(no subject)

[herr_bookman]

When Autor steps through the door today, his clothes remain the same: white pants, oversized gray sweater, and glasses. What changes are the ears. Not his, necessarily--those still remain human--but he sprouts fuzzy, gray, and pointed kitten ears on top of his head with a soft, "Oh!" The tail is also new, and telegraphs his body language as the tip curves upward in agitation.

"Really?" he calls up to the ceiling. "Come on!"

Experimentally, he brushes his fingers against one of his fuzzy new appendages--and tears his hand away, blushing. They point in different directions, moving independently of one another to show his ambivalence with the costume.

Comments

[herr_bookman]

"You apparently don't see as well as you think you do, Dr. Lecter. I'm not like you. I like being kind to people. What I don't like is some murderer calling me a liar," Autor says, adjusting his glasses. "And insisting on talking to me and then trying to contradict everything I say. It's really tiresome."

[cook_the_rude]

"You like being kind to people in the hope they're kind back at you," Hannibal says. "I enjoy feeding people and pampering them to the best of my skills, but while that makes them happy in many different ways, I don't deceive myself that I'm doing it out of kindness. I'm doing it because their contentment, happiness, pleasure, bliss, satisfaction shows me that I am good at it."

[herr_bookman]

"Reciprocal kindness is nice, but it's not why I do it," Autor says, his ears swiveling about. "You and I have different motivations. While I admit to some selfishness, since nobody's truly free of it, I don't care for people like you do just because it shows off my own talents. I actually do it because I want them to be happy, not because I necessarily want to be the one to whom they owe their happiness."

[cook_the_rude]

"You don't enjoy being good at what you do?"

[herr_bookman]

"Of course I do, but that's not the basis for how I treat other people," Autor says, shrugging. His ears point forward and slightly to the side, relaxed.

[cook_the_rude]

"It means you give them your best -- isn't that better than kindness?"

[herr_bookman]

"What? No," Autor says, squinting at him. His ears roll backward, flattening against his head. "That's such a selfish way to look at it. I see genuine kindness as my best."

[cook_the_rude]

"Define genuine kindness."

[herr_bookman]

Autor thinks on that for a while, turning definitions over in his head. His ears roll independently of one another on his head, showing his ambivalence.

"I think it's acting on the complicated desire to help another person find true happiness," he says, his voice growing more confident as he speaks. "Placing another's needs before your own. The opposite of selfishness. I'm sure you'll find out that it isn't trying to rob people of their freedom of interpretation, Dr. Lecter. Someday."

[cook_the_rude]

"But can that desire be motivated by anything other than love, in some shape or form?" Hannibal says. "It's not something you randomly give to a stranger you don't care about, except for some sort of exercise -- which would be selfish again."

[herr_bookman]

"That desire can, but then it isn't kindness," Autor says, cupping his chin. His ears point straight up, as does his tail. "Well, I'll just have to learn to care about strangers, then."

[cook_the_rude]

"You aspire to sainthood?"

[herr_bookman]

Autor barks out a laugh. "Hardly. Being kind to strangers doesn't make one a saint," he says, smiling. "I wonder if you'll ever realize that the cruel person I appeared to be before was simply a mask to hide my loneliness. Now that I'm no longer lonely, I've no need for cruelty."

[cook_the_rude]

"Milliways has saved you," Dr. Lecter says. "How quaint."

[herr_bookman]

"It has, hasn't it?" Autor says, his ears perking forward and slightly to the side. "I'm very grateful to it. God only knows what would have happened had I met you before I met Rae and the others."

[cook_the_rude]

"You might be talking about kindness less, and instead get things done more," Lecter says.

[herr_bookman]

"Fair enough," Autor says, sketching a mocking bow. His tail points straight up. "I'll be kind enough to stop talking about it around you. Good day, Dr. Lecter."

[cook_the_rude]

"Enjoy the tell-tale tail," Dr. Lecter says.