Still Warm

[dolevalan]

Title: Still Warm
Fandom/original: Original (see Author's Note)
Characters: Helena, Ed, Jason
Rating: G
A/N: Written for a prompt at what_fantastic. The writing is mine, as are the characters; the universe they inhabit is used with permission, and was created by Mousling. This world is her baby, and she has been kind enough to collaborate with me on certain aspects of it; Helena and her part of their world are my contributions.



Helena removed her glove before laying her hand on the statue’s cheek. The eyes she met had no pupils, unbroken, unblinking orbs.

“They’re still warm. Did you ever notice that?” she murmured. “They shouldn’t be, of course. We’ve run every test we could, and some we invented on the spot. There is no one and nothing home in these statues. They’re just stone.” Her thumb stroked over the statue’s cheekbone, almost fondly, before she dropped her hand.

Ed, still standing near the doorway, grumbled, “I don’t know why the hell you’d want to keep these. Like having a roomful of corpses. It’s damn eerie, is what.”

Helena brushed another statue with her fingertips. The stone seemed to shiver, under her touch, though she knew it was an illusion. “Respect. And research. We have to destroy most of the aftermath, but a few we can keep and learn from.” She turned to her brother, Jason, who was more receptive than her partner. “You see how they’re different sorts of stone? We’re beginning to theorize we can identify the work of not only families, but one particular Gorgonite by the style of statue they leave behind.”

Ed threw in his two Herculean cents, as she knew he would. “Does it matter? When we win, they’ll all be dead, and no more statues of any kind.”

Helena counted to five; if she’d gone for ten, he would have just added something else to annoy her. But while she was counting, Jason spoke up, “But what if some of them aren’t participating in the war? Perhaps we can prove certain individuals are civilians.”

There was a terse pause, then Ed growled, “No one is a civilian who can kill you by looking at you, kid.” To Helena, he added, “I’m gonna go train until you’re ready to do some real work.”

As he left the room, Helena said, “He’s just… he’s just zealous.” Her brother had a lot to learn before he was ready for fieldwork, and she made a mental note to explain the Herculeans more fully that evening. Her hand rested on the statue’s warm one, and for a moment, it seemed to squeeze her fingers in a light show of support.

But that was only her imagination. There was work to do.

Comments

[baltimoreandme.livejournal.com]

This is eerie and intriguing - I love the idea of a sort of "genetic" signature in the stone.

[dolevalan]

Thank you! And thanks for the prompt.

[snowyofthenight.livejournal.com]

Definitely agree with the above. You do a really good job of hinting at the complex world here without going into pages and pages of infodumping.

[dolevalan]

Yay, thank you. ^_^ Hopefully more to come, at some point.

[gileonnen.livejournal.com]

I agree with what everyone else is saying here--wonderfully eerie, casual about the exposition. You've also fit in some strong characterization, which I like quite a bit. I'll be glad to see more!