Hannibal's house, Thursday

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal had stayed up late last night, and only gotten to bed in the early morning. He was woken only a few hours later by the sudden cessation of all the little noises a house's appliances made. He made a quick mental check of things, listened to the weather, and was ready to go back to sleep when he found himself blinking in the light of a fireplace that hadn't been there a moment before.

He frowned at it and got up to look it over. It seemed normal in every respect except for the fact that it shouldn't be there.

Beethoven jumped down off the bed, came over to sniff and poke at the thing, then jumped up on the hearth, turned around, curled up, and went back to sleep.

Hannibal sighed and went down to make breakfast. "I have gas heating, you know," he told the air.


[OOC: Open post if anyone wants to drop by! Come on, somebody had to have gas heat!]

Comments

[glacial_queen]

"This is utterly insupportable!" Karla declared, barely pausing to knock before passing through the wood of the door. Did it matter that Karla a) was from Glacia, b) had dealt with this plenty of times as a student, and c) had plenty of Craft to keep her warm?

No. No it did not. She was going to bitch anyway.

At least she brought witchlights to help with the lack of lights?

[sharp_as_knives]

"I am reasonably certain that I bought this place with walls," Hannibal said mildly. Honestly, Karla, between you and Bob... "Coffee?"

[glacial_queen]

"I knocked!" Karla protested. Which was at least slightly true. She'd knocked, she just hadn't bothered waiting for a reply. "And, besides, I came in through the door like a civilized person."

Just, y'know, literally through.

"And yes please. Like there was really any other answer, darling."

[sharp_as_knives]

"In a manner of speaking," Hannibal said, but he didn't bother pretending to anything more than mild exasperation.

He poured her a cup of coffee and set it out with the cream and sugar, then took out a bowl. "I don't suppose you would say no to an omelette, either?" He knew his audience.

[glacial_queen]

"Well, if you're going to insist," Karla said, batting her eyes at him. "I'd hate to refuse my host."

And, to show she cared, she wasn't even going to offer to help! You're welcome, Hannibal.

[sharp_as_knives]

Thank you, Karla.

He got out the ingredients and put together one sweet and one savory omelette. "How is your class going?" he asked as he worked.

[glacial_queen]

Karla sighed. "So today I introduced the students to the effects of poison. I programmed the Danger Shop to show five people at two hours past the ingestion of various poisons. And two of my students elected to go write essays--" including one current assassin for an evil Emperor, bah "--and a third felt the need to explain that she was only in the class to learn how to 'avoid being killed by those who use more underhanded weapons.' She rather swing a sword around all day than use a judicious bit of poison to solve the same problem!"

Mother Night, kids these days. When Karla had been learning about poisons, they'd learned the affects by ingesting small amounts and seeing what happened!

Granted, they'd all been young Black Widows with Healers standing by. That being said...hmph.

"And yours?"

[sharp_as_knives]

"I try never to judge other people's methods of killing, however lacking in artistry," Hannibal said, smirking.

"I had a student this week looking for a microwave," he returned. Did you feel his pain, Karla?

[glacial_queen]

"It's inefficient," Karla complained. "I'm not saying that poison is always the right choice, but only a fool dismisses it out of hand. You never know what you're going to go up against."

Look, Karla had dealt with the aftermath of aerosolized witchblood. She wasn't going to argue that poison was always the safest or most humane option. But it was still an option!

She would have felt much dirtier offering Ludmilla a knife, rather than a cup to send her to sleep, for one.

"And that poor girl. How many detentions did you give her for that?"

[sharp_as_knives]

"None. She can hardly help her lack of proper culinary upbringing." Which didn't mean Hannibal wasn't going to shake his head about it.

He whisked the eggs. "Some people think of poisons as underhanded, because strength and martial prowess are no defense against them. A very biased outlook, perhaps, but I've encountered it before."

[glacial_queen]

"And there are plenty of people who are killed by swords who lack the strength and martial prowess of their opponents," Karla said, more to argue the point than because she though Hannibal was likely to agree with Cassandra. "Death is death. It can be brutal and ugly regardless of means. I'd agree that poison is more dangerous than a sword because it can affect more people at once and can be used by any idiot regardless of training, but that doesn't make it underhanded. It makes it the functional equivalent of a firearm."

[sharp_as_knives]

"Precisely," Hannibal agreed, "but martial types rarely see it that way. A nuclear weapon takes very little skill to set in motion, and can kill millions of people, not to mention damage the land beyond easy repair. Is it a weapon or a poison?"

[glacial_queen]

Karla thought back to Reno's world and shuddered. She'd spent so much time throwing up just stepping foot on the land, ugh.

"Knowing the student in question, she'd probably dismiss it as evil magic with a disgusted snort and then threaten to kidnap more students and drag them back to her benighted world," Karla groused. "While telling everyone who will listen that it's for the greater good."

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal gave her an amused look as he poured the egg into the pan. "That would be Cassandra, then? Please tell me we only have one of those."

[glacial_queen]

"She's in your--ahh, Jono, of course," Karla said, answering her own question. "Also, Mother Night, that smells amazing. And yes, that would be Cassandra. She wasted no time telling me that she thought I was the most dangerous thing in the class our first day."

Granted, she was right, but still!

[sharp_as_knives]

"Thank you." Hannibal nodded at her compliment, then smirked. "If you were not, I would be very disappointed."

[glacial_queen]

"Of course I was," Karla said, tossing her hair. See? It was a compliment when Hannibal said it. "But you don't tell the danger you recognize it! That's just foolish."

[sharp_as_knives]

"Unless you want it to know you recognize a fellow danger," Hannibal said, grinning. He put the savory omelette in the oven and checked the other.

[glacial_queen]

Okay, Karla had to share his grin for that. "There is that," she agreed. "Though the one student who could be a legitimate threat is smart enough to keep her head down and not draw attention to herself. Cassandra just wanted me to know that I'm 'on notice'."

Quality finger-quotes right there.

[sharp_as_knives]

"I haven't yet met the girl, but she sounds as though she's been terribly hurt by someone or something, and is trying to be strong enough to avoid it in future," Hannibal noted. "An admirable goal, but she's a teenager." He smirked. "Which means she's also overcompensating for feeling a lack of control in her life."

[glacial_queen]

"I have no idea what that's like, I'm certain," Karla said with a small, sardonic smile. "I compensated only in non-obnoxious and completely healthy ways, truly."

[sharp_as_knives]

"Of course," Hannibal agreed, deadpan. "Well, with any luck, she will grow out of it. This island seems to be a very good place for that."

[glacial_queen]

"If nothing else, it throws trauma at you until you're emotionally numb and trying to cope," Karla sighed. "Although maybe that was just my friends. I haven't heard much on the radio that suggests the students are running around anywhere near as half-cocked as we used to do."

[sharp_as_knives]

"I haven't heard of any orgies needing virgin sacrifices lately, at any rate," Hannibal said. "Whether that means it's calmed or not is debatable."

[glacial_queen]

"It's a good sign, if nothing else." Karla said with a small chuckle. "No one wants an orgy-sacrifice. It's just too gauche."

Seriously, backwoods Louisiana. Seriously.

"But I do think the island's calmed down some since I was a student there. They don't even have the Reserves anymore--for a little while, we had a kind of mini-standing army on campus."