Question
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Feb 23, 2010 19:09:02 GMT -8
Post by Question on Feb 23, 2010 19:09:02 GMT -8
The sort of blog entry below is based on early notes for a fan fiction I wrote featuring Question and Huntress. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The view from any one of the windows on the Watchtower makes Earth seem so small, so fragile, but then against the stars Earth is one among the infinite. The League once only a few is now dozens yet the number is still relative to irritation. It is possible to work together, even play together though that occurrence is foreseeable.
Working together leads to that whether they operate out of a Watchtower or not. He had seen it happen with Black Canary and Green Arrow.
The teaming up or pairing off didn't always lead to romance, but the point is that at least one didn't have to feel like it was her or him against the 'world'. All the same, there are many things even costumes have to do alone, which is usually what he did best.
He had to wonder if had been on purpose that his Watchtower quarters were directly opposite Huntress'. He didn't trust coincidences despite how often they happen around him or to him. Both he and she were recruited by Batman though so was Black Canary or so Question had heard.
The Watchtower had a very active rumor mill like any workplace.
It was time to return to Hub City. He erases and scrambles his files after backing them up to a jump drive. It was always a modus operandi preference to restrict access to whatever he is working on because he had always done that before. He slips the drive into his long coat's inner pocket, adjusts his tie, and steps out the door before inputting the lock code. Question's habitual, whether or not to call all his habits paranoid would be ill-advised, not because he has a temper.
Rather because often his paranoid tendencies prove that he is usually correct or right to be as suspicious as he is, not thathe enjoys being so yet at least it has kept him alive. He would be the last to concede that being alive is still enough for him.
It is one thing to see pictures, another to be face to face with the real deal that would remain his impression of Huntress from the start.
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Question
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Feb 25, 2010 23:13:32 GMT -8
Post by Question on Feb 25, 2010 23:13:32 GMT -8
He prefers to know as much as possible without letting on how much he knows because how else could he remain effective if his methods were too easily deciphered by anyone. Question does his best to avoid leaving a trail, both literally and digitally. It was certainly part of why Batman often sought him out in an investigator capacity.
Hub City is where he belongs, but even he has to leave town from time to time either because the case leads out of town or because someone else is asking for his help. Usually their requests necessitate the supposition that they have too many watchers to move about without drawing attention to themselves. When that happens they look to him the man who can blend in, who can shroud his movements by way of hiding in plain sight.
Sometimes he masquerades as a cab driver, sometimes as someone who looks like he belongs on the streets yet no matter the look, it matters that he escape notice. Except when he needs answers from someone else. Usually just seeing his faceless mask is plenty to start them talking as most are accustom to seeing a face regardless of who is asking something of them.
He had a face behind the mask, but it didn't always feel like his real face, usually to him, his real face is featureless. The range of guises worn by Batman's allies and enemies always makes looking as he does feel natural. It is only on the Watchtower that he finds that he rather be alone than deal with the stares or the whispers. All the same he tries to ignore them if he suspects they are talking about him.
Maybe it had to do with age, maybe it had to do with something else, maybe its too bright and pristine up here, but then he couldn't sure. The uncertainty is nerve wracking except he throws himself into his work and if nothing else works diverts his thinking to something worth his attention as oppose to commissary chatter.
He spent as little time as possible up there because he felt he did more good from the ground than he did from the sky despite the Watchtower's hardware assets.
The only other cause to go topside is to keep an eye on the League, but then again the government is definitely more prone to keeping tabs on the League.
No matter how many times the League saves the day, the people or even the whole world... people remain suspicious, but how could they not be with all that happened so far.
Costume mistakes always invite disproportionate consequences. Maybe not always, but very close to it. The mistakes are part of why the government is paranoid as it is at times. The rest has more to do with how do they account for how to neutralize all of us unless it turns out they need us to do the impossible once more.
It never made sense, it might never make sense, but Question had grown up in a world of contradictions.
"Obsessed by a fairy tale, we spend our lives searching for a magic door and a lost kingdom of peace. " - Eugene O'Neill
If anything he is a constant reader so never a lack of quotes in mind for his solitary introspective moments. --------------------------------------------------------------------
[In my Question fan fiction, he often quotes famous literary works or authors.]
