XXVI.

[hellshaped]

[Hellboy is outside enjoying the weather this afternoon. It's August now, which means Autumn is fast approaching -- and he figures he should get in all the mild weather he can, before the weirdness starts.

He pauses to lean against a tree and light a cigarette, opening his journal to dictate into it in the meantime.]

So who wants to take bets on what kind of weird stuff will happen to the trees when Fall starts? My money's on glow-in-the-dark leaves. Or it would be if money even mattered here.

[Molotov]
So it's your birthday tomorrow, is that right?
[/filter]

Comments

Hellboy

[molotov]

Da, it is.

Molotov

[hellshaped]

What if I whipped up some birthday pancakes for you?

Hellboy

[molotov]

Only if you promise not to tell my husband.

Molotov

[hellshaped]

[He just laughs!] I know, it's pretty scandalous.

Hellboy

[molotov]

He is insane. We got into a physical fight over whether friends are allowed to cook for me. But it is stupid, so yes, da, I would love birthday pancakes. Thank you, kroshka.

Molotov

[hellshaped]

[there's a bit of a pause.] A physical fight?

Hellboy

[molotov]

He kicked me, so I punched him.

Molotov

[hellshaped]

[THERE'S JUST SOME DISTRESSED SILENCE ON THIS END ...]

Hellboy

[molotov]

Are you there?

Molotov

[hellshaped]

Are you okay?

[craggyfaced]

Fall is not always the same?

[hellshaped]

In this place? No. Last year the leaves fell in piles at least four feet high. The year before that, I heard the trees turned unnatural colors -- like rainbow colors.

[craggyfaced]

Some day these changes will stop being simply cosmetic.

[hellshaped]

Well, the giant leaf piles were real enough.

[craggyfaced]

True enough. I am surprised nobody became lost in them.

[hellshaped]

We don't have a lot of short people, maybe. [Except for all the kids ... which he doesn't want to think about. Children being swallowed by leaves ...]

[craggyfaced]

...Maybe.

I wonder if this year the trees will simply start moving about.

[hellshaped]

[OH, JEEZ.]

That would be something. [Something horrifying.]

Were you around for that blood tree thing last year?

[craggyfaced]

[<Your lesson - never ask Durge how things might go wrong. He will tell you.]

I do not think so. I imagine I would have remembered something like that.

[asaraindrop]

We could camp. [ If it's glow in the dark ]

[hellshaped]

I'd worry it would be too hard to sleep.

[asaraindrop]

You could pad the ground with leaves.

[hellshaped]

It'd be pretty bright.

[formercheerio]

Why, what happened the other seasons?

[hellshaped]

Oh, the other ones are usually pretty normal. [Except for when it wouldn't stop raining that one day in Spring...]

Autumn is always strange, though. The trees always do odd things.