(Untitled)

[stonyfaced]

Characters: Stoneface and OPEN!
Date/Time: From December 26th to January 2nd, let's say
Location: Varied.
Rating: PG-13 for naughty language!
Summary: Stoneface died. He's come back. People want to see him

Comments

Re: December 29th

[stonyfaced]

Stoneface's home looked a fair bit different from the last time Youth was around--all furniture that was soaked beyond repair with blood had been tossed out, and a remaining chair that had been scrubbed clean by Housekeeping, Stoneface simply tossed out. He remembered very small things about the way he died, but remembering what he tripped on and what he clutched onto in the process meant that he didn't like having the reminder staring him in the face every day.

His home wasn't very full to begin with, but now, it was downright empty, save for a few chairs scattered across the floor and the desk he was too attached to to throw out.

When knocking sounded at his door, he moved over there and swung it open. Ah, and there was Youth, right on time. He didn't look too worse for wear - certainly not as bad as Sky did - which was a bit of a relief, although he did note the telltale bulge of bandages beneath his shirt. Cracked ribs, he guessed. Not even the most skilled Igor could do anything with that but shrug and bandage--not that this place had any Igors.

"Hello, Youth," he said, swinging the door open. "Come on in."

[spandexisyouth]

"Hello again, Stoneface!" After almost bowing from the waist, Youth stopped and instead bowed from the shoulders. It wasn't as respectful, something told him, but it wasn't going to hurt. "I shall!" He stepped inside, comparing the new setup to what he'd seen the day of the attack. It was a lot cleaner with less furnishings. He still hadn't worked through how calm he'd been at seeing the mess, how he hadn't been disturbed.

There may have been a slight avoidance of looking at one wall in particular, in case there was still the indent from a knife in it. He wasn't entirely sure he wanted to mention that.

Youth entered. Not dramatically. He stood, rather stiffly, near Stoneface. This was reporting in, not a casual call. "I am here to report in! But I do not know what details you already have or what you still need, and I do not want to overlap too much." He frowned, looking Stoneface over. "You are completely recovered? The hatching healed everything? Or are you still injured? And what can I do to help? I have not been able to help much, but I would like to!"

FINALLY ABLE TO TAG ;~; Sorry I'm such a flake!

[stonyfaced]

Stoneface stood awkwardly by, unaccustomed to being bowed to. He chalked it up to being a culture thing, at any rate. Shutting the door behind him, he wandered over to his desk to pick up the notebook he had been using in order to keep everything close at hand. He was getting tired of the stuff already, and if this was any hint of things to come, he'd only be doing more paperwork from here on out.

As he flipped it open, he talked. "Yes, I'm fully recovered. Everybody is, when they come back, although I wouldn't count on that working forever, knowing this place."

Stoneface frowned at his own barely legible scrawls across the page, then glanced upwards. "Handmaiden's told me the bulk of what I need to know. I know that everyone has been attacked by some sort of creature except for Rosalind, and that you, Handmaiden, Bastet, Justice, Sky, Wolverine, Sky and some boy called Apollo were all at the scene. But now I'd like to hear it from you."

You're fine! <3

[spandexisyouth]

Youth tilted his head at that, a little surprised. "Things break down around here? Or are you talking about the changes like what happened after the fire? I have not been here long enough to observe what happens to things over time."

Nodding, Youth quickly organized his thoughts. He wasn't sure what Stoneface knew and didn't, so he would cover it. Most of it. If Handmaiden hadn't told Stoneface how they'd met, he wasn't entirely sure that he wanted to. "Handmaiden was the first upon the scene. I was second. It became clear quickly that I was not overly useful inside, so I accepted a position by the door to keep most out and let in those that needed to go in. The scene was..." Not as disturbing as it could have been, or even should have been. And that still poked at him. "...violent. Perhaps that should have been a warning! But I missed it if it was."

Youth frowned. "Many walked by. No one that was not supposed to be there tried to enter. I think that was surprising! For all of the talk about a cover up, no one came to challenge it in person!"

And now on to the part he wasn't proud about. Failing, completely, the first time anything difficult came around. "The creatures that attacked me were strange, for lack of a better title. They were grey, fast, and had blades for arms. And they let me live." His voice was heavy. There was no enthusiasm here. "I did not manage to fight them off. They defeated me soundly and left. If their intention had been to kill me I do not doubt that they would have. I have not been able to train much since. But what I am capable of, I have been doing."

His facial expression was determined. "I will not fail like that again."

[stonyfaced]

Stoneface hadn't been well acquainted with Youth before his murder, and he certainly didn't know him too well now, but something told him that the expression of fierce determination was a rare one on the young man's otherwise good natured face. Despite his... questionable approach to communication over the journals, he had heard nothing but good reports from those speaking about the crime scene.

"I mean that this place is unpredictable." He shrugged. "You spend enough time here, and you find out nothing remains the same."

He listened to Youth's report carefully, measuring it up to the others he had received. It lined up nicely. No exaggerations of heroic exploits that so many were so fond of upon retelling a story--especially to officials. "Not a one? Curious." Stoneface questioned, then frowned. That was odd. At any sort of scene, there was always that one bugger in the back who wanted a close-up look at the gore he was unprepared for.

