InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Do you have to let it linger?"

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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