"Back home, back before I retired, I'd take a couple weeks after a particularly tough case and go wandering somewhere, clear my head. England was particularly good for that." He shrugs and settles a little more into his hammock. "Sometimes I'd still run into stuff anyway, but that's just my crap luck. Here, there's just too much going on." It's kind of sad when the closest thing to a relaxing walkabout you can get is while back-tracking a dead Shoggoth's path through the sewers.

Steph's comments cause Hellboy to peer more intently at her. In his world, costumed heroes were only a very tiny phenomenon that rose and fell on either side of World War II. Even though Hellboy received training from one and read the fictionalized adventures of another as a kid, it's still not something he automatically thinks of, but he can tell she's hinting at something. "Well, at least it seems you're pretty well prepared for dodging curses. Or... other things, I guess."