InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "It's a sunshine day!"

Winifred "Fred" Burkle (i_figure) wrote in we_coexist,
@ 2011-06-24 16:55:00

Entry tags:

fight club, hannibal lecter, winifred burkle

Big Brains, Mysteries and Wonders (Hannibal, Fight Club Challenge)
Fred was feeling different lately. Oh, she'd been having very interesting dreams, and she'd been allowed to work on some very high tech equipment. She was helping, but she'd felt..different recently. It wasn't a good or bad different, although she did feel a craving. It was one of those cravings she couldn't quite figure out for what exactly she was craving. She couldn't name it, and if she could just name it, maybe then she'd be able to get back to feeling normal. Not that she really considered herself all that normal.

As if the City felt a need to help her out, or give her yet another distraction, she received an invitation from the City Institute. They were thinking of holding a panel for the leading scientists and thinkers on the interplay between science and magic or supernatural. The invitation was to a private meeting, and she guessed it was part of whatever was going on to find answers about the City. The Institute was starting to wonder? Maybe it was someone who was part of that meeting? There'd been flyers, she was pretty sure of that.

She knew she should probably sit at the computers and do more work, but the programs she had running, which didn't seem to be giving her more information than she'd already provided, were working well enough on their own. She wasn't needed.

Fred dressed in her more scholarly gear, even the glasses not that she always needed them much lately, and headed out to the Institute. She'd found the small conference room that looked set up for a small round table discussion, or debate; it even had snacks: small sandwiches, chips, crackers, pastries, juice, water, soda. It didn't look like a lot of food, but she'd guess at least five or six were expected. Scholars, thinkers, did like the free food and usually tried to sneak some home.

Fred Burkle settled down in a semi-plush swiveling rolly chair and waited. She didn't want to touch the snacks until others were there. It seemed more polite. She was a little excited; it'd been a while since she'd gotten to have an in-depth conversation of this kind.

(Read comments) - (Post a new comment)

i_consume
2011-06-30 04:12 am UTC (link)

"I am no lackey." Hannibal said, stiff. "I haven't worked for or against the City in any way. I have done what I wanted to do. Merely, I have accepted my place here. I discovered early that there is no way out, thus making it unnecessary to attempt to find a way. Perhaps that is it, then. Perhaps you have spent your time trying to find a way home rather than just living your life. In that way you may have stunted yourself, both mentally and in the ways that the City allows you to do things."

Hannibal sat back in the chair, his left hand wrapped around the bottle of water. "I am in service to nobody, certainly not a faceless entity. I acknowledge that it exists, that it thinks, but it is no master. At least, not to me. Obviously it is to you, since it does not allow you to play with your computers the way that you wish. You said that you have only a pager. Which means you do not even have one of the phones that it has supplied every other being here. Perhaps if you just lived your life and went about the routines that you would normally, it would give you such things."

His words, and his voice, were unkind when he said these things. But it showed not at all in his face. Perhaps in his eyes.

His lip twitched in the ghost of a very unkind smile. She was unaware that he at this age, actually younger, since he had been here a few years, had his very own book, and that in said book - and in his life before the City - he'd done some very very bad things.

"Already I am on a path to be a greater mind than the man that I should have become." Hannibal said. "I have already done much that he never did do. Yes, I'm quite aware that I will never be exactly him, but it is foolish to think that he is not me. Already our experiences have paralleled, though I am here instead of Earth. Which is not the point. The point I was making was not that you should read the books or watch the other three movies, but that you have not. And since you have not, you should not presume to know my intelligence." Due to the concessions made, his tone was more observatory this time in this part of the discussion.

But he did find himself perturbed again. "My eye color is not a disease."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

i_figure
2011-06-30 04:29 am UTC (link)

"If I were fighting to get home, I'd agree with you. I'm not. I just want to understand how the City works. What's the science behind it? It can't be just magic. I want to understand. The City doesn't want to be understood. But, it is one of the biggest mysteries we have around us; it begs to be discovered." Fred wasn't bothered by the possible insult; it simply wasn't true.

