8476/Follow-up Study-Buddies

Follow-up Study-Buddies
Date of Scene:	29 October 2021
Location:	Versailles Diner
Synopsis:	Hellboy meets Madigan for pancakes and the two talk about relics.
Cast of Characters:	Madigan Belle, Hellboy

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Madigan Belle has posed:
It's a diner. A greasey, bad diner with lots of high calorie foods. After finally getting the phone call message after hundreds of text messages not going through, Madi finally did... dial, right, cause that's convenient. And she says, "Hey, I am still researching, and figured we could do a research thing, together. Like a study group, right? Yeah, so, anyhow." A pause, "Oh, hey, this is Madi. I pinned my location and all that, so come on down, to uh... where am I?" It sounds like her mouth moves from the receiver before she shouts, "Hey, where is this please? I'm not sure... oh, hey, I know that place!" And she turns back to the phone, "Versailles Diner in Gotham. I got a booth! So, plenty of working space."

Though by the time Hellboy arrives, there's food on the table, pancakes, drenched in syrup and button, strawberries, and whipped cream. She also has more than one burger sitting around as she's got her glasses covered eyes on some books, while she eats steadily, and quickly. Not super fast, but definitely inspiring those questions like, 'Did you even taste it?'

Hellboy has posed:
    Hellboy arrives with his usual speed, which is to say much, MUCH slower than Madi can possibly hope to not be bored at. He gets stares before moving to the table and slumping down into the booth opposite Madi. "Hey, kid," he says. He looks at the spread of food all around in front of her. "Good pancakes, here?" He asks, already trying to flag down a waitress from the appetizing smells wafting from his study partner.

Madigan Belle has posed:
Looking up, as soon as Hellboy comes closer. Her mouth has pancake in it, she's chewing, and she nods her head a bit quickly, smiling around the food as she quickly chews and swallows. Madi smiles much bigger, showing off teeth, once the food is gone, "Oh, yeah, pancakes, like never ending. I don't think they are bottomless, or anything like that, getting charged for every stack, but I'm on my 7th. They are super good. The burgers too, lots of calories in those, and delicious." She is dressed differently than last Hellboy saw her, even with a different pair of glasses on. Though the braces are still presumably on her legs under the table, and her crutch hangs out leaning against the table. "So, totally glad you showed up. No worries on not responding to the texts, I just, you know, think about people, and then text. Like, right then, so, yeah, sorry. Just means I was like thinking about you and all that. Not in a creepy way, well, sometimes, but most of the time not."

Hellboy has posed:
    Hellboy listens to her talk half-heartedly as he gets a waitress' attention. Not so much gets her attention, as the wait-staff are all staring at him, but more getting one to actually come over. However, something Madi says gives him pause. "Hang on, you've had seven STACKS of pancakes that size?" he asks, gesturing at the plate in front of Madi. He smiles. "I think we're going to get along fine, kid," he concludes before ordering as tall a stack of pancakes as they'll serve him.

Madigan Belle has posed:
"Oh, uh, yeah. Um, should I not? I mean, I can't .... oh, hehe." Madigan giggles a quick moment at Hellboy's comment, and then she nods a few more times. "If eating is the only thing necessary to get along, well, golly gee mister, I'm your cup'o'tea." She offers, pointing a thumb at her own chest. With that though, she spies over at her plates of food and grabs a few fries, starting to eat them by sucking them one by one into her mouth, chewing a moment, then another, then another, as she glances to the books. "So, you were looking for real relics. And, there was something else you said, but there wasn't a lot of clarification. Like, relics are just old old artifacts. There's tons of those in these books, but not all of them are... that interesting?"

Hellboy has posed:
    Hellboy watches her gobble down food with some slightly impressed look on his face. He finally grasps what she's saying and says, "Yeah." With his left hand, he reaches into his nebulous trench coat and pulls out a little notebook. He holds it in his curled stone fingers of his right hand and flips a few pages over the top. "Okay, so, I need something with psy-cho-metric significance," he says, reading the word, clearly. He looks up at her. "Like the Shroud of Turin or the True Cross." Hhe looks back at his notebook. "I may have a source for metal, but I could always use more. Gotta be at least as strong as iron, though. Then I need something I can use for a handle. Oh," he says, flipping the notebook closed, "I should also specify I intend to destroy whatever I can get my hands on."

