Office Hours, Wednesday afternoon

[sharp_as_knives]

At least one student had requested they speak, and after the past few weeks, Hannibal wondered if there might be more as well.

So, he was in his office, soothing classical music playing and spiced tea brewing, reading his tablet and waiting.


[OOC: Waiting for one, but open to others, though not at the same time! Eleanor's thread is content-NFB, please, and also TRIGGER WARNING for discussion of suicide.]

Comments

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

Eleanor frowned, her body language stiffening ever so slightly. She set the cup of tea down again and aimed her eyes directly at her professor.

"You're saying, since my mother was cruel, I might be predisposed to see someone else's uncharitably," she said darkly.

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal met her eyes frankly but without animosity. "Yes. Don't you think there's a chance of that?"

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

Eleanor had to give that a few seconds of thought before shaking her head.

"I don't doubt it could happen," she said. "But I'm angry at this woman not because of Mother, but for what she did to Ce -- ... to my friend. I held her as she cried, thinking she was unloved, that she caused her mother to discard her own life. And I'm angry because ..."

She was struggling, now, with the words to explain the odd miasma of feelings in her stomach.

"My mother didn't love me," she said, forcefully. "I know that. I've accepted it. It doesn't hurt me." A convenient lie. "This other girl's mother isn't some monster. She doesn't have that excuse. She's supposed to love her and ..."

It was coming out tangled, no matter what words she used.

[sharp_as_knives]

"It is a fresh hurt for your friend. You have had time to come to terms with your mother's betrayal."

He pondered for a moment. "I was speaking with someone the other day, about a different issue. I told him, monsters are easy to dismiss; people are more complicated. It is possible that this woman failed to love her daughter as she should. It is also entirely possible that she loved her daughter very much, and yet still killed herself."

Hannibal leaned forward. "Unless this woman left a note, or we are - through the vagaries of this island - somehow able to ask her, we may never know her reasons. It was almost certainly not simply your friend - or any one thing - that was the cause of it."