#aka the torah

[starryeyedgazer]

Is now a good time to bring back the theory that Crowley is the angel Raphael

[dirigibleplumbing]

two pet peeves I will never get over

when someone "credits" the lyrics to a song to the person who they first heard record it, without checking whether that song was, for example, a traditional folk song first written down in the 18th century, or, for another example, an African American spiritual

when someone talks about something they know nothing about by parroting phrases they've heard before without examining why these things are said. like, for example, when culturally Christian people who have never read the Torah, let alone a translation of it intended for Jews or historians, talk about the "vengeful Old Testament God [sic]" as if the Christian god is never vengeful or terrifying and the God described in the Torah is never loving and forgiving

[insert-cool-theological-pun]

Reading Henry M Morris after Dorothy L. Sayers is wild because while I have do try to impose a healthy amount of distance towards their use of Trinitarian imagery, they're also kind of so right in telling us that it's everywhere.

Sayers: See here, writing a book can be a Trinitarian work of creativity because you have an Idea (Father), Energy (Son), and Power (Spirit) that is the makeup of creating a story (aka your book's idea and grand scope, the actual written form itself, and the power that allows it to be read and understood). Isn't it incredible how all those three are the story in of themselves but cannot function without the other?

Morris: The universe is a triune singularity of matter, space, and time! And even within these three forms are trinities themselves. Matter (energy, motion, phenomena), space (length, breadth, height), and time (past, present, future) are such great illustrations of how the universe is one but must be experienced in through three individual but inseparable factors!

And then there's me who still has this image from I think reddit or twitter stuck in my brain:

[fdelopera]

Hamasniks are on track to become the next Jonestown

I've decided that I'm going to use a different strategy when I engage with Hamasniks.

I used to try to get them to feel empathy for Jews, thinking that maybe an experience of empathy for us would get them to wake up and realize that they are being Jew-hating bigots.

Maybe I could get them to feel some remorse for attacking Jews if I could get them to see that they are engaging in the same violent, depraved behavior that the Nazis engaged in during the 1930s, leading up to the Holocaust.

Maybe I could appeal to them using Rabbi Hillel's "golden rule": "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah. Now go and study."

But I now know that these approaches were futile.

Why?

Because Hamasniks are in a cult.

The strategies I was using were all rational approaches, and Hamasniks are not behaving rationally.

They are in a cult that has compromised their empathy, which is a well-understood aspect of cult mind-control. And instead of feeling remorse for attacking us, these Hamasniks actually revel in harming Jews.

I started to realize this when I rewatched some documentaries about The Peoples Temple (aka Jonestown) and the Manson Family.

Imagine if Jim Jones and Charlie Manson were here today and had Instagram and TikTok, and you'll understand the scope of the cult that the Hamasnkis are part of.

Jonestown Massacre, explained

Jonestown Documentary

Manson Family Interviews

Manson Family Singing

Hamasniks are speedrunning both of these cults. And they are getting to the point where they will start being used as "sacrifices for the cause."

Aaron Bushnell was just a glimpse of what is yet to come for many of them.

So now, I am changing tactics.

I will no longer appeal to Hamasniks' empathy, because they have none. It has been beaten out of them.

Instead, I will give them a warning:

You are in a cult.

You may not fully realize this, which makes this cult especially dangerous for you.

The people running your cult are being very careful to "boil the frog" very slowly with you.

They started by teaching you some slogans to chant, and giving you some signs to carry.

They lovebombed you hard, and it felt wonderful to be part of a social group, especially after the extreme loneliness and isolation of Covid.

You didn't really understand what the "Pro-Palestine" movement was about at first, but you were just happy to be part of something larger than yourself.

Then Hamas carried out the October 7th terrorist attack, and within 24 hours, your cult leaders got you to chant their "Free Palestine" slogans in the streets, and they got you to harass Jews online.

You were told to tell Jews things like "Die Zio Scum" and "Hitler should have killed more of you rats."

You were told, "It's okay to attack these people, these people are Zionists, and Zionists are basically Nazis."

You were so lovebombed at this point that you didn't care that calling a Jew a "Nazi" is one of the worst things you can say to us. You showed your friends the hateful messages you were typing out, and you all giggled together at how much you were hurting these Jews.

Then your cult leaders got you to go out in the street and vandalize random Synagogues and Jewish businesses. They told you these were part of the "Zionist entity" that you were all trying to take down.

And sure, Jews were being attacked and murdered in the streets and in their homes all over the world, but you convinced yourself that their lives don't matter.

After all, your cult leaders told you that once Palestine is "free," every societal ill will somehow be "corrected."

And so, maybe you felt a little weird about spraypainting Nazi Swastikas on Synagogues, and maybe you felt a little guilty about smashing the windows of Jewish-owned businesses, but you did it anyway "for the cause."

Then your cult leaders got some of you to partake in University encampments, where they could indoctrinate you further. They controlled your food and water, and they deprived you of sleep. Those are some of the most well-understood methods of cult mind-control.

Then your cult leaders got you to take to the streets and harass and attack Jews in public places. Now you're no longer just spraypainting Nazi Swastikas on Synagogues or smashing up Jewish businesses, now you're are physically attacking Jews on the street.

That's all well and good, you might think.

You think you're just having some fun attacking Jews and larping as terrorists. You think this is just an opportunity to get some anger out.

But actually, that's not what is happening.

You see, this is not about you.

Your sense of "Main Character Syndrome" has blinded you to the obvious reality.

You are being primed to "give your life for the cause."

That is Hamas' entire strategy.

I suggest you get out of this cult while you still can.

The Islamists running your cult are warming you up for the final act.

Don't just take it from me. Learn about cults. They always end in bloodshed - and that blood is YOURS.

Don't believe me? Learn about Jonestown. Learn about the Manson Family. That is where you are headed.

You love to chant "Long Live the Intifada." Well, you should EDUCATE YOURSELVES about the Second Intifada.

You should EDUCATE YOURSELVES about what YOU will be forced to do in the Intifada that you are chanting for.

Hamas terrorists strapped bombs onto people and sent them into crowded areas to BLOW THEMSELVES UP in order to kill Jews.

And if you are not careful, that will be you.

That's where all this is headed.

Time to wake up, babes! You're in a cult.

[alexistalkscomics]

Why Is The Jewish “Representation” In Agatha All Along So Problematic???

When it was first confirmed that Joe Locke was going to have a role in Agatha All Along, most fans quickly came to the conclusion that he would be portraying Billy Kaplan AKA Wiccan which unfortunately ended up being correct.

The problem with that casting you ask?

Joe Locke isn’t Jewish and he is playing one of Marvel’s most prominent Jewish characters. Whilst many goyim (non-Jewish people) often inaccurately perceive Jewishness to solely be a religious identity which is a massive oversimplification of what it means to be a Jew, Jewish people are actually an ethnoreligious community which means that we’re our own distinct ethnic group and culture that have a traditional religion that is intrinsically tied to our identity and culture regardless of individual Jewish people’s levels of observance.

And because we are an ethnoreligious group, that makes the casting of Joe Locke, who is not ethnically or religiously Jewish, inherently problematic to say the least, especially when placed into the wider context of Jewish representation in the MCU.

