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k-s-morgan · 5 years ago

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Will’s vs. Hannibal’s Ways of Expressing Love

The fact that Hannibal loves Will and is in love with him is openly stated in the show several times. Will’s feelings, on the other hand, are more ambiguous, which is why some viewers often doubt whether Hannibal’s love is reciprocated. I think that exploring the ways these two men experience and react to love can explain the varying degrees of their openness about it.

I’ll put TLDR right here: Hannibal is more open about himself and his feelings, including love, hence he doesn’t have many challenges with admitting it. Will is closed off, stiff, and emotionally repressed, so he expresses his feelings in a much more subtle way.

Let’s start with Hannibal. Details about his past are scarce, but we know that he admits to loving two people throughout his life, his sister and Will.

E3 of S3.

*Bedelia: What your sister made you feel was beyond your conscious ability to control or predict … I would suggest what Will Graham makes you feel is not dissimilar. A force of mind and circumstance.*

*Hannibal: Love.*

Undoubtedly, Hannibal’s love for Mischa was traumatic and unhealthy. He loved her so much that he ate a part of her body after she was killed, devastated by this loss. But it was still love that made him feel all the related emotions, so Hannibal has some experience with it. From what we know of him, he has a very broad mind. He despises limitations and overcomes them, and he is not ashamed of who he is. He isn’t embarrassed to cry in the opera or to be the first to stand up and applaud; he delights in stereotypically ‘feminine’ hobbies like cooking and clothes selection; he draws fan-art and openly expresses his admiration when it’s due. For this reason, Hannibal doesn’t have many problems with expressing love either.

Upon meeting Will, he is immediately drawn to him. He sees him as his potential partner and decides he wants to try and build a family with him as early as E2 of S1. That’s when he starts planting the idea of Abigail being their shared daughter in Will’s mind. He does the same to Abigail, urging her to see him and Will as her parents, even giving her shrooms to evoke the desired associations (unsuccessfully since Will doesn’t come to dinner). So, Hannibal acknowledged his pull/infatuation with Will from the very start, and he acted on it right away.

It’s not 100% love at this point, but Hannibal still easily follows his emotions. He doesn’t stop to consider how strange it is to want a family with a man he just met; he doesn’t agonize over the idea of how his life has more risks now that he allows another human being to know him. When these feelings progress at the end of S1/start of S2, Hannibal is finally taken aback. While he never planned to leave Will in prison and it was a part of his plan, he still didn’t expect to miss him so much — he admits it to Bedelia, looking forlorn, in E1 of S2. He repeatedly pines for Will by sitting in front of his chair at the time of his supposed appointment, glancing at the clock despite knowing Will is not going to come. This is a shift to an actual love, but Hannibal still doesn’t fight it. On the contrary, he embraces it, and he spends the entire S2 doing repeatedly romantic gestures for Will. Namely:

1) Protects Abigail to reunite Will with her later.

2) Shares a part of himself he doesn’t seem to have ever shared with anyone else. He talks to Will about Mischa, reveals his views on murder and God, acknowledges he cared about Abigail, and shows vulnerability. He shares his teacup ritual with him, which is something precious and deeply personal.

3) He digs up fake Freddie’s corpse and decorates it as a way of courting Will (as directly said by Alana).

4) He draws a fan-art of himself and Will as Achilles and Patroclus.

5) He is ready to abandon his well-established life in Baltimore and reputation to run away with Will. In Hannibal’s view, no one truly suspects him and there is no evidence against him, but Will is in danger. So he’s willing to discard everything he’s been building for 20 years for him.

Finally, he calls Will a loved one more or less directly in E13 of S2 (in fact, he implies that they both love each other).

*Hannibal: Do you know what an imago is, Will? … An imago is an image of a loved one buried in the unconscious, carried with us all our lives.*

*Will: An ideal.*

*Hannibal: The concept of an ideal... I have a concept of you, just as you have a concept of me.*

Will hurts him with his betrayal, and Hannibal still finds himself unable to kill him. He is openly crying in the finale, admitting how Will hurt him, breaks his (and his own) heart by killing Abigail, and flees to Europe to start a new life. But things don’t go as he hoped they would. Bedelia is not a worthy substitute, and Hannibal is increasingly slipping into a self-destructive state because of his love for Will. He kills Anthony, who was an improved copy of Will, and turns him into a Valentine heart for him. Again, this is a very explicit and open emotional action. Hannibal doesn’t hide his feelings. He’s an emotional wreck with Bedelia in E3, and as they are talking about Will, he admits he’s in love with him.

*Hannibal: You cannot control with respect to whom you fall in love.*

Bedelia points out his self-destructiveness.

*Bedelia: You're going to get caught. It's already been set into motion … I know exactly how I will be navigating my way out of whatever it is I’ve gotten myself into. Do you?*

After Hannibal keeps spiraling and kills Sogliato, she adds: *You're drawing them to you, aren't you? All of them.*

Hannibal gets so self-destructive over Will that he lets Jack beat himself almost to death, not even attempting to fight him. The first words he says to Will after they reunite in E6 are:

*Hannibal: If I saw you every day forever, Will, I would remember this time.*

He’s a romantic. The courtship, the Valentine heart, the romance — Hannibal did have some struggles, but overall, he accepts these feelings and isn’t afraid to act on them.

When Will pulls a knife in E6, Hannibal classifies it as another betrayal. This is where he decides to kill and eat him in the hope to put an end to this misery (which is what he and Bedelia discussed back in E3). However, even blinded by another heartbreak, Hannibal tries to save Will at the same time. He knows the police are coming and he puts off the moment of sawing for as long as he can, first fussing over Will and his wound, then waiting for Jack, then doing everything slowly as hell.

Everything changes in E7, when Hannibal faces the real risk of losing Will and comes to terms with the fact that a hope of life with him is better than life without him. So Hannibal carries Will home bridal-style, takes care of him, waits for him to wake up and writes formulas to reverse time. He directly tells Will that Will won, and that he, Hannibal, is at Will’s mercy.

*Hannibal: Your memory palace is building. It's full of new things. It shares some rooms with my own. I've discovered you there. Victorious.*

He gives himself up, sacrificing the freedom he’s been fighting for back in E2 finale, in the hope that one day, Will is going to come back to him. After this, Hannibal is all about Will, with all his heart. Throughout the second half of S3, he says things like, *“I gave you a child. You are family, Will. Was it good to see me?”*, etc. He agrees to risk his life by agreeing to Will’s plan, knowing he’s planning something but not knowing what and if he’d die in the process. In E13, Hannibal says:

*Hannibal: "No greater love hath man than to lay down his life for a friend"* and shields Will from the bullet. Later, he allows Will to push them both down, and he stays with him afterward.

Conclusion: Hannibal is very accepting of himself, so he doesn’t undergo severe challenges on the path to acknowledging what he feels for Will. He knows what love feels like because he felt it for Mischa before, so he embraces loving Will pretty quickly, even though he doesn’t know how to best approach it at times. That’s why we get direct and explicit confirmation of his feelings several times.

Now, on to Will.

Unlike with Hannibal, there is no evidence that Will has ever experienced love before (at least love for people). We know he had a father and was lonely as a child.

E4 of S1.

*Will: We were poor. I followed my father from the boat yards in Biloxi and Greenville to lake boats on Erie.*

*Hannibal: Always the new boy at school? Always the stranger?*

*Will: Always.*

His choice of words indicates that his relationship with his father wasn’t all that good (for instance, *I followed my father* instead of *My father and I had to…*). So, it doesn’t look like Will ever had meaningful connections. More than that, he says:

*Will: There’s something so foreign about family. Like an ill-fitting suit. Never connected to the concept.*

We can suggest that he doesn’t know what love is or how it feels like. From E1, we know he isolates himself because he hates himself for who he is: he understands he’s different, that there is darkness in him, but he desperately tries to subdue it and deny this fact. He’s rude, twitchy, and unhappy, but like Hannibal, he understands the extent of his loneliness only upon meeting him. That’s when he tries forming relationships with others.

Will’s relationships with Alana and Abigail are a good indication of his problems with love. He wants to be with Alana because he needs to feel normal. In 99% of cases, he remembers about her only when she comes to seek him out first. He kisses her for the first time at the moment of particular vulnerability, fearing that he’s finally losing his mind (in E8). When Hannibal calls him out on it, Will doesn’t deny it and semi-nods. He actually had to agree with it verbally according to the script.

*Will: I feel unstable.*

*Hannibal: That’s why you kissed her. A clutch for balance.*

*Will: Because I’m losing mine.*

So, it’s not that Will feels romantic love for Alana — he uses her because he desperately needs to feel like everyone else. Alana is a pretty, smart, normal woman who fits this goal perfectly. He doesn’t allow himself to be genuine with her unlike he does with Hannibal, to whom he opens up.

Will confesses to Hannibal that he loved killing Hobbs in E2, which got him down and made him panic. Hannibal supports him, and Will keeps coming back to him. He talks about everything important with Hannibal, opening parts of himself that he guards from everyone else. Will asks Hannibal to look after his dogs as early as E4 — he doesn’t have other friends, and he’s already focused on Hannibal. He buys into an idea of having a family with him and Abigail, which is amazing for Will, who has just said he could never relate to the concept of family.

When Will buys a gift for Abigail in the same E4 and freaks out, Hannibal asks him:

*Hannibal: Feeling paternal, Will?*

Will’s reaction is instant and defensive:

*Will: Aren’t you?*

Hannibal easily says “yes”, which disarms Will. This is a great contrast between them: Hannibal isn’t afraid to talk and acknowledge his feelings while Will is embarrassed of them and shies away from them. In fact, this is a repeat of their conversation in E2.

*Hannibal: You saved Abigail Hobbs' life. You also orphaned her. It comes with certain emotional obligations.*

*Will: You were there. You saved her life, too. Do you feel obligated?*

Again, Will deflects. He’s wary of emotions, especially of admitting them out loud.

Will shows a hint of romantic interest in Hannibal in E7. He brings him a bottle of wine out of blue, but unfortunately, he stumbles upon the party Hannibal is preparing. Hannibal invites him to stay, but Will says he won’t be good company. He’s shy and awkward, smiling nervously and dropping his gaze in embarrassment. Then we have this lovely line:

*Will: I’ve got a date with the Chesapeake Ripper.*

So, in S1, Will makes considerable emotional progress. He realizes he wants a family after all, and while he makes several half-hearted attempts to court Alana, he’s mostly focused on Hannibal and Abigail. He opens himself up to Hannibal, receives official guardianship over Abigail with him, arguably flirts with Hannibal (like in the wine scene above), and covers up murder to protect their family. But then Hannibal betrays him. Will doesn’t know his reasons yet, but this betrayal plunged him into darkness, bitterness, and new stage of emotional repression. It’s worth mentioning another point of Abigail here: in the end, Will doesn’t know her. He spoke to her only several times, and even fewer times were genuine. He loves the idea of her, and this idea was introduced by Hannibal, not by Abigail’s presence. It’s Hannibal who forced Will to confront his need to love and be loved.

In S2, Will is incredibly conflicted. He acknowledges to Hannibal that he hurt him, tries to kill him via Matthew, but when he recognizes that Hannibal wants him as a friend (as spoken in E7), his attitude changes. Will doesn’t plan to forgive him, he’s still angry at Hannibal for killing Abigail (which is his biggest conflict, as evident from his talks with Hannibal himself and Freddie), but now, he can’t bring himself to harm or betray Hannibal.

He gets his first chance in E7, after being released from prison. He threatens Hannibal with a gun and has a perfect chance to make him pay, but he doesn’t. Instead, he conspires with Jack and decides to cultivate co-dependency, creating an environment where only he “and the fish exist” (E8). What does Will do to start? He makes himself physically attractive, grooming and dressing prettily. It’s a seduction on all levels, and Will plans to use emotions to hurt Hannibal back. At the same time, Will admits to being confused over what he feels for Hannibal.

E8 of S2.

*Will: I envy you your hate. Makes it much easier when you know how to feel.*

E9 of S2 (talking about trying to kill Hannibal with Margot).

*Margot: Did he have it coming?*

*Will: What do you think?*

*Margot: I can't say that I know.*

*Will: Neither can I.*

He spends the rest of the season lying to both Hannibal and Jack, unsure whose side to choose, too lost in his own feelings to make sense of them. At the same time, he has a dream where Hannibal calls him beloved in E9. It shows that Will contemplates the idea of love in relation to Hannibal. In E10, Will tries to fantasize about Alana as he’s having sex with Margot. However, he sees the image of Wendigo near the fireplace, Wendigo who he’s used to associating with Hannibal. Two interesting things (copied from my other meta): first, Will actually sees Hannibal’s room and consequently, he sees himself in it (or he sees their rooms united). Second, he sees the Wendigo near Hannibal’s fireplace. Fireplace has many meanings, including passion, sexuality, home, family, and resurrection. It emphasizes the sexual and romantic subtext of this uniquely shot scene, where people destined to be together have sex with the wrong partners. Will’s vision begins to contract, focusing on Wendigo: he is having an orgasm at this very moment, imagining the Wendigo’s face very close, approaching him. Still through the misty eyes, he tries to focus on Alana again, but his gaze moves up to Wendigo above her, as if he can’t help himself. He and Hannibal reach orgasm first, with Alana and Margot following them. So, Will dragged Hannibal into his sex fantasy. It’s both symbolic and physical: he tried to imagine Alana just like he tried to have a relationship with her before, in S1, out of his desire to be normal. But his attention is inevitably drawn to Hannibal, who’s his “real deal”.

Based on this scene, it’s underlined once again how Will struggles with emotions. Even in the safety of his own mind, in his own fantasy, he tries to think of Alana but still ends up with Hannibal. Will is always fighting himself and who he is. He refuses to accept his darkness just as he refuses to admit he loves Hannibal. It’s the essence of who he is, denial is his second name.

Among the important moments, there are Will’s words to Hannibal:

*Will: You are right. We are just alike. You are as alone as I am. And we are both alone without each other.*

So, Will accepts the bond with Hannibal, and at this stage, he even has the courage to voice some of his emotional thoughts. His progress is slow, but it’s there.

In E11, Will has a nightmare. He sees a burning corpse of ‘Freddie’ in a wheelchair, a symbol of his betrayal of Hannibal, and he hears his own increasing screaming. It’s easy to interpret, knowing the context: Will feels guilty for lying to Hannibal.

When Margot loses her child, Will feels renewed anger at Hannibal. He fantasizes about killing him and gets to realize his fantasy with Mason’s help in E12. But at the last moment, Will changes his mind and chooses Hannibal. He does the same thing in E13 by calling him. When he sees him, he doesn’t even try to point a gun at him: he asks why he didn’t leave as he was supposed to, and he even leans forward to accept the knife, accept the punishment for betrayal.

So, Will chooses Hannibal over Abigail, for whom he wanted justice; over his and Margot’s child, for whom he wanted revenge; over Jack and Alana, who were his only semblance of friends; over his own confusion and desire to be normal. For someone as emotionally stunted as Will, it’s huge. It proves that he loves Hannibal and is willing to compromise all other relationships he has formed as well his own beliefs for him (while Will is dark, he tries to fight it because he doesn’t think people like them are normal). Is it romantic? Will’s dream with the word “beloved” and his sex fantasy, as well as his acceptance of the idea that he and Hannibal were Abigail’s fathers (which makes them partners) imply that yes, romantic feeling is a part of it.

Hannibal’s romantic feelings became explicit in S3, and so did Will’s. But since Hannibal is more open and self-accepting, his were discussed out loud while Will’s were mostly portrayed silently, implied, and alluded to.

Will builds a boat to sail and find Hannibal, which is pretty romantic by itself. He spends his time in Hannibal’s house, in the kitchen where their bloody break-up happened, imagining Abigail near him. When Alana comes to find him, he asks her to leave. He’s cold and indifferent toward her — she’s not what he wants, and he’s not interested in even friendship with her. All he wants is to mourn his lost family with Hannibal and Abigail. Again, Hannibal is Will’s priority.

Will imagines his perfect world as the one where he and Hannibal killed Jack together. This scene is intercut with his Mizumono memories, namely, with Hannibal's face that emerges every time he moves yet another part of the engine. This is a vivid demonstration of Will trying to repair what is now broken. When Jack asks him why he called him, Will is indifferent and genuine:

*Will: I wasn't decided when I called him. I just called him. I deliberated while the phone rang. I decided when I heard his voice … I told him to leave. I wanted him to run … Because he was my friend. And because I wanted to run away with him.*

That’s a big admission for Will. This is the first time he openly acknowledges Hannibal as his friend in front of another person. Chilton calls Will and Hannibal’s interactions a “flirtation” in this episode, which once again points us in the romantic direction.

The entire E2 of S3 is dedicated to Will’s love for Hannibal, where he argues about it with himself in the form of imaginary Abigail. This is another proof of Will’s problem with emotions in general and emotions for Hannibal in particular. He can’t just think to himself as normal people do — no, he can’t admit how much he loves Hannibal this. Instead, he imagines Abigail and talks to himself through her to make it easier. He berates himself for lying.

*Will/Abigail: We were all supposed to leave together. He made a place for us. Why did you lie to him? He gave you a chance to take it all back, and you just kept lying.*

Will is reverent about Hannibal; he keeps talking about him over and over again.

