He fits them together in sunshine or rain, each one is unique, no two are the same [W2, Sunday]

[hydrokinetics]

[The execution was quick and fast, but the memory was less quick to fade. He'd watched the whole thing, relieved that Ezio kept his promise to be quick with her death and sickened at the idea that this may not always be the case.

None of this is fair. Two people are now dead thanks to this game and it bothers him more than he'd like. He knows that people are taking care of giving the girls a proper burial though and while it takes time he does find himself wandering toward the graveyard.

It's here he spots Hannibal with a shovel in hand, dirt on his clothing and a grave in progress. Though he almost looks down with it, Percy does approach. He's alone this time, no Mrs. O'Leary with him, and though he can't keep his eyes off of the hole in the ground he does speak up.]

...I don't think I could have ever imagined you with this much dirt on your clothes.

Comments

[hydrokinetics]

[At least one of them is calm seeing how Percy's grip on the shovel's handle is tighter than it should be and his tone is angry at best. This is bullshit, really.

...but is it? He understands that it's wrong to play the game and it's wrong for people to decide just how bloody and horrible punishment should be, but on the other hand...

...he shakes his head suddenly to clear his thoughts, doing his best to calm down enough to have an intelligent conversation. Escalation could spiral out of control in the wrong hands so easily.]

...it'd look like pain, I think. [And he returns to digging, though he's back to being thoughtful on the matter.] There are two sides to pain, Mr. Lecter. The side for the person giving it and the side for the person receiving it. But most of the time people call the given pain other words like "grief" or "sadness" or "rage." Depending on who goes next, it's probably going to look different each time. The only question is how we're supposed to handle something like that or stop it.

[sating]

[ Hannibal notices that tighter grip on the shovel, and though his eyes flicker to it, he doesn't give it any more notice or consideration than that. It's not a surprising response at all, because anger is likely the most reasonable. If he were completely blunt and honest, he'd be more likely to say that this was a naturally pessimistic situation. The graves they're digging and the ones that lay for each of them give that idea some strength, dark as it is.

He glances up when Percy returns to digging, but he smiles very slightly at Percy's point. He's impressed with it, because it's a rather astute way to look at it. ]

That's very true. It's a strange thing for me to say, but it's almost a shame that kind of pain does not seem to "count" by the terms of these circumstances. You're right, after all. Emotional pain can be just as damaging as the physical.

[ If it weren't, psychiatry wouldn't be a very lucrative practice. ]

I'd like to think that we'd all prefer to stop it. But I'm also uncertain as to how. So to handle, I'd say we cannot lose ourselves. [ He nods to the graves ] We cannot forget small dignities, lest we forget that we are all here together, not against each other.

[hydrokinetics]

[Thank you for humoring him, Hannibal. It's best not to ask too many questions when Percy's thinking about these things. He doesn't know what the man's thinking, misses the smile completely as he works on the task at hand. There's conviction in his tone though, a sign that he's not backing down from this point any time soon.]

I don't think it's strange at all since it should count. Sometimes emotional pain is even more damaging than physical. At least physical pain you can heal from or die trying. Emotional pain? Some people don't get over that. [The speed of his shoveling slows again as he thinks about what happened to him before this, the pain caused by hundreds of curses, the way it felt to slowly die in the darkest part of the Underworld. All of those had been brought on by other people's emotional pain. His arms are shaking slightly as he digs, hitting a stone in the ground and frowning before trying again.

This isn't the right time to think about that.] I want to believe we all want to stop it, but then I think about the people that volunteered to kill Tiara without a second thought. How can we get people to remember this is supposed to be a group effort and not let them fall to the idea of being more suitable to live than somebody else?

[sating]

Certainly so. I perhaps know it better than most, as I've made a career out of trying to help people recover from their emotional pains. I do what I can. But psychiatry is by nature an imprecise medicine.

[ He's seen many patients over the years, and while he would think he's helped many of them, there are those who have come to his office whose pains he simply cannot heal. At that point, it's only easing them, and even then, it's not always successful. This doesn't include the times where he decides to push people towards something else instead. It's always with a reason, certainly. But it's generally frowned upon to encourage your patients to murder, even if those people may deserve it.

For example, though he keeps it to himself (for now), perhaps removing those quite enthusiastic to kill would be better for the group. It may not be. But it also may remove instability. ]

That's what I'm primarily concerned with. We've already seen signs of some of us being primarily interested in themselves. It's not unfair. But it will cause problems in this sense. For that, I do not know what we might be able to do.

[hydrokinetics]

No offense, Mr. Lecter, but I think I can agree with that. Some of the counselors I've seen in the past were "imprecise."

[It's probably rude? But it's true. Guidance counselors and other people who've tried to diagnose him kind of were way off base, but maybe it's not fair since "demigod" usually isn't a proper diagnosis.]

Wouldn't the best thing to be to remove the people who're only interested in themselves? If they win this game, that really messes things up for the rest of us.