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Question
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There are always questions.
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Mar 1, 2010 17:05:12 GMT -8
Post by Question on Mar 1, 2010 17:05:12 GMT -8
As an observer of human nature, Question instead reads body language more than words because body language tell more than words. There is the ability to be true, the capacity to lie, but the concepts of deception and truth are less absolute than people desire them to be. It is conceivable to suspect that fiction is made to make sense because reality quite rarely ever makes any sense.
He blends into a crowd quite seamlessly when not out there as Question though that is his intent insofar as to avoid recognition entirely. However no matter how he appears he is always looking at people from the outside even himself because the only guise he feels 'at home' in is Question. The only places where he feels like he belongs are places where body language matches word feelings such as Hub City for starters.
Gotham and Bludhaven are two others, but Metropolis like the Watchtower is too pristine, too glowing, not paradise, just too clean for his perspective. He didn't mind visiting if he had to, but then everyone has a comfort zone even Question. He supposes like Batman he is better at hiding things from others when he believes he must or needs to.
He can remember being Charles Victor Szasz, but somewhere along the way he was told to write his name as Victor Sage. Eventually both become just names or rather V.S. is the name on a mailbox to an apartment somewhere in Hub City.
All those who met and meet him call him The Question and from there attribute whatever qualities they see in him to him. Not all of them are true, but why bother trying to disprove what others think of him, he usually doesn't.
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Question
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There are always questions.
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Mar 8, 2010 22:44:00 GMT -8
Post by Question on Mar 8, 2010 22:44:00 GMT -8
Some times there really is no place like 'home' no matter what one considers to be home, but then he had grown up without much of a family. His father, he never met the man, but he had his mother's stories of the man. He had been dead longer than her and she had her own secrets like anyone else Vic Sage had known since then. Maybe it is more of a matter of where one exists when things happen because it is there that some part of one's self will always be.
He recall those moments where Vic Sage and The Question had come together to the point that it is impossible to separate one from the other simply because there is no way to know which is the real him, even he didn't know after awhile. Was a distinction necessary?
He didn't have a need to maintain a secret identity like so many others because Vic Sage had gone off the grid years ago, but not all traces of him were gone from the records, they were simply out of date. He had become just another of the missing, but many still found him only to abide by the fact that in many ways he was no longer Victor Sage.
Batman had an annoying habit of still addressing him as Vic so in return he often call him Bruce though only when they were meeting face to face or if they were around other members of the Bat Family. His 'family' is one of few things that keep Batman from falling into the abyss whether he admits it or not at least from Question's perspective.
As for Question, the abyss is all around yet like many things for him it is mind over matter so it is by his mentality that he manages to avoid crossing thresholds that are mistaken for lines. Some say Question is one of the few that couldn't do wrong, but plenty of times cases had taken him to the brink including one of the firsts.
He refuses to be a bystander, but even hesitation had cost him in the early days when a woman was killed on the doorstep to the apartment building where he was residing at the time. The woman turned out to be one of the girls he knew years ago, a girl who had been very good and kind to him. He never understood why she had been that way towards him, but finally she said to him once its because his silent listening always made her feel like he did judge her without the facts.
However it is in more recent years that facts have instead become interpretations though he could attribute that to reading too much Nietzsche.
If he had moved her from the steps, she would have died quicker and if he had to left to chase down her attacker she would have passed on without someone to stay with her until she was gone so he chose to stay with her. In the little time she had left, he told her who he was and she seemed surprised to see him again after all this time though she confesses she is glad he is here even though she is close to death.
Her last words to him were - "Don't ever change Charlie."
He didn't know if he had, but somehow he thought in less obvious ways he wasn't the same man who comforted a dying woman on the steps of a residential apartment building.
He later found the one responsible for her fatal wound and left the animal with something similar except he left outside a police so the the cops would see the trash for it is.
It is memories like that one that touch upon why he thinks he understands costumes better than anyone else, but such is human nature, dress however one likes to appear outwardly. Deep down there is still a man, a woman and even a child of in some fashion.
One cannot escape what they were or who they are... he knows this all too well.
Tonight he visits her grave, he is not sure why, its not the anniversary of her death, but he would go just the same, she had no one left when she died in front of him.
