Hannibal's house, Thursday

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal	Hannibal had gotten no sleep at all the previous night. At first because of the nagging feeling that someone was watching him - he had very good instincts, and had learned to trust them. And later, because said watcher had finally become too prominent to ignore. And if some damn ghost thought he was giving up his body, he was in for a nasty surprise.
Bob	Bob had over a thousand years of stubbornness on his side, not to mention actual knowledge of magic and possessions. He also had over a thousand years of learned patience, though, and he wasn't above biding his time. And, it turned out, he had no idea how to work half the things in Hannibal's house. (Hannibal? Who named a child "Hannibal" these days?)
Hannibal	It was a respected family name, thank you. And if "Bob" didn't like it, he could damn well leave! Hannibal didn't mind sharing a bit - he did that regularly with Jono, after all - but this was his life, damn it!
Bob	Really? Now, sharing (as a foothold) wasn't a bad thought. Maybe just a day or two, to let a poor, condemned soul experience a bit of life?
Hannibal	Hannibal might be young in comparison to his visitor, but he had hardly been born yesterday. But sharing (as a stopgap to figure out how to get rid of him) was certainly an option.

So yes, eventually they'd come to a bit of an agreement. Or a stalemate, depending how you looked at it. Currently, Hannibal was cooking his lunch and listening to Lucia di Lammermoor and doing his level best to politely ignore his passenger. Bob was enjoying the smells and the music.

Comments

[furnaceface]

Jono watched Hannibal in silence for a moment, and then shrugged the shoulder that Hannibal wasn't rubbing, just a bit. His gaze dropped to the floor.

//Was playing guitar,// he said. //Not paying much attention to anything. Cats started acting weird... And then I read something off th'wall and I wasn't the only one at home in here.//

He followed that with a shudder.

//I think he's stronger without me, to be honest. I'm just a new favourite toy.//

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal's eyes narrowed at that; his friends were nobody's toys. Except his.

"Read it off the wall?" Hannibal prompted. And in a sour mental aside to Bob, I never read anything.

Yes, well, some of us have talent. And aren't nasty enough to require summoning.

[nuclear_snide]

And some of the things that did were really very nasty. Bob prodded Hannibal to one side, stressing the importance of this. It was easier than it had been before, but he ignored that in favour of the matter at hand. "What was it - a spell, a name, an incantation? Could you write it down if we gave you paper?"

If I did, you mean, Hannibal sniffed disdainfully.

[furnaceface]

Jono looked up quietly, still not completely certain what to make of Bob, there. At least the fact that he seemed to be more or less playing nice with Hannibal helped. Somewhat.

//A... name, I think. I could write it down. S'been bloody difficult to forget, with him rattling around in my head off and on since yesterday.//

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal shoved Bob back again, though it took more effort than he liked. "Tell me about it." He sighed and gestured at his head. "Jono, meet 'Bob'." Which was at least less of a mouthful than Jono's ghost's name.

He looked around for the nearest paper, but it was in his desk, and he hated to leave Jono when he was like this...

[nuclear_snide]

Allow me? Bob slipped forward again and gestured, using Hannibal's memories of the paper and pens to conjure them from the other room and float them into Jono's lap.

Hannibal raised a mental eyebrow. Well, that must come in handy.

You've no idea.

Bob nodded at the paper. "Write it down. You said it - anything else? Any tracery, or anything in your music?"

[furnaceface]

... Bob?

Jono would take Bob over Betelgeuse any day.

He reached for the paper and pen, not put off at all by the way they floated across the room. Jono was used to keeping company with telekinetics, after all. The Blood did so shamelessly, as did a couple of X-Men.

Betelgeuse Betelgeuse Betelgeuse.

It seemed so harmless, there on the paper. Jono had to stare at it for a moment before handing it over.

//My music changed, right before I read that. But I don't know that the music itself was a part of anything, so much as he's exactly the sort of arrogant bastard who enjoys having his own fanfare to herald his arrival.//

[nuclear_snide]

"Ugh." Bob grimaced, and seeing enough of his thoughts, Hannibal silently agreed. "That mouldy bastard." He'd seen him around the convention and done his best to give him a very wide berth.

Which wasn't difficult, since Bob didn't have breasts. Honestly, that ghost gave leches a bad name.

He twisted his - Hannibal's - lips in thought. "I'm not familiar with his particular rules, but generally things that require summons require similar banishments. Saying their name backwards, for example." He paused for a moment to try to figure out what that would be. "Or simply saying it again; maybe try that before tying your tongue in knots. Or...whatever," he belatedly added, squinting through the flames to try and see if Jono had a tongue.

Yes, Hannibal was mentally thwapping him for being rude, there.

[furnaceface]

Jono was going to look dubiously back and forth between Bob and the piece of paper, now.

//... And if it does the opposite of that and only makes him stronger?//

Jono really had no desire to make Betelgeuse stronger, thanks. He'd already thrown down against Raven without benefit of a body (and had been gloating about it to Jono since), and Jonothon shuddered to think what else he was capable of from there.