*Will: This isn't Hannibal, it's just where he begins. Beyond this, far and complex, light and dark, is the vast structure of his mind. A thousand rooms, miles of corridors. Everything he remembers, wonderfully and fearfully reconstructed.*

Will goes as far as lies at the place where Hannibal’s Valentine heart for him was, reconstructing this image and trying to feel close to him. The heart comes to life the moment Will touches it, which is romantic. Will says:

*Will: A valentine written on a broken man … I do feel closer to Hannibal here. God only knows where I would be without him … He left us his broken heart … He misses us.*

He looks on the verge of tears, so Hannibal’s gift touched him. Will is overcome by emotions. At this very moment, his more frightened side suggests that Hannibal is also playing with him.

*Will: Hannibal follows several trains of thought at once without distraction from any, and one of the trains is always for his own amusement.*

We know it’s not the case, especially here, but Will has trust issues and a low self-esteem. He’s worried that Hannibal’s feelings for him aren’t as strong as he thinks they are, which is why he’s not sure how to react himself. He asks himself, *“You still want to go with him?”* and replies, *“Yes.” He wonders about what life they’d have if they left.

*Will: What if no one died? What if we all left together? Like we were supposed to. After he served the lamb. Where would we have gone? … In some other world.*

Pazzi comes and tells Will that he hopes they’ll catch Hannibal together.

*Will: What makes you think I want to catch him?*

Later, Pazzi says:

*Pazzi: He let you know him. He sent you his heart.*

E2 ends with Will scaring Pazzi and telling him, *“You don’t know whose side I’m on.* Then he tells Hannibal he forgives him, which is also a huge step in his direction.

This entire episode proves that yes, Will loves Hannibal. Considering how he isn’t awkward from receiving a Valentine or hearing that Hannibal gave him his heart, Will shares the romantic aspect of Hannibal’s feelings for him. He regrets not running away with him and their daughter, he places himself on the floor where the heart was to feel closer to him — this is such a rich romantic subtext that it’s practically text. Especially for Will, who remains so conflicted and emotionally restrained all the time.

Will’s attitude changes after seeing Chiyoh. He becomes more bitter. Considering how dark he is in these scenes and how he constantly compares himself and Chiyoh, he likely sees her as someone Hannibal was supposed to love but easily abandoned. It makes Will draw the parallels between them, and he starts to doubt that Hannibal loves him, that his “broken heart” has any authentic meaning. That’s where he starts thinking about killing Hannibal again. He still says:

*Will: I’ve never known myself as well as I know myself when I’m with him.*

This line also speaks volumes. Hannibal gave Will a precious gift of understanding himself; he showed that he could accept him, and Will is drawn to it. Will admits the depth of their connection to yet another person. Then he makes a firefly from Chiyoh’s prisoner, a tribute that is clearly done with Hannibal in his mind, considering the style and the central topic.

Chiyoh sees right through Will’s emotional constipation. She implies that he should “kiss” Hannibal rather than keep being “violent”:

*Chiyoh: I told you, there are means of influence other than violence.*

She kisses Will then, thus showing him what others means exist. He doesn’t get it, though, since he responds to her kiss despite not feeling anything for her, and she pushes him off the train, likely admitting he’s a hopeless case.

Meeting Jack, Will tells him that a part of him will always want to leave with Hannibal. This is yet another declaration from him. Will isn’t scared of the consequences — he speaks of his feelings openly now. It’s a great development of his character.

But the feeling of doubt about Hannibal likely resurfaces further after Will sees that Hannibal replaced him and Abigail with Bedelia in E6 (hence his hatred for her since that moment). He mocks her alibi and then leaves to reunite with Hannibal. The following moment was deleted, but it still discloses some of Will’s romantic feelings:

*Will: I looked up at the night sky there. Orion above the horizon and, near it, Jupiter. I wondered if you could see it, too. I wondered if our stars were the same.*

From the words that did get into the episode:

*Will: You and I have begun to blur ... We're conjoined. Curious if either of us can survive separation.*

Will doesn’t just admit the bond between them, he elevates it the level of soulmates, implying they are one and the same. It’s also a declaration of love in his language. But love doesn’t stop Will from being vindictive, hurt, and angry, so after meetings with Chiyoh and Bedelia that affected his perception, he pulls out a knife as he and Hannibal are walking together.

There is a brain-sawing disaster after this and E7, where Will looks done and tired from the madness and his constant attempts to figure Hannibal out. He does bite Cordell before looking at Hannibal, seeking his approval; he uses “we” pronouns when speaking about Hannibal with Alana. One example:

*Will: You helped Mason Verger find us.*

So, he still sees himself and Hannibal as a team, but he’s still tired and bitter, so after everything is over, he hurts Hannibal by saying he doesn’t share his appetite and by attacking him emotionally.

*Will: I miss my dogs. I'm not going to miss you. I'm not going to find you. I'm not going to look for you. I don't want to know where you are or what you do. I don't want to think about you anymore.*

This is all personal and emotional. It sounds like a break-up, which is exactly how Bryan Fuller and others referred to it. When Hannibal leaves and Jacks arrives, Will puts on his glasses, an indication that he’s hiding again.

Fast-forward 3 years. Will is married now, but from the very start, we see that this marriage isn’t all people usually expect it to be. The first scene shows the family apart. Molly and Walter have gone fishing, which is something Will loves. He had dreams about teaching Abigail how to fish, but he doesn’t go to do that with his family, preferring to stay alone instead. It’s the first hint that his heart isn’t in this relationship, that he’s too hung up on the past to move forward and make new happy memories.

Jack came to drag him to Dragon’s case, and Will makes it look like he’s reluctant. At the same time, he doesn’t send Jack away, even though we know from the past that he has no qualms being frank when he wants to. More than that, he asks him not to show pics to Molly, but when they have dinner, Will deliberately leaves the house with Walter, leaving Jack and Molly together. At night, when Molly’s asleep, he crawls out of bed and goes to read Hannibal’s letter. He doesn’t tell the truth to Molly about himself and his dark urges, about everything he has done – Molly clearly has no idea who he truly is, considering how she jokes about his ‘criminal mind’ in later episodes and how Will immediately closes himself off from her. He never initiates physical touches with her; he doesn’t return her “I love you”, which is an even bigger indication of his lack of commitment. Will is emotionally stiff with Molly for the most part, and the only times he laughs with her or shows any emotion is when they are talking about superficial stuff in the former case and when he’s furious after Francis’ attack in the latter one. Other than that, there is no closeness or honesty.

Another point of Will’s inability to express or even give his love to someone is in his scene with Walter in E11. This child, his step-son, has just been attacked by a serial killer with his mother. His mother was hurt and they barely escaped. Will doesn’t hug him or offer him paternal emotional comfort; he’s very awkward. All he says is, “You're both safe here,” which is something an officer might say but not a father. Will was much more emotional in his fantasies about Abigail.

This is what Will says about Walter’s reaction to Jack:

*Will: He read about me in a Freddie Lounds article. I had to justify myself to an eleven year old.*

He’s resentful and not emotional. He doesn’t say, “I had to justify myself to my son!” – he distances himself from him. Will is cold. He has expressed his feelings for Hannibal at this point in rather poetic ways, but he can’t be bothered to do this for his wife and his son.

He treats Hannibal in a very reserved fashion too, in comparison to how he acted 3 years ago. However: first, there is the fact that he came to visit him in the first place. Will didn’t need his help, we saw very clearly how he managed to easily reconstruct the crime scene the night before. It proved that his mindset is in a good shape, so he didn’t need Hannibal’s assistance. But it’s Hannibal he requested to see right away.

Will distances himself from him by calling him “Doctor Lecter” and insisting that he’s more comfortable the less personal they are. His eyes glisten, though, and he can’t look away from Hannibal. The impersonal approach doesn’t last very long, too, and soon, they are talking like they always did. Hannibal accuses Will of marrying for false reasons.

*Hannibal: How did you choose yours? Readymade wife and child to serve your needs. A stepson or daughter. A stepson absolves you of any biological blame. You know better than to breed. Can't pass on those terrible traits you fear the most.*

Will doesn’t bother to deny it, though any man would have been offended, particularly if he truly loved his family. In Will’s case, from the experience and all the precedents, silence = agreement.

In E10, Will seeks Bedelia out. He acts catty and jealous, targeting her personal connection with Hannibal.

*Will: You didn't lose yourself, Bedelia, you just crawled so far up his ass you couldn't be bothered.* - personal, targeted against Bedelia's attachment to Hannibal.

*Will: You hitched your star to a man commonly known as a monster. You're the Bride of Frankenstein.* - personal, attack with romantic connotation. Bedelia catches up on it and mocks him:

*Bedelia: We've both been his bride. Have you been to see him?*

*Will: Yes.*

*Bedelia: Haven't learned anything, have you? Or did you just miss him that much?*

*Will: Have you been to see him?* - personal again. Will wants to know if Bedelia is keeping contact with Hannibal.

*Bedelia: I've seen enough of him. I was with him behind the veil. You were always on the other side.*

*Will: Something we should talk about.* - again, personal. It's all personal, which is why Bryan and Hugh called them Hannibal's jealous bitchy exes. Will is palpably jealous and he shows his resentment to Bedelia openly.

Later, we have some more romantic references.

*Bedelia: My relationship with Hannibal is not as passionate as yours. You are here visiting old flame. Is your wife aware of how intimately you and Hannibal know each other? … Your experience of Hannibal’s attention is so profoundly harmful yet so irresistible, it undermines your ability to think rationally.*

So, there is romantic text, parallels between Hannibal and Will’s wife, and Will doesn’t deny any of this again. He keeps coming to Bedelia because she’s the only person he can talk about Hannibal to without being watched.

After Hannibal sends Francis after Molly and Walter, Will spends about a minute being angry with him. Then he accuses Hannibal of staging a competition between him and Francis. It is startling: Will spent months, years mourning the loss of Abigail who he didn’t even really know personally, yet he forgets the gravity of what happened to his wife and won very quickly. He leaves Molly and Walter and tells Bedelia that they are finished. One traumatic event, and Will left. It coincides with something very important that happened here: after this, Will finally figures out Hannibal is truly in love with him. So he goes to Bedelia to discuss it with her.

*Will: Is Hannibal in love with me?*

*Bedelia: Could he daily feel a stab of hunger for you, and find nourishment at the very sight of you? Yes. But do you ache for him?*

Will is predictably silent. Obviously, if the answer was no, he would have said no. But he struggles because like we established, he has issues with expressing emotions. He only managed to start referring to Hannibal as his friend openly in this season, opening up about some of his feelings, but he’s not ready to go this far. It would be absolutely out of character for Will to say, “Yes, you know, I’m in love with him! Thanks for helping me see it.” Every confession Will makes is preceded by struggles and heartbreak. But he’s going to reply to Bedelia’s question, only not explicitly-verbally.

Will sets up Chilton and then comes to allegedly say good-bye to Hannibal. He lies several times in their conversation (about Chilton and Molly with Walter), so all his words are automatically suspicious. Regardless, he destroys Hannibal emotionally and walks away. Personally, I believe he was already planning to break him out, so he was playing it up for cameras and also taking a chance to hurt Hannibal for everything again. But whatever his plan was, what happens next is that Will conspires with Francis against Jack, Alana, and the FBI. They agree to break Hannibal out together. Will lies to Jack and then gets to ask Hannibal for help. He’s being flirty and manipulative in this scene.

*Will: I need you, Hannibal … You're our best shot, Hannibal. Please.*

He’s smirking, he leans close to Hannibal, he sends him a flirty look from under his eyelashes. Will is thoroughly enjoying himself, and he does it best when he has some excuse to hide behind.

Later, he lies to Jack and Alana again, leaks info to Francis (who nearly killed his wife and son), and gets many officers killed by proxy. He tells Bedelia the truth that he doesn’t “intend Hannibal to be caught a second time.” He also implies that he’s going to let him go free, which is why Bedelia should pack her bags.

*Bedelia: Can't live with him. Can't live without him. Is that what this is?*

This time, Will agrees, although in his way.

*Will: I guess this is my Becoming.*

For Will, Becoming was always connected to his feelings for Hannibal because accepting himself and his darkness meant being free to escape with Hannibal.

*Bedelia: You found religion. Nothing more dangerous than that.*

In E3, it was stated that love is a God (you can find more here https://www.reddit.com/r/HannibalTV/comments/7w54dg/lovegodreligion_s3_parallels/), so it’s possible to say that religion = love in this context. It certainly makes sense. Will is accepting himself and his emotions, and the trigger was establishing for sure that Hannibal is in love with him.

Will and Hannibal drive to the cliff house. When Hannibal asks Will if he intends to save himself by killing them both (Hannibal and Francis), Will replies:

*Will: I don't know if I can save myself. And maybe that's just fine.*

This is the first time he confesses that he might be incapable of killing Hannibal. Predictably, when Francis comes, Will can’t handle seeing Hannibal killed, so he reaches for his gun.

Will and Hannibal work as a unit and protect each other. Hannibal is shot, nearly strangled, thrown onto the ground, and he is still weakly holding on Francis' leg to prevent him from going after Will, even though it leaves him in an open and vulnerable position — Francis does kick him in the face with his other leg. There is fierce determination on Will's face as he stands up despite the pain and runs to save Hannibal. They act in synch, consummating their relationship.

Then, Will admires how blood looks on his hand and repeats Hannibal’s words:

*Will: It really does look black in the moonlight.*

He remembers the words Hannibal said to him weeks ago in one of their endless interactions. A bit earlier, he perfectly recalled the words Hannibal told him *years* ago, back in the middle of S2.

*Will: I understand that “blood and breath are only elements undergoing change to fuel your Radiance." Hannibal said those words. To me.*

So, Will remembers everything Hannibal told him. He stores these memories. It’s a small but still important proof how important Hannibal is for him.

At the cliff, Will finally accepts the truth.

*Hannibal: See. This is all I ever wanted for you, Will. For both of us.*

We know what Hannibal wanted: a Murder Husband. What does Will say to this?

*Will: It’s beautiful.*

This is a loud “yes” to Bedelia’s question about his feelings. Will acknowledges, accepts, and admires them. He doesn’t feel awkward, as he would if he knew Hannibal is in love with him but didn’t feel the same. No, he reaches forward to embrace him, and such physical contact from Will is mind-blowing because he almost never does it. He clings to Hannibal, puts his head on his shoulder, touches him as if he wants to melt with him. Then he gives the fate a chance to stop both of them or to set them free. They fall into the ocean under the Love Crime song, another romantic element.

Water symbolizes reborn, and post-credits scene indicates that Will and Hannibal have paid a visit to Bedelia and are in the process of eating her while she’s hiding the fork to stab one of them as he approaches. The deleted epilogue to the series shows that they are in perfect harmony now.

**Conclusion**: Will has passed through a long, painful journey. He went from hiding from emotions and deflecting to not denying and carefully acknowledging them. We don’t hear words “love” or “in love” from him in relation to Hannibal because Will is not that kind of person. He doesn’t use these words freely, and for him, every small emotional step is a struggle. He tried to deceive himself and other numerous times; he tied to deny the truth and manipulate his own mind, but with each season, his feelings for Hannibal became more and more explicit. Will reaching out for physical contact, Will saying “It’s beautiful” are his way of saying, “I ached for you. I love you.”

This is a story of mutual love and obsession, about soulmates, about unique type of connection that few people share. It’s not about Hannibal falling in love and Will not feeling the same. Their feelings are equally strong, but they express them differently, particularly as Will’s are tied to the acceptance of his own darkness.

