I always put myself in destructive situations [W5, Friday]

[hydrokinetics]

[It took time. Everything took time as it always did. It took time for them to all calm down, it took time to heal physical wounds, it took time to properly remove the evidence of obscene crimes...but in the evening they were able to gather in one place away from everyone else. It hadn't been easy coordinating everything, but it was necessary.

And so here they were. All seven of them.]

...I don't really know where to start. [His voice is tight, but determined.] But we need everybody on the same page. Who wants to go first?

Comments

[thatsthespirit]

[please let her have gotten this knowledge from a third party please please please please]

Who does she speak with often? Other than Shinnosuke, Percy, Natalie and myself. I want to cover all of our bases.

I don't want to jump to conclusions. This is all still conjecture. We need to be certain.

[elemancy]

[defers to the room, because noct can only shake his head. he doesn't talk to xion that much.]

[hydrokinetics]

...Dr. Lecter. [He knows that much, at least.] Dr. Lecter, and by proxy, Will.

[thatsthespirit]

. . .

[and now she's thinking back to--]

Annabeth's letters.

The references to couples. The references to food. To whom you have adopted.

[hydrokinetics]

[Oh gods why.]

...when we first got here, I met Dr. Lecter because he was buying cooking supplies. [This is all fairly quiet as he thinks.] He was buying them because cooking was a hobby of his, but he told me that he used to be a surgeon. He said that he switched to psychiatry because being able to personally connect was more satisfying, but he connected that he took what he loved about surgery and applied it to cooking.

Measuring and cutting. Said the details are precision are very similar. It was a morbid analogy and he apologized for it, but...[There's a breath.] I don't know. I don't...after Annabeth and Riku's trial, I kind of refused to talk to him until I knew he had spoken to Xion. I know he's helped her a few times, even if I don't know what they've talked about.

[robitussin]

[She listens to that, and then pauses, and then looks absolutely horrified.]

...Oh my god.

[thatsthespirit]

[. . . she listens with a frown, but while the analogy is morbid, it doesn't. super stand out as something. terrible?? to her. at the moment. she might be missing the implications]

[but then Natalie speaks up]

Natalie?

[robitussin]

...I was talking to Will the other day when he was in the saloon. I don't know if any of you saw him, he was super drunk. Anyways, I asked him if he wanted me to get Hannibal to bring him back to his room, and he started going off about how Hannibal was the worst person here.

He started going off on this thing about how we're all cows, and you can't eat a drunk cow, it would ruin the meat? And then he said that if anyone here was a serial killer, it's Hannibal, and that his face screams manipulative bastard?

[screams.]

But he was just kind of babbling, right? I mean, that happens when you've had a lot to drink...

[thatsthespirit]

[UM]

[. . .]

[OKAY NOW THE IMPLICATIONS ARE COMING IN, LOUD AND CLEAR???]

. . .





[and she has nothing to say, just. horrified staring. like. she can't??? believe this is where their initial concern for Xion brought them???]

[robitussin]

I'm wrong, right? I'm wrong. There's no way. I'm just being paranoid, right?

[thatsthespirit]

[she. isn't. answering that]

I believe the Madame should possibly look into Dr. Lecter before Xion.

[impulsiveness]

[........ regardless of what Natalie may say next, he nods to Milla.

Noted.]

[insincerely]

... Agreed.

[He's biased, but.]

[hydrokinetics]

There's more. [Ohgodsohgodsohgods.]

...Dr. Lecter is who told me about the roles' jobs. He came to me and said that his surgeries on us have earned him enough merit to learn these things. He already knew about the Bounties when I spoke to him.

I told him I wished it was easier to figure out the roles and who they belonged to. And he said that he could imagine Hal picking the Bounties based on what he finds the most amusing. So...I asked him who the most amusing Bounties would be. And he said he initially thought it'd be people with a tendency toward violence, but now knowing everybody here he'd say it's people that're the opposite. People who want to do good. People who won't kill.

Hal told me that the Deputy is the "good guy" role. The Bounty Leader is the "bad guy." He said not to take character into account for the people filling the roles.

So I said it was unfair and that it was messing with morals, which...it is. And he said "that's why I think he'd find it amusing." So I asked how we'd figure out what Hal found funny. Dr. Lecter said...we'd have to put ourselves in Hal's frame of mind. Watch everything like it was a game. Said it was a dangerous frame to be in, but that being a little sociopathic is how you could predict what Hal's doing.

This was a week ago.

[insincerely]

[Well, to add onto the incriminating signs:]

... When Xion and I were talking about the Doctor role, she said that it seemed like it pointed to Dr. Lecter, but that also seemed too obvious.

Seeing as how she actually knew all along who the Doctor was... I have to wonder if she was trying to make him appear less suspicious.

[impulsiveness]

[................]

Ever hear of in vino veritas?

[robitussin]

He said being in love with Hannibal was like being in love with the devil.

[SHE'SSSS SCREAMING INSIDE]

[impulsiveness]

Maybe it's less the ramblings of a drunk man, and more the tired grumbling of someone who knows that truth is stranger than fiction.
Anyone can pretend to be a good person if it suits their goals. Make it seem like they're kind and anyone who believes otherwise is lying through their teeth.

[JOINING??? IN THAT INTERNAL SCREAMING.]

[elemancy]

[what the fuck.]

[insincerely]

... Pleasant.

[impulsiveness]

[whaaaaaaaat the fuck]

[insincerely]

She mentioned Dr. Lecter before, when she was telling me a secret and how about not even he or Natalie knew.

[apparently he's also giving her love advice re: shinnosuke??]

[thatsthespirit]

[thanks Dr. Hannibal]

Percy said the same. And do you think. . . the letters.

Annabeth's letters. Is there a chance she'd know about the Deputy?

[insincerely]

... Percy would know about that better than me. But it's possible, if we're going with the reasoning that Annabeth knew something.

[hydrokinetics]

...it might be what Annabeth was trying to tell me. [Gods. GODS!] Annabeth tends to know things a lot faster than I do. I'll have to look at her letters again.