[nuclear_snide]

"Names don't grant power, names are power," Bob explained, going into instructor mode. "Knowing a thing can grant you power over it. For those beings who wrap their existence around a name, it can give them power as well - just until someone else learns it, as witness the poor unfortunate Rumplestiltskin."

Bob stood and took a step back, drawing glyphs in the air in front of Jono. "In this instance, it seems as though the name..." another glyph, "created...ah, there we are." A glowing...something...in a nasty colour faded into existence above Jono. "Created an opening. You need to take back that power in order to close it."

Fortunately, Bob worked entirely differently.

Hannibal scowled and shoved him aside, resulting in a startled squawk and all the glyphs shivering for a moment before holding steady.

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal stepped carefully around the glowing runes and eyed the nasty one over Jono, not needing Bob's warning to avoid touching it.

"He seems fairly certain about it," he told Jono, squeezing his shoulder. "If it's that or do nothing, is there anything to lose by trying?"

[furnaceface]

//Seems too easy,// Jono muttered, looking at the runes quietly before shrugging his shoulders a bit. //I'm not terribly inclined to trust 'easy.'//

That was okay, Jono. Betelgeuse wasn't going to let anybody get those three words out without a fight.

//... Should I just say it now and get it over with?//

[sharp_as_knives]

"Easy enough to try, and move on if it doesn't work," Hannibal pointed out.

[furnaceface]

//Fair enough...// Jono squared his shoulders and gave a firm nod. //No harm in making the attempt. Betelgeuse...//

The floor shook.

[nuclear_snide]

Bob rolled his eyes. "Overdramatic wanker."

Utterly lacking in subtlety or finesse, Hannibal agreed.

[furnaceface]

Jono gave them both a look that involved one raised eyebrow and a wrinkled nose. Overdramatic, yes, but what he lacked in subtlety and finesse, he made up for in completely overpowering Jono.

His pride had been a bit dinged back there.

//This could get messy,// he noted. //If he's strong enough to cause small earthquakes. Should I just try three in rapid succession and hope for the best, or...//

Jono suspected Hannibal wanted his house to continue standing, today.

[sharp_as_knives]

He did, yes. And after a bit of mental...strenuous disagreement? Grumbled and took a mental step back.

[nuclear_snide]

Bob stretched and drew a few more glyphs, this time on the floor, and the shaking subsided. "A bit of shaking takes surprisingly less power than you'd think. This one's simply all about the dramatics."

[furnaceface]

//... So, you mean to tell me that he's all bluster,// Jono deadpanned. //Because what this says to me is that he can shake a house without any effort at all, and you expect me to take that as though it's no big deal at all.//

If shaking a house was no big deal, what in the world could Betelgeuse accomplish if he put his mind to it?

[nuclear_snide]

"No," Bob answered in an aggrieved tone, "what I'm expecting you to do is not to be intimidated by the trappings. He isn't all bluster, but he's counting on the bluster to rattle you. Don't let it." He looked Jono over. "Honestly, with an aura like yours, I'd expect a bit more backbone - OW!"

And that was Bob muttering about honest opinions, and Hannibal being simultaneously very smug and rather annoyed.

[furnaceface]

//It has less to do with backbone, and more to do with how badly Hannibal wants to keep his house standing,// Jono countered, giving his shoulders a roll. //Especially if he leaps in last second and takes me over again. Do you really want him at large and angry with a near-bottomless reserve of nuclear power at his disposal?//

Bob, you could see that aura. Imagine that asshole in charge of it, and actually feeling inclined to use it.

[nuclear_snide]

"As opposed to at large and already angry with nobody to control him at all?" Bob pointed out. "Just say it!" He leaned close to look Jono in the eye. "Do you think we'd be getting any reaction if this didn't stand a chance of working?"

Then he jumped a bit as if jolted.

[sharp_as_knives]

"If he tears down my house, I'll make 'Bob' fix it," Hannibal said drolly. "And he isn't wrong about that last part."

[furnaceface]

Jono was once again eyeing the both of them. But now he was at least giving a grudging nod of his head.

//Fair point,// he replied. //Well then... brace yourselves, I suppose.//

He squared his shoulders again, gave a quick scan of the area with his telepathy - not that he figured it would do him any good - and tried again.

//Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse, Be-- HNNGH.//

Well, that was a lot of snake teeth in his shoulder, right there. And they were all connected to the biggest, most horrifying rattlesnake Jono had ever seen.

[nuclear_snide]

And that would be a very bright bolt of greenish energy spearing into said snake, to hopefully knock him back. Not as strong or as focused as it might have been, maybe, but then Bob's attention was divided between that and urgently querying Hannibal for the location of the nearest iron.

Fireplace irons, skillet, some fixtures, Hannibal answered promptly, eyeing the snake warily.