Hannibal's home, Baltimore

[sharp_as_knives]

After the rehearsal, Hannibal headed home and brought up a copy of the script on his tablet. Really, a play? What had he been thinking?

Well, that he'd have two fairly dangerous people in his debt, naturally. But still. He poured himself a nice glass of wine, put on some music, took off his jacket and shoes, and sat down with his tablet to go over both the script and the latest local news.



[OOC: expecting one, open to calls or whatnot!]

Comments

[sharp_as_knives]

"You're right; I do judge," Hannibal admitted. "I judge you to be very troubled by something and in need of a place you feel safe. I judge you not to be in the mood for being told what to do or how you should feel." He eyed Sparkle. "So. If you like, you can tell me what's happened, and perhaps I can help you to make sense of it. Or, you can talk about how it makes you feel, and I will listen. Or," he leaned forward and poured out the tea, "you can drink, and say nothing, and I'll simply make sure you don't walk into traffic."

[myownface]

It was entirely possible that Sparks had walked into traffic a few times on his way here already. Oops!

"I just... I mean, is it so fucking much to ask that maybe when I say someone's been a crazy threatening bitch to me, instead of saying 'oh that's how we were raised in our perfect fucking Shadowfucker family and she was just protecting me,' I could get some sympathy or understanding or like maybe 'damn, that sucks,' or 'I understand why you would be fucking upset about that,' or anything? Yeah, I'm not some kind of super-powered demon-hunting whatever, but I don't need anyone's sister making pit-stops while I'm at work to point that out to me. Great, I'm not good enough for him, I get that. I fucking get that. Of course I'm not. I'm human. How fucking dare I."

He'd breathe eventually. Give him a moment.

"And I'm overreacting and totally being fucking unfair not liking her and calling the bitch names and oh, I was so, so mean to the chick who can grind me into pulp without thinking, sure. It's me. Tell me all about how fucking hard it was growing up with your rules and your family structure some more, Alec. Go on, because obviously I don't understand. How the fuck would I?!"

He had to stop talking now, because if he kept going he was going to start choking on it. He wasn't going to cry over this bullshit. Nobody deserved his tears that way.

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal took a moment to piece everything together.

"Isabelle was threatening you, because she doesn't think you're good enough for Alec. She's stronger than you, so you struck back with words instead of violence. And Alec feels this is unjustified. Have I got it right?"

[myownface]

"Yyeaaahmostly?" Sparkle needed to take a moment himself, now, to gulp in a few deep breaths and just get his head on right again. "I wasn't... standing up for me so much, to her. I just kind of blew up. But I don't need to be nice to anyone who tracks me down just to intimidate me, either. Alec doesn't get that."

Sparkle was actually proud of himself for getting that many words out coherently. And without sniffling. Ugh.

[sharp_as_knives]

"No, you don't," Hannibal agreed. "It might be politic to be polite to them, but there are limits, I'm sure."

He took a sip of his wine.

"Did you explain as much to Alec?"

[myownface]

"Tried to," Sparkle grumbled. "He figures I should play nice because she's his sister. I don't care whose sister she is, she's a bitch."

He still had yet to be given any proof to the contrary, anyhow.

[sharp_as_knives]

"You seemed to be behaving quite courteously to her in class the other day," Hannibal noted. "Has anything changed?"

[myownface]

"Well... her brother was a panther," Sparkle replied, shrugging a little lamely. "And I wasn't going to start shit in the middle of class or anything."

He appreciated that Hannibal trusted him enough to let him TA way too much to risk screwing that up.

[sharp_as_knives]

"I appreciate that." Hannibal nodded. "But I'm guessing that something came to a head after that to bring you to my window."

[myownface]

"Yeah," Sparkle mumbled. "Alec came to the shop today and told me to be nicer to his psycho sister."

... Paraphrased somewhat. But more or less what had happened.

[sharp_as_knives]

Interesting. "Did he give a reason for that?" In Hannibal's experience, bullies rarely complained about people needing to be nicer to them.

[myownface]

"Honestly, I think he cares more than she does. Figures she gets a free pass on bullying because that's how they were raised to be." Sparkle wrinkled his nose, stuck out his tongue, and then contemplated pulling his jacket over his head. "He actually used that as a fucking excuse, like, I should know better, because that's what they are, and it didn't matter for a second what I was, just, I was saying things about his sister he didn't like hearing, and it was unreasonable of me to get... to get upset that she came after me first."

