Hannibal's house, Sunday afternoon

[sharp_as_knives]

The time difference between Fandom and Glacia was occasionally very convenient. It meant that he could pop out for a few hours and get plenty of things done, and still be home in time for lunch.

After taking the time to savor that, he sat in his study to work on class outlines for the following semester. A quiet, pleasant day.



[OOC: Open post!]

Comments

[furnaceface]

Well, today had been a quiet day for some people. Jono was... not having an especially quiet one, no. He found, after passing his evidence off to one of his minions officers for further investigation, that the temptation to go rooting around in people's brains was overwhelmingly tempting, and he was on the island now mainly to prevent himself from pushing himself too damn hard all over again.

And... he was restless.

Which meant that he needed a distraction, of course. From the things he wanted to do, and the ones that were eating him up a little on the inside. The best one of those on the island? Or, at least, the most level-headed?

Yes, Jono was ringing Hannibal's doorbell. Because of course he was.

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal answered the door, and almost immediately frowned. "Jono." He looked terrible, to put it mildly. Hannibal stood aside to let him in. "You've been overdoing it again." Yes, he sounded faintly disapproving. You were not supposed to be breaking yourself, Jono!

[furnaceface]

//S'why I'm here,// Jono mumbled, shaking his head as he stepped inside. //Realized I needed some distance or I wasn't going to bring myself to stop. Hell, now'm here, I still want to call up Portalocity and go back. Bloody stupid, I know, but at least I'm learning the fine art of delegation, this way.//

[sharp_as_knives]

"Small favors," Hannibal noted. He led the way to the den where a fire was burning and sat on the couch by it. "So you're here to stop yourself from overdoing it, and also because if Karla sees you, she'll yell?" he guessed.

[furnaceface]

//She doesn't know the half of it, and she's the second one to call me Atlas in as many months,// Jono admitted, wrinkling his nose as he took a seat on the couch as well. //At least when Emma said it, she knew what the hell I've been up to.//

[sharp_as_knives]

"So you're still managing to keep Karla in the dark, but you're stretching yourself even thinner looking for threats," Hannibal guessed. "At this rate, will you even make it until she gives birth?"

[furnaceface]

//I would, if people would stop making more work for me in Glacia,// Jono mumbled, reaching one hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose. //You don't want to know what I've been stepping in, this past week.//

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal frowned. He'd been there just this morning, and he didn't remember anything out of the ordinary, apart from...Oh, Jono, you weren't.

"Stepping in?"

[furnaceface]

Yeah, of course he was. Whose attention did you think this was going to come to, Hannibal? With as many children had been found in the home of the first one? In Sidra?

//Breadcrumbs,// Jono mumbled, mostly coherently. //No Neverland, but similar at a glance. Children there never grow up, at least.//

And sometimes, the nonsensical analogies were the easiest way to step into talking about it. At least, given the places he'd been. Talking made it real. Out and saying what he had been looking at made him itch to go back and do something about it. Something was being done, of course, and he'd be no good to anybody if he pushed himself past some point of no return.

[sharp_as_knives]

He had rather thought it might come to everyone's attention, but that some overworked people whose responsibility it wasn't would have the sense to leave it to the people whose responsibility it was.

"Neverland?" Hannibal prompted. He reached out to rub Jono's neck and shoulders, more to get him to focus than anything.

[furnaceface]

But focus was hard, Hannibal.

//Neverland. One of the few places I've been that involved me seeing quite so many bodies of children strewn about,// Jono mumbled. //Not the only one, not even the most recent, but it's certainly the one I feel most responsible for.//

He glanced over his shoulder at Hannibal, brow furrowed.

//Right under our noses. Here I am, scouring brains across Sidra for people who would hurt Karla, and I've lost track of everything else.//

[sharp_as_knives]

"Karla is your responsibility," Hannibal pointed out. "Everything isn't. Tell me about it."

[furnaceface]

Pfft, Hannibal. Like you didn't already know.

//Rumours travel quickly in Sidra,// Jono sighed. //Caught wind of a particularly nasty one the other day, and made my way in to investigate personally. I normally wouldn't, but given Glacia's recent history with orphanages gone horribly wrong, it seemed as though I had better. Especially since the rat-bastard implicated in it was a supporter of Karla's. It'd be suspect if we weren't there.//

[sharp_as_knives]

Well, he knew the beforehand. He didn't know the aftermath. And every artist enjoys feedback!

"Another orphanage?" That was the logical conclusion from what Jono had said so far. "I thought Raven had found all the suspect ones."

