InsaneJournal

Ultimately, it was the screams that got Hannah's attention.

On her way back from the university library, armed with a handful of books that had caught her eye and were stuffed into a bag slung over her shoulder, she had decided to cut down a back alley in order to lessen the commute time back to her apartment. Yes, she knew she could have taken the bus, or even hailed a cab, but she was loathe to spend anymore of the money she'd been given when she arrived in the city if she could help it. After all, it wasn't like people were lining up to give her a job, considering her young age, and with the way things were going she wasn't sure when she would go back home again or her brother would show up. Until either of those things happened, she figured she was best off hoarding her meager bit of cash so she could buy food and other necessities.

So walking it was. Which meant she just so happened to be making her way down the alley at the same time a large amount of screams erupted from a nearby building. Unable to help herself, Hannah paused in her tracks then slowly crept toward the noise. Finding a small crack in the boarded up windows, she watched with morbid curiosity as the men inside the room had behaved in what was unquestionably an abnormal manner. Then she observed as someone took great care to pose them in various ways, creating what was obviously a mimicry of a baseball game.

Although she didn't understand the reason for why the man had done those things, Hannah would be lying if she didn't admit that she was intrigued. Normal people didn't murder a group of men then pose their bodies. Normal people didn't wear an odd looking cape and mask. Normal people were... normal.

They bored Hannah to no end.

Stepping back into the shadows when the man responsible for the carnage exited, she watched him go for a second. Fingers tightly gripping the sack of books of her shoulder, she debated how best to proceed. Her mind, however, quickly reached the only conclusion she could logically come to. She had to meet him, speak with him, find out how he had done those things to those men without even laying a hand on them. Yes, it was dangerous, but it was a risk she was willing to take.

And with that last thought, she stepped out of the shadows and, making sure to raise her voice enough that he could hear her over the traffic that was passing by on the street beyond the alley, she asked simply, "How did you do that?"

Not why. The why didn't interest her very much. Merely the how. There was no judgment in her tone, either. No horror or even disgust. Just curiosity, spoken in a manner similar to how a scientist might ask a test subject about side effects of the new drug they were trying.

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Hannah stared impassively at the can of toxin before, blinking slowly, she returned her gaze to the man holding it. There was no fear evident in her face but certainly no look of loathing or judgment either. In fact, her expression was one of careful neutrality.

"How did you kill them?" she replied, her tone indicating that should be a pretty obvious question. Her head tilted slightly to the side as she considered him. "What sort of chemical compound creates that sort of response in human beings?"

Pausing for a moment, she continued her barrage of questions in the same idly curious, clipped tone as before. "That isn't the first time you've used it before, is it? How many trials did you need to run before perfecting the formula? What were the initial reactions? Did you find the subjects responded more violently or less so? Was the most difficult part isolating that particular aspect of the chemicals in their brain or overcoming the parts that rejected such savagery?"

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The laugh surprised her, although not in a bad way. Taking the can from her, she stared down at it as though it were a holy scripture of some sort, given to her by the hand of God himself. Listening as he explained, she filed the information away in her mind for later examination, nodding at the appropriate times to show she understood even if she wasn't sure he would believe she had the comprehension to follow along with his explanation. It wasn't that she thought anything in particular about him, really. It was just that most adults found it very difficult to accept that a girl her age was, more often than not, smarter than they were. Or, perhaps in his case, equally as intelligent. After all, no normal person would have come up with something as intriguing as what he'd created. They wouldn't even get past the initial forming of the idea, in fact.

Tearing her gaze away from the can as he made his way out of the alley, Hannah didn't even hesitate for more than a second before following after him. As she walked, she let her gaze continue to slide down to the can of toxin in her hand, resisting the urge to press the button simply to see what would happen, and instead following the somewhat strangely dressed man into the diner he chose. She didn't hesitate when he sat, either, sliding into the seat across from him, dropping her bag of books on the bench beside her, and setting the canister on the table between them.

"My name is Hannah," she said, first and foremost. The kid comment hadn't really bothered her as it might others - she was a kid, after all - but at least this way he knew her actual name. Folding her hands, she rested them on the table and fixed him with the same sort of curious, intense look as before. "And I'm very interested. I've only theorized about something like this." She tipped her head at the can to indicate what she was talking about. "I was never able to get past the nature versus nurture conundrum."

