Hannibal's house, Sunday morning

[sharp_as_knives]

Yes, there was a brunch going on. However, Hannibal wasn't an alumnus, and those he knew were mostly staying with him. And while he appreciated the school's effort, he'd prefer to eat his own food, thank you.

So, he was up and cooking breakfast. The windows throughout the first floor were open to let in the breeze, and he had Rigoletto playing in the background as he worked. The rosemary grapefruit was nearly done, the crepes were keeping warm, the omelette was baking, and the bacon was sizzling in the pan.

It really was a lovely morning.


[OOC: Open for anyone who stayed the night, and anyone who wants to drop in!]

Comments

[furnaceface]

Jono just raised an eyebrow in response to that.

//Teaching a gaggle of small, formerly abused children ways to help avoid being abused again? Oh no. I don't know if I'm at all the type.//

He couldn't get more deadpan if he tried, really.

//Honestly, I think the bigger danger here is the very real possibility that I'll end up wanting to bring the lot of them home.//

Because, again, big squishy pushover with a bleeding heart.

[sharp_as_knives]

"Will you need me to enforce a limit?" Hannibal asked, amused. "Tell me how many you'll allow yourself, and I'll keep you to that number."

It was all in the budgeting, right?

[furnaceface]

//Well, they're social creatures, aren't they? I'd have to get at least three or four, so that they don't get too stressed in their new surroundings, and all...//

He was really only mostly joking.

[sharp_as_knives]

"Of course," Hannibal answered, deadpan. "And I'm certain Karla will barely notice the new additions to her household."

[furnaceface]

//She and Warren have taken to bringing them in lately,// Jono replied with a shrug of his shoulders. //And the estate is enormous. I'm certain with all they've got on the go right now, it'd probably be at least a few weeks before they noticed the new playmates for Cora and Nyles.//

You know, Jono, most people at this point just contemplated maybe getting another cat.

[sharp_as_knives]

"You could start a boarding school here," Hannibal suggested. "For Blood and landen orphans alike; it could help them greatly to look past prejudices. Although the aristos would likely hate it."

As if he didn't realize that would be an incentive.

[furnaceface]

//I would have to tap somebody in to run something like that for me, I think. It'd be bloody difficult to run a boarding school and play security detail for Karla at the same time.//

...

//It's... tempting, though.//

Dammit.

[sharp_as_knives]

"Some of the orphanage directors we met were quite good, and I'm sure the children already here have an excellent tutor. And you've worked at a school before, after all."

Hannibal, you troll.

[furnaceface]

//Two schools,// Jono agreed. //Just what I need, I suppose. Something else to bury myself in. I haven't had anything like that in months, really.//

Except for all of the brain-straining he'd been doing lately, at least.

[sharp_as_knives]

"Maybe it's time for it?" Hannibal suggested. Then he shrugged. "Then again, it is a rather excessive suggestion."

[furnaceface]

//Your suggestions rarely come in half-measures, do they?// Jono certainly didn't seem to mind. If nothing else, it was food for thought. //Perhaps we'll see how well I get along with the children, first, and go from there? Actually meeting them might help.//

[sharp_as_knives]

"That is a very good first step," Hannibal agreed. "After all, they might be perfectly horrible."

They weren't. Well, apart from being children.

[furnaceface]

//I'm less worried about them being horrible and more concerned about how they'll react to me,// Jono admitted. //I've had children scream and cry and try to run from me before.//

That whole monster thing. Kids didn't seem so keen on hanging out with a guy whose face was on fire, after all.

[sharp_as_knives]

"These children have seen real horrors," Hannibal answered seriously. "And they looked no different from people you'd pass in the street. I doubt they'll be judging on appearances much."

[furnaceface]

Jono gave a small nod of his head, though his expression remained dubious. After all, it wasn't as though the children who had shrank away from him in the past hadn't.

//Even so... I'd rather get to know them a little better, get to know their situation and so on, before I start making plans to sweep in on a white stallion to carry them away to... whatever.//

[sharp_as_knives]

"Of course." Hannibal nodded. "It's still a good idea. But I anticipate they may be more accepting than you'd think."

[furnaceface]

//They might surprise me, yet,// Jono agreed. //And I sincerely hope they do. I've just seen it lean the other way too many times, I suppose. And apparently, you're a hell of a lot more optimistic than I am.//

There were rocks who were more optimistic than he was.

[sharp_as_knives]

"Plan for everything, worry about nothing," Hannibal said. "What do you gain by expecting unpleasantness?" he asked curiously.

[furnaceface]

//It's much harder to be disappointed,// Jono offered. //And 'unpleasantness' is practically the default, where I'm from. Why prepare for anything but the most likely scenario?//

Considering the reality he came from, that was actually a pretty legitimate statement.

[sharp_as_knives]

"You aren't avoiding disappointment," Hannibal pointed out, "you're merely starting it earlier. Although I must admit, what you've said of your world's history would make me wary, too."

[furnaceface]

//In my lifetime, in the real one, the one that wasn't jammed into my brain against my will, I've witnessed a plague meant to wipe out my kind, I've seen and disassembled places set up in the underground meant to harvest mutant bodies for useful parts. I've seen concentration camps and experimentation gone nightmarish and children begging for death because madmen have turned them into monsters, and I've pulled some of my closest friends down from crosses on the front lawn of a school that was supposed to be safe. I've watched the population of mutants like me drop from tens of millions down to hundreds in a heartbeat. And all of that was in my world alone. I've got no room left for optimism. Everywhere I go seems to be made of horrors.//

He gave his shoulders a shrug.

//Maybe one of these days, I'll be pleasantly surprised.//

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal squeezed Jono's shoulder. "And yet you've been to Fandom. And to Glacia," he pointed out. "Probably other places I haven't heard of. They can't all have been so bad. And I don't know what about your world has caused the very worst to emerge in some people, but I imagine you've seen a lot of beauty and heroism, too. Yes?"

[furnaceface]

//I fought a war in Glacia,// Jono noted, //and Fandom's been a wonderful gateway to witness terrible things from all over the multiverse. Of course there are good things as well... I'd be doing the universe a disservice if I said there wasn't. But in my own personal experience? It's been bad enough that Karla wants me never going back there. That has to say something about it.//

[sharp_as_knives]

"You fought a war in Glacia to preserve things that were worth it," Hannibal countered. "And Fandom has given you a number of friends, of which I fancy myself one."

He rubbed Jono's back slowly. "I'm not discounting your terrible experiences. But don't let them blind you to the better ones."

[furnaceface]

Jono closed his eyes and his shoulders slouched a little as he relaxed into Hannibal's touch. His back muscles were entirely too tense, and not all of that tension was from this conversation alone.

Relaxing from time to time really would do him some good.

//I said I wasn't an optimist,// he murmured. //That doesn't mean I don't appreciate the good things I do have. I've lost too many people dear to me to not appreciate the ones I've got...//