Marvel Studios has previously been criticised for the way that it’s approached adaptations of Jewish characters for the MCU with the two main examples being casting Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff, who is Romani and Jewish in the comics, and Oscar Isaac as the Ashkenazi Jewish Marc Spector in the Moon Knight streaming series and in both cases, the heritage of the characters were either downplayed or just outright erased. So for anyone who understands the issue, it should be clear that the MCU has a poor track record when it comes to representing Jewish characters and that Agatha All Along’s adaptation of Billy Maximoff/Kaplan is just another addition to the list of disrespectful adaptations of Jewish characters.

What is the specific problem with how Billy has been adapted in the MCU?

Well, in order to answer that question, the answer has to effectively be split into two parts:

In the most recent episode of Agatha All Along, we finally learn the backstory of Billy (who had previously only been referred as “Teen” due to a spell that prevented his identity from being found out) and as part of that, we are shown a flashback to the day of Billy KAPLAN’s (the capitalisation will make sense in a bit), Bar Mitzvah, a sacred Jewish ritual that marks the transition into adulthood and the responsibilities that comes with being a Jewish adult. In this flashback, Billy (who if you’ve payed attention, is being played by a non-Jew) is shown wearing traditional religious garments and handling what is potentially an actual Torah scroll.

Within Judaism and Jewish culture in general, handling a Torah and then reading from it is seen as both a great honour and responsibility for any Jew who is called for an Aliyah so seeing a non-Jewish actor who has no experience as a Jewish person and in interviews, has mocked fans who criticised his role in the show, wearing my culture and religion as a costume to advance his career just felt wrong to me. I love Marvel and I take great pride in superhero comics being an art form that was created by Jewish immigrants so seeing one of the biggest franchises in history cast a non-Jewish actor to appropriate Jewish culture just felt disgusting to me. At least with Moon Knight, all we got was the smallest references to his Jewish heritage rather than being subjected to seeing the christian Oscar Isaac partake in sacred closed rituals.

And now, moving onto the second part of the answer to the above question, after we see Billy reading from the Torah and are then shown the party following the ceremony, we learn that the flashback takes place concurrently with the final episode of WandaVision. Because of that, the party has to end early so that guest can evacuate and soon, Billy and his parents are in a car accident where Billy dies…

…until his body is quickly revived after the soul of Wanda and Vision’s artificially constructed son, Billy MAXIMOFF possesses and takes control of Billy Kaplan’s body whilst erasing everything that made Billy Kaplan who he was. The reason why this is especially problematic is because of the great importance of the soul within Judiaism. According to Jewish laws, one of the most important things that distinguishes Jewish people from goyim is a Jewish soul and in Agatha All Along, one of the main protagonist who is an adaption of a Jewish character who was created by a Jewish writer is reimagined as a non-Jewish soul that hijacks the corpse of a Jewish teenager to use as a meat puppet. It becomes even worse when later on in the episode, “Billy” is shown rejecting his identity as Billy Kaplan which effectively takes the undertones of ethnic erasure and cultural appropriation of Joe Locke’s casting and makes it an essential part of the characterisation for this incarnation of Billy.

In Conclusion?

In the Marvel Comics, Billy Kaplan is a proud queer Jewish man who was partially based on the lived experiences of his creator who is also a gay Jewish man. Becuase of that, he holds a special place in the hearts of many fans who see a piece of ourselves in him and we deserved to see the really Billy Kaplan be brought to life in a way that would honour the source material that we love and introduce mainstream audiences to a really cool and fascinating Jewish superhero who can open up so many possibilities for the more supernatural side of the Marvel Universe to be explored in further MCU instalments.

But instead, we got the bare minimum of Jewish representation followed by the complete erasure of that “representation” with the ultimate end product being a show riddled with the underlying rot of antisemitism.

[xclowniex]

Oh god what did John Green say in his video about Judaism??

Also got that ask so tacking it on.

I did not watch the video all the way through, just the zionisk section, but had the rest of it live messaged to me. I'm waiting on people who can word it better than me and I will reblog them when they're done.

However, what I can say is a few things

1) John Green's sources are mainly from non jews

And this is problematic because firstly it allows for misinformation to spread and secondly because on a video about judaism, he is not looking at it from a perspective of jews

2) He spread misinformation

The main one is who received the oral torah. And there are other misinformation as well

3) He quirkified judaism

He made it this quirky and weird thing. "Shaking a lemon angrily at hashem in a Dennys parking lot" type vibe. And he also just made out a whole lot of halacha to be weird. Like the rules around brushing your teeth on shabbat which was his opening line. It's not like a massive issue on its own, not ideal but not like a terrible thing. But when you pair it with everything else, it all just adds up in a bad way.

4) zionism

He included a bit about zionism, started off good in like the first 5 seconds then went downhill.

He said that zionism is a diverse set of beliefs which is true and good that he said so. But then he went on to like, not list any of the varying forms of zionism and say that it's about jewish nationalism aka making jews a nationality, which some branches do want but not all branches. He then spent the rest of the zionism part not talking about the history of zionism or how its important to some jews or ties into jewishness for a lot of jews. Not even a peep from him about how the concept of jews returning to the region before the word zionism existed is like, a major part of a lot of our holidays.

Instead, he spent the rest of the time talking about groups affected by zionism, such as Palestinians.

Which whilst that does deserve to be talked about, the time and place is not in a crash course video on what it is to be Jewish, as the videos can't be too long and that time would have been best spent focusing on jewish perspectives, both jewish perspectives in support of zionism and antizionism.

Overall, it just incredibly disappointing that John decided that his video was something he wanted to share with his large audience. As someone who as built their platform on educating others, he should know better than to spread misinformation.

[the-catboy-minyan]

I'm scheduling this for after Tu Bishvat is over cuz fuck @bringmemyrocks you for ruining my tree day fun

so, things to say about this:

1) good job turning Tree Day into a political discourse, taking our culture and making it about Palestinians. definitely not cultural appropriation at all.

2) Olives have been a major significance in Jewish culture. the story of Noah's arc with the dove carrying an olive branch, the Miracle of Hanukkah with the jug of olive oil that lasted for 8 days, and the countless references to them in the Torah. they're a symbol of peace, prosperity and life in Judaism.

3) there's an ongoing debate on wether the Jerusalem Pine is an invasive species or not, it is spreading over some areas of Israel and is an ongoing concern, but there's no practice of planting them deliberately. I have no idea where you got this from.

4) it's not "Jewish Arbor day", it's much more than that. it's a day of ecological awareness, agricultural celebration, and appreciation of local harvest. it's THE BIRTHDAY OF THE TREES. we celebrate the 7 species, listed in the Torah as the special products of Israel (as in, our local specialties).

אֶ֤רֶץ חִטָּה֙ וּשְׂעֹרָ֔ה וְגֶ֥פֶן וּתְאֵנָ֖ה וְרִמּ֑וֹן אֶרֶץ־זֵ֥ית שֶׁ֖מֶן וּדְבָֽשׁ

aka: land of are wheat and barley, and grape and fig, and pomegranates, olive oil, and [date] honey.

we're celebrating our local produce. We've had a local holiday for environmental awareness for thousands of years.

you could have talked about that charity without spreading disinformation, and without bringing up our fucking holiday. good day to you.

