So I guess that's a step in the right direction, clever composition in the honesty [W6, Wednesday]

[hydrokinetics]

[It was time. It was time, Percy decided, to face the monster head-on, just as he always has.

Is it fair to think of Dr. Lecter as a monster? Perhaps not. But Percy's negotiated with people before, people who have wanted others dead. Everything Will's told him sat with him for days and seeped into his nightmares, visions of blood and gore and mutilated bodies, a fucked-up version of love that left him sick and gasping any time he woke up.

So Percy slept. Monday evening onward until Wednesday. It's only after breakfast, after a confirmation that others know and suspect, that he realizes he's wasting time.

…at least he takes the time to shower, to get changed out of his pajamas and into other clothes, prepare himself. The water doesn't re-energize him the way it usually does but it helps clear his head. He has to be calm and diplomatic when he speaks. Dr. Lecter, surely, knows he's coming for him.

It's why Wednesday afternoon finds him approaching the man's room, Mrs. O'Leary left in his own room and no one else aware he's even awake now. He stands out in the hall, breathing in deeply through his nose before firmly knocking on the door.

There's no turning back. Not now.]

Comments

[hydrokinetics]

[For now it doesn't seem important. Instead, he focuses on the here and now.]

...if you're wanted for being a serial killer and Will as an accomplice or whatever, I think I get it. I sometimes forget not everyone can breathe at the bottom of the ocean. But after that, wouldn't you start a new life? Rebirth. Maybe that's only in our version of the world.

[Percy, stop talking.] While it's a risk I think is worth it, I don't know how I'm going to convince everybody else to listen. There's only fourteen of us left, and with four of the roles left that's still half of us with titles. Wouldn't it depend on who, exactly, is left next week?

[sating]

[ He nods again, though there is a touch of wryness creeping back into his smile. ]

Regardless, it will be new. So, yes. It will be our new life. And with any luck, it will be a quieter one.

[ It's not as if Hannibal will ever truly stop what he does, but... He is likely to slow down, at least. The idea of taking a few years' "break" isn't such a bad one. ]

That is unfortunately the challenge. I would offer my help, but- [ He shrugs ] Ultimately, that too is the problem. It does depend on who remains. Perhaps those that do will be more amenable to the idea. Or perhaps it will not matter. We can hardly know now, admittedly.

[hydrokinetics]

For your sake and everyone else's, I hope so. [Please stop killing people, just a thought. It's a nice dream.]

...so what are you saying, that by next week we'll have a better idea of who's willing to work with each other to figure things out? What if that's a week too late?

[sating]

[ He will! For a few years!! ]

Then that is the way it will be. Rather unfortunately. But I imagine what will come to pass this week is already decided. I made my selection for who will end up in the stocks already, for example. Though I cannot be sure, I believe everything else has probably also been decided at this point.

[ He shrugs, then adds: ]

—Friday, perhaps. That would be a good time to begin.

[hydrokinetics]

[That's scary. But he won't ask Hannibal who he chose or why he thinks everything's set. Instead...he nods.]

Friday. On Friday, it's the beginning of the end, isn't it? Friday will be the start of a new trail to follow. Something like that?

[sating]

Essentially. I believe we can set events into motion to end all of this starting then.

[ Because he knows, of course. Hannibal always seems to know, and that's something that people have always found more than a little unsettling about Hannibal Lecter. It's part of what made people wonder if he was more (or less, depending on your take) than human. He seemed to have an uncanny ability to find things out and hold onto them, only revealing what he knows when it amuses him to do so.

So, he will die this week. He knows it as a near-certainty, because he knows someone is coming to kill him, and the only way he would survive that encounter would be to kill them himself. He will try, of course. But he will not succeed. Yet even knowing that, he says this, because he also knows he'll be right.

Come Friday, it will be the beginning of the end. With or without him. ]

That covers the practical, I imagine. Was there anything else you wanted to ask me, Percy?

[hydrokinetics]

[He doesn't like how ominous it sounds. Percy feels that perhaps there's something greater he's missing here, another cosmic joke he's unaware of, but what else is new these days? The end would normally make him a little apprehensive, but not now. Not knowing the things he does, not hearing these things.

There's still time to hope, he thinks.]

...I don't think so. That's pretty much everything I wanted to ask and you've answered everything in the same way you always do. I appreciate it.