#will graham #hannibal lecter #hannigram #nbc hannibal #murder husbands

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violetrose-art · 3 years ago

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Frankenweenie Headcannons, Theories, and Ideas

This is just a list of the theories, headcannons, and ideas I came up with for Tim Burton's Frankenweenie. I might add more later on, so watch out

-When he was six years old, Victor Frankenstein got Sparky as a small puppy from the local pet shop

-Elsa got Persephone as a gift for her seventh birthday

-Victor’s full name is Victor Charles Frankenstein

-Victor is strongly not fond of sports, especially baseball. But he does love to play fetch with Sparky and ride his bike

-Victor secretly has a crush on Elsa, but he’s too nervous to say anything. But he wouldn’t mind just being friends with her

-Even though he doesn’t get along too well with Toshiaki and Nassor very well, Victor doesn’t mind Bob (who was one of the “cool kids”) being nice to him

-Victor used to have a pen pal in London named Shamus Holmes. They wrote to each other back and forth almost every week, until Victor reached college. That was when the letters from Shamus stopped coming

-Victor isn’t allergic to anything, but he does get nauseous around peaches for some reason

-When he grows up, Victor either wants to become a scientist, a vet, or a movie director… but he can’t decide

-Victor likes to watch both horror and sci-fi films. His favorites are Karloff’s “Frankenstein”, “The Fly”, “The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms”, “Behemoth the Sea Monster”, and “Earth vs. the Flying Saucers”

-The Monday after Dutch Day, Victor was told to stay after school for baseball practice, but when he hit the ball and ran around the diamond, he broke his arm and got a black eye and he was suspended from the baseball team… which he thought was the best day ever

-Victor isn’t particularly fond of his young cousin, Vincent Malloy. He’s often annoyed by Vincent's slightly obsessive mannerisms and all of his Vincent Price talk and Vincent's mother blames Victor for introducing her son to scary movies in the first place

-Victor was born on August 31st, 1957

-Elsa’s full name is Elsa Anais Van Helsing

-Victor and Elsa first met on their first day in kindergarten. They both reached out to grab the same toy, but their hands touched and their eyes met. After a tiny squabble over the toy, they started playing together and they quickly became friends

-Elsa was born on October 28th, 1957

-Elsa isn’t into sports, but she enjoys going swimming or roller skating on occasion… She also likes to watch Victor Frankenstein at baseball practice sometimes

-Elsa is highly allergic to bees and pistachios

-A year after Dutch Day, Mayor Bergermeister forced Elsa to take ballet lessons recently and she doesn’t like it

-Elsa has an interest in history and she thought about becoming a historian someday

-Elsa has a secret crush on Victor, but she’s too shy to say anything

-After the events of Dutch Day, Victor promised never to reanimate Sparky again if he died one more time. Eventually when he was in his late teen years, he let Sparky die because he and Elsa wanted Sparky and Persephone to be together in death. The two dogs were buried in the pet cemetery together (Romeo and Juliet style)

-Elsa likes to watch horror movies in secret. Her absolute favorites are “Bride of Frankenstein”, “Dracula”, and “The Phantom of the Opera”

-After Dutch Day, Victor and Elsa started to grow closer and closer, as well as their dogs Sparky and Persephone

-Despite her uncle's protests of having a dog around, he agreed to let Elsa keep Persephone. But he insists that she keep the dog away from his front lawn

-Sparky and Persephone had four puppies together. Their names are Coal, Raven, Anastasia, and Hades

-When they were in the eighth grade, Victor and Elsa had their first kiss at a Halloween dance at school. They had their second kiss after a Christmas dance recital; they were performing the Nutcracker together. They started officially dating when they were freshmen in high school

-Elsa’s favorite books are “To Kill a Mockingbird”, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, “Romeo and Juliet” and other works of William Shakespeare and her favorite writers are Lewis Carroll, Harper Lee, and Shakespeare. She also enjoys Edgar Allen Poe’s works

-Elsa considers Weird Girl (aka, Mindy) a friend, but she doesn’t like it when she creepily stares at her

-Elsa had a pen pal in New York City named Kristen. They wrote to each other a few times a month, but they lost touch when they reached senior year in high school

-When Victor and Elsa grew up and got married, they had two children. Their names are Peter Timothy Frankenstein (age 12) and Moira Juliet Frankenstein (age 8)

-Weird Girl’s full name is Mindy Cecilia White

-Mindy was raised by a single mother who was a medium, as well as a psychiatrist

-Mr. Whiskers was adopted as a kitten by Mindy from a local pet store. He was the only one of the litter that wasn't adopted because of his large starring eyes

-Mindy took the same ballet classes as Elsa

-Mindy has a crush on Edgar. She secretly hoped that Mr. Whisker's would one day dream about her and Edgar

-After Mr. Whiskers’ death, Mindy fell into a deep depression. Elsa was there to comfort her in her time of need and she even helped her bury the body in the pet cemetery

-Mindy first discovered Mr. Whiskers’ ability to predict the future through cat litter one morning after changing it; it was shaped in the letter B. On that same day, a girl named Brooklyn from school got three strikes at the bowling alley

-Mindy was born on April 3rd, 1958

-Edgar’s full name is Edgar Abraham Gore

-Edgar has a crush on Mindy, but he believes she’s out of his league and was too afraid to approach her

-At one point, Edgar wanted a snake or spider for a pet, but his mother told him no. Once tried to adopt a wild raccoon, but got a scolding from her when he let it into the house

-Edgar was born on September 14th, 1958

-After Dutch Day, Edgar developed a fear of rats

-Edgar still wants to make a death ray with Victor, even though they can't actually make one

-Mindy and Edgar started dating when they were in their sophomore year

-When they got married, Mindy and Edgar had a daughter named Giselle (age 7 ¾)

-Toshiaki’s full name is Toshiaki Ito Oroku

-Toshiaki's mother and father were originally born and raised in Japan until they moved to the US a month before he was born. Being an open community towards different race groups, New Holland was the perfect location to start a family

-Toshiaki was born on May 28th, 1956

-As a reward for winning his first science fair, Toshiaki was given a pet turtle, who he named Shelly. Shelly was unfortunately passed away when he was left outside in the hot afternoon in his aquarium for too long

-Toshiaki and Victor are frenemies, mainly friends, but mostly enemies

-When Shelly died two times, Toshiaki was very upset. But luckily, he had his friends to comfort him after his second and final burial

-In school, Toshiaki met one of the new girls, a Japanese girl named Mae-Lee, and he quickly developed a crush on her

-Years later, Toshiaki and Mae-Lee got married and had two children, a daughter named Shelley Sue (age 8) and Yoshi (age 7 months)

-Nassor’s full name is Nassor Hannibal Karloff

-In school, Nassor stood out from the other children due to his height and cynical macabre personality. The only thing that made him happy as a child was his pet hamster, Colossus. One day Colossus went missing and Nassor was frantic with worry. About five days later, Colossus was found trapped inside the wall and he had starved to death, leaving Nassor heartbroken

-Nassor has an interest in Ancient Egyptian culture around pharaohs and the afterlife. It was his idea as tribute to Colossus would be mummified and placed in a large tomb

-After Dutch Day, Nassor was found wrapped up and he was untied by the others. While he holds no grudges against Toshiaki, he doesn't exactly forgive him for causing Colossus's second death

-Nassor was born on February 24th, 1956

-After Dutch Day, Nassor met one of the new girls, a young lady named Hillary, and he was instantly infatuated with her

-When Nassor and Hillary grew up, they got married and had a son named Darwin (age 12)

-Bob’s full name is Bob Adam Hill

-Bob’s dad passed when he was rather young, making his mother, Mrs. Hill, extremely protective of him, and he finds it super embarrassing

-Bob hates it when people talk about his weight. When he fell down a manhole by accident, he got stuck and had to have a crane to pull him back out

-Bob was born on July 6th, 1957

-In school, Bob had a crush on a girl named Jenny

-Bob first met Toshiaki shortly after Shelly's death. Despite Toshiaki's cold behavior towards him at first, they became good friends

-Bob has an interest in marine life and he has a fish tank full of different kind of fish up in his room

-When he grew up, he and Jenny got married and had a son named Carl (age 12)

-Mr. Frankenstein’s full name is Edward Steven Frankenstein

-Edward was an avid lover of sports, especially baseball. He played as a star athlete in high school, where he first met Susan who was cheering with the other cheerleaders

-Edward has a bit of hard time understanding his son, Victor, but still supports him nonetheless

-Edward likes to role play with his wife Susan that he's a travelling salesman when her "husband" isn't around the house

-Edward often gets people who ask him about his last name Frankenstein. An old family rumor was that he was a direct descendant of the original presumed fictional scientist, Dr. Frankenstein

-Edward tries to get along with his next door neighbor, Mayor Bergermeister

-Mrs. Frankenstein’s full name is Susan Delia Woods Frankenstein

-Susan and Edward Frankenstein first met in back high school; he was a star athlete while she was the head cheerleader. A few years after graduation, they got married and she gave birth to Victor at age 31

-Susan has two sisters, Lillian and Francine. Francine is the eldest, Susan is the middle child, and Lillian is the youngest. Lillian is Vincent Malloy’s mother

-Susan isn't as social with the other mothers/housewives with their gossiping. She prefers the company with her family instead. She is friends with Mrs. Van Helsing, though

-Susan had a pet calico cat when she was younger named Lacey. But poor Lacey died when she was around Victor's age, so she knows what her son was going through

-Mayor Bergermeister’s full name is Robert “Bob” Clarence Bergermeister

-The Bergermeister family has been mayors of New Holland for generations. They were known for their strict laws, rules, and leadership towards its citizens

-Bergermeister has a very low tolerance towards animals, especially dogs… probably because he never had any pets growing up

-Elsa’s father’s full name is Jonathon Gabriel Van Helsing

-Elsa’s mother’s full name is Lydia Hermione Bergermeister Van Helsing

-Mr. and Mrs. Van Helsing are philosophers, hence why they tend to be away a lot. They travel to countries mostly in Europe, like Romania and the Netherlands. They sometimes take Elsa with them when they have to go out of the town, state, or even country. But most often, she stays behind because of school and just wants to be at home and spend time with Victor

-Mayor Bergermeister is in fact the older brother of Lydia by four years. Like most siblings, they do love each other but sometimes can’t stand each other

-Lydia is one of the few people and things that actually scares Mr. Bergermeister, despite the fact that that she’s his little sister. She doesn’t take nonsense from him or anyone else and she’s not afraid to stand up to him. When she’s done, he usually replies weakly “yes, sis” or “yes, little sis”

-Jonathon grew up in Romania for most of his childhood, but when he lost his parents, he immigrated to the United States to make a better life for himself. He met Lydia when he was about to start high school

-Bergermeister loves gardening, especially his first prize flowers. He absolutely hates it when the neighbor's dog lays his "business" all over the lawn

-Bergermeister cares deeply for his niece and younger sister… but he isn't very fond of her husband, Jonathon

-At first, Bergermeister greatly disliked the idea of Elsa and Victor being together, but he eventually grew to respect him

-Bergermeister used to be married; he and his wife even had a son named Bernard. But the couple had a huge fight and they filed for a divorce. When the divorce was finalized, his ex left New Holland and she took Bernard with him

-Bernard Bergermeister was never close with his cousin, Elsa. In fact, Elsa often found Bernard to be quite repulsive

-When Bernard grew up, he met a wealthy young woman named Lucille and they had a son named Bruce (age 13)

-Mr. Rzykruski’s full name is Ivan Darius Rzykruski

-Ivan was born in a small Eastern European village. He grew up influenced around various scientists in the community. Both of his parents were scientists in different fields of expertise and would encourage him to pursue his dreams

-By the time Ivan was 18 years old, he immigrated to the United States and eventually landed a job as a university professor teaching quantum mechanics. He met with various famous scientists in his career

-Ivan tends to be a bit dramatic in his teachings. He briefly took acting classes in his youth, but he wanted to focus more on being a scientist

-During one of his science lectures, Ivan met a woman by the name of Vanessa. They quickly fell in love, got married, and had a son named Dirk. Unfortunately when Dirk was about 9 years old, Vanessa passed away because of cancer. Ivan was heartbroken and he and Dirk missed her terribly. When Dirk was 10, Ivan sent his son to a private boarding school in another part of the state. But when the boy turned 14, he went back to public school

-Dirk grew up and met a woman named Clarice. They got married and had a daughter named Ingrid (age 13). But Clarice died of a terrible sickness when Ingrid was about 3 or 4, then Dirk died in a car crash when Ingrid was about 7. That was when Mr. Rzykruski took his granddaughter in and raised her as his own

-The gym teacher’s full name is Coach Darla Gladys Barnes

-Bob’s mom’s full name is Barbara Deborah Ferguson Hill

-Vincent Malloy’s full name is Vincent Sebastian Malloy

-When Vincent grew up, he met a woman named Marilynn, they got married and had a daughter named Winona (age 7). But Marilynn got into a bad car accident and passed away, leaving Vincent to raise his daughter on his own

-The invisible fish Victor reanimated didn't die. In fact, the fish used its invisibility powers to slip out of the glass jar Edgar was keeping it in and disappeared into the sewer, rumored to still be there

-The reason that New Holland has so many lightning storms is part of an old town legend. Centuries ago when the first settlers built New Holland, there was a young witch by the name of Loretta Thistletwing and while she was a good witch, she kept her true nature a secret from the superstitious townsfolk. Unfortunately, one fateful night, Loretta accidentally caused her powers to be revealed and the townsfolk formed an angry mob to have her killed. However, her beloved familiar black cat, Midnight, heard of the danger and tried to defend his mistress, only to get killed in the process. Outraged by the loss of her beloved pet, Loretta unleashed a curse upon the town right before they burned her at the stake, saying that the town would be cursed with perpetual thunderstorms and any lightning that hit a deceased pet would bring it back to life, unleashing its fury upon the town. This is why the lightning brings dead pets back. But Sparky is the only good one to be reanimated because Victor loved him so much

-Susan and her two sisters are the three granddaughters of Victor Van Dort and Victoria Everglot. Susan’s son and only child, Victor, was named after his great-grandfather who passed away before his birth

-In the past, New Holland had experienced horrible monster attacks and many of them were based on famous movie monsters. There was a mutated bulldog made out of slime (based on the Blob), a half lizard/fly (based on the Fly), a gigantic pet capuchin monkey (based on King Kong), and even a phantom like cat (based on the Phantom of the Opera). Of course, the current townsfolk never believed these supposed stories until the Dutch Day incident

-Legend has it that the curse Loretta put on the town could only be broken when a pet that had been deeply loved by its owner was brought back peaceful and the townsfolk came together to save it should it die again. This ultimately ended up happening by the end of the movie and the curse was unwittingly broken

This is all I've got so far, but feel free to tell me what you think and tell me which one is your favorite

#frankenweenie #Tim Burton

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razieltwelve · 3 years ago

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The Sound of Thunder (Spoilers)

This post contains spoilers for the future direction of The Sound of Thunder. If you do not want to read spoilers, stop here.

The Sound of Thunder is basically inspired by Silence of the Lambs with Lightning playing the role of Hannibal Lecter and Fang stepping into the shoes of Agent Clarice Starling.

The story opens with Fang be sent to interview Lightning in a secure facility. Amodar wants to get her insight into a case since someone has begun to commit murders that are eerily similar to those committed by Lightning. The critical difference is that while Lightning killed sister, she often focused her ire on the younger sister whereas the present murders seem to show greater anger toward the older sister.

Lightning’s sister, Serah, is currently in protective custody, her whereabouts unknown.

After a brief conversation, Lightning taunts Fang but takes an interests in her, revealing the differences between her murders and the present murders.

That’s where the first chapter finishes.

The basic idea of the story is fairly simple. Fang is going to try to put together the clues to identify the murderer while bodies continue to pile up.

Things get increasingly tense when Yuna and Rikku are abducted. Yuna’s father is a powerful politician, and he demands that something be done. What disturbs Amodar and Fang is that the two aren’t actually sisters. However, when asked about this, Lightning tells Fang that it isn’t necessarily the blood relationship that matters, so much as the bond between the two. After all, she didn’t just target any old pair of sisters. Lightning always went after the sisters that were the closest.

It is during this time that Serah Farron apparently disappears from police custody. After consulting with the witness protection program, Fang discovers that the murders have occurred in areas not far from Serah. She believes that Lightning’s ‘admirer’ is trying to finish what Lightning started by killing Serah.

Lightning just laughs when she’s told this, telling Fang that her ‘admirer’ would never be so crass as to take what’s hers, not if they know what’s good for them. Fang points out that Lightning is stuck behind bars, but Lightning merely smiles and tells Fang that she’ll be out soon enough.

Fang begins to believe that Lightning knows exactly who the killer is. This belief is further bolstered when forensic analysis shows that the weapon and style used to kill the latest victims is archetypical of the veterans from Lightning’s old unit in the military. Many of them simply vanished off the face of the earth after the war, and still others were lost in the conflict but never confirmed dead.

With the days passing and Braska (Yuna’s father) growing more desperate, he decides to use his political clout to force a meeting with Lightning. Lightning was a former soldier, someone who loved the outdoors and a good bit of exercise. These days, she’s cooped up in one of the most secure cells in the world.

His offer is simple. If she can give information that allows them to save his daughter and Rikku, he will have her transferred to a new cell on a deserted island. She will still be confined, and the island itself is so isolated that escape would be meaningless, but she will get more time outdoors, and a cell that allows her to do some indoor exercise.

Amodar urges Braska to reconsider, but Braska is adamant. It is at this point that Fang’s sister, Vanille, disappears. Fang is horrified, especially when a cryptic message left at the scene suggests that the one responsible is indeed the killer. She seeks out Lightning’s advice, only to find that Lightning has already been transferred as is being held in another secure location.

Dr Jihl Nabaat tells Fang that she should hurry. As Lightning’s former warden, she protested the move, but was overruled. She doesn’t think that Lightning’s new minders will be able to hold her. They don’t know what they’re dealing with.

Fang hurries to the location where Lightning is being held.

Meanwhile, Lightning is being wonderfully civil. She has passed on information to Amodar indicating that the killer is a former colleague, someone who grew up in a broken home, someone who grew to blame someone in his life that he viewed as something between a sister and a lover for his ills. During their time on the front, they came to understand one another and she learned that he planned to enact his own bloody vengeance on the world.

His name? Caius Ballad.

During a seemingly uneventful dinner, Lightning begins her escape. Faking a seizure, she lures the inexperienced guards close enough for her to kill them and take the keys. She then takes their weapons and sounds the alarm. As the backup team rushes to her ‘cell’, Lightning begins to systematically hunt them down, wiping out the entire team. She does this by wounding some of the members to lure out the others and erode team discipline while using the bodies of the guards she killed as props to draw attention at critical moments.

Rather than attempt to escape through the front door, Lightning instead takes advantage of the building’s geography to escape first to the roof and then over to a nearby building where she kills someone else, takes their clothes, and disguises herself using a hat to hide her hair. She even changes her gait and simply walks out of the building as reinforcements rush into the original building.

