Hannibal's house, Sunday

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal was enjoying a nice, quiet day at home. He'd had a few too many of those lately, but since someone (Jono) had decided that his hobby gave them extra work, he was indulging in other ways; at the moment, he was composing on theremin.

Classes started tomorrow, so hopefully things would pick up a bit.


[OOC: Open post!]

Comments

[sharp_as_knives]

"Is this something that can wait a few weeks?" Hannibal asked. "We've no idea how long it's been going on already."

[furnaceface]

//I hate putting it off,// Jono murmured, //but for all I know, this could go back as far as the carnival, or the attempt on Karla's life. Either way, our hands are tied. There's nothing we can do right now, without knowing more.//

[sharp_as_knives]

"And you think we should wait for Karla to give birth." Hannibal spread his hands. "You've seen Raven more closely than I have these weeks; I will bow to your judgement."

[furnaceface]

//There's no way we could possibly tell Karla without then having to worry about Karla turning around and doing something exceptionally idiotic. She let a demon disembowel Warren once for Raven's sake. I'd prefer to wait at least until she has Craft, so that she's not risking herself or,// he checked himself, //the baby.//

Who was absolutely Kayla, and Jono had been thinking of her as such for months now.

[sharp_as_knives]

Yes, and don't think Hannibal had missed that. But there were other things of more interest at the moment. "Disembowel?"

[furnaceface]

//He got better,// Jono replied, shrugging. //I was a little preoccupied at the time myself, but I do remember that they broke up for a while over it. Some people take being eviscerated quite seriously, I suppose.//

Jonothon couldn't understand why.

[sharp_as_knives]

"Those of us who have them do tend to prefer to keep them," Hannibal answered. "What had you preoccupied?"

[furnaceface]

//All of the other demons trying to kill us. Getting Raven free. And then, afterward...//

Jono shrugged.

//Raven and I had been dating, back then. But I was the one who dealt her the final, killing blow when Trigon corrupted her. It... took me some time to come around to being around people again. Especially Raven, freshly back from the dead.//

He had been preoccupied and it was complicated.

[sharp_as_knives]

"This was at that same time, then." Hannibal got up to put a hand on Jono's shoulder. "I'd be more concerned if you had shrugged it off immediately."

[furnaceface]

//It was... close, yes,// Jono confirmed. //There was a bit of time before we realized she wasn't dead anymore. Just enough time to stew over it, I suppose.//

He'd killed her with his face. It wasn't really any wonder the boy still had issues about his powers.

[sharp_as_knives]

"Would you like to talk about it?" Hannibal asked. "How did it start?"

[furnaceface]

//It started with Raven acting not quite like herself,// Jono replied. //Looking more tired, getting more jumpy. And insisting it was just stress.//

A wrinkled nose and a furrowed brow suggested just what he thought of that.

//At least she's learned her lesson about telling bold-faced lies when people confront her about it, since. Now we only have to pester her for a while before she tells anybody that she's worried.//

Still... not optimal. But an improvement.

[sharp_as_knives]

"I haven't noticed her being more tired or jumpy," Hannibal said. "Just more intense in some ways. She has, however, been under a great deal of stress, so some of that may be expected."

He shook his head. "We need a way to determine how much is her and how much may be coming from another source. The psychic equivalent of a Faraday cage. Do you know if there is such a thing?"

[furnaceface]

//Not certain,// Jono admitted, after a moment's pause. //Every telepath has some equivalent of a shielding system in their head, some stronger than others. Raven's got something similar, as an empath, but that doesn't make any such thing impregnable. Lord knows, I've had my head hacked into enough. All it takes is somebody stronger or more clever who has the means to get in.//

He hiked his shoulders up a little, in a shrug.

//All I know is, until well after she acts on things, it doesn't occur to her that there's anything the matter with what she's done. And that little something that's close-but-not-quite-Raven that I could sense while I was in there, she can't detect at all.//

[sharp_as_knives]

"That is probably the most worrying. Could you create your own shielding system around her? If nothing else, it might tell you if there's something in the way, something reaching in that a shield would, for lack of better terms, bump into."

Hannibal was working with scientific models for this; you would have to forgive him. They didn't teach psychic phenomena at any schools he'd gone to.

He might have to rectify that.

[furnaceface]

//I could try,// Jono allowed, //though maintaining a telepathic shield requires focus. If it was in my own head, I'd be able to half-ass it from time to time, to only barely focus on keeping it up... But in somebody else's? It could very well be a full-time job. A worthwhile one, of course, though it would have the potential to get very exhausting, very quickly.//

[sharp_as_knives]

"Not long-term," Hannibal corrected. "But if you or someone else could shield her, then see if you feel anything passing through it, or if there's a difference in her mind, it might at least tell us what we're looking for with a bit more certainty."

[furnaceface]

//It sounds,// Jono noted, //like something more suited to a Black Widow's webs than to me. Though I could sense something else in there, I couldn't tell you where it had come from, or who it belonged to. I could probably try to follow after the source, but I've never attempted to span my consciousness across realities before.//

Part of him wasn't completely certain he'd survive the attempt.

//Another thing to suggest to Karla once she's got her Craft back, perhaps. She's already going to attempt to kill me once she learns I've already gone in for a peek, not knowing what I might find in there.//

[sharp_as_knives]

"Ask her what she would have done in your place," Hannibal advised wryly. "That said, however, she is likely to attempt killing both of us if we keep this from her. I suspect she would rather know and worry now, than be kept in the dark."

[furnaceface]

//She's due soon,// Jono said, shaking his head. //I'll tell her the moment she's recovered from giving birth and not a moment sooner. If she gets on my case about stupid things I've done lately, I'll just point at her baby and raise an eyebrow.//

He had nothing against the baby, of course.

But he was going to maintain for a while after this that Karla was an absolute moron.

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal just shook his head. He understood, but that didn't mean Karla wouldn't yell. Even if she also understood.

"Do you think Raven would be willing to spend some time elsewhere - here, or someplace else time moves faster than in Glacia? That would minimize the time for her before Karla can be told. Would she be safe visiting Warren's father?"

[furnaceface]

//Warren's father isn't even safe,// Jono replied, shaking his head a little. //Time goes slowly enough there that she might only be gone a few hours, but far too much can go wrong in a few hours. As it stands, Karla would probably skin me alive if she knew I had accompanied Momoko to go get the man for the baby shower. But realities that similar to my own... they're not safe for almost anybody.//

[sharp_as_knives]

"Unfortunate. Momoko or Dinah, then?" Hannibal suggested. He grinned. "Would it be a wise thing or a worse disaster to suggest Emma?" The tension between the two hadn't escaped him, but she was a powerful telepath.

[furnaceface]

Jono needed a moment. The mental image was glorious. And was followed a few seconds later with a, //Ha!// that was as close to a laugh as he ever got.

//They'd destroy one another! Raven's not allowed to go to Emma's world simply because I can't be there enjoying popcorn with the show.//

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal chuckled. "Not Emma, then."

"I don't see Raven easily agreeing to go anywhere so close to Karla's due date," he conceded with a sigh. Not that they couldn't probably talk her into it; even without Jono compromising his morals, Hannibal could be very persuasive.