[highlyillogicalandroid]

Okay since people seem to be confused, Hanukkah starts TOMORROW night. It begins at sundown on 12/25, aka Christmas Day eve or Day-After-Christmas eve or whatever. Tonight is not Hanukkah. Technically tomorrow before sundown is also not Hanukkah. Jewish holidays start at sundown the night before because idk reasons.* So Hanukkah starts at sundown on December 25th, which, again, is NOT tonight.

*It’s because the Torah tells us G-d created night before day!

[scartale-an-undertale-au]

Today , 25th of tishrei, was chosen to be the memorial day of the simchat torah massacre (aka october 7). It would have been the 24th, but it was a shabbat so it was pushed this year.

Today remember our fallen and those still held by those genocidal monsters in gaza

May our people return to us soon and well

May this righteous war be won completely and irrevocably soon

That no more of our soldiers and our civilians die or get injured or suffer anymore

That the irgc falls and that the iranian people will finally be free of the evil that torments them. That the lebanese take back their country and learn to create a peaceful nation. That the gazans will finally let go of their indoctrination and learn to love life

That israel will heal and stay united and learn to work together even outside of strife.

May we all soon live in times of peace and joy

Amen

[archtroop]

The lizard brain here should open a dictionary and try and comprehend the idea of Ethnoreligion. What the fuck is this nonsense "practicing Judaism doesn't make you indigenous".

Judaism isn't Yoga, you TURNIP.

You are BORN Jewish. One may convert, true, but then THAT PERSON'S BLOOD is Jewish as well.

You cannot un-Jew yourself. By definition, you are Jewish BECAUSE you are Ethnically Jewish. Even if you convert to Christianity, Islam or Pasta Monster, in the eyes of the Jews you are still Jewish.

I am time and time again, appalled by a lack of basic knowledge the world exhibits. Amazing.

Deaths that result from resistance against settler-colonial violence is ALWAYS the fault of the colonizers. Not the colonized.

Don't want a war? Don't spend 80 years doing an apartheid against the indigenous.

[batboyblog]

I keep having an idea for like a Jewish Percy Jackson book series. Basically the idea that Yiddish/Ashkenazi folklore is/was real and like Percy Jackson's greek gods the dybbuks, Golems, demons and all the rest came west to New York City and they're under the city in the subway tunnels and sewers

And I was thinking of two main characters. There's Josh a very modern teenager, who loves ghost hunters, and super natural podcasts and loves his bubbie's stories of Yiddish folklore. He travels into the subway armed with a camera and ghost hunting equipment and comes face to face with....

Yehudah, AKA Hoodie, a young Hassid from Brooklyn. Hoodie's family from hundreds of years have kept the spirts down, fought monsters, and protected the community, first in the old country and now in New York using folk magic and things

Josh is all about science and trying to understand "okay but how does it work?" and Hoodie is very "it's tradition this how its done, please shut up and stop getting in trouble!" A story of two Bar Mitzvah boys studying Torah, dealing with middle school, each other, and being stuck in the tunnels under NYC in the middle of the night facing the horrors

[extravagantliar]

Let me preface this - each frame of reference inside Jewish thought will be practised differently; this is why it is practised. we are all still learning, and no Rav or Rebbe can tell me different.

Another preface is that the common denominator varric and I share in practice is that it comes out of the chabad/ashki style of thought, which I attribute to orzammar. Remember, Judaism is not limited to a people. Rather, it reflects in the culture it is in and brings its core tenants and culture with it. this is somewhat a take as-you need it faith, but also, it isn't. It is a question and a thing you must grapple with, and it is a closed practice depending on your strain (aka pat jews or mixed faith marriage not messys! ). We don't know what the past holds or what the future is, we must seek each day as a the intended gift it was. So without further ado - Hanukkah in the sphere of fantasy and overall thedas!

Hanukkah comes from a few different places; it's root in Hebrew means education, and it is also an acronym in Hebrew for eight nights of lights. Historically, it is a story about oppression and rising against the Grecian oppressors and being able to write and read the Torah again, as we do - we hold fast and we win, and we tell stories about it. I will be reframing this story away from a land and more towards a people for the aspect of survival, just FYI. After the great veil of oppression being lifted, they found only enough oil for one night - yet the temple burned brightly for all the nights, all eight a testament that faith had seen them through. While there is no second temple, I always stated there was some sort of trial between the surface and those below, and the dwarves would have recorded every trespass in detail.

As we all remember, to orzammarian dwarves, it is a sin to see the sky and to have someone trespass on your land.

I believe the actual thought of what happened is muddled in contextual thought like the Midrash and Talmud. Was it a great thaig that was raided? Was it the cutting off of the dreams? Seeking oil to light the way out of the dark? It would depend on the sect you asked for; two Jews always equal three opinions, and I will not write over someone else seeking to write a Jewish character. But Ilsa passed to her boys a story of a people who fought to keep who they were - rather than fighting for a place or a people, they fought for who they thought they were - and in my pre-datv documents, it was their identity in relation to the titans and how that affected them moving forward. That row house in Kirkwall always had three menorahs, until there were two, until there was one - until it was a lone candle lit in the middle of Lowtown.

There are foods that go with it - fried ones, to symbolise the oil, latke, doughnuts, something deep fried to symbolise that the oil - our lifeblood lives on.

would this likely be lyrium candles in certain sects, likely, maybe those dwarves very deep in the roads and very devout - but the surface dialogue is very clear lyruim makes most of the populace sick.

so what would this mean contextually in a modern thedas or even dragon age space? it is a winter holiday on a minor scale. it is on an academic calendar rather than the ruling calendar and starts on the 25th of Kislev. It is recommended to light as many menorahs as people in the home, or vary the amount of menorahs depending on your sect, always have the candles in a straight line other than one helper candle ( shamash ) above the rest. you can make a Hanukkiah out of anything ( real we once did four small bonfires and a big bonfire as the helper ).

granted, there is some fancy verbiage I should be using, but I like to keep things simple - I am willing to take civil questions!

Varric is not a practitioner until he is much older.

[opalstonedyke]

how did you know you were ofos? hope this isn’t too personal

- femme who might be ofos, but is still learning lesbian history 😭

That's a terrific question!

Ive always been old fashioned, I mostly chalk it up to the fact I grew up (and still am somewhat) religious, but Judaism has so many beautiful traditions around home life for lovers, it's a whole concept - the torah teaches us to make certain compromises for your wives, and keep her happy, for the purpose of shlom bayit - peace of the house - and it resonates with me! One day, when im lucky enough to wed the girl of my dreams, I will always give out of myself to keep them happy and to keep the peace in our homestead.

Now when it comes to more superficial things, like aesthetics of clothes, ways of speaking and such, ive just always liked them much more than modern aesthetics. I grew up listening to 50's, 60's and 70's folk and rock, and the slang, fashion and behavior of my favorite legends just stuck with me - i wad always an old old lady at heart, haha.