Fang arrives on the scene shortly after, and Lightning actually stays to watch her. When Fang somehow manages to trace Lightning’s steps via intuition and cunning, Lightning ambushes her. Rather than killing her, Lightning knocks her unconscious, but not before leaving her with a few clues.

When Fang regains consciousness, she tells Amodar what she has learned, and she finds out that Caius Ballad isn’t really the one responsible. Instead, when they track him down, they find out that he’s been dead for years. In fact, it looks a lot like Lightning killed him herself. The isolated cabin he was in was also rigged with a trap that killed most of the team sent to apprehend him.

Following Lightning’s tip to investigate the ‘chains of the past’, Fang delves into Lightning’s history. She discovers evidence that after Lightning’s parents died, she and Serah became abnormally close. At this time, they were badly let down by the system. They lost their house. They had to resort to begging to survive, and Lightning ended up joining a gang to make ends meet. It was during this period that Lightning’s kills were believed to have begun. This relationship only deepened until Serah met Snow Villiers. This enraged Lightning who saw it as a betrayal.

Lightning went to war only to return and find that Serah and Snow were going to get married. It was around that time that Lightning’s killings began to ramp up. Fang believes that Lightning saw Serah marrying Snow as the last piece of her family abandoning her and leaving her all alone. It was notable that in the car accident in which Lightning’s parents died, Lightning never lost consciousness whereas Serah did. Lightning spent three days in that ravine trapped next to the dead bodies of her parents trying to get out of the wreck and save her sister. The other driver would escape charges due to political connections but would later be killed during a robbery gone wrong.

Snow would later be killed in a car accident, but the more Fang investigated the matter, the more certain she grew that it wasn’t an accident at all. That was when Lightning’s killings took on an even more gruesome style, culminating in the hideously awful murder scene where Lightning forgot to cover her tracks. Some of her hair was found on the scene, along with fingerprints. This was how Lightning was caught.

But something about the old case files bothers her. Looking more closely at the wounds on that last, pivotal set of murders, Fang notices that the older sister was actually harmed more than the younger one - something closer to the current murders. Moreover, the knife work isn’t quite as expert as in Lightning’s older murders.

She doesn’t know quite what to make of it, but as she delves into the archives containing Lightning’s old records, she finds a note about a location very dear to Lightning: an old beach house in Bodhum. It was never hers, but her family used to walk past it every day. Fang has a hunch, and she follows it to the beach house.

There, she discovers that although it should be abandoned, there are signs that it has been lived in recently. Preparing herself, she makes her way inside. She finds Yuna and Rikku huddled together in a dark pit. She tries to call it in, but there is a jamming device in place. She is about to leave and call for reinforcements when she spots a familiar bit of clothing nearby. It belongs to Vanille.

Fang can’t bear to leave. She presses onward and finds Vanille unconscious and strapped to a chair. However, before she can leave, she is ambushed and knocked unconscious herself. When she wakes up, she finds herself staring into the face of Serah Farron.

Suddenly, it all clicks in Fang’s mind.

Lightning was never the sole killer. She and Serah had been killing people together, right from the start, most likely beginning with the driver who crashed into their car and killed their parents. The reason they’ve been killing sisters is because they don’t very highly of them. They see them as not being close enough, of not caring about each other the way Serah and Lightning do. In fact, Fang remembers that as close as the murdered sisters generally were, there were always rumours of friction and occasional arguments - imperfections in Lightning and Serah’s eyes. After all, alone and with none one else to turn to, Lightning and Serah always had each other. How could they respect people who couldn’t even manage that?

When Fang tells Serah this, the other woman is impressed.

Fang also explains her suspicions about what happened later. Snow’s accident wasn’t an accident. Lightning sabotaged his car. Serah says that is exactly what happened, and she framed Lightning for the last murder to get her arrested and killed. However, Lightning surrendered and avoided being killed, and she was then put out of Serah’s reach for revenge since she genuinely loved Snow.

Her plan was to then commit more murders knowing that Lightning would be drawn out. This succeeded, and she went after Vanille to get to Fang since she thought Lightning found Fang intriguing, and Lightning hates it when people mess with her stuff.

Sure enough, Serah is still talking when Lightning arrives.

The two sister square off. In the midst of their battle, Fang manages to free herself and Vanille, and they run for it, saving Yuna and Rikku along the way. The beach house is destroyed in an explosion when Serah, who starts losing, detonates a trap she’d set beforehand.

This spells the end of the two sisters.

Or so Fang thought.

A few months later, having received a commendation for her efforts, Fang gets a letter. It’s from Lightning. She thanks Fang for a most interesting adventure, especially the chance to reunite with her sister. Fang doesn’t have to worry. Lightning has other scores to settle and other people to kill, and she wants to see how far Fang can go.

A few days later another letter arrives.

It’s from Serah. In her words, she tells Fang that the world failed her and Lightning. They spent years afraid, wondering what new horror the next day would bring in. She talks about how often Lightning came back home bruised and beaten from her work with the gang, and how often Serah had to steal and lie to get essentials. She tells Fang that she and Lightning are going to settle their score one day. She hasn’t forgiven Lightning for Snow, and she probably never will, but she has other people to go after first.

A few days later, two sets of murders begin. They’re no longer targeting sisters, but Fang knows who is responsible. She joins the special team Amodar is putting together to catch the two sisters.

X X X

Author’s Notes

So, yeah, there is an unedited stream of consciousness of the ideas I had regarding where the story would go. Obviously, it’s very rough, but this was the ‘skeleton’ of what I thought might happen. Had I written it in full, I would have fleshed it out and tinkered with it a lot.

#final fantasy xiii #fanfiction #the sound of thunder

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crimetattle-arc · 4 years ago

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jayne talks about the women of hannibal & how badly the fandom treats them.

every character in hannibal is a shade of grey when it comes to morality, and the fact this fandom constantly crucifies the women but praises the men is gross, like honestly ? gross. like are you allowed to dislike a character ? 100%, hate who you want baby, but if you’re gonna talk shit about alana bloom for being empathic you better talk the same way about will, or if you’re gonna go uwu protect chilton, but say freddie is the one who deserved to be attacked by the red dragon ? ( which is honestly a whole mess i shouldn’t get in to right now as there’s a good post about it somewhere, explaining how it would make will irredeemable, but i digress. ) honey there’s a problem there.

you shouldn’t have to shit on a female character to make your problematic male faves look better.

alana wasn’t stupid, she was manipulated for years by hannibal. her worry about will and hannibal being friends after ? will contentiously said hannibal was a murderer and tried to literally have him killed ? honestly a valid fucking concern, but y’all still call her stupid or blind for it. she was literally trained for years to protect hannibal, and see him as a friend, mentor and eventually lover. her dislike of them having a sort of relationship was a valid concern. especially seeing as alana is a fucking psychologist who has known will for years.

freddie is selfish, she’s done bad shit, yeah. i’ll be the first to say that. her actions are only for personal gain, she’s manipulative and harmful, she’s chaotic neutral, she’s an individualist. she’s literally written to be this way. she’s a woman in a male dominated field trying to make a name for herself writing about murder, her moral compass is fucked, but at the end of the day she’s doing it in the name of justice, from her perspective, what she’s doing is justified. does that justify what she’s done ? no. i’ll be the first to say that too.

freddie wrote slanderous articles about will before she even met him, ( and she ended up being right ? ) but y’all wanna talk shit ? like okay, consider for a moment if you will, when she wrote about will the first time, she got the information from zeller. everything she drew conclusions from was information she was given by someone who knew and worked with him. not to mention it mentions in canon she has been sued for libel, like it addresses that will isn’t the only person she’s done this to. but y’all wanna say she’s the worst for being mean to will when hannibal uh . . . framed will for murder, was inducing seizures, practically brainwashing will and gaslighting him ? to the point he made will believe he murdered and ate abigail ? cool.

bedelia was vaguely kidnapped, and was a live in psychiatrist for hannibal, not to mention he manipulated her into murdering a patient, and helped cover for it as blackmail and psychological manipulation to keep her in line. he was keeping her on a strict diet to eventually eat her, and then when she tried to escape he uh, killed a man in front of her ? something he no doubt did a handful of times before, as we saw two different instances of it in florence. not to mention the fact it was heavily implied he was “brainwashing” her, and influencing her sense of self in s3, when she says she “feels like she is in control of herself.” but she’s the bitch when she becomes will’s psychiatrist and is rude ? she obviously wasn’t affected by any of it, because she benefited from it, right ?

margot wasn’t “too cold” she was severely traumatized and had built walls to avoid getting hurt by her abuser. her distrust in the world, or even exclusively in men is all extremely valid when you think about her situation. first of all, she wasn’t send to therapy to work through her trauma, she was forced into therapy because she tried to kill mason to escape him, and after that failed, she was tortured by him with her father’s assistance. the amount of gaslighting that had to be going on with her and her family is beyond my comprehension honestly. because she was abused, and assaulted, and was the one who was punished, when all mason had to do was community service. he got a slap on the wrist. margot was forced to live with her abuser knowing that he 1 ) would track her down if she ever tried to leave 2 ) she wouldn’t get any part of her family estate without a male heir. she tried to flee, to find a way out and for that she was tormented more. but she was just being selfish for not just leaving. because that isn’t victim blaming at all.

beverly is just one of the most underappreciated characters on the show, and i’ll admit i don’t even give her the attention she deserves. bev managed to hunt hannibal, and was ridiculed by the fandom for it. i think a lot of the time people forget that while we as the audience get those jokes han makes, and we get to see that he’s a murderer, to the rest of the world those jokes are the other side of the curtain, those jokes don’t exist. hannibal is just a doctor being framed by a man who can’t cope with the idea he killed people. bev was one of the first people to see from our side and people call her dumb for going in alone when that was literally her only way of doing it because, as with will : no one would have believed her. the show fucked her over honestly.

i won’t get into the fact people made miriam a joke as if she didn’t find out who hannibal was within fifteen minutes of meeting him, and as if he didn’t torture her and brainwash her. i’m not touching that.

molly graham literally didn’t do shit ! to anyone ! and y’all wanna hate her because she’s "too plain” or not “pretty enough” for will ? or hate her because she “got in the way” of what at the time was the show’s queerbaiting ? just say you hate her for being with will and move on.

i am continuously glad that clarice wasn’t introduced because the way people would treat her is just horrendous and i know this, because people already do it. or they use her as a force to make will jealous, or draw the two closer and that in itself should bother people greatly.

this isn’t to say you should hate will, or hannibal. but how about we stop crucifying women for the same shit we praise men for, how about we treat the women like uh, i don’t know people ?

#* ⟢ 𝐉𝐀𝐘𝐍𝐄 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐒 ❮ MUN ❯ ━━ ❝ OUT !#you're allowed to dislike a character #you can hate freddie or alana all you want #but at least admit when it's bias #wow i hope this doesn't end up in the tags asdfghj #mutuals may reblog /

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meteora-writes · 4 years ago

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We Could Be Perfect One Last Night ch.8

Fandom: Hannibal Pairing: Hannibal Lecter x Will Graham Warnings: Angst, Revenge Plotting, Discussion of Cannibalism Chapter: 8. This Riddle Of Revenge Description: Jack receives a call from Alana. Will and Hannibal discuss what they intend to do with Bedelia and Jack when they get their hands on them. Authors Notes: So this took me way longer than I’d like to finish. The muses buggered off on me for a bit. But I’m back in time to get this posted before my birthday =D Yay! Read on AO3

~~~~~ Read Ch.1.Ch.2.Ch.3.Ch.4.Ch.5.Ch.6 Ch.7~~~~~

Eight Days Post Fall

“Did you get the video?”

“Yes, Jack, I got the video,” Alana confirms with a sigh over the phone. She watched it three times before calling.

“And?” Jack asks expectantly.

“You want my professional opinion?” she asks, a hint of annoyance creeping into her voice. She only reached out to Jack via email earlier in the day to see if he had any information not shared in the news regarding Will and Hannibal being declared dead. She figured he would email her back with something other than a video of Will and Hannibal killing Francis Dolarhyde then falling off a cliff.

“That’s exactly what I want. I want to know what you think happened. You know Will better than I do. Do you think it’s possible he pushed them over the edge, or do you think that they fell? And do you think it’s possible they’re still alive.” It’s all he’s been able to think about for the last week. Did Will push them, or did he fall with Hannibal in some sort of staged plan to escape? Whatever the answer he won’t be satisfied until he has some kind of solid evidence. Which he, unfortunately, found none of while searching the area around the bluffs.

Half of the homeowners in the area refused to allow their vacation homes to be searched. Some stated that they had already been down to check the homes themselves and found nothing out of place. Others just ignored them or said they could search them if Jack got a warrant. With no evidence leading anyone to believe Will and Hannibal made it out of the ocean, no judge would issue one.

“I think that given the frame of mind Will had been in while helping you track down Francis Dolarhyde, he probably came to some kind of truce with Hannibal despite his feelings towards him to take the psychopath down. As for how things went with Hannibal in the end, Will knows how ruthless Hannibal can be, he probably saw no other way of dealing with him and pushed him over the edge the only way he could. The way they turned before falling would seem to support that.” Alana manages to sound professional as she gives Jack her assessment of things. Honestly, she has some very small doubts. But she isn’t going to voice them. Jack is wound tight enough as it is, she doesn’t want to agitate him when it’s likely pointless.

“I was afraid you were going to say that,” Jack confesses with a sigh. He remembers the three of them deciding they needed to kill Hannibal after Hannibal helps him kill Dolarhyde, but he never meant for it to go down like this. “Molly Graham is speaking at my suspension hearing next week. She wouldn’t return any of my calls after we initially spoke the day Will disappeared. I don’t think I’ll have my job for much longer…”

“Well, you did want to retire soon,” Alana notes, trying to lighten the mood of the call even just a little. She hasn’t met Molly, but knowing the kind of people Will is attracted to, she can imagine what she must be like.

“I had been hoping it would be at least a few more years away. When I was completely grey and too tired to hold a gun,” Jack says woefully. “Is everything alright with you? How are Margot and Morgan holding up?”

“We’re all just fine, Jack. Margot is busy teaching Morgan how to swim right now. I tried to tell her he’s a little young for that, but they’re having a good time so I won’t spoil their fun,” Alana tells him with a small smile to herself. She can see her wife and son out swimming through the window of her office. The estate they’re staying on is big. Not as big as the one in Virginia. But it’s substantial. And it has a pool. Which works in their favor since it’s summer in the southern hemisphere.

“Must be nice. It’s still cold here,” Jack tells her with a chuckle. It’s warmed up a little since the storm that made the search for Will and Hannibal difficult, but it’s still only in the forties out most days.

“It is… Listen, Jack, I don’t honestly know if Will and Hannibal could have survived that fall or not. But I think if they had we would have had some sort of sign by now. Will would reach out to Molly or you if he could. Hannibal can bide his time when he wants something, but if he’s got Will with him I’m not so sure he would hold back for long.”

“It’s a waiting game. One that might never end…” Jack says as he turns in his chair to look out his office window. It’s a nice enough day out. Warming up enough to allow more snow to melt.

“I need to go. I promised Margot I wouldn’t be too long. Email if you need to get in contact with me again. You’ll forgive me for not giving you another way to contact me, but we can’t be too careful,” Alana says, feeling just a little bad. She knows she can trust Jack. But wants to protect her family, and that means not trusting anyone despite what her gut tells her.

“I will. Thank you, Alana. Take care.”

“Take care, Jack.”

~~~~~

Twelve Days Post Fall

“You’re certain you’re ready to move forward with things?” Will asks as he removes the last stitch from the healed gunshot wound in Hannibal’s back. Hannibal removed the ones in the front on his own, but he needed Will’s help with the ones in his back just as he had in getting the wound stitches properly closed a day after receiving it.

“Absolutely,” Hannibal answers with a glance over his shoulder at Will. He’s seated in one of the wooden chairs at the table, Will kneeling behind him. He would have liked to take the stitches out a little sooner, but Will had taken one look at them after nine days and said he needed more time to heal. He finds that hard to believe, but he went with Will’s judgment in this case. He suspects it was something more along the lines of Will not feeling ready to remove them for him as he still felt off-kilter from dealing with his own.

“Then we should go for Bedelia first. She more than likely went off on her own again rather than going into FBI protective custody. And even if she had that would have ended shortly after we were declared dead,” Will notes as he moves to help Hannibal put his shirt back on. Not that he needs the help, he just doesn’t know what to do with himself anymore. He feels cooped up. And he misses his dogs.

“Tracking her down won’t be difficult. She let slip one night that she used to summer in Connecticut. I believe her family still owns a home there that we can locate easily enough.” She had made the comment at a party they attended when first arriving in Italy. She didn’t think he was within earshot at the time, or she never would have said it. Everything she told the people they met was either a half-truth or some other variation thereof. He could always tell when she was lying. And she knew it. So, she didn’t bother lying beyond the deception of their true identities. “Tell me, do you intend to help me deal with her, or do you simply wish to watch?”