[sating]

None taken. It's an unfortunate reality that we cannot always overcome the uncertainties of treatment. Part of responsibly approaching the practice is knowing that, just as a doctor knows he will sometimes fail.

[ His voice is calm, but it is tinged with solemness, however slight. It's something it sounds like he takes quite seriously, and maybe even he's sorry that Percy does have a negative opinion. But he doesn't push on that or why Percy has seen them in the past. Without Percy offering it, it wouldn't be right for him to ask.

So instead, he continues digging, letting the silence linger for a few moments as what Percy says sinks in. He's surprised to hear his own thoughts mirrored, naturally, but he gives time before a response. ]

Logically, it may be. If the selfish man wins the game, then he will only continue to be selfish. However. Removal is a task that seems well-defined. It will end up here.

[ Here, being the graves, which he nods to. Though Hannibal doesn't respond with each shying away from the idea or bolstering it. His response is perfectly neutral. He's prompting Percy to speak more on it if he wants to. ]

[hydrokinetics]

Guess the same can be said about some other things, but on the other hand people keep trying. Isn't that sort of the point of civilization? Improving on stuff and making it better for other people? [This is going off-topic and he seems to know that, allowing himself to fall silent. The grave's a stark reminder of the fact that things are solemn and dangerous here.

On the other hand, he knows this game pretty well. The gentle prompting without saying much, the neutral ground that would get Percy wound up enough to keep talking. It's a trick Chiron uses on him sometimes. Hell, it's a trick Annabeth uses sometimes, too, and it's for that reason that Hannibal's able to use it as well.]

I think removal of a threat is a lot more noble than selfish gain, mostly. The thing is if someone who has the greater good in mind ends up winning, wouldn't they be likely to bring all of these people back anyway? That can't be guaranteed with someone who might save themselves or...I don't know, do something worse. [He shrugs to himself.] I don't think it really hit most of us that people are going to start dying no matter what. Not until today, anyway.

[sating]

[ Hannibal makes a small noise of agreement to the first point, because though they had started off as different topics, with that last line, they almost seem to converge. The idea Percy speaks to fits within those bounds. It's improving their situation for the good of the whole to consider removing problematic elements that would hurt everyone else.

Though naturally, he's surprised that Percy would be the one to speak to that sentiment. It's not what he would expect from a young man, generally speaking. There's logic in Percy's thoughts, because Hannibal had wondered the same, but to wonder in itself was a taboo. But it's almost fitting. Someone that would have these kinds of thoughts would naturally end up speaking to him. They always seemed to. ]

I'm inclined to agree with you. If what the Sheriff told us is true, then the stakes are high, but also nebulously so. The fact that the result of all of this is dependent on the last person standing is troubling, to say the very least.

[ He pauses to throw a heavy scoop of dirt out, but continues easily ]

If death is the inevitable result for so many, then we can only hope that last person is of a similar mindset. That, or it would be beneficial to the entire group to ensure that.

[hydrokinetics]

[Suffice to say Percy Jackson isn't exactly a normal young man despite what he wants to pretend at the current moment. The world was a messed up place and with first the titans threatening it, and now the giants and Gaea, he wasn't really settled on allowing anything to stand in his way. He'd made a promise to himself that he would kill Gaea with his bare hands. Being here...if he didn't survive, the doors couldn't close, and if the doors didn't close the world would be infected with the worst monsters its ever seen. Gaea would be one step closer to winning.

Of course, explaining all of that would probably make him sound crazy to the nice psychiatrist, so Percy keeps his mouth shut in that regard.]

People can be unpredictable, but I think people can also change their mind at the last minute. Like...it's possible for someone evil to change their mind to do something good for the world, but it's just as possible for someone good to do something selfish and evil. That's why it's better for us to all work as a group so we aren't isolating people and giving them the chance to do something huge to screw all of us. [It's a pensive little thought, something he's put some thought into since speaking with Tiara prior to her execution.]

But how can we get people to agree to that mindset and stick with it? Tiara said that Ao acted because she had someone to get back to in her world, and the Sheriff didn't help any. People are probably going to be scared.

[And yet, strangely, if he's scared he's not saying or displaying so.]

[sating]

They will be.

[ As a balance to Percy's calm, Hannibal has a certainty in his voice in response. There's no doubt in his mind that people will be scared. It's a frightening situation, and that will only become more evident the longer it goes on. He doesn't have any doubts that the weeks ahead will be difficult ones as a result.

Of course, that certainty doesn't make things any easier. On the contrary, it makes them quite a bit more difficult. ]

I do not believe there will be any certain way to prevent what we're both concerned with. Only measures with the hopes to reduce the chance. Perhaps if we were to bring up this logic, though not in such blunt terms... That could be helpful. It wouldn't be able to deter the selfish among us. But it could bolster those willing to work for a common goal.

[hydrokinetics]

There are people I've already been trying to get together to work on breaking the cycle, but it's a slow process. [He loses his grip on the shovel, nearly dropping it suddenly. He's quick to grab for it again.]

What would you suggest is a less blunt way of bringing it up anyway? Any ideas?