So when I finally started blooming into myself and could make my own fashion choices (aka having the money to buy my own clothes, and my mom stepping back and giving me some independence) I immediately found myself attracted to classic menswear, attracted by the warm color and bold patterns of the swingin' 60's, with _flattering_ tailoring and always keeping myself neat and pretty to bait femmes who would like to be treated with some chivalry. ;)

All those things made me feel strange, disconnected from my age group and unconfident when I was younger, but when I found the ofos community I realized straight people were the strange ones - what kind of fella treats his lady like they do? Poor girls. I feel lucky to be able to show affection to femmes who need it, and i will ALWAYS spoil the femme I go out with, no matter if it's a first or 100th date. I resonate with my fellow chivalrous butches - and am very inspired and smitten by the beautiful vintage femmes I find on here, too. I only hope to find a satisfying and loving relationship with one in real life, one day, when it comes.

I hope this gave you some insight, and even if you find you're not ofos - we appreciate you around, and all lesbians are always welcome on my page.

[hyperpotamianarch]

Next, I'm going to try and pour out information about Jewish religious literature. To be fair, there are probably way more extensive posts, websites and YouTube videos on this topic, but I chose to talk about it because I've seen some slight misinformation going around. Hope I won't come off as patronizing. Note, I'm writing it to be comprehensible for none-Jews as well as Jews, so I might say a lot of things you already know if you're Jewish.

So, Jewish religious literature can be divided to three main branches: Mikra, Mishnah and Talmud. This is not a completely precise division, nor can it be applied to every Jewish religious book, but it's helpful for the basic books, those considered obligating by Rabbinic Judaism.

Mikra (which, roughly translated from Hebrew, means "something that is read") is the one of those three that is pretty much closed: you can't really write a new Jewish book that'll be considered a part of it. It's also called the Written Torah, and includes the entirety of the Hebrew Bible, AKA Tanakh. In case you're wondering, that includes all books in what Christians call "the Old Testament", only sorted differently and into three categories: Torah - the Pentateuch, Nevi'im (Prophets) - which includes every book named after a person outside of Job, Esther, Daniel, Ezra and Neḥemiah, and in addition to those books includes the books of Judges and Kings, and the Ketuvim (Written texts) - which includes all the rest of the books. The order of the books in the Tanakh is as follows (using their English names for convenience, I don't necessarily stand behind those translations): Torah: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Nevi'im: Joshua, Judges, Samuel (1&2), Kings (1&2), Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Twelve Prophets (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Naḥum, Ḥabakuk, Zephaniah, Ḥaggai, Zechariah, Malachi). Ketuvim: Psalms, Proverbs, Job (transliteration did a number on this one), the Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra&Neḥemiah, Chronicles (1&2). Overall, there are 24 books in the Hebrew Bible. It is only later divisions, some of which are outright nonsensical, that made the number into 39.

Those books are ones that are considered to be written using some degree of Divine Inspiration or outright prophecy (which doesn't have to do with knowing the future). Common tradition considers the division of the Tanakh to be between three levels of prophecy, of which the Ketuvim were written in the lowest. As the Written Torah, the entirety of these scriptures is meant to be read (and not repeated by heart). There are occasions where there's a difference between the reading tradition and the writing one - but that's another story. The last books in the Tanakh were written around the 5th Century BCE according to tradition, and it was closed to new additions a couple of decades, perhaps a century or two, later.

The other two branches are both considered parts of the Oral Torah, to varying degrees. You see, according to Jewish tradition, Moshe (Moses) got the Torah in Mt. Sinai in two parts: the Written one (which at the time only included the Pentateuch) and the Oral one, which included explanations on how to actually act upon the commandments in the Written Torah, in addition to deduction laws to be used on the Written Torah (at least according to Rambam, AKA Maimonides). Both the Mishnah and the Talmud, at their core, are based on that. But much of the things said there are things clearly said by Sages and Rabbis from the 1st Century CE onward. How does that work, then?

The answer kind of depends who you ask. But the Orthodox way to look at that is usually that people either have old traditions that were passed down to them, or are using the deduction laws given to Moshe at Mt. Sinai. But I guess all that was a digression, so let's get back on topic.

The Mishnah is called that way after the Hebrew word for repetition. It's supposed to be sturdied this way to be memorized, though it mostly exists as written text nowadays. Back in the time it was codified - the Tana'ic era (10-220 CE, approx.), called that way after the Aramaic word for people who memorize through repetition - there were many versions of traditional laws memorized this way. This stemmed from many different people teaching the same laws, and it ended up being a game of Telephone. Also, it probably needs to be said that while I call those "laws" they weren't usually the bottomline Halachic rules, since it included disagreements and multiple opinions.

The end of the Tana'ic era came when one person, Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, composed an authoritative collection of those after studying all the different traditions he knew of. This is what we nowadays call the Mishnah. It's made of 60 tractates- (whisper, whisper Wait, really? Whisper, whisper Huh. All right, then.) I have been informed that the number is actually 63. Who knew? Anyway, those 63 tractates are sorted by topic into 6 orders. Those orders are: Zera'im (seeds, concerns itself with matters related to plants with the odd tractate about liturgy at the start), Mo'ed (occeasion/time, concerns itself with Jewish holidays), Nashim (women, concerns itself with marriage laws in addition to two tractates about oaths and vows), Nezikin (damages, concerns itself with court procedures. Has two miscellaneous tractates that don't make sense there but belong nowhere else), Kodashim (holy things, concerns itself with matters relating to the Temple procedures as well as one tractate about Kashrut and one about heavenly punishments), and Taharot (ritually clean things, I guess? Though this translation is less than accurate. Has to do with - you guessed it - ritual cleanliness). The tractates aren't divided evenly between the orders, and inside of them are sorted by length. The longest tractate is 30 chapters, the shortest is 3. And yes, all of that was supposed to be remembered by heart - possibly only by a number of specific people.

Now, I didn't mention it previously, but there were certain books written that didn't get into the Tanakh - Apocryphal books. Those are not only considered outside the religious canon, but are not to be studied as well - though this might be a little flexible, the bottom line is they can't really be used for anything religious. I'm saying this right now because the same isn't true for Oral traditions that weren't codified in the Mishnah. Some of those were codified in other ways, and can be used to help understand the Mishnah better - which leads us to the Talmud.

Talmud, translated literally from Hebrew, means "study", as in the study of the traditions from the Mishnah. It is a separate book from the Mishanh, but is structured around it. Due to that, there are occasions people will tell you a given quote is from the Talmud when it's actually from the Mishanh - since the Talmud quotes the Mishnah when talking about it. The Talmud usually tries to reason the origin of the opinions in the Mishnah and to delve into the intricacies of those laws: what happens in fringe cases? What about other situations that the Mishnah didn't mention? How does what this specific Tana (rabbi from the Mishnah) says here fits with what he himself said in another place? And such things. The Talmud is, in essence, a recording of centuries of debates and discussions about the Mishnah. Oh, and there are two Talmudim (the plural form of Talmud).