"I know what happens to me happens to me if I go back. It will not change. So, why do I want to go back if that life has been lived? We cannot change those established time lines because they have already happened whether we have lived them or not." She looked at him, again confident, but as he continued, there was a chill. She didn't like what he was saying. There was something about it...Her chin lifted slightly, maybe a tell that he had bothered her a bit. Not insulted, but bothered her. It was a creeping suspicion of a bothered that could become fear. She was determined to not let it.

"'Congenital' is from birth, usually used in relation to diseases or something not at all pleasant. It does not always mean so. I simply meant have you always had that eye color. You'd think that would be something I'd notice from the movie, but I didn't. I remember the sound he made and the way they had him bound." She shifted a little. He wanted to be greater than that man, a greater mind? A mind that liked to dine on other minds? Bothered.

"Why do you take insult in being told that you are probably not smarter than I am? Is it that I am a woman, is it that I do often times sound like I'm a little addled, is it that I sound like a bit of a hick, or is it simply that you are so arrogant that you couldn't possibly conceive of someone being as smart as you?" Fred's lips pulled slightly as she stood. "This isn't what we came here to discuss. It's my fault we got off on this tangent, but who put us here? Well, we put ourselves here, but why was this meeting called? The general why not the specific why, but not the why are we here here as in philosophy why either."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

i_consume
2011-06-30 06:48 am UTC (link)

"Ah." Hannibal said, understanding. Still unkind. She was trying to understand the very thing that was keeping her from her things, she was trying to poke into a thing that didn't want to be poked. He and Baba Yaga had done something similar, but not in the same way. They had killed the City's children. They had not tried to find out what the City wanted, how it worked. But he said nothing. She was foolish for what she wanted, and his one word would convey his feelings perfectly.

"My eye color is inherited from my mother." Hannibal said. He had, and still, took it as a slight because even he wouldn't have used such a word in such a question. The meaning had become overwhelmingly medical, even in his time. "From what I understand of movies, it was too costly and too much work to portray my eye color and my hand," he held it up. He knew she had seen it, but he showed it again anyway. "so they did not. Again, returning to the books, it's all there. While Sir Anthony Hopkins did an excellent job at portraying the older me, I have personal feelings on how they changed the story. There were things that I would never have done, but as you haven't seen my main complaint, I won't spoil it for you."

The cutting off of his own hand irked him in a way he just couldn't get over. Not even for Clarice Starling, who he understood completely upon reading, and understood the way that the older him would want her, not even for her would he cut off an appendage. Not even for River. A girl whom he loved now. Treasured, now. Should he find himself bound with her, he would find another way out. His hands were far too useful, too intricate as tools and weapons, to remove. No.

"It has nothing to do with you being a woman. Or being a hick. And it has nothing at all to do with the possibility that you could be smarter than I. I'm well aware of the occurrence. It's not a maybe." Hannibal's eyes became cold. "Rather, it's the disgust in your face, the anger in your eyes, when you say such things. That you think it impossible for somebody else to surpass your intelligence. It burns in you, this need to be the best at something. Your mind is quite capable, I cannot deny it and would not. But it's the only thing that you have, isn't it? You are no spectacular beauty, you are not a brave and gallant soul. I'm guessing by your physique that you are not a skilled fighter. So there is only your mind. Your brilliant and well developed mind. It's possible you're not aware of how you feel, that you did not realize the look that you gave. You are not in control of your emotions in the least, so I'm willing to believe this. But you cling to that brain of yours. You fear losing it. You fear discovering that it's not all you think it is. You need to be the smartest person you know."