Will steps around the chair Hannibal sits in to stand in front of him, watching as he carefully buttons his shirt while he thinks on his answer. A small part of him almost likes Bedelia. But knowing she got away with the lengths she went to lie and cover her own skin after willingly leaving the country with Hannibal bothers him on some level. She was honest with Will in private. He can appreciate that. But she’s used her experience with Hannibal to make a name for herself and gain a level of professional esteem that she never would have achieved otherwise. It’s almost as irritating as what Chilton did with his damn book.

“What exactly is it that you plan on doing with her?” Will asks leu of answering right away. He knows Hannibal intends to eat her. The question is, does he plan to kill her and then eat her, or keep her alive like he did with Miriam Lass so he can toy with her first?

“I was thinking I might like to give her a similar treatment to that of the one I gave Dr. Gideon,” Hannibal explains as he finishes buttoning his shirt and moves to stand so that he and Will are eye to eye.

“The forensic report said his limbs had been amputated,” Will recalls with a tilt of his head. He didn’t ever get a look at the body in person, just read the paperwork and look at photos later on. “Taken one by one over the course of roughly two weeks. His stomach had his own partially digested remains inside.”

The smile on Hannibal’s face is one of his rare genuine ones. “He made for a most fascinating dinner guest. It was almost a shame to kill him. He ate everything I prepared and served him. Even when he was down to a single arm and had very little appetite left,” Hannibal recalls. The man was absolutely insufferable on some levels, but he took his fate in stride and could keep up a conversation. He can respect that at least.

“I don’t know if I’m more impressed or disturbed by that,” Will says with a shake of his head. He’s joking, just a little.

“I seriously doubt that you find anything I’m capable of to be truly disturbing at this point,” Hannibal speculates. “If the idea of my keeping Bedelia alive bothers you, you don’t have to participate. I’m more than capable of taking care of her on my own.”

Will considers the offer. Thinks about what it would be like to sit at the table with her and Hannibal as he serves up some piece of her like a fine holiday meal. See the look of defeat in her eyes as she accepts her plate. A small, fading part of him still screams somewhere deep down that it’s wrong. But he doesn’t honestly feel bothered by the idea. Especially given the fact that he knows he’s eaten people before… Unwittingly as it was at the time. “It doesn’t bother me,” he finally admits as he turns away to look out the window.

“You’re certain?” Hannibal questions carefully. They’ve not really talked about this yet. Killing Jack together was a given. But Bedelia is Hannibal’s own personal vendetta. He knows Will accepts that Hannibal intends to eat them both. But he hasn’t said if he intends to join him or not. Which Hannibal won’t push. He won’t force him to do something he isn’t interested to in this case.

“I don’t feel any desire to eat her, but I would like to see the look on Bedelia’s face when you serve up a piece of her up for dinner,” Will admits as he glances back to Hannibal. He doesn’t miss the way his words affect the other man. Something in his eyes becoming almost primal. It sends a shiver down his spine as it reminds him of the look in Hannibal’s eyes when he ripped out Francis Dolarhyde’s throat with his teeth. “Do you intend to do the same to Jack when we go after him?”

“The thought had crossed my mind, but I leave that decision up to you. After all, you are the one who was most wronged by him. He treated you like an animal, Will. And an ill cared for one, at that. I think it’s only fair you should be the one to decide what’s to be done with him in the end,” Hannibal says as he turns to grab his notebook from where he left it beside the bed. He doesn’t doubt that whatever Will decides upon will be in some way satisfying for him also. He remembers quite well how vivid the other incredibly man’s imagination is. “You should take your time deciding. Nothing has to be settled upon until after we’ve finished with Bedelia.”

“I already know what I want to do with Jack,” Will says plainly as he watches Hannibal walk over to take his usual seat on the far end of the couch. He always lets Will take the side closest to the window so that he can sit and look outside if he likes. It also means he’s facing Hannibal if he does so. And he’s not blind to the fact that he’s been the subject of more than one of Hannibal’s sketches in that situations.

“Oh?” Hannibal doesn’t look up, just turns the pages of the notebook until he finds the latest sketch he’d been working on.

“I was thinking about how he and I first met,” Will begins as he takes his seat opposite Hannibal on the couch, body turned towards him with one leg pulled up onto the space between them at an angle. His posture is wide open. One arm resting on the back of the couch while the other rests so his hand is in his lap.

That gets a curious look from Hannibal, who pauses in the shading he’d begun to work on. “The museum opening?”

Nodding, Will scratches at his jaw and looks out the window once again. There are still patches of snow on the ground. Early March weather changing the landscape to a muddy semi-frozen mess. “I have some ideas on how we might contribute our own exhibit to it.”

The smile that creeps on to Will’s face is enough to give Hannibal an idea of what the other man is thinking, and it sends a thrill through him at the thought of Will having thought this through already in detail. “He did seem quite invested the one time we spoke of the museum.”

Will huffs a laugh, because that is a serious understatement. “Jack was intimately involved in creating and establishing that museum. He helped track down half of the items on display personally. He was like a proud parent come to watch their child graduate when it finally opened.” He remembers their argument over the name that night well. And he remembers thinking Jack was a fool that would probably end up part of a display in his own creation someday. It only seems fitting that he and Hannibal be the ones to put him there. “He was almost as invested in the forming of that museum as he was in finding the Chesapeake Ripper,” he notes. “How do you feel about making him into an exhibit in his own museum? I was thinking something along the lines of the Chesapeake Ripper’s greatest hits?”

“A mosaic forged from the elements of my previous kills?” Hannibal finds himself imagining Jack strung up like a mannequin, body cut open, various pieces missing or artistically arranged along with him. Posed in a way that lets everyone who lays their eyes upon him see the scope of their work at a glimpse. It gives him an idea of what to do with the rest of Bedelia when he’s finished with her as well. “Beautiful.”

“I thought you might like that idea,” Will says almost fondly with a shake of his head before looking outside once again. The sunlight makes his eyes sparkle with an almost ethereal glow.

It makes Hannibal want to flip the page and draw him yet again… “What about your own contribution? This would be your work of art as well as my own,” Hannibal reminds him. He honestly loves Will’s idea, but he wants him to contribute his own elements to this creation.

“I have my own twist to put on things,” Will says vaguely as he turns his head and glances towards the tacklebox where it rests by the table. “Don’t worry, Hannibal, I intend to leave my mark alongside yours when the time comes.”

“I look forward to it,” Hannibal confesses with a small smile. He’s watched Will for almost two weeks now. Making his fishing lures and daydreaming. He wishes he could see the things that come to that fascinating mind when it drifts. He knows Will likes to go to his stream when he has nothing else to do, but he also lets himself wander to darker places from time to time now that he only dared go when Hannibal asked. Because of that, it’s easy to spot when he does. His eyes take on a more feral sharpness that isn’t there other than when he’s ready to kill. It never fails to bring a similar desire out in Hannibal when he sees it.

“When do you want to leave?” Will asks with a tilt of his head after a moment silence passes between them. His gaze has drifted to the sketch in Hannibal’s hands. It’s of his old office. The furniture and fireplace are what give it away at a glance. Will still sees the room in his mind regularly enough to recognize the half-drawn shapes.

“I’ll give Chiyoh a call tomorrow and ask her to bring us to my house in New York. She can get us a temporary vehicle and more supplies while we get the house ready for guests.” He hasn’t been there in over four years. Having last gone some time before ever meeting Will. He’ll need to get new medical supplies and restock the pantry before they make their move to retrieve Bedelia.

“How far away is this place, anyway?”

Humming, Hannibal thinks a moment. “About four hours or so. It’s in the lower mountains, close to a town called Rhinebeck.”

“Great,” Will mutters with a slight look of discomfort flashing across his face. He doesn’t know how to feel about being in a car with Chiyoh for that long. He’s still a little bitter about their last interaction on the train. Her visit to bring them supplies was awkward enough for him as it was. He can only imagine what a road trip with her would be like. Especially with Hannibal and his ability to read people most of the time.

“You worry too much, Will. Chiyoh holds no feelings of ill will towards you. She is aware of how important you are to me. That makes you important to her as well. You’re family, and she would never do anything to hurt family,” Hannibal does his best to assure. He had spoken with her in private outside before she left the other day. She could tell from one look at the two of them together that something had shifted in their dynamic. He didn’t need to explain and she didn’t ask. Only promised to help the two of them finish what they needed here so they could find a quiet life together when all is said and done.

Will shifts almost uncomfortably in his seat, hand going to that torn bit of leather on the couch back to fidget with. “Did she tell you that or are you just making assumptions based on interactions?”

“She gave me her word,” Hannibal says in way of clarification. “She promised me to assist us in getting our affairs in order so that we may leave together after things have been taken care of.”

Will raises his eyes from Hannibal’s drawing and once again meets Hannibal’s gaze, uncertain blue meeting confident whiskey-brown. He relaxes after a beat and nods. “Alright,” is all he says before averting his gaze again and letting his thoughts drift. It’s good to know she’s willing to help them in some way. That she made that promise to Hannibal.

His thoughts find their way to images of them confronting Jack. Going through various scenarios of how they might surprise him to get the upper hand in a fight against the well-trained agent. What things they might do with his body after to leave their farewell masterpiece.

The only thing that draws his mind away is the realization that Hannibal is watching him from mere feet away with a smile on his face. It makes him look younger. And draws Will’s gaze to his lips more than once. He tries to hold back the thoughts that come with looking at them. He’s not quite ready for them. At least not yet.

#hannibal #hannigram #hannibal lecter #will graham #hannibal x will #will x hannibal #hannibal lecter x will graham #will graham x hannibal lecter #murder husbands #angst #murder plots #we could be perfect one last night

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four-loose-screws · 4 years ago

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FE4 Suzuki Novelization Translation (Gen II) - Chapter 9

If you would like to start from the beginning, read a missed part, etc., click here!

FE Game Script Translations - FE Novel Translations - Original FE Support Conversations

If you are interested in donating to support my work, please check out my Ko-fi here. Thank you!

———————————

Chapter 9 - Dragon Knight Arion

T/W: Mention of likely one-sided romantic feelings between adopted siblings.

Ever since the child hunt was carried out at Grutia Castle, many of the citizens had come to see Seliph and his soldiers as a liberation army.

The same people also spread the news that General Hannibal's son had been taken hostage. His name was Coirpre, and he'd been entrusted to Luthecia Castle's General Disler.

"Let's save the hostage!" Seliph said. "If we do that, the general may respond with a ceasefire."

It was the liberation army's fundamental policy to avoid pointless battles as much as possible, and Hannibal's army was also very powerful, so reaching a conclusion without fighting him was the best possible option.

But to get to Luthecia Castle, they would have to get past Hannibal's army, which was stationed in front of Kapathogia Castle.

"Does anyone know of a road we can take that will allow us to avoid being seen by Hannibal's army?” Seliph asked.

The villagers took him into the mountains behind Kapathogia Castle, where hunters were using the land as their hunting grounds.

According to the hunters, if they avoided General Hannibal's army and traveled on the foot to the base of the mountains, there was a road that circumvented the castle.

"Alright, let's take that road!" Seliph exclaimed.

Since the rescue mission was to be a surprise attack from beginning to end, it was best to only let a few people go, so they narrowed the group down to Seliph, Ares, and finally, Fee, who would act as a flying column.

The problem was the countermeasure in case of Hannibal's army attacking before the rescue had been completed.

"I have a Sleep Staff. Whoever I use it on will sleep for four to five days straight." Lana said.

"I didn't know there was such a useful spell! Why haven't you used it until now?"

"The staff will break after one use, so I didn’t want to use it until we were in a desperate situation…"

Shanan was chosen to lead the army while they were gone.

With the hunters as their guides, Seliph and the others headed out.

They traveled west in a straight line, then turned south at the foot of the mountains. That area was wooded, so they didn't have to worry about being seen by enemies.

The forest cleared when they neared the castle.

"Starting from here, we'll have to climb into the mountains a bit."

The path was steep, and they couldn't make much progress on foot.

Fee gave a report every day on what she observed from the skies.

On the evening of the fourth day since they'd set out, they made it to the backside of the castle.

"Up until this point, we haven't run into any enemies at all. But tomorrow, I suspect some will be flying around in this area, so I will go ahead to Luthecia Castle." Fee said, then turned west and flew away.

"What should we do? It may take a toll on our bodies, but it would be safest to travel behind the castle tonight because we'd be able to get past it very quickly."

They of course thought it best to follow the hunters' suggestion, and started moving again without taking time to rest.

The hunters were right. Because they were following right along a steep mountain, there were areas where they had to walk almost right against the castle wall. However, the soldiers didn't think anyone would ever pass through such an area, so they were able to safely make it through.

"For the last stretch, we should travel south. We'll soon come out to the main road that leads to Luthecia."

"Thank you. You might have saved a lot of lives by helping us. How can we repay you?"

"We don't need repayment. But…"

"But?"

"If you can, please save the children that were taken away to Miletos."

"Understood. We'll try as hard as we can. ...No way, are those children…"

"No, none of them are mine. But my sister's son was taken. He's a smart, cute kid, yet they had the gall to do something so terrible to him!"

When they arrived at the main road, they could see that Hannibal's army, located to the north, had begun to move. Though Seliph and the others did not know it, Hannibal knew that King Travant had deployed, and ordered his own army to attack.

"If the king himself has gone to battle, then we have no choice. All units, attack!"

However, Hannibal's army was made up entirely of infantry units, so they didn't make it in time to fight alongside Travant. By the time they neared Meath Castle, the dragon knight unit the king led was already completely destroyed.

Lana turned towards Hannibal's army and waved the Sleep Staff.

Hannibal, marching in the center of his army's formation, was enveloped by a white, heavy cloud. However, that didn't mean that the sleep magic affected everyone. The soldiers outside of its range remained loyal to their orders and continued their attack. Shannan and the rest of the liberation army had no choice but to fight them without stopping.

"Lana said that the sleep spell will last for four to five days. The others must come back with the rescued hostage by then."

Because they'd heard that the distance between Kapathogia Castle and Luthecia Castle would take two days to travel, they only had a small margin of leeway.

Seliph and Ares did not take any breaks aside from allowing their horses time to rest, continuing onward.

In the evening two days later, they'd come so far that they could see Luthecia Castle. Fee had arrived earlier, and came to report on the situation at the castle.

"There's hardly any soldiers here. I'm pretty sure there's just a front line and those rounded up to protect the main building."

"Then let's attack tomorrow at dawn. Fee, you fly over the castle wall, and open the gate. After that, we'll storm the castle."

With the plan for their surprise attack decided, Seliph and Ares got a full night's sleep for the first time in a long time.

The surprise attack was a success. General Disler was killed by Ares and Mystletainn the moment he came out of his bedroom in a panic.

The other soldiers were mostly still in bed. By the time they woke up, the general was already dead, and upon hearing that news, they surrendered.

They found Coirpre in the dungeon. He'd been treated more like a prisoner than a hostage. From what they'd heard the villagers say, they'd gotten the feeling that General Disler had a bad reputation.

Coirpre was still young, but already very proper and polite.

"I am Coirpre, General Hannibal's son. My father stated that he wanted a ceasefire with the liberation army, but King Travant misunderstood that, and took me as a hostage. So I beg of you! Please take me to my father! I want to convince him to stop fighting!"

Of course, that had been the reason for their surprise attack in Luthecia Castle. Seliph entrusted Ares to keep watch over the castle, and immediately left with Fee, taking Coirpre towards Kapathogia Castle.

Along the way, they saw a single dragon knight flying towards them. Fee readied a counterattack, but the dragon knight did not try to start a fight.

"You are Prince Seliph, yes? I am Altena, daughter of Quan of Leonster."

The dragon knight landed next to Seliph, dismounted her dragon, and greeted him.

"Oh, so you're Prince Leif's sister! He told me about you."

"My brother's story was true. Since I have learned the truth, I can't fight against you any longer. I too am a descendant of a Crusader. Please allow me to join the liberation army."

"Of course, with pleasure! Prince Leif will probably be happy as well when he hears the news.”

"I just have one request. Arion… No, Prince Arion. I don't want you to fight him. His way of thinking is completely different from the empire's."

"Even if you ask, I can't stop that from happening, though I don't want to fight Prince Arion, either. If only he'd made you the mediator of a ceasefire. Nothing would be better than that."

The liberation army met General Hannibal near Kapathogia Castle. He'd just woken up, and had left the battlefield to return to the castle and order all the soldiers there to deploy.

The moment he saw his son, he was surprised. But when he heard everything from Coirpre, he approached Seliph, and said, "I'd like to thank you for saving my son."

"General Hannibal, we are only fighting those who agree with the ideas of the empire. I've heard that you are also against the child hunts, and that King Travant is already dead. Why would we fight against each other any longer? Please end this battle. And, if possible, I want you to fight the empire with us. You are called "The Shield of Thracia." We are still young, so please be beside us to guide us."

"If you insist, then I have no choice but to accept. So long as you don’t mind fighting with an old man like me, then I will devote my strength to you. I'd also like you to add my son to your army. He probably told you this already, but I took him in and raised him. When I found him, he had a staff that seemed to have a long history. When he's old enough, we will learn the meaning of it. Seliph, I happily entrust him to you."

General Hannibal's remaining soldiers also joined them.

The liberation army, now even stronger, gathered in Luthecia Castle to capture Bishop Judah's Gruthia Castle.

At the same time, they received word that a large imperial cavalier unit had crossed the Miletos-Thracian border.