One could say that the Jerusalem Talmud (Yerushalmi) is the equivalent of the oral traditions that didn't get into the Mishnah: it's less studied and considered less obligating than the Babilonian Talmud (Gemara, or Bavli). It still is occasionally quoted and used to study things the Gemara doesn't talk about or doesn't elaborate on. The main difference between the two is where thy were codified - the Yerushalmi is a codification of the study as it was conducted in the land of Israel (mostly in the galillee; the name Yerushalmi is a little misleading), while the Bavli codifies and records the study of Babylon. There's also a different in the language - both are written in Aramaic interladed with Hebrew, but in different dialects. The Yerushalmi was also codified a couple of centuries earlier than the Bavli - the Yerushalmi was codified around 350CE, due to persecutions under the Bizantine empire, while the Bavli was compiled by the 5th century CE.

While those two Talmudim are separate from each other, there is some intersection. Travel between the land of Israel and Babylon wasn't too rare at the time (called Tekufat Ha'Amora'im in Hebrew, the era of the Amora'im. Amora means interpretor or translator in Aramaic), and so you can see rabbis from Babylon mentioned in the Yerushalmi and Rabbis from the land of Israel mentioned in the Bavli. The easiest way to tell the difference is by their title - in Babylon, a rabbi is called "Rav [name]", while in the land of Israel they are called Rabbi. There is a reason to that, but I'm not getting into it yet. In addition, the Bavli regularly talks about how things are done "in the west" - which is the land of Israel, since it's to Babylon's west. As mentioned, the Bavli is the more authoritative of the two, and is the one usually referred to when people say "the Talmud". The Bavli directly discusses 37 of the Mishnah tractates - it nearly doesn't talk at all about the first and last orders of Mishnah. The Yerushalmi, meanwhile, talks extensively about the first one - but has nothing about the next to last one. There are also other tractates missing in the middle for both.

Now, technically the Babylonian Talmud was codified at the end of the Amora'ic era. However, somewhat unlike the Mishnah (well, I'm not being accurate, the Mishnah also has a thing or two that was shoved later), there were still later additions from a time known as the Savora'ic era. Savora is a word that means "a reasoner" in Aramaic, and I probably could've explained how appropriate this name is for them if I'd have studied enough. From what I know, the characteristics of a Talmudic piece from the Savora'ic era is having no names mentioned/having names of known Savora'im mentioned (the latter is a little rare, to my understanding), and reasoning about the language and meaning of words from the Mishnah. the Savora'ic era probably ended at around the 6th-7th century CE.

From that point on, we'll need to more or less abandon the comfortable division I offered earlier, because it's kind of hard to say which book belongs where, besides many books that might technically fall under the same category but be different enough to require their own categories. In addition, from here on out, no book is considered as all-obligating: you can't go against the Talmud in a halachic ruling, but you can go against anything later.

But, since this thing is long enough as it is right now, I think I'll just write a couple of additions about important books I chose not to mention, and then finish it here for now - with the next couple of periods of history of Jewish religious literature left for a future date.

So, the most significant genre of books I've been ignoring are the Midrashim. I mean, sure, I could talk about Apocrypha, or about the Tosefta/Baraitot (oral traditions that didn't get into the Mishnah), but I mentioned those already. The Midrashim, however, are a genre of writing I completely ignored so far.

I think the best way to explain Midrash is that it's a loose interpretation of the Mikra, based on traditions. There are generally two sub-genres for Midrash - Midrash Halachah and Midrash Agadah. The former concerns itself with the law, the latter with the stories and ideas. The books of Midrashei Halachah we have that I can remember are Mechilta (lit. "Including", more or less. On Exodus), Sifra (lit. "Book", from Aramaic. On Leviticus) and Sifrei (lit. "Books", from Aramaic. On Numbers and Deuteronomy). Those are mostly from the Tana'ic era, I think. There are two major books of Midrashei Agadah, both encompassing all of the pentateuch, named Midrash Rabbah and Midrash Tanḥuma. Those are named after specific people, likely the ones who compiled them, and those names indicate they are from the Amora'ic era.

So, to sum it up: 24 books written during the vague time of the Biblical era, codified into the Tanakh at around 300 BCE, with lots of disagreement on the exact date. Oral traditions passed down between generations, including ones clashing with each other and rulings added through the generations, passed around throughout the Tana'ic era (10-220 CE), and codified into 60 tractates of Mishnah by the end of it. In addition, at the same time, some loose interpretations of the Tanakh that have led to the rulings of those oral traditions are written down in the Midrashim. Discussions and elaborations on those oral traditions of the Mishnah as recorded from places of learning in Babylon and the Land of Israel through the Amora'ic era - around 220-500 CE - are recorded in the Talmud, with some additions from around the 6th century CE.

Any inconsistency in spelling and terminology is to be blamed on my unwillingness to go back and edit this. Sorry.

Thank you for reading, have a good day, and I hope to see you for part 2! Once I get an idea about what I'm going to say in it...

[allio-corporations]

Another Hannibal (Hannigram) AU:

This time a G/t au! Or more correctly, a plethora of supernatural (monster/magic) g/t AUs and just plain g/t AUs!

This is a comp of a few avenues of g/t Hannibal.

- Supernatural AU! -

This AU has supernatural creatures, and mixing of different creatures leads to some going underground/traits not present unless something triggers their dna to do so

Will has empathy based psychic abilities, along with some lineage(s) that may explain what happens to him in this AU. One of them being part Veela (think Harry Potter type lore for that creature)

Hannibal has heightened senses, more so due to his bloodlines. A lineage of Wendigo that reappears in the family when he’s forced to eat Mischa. The wendigo traits are able to maintained and keep him civil due to his diet and other lineages. Lastly, he has a third line of inhuman species, called Nephilim - meaning giants but also in some interpretations of the Bible and Torah, it means children of (likely fallen) angels + humans. - It’s giants that are born of angels and humans, but some of the traits go quiet for many generations at a time and can only be triggered in someone due to certain circumstances. It explains the success and power the Lecters had in their lives, both sides, and essentially ensured their nobility (also Nephilim were seen to use magic to change or use abilities other creatures had, but every magic comes with a price of course).

Other lineages types include:

Jack - some type of griffin-human

Bella - siren, think fish type that can go on land and into water whenever

Alana - Selkie (mostly human)

Beverly - Wraith

Jimmy Price - vampire

Brian Zeller - human

Freddie - nymph + banshee (fire based)

Chilton - goblin + fae

Francis (red dragon) - obviously a dragon hybrid (maybe one that’s not seen as very powerful but he’s able to essentially become more feral with each kill)

Abigail - Wendigo

GJH - Wendigo

Randal Tierr - werewolf-esq hybrid (wolf-bear hybrid)

Mason - shape shifter + pig-hybrid

Margot - shape shifter (did not get the expressed pig gene)

Peter - human (with strong abilities to work well with animals)

I’ll think up more of them later, or would welcome any alternative ideas for the side characters aka ones besides the murder husbands

Alright, so some head canons or background situations, and a few different timeline/alteration ideas (I’ll try to make sure I mark ideas for when I write for different jumping off points!)

G/t AU 1: Divergent point from the second half of season 2 (the cases are the same, but Will is convinced to drop accusing Hannibal entirely, and Jack/Fbi stops suspecting him, but don’t think Will was to blame either, they just think the encephalitis confused Will).

- so Will is genuinely connecting with Hannibal, but is still debating on if he’s going to try and take him out on his own or give in to his own wants.

