the statement. Once she got enough of a lid on her laughter, she turned to Liz and said, “So how about it? You do need to learn about this place if you’re going to do anything here. I promise I’ll take it easy on you.”
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Post by Blacksteel on Mar 31, 2010 4:44:28 GMT -5
“But this was a practically instantaneous change,” Liz countered, trying to push her own feelings aside for the time being. “The Hellboy I know is the one in the first video. You can’t change so drastically in less than twenty-four hours like that.”
She wanted—no, needed—to see him again. If she could only talk to him, she could find out what happened, where it all went wrong. If this was a conscious decision, if the change had already begun years ago—though Liz dreaded to discover whether this was the case—if he had been tricked. So many if’s and so little time...
But they were both right. If Liz was going to stay here she would have to learn about this new world. It was a terrifying prospect in its own self, but if she was going to have to make this work, she’d need to learn, and fast.
“All right, Erin, I’m game.” Liz smirked, crossing her arms over her chest. “Least now I’ll find out whether Star Trek and all those other sci-fi flicks were even remotely accurate.”
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Post by Skyfire on Mar 31, 2010 7:18:59 GMT -5
((Heeey, I’m missing you on the Cbox again. Think you can make it at my normal time tomorrow? *hopeful look*)) “ Exactly,” Buzz said quietly, unknowingly echoing some of Liz’s thoughts. “That’s why I think that it had to have been going on even before he got here.” Erin laughed again – it was the laugh of a young woman who’d not yet left her childhood behind. “I wouldn’t know about Star Trek, but I do know Star Wars and a little bit of Stargate.” She shrugged, then leaned back in her seat and stretched. “I guess that the best place to start would be with our own race.” She leaned forward again, clasping her hands and resting them on the table. “By the 2020s, Earth had been discovered by the galaxy and had gotten caught right in the middle of a war. It wasn’t pretty.” Her brown eyes were solemn. “That was the only nuclear war this galaxy has ever seen, and it was enough. In the end, the Galactic Confederacy was born – the first galactic government to exist in centuries. Wonder of wonders, our own planet was picked for the capital and renamed Capital Planet.” She smirked. “Earth is a good spot for a galactic capital, though – because of our position on one of the spiral arms, we have an enormous lookout point on the rest of the galaxy, and we’re nowhere near any large bands of stars or near the center. Earth has one of the clearest night skies in the galaxy.” Erin began to lightly drum her fingers on the tabletop. “Sad thing is that so few people nowadays even know about ‘Capital Planet’s’ pre-galactic history. Not even half the human race really knows its own roots.” She shook her head and sighed. “Anyway, humans – being the conniving, adventurous, impulsive souls that we are – took to the stars and spread out across the galaxy. Most populous race now, go figure.” She shrugged. “The space station we’re on right now – Star Command – orbits Capital Planet, and our military clock corresponds with CCT, Capital City Time. Back in the 21st century, that would have been EST – Capital City covers most of the old American Eastern Seaboard.” She stood abruptly. “Do you want some coffee? I know I need a serious caffeine boost.”
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Post by Blacksteel on Apr 1, 2010 5:19:48 GMT -5
((Hope so! I’ve been pretty busy this week, only posting what was necessary. Hey, it’s Easter this Sunday. I have a lot of errands.))
She didn’t want it to be true, but Lightyear was probably right—and the prospect was absolutely terrifying.
“I know Star Wars too. Stargate... never got round to seeing that one.”
She listened as Erin gave her a rundown of how human history progressed, and her words caused her to shiver. All those words Memnan Saa had poisoned her with had come true, in a weird way. Though instead of the end coming from the plague of frogs, it had come from aliens at war. The Alien vs. Predator director would be proud. She wondered if it had anything to do with Hellboy’s absence from their original timeline, but decided to put those thoughts to the side for now.
“So we’re orbiting Earth—Capital Planet—right now,” Liz mused, looking around the room. She hadn’t known that their solar system was on one of the spinal arms of the galaxy—whatever that meant. And it figured that humans today wouldn’t remember how they were like centuries ago. Not that Liz herself could recall events in human history all that well. “Wow. Figured nuclear war would be somehow involved.”
“Coffee sounds great,” she said with apparent enthusiasm. She could use a cup or two.
