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

Then it would be the height of ingratitude to refuse.

[she accepts her plate and the refill graciously, neatly taking a forkful of flan and eating with an obviously pleased expression]

I appreciate it. It doesn't happen as much as it used to, but sometimes I still get treated like a kid. It's frustrating because where I come from, the age of majority is fourteen.

We can never have that.

[He sipped his coffee once more, a thoughtful tip of his head.]

Is it not truly amazing that people cannot see growth in another persons eyes? Especially when you can see the aging in another person's eyes.

It is strange. I'd like to think I act more maturely than your average sixteen-year-old, but I guess people see the number first and then see me.

It is an unfortunate side-affect of the normal mind, my dear. Very few people have been through what we have been through at a young age.

[a small, ladylike snort] "The normal mind." The normal mind could use a bit of an overhaul, as far as I'm concerned. This place--it takes everything most people took for granted, and turns it on its head. Why shouldn't "the normal mind" be among them? [a small laugh] Not that I'm bitter or anything, not that. Never that.

Oh, not that in the slightest.

[He is pensive for a moment.] Although I will be truthful, there is no such thing as a normal mind. At least not from a psychological standpoint.

[sounding curious] Really? So we're all varying degrees of messed up?

Essentially, yes. Anyone who is completely 'normal' is anything but. [Hannibal's lips curved up.] Anyone who tells you differently - is more than likely a serial killer.

That would explain all of the interviews with neighbors of serial killers. "He seemed so normal!" In the meantime, he has a backyard full of dead sex workers.

I am going to be honest -- even as a psychiatrist I do not understand people who target sex workers. Are they not simply doing their best in a world that has not been stacked for them?

Yeah, it's just--gross. Even where I'm from where sex work is completely legal, most people don't grow up saying "I want to be a holo-girl!" Or sell themselves in the darker corners of Metropolis. Honestly, I'd understand it better if they were chopping up their co-workers at your average office job. At least that's both shitty and stressful and you have a valid target.

Well that is an interesting ... perspective. [Amusement touched his lips, and his eyes.]

Thanks. I swear, when I was with the diplomatic corps, there were some people I don't think anyone would have missed. [she looks amused as well]

Sadly idiotic, or the true crime, no real manners to speak of?

[Color him amused and curious - even heroes sometimes think of murder. Everyone wanted to be God, to kill without recrimination. Hannibal seemed to be one of the few who just ... did.]

Some of them were the first category. Others were in the second. But the true shining lights were the ones who fit into both at the same time. Get rid of some of them, I'd probably get a medal and a promotion.

[she spent too much of her life surrounded by self-serving bottom feeders, eager little toadies, and the tragically pompous to avoid becoming more than a little bit jaded. and during her last six times at Orientation, she spent the hours fantasizing about the myriad ways she could kick their asses]

Well, I know I would personally applaud if you rid the world of such people. Honestly, there is nothing worse than a coarse person with no manners. They so often bring down the entire room around them to a level that is usually rich with low thoughts and beliefs.

[Hannibal clicked his tongue, shaking his head slightly. If it had been him - they would have all ended up in the rolodex already.]

[she laughs ruefully] Oh, don't I wish! But it's kind of hard to do that from here. However, we still had to deal with them when I was in the Legion, a lot of them had members from their worlds. Honestly, it was like they were being stupid and useless on purpose.

And most of them came from other old money prominent families from other worlds. But money can't buy class.

[and nothing of value would have been lost]

IC - INBOX/VOICEMAIL/TEXT/THREATENING LETTER

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