[furnaceface]

//Apparently it was more than just orphanages,// Jono replied with a little shrug of his shoulders. //There's a private supplier. Or, there was. I've got his delivery man in for questioning, but he...//

...

He wasn't. He very much wasn't.

[sharp_as_knives]

"He..?" Hannibal prompted.

He'd been lovely, hadn't he?

[furnaceface]

Jono projected a psionic wave of something that could have been a sigh.

//The supplier was murdered, as was the buyer, the other day,// Jono replied. //Most of the Blood were content to buy that the first was a suicide, though even that didn't really strike me as one. Too many little inconsistencies. There was a written confession in the buyer's home, but absolutely no sign that he showed any sort of remorse, any desire to die, beyond that. He had another child 'on order.' Makes no sense that he would do something like that if he was planning to end it all. And... it might not mean much, but the number he did on himself was...//

Jono tapered off, not entirely certain how comfortable he was with admitting this part.

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal wrapped an arm around Jono to ground and soothe him. "Was what?"

[furnaceface]

//Brutal. It was unbelievably brutal. But there was an art to it. His victims hadn't had that same finesse. They were just dead. But this bastard...// He ran a hand through his hair. //I don't know. It seems wrong to insinuate that what I found was at all pleasant to the eye. But I don't think he was capable of that sort of... aesthetic. The second one, the supplier, even less so, but even that was...//

Ugh, words.

//I had difficulty looking away. Somebody went to a lot of effort to make certain that the scene left behind was... beautiful. In both cases, actually, but especially the second.//

[sharp_as_knives]

"So, someone who killed children - and I'm guessing not only that - and someone who sold them to him are both dead. One a suicide or murder, and the other clearly a murder."

Hannibal pursed his lips and paused. "I've been reading up on Glacial customs and laws. I gather murder isn't illegal. And if you'll forgive me saying so, these men seem the type it's difficult to shed many tears over. Why investigate their deaths?"

[furnaceface]

Jono glanced at Hannibal for a moment, and then shook his head.

//Because they were men of influence, because they've got a common thread between them, and because, if someone doesn't look into this, the aristos will get scared,// Jono replied. //My one real concern is making certain that we can find and bring home any children that might still be alive out there, because after Hintergrove, this shouldn't still be happening. But somebody dropped the ball hard, and in the wake of that, I can find more information more quickly than most anybody else in Karla's First Circle. Just so long as I have access to one of the people involved in it all, and just so long as that person still has a working brain.//

He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to ignore just what that said about himself, and then, at length, he shook his head.

//Don't get me wrong,// he said, finally, //am I upset that there are two fewer people like that in the world? Not by a long shot. Hell, I would've been tempted to kill those bastards myself. Some part of me wants to shake the killer's hand. But murder isn't illegal because of the way the Blood are wired... Imagine trying to lock up every bloody Warlord Prince who turned a bad situation into a killing field. This isn't the same. It's not a mindless death driven by instinctive rage. There's a hunter out there, leaving a trail of bread crumbs to follow. Out there saying something.//

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal kept himself from scowling, but it was a near thing. Somebody definitely had dropped the ball; there shouldn't be any question the children were safe or dead.

"What do you think he's saying?"

[furnaceface]

//I don't know.// Jono's brow furrowed, and he looked over his shoulder toward Hannibal again. //But I'll bloody well find out if I can. If nothing else, he was saying that there are more despicable men out there like these two. He certainly put plenty of work into making certain there was something to follow. What a bloody wasted opportunity it would be, ignoring that much when what was left behind practically came gift-wrapped.//

[sharp_as_knives]

"So you're less interested in finding this killer, and more in finding what he already has." Hannibal nodded. "In that case, can I simply recommend you continue learning to delegate? You need to rest sometime."

[furnaceface]

Jono shrugged his shoulders and slumped sideways a little, leaning toward Hannibal.

//Delegating is all well and good,// he murmured, //but there's only so much I want to trust to somebody else, at this point. This person, this killer, he's... bloody brilliant. He's not tracking footprints through blood smeared at the scene. Even though nobody would convict him in Kaeleeran court, he's covering his tracks, making these murders look self-inflicted, or somehow convincing the people he's killing to take their own lives. He's... more than just some angry person, disgusted by what these people have been doing.//

Jono spread his hands a little, looking down at them.

//Why hide? Why turn these bodies into works of art? Why make it look like suicide? Is he playing a game? This killer... he doesn't make sense in Kaeleeran society. He's something unlike anything my Blood officers have seen before. I don't think they'd have any bloody clue what to do, if I were to delegate too much, if the next time one of these bodies turns up, I'm not there to tell them what to do with it.//