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Post by Skyfire on Apr 1, 2010 6:28:26 GMT -5
((O-tay, o-tay…))
“Oooo, you’ve got to,” Erin grinned. “Stargate is awes–”
“Erin,” came Buzz’s warning (not to mention irritated) tone.
“Sorry,” she said meekly.
Erin nodded solemnly. “Yeah. But you know… it wasn’t – well, it was bad, don’t get me wrong, but it wasn’t apocalyptic. At least, not for the most part. Only one of Earth’s cities was hit with nuclear power – Berlin.” She shook her head. “That was devastating. But it was the extraterrestrials that received the brunt of the nuclear destruction. But-but as bad as all that was, a lot of good came out of it, too. That time produced some of the greatest human heroes that ever lived.” She grinned suddenly. “Like my oldest brother.”
“Great! Just give me a minute here.” Erin moved over to the coffee machine against the wall and fixed a pot.
“No turpentine, kiddo,” Buzz reminded her.
She huffed. “I don’t make turpentine.”
“Yeah, you do.” Buzz smirked at Liz. “Her coffee could strip paint off of walls.”
“I didn’t make it that strong this time!” Erin protested. Buzz just shook his head and laughed. “Aaargh! Brothers!” She rolled her eyes and turned to Liz. “How about creamer? We’ve got…” she stuck her head inside a little fridge, “vanilla, peppermint, and mocha… no plain creamer.”
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Post by Blacksteel on Apr 1, 2010 6:40:14 GMT -5
Liz quirked a curious brow. “Your brother? What did he do?”
And Berlin? Germany? What a coincidence... or not, she thought, her face darkening. Hadn’t that been where the frog monsters had re-emerged and the subterranean machines had attacked? In Munich? She recalled Abe telling her about the events a few days ago; she herself had still been Saa’s captive. She wondered whether there was some deeper significance behind the coincidence or whether her mind was just making connections where there were none.
Liz grinned broadly at Buzz’s antics. “I like my coffee strong; I’m addicted to the stuff.” She turned back to Erin. “Peppermint sounds good. Haven’t tried that in a while,” she admitted.
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Post by Skyfire on Apr 1, 2010 17:15:20 GMT -5
“He befriended an alien team that landed on Earth by accident,” Erin explained. “He was… almost twenty at the time. Paul was a very gifted boy – had a mind that processed things incredibly quickly, very logical… and he was a military expert. At least, as much as you possibly can be without going to West Point or something like that. Even when he was just in his mid-teens, he was an excellent strategist. He ended up gathering together the most diverse army the planet had ever seen to defend Earth, and he did it well.”
She smirked slightly. “I’m fiercely proud of him, but now that means that I’m living in his shadow, even if next to nobody knows that we’re siblings.”
Buzz shook his head as he pulled up something on the laptop. “Erin, how many times do I have to tell you? You do just fine.” He turned the computer back to Liz, a photo now filling the screen. A man in his mid-twenties posed with a long broadsword – he wore black armor that was vaguely reminiscent of Boba Fett. He had silver-flecked black hair, dark brown eyes, and deeply-tanned skin – 6’1”, broad-shouldered but lanky, athletic. And there was something in that half-smile of his – a sort of devil-may-care attitude, maybe. But there was also something in his features that undeniably linked him to Erin.
“Two for two,” Buzz returned, “but I draw the line when it starts peeling the white paint off the bulkhead.”
Erin couldn’t help giggling.
“Peppermint it is! Personally, I love that stuff,” Erin grinned, pulling out the bottle. “How about you, mi amado?” she asked Buzz.
Buzz cleared his throat self-consciously and replied, “I, uh, I’ll go with mocha.”
“I don’t know why I even asked,” Erin smirked, pulling out the other bottle. “Mr. Chocoholic.”
“Am not!” he protested. He turned to Liz. “Honestly, I don’t know why I put up with her.”
“Buzz! I’m hurt!” Erin pressed her hand to her heart and slumped against the wall.
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Post by Blacksteel on Apr 2, 2010 2:12:48 GMT -5
Liz found that hard to believe, even for her. “A military expert without any training?”
She had to admit, even if she had held barely any respect for Ben Daimio, he had been an excellent addition to their team, having been in the US Marine Corps before his mission gone wrong in the Bolivian jungle which instigated his transfer to Pentagon Special Ops, and eventually to the BPRD. Of course, he was somewhere in the Colorado wilderness now...
