Hannibal's house (in which Jono is still not over the wedding), Sunday

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal was still healing, and still apparently "grounded", which amused him more than anything. Even the annoyance of not being allowed in his own kitchen didn't entirely stop the amusement, although he was making every effort to heal more quickly because of it.

He could really only eat so many leftovers.

Today, he was intermittently reading and walking about the house, doing light stretches to avoid stiffening up.

And trying to figure out how he was supposed to teach a cooking class without going into the kitchen.


[OOC: Open post! Discussion of Hannibal's past NFB!]

Comments

[crimson_sister]

Lucille had wanted to speak to Hannibal ever since the wedding, but had waited to give him time to rest. She also wanted to be sure what she wanted to ask, but even if she was now here, knocking at the door, she wasn't entirely sure about that.

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal moved - still a bit gingerly - to the door and opened it, then smiled when he saw who it was. "Lucille. Please come in."

[crimson_sister]

"Dr Lecter." Lucille smiled as she entered the house. "I hope you have had plenty of rest since..."

[sharp_as_knives]

"Since the wedding?" Hannibal answered wryly. "I have, thank you." He closed the door behind her and led the way to the living room. "I apologize, but if you'd like tea today, we will have to ask Jono. I'm forbidden the kitchen until I'm more healed."

[crimson_sister]

"Oh?" Lucille said, a little surprised. "Why is that?"

She was nervous. Tea would help, as it had become a pleasant habit when she visited, but she didn't want to ask for anything inconvenient.

[sharp_as_knives]

"Apparently I'm grounded," Hannibal said, amused. "Also, lifting things is difficult just now, and should I drop something and attempt to catch it, I could injure myself further."

He took a moment to think a request at Jono, then smiled at Lucille. "Jono will heat the water, so we'll have tea shortly."

[crimson_sister]

That made Lucille relieved, even if it was more the comfort than the tea itself. But she had better get this over with. Drawing a deep breath, she asked: "That man, he said things about you."

[sharp_as_knives]

"He did." Hannibal lowered himself to an armchair and waved Lucille toward another nearby. "Would you like to discuss them?" His own voice was even and pleasant; this was one conversation he wasn't terribly worried about.

[crimson_sister]

Lucille took a seat, Tensely leaning forward a little. "I... Those accusations could by some be considered serious."

[sharp_as_knives]

"They could be, yes," Hannibal agreed. "Particularly when true. Do they worry you?"

[crimson_sister]

"No," she said. "No, they don't. But why did he accuse you of them?"

Lucille suspected they were true, or she wouldn't so easily had admitted she wasn't worried.

[sharp_as_knives]

"Because he wanted to convince Jono that I wasn't worth defending," Hannibal answered. "He suspected that if Jono were to know these things about me, he would leave me to Jack's tender mercies. Because who could ever love such a monster; who could care for and defend anybody who does such things?"

He smiled. "Fortunately, he was very wrong. Even monsters have their defenders and loves. Don't you think?"

[crimson_sister]

"Such actions doesn't make us monsters does it?" Lucille said, expecting Hannibal would agree. "Except in the eyes of others.

Hadn't he taught her that it wasn't necessary to follow convention?

[sharp_as_knives]

"Of course not." Hannibal shrugged as best he could. "God kills more people than either of us ever could, and he's worshiped for it. But there will always be that perception. That was what happened to you as well, wasn't it?"

[crimson_sister]

Lucille looked at Hannibal. So he had guessed. It surprised her, and at the same time not, but most of all she felt... safe.

"It was the best choice I could make. But there was a price to pay. Not for my father, but for my mother."

He had more or less admitted to that what the man attacking him was true, so she no longer had anything to hide.

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal nodded. "Tell me about it."

[crimson_sister]

Strange and yet a relief to finally admit to her actions.

"My father I poisoned slowly over the course of a year. I found a book in our library on poisonous plants and slipped it in his tea. Everyone thought he had fallen ill, and when I offered to act as his nurse it was easier to feed him the correct dose. No one ever suspected anything. I only told my brother."

[sharp_as_knives]

"Which poison did you use?" Hannibal asked.

[crimson_sister]

"A plant that grows on the moors. It makes a bitter tea, but my father liked his tea sweet, so sugar hid the taste," Lucille said. "Eventually, when he could no longer eat much I added it to his porridge."

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal nodded. "Why not do the same with your mother, if nobody suspected?"

[crimson_sister]

She hesitated for a moment, considering how to put this. She looked down. "My mother thought my brother and I were too close. I couldn't let her separate us." Raising her gaze again, she looked at Hannibal. "I killed her with a meat cleaver in her bath."