- obviously some aspects of the supernatural exist in this AU

- we’re skipping over their development to this point bc maybe I’ll cover it later. But by now they’re on good grounds (honest with each other, Abigail is alive and they make it seem like the ripper or copycat (who the fbi doesn’t know) let her go similar to Miriam Lass). So the three get a murder family that isn’t fleeing the country yet.

- Beverly is also alive. She didn’t go to Hannibal’s house, and girlie is thriving. (She doesn’t fully suspect Hannibal, but isn’t as social with him now.)

- Hannibal still helps consult on occasion, Will is still helping Jack, but in his own terms now

- After Abgail goes off to college (girlie wanted to go abroad to escape this mess and good for her, we’ll see her later), there’s a new normal. Will is over more often, the dogs usually join him now, the two are kind of together. Others don’t know if they’re properly together, but they essentially are - even if they are still learning to communicate and work around/with each other.

Now we go to the case that starts the shit show;

During one case, one not shown in the series, making one up - Will is pursuing the suspect. Jack got his leg hurt and Will is just going for it bc doing bad things to bad people feels good (he’s being honest with himself and Hannibal, or trying to be, it’s progress).

During the pursuit, Hannibal is slightly behind Will, because of course Hannibal would rather see Will go feral/see what Will does to a suspect.

Perp is some type of fae, so enjoys causing issues and it killing people or greatly changes them. Has bags of powder, think like the Love god episode of gravity falls. But not for love, for chaos and making people be honest/situations kind of like jigsaw.

Perp can tell that Will and Hannibal are kind of together but yknow, they’re them, so he hits each of them with a powder during the pursuit. (Powder’s actions essentially can trigger dormant traits/lineages in person). So it acts the same but the outcomes depend on the person. And while creatures and such are accepted and fairly common, some lines and traits aren’t and haven’t been present since the beginning of recorded history essentially.

Will starts choking from it, Hannibal stops bc if he can’t watch Will further his becoming, and he’s actively in distress, why pursue the fae? So the beloved sassy science squad (this time Beverly), comes in with a great shot, and stops the threat. Doesn’t kill the fae, but he is apprehended properly.

Since both got that powder on them, medical checks out Hannibal and Will, doesn’t know what it is. They take samples, do some tests. Besides higher BP and fatigue the two are fine. So, the two head back to Baltimore until the next case or whenever Will would need something from wolftrap. They think this case is done. They were very wrong.

At home, the two are making dinner and discussing the case. Hannibal is cooking a roast of loin and rump (from a very vocal pig who unapologetically spilled a hot cup of coffee on Will during a previous case). While Hannibal is down in the cellar picking out a wine, he hears a clatter, crash, and yelp from upstairs.

Hannibal, who chided himself on letting Will sous chef while not feeling well, turns the corner, and can’t find Will. He knows he couldn’t have left, and there’s no one else there. No blood, no sign of struggle beyond a knocked over pot and two lids on the ground. The pot had been empty as well when he went downstairs, not even on the stove yet.

After a few more moments of investigating, and calling out for Will, he hears a response - muffled and soft but definitely something or someone calling out his name (though likely he wouldn’t have been able to hear it if he was human). The even odder thing is that the sound came from the pot on the island.

Hannibal lifts the pot, finding what he had hoped wasn’t true: Will, under the pot, on the island, barely more than 3.5 inches tall. Safe to say, Hannibal is amused, and slightly concerned, though has a good theory of what happened.

Realizing that he was right in his assumption on what could make up Will’s lineage, and the fact the powder probably caused this, Hannibal realized that he should start monitoring any changes in himself as well.

Will, on the other hand, is not having a good time. He’s already knows this wasn’t Hannibal, that it was the damn fae who did this, but can’t help the anxiety that is coursing through his veins. Despite being pretty sure that Hannibal wouldn’t harm him - at least to a point he can’t fix - his nerves were still fried due to sensory overload and giant cannibal whose pot he is under at the moment. Likely thinking back to the damn endangered songbirds Hannibal had drowned, plucked, cooked, and ate whole. The only solace Will has from the powder is that his clothes were also affected, preserving his dignity, at least for a time.

Cutting back to Hannibal, he too is remembering the songbirds they had eaten not too long ago. But, he quickly concludes that he prefers Will not on a plate (at least now).

Hannibal has also decided that if there’s anyway he could find that fae, once they figure out the powder composition, he’s definitely stealing his pancreas and lungs.

When the two of them come out from their mind palaces/mind scapes, they work on finding a way to communicate easily without Will going deaf or sensory overload occurring. But before Will gets a word in, Hannibal decides it’s time to relive his days in the medical field, which Will is not happy about. It occurs without real incident once Will just goes with it, knowing it’d be faster than mildly inconveniencing Hannibal’s speed.

The two decide on a mix of whispering and writing things down, with some universal signs or part asl to help as well.

While Will is still partly anxious about Hannibal finding the thrill of the chase when Will inevitably freaks out, Hannibal doesn’t have much of a bloodlust of thrill of the chase when the target can’t escape an area without help, that he is always in arms reach of (at least most of the time).

One aspect that worsens is the amount of cannibal puns and jokes Hannibal makes on a daily basis. (As in his mongoose has turned into a morsel for the snake(s)). Will is not amused.

Will is also not a fan of how cold everything is now. While he didn’t enjoy the night terrors and waking up drowning in his own sweat, being constantly cold if left without a heat source within his personal space definitely was a downgrade in a lot of ways. (Though he didn’t hate the fact that he got to spend more time with Hannibal.)

Jack and the gang do in fact get told a little later about Will’s condition. The pair had been laying low for about 2-3 weeks, trying to play by ear, and take this time to actually work through things, but Jack got nosey, and the cat was out of the bag (more so, Will was out of the pocket).

During those few weeks of working things out, the two actually start communicating like adults when it matters, and learn to work with each other in more domestic settings. (Though domestic, it’s not normal).

Hannibal does essentially spoil Will - new clothes (too many in Will’s opinion), rigs and set ups to move around more efficiently, more warm blankets/articles and heaters around the house to keep Will’s body temp safer, even getting custom made pieces of furniture and appliances, even custom dishware and tools. Because while Hannibal enjoys having Will rely on him, he knows Will and that eventually he’d go stir crazy.

So, to make Will not lose his patience, plus the amusing nature of the situation, Will tags along to Hannibal’s therapy sessions with patients (asleep/listening while in his desk or where his handkerchief resides). Then, Hannibal attends the opera a bit, slightly less than usual, during that time period, reserving out and entire higher up booth to him and Will, as to better enjoy the opera but also be able to communicate with Will when/if necessary. In return he concedes in secretly taking Will to a scene with him, Jack not knowing what’s going on in the slightest. The two do get to hear about updates on what the powder was. (Midwest in origin, a mix of different magic/properties. Definitely needs more time to study and interrogate the fae before Hannibal can throw another proper dinner party).

Hannibal over time does become more unrested, irritable with anyone besides Will. Will finds it endearing but slightly worrisome. It at least keep Jack off his back, to the point where he sends Hannibal footage and pictures for Will rather than try to force Will out there (lessening the chance of Hannibal losing it on Jack).

