Post-invasion trauma-recovery party, Hannibal's house

[sharp_as_knives]

After yesterday's target practice, Hannibal had been left with a bloody lawn and a lot of eel meat.

So, after hosing off the lawn (and putting out shrimp for the flamingos, shut up), he started cooking.

He started with bouillabaisse, added smoked eel with new potatoes, leeks, and clam beurre blanc and smoked eel and crisp pork belly confit with baby beetroot and horseradish cream for Jono, since he'd been instrumental in getting the eels (and smoking a few unintentionally), continued with dashi-simmered eel because he couldn't leave out Japanese recipes, and finished with a simply cooked and artistically presented whole roasted eel.

Accompanying them were elegantly plated portions of sautéed spinach with apples and walnuts, a beautiful presentation of roquefort dip with apple, endive, and celery Hearts, homemade bread made into crostini with roasted garlic, goat cheese, and apple chutney, elegantly displayed parsnip bacon, and taiyaki which Hannibal had taken the liberty of shaping like eel rather than the traditional fish and filled with red bean paste.

There were also a very good Riesling and a Malbec, 18-year Laphroaig, sparkling water, and plenty of excellent coffee.

The lawn was clean, the only eel around was edible, and Hannibal's door was open! (Metaphorically; it was still a bit chilly, after all.)

Everyone welcome - come and eat the things that tried to eat you!

[OOC: Open post! No OCD, just show up, mingle, eat, drink, stare at the food dubiously, or whatever! I may be a bit SP, but I couldn't not do it!]

Comments

[myownface]

Okay, so, Sparkle was a sucker for free food any day of the week, but in some situations it was, like, way more mandatory than others.

Like any time Hannibal had an open 'come and eat my food' invitation, for example. Sparkle was a sucker for Hannibal's cooking, and, well, he'd never had eel.

So, here he was, knock-knocking and trying to look... distinguished or at least not ridiculously scruffy or something. Hannibal's parties had standards, too.

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal smiled as he opened the door. "Sparkle. It's good to see you. Please, come in. You stayed safe yesterday, I hope?"

[myownface]

"Safe and sound," Sparkle agreed, stepping inside with a grin and a nod. "There was no way in hell I was going outside in that. I mean, I'm not that good with a blaster yet, I'm not going outside picking fights with killer eels, god."

He shrugged his shoulders easily.

"I guess I know the answer to the same question if I ask you already, huh," he added, nodding toward the kitchen.

[sharp_as_knives]

"I never left my house, either," Hannibal answered. "But given a choice between silly, tacky birds and murderous screeching eels, I had to side with the birds."

[myownface]

"The birds are mostly quieter," Sparkle agreed with a little smirk. "And they're probably less likely to try to eat people who walk into your front yard, too. Makes me happy I don't, like, have to take the cat out or anything. Especially on days like yesterday."

That didn't stop him, sometimes. But ugh, if he had a dog...?

[furnaceface]

//I hear this is the place to be for anybody looking for eel today, hm?//

Hey, he'd helped to kill them, of course Jono was going to be here to... mostly just let other people taste them for him. It was catharsis, dammmit.

And if Joni had tagged along in the pocket of his old long brown coat, the one with the collar that flipped up over the bottom of his face, well, he was trying to lapse into old comforts. He was sort of reaching a point in his self-imposed exile from Glacia that involved a lot of paranoia and waiting for the other shoe to drop.

[sharp_as_knives]

"Of course." Hannibal smiled. He stood aside for Jono and put a hand on his back as he passed; the retreat into comforts hadn't escaped him.

Beethoven, however, had no such concerns, and leapt up onto the nearest chair to sniff suspiciously at Joni.

[furnaceface]

And if Jono deliberately slowed down for a half-step so that Hannibal's hand might rest a little more solidly against his back, well... comforts.

//I promise I'll do my best to not clear you out of all of your cooking,// he half-joked, glancing over his shoulder at Hannibal as he walked by. //Have fun with it, did you?//

Joni, meanwhile, was going to lean out of the pocket as much as she dared without going for a topple in order to sniff right back. And then, recognizing the old man cat from his few weeks in her and Jono's company, she was going to reach one paw out to boop against Beethoven's nose. Boop!

[sharp_as_knives]

"Not as much as you did," Hannibal answered, shaking his head.

Beethoven pulled back his head and gave her a suspicious look, one paw raised, until she was out of range.