At the strategy meeting, Altena suggested that it would be the best course of action to settle that fight first.

"I know the terrain of that area very well. The road leading from the border to Luthecia Castle that the cavalier unit can take is a thin mountain path. How about Fee and I meet the enemies halfway, and reduce their numbers? If we swoop down to attack, then use that force to fly over the mountains, they won't be able to counterattack at all."

"That's a great idea, Lady Altena!" Hannibal agreed to the plan right away.

"Because the enemies are calvary, they'll attack by taking turns. If we reduce their numbers by even just a little bit, it will make things that much easier for the rest of the army."

When she’d joined the liberation army in Isaach, Fee was still just a trainee pegasus knight. However, after fighting in battle over the span of a year, she'd evolved into a seasoned falcon knight. She couldn't compete with Altena, who wielded a Holy Weapon, but her flying and combat skills certainly weren't inferior to Altena's.

The enemy cavaliers were worried by the two flying soldier's attacks. Because they didn't know when they would be attacked, their paranoia grew stronger and stronger without end. And even when they were attacked, they only had a split second to react, so there was no way for them to counterattack. No matter how well-trained they were, all they could do was take damage in a one-sided battle, causing their morale to drop.

Once they were off the mountain road, the spirited imperial soldiers were no more. It wasn't just their numbers that had decreased. Their exhaustion and drop in morale was even greater.

The battle was as good as decided the moment they saw the main force of the liberation army spreading out and waiting for their arrival.

While the liberation army was marching towards Grutia Castle, Arion was in Thracia Castle, proposing a ceasefire over and over again. However, not a single soul agreed with him.

Several powerful iron ballistae were set up at Grutia Castle, however, the unit that was supposed to protect them was not there.

The liberation army's calvary entered the edge of the ballistae's range, then charged at full speed ahead. Their goal was to move as quickly as possible and lower their chances of getting hit by the ballistae's bolts.

Within the blink of an eye, they trampled the ballisticians, and captured Grutia Castle.

As if they had been waiting for that to happen, three dragon knight units flew from Thracia Castle and towards them all at once.

When Hannibal saw them, he turned pale. "That is the Three-Headed Dragon formation."

"What is that? This 'Three-Headed Dragon.'"

"Those units are each targeting Meath, Kapathogia, and Luthecia, a formation they call the 'Three-Headed Dragon.' They utilize it when an enemy is targeting Thracia and has gathered together too many of their troops in one place, and they wish to launch a counterattack all at once. Prince Arion practiced it many times."

"I'll defend Meath!" Altena said. "Lana should have a Warp Staff. I want to get to Meath as soon as possible."

"Will you be okay on your own?"

"If we divide our numbers up too much, the main army will probably come attack us here. For now, I will protect Meath!"

"Let's do as Princess Altena says." Hannibal agreed. "I'll protect Kapathogia. I want those remaining to head for Luthecia and intercept the enemy unit headed there. When we do, that's where the real battle should begin. If we take out their commander, the subordinates will surely change course. In other words, they won't continue moving towards Luthecia. And if we defeat them entirely, they'll want the others to come reinforce them. Until then, Lady Altena and I will take care of those other enemies."

The fight went exactly as Hannibal had predicted. When the dragon knight unit headed for Luthecia saw Fee trying to intercept them, they turned towards Grutia Castle to fight the liberation army.

Once she'd lured the dragon knight unit a good distance away and defeated them, Fee and several cavaliers turned towards Kapathogia to provide reinforcements there.

Hannibal wielded a flame sword and fought the oncoming dragon knights. Though he suffered several wounds, he did not lose even the slightest bit of energy. He was able to hold out until reinforcements came, just as he'd promised.

The day had come for Arion and his dragon knight unit to fight.

This was his response to Altena's final letter:

"As a warrior of Thracia, I cannot consider a ceasefire after you've killed this many of my soldiers. You too should know that very well. Now, I wait for the day of our final battle. From the beginning, I have thought not about whether we will win or lose, but that, as a warrior, my acts are not an embarrassment. Still, do not hold back. Tell Lord Seliph to come at us with everything he’s got."

Seliph said in response, "Thank you. Tomorrow, the last battle will finally begin. It may be difficult for you to fight, so you should stay on the rear line."

Altena did as Seliph suggested, and did not go out to the front line, instead flying high in the sky from the rear.

Even though the liberation army was fighting against the once great Thracian Dragon Knights, their numbers had already been so greatly reduced that the battle proceeded to go in the liberation army's favor.

Then, she saw a single dragon flying towards her.

"It's Big Brother." She realized it in an instant. "He's going to try to fight me."

Though she had Gáe Bolg, she knew that she was no match for Arion and Gungnir. At best, the fight would end in a tie.

'I will die by his hand.'

A sweet memory filled her heart.

When she'd stood up to Travant, she'd pictured her ideals in her mind, but never thought things would end up like this. For a moment, she worried that it was all her fault.

'What will become of Thracia now?'

She had no memory of Leonster. Thracia was her one and only home.

'Perhaps dying by his hand is the greatest end for me.’

She raised Gáe Bolg and yelled, "Let's do this, Brother!"

The two dragons flew towards each other in a straight line, with their opponent on their right side, as if they were in a jousting match.

As the distance between them shrank, Altena could see clearly the face of the man she loved. She could also see the sparkling tip of Gungnir, aiming straight for her.

'Watch my final attack!'

When they crossed paths, she thrust Gáe Bolg forward.

She felt resistance ripple through her arm.

However...

What about the attack aimed for her? Where was the blow from her beloved that was supposed to lead her to a sweet death?

She was in a state of total shock, but her eyes moved and laid upon her beloved's dragon, hurtling towards the ground.

"Brother!"

His dragon fell into a forest, and she lost sight of them.

"Brother!"

She burst into tears.

The battle was already over, but Altena did not return to land. She continued to fly through the skies, thinking of Arion.

No matter how many tears fell, they did not cease, continuing to stream down her face.

But, eventually, the time came and her tears to dry up.

And it was then that she understood the reason why her beloved did not strike her with Gungnir.

'Brother, you ordered me to live, right? I understand. I will live. I will fulfill my duty as the inheritor to Gáe Bolg. If that is what you wish, then that is what I will do. But, my life is terrible. All of my dreams have been crushed… The moment you were gone, I knew for sure. That for a long, long time, deep within the bottom of my heart, I've wanted you to hold me in your arms. Why did you give me that dream? And then go so nobly all by yourself…'

Altena soon landed at Thracia Castle.

Her tear stains had already vanished.

In their place was nothing but the face of Lance Knight Njörun's descendant.

#fire emblem #fe #fe4 #genealogy of the holy war #nintendo #super nintendo #snes #famicom #super famicom #seliph #japan #japanese #translation #novel #light novel #fe4 suzuki novelization translation

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dr-abel-gideon · 4 years ago

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So, tell me how you think Alana and Abel would end up together? :)

//OOC TIME!

Oooooooooohhhhh boy. Huh. This is gonna get long.

Okay, so I have a long standing headcanon that they knew each other from before the murder of his family happened. Very likely that they met at one of Hannibal’s parties. Whether or not anything even remotely romantic happened, eh, not even my own brain can come to a consensus, but Abel was likely taken with her.

Then the Event occurred.

The head of surgery at a prominent hospital kills his family and suffers total amnesia over it?

Alana, as a newly practicing psychiatrist, decides to see if he really has lost all his memories and asks to analyze Dr. Gideon. He has absolutely no idea who she is, but her professional demeanor and concern for his well being sticks with him, lingering as if he should remember something but can’t.

Two years later and Roti happens.

Sure, Dr. Bloom should be upset about what has happened but she is pissed about what has very specifically happened to Dr. Gideon. She knows him. She cares about him. Even after killing several people (which I still have doubts about; I really think his first actual murder was the nurse) Alana still doesn’t so much as raise her voice to him.

If I had to rewrite Season 2, and boy howdy would I, I would add in a scene about Alana hearing that Abel had been transferred to Baltimore after being in a real psychiatric hospital for weeks and getting pissed all over again. Being back under the care of the man who brainwashed him before? No. No, no way, you get him the fuck out of there.

And then we find out that Abel has recovered some of his memories. Alana manages to coax him to agree to testify, because honestly in canon she’s probably the only one who can, and the scene where Hannibal sleeps with Alana and drugs her never happens because Abel’s been swept off to witness protection and no one knows where he is (though Freddie is trying to find out) but Will still won’t count on any of this and goes for Lecter anyway.

THEN Abel and Alana grow closer, though it’s obvious Abel has been smitten with her.

Will they have a happy ending? No. Probably not. This is Hannibal’s story. No one except him gets a happy ending.

#ooc #blindorbrave

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misterspectacular · 5 years ago

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So in Season 1, Episode 7 (Sorbet), Hannibal has Alana over. This is the first time we've seen her over, though we're given the impression that it's a common thing.

Have a look at the script. I'm going to dissect it and add in my analysis as it goes along, sort of like a commentary.

INT. HANNIBAL’S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT

Hannibal places the ROSE/TOMATO in the sizzling pan with eleven others, a simmering fragrant blossom that loses its petals in one smooth whisk of the wooden spoon.

CAMERA FINDS Alana dicing onions, not quite as handy as Hannibal with her knife skills, but skilled nonetheless. There’s almost a sibling warmth to their dynamic, but something more softly vibrates just beneath the surface.

***

So, by this alone, we know already that what they have is bordering on romantic. At least, it will be perceived that way, though it is not genuine. Hannibal is hiding beneath the veil; he is wearing a mask. Alana is not being given the option to touch the True Hannibal (or, you could say, she is not clever enough to climb over the walls). So, while Alana's feelings may be sincere, Hannibal's are not (he may enjoy or appreciate certain things about Alana, but I don't think his feelings go very deep).

But the fact that he's wearing a mask around her is the main reason that I asked myself, how does this moment benefit Hannibal? If she knew him in his entirety, I would say, oh. He's benefiting from this moment because he's romantically interested in her. But considering that Hannibal has not allowed her to truly see him, I have to dismiss that. He can only feel as much as he is willing to show, which in this case, is not much.

Hannibal has a reason (often times, multiple reasons simultaneously) for doing anything that he does. That reason is not always obvious; other times it is.

My first thought, of course, was that he had befriended her because she works with the FBI and is known to have control over Jack. Having control over Jack means having control over the FBI (this was before Hannibal and Jack had met, so this could be the closest he was able to get to the head of the FBI, at least during that time. I don't doubt that he most likely had planned on working his way up). This would obviously benefit a serial killer in hiding.

***

HANNIBAL I’ve been unspeakably rude. I haven’t offered you a drink.

He moves to the refrigerator to retrieve a beverage.

ALANA BLOOM I appreciate beer more than wine.

HANNIBAL It’s not what you appreciate. It’s that you appreciate. A compromise. Beer brewed in a wine barrel. Two years. I bottled it myself.

ALANA BLOOM I'm impressed.

A swig, then she swishes the beer briefly before swallowing.

ALANA BLOOM A Cabernet Sauvignon wine barrel.

HANNIBAL I love your palate.

***

This is one thing I do think Hannibal truly appreciates about Alana. A refined palate. I don't think he dislikes Alana, I just don't think his feelings for her run as deep as he pretends they do.

***

ALANA BLOOM I love your beer. I taste oak. (another swig) What else do I taste in there?

HANNIBAL I will only answer yes or no.

ALANA BLOOM Serving this at your dinner party?

HANNIBAL No. This is your reserve.

ALANA BLOOM My own private reserve? Why, Thank you.

***

During this moment, I realized he was buttering her up, and was wondering why. Could it really be that he's just interested in her? I asked myself.

***

HANNIBAL (Considers, then:)

I’m curious about something. Are you purposefully avoiding the subject of Will Graham?

ALANA BLOOM Absolutely.

HANNIBAL Not on my account, I hope. I’m happy to get your perspective.

***

But then this happened and I came to realize, THIS is where he benefits; he wants to get information about Will.

The private reserve, the being generous, was so that she'd be generous in return. "I'll give her THIS to coax her into giving me THAT."

***

ALANA BLOOM It’s on Jack Crawford’s account. I don’t want any information about Will I shouldn’t have as his friend.

***

Alana, without realizing it, is giving Hannibal exactly what he wants; information about Will. Her connection to Jack and the FBI, and more importantly, her connection to Will, makes her very useful.

***

HANNIBAL Did Jack ask you to profile the Ripper?

***

"How much do you KNOW?"

***

ALANA BLOOM Not since I consulted on the case with Miriam before she disappeared.

HANNIBAL Crawford’s trainee.

ALANA BLOOM Yeah.

HANNIBAL Very sad.

ALANA BLOOM You had me examining Ph.D. candidates that week.

***

I feel the writers had her say this to show us that Hannibal deliberately had her examining the Ph.D. candidates to distract her from the Ripper. There would be no reason to state this otherwise. I feel they were saying, yes, Hannibal was trying to distract her, because HE'S the Ripper, and he didn't want her involved. He didn't WANT her to figure him out (it's different with Will).

If Alana wanted to, she could have convinced Jack into allowing her to continue profiling the Ripper, but because she was distracted with the Ph.D. students, and most likely distracted by Hannibal's apparent romantic interest in her, she didn't.

***

HANNIBAL I’m grateful you were examining Ph.D. students and not the Ripper.

***

Hannibal loves those double entendres. What she thinks he meant is "because that would have put you in danger and I care about you" but what he MEANS is "because you might have figured me out and I'd have had to kill you." Whether that would disappoint him because he does enjoy her company or because she is useful to him could be left up to the viewer but I personally believe that, while she may provide some bit of entertainment, that for the most part, his feelings are only surface level.

***

HANNIBAL (hesitates)

You realize those candidates thought we were having an affair. (then) Why didn’t we?

***

Hannibal taking this long to bring up the idea of having a romantic relationship with Alana raises questions. He could have had Alana long before. So why now?

And I feel it partly has to do with Will and partly has to do with distracting her/keeping her on his side (as a defender, like we see in future episodes). There are reasons as to why I feel it may have to do with Will: for one, it is NOW that Hannibal decided to bring up the idea of a romantic relationship (or at least an affair). He could have brought this up long before; particularly, when it was happening. Hannibal clearly has nothing against polygamy (he was having an affair during the time students assumed he and Alana were, meaning he is not monogamous - which is not surprising). And if he'd already asked this question, or already tried getting with Alana, he wouldn't have felt the need to ask now. He would already know the answer. So the fact that he's asking now, is saying that he's making a move now; he's putting the idea into her head with a goal in mind (get with Alana), and his reason for it has more to do with than just Alana. Because if it was just because of/for Alana, again, he would have acted, or at least said something, much sooner.

The only difference between then and now is that Will is in the picture. So these are the reasons it would have to do with Will:

Alana stated that she is Will's friend. This entire episode is based on friendship and she used that specific word to describe her relationship with Will. It's likely that Hannibal already picked up on the fact that Alana has feelings for Will (he's Hannibal Lecter, of course he did). And I feel that he asked Alana "Why didn't we have an affair back then?" because he was trying to determine whether or not Alana had already been interested in Will. "Did we not have an affair, back then, because you'd already had feelings for Will?"

At this point, we know Hannibal is considering whether or not Will can be a true friend. Hannibal is possessive of Will and doesn't want anyone getting in the way of what he has planned for him.

So I feel that asking her why they didn't have an affair (basically telling her in so many ways "We should have an affair") was his attempt at getting confirmation on his belief that she had feelings for Will (I'm sure he realizes she won't come out and say it, because she's clearly trying to hide it, but he may have been banking on even the slightest mention of Will -- which she does do after he asks this question, so you could consider that confirmation), while also trying to focus her attention on HIM instead of Will.

"I need to keep her away from Will. I need to direct her attention towards me. If she has feelings for him, and it's acted on, she will get in the way of the plans I have for Will."

And, aside from Will, the reasons behind him saying this would be to distract her, keep her blinded, and keep her on his side. That way, if he is suspected, Alana would side with him. This actually happens in future episodes so I would say that was exactly his plan.

I just think it had to do with Will, as well, because, like I said, Hannibal could have acted sooner. He decided to act NOW, once Will's in the picture, once he has most likely figured out that Alana has feelings for him and might get in the way (she is very protective which wouldn't work for Hannibal at all, considering what he's trying to do with Will).

***

ALANA BLOOM You were already having an affair. Will does that, too, you know.

***

This would be the confirmation that she has feelings for Will. I'd say he already knew but that he just wanted to be sure. Hannibal brings up having an affair with HIM, and she mentions WILL. I think this is what he was looking for. This would erase any doubt.

(If you notice, too, Alana still doesn't get with Hannibal after this. It's not until Will is lost to her that she gets with Hannibal. So Hannibal asking "did we not have an affair because you were interested in Will?" actually makes a lot of sense. If you put that question in the present tense, it would be "Are we not having an affair because you are interested in Will?" and the answer would be "Yes". Because they DID have an affair once Will was sent to the psychiatric hospital, basically once Will was out of the picture. This is just more proof, to me, that Hannibal picked up on her feelings for Will before she realized he did and that it was indeed the reason he asked that question specifically.)

***

HANNIBAL What? Have affairs?