Maybe he just didn't want her to feel like she had been forgotten simply by visiting the earth that sits atop her coffin. He leaves yellow roses even in the midst of a passing rain storm for not even rain drops could cleanse his troubled mind or wipe away the evils that linger in Hub City.
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Question
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Mar 11, 2010 23:12:06 GMT -8
Post by Question on Mar 11, 2010 23:12:06 GMT -8
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." - Oscar Wilde
From above it would be 'simple' to say all looks the same yet from below it would be like looking from the gutter though such juxtapositions - such alternates - would be a matter of perception. He sees everyone scurry about as if looking for something or someone.
He had seen many things in his time though it usually tends to be the seemingly insignificant 'things' that stay with him through all the hours, all the days, and more between them.
He sees Barbara Gordon, Dinah Lance, and Helena Bertinelli go into Oswald Cobblepot's trendy night club, the Iceberg Lounge. He had never been in there himself, but many he had worked with over the years had or knew someone who had.
As for why Question was in Gotham tonight, he wasn't sure because his latest case had hit a dead end because the suspect had dropped out of sight. He would have called it quits for the night, but having seen Helena, he wouldn't leave just yet.
He admitted to himself not long ago, he had more than a passing interest in the dark haired Italian femme fatale.
It would probably be hours before they left so he crosses over to the rooftop of the Iceberg then peers down through the skylight to spot the women sitting at a table with Zatanna.
It seem too much a coincidence for them to all be here, but then he need only to see who is on stage, the man famous for the Am I Blue song. They were probably talking about the time Batman supposedly sang for Circe in order for the sorceress to release her spell on Diana.
Even if they weren't his attention latches onto Helena who inexplicably looks up as if sensing him watching her so he drops to his knees to hide from view.
She probably throws it out as a reflex reaction, either way, its not entirely worth staying around to find out, he didn't come to Gotham with the intention of spying on these four.
Still she is a beautiful woman... he didn't mean it literally... though she is highly attractive in much more subtle way.
He's a workaholic... solving others questions and problems was his modus operandi though as for solving his own... that was different.
The four stayed there half the night, but he was already on his way to leaving when he spotted them from his car. He didn't turn the vehicle on so he sat there watching for a moment.
Both Dinah and Helena left on their bikes whereas Barbara left by car.
Stealth is the only way he stayed hidden, but something told him his passage was not unnoticed.
Whatever he felt about and toward Huntress is confusing him because anything else he would have found a solution to by now, but what was that Bruce said once.
"Most mysterious creatures in the universe."
He meant women... it makes sense that Bruce would make such a supposition.
Question turns the Pontiac on and starts the drive back to Hub City.
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Question
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Mar 14, 2010 0:17:44 GMT -8
Post by Question on Mar 14, 2010 0:17:44 GMT -8
“We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who begin to interest us at first sight, somehow suddenly, all at once, before a word has been spoken.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky
It is one way he mentally explain his interest in Huntress - in Helena - at the same time neither the opportunity or the time had come for him to do more than realize this interpretation.
Question suspects he is better at understanding others than he is at understanding himself, which is usually why he tends to surprise people by how he learns things so quickly.
It ceases to surprise most of his Gotham associations before long because they know his mind is always working even when he appears to be sleeping.
For him sleeping doesn't come easy, he often awakes in completely different positions than he eventually went to sleep in. He always sleeps with the lights off except when rarely too tired to bother with anything more than checking all the locks.
Habits get him through the hours, the days, and even weeks or more if need be yet even he looks to break routine occasionally.
Its already early morning though still hours from dawn when he just crawls into bed without much compulsion to undress, he would do that later when he would probably shower.
Hygiene wasn't exactly a priority, but it pays to keep at it for practical purposes especially his health. However being a workaholic often made him forget the last time he did plenty of things including showering or sleeping.
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Question
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Mar 26, 2010 8:15:18 GMT -8
Post by Question on Mar 26, 2010 8:15:18 GMT -8
Too much or too little?
He couldn't be sure - some days and/or night pass faster or slower - again depending on his perspective as well as how active or inactive things in general were where he spent those hours.
