infomodder | ic contact 2 mask or menace

[When he drops his hands, they automatically go to his hips. One is cocked out. All in all, it's a very stance to take, especially when he tilts his chin up. Like he's trying to swallow back the first words coming to his tongue.]

Welcome for what?

Getting this over with.

[ The Chilton weirdness. Always there, but always somehow changing. ]

This...what, April? This won't end anything. It'll just start something else.

[Life with Baltimore: they're always playing.]

With you and me about him, jerk.

[But it's a loving, if 'why this,' tone.]

Fred will totally mess that kid up. Why can't I say so?

[Well, that shuts him up. For a few seconds, he's just left staring at the doorframe. Not April, but what she's next to.]

That's not...what would've happened. [He shifts his eyes back to her, shoulders slumping. A tiny, exhausted man.] You realize I've been his patient, too, don't you? He didn't mess me up.

[No, that was Hannibal.]

Babe, you were already a mess. A mess I love. But, yeah.

[She gives a one shouldered shrug as she moves in to get in his personal space, confirming with contact that love bit. Even if he was frustrating.]

White probably was too, I guess. But he wrote a book.

White was a trailer park after a tornado.

[He says with the utmost knowledge of trailer parks, making no move to reclaim his personal space. There are a small handful of people always welcome to literally squat in Will's space, and April is at the top of that list. Welcome being the key word, since Will is no more capable of rejecting her than he is to hold his breath for an hour. The whole tiny, exhausted stance opens up, reaching out to take one of her hands with his.]

You're right. He wrote a book. His name is out there. Anyone who wants to go digging on him can. Make their own judgments from that. You don't... [What? Need to be helpful? No, nope, he is not saying the h-word (or the Hero word, or the Hannibal word for that matter, so many h-words), not happening.] ...you're never going to forgive him for that, are you.

No.

[She could let Fred into her life for Will's sake. Hell, she'll probably end up doing dinner at his house and whatever else Will wants to do because that's what happened in families. But she she would never, ever, for one single moment forgive.]

It's okay. If you did. But you can't make me.

I wouldn't...I can't. Forgiveness doesn't work like that.

[Cue the frown that makes even puppies think what happened to you, dude. Briefly lived, of course, he isn't manipulating April with tears of any sort this time around.]

Is it too much to ask you to keep that off the Network?

Yeah, it is.

[She turns her hand so her grip on his is firmer. Not painful, but very much present. No sad frowns will change this, not after he died and her list of people to care about was growing shorter and shorter.]

Why do you want me to shut up so much?

[Finally, he cuts out the personal space invasion. Will drops her hand long enough to go to the door, take a look around (for any potential Jeffs), and shut it. It's a slightly harried sort of gesture, and when Will turns back to her, he moves away from the door only enough that a quiet voice won't carry. Jeff has no super hearing, as far as he knows.]

He's focused on having his reputation. His face. [He edges away from the door a little more.] But he won't have it forever, and I'll be the one he blames. I can't change that. All I can do is...keep the peace. Here.

[April watches the whole this is a secret thing go on with a worried expression- one that turns to outright confusion when he finally gives the big reveal. So the man that coaches killers to go kill better eventually got screwed at home? And he blames the guy that catches killers for being involved? The only shock there was that some kind of karma apparently actually existed in Baltimore.

Who knew.]

He broke the peace. What happens to future other him isn't my problem, Will. I'm not gonna be quiet and wait for the next guy he's eventually gonna send to kill us to get comfy on his couch because feelings.

[If only Will could have remembered home when he was there, maybe things wouldn't have happened as they did. He'd have more reason to not get Chilton tortured and maimed because he knew he'd come back here. Because someone definitely needs a reason to keep from setting up someone else for sheer terror, yes.

His lips thin out. He is clearly THINKING.]

You're gonna provoke him instead? Give him a reason to do that. [It's painful to take this venue; she did say us, not you.] Not that I'm saying he did it in the first place, but. Not the bear you wanna poke if that's what your worry is.

I'm not afraid of Fred Chilton. Because I've got a husband that loves me and a raccoon army willing to get rabies for the cause.

[Fear, Will? She actually takes a step back. This isn't team talk. This isn't Us vs The World. This is Baltimore vs The World. And she knew what team she was on with that one.]

I'm a jerk, babe. And all kinds of not nice things because I like that. But I'm not a shitty person. I'm not gonna sit and let him mess with people from boring worlds that just want...want not this.

[And there it is, as clear as day. Or at least, clear to someone already in a mood. Like Will Graham is. But I'm not a shitty person, unlike you. Will has not, after all, been spreading the less than pleasant news about Frederick Chilton. He'd been eager to make a deal with him right off the bat. He'd wanted truths to remain buried, and the more he experienced back home, the more he'd wanted to bury.

His back yard was full of skeletons at this point. But his back yard was April's back yard, too. They were bound by legality and love. What bound Will to Baltimore other than the fact he came from there? He couldn't play two sides of two warring factions. Not like this. Not for long.