Madigan Belle has posed:
With the impressed look on Hellboy's face, Madigan smiles a bit more, but lets the conversation continue to go back to the relics instead of food and her ability to eat it. "You intend to destroy all the relics you get your hands on, you have some pretty specific things. Sounds, kind of like some sort of tool or weapon. From looking at you, I'd assume weapon, but maybe tool. Cause you're also pretty inquisitive. Hmmm." Madigan is just speaking her thoughts aloud, as she eats the remaining fries, and flips through a few dozen pages of the book closest to her, eyes flicking back and forth quickly. "Well, it's tough to identify in the texts specifically. So, I am thinking a good method is, first... it is real or genuinely historical. Then, second, there's rumors or stories about it imparting strange abilities or curses. And then third, tracking them down to test?"

Hellboy has posed:
    Hellboy is mesmerized by listening to her talk, even though it's almost certainly because she spoke so fast. "I can't tell if I agree with what you're saying or if I'm just hungry and enjoying your maple syrup breath," he says, feeling like he's moving in slow motion compared to her.

Madigan Belle has posed:
As Madigan talks more to Hellboy she watches as he watches her and tilts her head a little to the side. She holds it there while she's talking, running her fingers up into her burnt sienna colored hair, and running it over her ear as she talks, "So, yeah. My maple syrup breath? That's like, the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me." Madigan offers, with a slight pause, and then grins big, "Pun intended. I really like maple syrup, so hang around me more and you'll get to smell it all the time. Is that a weird thing to say? I never know. Sorry."

Hellboy has posed:
    Hellboy listens to Madigan talk like he's watching a YouTube video at 2x speed. He's about to apologize when she says it's sweet, not knowing if she's being sarcastic, however, she's three sentences past that by the time he even realizes he should maybe have said something nicer to her. "Not weird," he tries, using as few words as he can just to get some in. "You're pretty; I should be complimenting you on more than just your breath."

Madigan Belle has posed:
With a quick pause, Madigan quirks her mouth to the side, and then back and forth, it is enough to cause her nose to wiggle some back and forth as she does it. "Oh, I'm pretty? Wow. That's nice, I mean, like, from the waist up probably. I mean, I do -like- my legs, they are nice, and all that, but they don't really ... work, so I can't do all the butt wiggles or twerking normal girls do." She then pauses and her eyes get wide, and she gasps a bit as she looks over to Hellboy, "Oh, that was totally aloud, huh? I mean, it is all true. Just, um, no, I really liked the maple syrup compliment. You're... uh..." She looks around and then grins a bit more, "Like, kind of exactly my type. That didn't really sound like a compliment... I'll work on it!"

Hellboy has posed:
    Hellboy tries to follow everything, but eventually he holds up his hands, palms facing her. "Stop," he says, probably louder than he intended. The whole diner stops and looks nervously at him. "No, sorry, just her," he says. The pace of the diner resumes and he says to Madigan, though much more quietly, "I like how you are. Your braces, your glasses, that you can barely keep up with your thoughts. You're incredibly cute. I feel all protective around you. I don't know if you want to be with me, though. I'd always be afraid I'd break you."

Madigan Belle has posed:
With the stop, Madigan stops talking. Closing her mouth and keeping her eyes open a bit wide. As she waits, and she looks around the diner for a second and then back to Hellboy. Well, that was something, "Oh, break me? No, I'm pretty resilient." Madigan pauses again and then bites her lower lip a little. She closes the book that she was reading and mentions, "I have a terrible track record though. I mean, I like, like, like, really, a lot, and get focus problems. I mean, I just think it is cool you like my leg braces." She grins big and lets out a little laugh, "Though, you, probably... can't... really... break me. I'm tougher than I look? Or, right about as tough as I look, I dunno. I mean. I..." She quirks her mouth, "So, um, wanna switch gears? Talk about whatever that means?"