“How did he even gather an army without any experience?”
Lightyear chastised Erin’s bitterness gently before flipping the laptop towards Liz—they still used laptops a millennium in the future?—showing her the picture of a young man in black armour—which looked ancient, even for their times—brandishing a sword—was it supposed to be symbolic, because it didn’t look like it would be of much use in an actual battle—with silver flecks in his hair despite his young age—either due to stress or the reason was genetic—with a half-smile that reminded her of Erin.
“Huh,” Liz said. “He’s looking pretty... medieval there, for someone from our time.” Sure, she could appreciate the aesthetics of it, but in practicality... that get-up didn’t look like it could take a knife-stab let alone a bullet.
The firestarter smirked at Lightyear. “Maybe because even if you bitch about it, you still like her coffee?” she suggested innocently.
She leaned back in her seat, feeling slightly more relaxed and at ease. “So what’s the story between you two?” she asked him, lacing her fingers together. “You said you adopted her as your sister?”
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Post by Skyfire on Apr 2, 2010 14:56:38 GMT -5
((Sorry I didn’t have this done sooner! :`( It was mostly the Paul thing that tripped me up. I knew basically what I wanted to say, but it kept expanding until finally I said, “That’s it – I’m done with this,” and I replaced the history with Erin literally saying, “It’s too long.” ^^))
Erin smirked slightly. “You’d be surprised at what you can learn at home if you just have the right tools.”
“Like a ton of army manuals,” Buzz supplied.
“Right.”
Erin ran a hand over her face and groaned. “You would ask that! Liz, do you have any idea how loaded that question is??” She gave a despairing laugh. “That’s a whole chapter right there in a high school history textbook – not to mention a trilogy of books and a trilogy of films based on the books.” She slumped back in her chair. “I have that trilogy, too – it was written by both Paul and my youngest sister, Joyce. I could let you borrow the books and you could just read the first-hand account for yourself.”
Buzz just laughed.
“What?” Erin asked. “Buzz, what’re you showing her?”
“One of those snapshots of your brother from after the war.”
“Ohhh.” Erin moved over to take a look and smirked. “That boy.” She shook her head and grinned. “He was a sword aficionado – that’s why he’s holding one there, although the one that he actually used in battle was this big, hefty thing that could slice through certain metals and alloys.”
“The armor is far outdated by today’s standards,” Buzz continued, “but in your time, it really beats any armor made on Earth, Kevlar included. That was theee best armor of that era.”
Erin coughed discreetly, and Buzz gave Liz half a glare. “Don’t push it,” he said evenly, his manner suggesting that he wasn’t sure whether to be irritated or amused.
Buzz cast a glance at Erin pouring the coffee as he answered. “Yes, ma’am. She, um, well…” He faltered, sending Erin a questioning look. She chewed on the inside of her cheek in thought, then screwed up her face slightly. He gave a tiny nod and said, “My team and I had to get her to the Emergency Room, and after that, well…” He shrugged. “I felt responsible for her, for the time being, anyway. As she recovered, we found out about the whole time-travel thing, and she also told me that the doctors wanted to operate on her back.”
Erin picked up the story at that point. “I had a fairly common problem called scoliosis – abnormal curvature of the spine. Two curves, in my case – my lower back and near my neck.” She pointed to the areas as she spoke. “Back in our time, that’s stabilized with a back brace, which I did wear for a couple of years in my early teens. Surgery could have corrected it, but, you know, when you deal with the spine, you’re dealing with the spinal cord, and if you make a misstep, you could end up with paralysis. Back then, that is. Nowadays, it’s not as difficult, but if the patient is under twenty-one years of age, the doctors still need the permission of a parent or a guardian.”
“That’s where I came in,” Buzz continued. “Erin was eighteen at the time, and virtually an orphan, even though she was legally an adult in different aspects. And when I suggested that someone adopt her as a sibling so that she could have a guardian to authorize the surgery… she, uh…”
“Talked you into it?” Erin suggested innocently.
“I was thinking conned,” Buzz returned.
She just laughed silently and shook her head.
Buzz rolled his eyes. “So anyway, she cornered me with Ranger responsibility –”
“Something that he just can’t refuse,” Erin interjected.
“– And I agreed. Just for the seventeen months it would take until she turned twenty. Of course, I knew that in that amount of time, we’d probably get close…” He shrugged. “And we did.”