When the rest of group finds out about Will, they all take it differently. Jack is still too loud, overbearing, and rough (causing a nasty set of bruises on Will’s rib cage once), and it takes Will pleading with Hannibal to not kill and cook Jack by flaying his skin to stop Hannibal from dropping the mask when he found out. Jimmy and Brian are a bit better, too inclined to stare at Will like a lab rat, which isn’t horrible since both are fond of animals, but just feels demeaning. Alana overcompensates trying to act normal and overprotective, so careful to the point of forgetting Will’s still himself. Beverly acts pretty normal, enjoys joking and is more careful, but can read a room better than apparently a psychiatrist (Alana) and the head of the BSU. Will ends up enjoying Hannibal and Beverly’s company the most to no one’s surprise.

Since Will was past his encephalitis, and decided to not turn in Hannibal/accepted his growing becoming, it’s easier to look. But, he doesn’t have to if he doesn’t want to. Jack can’t come and force him to do so, thanks to Hannibal. (If Will tells Jack he’s not feeling up to going/not feeling well, Hannibal takes his word for it and doesn’t take him to the scene. The crew won’t show up to try and convince Will, because Hannibal just won’t answer/repeats what Will said and excuses them out. Jack can’t even get them to budge.)

Though they two do visit the lab a fair bit to hear updates on the samples from the fae’s powder that hit them. Plus, do a basic physical and bloodwork once a week, usually if they’re already in the lab for a case. Will only lets Hannibal do his bloodwork, because of his surgical precision and as a form of trust. (Bc they are in the equivalent of a post fall communication era, but hiding in plain sight).

They find the powder isn’t entirely of fae origin, something from the Midwest, and a bit from the north east. Both of their vitals are steady. Will’s vitals come back faster, similar to small mammal’s in metabolism, need for heat, and just a faster heartbeat. Hannibal’s remains very similar to his base vitals, but they do notice while Hannibal’s vitals are normal and Will’s are faster, they’re still in sync with each other. (As in every fourth beat from Will, he and Hannibal sync up. Like a snare roll matching up and beating at the same time a timpani beats. Which I based off the study that couples who are shown to be in love/have high present levels of love hormones end up with matching heart beats/in sync with their partner). The science team find it endearing, Jack not so much, him and Alana are a bit unnerved.

Back to the boys: during the time Hannibal and Will are the only two (along with Abigail to an extent), know about Will’s condition, the two definitely learn to communicate. Because the first week consists of a lot of writing and whispering on Hannibal’s end.

During these early stages Hannibal takes it upon himself to get Will plenty of tools and day to day items. (Lots of clothes, with an accompanying wardrobe, his own bed which honestly doesn’t end up getting much use, small fashionable blankets to put around the house bc Will should not get cold when in this state, plenty of small appliances for hygiene and self care.) (Utensils, plates, kitchenware, furniture that matches the room’s aesthetic while still being comfortable, attachments to help Will get between rooms or on surfaces if need be, etc. But Hannibal still loves carrying Will around/having him within arms reach, and Will doesn’t complain much when Hannibal or eventually Winston carry him around. He hates being grabbed by essentially anyone or anything else though; enjoys being carried around by Winston but not the other dogs. Loves Hannibal carrying him around/Hannibal being the only person Will actively enjoys and seeks out to have physical contact with. He is okay with Abigail or Beverly helping him, but doesn’t like being held by them for long periods of time. Dislikes but tolerates Price (Jimmy) or Alana helping him out if needed. He actively avoids being touched or helped by Zeller or Jack, has risked falling multiple times just to avoid them bc his other options were not in the room or didn’t hear him. And the one time either of the Freddies, Lounds and Chilton, tried to be within a few inches of him, he nearly bit them before threatening to take a finger if they tried anything. Hannibal is was incredibly amused for the rest of the case.)

Hannibal doesn’t mind cooking the extra meals for Will, he enjoys being such a large part of Will’s day, especially considering the meals are just portioned smaller and last longer over time. Though he does let Will pick options more now bc not only is it their communicating + compromising era, but Hannibal is obviously simping for the Graham cracker.

First day, or partial day of this has Will trying to not retreat into himself. With Hannibal genuinely unsure of what do exactly do, because while he could never entirely predict Will, this is on another level.

Will, instead of running warm like he used to, now gets cold easily, so he’s essentially glued to either a heat source or Hannibal, usually the latter. And due to this, the first night, Will ends up sleeping with Hannibal (which would have been like normal for them, but due to circumstances, they had to rearrange). Pillow on Will’s side is swapped for a smaller pillow that won’t cause Will to easily roll off. Then temporarily until Hannibal can start spoiling Will, pocket squares and cuts of old fleece material (that had been packed away for Will to use to mend some of his fishing/outdoor gear) act as blankets. The pillow is set up near Hannibal’s head, and everything goes off without issue. Hannibal also turns up the heating in the house for him.

Even when Will gets proper bedding that is on Hannibal’s nightstand, Will ends up either in his old spot or on Hannibal (with Will refusing to move)

Should also bring back up the lineage stuff - Hannibal’s traits are usually muted, horns and such in one of his forms aren’t often present and usually Will is the only one to detect them, except for his eyes going red. Then he has the original wendigo shape of being longer and emaciated, which was what Will saw when he was sick in S1. Lastly there’s the incomprehensible form of being part nephilim, Will able to detect parts but doesn’t look at it fully, despite seeing Hannibal behind the human veil quite a lot. While Will’s eyes have a slight blue glow to them while he’s using his empathy in a controlled manner.

Hannibal ends up not being the only one with a slight thrill of the chase when Will darts around too quickly (Hannibal has enough self restraint and frontal lobe activity, unlike some, to not act on such impulses 99.99% of the time, at least not without thinking them through first). Jack ends up swiping at Will in the lab. Will had been pacing on one of the examination tables, doing his job. He had gotten lost in thought, and had begun to pace faster and look around the body more before he could zone in and ��look”. As he’s turning to look the body in the face, Will sees something in the reflection of the table and a very quick shadow coming his way. Will scurried out of the way, ducking under the partially posed and elevated neck of the body he has been examining. As Will dove to hide, loud squeaks of shoes on the floor, and nearly incoherent rumbling from the others caused him to curl up and begin to lose himself/retreat inward. (Which wasn’t good considering he was just beginning to properly “look” at the situation for this case.)

Thankfully before the hand can reach where he has just been, a faster hand which had been the other mass in the table reflection grabbed the first wrist, twisting it sharply and efficiently. Jack had reached for Will, knocking over tools in the lab, unaware of his own actions/impulse. It wasn’t until Hannibal had quietly, near silent, grabbed his wrist, putting his body between Jack and Will, that Jack had snapped out of it. The rest of the crew were shocked, and a bit worried, not only for Will’s safety but also shocked by the actions of both Hannibal and Jack.

Once the commotion settled down, only then did Will even dare to look out, seeing Hannibal’s back to him, acting as a shield from the entire group. Jack not even being allowed to explain really. Will just quietly asking if everyone but Hannibal leave the room so he could focus, then he’d send over a report later. The team obviously complying, likely due to not wanting to further the situation, they waited outside in the hall.