***

Hannibal's obvious interest in learning about Will. "Will has affairs?" You don't really see Hannibal this excited about anything else. Any bit of information he can gather on Will is thrilling for him (think of him looking through Will's drawers, think of him asking Alana for her perspective. He says to Bedelia that Will intrigues him and it really does show; you can just sense the sincerity behind it).

***

ALANA BLOOM Flirtatiously change the subject. You have that pathology in common.

***

While I feel Hannibal asked that specific question because he was seeking a specific answer (related to Will), I also feel that he was indeed creating a diversion. This is Hannibal hitting two birds with one stone (which you'll find he does very often in the series - sometimes even more than two birds at a time). So while this did indeed help to change the subject, that doesn't mean that was the only reason he asked that question in particular; it also provided him with an answer to his questions and put the idea of having an affair in Alana's head. So the reason that he changed the subject would be because they were talking about the Ripper. That makes plenty of sense; he's the Ripper and he realizes Alana is not involved, and he prefers it that way. He has her exactly where he wants her. He doesn't want her to know. "Let's move on and keep her off this path." The fact that he used flirtation to do it says something - he's picking at her weaknesses. He knows this would be most effective in distracting her.

What's also interesting is that she says Will does the same thing. We aren't shown a moment where this actually happens, yet (in the original script it had happened but they left it out, so I have to dismiss it), but he does kiss Alana in a future episode once he realizes that she might have caught onto his "madness". I find it interesting that the both of them, Will and Hannibal, use the distraction of romance with Alana to hide from her. Perhaps because they realize that this is what blinds her, more than anything else.

***

HANNIBAL Or we just have you in common.

***

This is also an interesting statement. SHE thinks he's saying "no, we're just flirting with you because you're YOU" but he's actually saying "Will and I have you in common. I can use that to my advantage."

***

HANNIBAL I recall even before I met Will Graham, you never spoke about him.

***

This was the writers telling us that,

1.) Alana knew Will back when she and Hannibal were thought to be having an affair.

2.) She is protective of Will (though we already gathered this from her previous reaction and so I feel the former reason was the main reason it was stated. In which case, it coincides with my belief that Hannibal asked why he and Alana hadn't had an affair, back then, in the first place, because he wanted to test her to see her reaction and see whether or not she would say anything that would clarify whether or not she did indeed have feelings for Will. Which, she did).

***

ALANA BLOOM Probably because I just want everybody to leave him alone.

***

After this statement there's a long silence, she lowers her eyes, and I feel we were given that silence to tell us that HANNIBAL KNOWS. So now, Hannibal knows, and WE know he knows. He knows she has feelings for Will. And now he also knows Will has been flirtatious with Alana, meaning Hannibal knows Will has feelings for Alana. So at this point, Hannibal knows very well that Alana might become a problem for him, by disrupting the plans he has for Will. Keeping Alana on HIS side, as opposed to Will’s, and keeping them separated in general, would work in Hannibal’s favor.

***

ALANA BLOOM It’s not even about Will. Jack’s obsessed with the Chesapeake Ripper and he’s grooming Will to catch him.

HANNIBAL And I sincerely hope he does.

***

The funny part is that Hannibal completely means this. Hannibal WANTS Will to figure him out. He WANTS Will to see him and is hoping he has the intelligence to do it. Because if he does, that makes Will worthy of Hannibal's friendship.

***

So that's my take. What do you guys think of the whole scene? What are your thoughts?

#hannibal lecter #alana bloom #will graham #hannigram #sorbet #friendship #affair #analysis #analyze #thoughts #thinking #script

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sebastianshaw · 4 years ago

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Rando Munday ramblings! For new followers, on Munday sometimes I just post a bunch of personal stuff I normally wouldn’t. Not usually anything intimately personal, more like random thoughts and news that just isn’t relevant to the blog in any way, not related to X-Men or RP or writing in general, etc. ....there’s a lot of Hannibal today, sorry, I’m rewatching it.

- I definitely wanna have a pair of critters named Hannibal and Hasdrubal at some point, maybe if there's a third I'd name him Hamilcar. I know everyone will think I named them after Hannibal Lector but actually these are really common names from Ancient Carthage. Like if you look at Carthagian history and records, everyone is Hannibal, Hasdrubal, or Hamilcar, it's like John, James, and Jim. I'd prefer the pair, though, since Hannibal and Hasdrubal were a pair of brothers and famous historical figures, so it would feel much more like a "set" that way (whereas they did not have a brother called Hamilcar) - Speaking of Hannibal Lector, I knew he was based on a real person, but I did not realize that person was a gay Mexican man. That’s...an interesting example of gay history, for sure. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, Thomas Harris (the writer of the books that the films and later the TV series were based on) based Hannibal on a surgeon he met while interviewing an inmate at prison for another novel. This surgeon was so intelligent and charismatic that Harris implicitly assumed that he was a doctor in the employ of the prison. Nope---the doctor was an inmate himself. Harris was so shaken by the encounter that it inspired him to create Hannibal Lector, who, in contrast to the typical media portrayals of serial killers as uncontrolled lunatic slashers like Michael Myers or Leatherface, is a charming, culture, charismatic intellectual. To protect the man’s identity, Harris called him “Dr. Salazar” in interviews, so that was always how I knew him. I just now learned not only was his real name Alfredo Balli Trevino, but his victim was Jesus Castillo Rangel, his male lover. Harris describes him as a small, lithe man with dark red hair and, unsurprisingly, “a certain elegance about him”. Though Trevino was given the death penalty for his crimes, his sentence was commuted to 20 years and he was released in either 1980 or 1981. He died in in 2009 when he was 81 years old. He reportedly spent the last years of his life helping the poor and elderly, and he expressed deep regret for his “dark past”---which I suppose makes sense, since his crime was that he killed a lover in a fit of rage during an argument, whereas Hannibal simply killed people in cold blood whom he had no attachment to because he liked eating them (something Trevino never did) and to punish them for rudeness. - I’ve decided to stop buying silk, unless it's from a thrift store and thus my money won't go to supporting sericulture. Ahimsa silk isn't an option either, the bugs aren't technically killed but they're not treated well either. I know it might seem weird to eat meat and wear leather and yet not want to purchase something that hurt moths and larva, but...I have to eat meat for medical reasons, and my leather purchases is limited to boots that I then keep for YEARS AND YEARS so it's very sparing. There's really no such thing as a cruelty-free diet or lifestyle, whether that cruelty is suffered by animals or by other humans, but I can still make choices that at least lesson some small aspect of harm. I need to eat meat, I don't need real silk. ...Haven only wears bamboo silk for this reason and when this came up with Shaw, he absolutely thought she was fucking with him, like even SHE can’t be THIS insane, NO ONE ACTUALLY CARES ABOUT BUGS WTF - The books nearest to me right now are “Women Who Run With The Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype ” by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Romantic Period, “X-Men: The Legacy Quest Trilogy” by Steve Lyons, two horror anthologies, the script for “M. Butterfly” by David Henry Hwang, “The Spanish Riding School of Vienna: Tour of America 2005″ book I got from when I went to see the Lippizanner horses perform, and a big beautiful leatherbound English translation of “The Flowers of Evil” by Charles Baudelaire. This is...this is a summary of my whole personality, sans rodents. Also god I need to clean my room. - Something I've noticed is that many sci-fi horror films that do the whole "science went too far against nature!!!" thing....don't actually have the problem result from the lack of ethics involved or because the scientists did something "unnatural", it happens because they didn't follow basic safety precautions, lab protocol, common sense, etc. "Splice" for instance, is a really good example---the problem isn't that they made a part-human hybrid, that's not why shit goes wrong, shit goes wrong because the two scientists act like idiots, adopt the creation as a child, hide it in their barn instead of a sterile controlled environment, and then one of them HAS SEX WITH IT. Or in "The Fly" the problem isn't that Brundle invented a teleporter, it's that he tested it ON HIMSELF while he was ALL ALONE. Even in "Jurassic Park" the issue is less that dinosaurs are breeding and more the result of a disgruntled worker who was given way too much power over being able to run things, and thus shut them down when he wants to. So many "science gone wrong!" movies end up not really being condemnations of science itself, so much as depicting scientists as utter dumbasses. Which, on the one hand, I do like, because I dislike the notion of condemning scientific progress just because it seems icky or creepy or "goes against nature" (so do vaccines, I still like those!) But on the other hand, the movies don't FRAME it as "this is the result of failure to practice science safely and sensibly" they frame it as "they should never have attempted such an unnatural thing and this disaster is punishment for a moral sin" even though the issue doesn't happen because what the scientists did was "wrong" it happens because they do something DUMB. - Bringing it back to Hannibal, I reached the episode where Margot Verger first appears, and if I have one big disappointment about the Hannibal series, it's Margot. In the books, she's a huge butch lesbian, literally and figuratively. In the TV series, she's a pretty femme fashionista like all the other women, and she fucks Will in order to get pregnant. At the time this came out in 2013, I tried to be all resigned and fair-minded about this. I was like "ok, well, they didn't want to be offensive with a stereotype, and I guess that's fair, I guess not hurting people matters more to me than getting the horseback-riding bulldyke hearthrob of my high school years on-screen at last" but you know what? No. Firstly, butch lesbians deserve representation too. How many have you ever seen onscreen, let alone in a mainstream media production? Sure, it's a stereotype, but it's not an inherently negative one, they just get treated that way in media because society sees it that way. But the way to handle butch lesbians and femme gay men and so on isn't to erase them from the screen, it's to start writing them as human beings and not caricatures or jokes or monsters. Margot is a fleshed-out human being, she's nuanced and twisted and hurt like everyone else in this series, she would be PERFECT for that. She wouldn't be just a butch lesbian, she'd be a CHARACTER who just also happens to be a butch lesbian. I don't really think she was changed to avoid "hurting" lesbians, I think she was changed because the director, gay man or not, clearly has a way he wants the women in his series to look (they're all fashion plates, all have long hair, all very sophisticated, etc) and book Margot didn't fit his aesthetic, his design if you will. Because god forbid we just make her a DAPPER dyke, right? Back to having sex with Will, which most certainly did NOT happen in the books...that's not bad itself in a VACUUM, fucking men to get a baby is something real-life lesbians do, I had a friend in college who was actually conceived that way, but like...no media exists in a vacuum, and there is very little depiction of lesbians in media that doesn't feature them fucking men for SOME reason or another. They want a baby, or they start the story with a boyfriend, or they're actually bisexual, or they're even raped, but there's always SOME reason we have to watch a guy fucking them and it's frankly distressing. Like, remember Irene Adler in BBC's Sherlock? It's a pattern. And I'm not saying lesbians who have had a sexual past with men, or who were the victims of sexual violence by men, don't deserve representation, I would never say that, those are very common experiences, I'm not saying "gold stars only", I'm saying that there is a strong pattern in media where it seems almost obligatory that a lesbian has to have sex with or be attracted to men at some point, while comparatively the opposite case, where a lesbian is depicted as exclusively and only attracted to and "with" other women, is seldom there. And it's just kind of a kick in the nads for me, as I think it was for a lot of other lesbians, butch or not, that a gay director took an opportunity like Margot Verger and turned her into just another attractive lipstick lesbian that is okay with having sex with the male protagonist as a treat tee hee (Spoiler: She does end up with Alana though, which I appreciate)

#out of shirt #munday #mun monday

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writings-from-the-hart · 5 years ago

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Writebr Intro

Writeblr Intro Time!

Hiya! This is so overdue and I apologize for that lol. I’ve been meaning to write this but school seems to always be getting in the way of just that. Writing. But here I am finally writing this! And yes my username is a pun of my own last name but I just couldn’t resist.

So basically, I really want to surround myself with other writers and have stumbled across tons of writeblr’s (I think that’s what they’re called lol). Instantly I was in love and wanted more of what the community had to offer. I’ve been a self-proclaimed “author” or writer since my early years of grade school. I was that child in the back of the class with ADHD that couldn’t sit still (the cliche bouncing leg and always chewed down nails) and had what my mother called an “overactive imagination”. My notebooks in high school were often filled with wild stories about “galaxies far far away” or dystopias with cruel governments ruled by dictators. Now I’m in my second year of college swamped with classes about the Psychology of criminals (or I like to call the science of murder), and trying to find time to write a novel. So the struggle is real my dudes.

A little about Me:

Hana

She/Her

Pisces

Asexual

Forensic Psychology Major and English with a concentration in Writing Minor

Book hoarder

Dog Mom

Vintage AF

Low Key Emo Punk because I’m no average white girl!

History nerd (Love learning about the old wars and cultures)

Movie nerd (There’s an endless stack of DVDs in my house)

Fandoms:

The Mandolorian (or the ManDADolorian)

Star Trek

Star Wars

Hannibal

X-Files

King Falls Am

Welcome to Nightvale

Transformers (Obviously not the bad movies lol. Bumblebee is baby and must be protected always.)

Good Omens

Sherlock

Lord of the Rings

Marvel (There are so many shows and movies in this category we would be here all day if I tried to list them.)

Timeless (Not sure if the fandom is still alive after what the writers did to one of our ships lol)

DC (I’m a huge Batman geek and adore Wonderwoman, but I take the good with the bad when it comes to this fandom. Especially movie-wise anymore.)

And there’s probably more but my memory isn’t working currently.

Goals?. . . maybe:

Get my novel finished (This has literally been on my To-Do List for who knows how long.)

Meet more writers/new writers.

Improve my poetry (I suck at poetry so I bad I never let it see the light of day, so I need to work on it.)

Start my bullet journal.

Wips:

Okay by now you all know I have at least 1 Wip because I mentioned getting a freaking novel done, but just as a precaution as to what I mean by Wip or Wips. I get distracted quite easily, for some odd reason my brain absolutely loves to jump from one idea to another for no absolute reason. Like WTF dude we already have an idea we’re working on why do you keep bringing all these new ones to me like stray dogs. And like any good dog Mom or distracted writer, I want to keep all the ideas/stray dogs. So, when I say Wip I mean “Look at this cool idea I came up with” and I’ll make sure to specify which one is hogging most of my time.

Renegade: Dystopian, Thriller, Post-Apocalypse, and Science Fiction.

This is my baby. Most of my free time is dedicated to adjusting plotlines, character arc’s, fixing freaking plot holes, and other important stuff other than just plain writing. I’m hoping to finish this also monster of a story by 2020 and get it published. So big stuff!

“So tell me little wolf do you want to punish those who have wronged you?” An assassin known as the Crimson Ghost makes their way through the corrupt city-state of Ashton completing a job given to them by the Black Rose. What is a seemingly normal job though turns into something far more complicated when they stumble upon the fractions of an abandoned notebook from the past. A past the Republic is trying to desperately hide and bury no matter what. On the other side of the world in the Republic’s capital Eshar, plainly referred to as “The Prodigy” or “machine” by his superiors, Eric Coalwood has built a life upon the ashes of his family, striving to meet the high expectations set before him by his mentor General Wolfheart. However, his life falls out of its normal day to day routine when the unexpected is asked of him. Command a task force made up of the Republic’s most wanted or his life is over. Eric doesn’t need reasons for why he must do what he has to, all he needs are orders and the Republic is more than happy to give them. Either way the clock is ticking for both the Crimson Ghost and the Republic’s prodigy and with time running out they both have two options. Either get over their different beliefs concerning the Republic or allow the world to once again succumb to war but this time nobody is going to survive it. “Legends are slippery things. For the glory that coats them hides the pain, suffering and death that created them.”

The Trouville Files: Dystopian, Thriller, Post-Apocalypse, and Science Fiction.

Not my biggest priority but definitely one of them considering the plot of this story. I mainly use this wip as a reference for Renegade because it’s actually the prequel to it. Also, it’s great to use as writing practice when I’m plagued with writer’s block for Renegade or frustrated with a plot hole. So this is my double-edged sword that does a lot of good.

“Death in these black days is neither kind nor quick.” The year is 2153, the world we know is nothing more than a wasteland strewn with the dead and a sky being choked by their ashes, not glorious and thriving but desolate and starving. The Red Death, a pandemic with a steady progression and a gruesome countdown to the demise of those infected. No one outruns it or survives it. “United we stand, divided we fall.” The Allied Nations, a totalitarian superpower, promised a united people but all they gave this world was more death and destruction. The Red Death isn’t the only thing slowly killing humanity anymore, we are in the form of the War of Broken Pacts. The spark of revolution is lit, but if it will remain so is a question asked by everyone. Does it stand a chance against the iron-fisted government holding the people in shackles? “Rebel with a cause.” Genius Medical Officer for The People’s Republic, Cyprus Ramiro works day and night in search of a cure for the Red Death exterminating hundreds, at least before this war kills him first. But he is also a man on the run and the rebellion can only shelter him for so long. “Duty over pain.” Cunning Spy and Soldier, Orion Ultor is ordered by the Allied Nations to infiltrate and gather information on the ever-growing People’s Republic. In bold letters is Search and Destroy; make a ruin of the rebellion and ensure the Allied Nations remains as it should -- unquestionably in power. No matter the cost unless he wants to suffer the consequences again. “If we fall we shall rise from the ashes like a phoenix.” They should have never met, battlefields don't make good friends. It wasn't fate, it wasn't destiny, only war throwing people together. The Allied Nations is trying to stamp out something they fear, but can they before the Red Plague? Or will humanity find itself extinct.

Beyond his point is where I house my stray dogs/ideas

Hiraeth: Paranormal, Horror, Mystery, and Thriller.