“Wait, wait, hold on,” Erin declared, handing the two older adults their coffee. “Liz, there’s something you need to understand first to really appreciate this story.” Buzz groaned, knowing where this was going, and Erin ignored him. “You see, Buzz is very famous. He’s the best Space Ranger there is, and he’s known by several monikers, such as the Galaxy’s Greatest Hero, the Great Galactic Defender, and a few other names that just aren’t repeatable because they come from criminals.” Buzz rolled his eyes and looked away.
“Anyway,” Erin continued, “among the people that know him, he’s also ‘famous’ for his insensitivity and his obsession with his job. He wasn’t what you would call good family material.”
“And at the time, I didn’t think I was, either,” Buzz interjected before taking a sip of his coffee. “But I felt a certain protectiveness and responsibility towards Erin, and I followed up on it.”
Erin grinned. “I awakened his family-inside.”
Buzz sighed. “You just love taking shots at me, don’t you.”
“As a matter of fact… I do.”
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Post by Blacksteel on Apr 3, 2010 5:02:58 GMT -5
“They wrote a trilogy and made it into a move trilogy?” Liz repeated, dumbfounded. And the actual book series was written by him, and his little sister, too? “Like an autobiographical retelling of sorts or what?”
It all sounded pretty surreal to her. A summary of events would have done for her, not a prompt to read a schoolbook or watch a film or read a book series.
“I could let you borrow the books and you could just read the first-hand account for yourself,” Erin offered.
“Maybe,” Liz replied, wondering just how long she might be stuck here—she’d better prepare herself for the long haul, it appeared.
“He was a sword aficionado—that’s why he’s holding one there, although the one that he actually used in battle was this big, hefty thing that could slice through certain metals and alloys,” Erin explained.
“A sword, even in battle?” Well, if it could slice through metal, she supposed it would be handy to have, but still, that would only be effective in close-hand combat. What did he do for more strenuous battles? She was surprised he actually used a sword when he could be mowed down by a barrage of bullets. “Frankly speaking, swords are a real cut below assault rifles.”
“The armour is far outdated by today’s standards,” Buzz pitched in, “but in your time, it really beats any armour made on Earth, Kevlar included. That was theee best armour of that era.”
“It really doesn’t look like it’s built to last,” Liz countered, frowning as she looked at the picture again. But then again, who was she to judge? The BPRD made do with assault rifles and bulletproof vests and not much else that was military-issue. It came with being the government’s underdog.
Buzz scowled. “Don’t push it,” he warned evenly.
“I’m just teasing you, Lightyear,” Liz grinned. There was little to laugh about in the situation, so she’d take them as they came.
She listened as Lightyear explained how Erin had been hospitalised after her time-travelling ordeal, then was offered surgery for her back problem—scoliosis.
“Was it your fault Erin was pulled here from the past?” Liz asked curiously. “Just wondering,” she added quickly, “since you said you felt responsible for her.”
Tom Manning had scoliosis, as Liz recalled. He complained about it when he talked with Kate sometimes. Lower back pains, mostly, which probably came from squatting at a desk all day. It was one of the reason Liz was glad she had never had a desk job. She didn’t think she could rifle through papers and reports like Tom and Kate all day.
“Bright idea,” Liz grinned at Lightyear, as he and Erin bantered about how he’d been manipulated. “Looks like she pushed you in a corner with that suggestion, skipper.”
She took the coffee with a nod of thanks, immediately taking a sip. She sighed blissfully, licking her lips. She usually didn’t fix up anything fancy with her coffee, but it was nice every now and then to indulge a bit.
“Famous, huh?” The comparison to Hellboy came unbidden in her mind. He had been very famous himself, so usually, wherever he went, though there were plenty of people who steered clear out of superstition, others who regarded him with a mixture of awe and fear, there were some still who were curious enough to go up and talk to him and ask for autographs sometimes. Liz had always found that annoying, and Hellboy had too, but he was usually a good sport and would answer and sign anything they asked him to as long as they weren’t in the middle of a chase whenever that occurred.
“Anyway,” Erin continued, “among the people that know him, he’s also ‘famous’ for his insensitivity and his obsession with his job. He wasn’t what you would call good family material.”
“Most men are soft and don’t want to admit it,” Liz chuckled, taking another sip.