As for the rest: "I am here because I was sent an invitation. Since it said The City Institute on it and not a specific name, I realized from the first that it was from the City itself. Did you not? Did you really assume that some individual had sent these out for us? The City wanted us here. The fact that nobody else has arrived merely shows that the City wanted the two of us alone in the same room. For what purpose? Who can say. Perhaps for us to speak and get to know one another. Become colleagues. Perhaps for us to argue and become bitter enemies. Perhaps it was hoping that I would end your life and thus remove the efforts it must take in order to keep anything fancier than a beeper from your hands."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

i_figure
2011-06-30 07:11 am UTC (link)

Fred listened. Her lips thinning as he insulted her, and maybe he was right the way she'd said it wasn't nice. But, that didn't make it any less hurtful when he decided to follow it with pointing out exactly those things she knew were her faults. She was no beauty queen, nor was she some champion. She was Fred, plain ole Fred. Or she had been. Yes, she needed to be smart. She needed to be the brain because she didn't have much else in the past, but he actually treated her as if she were stupid in that bit of deduction of his?

"If you're the kind of man who'd kill me because I pissed you off, if that's the man you are and want to be, I don't think the City would bring us together as colleagues, specially if it knows this about you." She didn't move away, not yet. "But, then, I'm not - despite right now - a very argumentative person. Maybe it thought I'd try to save you. Course, that's saying you wanna be saved, or feel you need to be saved."

Fred sighed and took a step away. "Would you like something to eat?" She turned back to grab her water bottle to get a sip, and just took it along with her. "The City's a little strange to put all this out if it knew it was just us. Why go to the trouble? It does like going to a lot more trouble than necessary. I know I can eat, but this is a bit much, isn't it?"

Bothered. Maybe she was quietly calling on Castiel, but she refused to look afraid. She ignored that tiny voice that told her to run. Running didn't always work; it wasn't always the best choice.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

i_consume
2011-06-30 07:28 am UTC (link)

"In my other future, I eat a flautist to improve the sound of the orchestra as a whole." Hannibal smiled at her. Letting it sink in what he'd said. The meaning behind it. Whether he was the kind of guy who would kill somebody for making him angry or not.

"I do not wish to be saved." Hannibal said simply. "As I stated, I'm rather fond of who I am. Does this mean that I plan to kill you? No. I've come to respect the way that your mind works, even if I have yet to come to respect you as a whole. Could we work together? I think so. Would it be without problems? Likely not." He thought of Simon. He and Simon had had many problems, and yet when they were working, amazing things happened. The same could occur with Fred.

Hannibal turned to look at the food. It was all snackish really. Nothing cooked. Pastries, chilled vegetables with dips, crackers and cheese, coldcuts. Nothing complicated. He stood to join her, standing close but not overcrowdingly so. He had a small desire in him to make her slightly uncomfortable, given the comments he'd made. Just a little bit.

"I'm guessing that it wanted us to think there were others coming. The City thinks, but not too deeply, I've realized. It makes initial plans, but has very little follow through. It did not reason for itself that between our two minds we would realize very quickly nobody else would be attending. It apparently thought the amount of food and drink would placate us indefinitely."

He filled a plate with some crackers and some cheese, but not before stooping a little to bring closer the aroma of what he was picking. His nose would have told him immediately if it had been spoiled or had anything added to it.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

i_figure
2011-06-30 07:41 am UTC (link)

"I didn't think you did." Fred paused as he came closer to her, her fingers twitched around the bottle she was holding. Thankfully it didn't crinkle too much from the tighter hold. She looked over the food.

"Like those stupid cupids." She grumped softly as she finally picked up a plate and found the pastries that actually looked edible. She did like her sweets. "Or the leprechaun, or making a queen?" She glanced at him, not at all liking how close he was. The plate in her hand didn't shake much, actually at all. She wasn't even sure how she could still think of eating when she knew what he ate. Her stomach really did have a mind of its own.

"Do you ever get curious? How it works?" She turned to look at him for a moment, which was probably not the best idea. It seemed to make her closer to him, which was not what she wanted. "It's testing us for something. If I were given to complete flights of fancy, I'd say it's trying to create a master race of some sort to take over the world, or to pick out the best bits of those not so real things to figure out how to defeat those things that made us. If we were made, but didn't exist outside that." She wasn't sure if she was making sense. It wasn't easy to explain what was in her head sometimes.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

(Read comments) -