He knows where most of his costume associations reside and most of them in turn don't exactly know where to find him save for a few. He didn't know if he prefers it that way, but privacy seem to be something even those who wear mask insist upon.
Whether the mask is actual mask or something else makes no difference - we like to believe that some amount of anonymity is left to us.
On the flip side - eventually nobody wants to be alone - least of all in the ways that won't leave us looking at others' lives enviously.
Still we'll envy yet not always know what for or why we do - just that we do - for something or other.
Question tries not to envy and think his solitary nature is to fault for why he returns at his usual erratic hours to Hub City - to an empty apartment. It is not literally empty yet in other ways its been that way from the start.
He halfway undresses and uses the aerosol to remove his mask before turning in for a nap - if such a turn was possible at this time of day after having spent a whole night doing next to nothing.
Almost no other woman had that effect on him though how could she not - he just knows it - still whether she holds any interest in him - that's her prerogative.
He'd wish his mind to stop tumbling so he could nap or sleep. It does for now - after awhile one can't ignore the demand for sleep.
Time means nothing to sleep.
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Question
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There are always questions.
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Apr 11, 2010 9:18:24 GMT -8
Post by Question on Apr 11, 2010 9:18:24 GMT -8
It seems unlikely to link change to single events for all seems a process what, when, where, why, and sometimes how comes together - crystallizing into that which he lacks the words for.
He didn't know for certain if he had changed at any time in his life for both memory and time would offer assurances that he had yet perspective is also the inducer.
All runs together, always full of subjective spins, every possible adjective slapping on, his mind a jumble, certainly he could get lost in his work, neglect too much. Only to come out of it or awaken to transient unfamiliarity.
He could list of everything save for why and what he could - would - should do now.
Indecision - indecisiveness - he disliked the quality - but it was in him, it was always in him. Others - he could as much as he could for others - but for himself - that was always trickier to solve especially now as he finds himself without a case for once.
Certainly is plenty of pending to jump into, but why should he do it now - would doing it tomorrow or next week or a month from now make much difference?
It could - it should - but would it?
He didn't know.
That's another thing to grate him - not knowing.
There always questions, but the answers are never the same twice.
If only he stop going into the if only to find pathways in the routes.
What changes would it take to get out of the rut of a gutter?
No stars to guide - the city lights outshine them all.
He needs out of Hub City - maybe there is where he would find his way anew - a fragile hope - if any.
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Question
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There are always questions.
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May 13, 2010 21:15:49 GMT -8
Post by Question on May 13, 2010 21:15:49 GMT -8
He suspects others know he is watching - for what even he can't be sure - there are still people behind the costumes - but the dimensions that made the costumes reality. Those are always variations.
Their disguises often exude the pretense they maintain to deflect suspicion away from their true self, but even the guise is a dimension itself where each wonders. Wonders whether or not their mission is worth their lives, their identities, everything they may or may not have to give up. Give up so they can be the hero or heroine of their own story in a way more literal than just being another in the crowd moving back and forth.
In a world of billions - why should one make such a difference?
Survival instinct tends to override one's humanity at times, maybe not always, but often for certain - at least to a degree.
He as the Question did whatever he did and without a face.
All have masks, but masks don't hide everything - some just hide more or less than others.
Some are driven by a lingering injustice, some by being the last of their kind, some by their birthright, and others by not really knowing anything of themselves so they invest their lives - their time in what could be seen as total strangers.
Alien to each other - strangers to everyone.
Ted Grant trained more than a few of the newest members of the Justice League - no surprise - hand-to-hand combat is Wildcat's specialty.
He also had a mentor side to him despite the fact that many of his proteges are heroines or vigilantes - again dimensions meets interpretations.
Canary often pairs off with Green Arrow and Oliver Queen is often seen in the company of Dinah Lance.
Meanwhile Huntress rarely goes to the Watchtower, but then again neither does Question since neither she or more specifically he believes in the pristine view from space.
Only here on the ground surrounded by all this does Question realize his life - his time belongs to helping others answer things that he struggles with to this moment and beyond.
Help others for sure - help himself, not so much.
Helena spends much of her time alone, training, praying in her own way, occasionally visiting the graves - not unlike him.
The past is another of the dimensions after all.
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