Late afternoon, outside

[cook_the_rude]

Outside the back door to the general behind-the-scenes area which isn't far from the kitchen door and which Dr. Hannibal Lecter seems to have found by simply wandering away from the infirmary day room with his drip stand, there are a few chairs and a table which people seem to use to take breaks from whatever they had been doing there. A few waitrats are actually lounging around in the late afternoon sun and not paying any attention to Dr. Lecter; in fact, one of them has a little sign that declares WE'RE ON A BREAK!!!

Dr. Lecter sits in one of the chairs and looks up at the sky. He's wearing a paisley dressing gown over a soft green sweater, and a matching paisley shawl is covering the low-hanging thing on the drip stand. His slippers are plaid.

He is still rather pale and wan, but his face, as usual, will give away little.

Comments

[gredya]

A half-grown wolf bolts past with something in its mouth; some twenty seconds later a crowd of others bound along after it. About a minute after that, strolling at a leisurely pace, follows a woman in a rough brown tunic and trousers. She eyes the waitrats, and then the recuperating paisley man, tilting her head to one side.

[cook_the_rude]

"Good afternoon," the man says, pleasantly. "Are you following the wolf pack?"

[gredya]

"I watch them." Yes, there we go, Bozhana has caught up to her sister, and an enthusiastic round of tug-of-war has started again. "We meet before. I was in fur. You were--in blood."

Frankly, he doesn't look like his luck has improved any since then.

[cook_the_rude]

"They're your children," the man says. "Do they have human shape as well?"

Beat.

"Yes, I had a spot of bad luck."

[gredya]

"They change." And yes, they're hers. She glances casually over at him again: not going to bother spelling out her protectiveness. "Better luck here?"

Now Karel has the rabbit's-foot and comes running back this way. Amazing the energy children have.

[cook_the_rude]

"Not really," he says. "The woman came in from my world and shot me here."

[gredya]

She crouches on the ground, apparently comfortable. "So that can happen."

[cook_the_rude]

"It can," he says. "If something is illegal it doesn't mean it won't happen. She's in the cells for it."

[gredya]

"Too bad for her." Gredya isn't going to bother analyzing the twinge of satisfaction she feels from knowing that this place can be as dangerous as anywhere else, but it's validation. "They have doctors here?"

[the_cupbearer]

Ganymede comes by at one point, barefoot and in worn jeans and a dark blue tunic, with a choker of bleached snake vertebrae around his throat, and echoed around his wrist.

"You look well. Or as well as can be expected after having been shot," he says quietly. "How do you feel, Hannibal?"

[cook_the_rude]

"I have been better," Hannibal says, smiling up at Ganymede. "But it's good to see you."

[the_cupbearer]

"I've been well. More or less," he murmurs. "Finding that the meeting of desert and sea suits me as well now as it ever did."

Indeed his skin is a little darker, hair flirting with dark blonde bits teased out by the sun. He still looks boyish and handsome as ever, sultry in the way his eyes take the kohl lining he uses. "Apparently you quite upset your lady friend Alana."

[cook_the_rude]

"I suppose so," Hannibal says. "I take it you've met her, then?"

[the_cupbearer]

"Well, someone needed to relieve her of the firearm before she beat your face in with it," he says. "So yes, I have met her. She seemed greatly concerned about you chasing her. I have to say I'm surprised, chasing skirts is hardly your style," he says dryly.

"You will have to keep her safe while you're in here, you know."

[cook_the_rude]

"She came to me on her own, and she was very helpful in ways she hadn't planned on," Hannibal says. "I never actively meant her harm, and I don't mean it now. I gave her what she wanted at the time."

[the_cupbearer]

"Something tells me she didn't want to be terrified half-senseless, Hannibal," Ganymede replies.

"Don't make the mistake of thinking you can bullshit me as easily as you seem to do everyone else."

[cook_the_rude]

"I gave her the choice to leave, just turn away and not be brave," Hannibal says, earnestly. "She didn't. Alana had to be brave."

He takes a deep breath.

[patterns_bloom]

Alana didn't mean to seek him out. Truly. But she got wind that he was sitting out back, and couldn't help but see the damage she'd wrought with her own eyes. So she opens the door, and stands arrested, fists at her side.

"Hi," she croaks, unsure what to say--or even what she's doing here.

[cook_the_rude]

"Hello, Alana," Hannibal says, smiling at her. "Congratulations on your release from the cells."

The thing on the drip stand looks somewhat ominous, even though it is covered.

[patterns_bloom]

"Congratulations on living," Alana responds, soft and bitter. "Gene Hunt confiscated my gun, so you have nothing to fear from me right now."

She glances at the drip stand, wondering what, exactly is under the shawl, and why he felt the need to cover it.

[cook_the_rude]

"You could try and throttle me, rip out my drainage, or bash in my head with a big stone," Hannibal supplies, helpfully. "If there is enough imagination, then there are enough weapons anywhere."

[patterns_bloom]

"Don't tempt me," Alana says, with a quick, fierce smile. She clasps her hands together to keep them from shaking. "The gun seems so much cleaner than any p of that, but it wasn't, was it?"

She pauses, furrowing her brow. "I'm not sorry for defending myself."

[cook_the_rude]

"Defending?" Hannibal says. "I wasn't currently attacking you. It was a misunderstanding on your part."

He stretches out his legs.

[patterns_bloom]

"You were attacking me back in our world, which you damn well know," Alana snaps. She turns in place once, drawing a breath through her nose.

"Hannibal," she says, without stumbling, "what happens to me?"

[cook_the_rude]

"However, I wasn't attacking you just then," Hannibal says. "So the me you were defending yourself against was several days in the past."

He smiles at her.

"I don't know what exactly happens to you. I left."