il_mostro | IC - INBOX/VOICEMAIL/TEXT/THREATENING LETTER

[Legato also has a few moments of silence to choose his next steps in the wake of that. If there is anything he has experience with, however, it is weathering the paranoia and broad emotional brushstrokes of other psychopaths.]

If you let them flush you out, there will be far more eyes on you than there would be otherwise. You would put the advantage squarely in their hands.

[And before waiting for a response--]

If you are concerned for your immediate safety, let me offer my services. I am exceedingly competent at keeping watch from great distances, with the ability to act without ever seeing my target.

[Legato was not wrong. Hannibal was considering leaving in a few weeks time - just to get out before the hunting dogs got the scent.

However, this is a far more practical plan. Hannibal enjoys practical plans.]

My immediate freedom, not my safety. Every single person who would take my LIEs cleansing as a crime would simply do the humane thing and put me behind bars.

I do not want to go behind bars, ever again.

Trust me when I say that I completely understand.

[Captivity is a far worse fate than death, and is precisely the sort of thing he wants to prevent from even becoming a possibility. And he is sure that the good doctor fleeing would lead only to that conclusion--regardless of whether that flight was now or in several weeks.

There certainly must be another way.]

Where are you? I would like to speak face-to-face, if possible.

I am at my home. If you wish to visit me here, you may. However I do have to clean up so this place is appropriate for guests, so please give me fifteen minutes.

[Blood and glass to clean up. Refreshments to prepare. The usual.]

[Ah, he almost wishes that all of the murderers he has consorted with had such a sense of decorum, however unneeded it was.]

Not to worry, it will take me some time to walk there.

Let me know if there is anything else you need in the meantime.

[And if nothing else sends him on a detour, he will come knocking in twenty.]

[Hannibal is nothing if not completely with a sense of decorum and good manners, whenever the situation.]

There is nothing else. Thank you for your consideration.

[In twenty minutes -- blood has been cleaned up, glass slivers removed and everything is wiped clean. Coffee and pastries, along with small sandwiches, have been put out.

Hannibal opened the door and gestured Legato to come inside.]

[Normally, Legato cares very little about what he can see with his eyes, but he does scan a glance around the place when he enters. He's looking for exactly the things that Hannibal has already cleaned up; you can learn a lot about a panicking animal by the sort of mess it makes. But there is no smashed furniture, no bodies, not so much as a stack of papers pushed of of a table in frustration. This man really did keep a tight rein on himself compared to other people Legato has associated himself with.]

Lovely home. Thank you for allowing me a visit. I realize this must be a tense time for you.

[Hannibal did not allow himself public displays of rage -- unless it was well covered and perfectly planned so nothing can come back on him. Although it is very tempting to lose control and perhaps stab someone in the neck.

Just ... not at the moment.]

Quite frankly, only another person like myself could understand the ... strain of seeing imprisonment in their future.

[He exhaled, gesturing Legato to a seat.]

I do not like anyone being turned on my scent. Even if it is something as subtle as Will has done. [A rueful, bitter smile.] With excellent accuracy. I am ... impressed.

[Legato is certainly not putting sudden, violent outbursts out of the question. But he at least isn't walking into the den of an actively raving maniac, which is something he sometimes cannot avoid. It's refreshing.

Like a good guest, Legato follows Hannibal's direction to a seat.]

Forgive me, but can I ask who this person is in relation to yourself? You're at least reasonably well acquainted, I take it? [Being that they are apparently on a first name basis.]

[Hannibal pours Legato some tea, then gestures elegantly to the tea tray.] Sugar, lemon, or milk?

[There is the slightest pause - trying to define Will is like trying to define what the sun means to the world. After a second's hesitation, he breaths out.]

He is ...was ... an old friend. Someone who I consider my soulmate. We have not been on good terms since my arrival here.

Sugar, please.

[Legato will dress up his own tea once the sugar is within reach, and adds enough to be a little beyond what is normally expected of an adult. He has a child's palate and he isn't shy about showing.]

...I see.

[That explanation certainly puts all of this in a new light, and it's honestly the answer that he'd been hoping most was not the case. It does, however, push one question to the top of the pile.]

So, what does he want?

[Hannibal makes sure the sugar is easily available, before settling himself down in his own chair. He fixes his own tea with sugar and lemon, enjoying the sour and the sweet together.

He stirs his tea.]

To warn me off from hurting his lovers. Although I sincerely doubt he meant to make me this angry or ...cautious.

[For all of their cordiality, Legato doesn't really have to pretend, here. He's still feeling out the nuances of his new friend's personality and demeanor, of course, but their genial exchanges have largely been for the benefit of an audience or as a private joke between two monsters pretending to be human.

Now, for him at least, it is time to work.

He stirs his tea, and as he watches the liquid spin in the teacup, he lets his features settle into a much more comfortable absence of expression while he thinks.]

So, it isn't necessarily meant as a overt threat. He only wants control.

[Repeating it back for verification, but it isn't phrased as a question.]

He was speaking to you, knowing that you would be listening and that it would make an impact. Pulling on the emotional strings that he knew he could reach, and... it seems that it worked too well. Now it's your turn to choose how to react.