“This is really good,” she nodded at Erin, lifting the mug slightly. She could easily live off of coffee if she could.
“And it sounds like you two’re close enough to be really related. I probably wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference unless you’d told me.”
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Post by Skyfire on Apr 4, 2010 6:05:46 GMT -5
“Uh-huh,” Erin nodded. “Well, y’know, it’s like… World War II. You know there are a lot of true-to-fact movies out there about World War II, and a lot of books that were written by people who went through it.” She shrugged.
Erin hesitated, then said, “Look, Liz, I’m not trying to brush you off or anything. It’s just that that is really, really looong story – and I just have no idea how to condense it. The details aren’t really important to what you need to know in the here and now, and… you know, if you go back to our time, you’re going to live through it, anyway.” She gave Liz an apologetic shrug.
“…Nooot if they can fire energy blasts,” Erin drawled. “We’re not talking Earthling swords here. And he did use guns most of the time. His favorite was the AK-47.”
“Nooo, it is,” Buzz assured her. “That stuff could take a really good pounding from repeaters and machine guns.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Buzz returned, his voice deadpan but his blue eyes twinkling. “And hey, just call me Buzz.”
“Nooo,” he said slowly, memory shadowing his face, “but…”
Erin shook her head, knowing what Buzz was thinking – it was something they’d gone over in the past, and she’d thought that he’d finally let it go. Apparently not. “Buzz, it wasn’t your fault that you couldn’t get there in time,” she insisted. “Quit beating yourself up over it.”
Buzz just looked at her. He knew that she understood his self-imposed guilt, his dread of not being good enough to always save the day. And that, sometimes, he just couldn’t let some things go. “My team got her to the ER,” he repeated slowly and quietly, not taking his eyes off of his sister. “That’s why I felt responsible.” He shrugged slightly.
Buzz groaned, and Erin laughed. “Thank you, ma’am!” she said brightly, giving a sweeping theatrical bow.
Buzz shrugged, taking another sip of his coffee. “If it helps the cause, I’m all for it.”
Erin smirked knowingly, folding her arms. “He loves the spotlight.”
Buzz sighed, not bothering to deny her.
“I am not!” Buzz protested.
Erin laughed. “Buzz Lightyear, Mira and Cora would beg to differ, not to mention myself.” She patted his shoulder. “You’re a big ole softie – you just needed a couple of people to draw that out in you.”
Buzz looked away. “Somebody shoot me now, please.”
“Thanks,” Erin smiled. “And just for the record, I really didn’t make it as strong as I usually do.” She grinned impishly.
Buzz and Erin laughed together. “Well, I take that as a very high compliment,” Erin smiled.
“We get that a lot,” Buzz added. “People say, ‘I didn’t know you had a sister,’ and I have to say, ‘I didn’t – she’s adopted.’” He laughed again. “But she rubbed off on me, and I kinda finished raising her, as it were.”
“Yep, I was still very much a kid,” Erin nodded, smirking. “Poor Buzz had a handful on his hands.”
“Yeah, I…” Buzz’s voice trailed off, and he raised a questioning eyebrow as he turned to Liz. “Are we bantering too much? We can stop if we have to.”
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Post by Blacksteel on Apr 8, 2010 1:15:05 GMT -5
“Yeah, like the Diary of Anne Frank, to name one,” Liz said.
Live through that kind of the world’s destruction or something entirely different, like the one that had already been fast approaching? She didn’t know which she preferred—neither option sounded appealing.
“Oh,” she conceded. “Alien weaponry.” She should have guessed, but she’d expected alien weapons to look radically different from humanity’s.
“Buzz. Okay.” She nodded and grinned.
Her eyes flitted between them during the exchange, putting two and two together. Buzz hadn’t reached her in time in whatever had happened, and she’d probably gotten hurt and had needed immediate medical treatment. She could relate.
She chuckled at their antics, taking another sip of her coffee. “No, it’s fine,” she said. “Reminds me of how Kate and HB would banter. Sometimes it was fun to watch them and see who would cave first.” Her smile turned bitter, then she lowered her gaze.
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Post by Skyfire on Apr 8, 2010 11:27:42 GMT -5
((Actually, Liz’s response worked out really well!))
“Uh-huh,” Erin nodded. “Come to think of it, there are probably like a million out there. Everybody had a story to tell.”