He fidgeted a little. There was a pack of smokes in his pocket he wanted to pull out, but even if he'd attempted to break into the place, he respected Hannibal too much to just light up in here.

"Why does how she grew up give her the free pass? But when I-- I fucking pointed out how I did, and he got angrier and said he wouldn't try to fucking understand and I kicked him out and threw his goddamn suck-up scarf at the door."

[sharp_as_knives]

"Has either of them made the effort to understand your point of view before?" Hannibal asked. "Are they aware of the problems you might have with bullies?"

Hannibal appreciated the not smoking. Smoke in his upholstery was much harder to fix than scraped window paint.

[myownface]

"Yeah, no," Sparkle scoffed. "I mean, she hasn't. She doesn't give a shit. I've been dating her big brother and I'm like the crap she scrapes from the bottom of her boots or something. Alec... Alec's tried, but he has, like, trouble comprehending 'human' sometimes."

And if it meant choosing between taking his sister's side or making an effort to at least understand what was pissing his boyfriend off so damn much, apparently his sister won, hands-down.

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal grimaced. "It's natural to want to protect a sibling from something or someone that you think may hurt them. However, bullying and a sense of superiority are more likely an indication of other personality issues than of protectiveness."

Hannibal cocked his head at Sparkle. "Has Alec's trouble understanding human been a problem before this?"

[myownface]

"We actually met in an argument in Skywalker's Ethics class where I had to explain to him why I thought an experiment in measuring privilege was a pretty shit move. He figured Skywalker did it so that people could, like, bend over backwards to avoid offending we poor folk."

Thus, so far as Sparkle saw it, totally missing how the point was probably more along the lines of making the people who had wound up ahead of the line stop for a moment to consider how freaking lucky they were to have things like books and someone tucking them into bed at night.

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal frowned faintly. "Forgive me - when you say he has problems understanding human, do you mean he actually isn't human, or merely that he's incredibly out of touch with everyday people?"

Questions he had never thought he'd have to ask.

[myownface]

Sparkle hesitated for a moment, and then, finally, he shrugged.

"Both? Something like that. Alec sucks at interpersonal relationships and Shadowhunters aren't normal, I know that. They've got all this... superhuman demon-killing somethingorother. Anyone that's not like them is a mundie. A mundane. So..."

He shrugged. He wasn't supposed to talk shit about himself, but the 'not good enough' hung there in the air all the same.

[sharp_as_knives]

"So they see themselves as superior because of these abilities, and the rest of us - you and me, for example - aren't worthy of consideration."

[myownface]

"That's kind of what it's starting to feel like," Sparkle mumbled, sinking down into his jacket a little anyhow. "We get the cute little nickname, they get to run around with their superpowers or whatever, pretending to be better than us when they're really just made for something different."

Sparkle didn't care how many demons they could kill in a night. He knew his way around a kitchen better than Isabelle, and his way around getting himself dressed in the morning without parental supervision better than Alec.

[sharp_as_knives]

"That is a very good way of looking at it," Hannibal noted. "We may not have their skills, but we have others." He smirked a little. "Let me assure you, you are a much better cook than Isabelle will ever be." He shrugged. "I don't know what skills Alec might have. But while it makes them different, I would certainly argue that it makes them no better."

[myownface]

"He can shoot a bow and arrow," Sparkle mumbled. "He was teaching me how."

And he'd been impressed that a mundane like Sparks could pick up on it so quickly as to actually hit the target on his first day learning, too. Not the bullseye, the target.

"I can't see myself up on the roof of the dorms during an invasion, picking off the monster-of-the-week like a badly-dressed guy in a superhero ensemble movie, though."

[sharp_as_knives]

"Perhaps not," Hannibal allowed. "But archery is a skill that can be learned; if you had practiced all your life, you might be as good as he." He shrugged. "Or not. Or you might be better. Lack of opportunity doesn't make you less worthy of respect."

"Regardless," he raised an eyebrow at Sparkle, "I like to think you're intelligent enough to stay out of the way of any monsters. At least those that won't be defeated by a pricing gun."