[Almost certainly stating the obvious, but he wants to make sure he is understanding all of this correctly and that they are on the same page so far.]

[Hannibal is sipping his tea delicately, listening in turn to Legato. After all, the man heard out Hannibal's concerns. He was here to offer advice and feedback on what Hannibal's options were. It would be rude to interrupt with churlish behavior.]

I think it is meant as both. [Answering only where there seems to be a question of Will's motivations.]

Indeed. If I were back in my own world - and I was this threatened .... well. I would clean house and leave.

[That's all the feedback he needs, honestly. Any argument beyond that would be nitpicking details, as far as he's concerned.]

And I imagine that you'd had a lot more room to move around in at home. I think you'd agree that size of this particular cage necessitates certain changes in behavior.

[Whether that behavior is altering what sort of people to eat, putting a genocide on hold, or deciding what to do when cornered in a pit full of super-powered enemies.]

What would likely be a clean break away from a threat at home would only be rushing out into their sights here.

Naturally. One has to be much more cautious in one's true nature here. The threat is higher, the punishments more dangerous than any I faced in my world. [He is quiet for a moment.] I feel confident in my skills, on my own terms, to avoid scandal or exposure.

[A twist of his lips.] Will, as always, has proven to be a wild card that I cannot put my trust in. It could too easily be switched over if he felt threatened -- even if I was not threatening him.

You don't think he may remain satisfied with the point he has made if you give him no other reason--as far as you can predict--to feel threatened?

[And here he pauses for a moment. Flexing his left hand once, he considers his next words before speaking again.]

...Have I mentioned that this is not the first extradimensional prison I have found myself spirited away to?

I .... honestly do not know. I believe I feel unease because I do not know why he does not want to destroy me in the first place. According to him, and his lovers, all I ever gave him was torture and punishment. [Hannibal's voice is actually ... bitter. Such a meaningful relationship, broken down to nothing more than, 'All he ever did was hurt me.'

He looked up, one eyebrow raising.] Indeed?

[That bitter tone he hears in the other's voice is a good clue. And being that he's speaking to a psychologist, he won't go into his usual monologues about emotional investments and manipulation, and how it's tied to the inherent flaws in humanity.

For now, at least, he will rein himself in and continue to frame everything in how it pertains to strategy.]

I may be relatively new to this city, but I spent more than two years in the previous one before being brought here. There, I learned firsthand how differently everything plays out when trapped in a small cage with your enemies, many of which are creatures far more powerful than you could have previously imagined.

[He lifts a few fingers to rub at his temple.] I also learned exactly what happens when you run out into the open when there is truly nowhere to go. You give them something to chase, when they are already frustrated and hungry to dig their teeth into something. Trust me when I say that regardless of how threatened you may be feeling by this, you cannot take that route here and come out intact on the other side.

[Hannibal looks up from his tea-cup, listening with a quiet intensity that would unnerve some people. He had no doubts that the other man would not even bat an eyelash. They both know his Master, after all. Instead, Hannibal takes another sip of his tea and keeps his tongue silent and his gaze steady on the young man.]

Well. Then I suppose I shall not run out into the middle of the street, screaming my crimes at the top of my lungs. [Completely dead-pan, that, before he takes up the tea pot to refill their cups.] Although I do agree. This cage is much smaller, and many more ripples would be felt. Staying low is the wiser plan.

[He was simply going to have to cultivate a much bigger escape plan than the last two times he had been put in this situation. Burn all his bridges behind him, if the time came where he only had two choices. Stay and die, run and fight. It was simple biological imperative -- but why give into that when he had nothing to fear at the moment? It would be foolish.]

I shall simply balance myself on the narrow blade between pragmatism, and paranoia, then.

[Legato's smiles are always empty, but this one is also on the flat side as he watches the other man busy with the tea. He takes his time, he waits with measured politeness, and he stirs in his glut of sugar before he responds.]

That night I'd first noticed your activities in the city, I'd sensed every move with my eyes closed, from a block and a half away. While I'm not claiming that there are many who can do what I do, I would like to press the point that running through the middle of the city with blood on your hands is not what it will take for them to notice your guilt and set them on your trail.

[He is not trying to completely trigger the man's paranoia either, so he doesn't leave much of a pause before continuing.]

When I say that the game is different in these tight spaces, I mean it, and I mean it for all parties involved. Neither side wants a war when there is no room to move, and when there are larger, more insidious targets over all of our heads. Honesty, diplomacy, and compromise go much farther here than they would in a place where you are the biggest monster around to hunt.

[Hannibal arched a cool eyebrow at the word 'activities'. Tsk, it was more than something one would do when one was looking for a day outing. However, they were trying to be subtle after all. Hannibal put the tea down, before folding his hands together.]

So are you saying that I should, perhaps, be more open with my activities? As so to build more ... honesty and diplomacy? [He knew very well where the man was coming from, but he was not certain at why Legato was belaboring the point that Hannibal had already agreed to ... unless.] Legato, are you and your master up to something you need help in disgusing?

IC - INBOX/VOICEMAIL/TEXT/THREATENING LETTER

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