Hellboy has posed:
    Hellboy reaches into his nebulous coat and pulls out a folder. He plops it down in front of himself, but facing Madi. "I got eyes on two relics," his voice rumbles, quietly. He opens the folder. "They're both as good as I can do researching on my own." The folder is full of photocopies and computer printouts, some from what looks like a dot matrix printer.
    As he talks, he flips through pages of mostly text. For anyone else it would be too fast for them to read, but for Madi... "There's a rumor Pope Leo the fifth's body isn't what got buried in his tomb after he got dumped in a river." Another turn of the page. "If this is right, he was cremated. What I can find doesn't agree, but there's a chance his ashes weren't scattered, either. That'd be one hell of a holy carbon source."
    He flips the page again and starts on another item. "So, you know the Salem witch hunts?" Flip. "In all that nonsense and false accusations and witch burnings--" Flip. "--there was apparently a woman doing real miracles. Christian chick. Single. Smart. Rather than burn her--" Flip. "--the people were going to hang her." Flip to a picture of a big tree with wide branches stretching outward from one half. The other half was long dead, so it looked like it was leaning and spreading its branches over a very select area. "Lightning struck the tree seven times." He shrugs as he continues, "If you believe the more extreme stories. Some records say once." He taps the picture. "Tree's still alive. Lynch mob was killed by the lightning. Woman died years later."
    Hellboy closes the folder and tucks it away on his person. "I want a branch of that tree and those ashes. If I can find other things like this, in case these aren't good enough, it's a case of the more the better." He gestures to the books near Madi. "You turn up anything that might have been legitimately touched by a god or the God?" he asks.

Madigan Belle has posed:
And that, that question that Hellboy asks her is something that makes her eyes light up. She's been watching the folder, of course, reading even from across the table and upside down (if it wasn't facing her). Not a big issue for her, and Madi quirks her mouth to the side then back again, and wiggles her nose a little bit, stuffing her face with a few more fries until she says, "Well, I did find some ancient egyptian coins. Which, I know, not original, right? But these, in particular were thought to be the basis of the Magic Coins sold, as fakes, during the early 1900s. That's something, right? The coins, 3 of them, one sphinx, the other is a pharaoh, and the last is a pyramid. The thing... the pyramid coin was minted so far back, that there wouldn't of been any known pyramids."

Quick pause for effect, and then Madi is looking across the table at the demon investigator, "The second coin was minted right after the first pyramid was built, but the pharaoh depicted was Sobekneferu. Who wasn't a pharaoh until the 1290s, about one thousand years later. And the sphinx, you'll be able to guess, that coin ... well, that one was built after pretty much everyone had known the sphinx. The oddity is it more closely matches the never disclosed, and only discovered this last century, unused plans for the sphinx design." She smirks a bit, and then shrugs, "Looks like these coins were minted by someone who was either divinely inspired, or had some kind of prophetic ability. Anyhow, the person who minted the coins in the early 1900s was said to have foreseen the stock market crash, and the money made from selling these fakes made him millions." Leaning back Madi takes in a deep breath and the lets it out slowly, "So... I'd wager, we track down this millionaire and his family, probably wouldn't of gotten rid of them. Right? Break in, take the coins, and bam. You got yourself a god touched ar-ti-fact."

Hellboy has posed:
    Hellboy nods. "Prophecy," he considers, out loud. "Prescient weapon would be interesting. I hope it doesn't disagree with the sky gods." He pulls a folded piece of paper out of a pocket and carefully unfolds it. Spreading it out, it reveals drawings of a somewhat comically proportioned revolver. He looks over the drawings. "Not a lot of places gold would work," he admits. "Handle inlay," he says to himself, thinking through design that's far above his skill level. "Hammer could be trimmed with it. Maybe the sights? Oh, that's good!" he says to himself. "Prescient sights," he concludes, looking up at Madi and poking a finger at the drawing.

Madigan Belle has posed:
With the paper out, Madigan hmms and nods her head, "Engineering weapons isn't really my thing. Though I could proooobably figure it out." She shrugs a little, smiling, looking over the document again and then thinking. "I do know a gunsmith. He's not really big on returning my messages, or meeting, but like, I could probably corner him at some point to see if he knows better. From what I'd guess, sights are your best bet, or an inlay. Gold is pretty... soft, and egyptian gold is super soft since they didn't really mix it very well with other things." She nods her head at that, and looks over to Hellboy smiling, "And magic stuff like this, probably waaaaay over my head. I mean, I'm always thinking like, 'How did this work or that work'? It just doesn't follow those rules very well."

Hellboy has posed:
    Hellboy nods as one who has seen enough to properly verify that's true. "I think I've gotten used to it, but every time I think that, it's a good sign that I'm wrong." He looks up at Madigan. "Hey, thanks for your help on this. This is a personal project, so I always feel weird asking for help around the office about it." He begins folding up the paper. "You've got my number," he says as a waitress starts moving around the counter. "We'll set up a meeting or you can just tell me what he says." He leans back as a huge stack of pancakes is put in front of him. "Thank you," he says, face aimed at the pancakes. And then, there is apparently no more room for conversation, as pancakes deserve all the attention...after enough syrup to float a battleship, apparently.