[furnaceface]

//They kept twitching,// Jono replied. //Even once they were in different pieces. I couldn't help it, it was bloody fascinating.//

And sometimes, Jono was the world's oldest twelve-year-old boy.

Joni peered out of her pocket for a few moments more as Jono kept walking, and then tucked her hand back in and watched Beethoven in turn. There wasn't much room in that pocket for a good old-fashioned tail-thumping, but she was giving it a respectable try.

[vdistinctive]

What was that? Eliot showing up to be social and not with an agenda?

Would wonders never cease.

He'd taken out a few eels of his own yesterday -- mostly by grabbing one by the tail and using it to whip the other eels out of the sky -- but wasn't using them in his own cooking. Now, had there been flying trout or catfish, that'd be another story. He'd planted a few deep in the rooftop garden for fertilizer, instead.

He eyed up the front lawn for visible damage as he knocked on the door. Radio said Hannibal had used a rifle. The flamingos looked fine, so Eliot had to assume that the man was a decent enough shot.

[sharp_as_knives]

Decent and getting better! Wasn't that a comforting thought?

Hannibal came to open the door and smiled, waving Eliot in. "Mr. Spencer. I'm pleased to see you uninjured; did the eels leave you alone?"

[vdistinctive]

"After I knocked a few of 'em around, yeah." Plus, you know, he hadn't really ventured out very far. Too busy working on plans to build the rooftop garden into a greenhouse -- just to protect his damn plants from Fandom's whims. "Here you had a time of it fightin' 'em off yesterday."

[sharp_as_knives]

"It was that or leave the flamingos to fend for themselves." Hannibal grimaced. "And better them than the eels. Fortunately, Jono helped; apparently, my aim could be better."

[glacial_queen]

Surprise! Karla had gotten very tired of being cooped up in the estate, and with Kayla's first month fast approaching (seriously, how did time go so fast?), she had unilaterally declared that they were going to Hannibal's for the eel-ebration. And maybe some eel-nebriation. And then Warren had agreed, quite possibly to get her to stop making jokes.

Cora and Nyles had looked at one another and quickly decided that they had other plans that did not involve dinner with a bunch of weird adults.

Preteens, man. Go figure.

"Kiss kiss!" she called, stepping into Hannibal's house with Warren on one arm and the baby in the other, all wrapped up and looking a lot like a giant, brightly-colored marshmallow. "Who missed us?"

[wwiii]

"Everyone, probably," Warren offered, giving Karla a little grin. "I mean, we are pretty great."

Also modest! Honest!

"I guess we missed some kind of eel attack yesterday, huh?"

Whatever it was, it certainly smelled excellent.

[glacial_queen]

"And here I was, thinking about sending Kayla to nursery school on the island," Karla said wryly. "I'm sure she'd just adore murder-eels." Because if they had been swarming the island, then of course they were murder-eels.

"Perhaps they're preparing for the next time you need to murder me for suitcase sushi."

[wwiii]

"There... isn't a nursery school on the island, right? That's not just something I managed to miss in my years of coming to school here?"

Warren had to make certain of these things. He wasn't terribly keen on sending Kayla off to murder-eel-nursery-school.

"I only murdered you for sushi that one time," he pointed out. "And anyway, you got better."

[sharp_as_knives]

"Anybody with a sense of style or fun," Hannibal answered, smiling as he came up for a hug. "How have you been?"

[glacial_queen]

Karla was only too happy to give him that hug. "Sooo much better now that I've been able to get out of the estate. Don't get me wrong, still loving the whole mother thing, but Mother Night it interferes with a social life."

[sharp_as_knives]

"I can only imagine. But I'm pleased you could make it. I had thought the next dinner party I had would be in your honor and Kayla's." He hugged back.

[trigons_child]

Raven was right behind Karla and Warren, of course. She hadn't expected to return to the island again this soon, but since they were going -- and taking the baby with them -- she saw no reason not to come as well.

[sharp_as_knives]

"Hello, Raven." Hannibal smiled and reached for her hand. "How are you today?"

[trigons_child]

"Hello, Doctor Lecter," Raven said, moving toward him. "I am well, thank you. How are you? I missed the excitement yesterday, it seems."

[sharp_as_knives]

"It was less exciting and more ear-piercing," Hannibal said. "You didn't miss much." He moved in for a hug.