Erin made a guess and acted on it. “Hey, swords are still swords, no matter what culture or even species.” She grinned. “And they’re cool – and humans aren’t the only ones who think so, trust me.”
Buzz smiled as she reminisced, then his smile faded with hers, and he sighed. People really didn’t understand what it felt like when someone you loved switched sides – the denial, the betrayal, the grief, and even the anger that you go through.
But Buzz did. He knew all too well.
He sank back into his seat and said quietly, “That does sound like fun.” He sighed again and shook his head. “Liz… I know it’s cliché to say ‘I know what you’re going through,’ but the truth is… I do. You see, Erin’s husband, Warp Darkmatter… well, you might have guessed from the videos that there was more going on there than was strictly said. Warp and I used to be partners, all the way back from Star Command Academy – we trained and worked side-by-side for a full twenty years.
“And all that time, he was working as a spy for Zurg.”
Buzz looked down as memories assaulted him, memories that – even after all this time – were still painful. “Finally, this one rescue mission we went on… well, it ended with an exploding Zurg base. Warp was trapped beneath the debris, and I thought he was dead. A few days later, I’m fighting this new Zurg agent who hits me – literally, even – with the fact that he’s actually Warp.” Buzz shook his head, staring at the floor. “My best friend, the person I was closer to than anyone else in the galaxy… and it turns out that I didn’t even really know him at all.”
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Post by Blacksteel on Apr 8, 2010 16:31:20 GMT -5
Liz chewed on her lower lip. Betrayal was never easy to go through, especially the betrayal of someone whom you thought you were close to and thought you knew. She had been lucky, extremely lucky, to have Hellboy and Abe, then Kate, then later on Roger and Johann to confide in.
However, Hellboy’s situation was different. Despite what she had now found out about him hurt to even think about it, it wasn’t betrayal—at least not yet.
She set down her coffee mug, then did something that even surprised herself a little. She reached out to grasp Buzz’s hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. Though she shied away from physical contact, the gesture had always been a comfort to her.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured, “for making you remember this. I didn’t realise...” She had wondered about the need to crash a wedding, of all the dastardly things Zurg could have had Hellboy do, but with this piece of information it all made a weird sort of sense.
It had been an act of revenge.
“I guess there’s nothing I can really say,” she admitted with a half-hearted shrug. She patted his hand once more before drawing back.
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Post by Skyfire on Apr 10, 2010 6:05:50 GMT -5
Surprised, Buzz jerked his head up. He really had not been expecting that – then again, he hadn’t expected himself to slip into an angst fest, either… Must have been the lack of sleep, maybe with empathy thrown into the mix.
But he appreciated the gesture. He was used to being railed on, insulted, cursed, and a million more negative, derogative things because he was such a superhero. It was nice to have a little sympathy for once.
“Thanks,” Buzz said softly. “But you don’t have to. You don’t have to be sorry – it’s not your fault or anything. Most of the time, it doesn’t even bother me anymore. I guess it’s like an old wound that’s pretty much healed but acts up every now and then, you know?”
Erin gazed steadily at the floor. She didn’t really have a role in this part of the conversation, not yet, anyway. With something akin to a child’s love, she had looked past – almost to the point of ignoring – Warp’s history and negative traits to the good that she could see there. With the more mature love of an adult, however, she saw both the good and the bad and found that she could not ignore the bad. Forgive it, not hold it against him anymore – but not forget it, not ignore its existence.
“Warp is back at Star Command – even back in my cruiser – and it’s so great to have him back.” Buzz’s face gradually lit up again, a sincere gladness in his voice. “In some ways, it’s like it used to be, and in other ways, it’s even better. You have twenty years of routine and set dynamics with a person and they’re pretty hard to break. That’s part of the reason Warp came back.” He glanced at Erin with half a smirk. “That, and a kid who knows how to get past people’s defenses to draw out their good qualities.”
Erin blushed. “Buzz, I, um…” She coughed and cleared her throat, eyes searching the room for inspiration. “You know what? Maybe now would be a good time to get into your favorite topic.”
“Which? I have three,” Buzz smirked. “Star Command, Mira, or Zurg – take your pick.”
Erin couldn’t help giggling. “Wooow, did you ever tell Mira that? You oughta try that sometime and see how she reacts!”
“Erin…”
“I meant Zurg, and you know it,” she retorted, folding her arms.
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