[sharp_as_knives]

"Messy," Hannibal said. "Is that how you were discovered?"

[crimson_sister]

Lucille gave a small nod. "My brother and I were the only ones in the house. They didn't believe us when we said we were innocent."

They would have needed Hannibal's help there.

[sharp_as_knives]

"What did you do?" Hannibal asked. "And your brother?"

[crimson_sister]

"We... said said we hadn't heard anything. That we had been in the nursery in the attic all the time." The accusations were never explicit by the police, but I was sent to the asylum and my brother to a boarding school."

Now he knew the whole story, more or less.

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal nodded. "Still, there are no certain accusations. Not as clean as it could have been, but not insurmountable."

[crimson_sister]

Lucille looked almost surprised before she understood what he meant. "Perhaps it is to our advantage that children are often considered to be innocent."

She was curious about another thing. "What would you have done, had you been me?" 'Being me' meant not eating her mother, because even if Lucille had no objections to that in theory, it was not quite to her taste.

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal raised an eyebrow and thought of it. "Not knowing your situation, it's difficult to say. Perhaps something that could be made to look like an accident - a sudden fall. Something to avoid a connection to your father's death, and yet to point the blame elsewhere."

[crimson_sister]

"Perhaps I should have pushed her down the stairs. She did walk with a cane," Lucille said. "I admit it wasn't carefully planned."

But cutting through her mother's head with a meat cleaver had been very satisfying.

[sharp_as_knives]

"Why the hurry?" Hannibal asked. "Why did you feel it couldn't wait?"

[crimson_sister]

Of course. Dr Lecter was clever enough to figure that out. Lucille looked uncomfortable. Considering that the man in front of him had confessed to killing and eating people perhaps she shouldn't have to feel this, but she knew the judgement relationships such as the one between her and her brother faced.

"She didn't approve of the closeness between my brother and I. She wanted to keep us apart."

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal was certainly getting a better picture now.

He raised an eyebrow. "And you could not have borne that for so long as to have offered her an accidental death? Or were you so incensed at the idea that you needed to confront her directly?"

[crimson_sister]

Lucille looked a little uncomfortable. For the first time during this conversation she felt she was being questioned. She looked down at her hands. "She called us monsters. I... yes, I was furious. It was a monstrous thing, wasn't it?"

Using that word was no accusation towards herself though.

[sharp_as_knives]

"Was it?" Hannibal asked. "That would depend upon you and your brother, I think. Did either of you feel it was monstrous?"

[crimson_sister]

"No," Lucille said. "No. But does a monster ever consider themselves to be one?"

[sharp_as_knives]

"Not often," Hannibal answered. "But as your relationship involves only the two of you, it is your opinions on the matter that are important. If it's something you both feel to be true to yourselves and beneficial, you should let neither your mother's opinion nor anybody else's stand in your way." He smiled. "Which, it appears, you did not."

[crimson_sister]

He got a small smile in return. "No, I did not."

What would she had done had Hannibal rejected her because of her incestuous relationship? Not killed him obviously, but what would it had meant to have confessed so much before that?

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal might judge people for a lot of things, but that wasn't one of them.

"Do you still speak with your brother?"

[crimson_sister]

"I write letters," she said. "In code, but I still can't tell him much or I fear he would think me truly mad."

There were also other things, such as her infidelities that he was better not knowing about.

[sharp_as_knives]

"Have you considered asking him to visit?" Hannibal ask. "There is a weekend the school encourages people from home to visit the students."

[crimson_sister]

"I've heard about that," Lucille said. "If his school permits it and if it is possible for him to travel to this place, I would very much like him to. It's been almost two years since I last saw him."

[sharp_as_knives]

"You must miss him terribly," Hannibal observed.

[crimson_sister]

"I do. He was always there, always a part of my life. It is strange to now have all these things happening and not be able to share them with him."

She fell silent for a moment, then added: "He was my only friend until I came here."

[sharp_as_knives]

"You'll have much more to show him and tell him about should he visit," Hannibal said. "Or when you go home and can show him proof."

[crimson_sister]

"Do you know how to invite someone?" she asked. "I can hardly ask him to find a portal."

[sharp_as_knives]

"You can send him one," Hannibal said. "You would have to speak to Portalocity about that."

[crimson_sister]

"Oh, I will do that. When is this weekend?" Lucille looked excited now. There was a chance that she would see Thomas again soon!

[sharp_as_knives]

"Some time soon, I should think," Hannibal answered. "I would suggest asking the moose in the school's office."

[crimson_sister]

That statement would have sounded insane anywhere else. But this was Fandom, and Lucille gave a small nod. "I will do so."