infomodder | IC contact [Mask or Menace]

A license. I'm sure they operate similarly enough, but I haven't done anything with the hovering cars here yet, not on my own.

[Maybe he can get the basics from Chilton along with that clean bill of health if things go a certain way.]

Cars are expensive and the bigger fishing seasons are winding down. Business isn't what it was in the summer. But there's plenty of time for other work before Christmas.

[LET ME SPOIL YOU]

Where would I drive it? To all my friends' houses? [ L O L oh wait, speaking of will's house... ] Oh, hey did you get my note? I left it while you were at work. And met your new roommate.

[ it was a thank you note. for her scarf and book and for will existing, basically, but in abigail's sparse prose and delicate handwriting. ]

Wherever you wanted, that's one of the joys of owning a car. I got it. Thank you.

[He wasn't going to bring it up. Gratitude is such a tricky thing. But it's totally one step short of being framed in his room like it should be.]

Okay, good. What if I drove to Minnesota and lived in a cabin in the woods with my cat? Would you visit me?

Depends on who you ask to build the cabin.

[There are no antlers in this decorating, the budget for it roughly the size of a barge.]

I was thinking more like rent to own, already furnished like a seaside cottage without the sea.

Have you ever actually been to a seaside cottage?

[That's a little easier to get together than a brand new cabin. Rather less worrisome, too.]

No.

Would you want to go to one sometime?

[It'll be lovely and the only lures required are the ones used to catch fish.]

Sure. That'd be nice.

[ like she was ever going to say no. this child loves nature, a cabin by a lake or the florida coast would just be more nature for her to explore. she used to have a babbling brook outside her bedroom window. she is heart eyes at nature. ]

Like camping without the tent, right?

[There's a delay in this message the others don't have, one he doesn't mention but would blame on a customer, the dog, the cat, anything but what it actually is.

Seaside cottage, camping without the tent, Will Graham smuggling Abigail Hobbs away from the pure show of filth and blood, the mess of Baltimore that's followed them both, been here before Will himself (as he remembers it), the septic tank that's busted and overflows and threatens to swallow everything in its wake and make it just as miserable and foul. But he's part of that show, he realizes. He can be just as toxic if there is a need for it. He might be better than the Ripper (that's not saying much), but he's gotten down on his stomach and crawled through the muck and mire all on his own, knowing it for what it was and wallowing in it just the same. That it could be argued he did it "for Abigail" isn't something that excuses it, shifts blame around. He did it, won't give away details about the Boyles, wouldn't have done so whether she was living or dead. That's not Abigail's fault, that's not Lecter's fault. That's solely Will, and he knows it.

He can get away from the rest. He could take her away from them, too. But in the end, there's no one in their little sounder who can claim any level of purity.]

Pretty much. Just me and you or...?

If you want. We could invite Hannibal? Imagine him in fishing gear.

[ laugh. laugh and say she can invite hannibal. it's practical. it's safe. ]

[Ah, this is tricky. Deer tread carefully at all times, hunters try to follow suit but can't quite manage it as well.

Easier to swim.]

I don't think it's really his thing. [He doesn't want to imagine that, but. There it is.] I can do things without him or Dr. Bloom or Jack Crawford. It can just be us.

I don't think you need a chaperone. I just thought it would be nice to invite him.

[ and abigail only does things to be nice. clearly. ]

[Freddie said Gideon was killed by the Ripper. Abigail, too. So they would know who he is. And if it is true, if that terrible reality he's been wandering in like fog ever since it broke on him is absolute fact, then he's got to wonder what the game is here. If there is some agreement Abigail has worked out already or if she's thinking about survival. The drive must be constant for her, a fear that's normal by now—but he can't imagine she's playing the lure.

She just wants to live. So if Will protests and it gets back to Lecter, well. That's on him, isn't it?]

It would, but I'd prefer not to. [He read conversations. Watched. Followed. Enough to know that Lecter and Abigail had, at least, one nice egg-y meal without his involvement. It's time to flip that around.] I never got much alone time with you back where we're from. That's something I'd like to fix.

[It's possibly a regret he's working on unriddling.]

But if you'd be more comfortable with him included, then that's what we'll do.

[The implications there being that Will can use manipulation, too, if it's called for.

There's the out for both them. She can take it or leave it and in the end, if this comes around, he'll deal with it himself.]

No, it's okay. It can be just us. I'd like that.

[ she feels trapped in the answer. if she said "yes please, i'd like to invite hannibal" it would bother will. not inviting hannibal will bother hannibal. both of which she is loathe to do. being alive before depended on will being attached to her. if she alienated him he wouldn't want her anymore, she would be superfluous. her brain is still hardwired to acquiesce in order to make other people happy. ]

Maybe we could all have dinner together before we go. Hannibal can meet the cat.

[One day, perhaps, he can make it apparent that there's nothing she could do to truly alienate him, not while she still draws breath, has a beating heart. That there's little she can do to make Will happy, that it's not her job to make Will happy. She must already know sometimes people find happiness in all the wrong things (luring, ripping)—and yet, with those unhappily happy few, striving to please ends up working in the favor of not facing the chopping block.

Happiness isn't something granted those who come from their world, is it.]

Maybe. [He's not going to protest that.] I'll talk to him about it, see what he has to say.

[He didn't want Abigail facing a dead body. Like hell he wants her facing Hannibal Lecter more than she has to.]

[ life is so hard. ]

Okay. What should I name the cat?

[this life only suffering]

Whatever you want. I've been calling her It and Cat and Hey You and Don't and Smokey the Bandit when she got into the dog food. I'm sure an actual name is a step up from that.

[Shadowleaf the Conqueror??? 50 Shades of Why Are You Here Gray Cat Go Away???]

Ziggy Stardust? I probably need to see her first.

That fits. She is very good at killing spiders, but I don't think any of them are from Mars.

Probably are in this place.

Fair point. I don't want to run into them.

[Even if they're an imPort. Last time he ran into a dog imPort that didn't talk, it turned out

well

not so great.]

Does it get easier? All the crazy stuff?

[NOT THE C-WORD]

Sometimes. My house up here got destroyed a while back, and I witnessed a dog flipping a cop car. I had a roommate who could just sort of vanish. I talked to a giant robot about dogs. I know someone who has wings. Lucifer went to jail here. I met someone named Flame Princess, a girl on fire from a kingdom of fire people. Every time something happens that I think is strange or impossible, I recall all that, and that I've already seen plenty of strange, impossible things. So that helps.

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