Her lips twitched ever so slightly. "Though I bet I could figure out your secret chemical, if I had enough time."

And yes, that was a bit boastful, but she felt it was a claim well worth making. After all, so far, there hadn't been anyone she'd come across who could rival her in chemistry when she really set her mind to it.

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Hannah ordered a strawberry and banana milkshake, ignoring the somewhat concerned stare of the waitress as she seemed to silently ask if her sitting with a man quite a bit older than her was a sign of her being in trouble or not. Waiting until the woman had grudgingly left to place the order, she turned back to Jonathan. Such a common name for such a remarkable man, she thought idly before immediately delving back into the conversation.

"I don't need charity," she said first and foremost. "It's only a matter of time before the university accepts my proposal that I teach their chemistry classes. Then I can buy all the books I want." Which, okay, that was a bit of an exaggeration. Yes, she was certain the school would hire her as a teacher, even if she'd lied a bit on her credentials and claimed she'd graduated Harvard when she hadn't quite yet. However, a teacher's salary - even that of a professors - wasn't exactly enough to make her wealthy in her own right. But she would get by, she was sure. She always did.

Hesitating for a moment, if only to consider his question, she added, "And I wanted to create my own because, in my reality, it's never been done before. Science has only ever succeeded when the drugs were meant to help people, not hinder them." She gave a slight shrug of her shoulders, the corners of her mouth quirking upward a bit. "I like a challenge and, besides that, I'm absolutely certain the key to unlocking the human psyche lies not in helping heal the brain but rather in breaking it."

Was it a bit dark? Yes. Was it something that would prove all but impossible to get funding for? Of course. But Hannah wasn't lying. She really did like a challenge. And once Marlon had finished college, and wasn't relying on her help in paying his tuition, she was certain she would be able to focus on her own study of the human mind as much as she wanted. Being able to figure out a few of the pieces here, and take them back home with her whenever she returned, was really only icing on the cake as far as she was concerned.

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"I don't need to pay rent," Hannah pointed out evenly, although she knew that was hardly his point. For now, she let that particular subject die in lieu of the bit she was truly interested in discussing. Her entire face seemed to light up as he spoke, her body language making it obvious she was following everything he said. He wasn't offering anything of too much value, not really, but it was still enough to get her attention and keep it. That alone wasn't an easy feat for most to manage.

"I don't," she finally admitted when he'd finished with a question. "I've spent the past year dealing with the death of my parents." She paused, showing no emotion whatsoever when discussing such a personal, life changing event, only to tack on, "And people called me a monster before, when they thought I murdered someone. I don't really care what others think. They're beneath me."

The last three words were spoken with such confidence, such absolute certainty, that most would be hard pressed not to simply believe they were true if only due to her sheer conviction when uttering the statement. If she was ashamed of that fact, it didn't show. Of course, she wasn't ashamed, not even in the slightest, and for perhaps the first time in her life Hannah realized she didn't have to pretend otherwise either. Not when it came to the man sitting in front of her.

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Hannah didn't answer right away. She would have - it was as though she had all that much to really think about, considering the offer he was making - but the waitress returned with their milkshakes so she stayed silent until the woman had once again left. Peering down at her milkshake, Hannah half expected to see some sort of offer of help from the woman written in whipped cream on top. When it wasn't there, she picked up her straw, stuck it in her milkshake, then looked back across the table at Jonathan.

"I'm thirteen," she said firstly. Not that age really mattered. She was still ridiculously young compared to anyone who could come close to her level of intellect. And no one that she'd met in her entire life so far saw the world the way she did. He was, perhaps, the closest in that regard at least. Taking a sip of her milkshake, she added, "And I suppose I could use your help. Most places aren't going to be very open to offering someone my age any sort of funding at all."

Besides. She'd never been very good at playing nice for very long. Sure she could fool people for short periods of time, if she really wanted to. But eventually that grew old and she found herself bored with the game. It might be nice, especially without her brother around, to have someone she wouldn't have to manipulate.

Taking another sip of her milkshake, she next asked curiously, "Why are you offering to help me? You don't strike me as the sort of person who goes around helping people to this extent without something to gain yourself."

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Hannah giggled softly. "I don't think they'd like it if you started blowing things up," she replied as she reached for her milkshake again. "They're really hypocritical like that, around here." She wasn't exaggerating, either. The majority of the non-locals had been thoroughly disappointing thus far. They claimed everyone was given a fair chance when they showed up, but the instant it was someone who wasn't popular, or who didn't have friends already in the city, they were ousted and treated like garbage.