Perhaps Sky and Youth looked intimidating enough to act as deterrents. He'd have to keep that in mind--of all the Watchmen, none looked too frightening, save for Wolverine, and he was too important to waste as a guard.

The report of the monsters that had attacked him were troubling, though. Every one appeared to be different, and none of them had killed their target when presented with the task. He'd have to get all Watch members to travel in pairs, patrol in pairs. That was a warning if he'd ever seen one. His frown was faint and faraway as he considered who had the power to control beasts such as the ones that he described.

"I see," he said, finally. "You did not fail, Youth, not that time. I didn't train any of you to go up against monsters." His mouth thinned. "It seems that it's something I'll have to do now."

Would he have survived against the attacks? Their commander? Stoneface seriously doubted it.

"Everything sounds like it's in order. Is there anything else you want to add? How did you find the crime scene? Did you work well with the other watchmen?"

Stoneface wished for one stupid, ludicrous moment that he could have been present at his own crime scene to see how things developed himself. A stupid thing to wish for perhaps, but he wished it anyway. There were small things that no report could cover, the dynamics between men, morale, expressions, comfort, fear. He would just have to wait for the next one. And Gods help him, he hoped that he would have to wait for a long, long time.

[spandexisyouth]

"Oh." Youth considered the statement before nodding. "Many things changed recently, and I have not been here that many months. It is easy to believe that everything changes, though I hope it is not completely true."

With a nod, Youth confirmed what he'd said. "I thought that stood out. It seemed to me that many would be curious and try to look." He'd like to take credit for looking imposing, but with so many people calling him stupid or retarded, he couldn't.

He stared at Stoneface for a bit. He'd been taken down easily and swiftly. How hadn't he failed? But the promise of more training was a good one. He knew he had a long way to go. "I will take what training is available."

The follow-up questions were a bit more tricky. "I found the crime scene when it was dark and mostly undisturbed!" He was going to go for the obvious way to answer it. At least for now. "Except someone was looming over the bo-- your body, and so I charged in. And attempted to remove them from the scene. Except it was Handmaiden." A rather uncomfortable look crossed Youth's face. "She dodges very well?" It was a weak offer.

"Other than that, everything seemed to go well! I believe the scene was well covered." At least that much he was sure of.

[stonyfaced]

Stoneface wished that things wouldn't be so tumultuous himself, but after spending months in the same place, only to have everything scrambled, he had no faith that this would be the case. He had just gotten the entire island nearly memorized with his feet, too. Ah, well. He did it once, so he could do it again.

"Not quite what I meant, Youth. Did you have trouble with the gore, or handling that sort of thing? Don't mind me. After what Handmaiden's told me, I can't be too put off by my own corpse anymore."

There was a slight pause as he quietly digested the fact that Youth had attempted to assault Handmaiden. Not even his self-control could stop him from pressing his fingers against his forehead. "Oh Gods," he muttered. "You tried to attack Handmaiden. I'm going to give you the same advice I give everybody else who's in posession of weapons." He glanced at Youth, whose frame, although currently injured, was an unmistakably athletic one. "Or bodies that count," he added. "Never attack without checking who you're attacking, unless that person happens to have attacked you first. All right?"

Stoneface nearly winced just imagining the scene. "Please tell me that's not how you received broken ribs."

[spandexisyouth]

It looked like Stoneface was determined to press on that topic. Well, it wasn't like Youth hadn't been thinking about it. Youth sighed, feeling slightly less than youthful. "None. I had no trouble with it. And I do not have any reasons why. I think that it should bother me, the blood and obvious violence, but it did not."

He could read even that limited body language. And the words just made it obvious. "But what if you are in need of the element of surprise?" And his entry really was that, surprise. Dramatic surprise!

Youth glanced down at himself. "No! This was from the creatures attacking me. Handmaiden did something that pushed me away, and I rolled with it. I was not injured then at all." Maybe he shouldn't wear the spandex when he was injured. It did nothing to hide the bandages. "But I am healing! I will not be injured long!"

[stonyfaced]

Stoneface rose a brow when Youth reported his lack of a reaction. To tell the truth, he was rather surprised. The lad struck him as more competent than he looked, but he certainly seemed to have enough compassion for something like a bloody crime scene to bother him... and the lack of reaction seemed to bother him more than even the scene. "Odd," he said, then proceeded to go over the pros of such a situation--next time he found somebody butchering people and selling them as meat, well, it looked like he found his man. "That'll be useful, though, in the future."

"The element of... well, yes, that can be useful, but you use common sense. If you see a bloke stealing something and catch him, that's common sense. If you see a shadow lingering over an already dead, already-reported corpse, it may be nice to check whether or not it's just a civilian before attacking."

It made sense, it really did, in a... convoluted sort of way. The norm was to shout, Hey you! and then take chase, not kick first, no matter how tempting it may be.

"Well, so much for small mercies. Lucky for you, Handmaiden has enough peace of mind to not whip around and try punching you back." Which is what I would have done. "Nonetheless, it's been reported that you did a good job, so you must have done well enough to stop Handmaiden from reporting that little detail. That should be all."