When Hannibal walked out of the lab, the others noticed Will wasn’t in Hannibal’s hands or in his shoulder. They each had their own guess to what happened. Will hadn’t wanted to see or feel everyone’s eyes on him, especially Jack due to feeling fidgety still. So, he ended up hiding in Hannibal’s inner chest pocket of his suit, allowing him cover and not end up freezing.

Hannibal hadn’t let Jack even stop him as he walked out, knowing it may be rude, but nearly attacking an (unofficial but technical) employee was worse, he thought it fair to walk off, telling Jack he’d get the report and hear from himself or one of the others what the plan was going forward.

While it had been stressful, the two realized fairly quickly they’d both had such a strong reaction to Jack because not only is it a naturally stressful experience (mainly for Will) but also because it’s Jack. This being made more apparent when Beverly had suddenly moved to keep Will from falling off a counter in the lab a few weeks later - Will needing to just catch his breath due to nearly falling. Hannibal had still had a notable reaction though (shoulders slightly raised, more blunt in his tone at first, and moving closer to Will/acting as a barrier more so implicitly). Yet they didn’t leave suddenly and Will had continued his work that day fairly normally, with Hannibal remaining nearby, so not as nearly as strong of a reaction compared to Jack earlier.

This was further proven when Will decided that during a day in - more mundane and no cases, which was rare - that he’d get Hannibal to finally chase him. Will had been bored, unable to work on new lures, the dogs being in and out and besides Winston were too rowdy to safely deal with, and not much else to do. Will began to run around surfaces as Hannibal was reading. Thanks to the add ons Hannibal got so Will could move about easier, and using the coffee table, backs of furniture, etc. he was able to get Hannibal to silently set his book down. Hannibal could tell Will was enticing him, wanting to have a more physical recreation of their old “cat and mouse chase.” Which, who was he to turn down yet another surprise from Will?

Will would swear that if Hannibal had a tail it would have been swinging like a house cat tracking something, his eyes becoming an even more bloody shade of red. Once Will knew he had his attention, he took off towards the floor, where he knew he could get under furniture to prolong the chase. Hannibal, not immediately jumping up, rather watching to see his plan first, had toed off his shoes to be faster, then began the chase.

The chase and stalking lasted for about 15 minutes. During which Hannibal’s antlers had began to be visible, limbs looking more emaciated and longer, revealing that Hannibal was either not focused on maintaining his appearance during the chase or was shedding his human veil for the purpose of seeming more monstrous (possibly to make Will slip up). Didn’t matter which one it was, only that it was just them. Eventually, Will had given away his position on a bookshelf, and had no plan of escape. Will came out from behind the small stag sculpture on the shelf, allowing himself to get quickly swept up. By the time he was caught, Hannibal’s eyes were blood red, antlers longer than Hannibal’s forearms, and his limbs extended + emaciated, with his teeth sharpest they’d been in months. With a slight fuzziness around Hannibal, meaning he really hadn’t been keeping a lid on his veil or himself in check beyond his own nature.

Despite what should be terrifying, astronomically more dangerous than Jack’s mere swipe, Will wasn’t worried, wind slightly knocked out of him by the sudden grab yes, but not fearful. Once grabbed, Will saw Hannibal’s features spike then slowly fade back to what he looked like normally with his human veil tightly sewn on. Hannibal, surprised by how long the chase had been, remained somewhat hopeful that it wouldn’t be a one off thing.

The two going back to relaxing, this time in Hannibal’s study/library. Will going between curling up on the desk, next to Hannibal’s empty hand and book from earlier - Hannibal carefully helping Will relax by massaging the knots and kinks out of Will’s back to the point of him being putty. To then scurry to in crook of Hannibal’s neck & collar bone to lounge. Will moving around periodically to keep himself entertained until Hannibal was heading to cook dinner, once again one of Will’s favorites.

Of course their chases didn’t stop there, Will periodically deciding on days when they usually had little to do, he’d suddenly dash away, and their game would continue until one of them, almost always Will, got tired, or if Will reached a dead end. Then they would go back to what they were doing.

This was somewhat inconvenient at times. Especially when Will decided to run around Hannibal’s office shortly before a patient came in, Mason Verger.

Thankfully, Mason is too self absorbed to notice Will beyond asking Hannibal about his food preferences when he’d possibly picked up on a specific smell (which Hannibal thought he wouldn’t bc again it’s Mason, but because of his piggish nature, smell for him is increased significantly, nowhere near Hannibal’s but enough to smell Will and his, Hannibal approved aftershave/cologne). But beyond the rude remarks, he didn’t see Will quickly retreat to where Hannibal was, across the room. Both slightly tense, but unnoticeable to the untrained eye, until Will was again in Hannibal’s inner handkerchief pocket. With the appointment going the same as usual, Mason being insufferable for an hour.

All of this ends up paying off later during a case though - Jack insisting they join for the arrest, and Will feeling up to it putting them in that situation. In an old warehouse, with unsecured rooms, the assailant, a serial killer, another fae, using different people of different lineages to try and make…. Something. During the arrest, the two had walked in and the perpetrator lunged at Hannibal, causing Will to nearly fall off Hannibal, being placed down quickly as the attacker broke free from his cuffs to try and seemingly steal at least one of Hannibal’s eyes. Will had quickly gotten distance, knowing that he couldn’t fight back. But that mad dash took the assailant’s attention, causing an unprompted chase around the room. While it lasting for less than a minute, the moment the man had nearly grabbed Will before Hannibal had broken the man’s arm - from the bones near his second knuckle to the shoulder joint - and proceeded in dragging him away from Will had been tense.

The two left silently once they saw the man get loaded into an ambulance due to Hannibal’s interference.

Hannibal got a lot more…. Protective (well, possessive) over Will by that point, which didn’t seem to surprise the sassy science trio (more so Jack and Alana were surprised and off put to varying degrees).

They kind of settle into a new normal at this point. Well, normal for them, similar dynamic, but slowly becoming domestic bc it would be really not opportune to remove the scales from the other’s eyes about their nature at this point. So, focusing on finding out what happened/what the two were hit with, is the main focus while working with each other/learning how to be with one another.

Eventually, after enough tests are run and they’re waiting it to hear more news about what is found in the mixture, Hannibal is able to plan a trip to Europe, specifically Florence, with Will obviously accompanying him. While Beverly and Alan take turns watching the dogs. And on their trip, they plan to visit Abigail (she’s been let in on the situation but hasn’t seen the full on perspective).

They obviously travel private, thanks to Hannibal’s connections, and off the two went for a few weeks. And while doing tableau wasn’t out of the question, Hannibal having a set of drawings ready, they’d obviously have to be careful and not do an exact Ripper MO, but they both hoped that maybe this would help them clear their minds before anything else changed, since it seemed no new information would be found for a while.

(And while neither Hannibal or Will would admit it, at least not for a long while out loud, they were enjoying the situation to an extent, Hannibal more so than Will, and hoped that if they figured out what exactly this was, that they’d be able to find a way to control or at least use it again, if Will ever did return to his original state).

That is what I have for now, will definitely update this later. Let me know if yall got any ideas or suggestions to change some details or questions about plot points. This is mainly weeks of sleep deprivation in random bursts mixed with a few of my hyperfixations. I would love to hear some feedback! Thanks for reading.