Scooby-doo who?

Hiraeth means a homesickness for a home which you cannot return. That is how Arcane feels like she’ll never be home no matter how hard she tries to connect with her family. The closest she feels to being home is with her friends and in the worn leather seats of the van they all pitched in to buy. It all started out as a way to pass time and for all of them to escape their families because to be honest parents never understand, but it all turned sideways when a simple “ghost hunting trip” stirred something that was meant to remain buried. The truth never remains buried though, not really, somehow it will always creep back in ugly and twisted. Arcane has never felt “at home” but she’ll do whatever it takes to keep what she considers her family safe.

Sweet Dreams: Historical Fiction, Thriller, and Romance.

A literal dream turned into story plot and no I’m not kidding.

The Red String of Fate, The Lovers, and War. These are the three elements intertwined within the plot of Sweet Dreams but before anyone makes any assumptions this isn’t some chummy rom-com. There will be tears and heart strings may get yanked clean out because the angst is real. War and love never mix well, it leaves a sour taste in ones mouth and makes the mind question things it shouldn’t. Like is the woman in his dreams the same woman he sees in all his dreams? Constantly he somehow ends up spotting that same ruby red lipstick, honey golden eyes, and brunette hair laying in perfect curls. She’s everywhere except in his actual life. They say you and your soulmate share dreams, living proof of how intertwined souls are. She doesn’t believe in love or the idea of souls, not with the monsters roaming around the countryside and battlefield carrying assault rifles. Society tells her where her place is, but she disagrees and rather create her own destiny.

The Prophet: Paranormal, Thriller, Post-Apocalypse, and Science Fiction.

A short story I can’t seem to let go or it doesn’t want to let me go, but either way, this story has the makings for something great. It also at times seems strikingly similar to Good Omens, so don’t be surprised.

There’s no anti-christ in this story, he already has a book about himself so let’s not make another one besides there are other stories that need to be told. Such as, have you ever heard of modern day prophets and I’m not talking about those people with cardboard signs saying “the end is near!” or giant churches with people preaching about the end times. No, I’m talking about a kid with messy hair and dark circles under their eyes because sleep is no longer a choice due to migraines that plague them every night. Migraines that bring weird cryptic messages that make one question their own sanity. And what happens when strange people start asking about said migraines and messages?

Virago: Fantasy, Thriller, Historical Fiction, and Romance.

I’m not a huge fantasy reader, for some reason I can’t stay invested in them, but here I am with a fantasy story in my wips. It has mages, knights, assasination plots, and one super badass general who takes zero shit from her king. That’s right women empowerment, my dudes! I don’t really have much of a synopsis inline or a plot because this is only of those wips I let rattle around in my brain from time to time. But I will say it does give me that LOTR vibe but also Game of Thrones.

Don’t be surprised if you see my stray doggos from time to time because I will admit I love to play around with storyboards. Even if I don’t have a fully planned out plot put together for it.

And that concludes this what was supposed to be short Writeblr Intro. I hope I have peaked some of your guys’ interests because the community definitely got a hold of minee. Feel free to send me a message about anything I mentioned (even if it’s just fandom shit I don’t care) and don’t be shy. I’m a huge introvert but somehow love talking, so don’t worry it won’t be awkward and odds are I’m equally nervous about conversation lol. Also, feel free to add me to any taglist and reblog/like if you’re active and would like more Writeblr mutuals!

Happy Writing,

Writings-from-the-Hart

#writeblr #wips #writer intro #my ocs

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fightevilandthengetblownup · 5 years ago

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OT3FIC: Sheepdog

18 - gift approach creepy cap catch repulsive glasses plan

---

If Jack Crawford rolled up the drive in the big black car of his, he would think it was his biggest birthday ever and that Will had found him the very best present - all gift-wrapped in a shiny, black Impala bow. Three of the high level ‘criminals’ that constantly circulated the agency were sat around his kitchen table playing some card game that was half Go Fish, half Uno and used Monopoly real estate cards instead. He’d sat down to play earlier and excused himself with a head ache within ten minutes to go to the front lounge with a sigh instead.

“They still playing whatever game that is?” “Yeah. I... What even are the rules of that game? How do they all know it?” “I’m not sure, you’d have to ask Jo.” “Did they play it together as kids?”

“So far as I know, they only met as adults actually.” Grey replied, shifting in his spot on the couch to raise his arm around the top of Will’s shoulders as Will sank down beside him and leaned into the open space. As he rested his head back against the other’s shoulder, the empath could almost immediately feel the headache fading away.

“What? I thought-” Will mumbled the words out, before reaching a hand up to rub at the bridge of his nose with a sigh. “Aren’t they related, somehow?”

“Well, family for Jo isn’t exactly blood-related.” “Oh?” “You’ve met Bobby, right? He’s like a dad for her but he’s not her dad-dad. Same as Sam and Dean, they’re like her brother’s but they aren’t actually related to her in any way.”

Will nodded a little bit, sinking into the nook of the other’s side with a quiet sigh. “I just thought they must have been related somewhere along the line.” He frowned a little, tugging his glasses off to rub more thoroughly at his nose. “Or at least grew up around one another.”

“I think they just learned the game through Bobby, he was in all their lives early on.” Grey replied, shifting a little and then moving his hands towards the his head, and Will let out a quiet groan as the shadow began massaging gently through his curls. “They...they aren’t so bad as their first impression might give off.”

“You mean Dean isn’t a jerk who makes comments to Jo about two guys on the go at once?” “...He said what?” “Don’t worry about it, Jo already punched him for it.” “Oh good. But yeah, Dean might be a bit-” “Of an asshole-” “Yes. But he’s not so bad. He is very... protective of Jo.”

“Jealous bastard.” Will muttered under his breath, leaning his head back into the other’s skilled hands with another sigh as the tension he could feel building at the back of his head disappearing with each rub of the other’s fingers over the area gently. The moment Will had shook the other’s hand, the hunter had crushed his palm, flexing the strength more than was necessary for such a hold, and that the very next thing had been for the hunter to let go and spin about to talk to the blonde and completely ignore his existence had been odd. On top of that, had been how blank a slate the hunter had felt like in that small handshake - almost as silent as the shadow brushing his hand through Will’s hair, and Will had had to fight down a shudder from how silent it had felt. Only a few humans had felt like that in Will’s passing, and usually those were the kind that he ended up with his gun held out towards them.

The empath sighed again, reclining further into the warm embrace and touch, feeling the twitch in his forehead of the oncoming headache before adding, “Sam seemed okay - nice enough, it’s just... He’s so loud.”

“What?” “He’s loud, so very very loud.” “I..didn’t hear any voices raised?”

“Not that kind of loud, ma douceur. He just fills the air with his self.” The empath muttered, snuggling in closer as the last of his headache faded away and he turned under the other’s arm with a tiny frown. It had been almost so strange that the first handshake with the taller hunter had been just as silent and quiet as his brother, all calm and quiet and soft, and Will had almost thought it was just a family trait or his never having met the men. That was until Will had sat beside the hunter for the one and only round of their strange card game that they all began, when within two minutes he’d felt the headache starting from just how loud the feelings of happiness, excitement and joy as well as an undercurrent of pain that poured out of the tall man as he held an almost blank look towards the table or the smallest of smiles so different to the rush of emotions that Will could feel coming out of him. “Sam just bleeds all over the place.”

Grey looked confused for a moment, and Will tipped his head back to look at the other as he kicked his feet up on the other end of the couch to watch the confusion and then comprehension cross the blue eyed man’s face. “He does?” The other sounded surprised, an eyebrow raising curiously, “I always found Dean to be the loud one.”

“And you always say Jo’s quiet-” “I mean, not always.”

Will found himself laughing at that, shaking his head as he paused to hear the sound of laughter bouncing from down the hall in the kitchen, a tiny frown forming as he heard Jo’s high and light in a way he rarely heard until she’d been home for over a day from a hunt - and yet she was already within an hour of getting home. A tiny flicker stabbed at his stomach thinking it over until her felt two fingers probing and smoothing over his forehead and eyebrows.

“Don’t worry about it,” Grey said quietly, continuing to smooth gently over the other’s forehead, and then pressing a kiss to the space after a moment. “They’re just.. it’s a world no matter how much we try, we’re not going to understand or fit in.”

“But-” “It’s out of our grasp, Will. They grew up in their little secret world, and they’ll keep living in it even if they do other things with other people.”

---

The man was completely blank. Blanker than blank - Will was used to blanks after being around the shadow and his psychiatrist, but this man read as completely nothing at Will’s approach. Absolutely nothing came off of him, and if the man hadn’t been walking and talking, Will would have thought him dead.

Will had held a hand out to shake, the manners his mother taught him still there - the little voice that sounded like her that said they might not have much money and the roof over their head could be taken from them, but no one could take away their manners - despite the years and years of issues and problems and anxiety that such touching had caused in his childhood, and felt a shudder run down his spine when the shorter British man had rebuffed the greeting with a sneer.

There had been something inherently repulsive to Will as he watched the man talk - the way he’d twitch his hand out as if to reach towards the shadow, the looks of disdain that were sent his own way whenever Grey’s attention would be pulled away from the suited man, and the way the moment Jo’s blue car pulled along the drive way the man was gone - as if Will had been privy to only a tenth of what was going on, and the way Grey’s shoulders had slumped on occasion at some veiled word or phrase or other had set Will’s teeth on edge. If he’d been any more like Jo and less non-confrontational, he would have found himself shooing the man off of their front porch the moment Grey’s arm had jerked downwards as if in pain away from the man at one point.

He’d not brought it up with the shadow afterwards, the way the other man had scurried inside rather than wait outside to greet the blonde and help with the grocery bags full from the trunk was signal enough that whatever it was Will had walked up the drive with the dogs from their walk to was something unusual and uncomfortable for the man.

It wasn’t for a few more days that Will managed to ask quietly if Jo had any clue as to who the man was and what may have affected the other so much that Will knew just why he had felt the way he had.

“You’re sure he was British? Had an accent and everything?” “Yes. Was wearing some black suit and shirt, and kept trying to touch Grey.” “He didn’t manage to get inside did he?” “No? He just, uh, they were just talking on the porch when I got home.”

“Well good, I didn’t want to have to get the smell of sulfur out of here on his account.” Jo had hissed the words out, her hands clenching in a tight way that Will only saw when talking about Hannibal Lecter or Jack Crawford, before she sneered with a look almost similar to the same as the British man had had himself. “If he’s ever ‘round again, can you tell him to shove an iron rod up his arse until it disappears.” Jo’s voice took on a mocking of the man’s own accent briefly, horrible and hilarious sounding, but Will couldn’t find it in himself to laugh at it.

“Of course, ma deesse, but who was he?” Will reached a hand out gently to placate her, and pulled back entirely at the sheer swarm of cold fury that was thrumming through her, what had felt like a general buzz of annoyance before was translating as pure hatred the moment he had touched her skin. “Jo-”

“That was fuckin’ Crowley.” “...That was Crowley?!” “Yeah, the fuckin’ piece of trash disgustin’ foul motherfuckin’-”

“Jo!” Will said again, reached out again now he was prepared for the feeling of hatred and repulsion that would rush through him the moment he touched her, shaking her should a little before the blonde silenced herself with a scowl. “I’ll tell you immediately the next time I spot him.”

The cold rage continued to run through the other, and Will almost felt sick from how much was filled and hidden under the soft smile and gentle ‘thank you’ he received from the blonde - her face nothing but genial and kind compared to the rolling fury underneath; and rubbing her shoulders and neck gently before suggesting they take the dogs for a walk, Will filed the information away to ask the shadow about just why Jo was so mad the next time.

---

The sun was sharp overhead, and Will was thankful for the dappled shade that the oak tree provided as he lifted the hoe up again and began on the next row of digging and troweling. Reaching a hand up, he lifted the front of his cap and wiped the sweat that was collecting from his brow with a huff. It had been hard work thus far, yet he was working just as hard as the blonde with her cut off shorts and the shadow that was working harshly to pull the dead tree root out of the ground a few feet over where the next vegetable bed was planned for.

“Well looky here! What a group of cuties you’ve got here, brother!” The cheery voice appeared out of nowhere, and Will dropped the heavy wooden end of his implement down upon his foot in surprise as he span about to stare towards the tree the voice came from. The dark haired woman let out a laugh as she stepped forward, her boots far too formal and fancy for the dirt of the farm and her outfit better suited for a runway than the country. “Oh look at the new one! Cupcake, did you catch this one too?”

“Shada, good to see you.” Jo was the first one to reply, but made her way towards him instead of the newcomer as the other man made his way across to the brunette. “Here to help with the garden are you?”

“Not in the slightest! You’re all so dirty and sweaty.” “Sometimes that’s fun.” “He sure looks fun!”

“Shada, please stop eyeing off our boyfriend.” Grey cut over whatever Jo might have replied with, reaching the woman and bringing her in for a quick, brief hug. “Will is not yours to oggle.”

“Well, he should wear a shirt and not look so ruggedly handsome.” Shada replied, a smirk on her face as her eyes ran over Will in a way that made him want to hide behind the slight amount of cover that Jo could provide, shifting to the side and covering half of his front with the blonde in a single move. “Awwww don’t hide!”

“Shada!” Grey’s voice was loud as he snapped back at the woman, tugging on her arm to turn the woman away from the pair. “Stop being-”

“Fine, fine. I’ll stop!” “Good.” “I just wanted to come meet your new human, brother.” “Well, you could be politer about it-”

“Oh very true!” The woman chirped back before Will blinked and she was gone from the spot near the other, and not even a foot away from him right before Jo, and smiling up at him. “Well, I’m sorry - it’s nice to meet you, Puppy, my name’s Shada, Grey’s favorite sister.”

“Pu-puppy?” Will stammered the word out, tilting his head to the side and pulling Jo closer in front of him between him and the new woman with a frown. She seemed amused by the move, but the fact he couldn’t pick up much off of the woman, Will wasn’t surprised to hear she was like Grey - the faint amusement clear but little else.

“You’re goin’ with Puppy?” “Yes, Cupcake, you’re all about baking and he’s all about those dogs!” “I mean...”

“Jo! Don’t give her an inch with that!” Grey’s face was almost entirely red as he approached, giving a disapproving look to the blonde as Jo shrugged a shoulder at him, and Will struggled to keep up with who was saying what and to whom. “Shada, please, his name is Will and you should remember it.”

“Maybe I will, maybe I Will.” Shada’s eyebrow quirked up alongside the edge of her lips in a small devious smirk before she turned back to her brother entirely and began bringing up something about some other sibling needing a hand or a guiding hand or something. Whatever it was, they turned and moved away while Jo turned in his arm and laughed at the peculiar look on his face at just how like a warm breeze the female shadow was - there in an instant and gone quite as fast.

---

This was him. The moment Will saw them from across the bar, he knew immediately who it had to be. The slight roll of menace but an underlying playfulness coming off of him directly purely towards the blonde made it abundantly clear between that and the description he had heard several times from the pair that this? This was the other brother.

Will had always been told to have an exit plan on the off chance he ever encountered the dark shadow. Ever since Jo had looked over his shoulder and isolated over five of the cases Will had been brought in on and failed to locate the killer on, both shadow and hunter had known it would be only a matter of time before he crossed paths with him. He’d thought that the best strategy was to remove himself from the situation, to back away and hope to avoid being noticed. And always have an iron knife in his boot.

However standing there, staring across the other side of the bar from where the blonde had her head thrown back in a laugh and he could see the hand reached out covering hers on the bar top? Will only followed one of those planned elements at all.

Stalking around the end of the bar and sidling up behind Jo, the empath slid his arm around the waist of the blonde woman as if there was nothing amiss and turned his face to look in her direction even as he kept his eyes looking out the corner towards the other man and the twist of a sneer that was forming on his face.

“Ma deesse, you didn’t tell me you’d be out tonight?” “I had to meet with another friend earlier and then I ran into-”

“Ah yes, your friend here?” Will asked, the question sounding not at all question-like as he turned to stare at the other man who was looking down his nose at him with a look of disdain on his face. He slid his hand more firmly around Jo’s waist, pulling her back against his front firmly and around to cover her stomach possessively. “I haven’t had to pleasure to meet you yet. Gray isn’t it?”

“Oh, have you been telling your new dog about me, sweetie?” The dark haired man smirked a little, his eyes following Will’s hand for a moment before they went entirely towards the blonde’s eyes instead. “Or is it the runt telling stories?”

“I-” “I don’t need either of them to tell me about you, you’re making yourself famous in my work.”

“Am I now?” The shadow almost seemed to want to laugh, though it came out more of a sneer as Will shifted his grip and turned to press a kiss against Jo’s head for a moment when she’d tried to interrupt. As much as he loved when Jo spoke and would talk back and tease, he didn’t care in that moment looking down the other shadow that he’d walked in the footsteps of. Will could not have the man that had done such destruction and horror, the bloodshed and depraved acts, anywhere near his angel without wanting to remove them as soon as possible. “And what exactly do you do, dogman?”

Will felt his own lips twisting into a dark grin in response as he moved his other hand to cover and pull Jo’s hand from under the other man’s, the feral look and shadows of the bar making the pair of them match in the dim lighting.

“I hunt men like you.”

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#ot3 grey/jo/will fic #willpov

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