"It's not that I don't know that's how the world works," she tacked on after she'd had another sip of her milkshake. "Life's never fair. I learned that really early on. But the way things are run here is ridiculous. There needs to be changes." And the only way she could really hope to change anything was if she came up with a way to do it without the majority of the city any the wiser. With a shake of her head, she sat back a little in her seat and studied him from across the table.

"I think this could work," she finally agreed. "I don't mind showing you my work. Like you said, at least you'll understand it. Most of my teachers at Harvard didn't even know what I was talking about, half of the time. It really made me feel sad about the state of the educational system, and it's even worse, here."

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"Alternate realities," Hannah responded simply with a slight shrug. "There are people here who don't exist back home, who are unquestionably fictional for me. I haven't quite worked out how it's possible, but it's true nonetheless." Twirling her straw around her glass, she watched as the milkshake twisted and turned, leaving whipped cream designs mixed with it.

"I was just about to begin graduate school," she said after a second or so, clearly dwelling on some part of that decision process that hadn't quite sat well with her. Shrugging it off, or at least away, easily enough, Hannah smiled. "The world needs taking over," she agreed. "I think we could be just the ones to do it."

Although Hannah didn't normally feel things the way others did, she had to admit that this felt... nice. Right, somehow. As though she might have, finally, at long last, found someone who actually understood her a bit. It was a strange thing to imagine but certainly not unexpected. Of course, she had every intention of taking it one step at a time, but they were certainly off to a good start.

"So why did you go after those men?" she questioned curiously, with a slight tilt of her head. It was the one thing she'd yet to be able to work out, about the entire ordeal she'd witnessed. And Hannah didn't like not knowing something that she felt she should.

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Hannah was aware that the proper response to such an admission, the one society expected people to have, was to be horrified. However she didn't feel any horror at what he was saying and therefore saw no reason to act in such a way. No, if anything, she was intrigued. She wanted to know more, wanted to know when he had crossed that precarious line from a damaged human being to serial killer. She could practically taste the questions on her tongue, there were so many of them. Yet she didn't ask a singular one. Not because she feared him, or because it would be in poor taste to do so, but rather because she wanted to see how much she could sort out on her own.

So instead of speaking right away, she instead tipped her head slightly in acknowledgment then took a moment to look around the diner. Spotting their waitress behind the counter, phone in hand and a somewhat nervous expression on her face, Hannah studied her for a few heartbeats and took careful note of all of the things that were so very obvious to her yet not very noticeable by most others. Sweat on the woman's brow, her eyes darting about in an anxious way, her voice purposefully lowered and her free hand cupping the receiver so no one could overhear the conversation. Continuing to stare, Hannah simply arched an eyebrow when the woman managed to catch her gaze, glanced toward Jonathan, got a look of horror combined with anger on her face, then quickly turned her back to both of them.

Sedately, Hannah looked back to the man sitting across from her. "She's speaking to the police about us," she announced in a matter-of-fact tone, hands once more folded and resting on the table in front of her. "She probably thinks you're some kind of pedophile. That happens a lot whenever I'm out with adults." Granted it had yet to happen in Colligo, but Hannah also hadn't spent much time around others in the city, so she supposed that was to be expected.

"What do you want to do?"

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Leave? No, Hannah decided almost instantly, she wasn't about to just leave. That wasn't even an option. And, as much as a lecture might be amusing to watch, she wasn't too keen on letting the woman get off that lightly either. Of course, she had been trying to keep a low profile since arriving in Colligo, particularly with Sara Sidle around. That woman was liable to blame her for anything that went wrong in the city even without her being in the area. The fact that she was in the diner, and plenty of people could testify to that fact if asked, meant that there was a real chance any harm the woman came to would be laid at her feet.

Then again. The toxin wasn't something she had created. She didn't even know how to make it, yet. Which meant that this was probably one of the best opportunities she was going to have to see the stuff working vicariously through her own doing without her having actually done anything too wrong herself that she could be blamed for. Besides, the diner was filled with nothing but locals and they could be easily manipulated if it came right down to it.

Mind made up, Hannah gave Jonathan a serene smile that was tinged with a small amount of wickedness. "I want to see the toxin at work," she decided with a slight nod.

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