Because it led to that stark difference being made present, and it led to him knowing that wasn't what she meant but hearing it in her voice anyway.]

You are not. A shitty person. [Thickly said, swallowing down what he really wants to end that thought with.] People from boring worlds don't interest people from mine, April. That's the whole point. There's nothing to them to be messed with. [Abruptly, almost before he's gotten that out, like he's incapable of holding it back any longer but by God did he try:] You think I won't speak up if I see potential for him to do what he did again? You think I'm that shitty?

[He is that shitty, and worse. He'd contemplated hunting White down and putting a bullet between his eyes, giving him the death he actually deserved. Warranted by the time he would have done it, but doing it to rob Chilton and White of legacy instead of protecting innocents was shitty. He'd been told as much in less obscene ways from a multitude of people.

It's very different if his April is the one to confirm. And despite having a mild fear of her doing so, he wants to know. He wants to hear it.

Getting this over with, as she said.]

No.

[And damn common sense, April didn't believe in that. Because she's rushing up to try and cup his face in her hands.]

I think you're from a shitty place and that fucks things up. But, baby. You don't know. Powers fuck with people too. If he can mess up anyone ever? He shouldn't touch anyone that doesn't know what might happen. People like...me. They don't know what they can do. Good or bad. Then someone points it out. And Fred isn't gonna only point out the good.

[But Will knew, the good and the bad and what Fred can do and all of it. Will Knows. But because being from Baltimore meant a lot of assuming about how the world worked that didn't happen in Pawnee. April didn't know how much he saw that, how much room normal people with power have to go fucking nuts. Just because Baltimore was insane didn't mean places like Pawnee couldn't be fucked up by it knocking on its door.]

[It works. It definitely works. Will falls into her touch without hesitation or even an attempt to pretend he's got that; for how frustrating this all is, he's got few guards in place when April's involved. Physically, there are none. Putty in her hands, really, though putty that doesn't melt. Still observant, alert, attentive. This isn't turning into anything more than what he takes it as, a move to make Goddamn sure he listens and listens well because he hasn't gotten it properly and measures must be taken to be certain he doesn't only hear her, but that he understands. When his hands move to hers, it's to hold them. Not move them away.

She raises good points. Points Will dismisses because he believes he knows better. And because he knows that he can behave just as poorly when he feels like it, if not worse.]

Okay. [Quiet, nearly defeated. Nearly.] But he's still mine. He's the only one left. It's just us, April, I'm not gonna throw him to the wolves. I can't.

[I am your only connection to Baltimore now. Your only connection to her. You are still that man, Will. Still the man who picks and chooses which wolves get to tear at the faces he has some attachment to.

Heavy is the self-imposed crown, and all.]

He's got a book deal and a hot girlfriend. He'll survive if I say mean things on the internet.

[She leans forward to press her forehead against his. Dramaqueen. Even if it would be so super amazing to just forget the name and delete his cell from their contacts, love was compromise. So the man that liked poking tigers then writing books detailing how other people ended up getting mauled could keep coming to holiday dinner. And she could practice her fake review skills on his practice website.]

[Dramaqueen takes a deep breath through flared nostrils, fighting off the urge to get into a tizzy about the difference between mean things and true things. They're so often the same with Baltimore, and it's not really a hill Will is ever wanting to die on. Being accurate is more important than mean or nice. And he's here, too, there's that. He's here to step in if things get past a point. If he's not here? He won't know, can't care. Can't be blamed if he comes back.

His forehead bumps back against hers weakly, arms taking their place around her back.]

He'll survive if you don't, too. [That's what Baltimore does best, for the most part. But Dramaqueen's drama is starting to evaporate. The steam is running out.] And you'll survive either way because you've got a husband that loves you and a raccoon army willing to get rabies for the cause

But it makes the rage less.

And seriously, Will. You gotta know freaking out at me on there? Waaay more of a kick in his balls than what I'm doing. I'm a mermaid vampire queen from Narnia on the internet. People'd fear him way more if I started being nice.

[She raises an eyebrow and lets her hands fall as she steps back, almost sad she'd given up that game. But it's important to Will, and while he'd gotta know it on one level it doesn't hurt to point it out. All the shit April said just got shrugged off. Her normally supportive husband drawing a line, though? Now that was a fact to take to the bank.]

[A point he only stops to really think about now, lifting one eyebrow like he's just learned a new fact. April's not off about this at all. He understands very well how little people hear from sources they don't consider to their standards. How they'll outright mute them. How stupid that can be.

But, ugh, kick in his balls. God. If April never mentioned Frederick Chilton's balls again in any sort of context, Will could die a happy man. He tosses up a hand. Point made, enough, he gets it.]

You're right. Won't happen again. [Because if there's a next time he'll just do the actual smart thing that April did. Find her and discuss it where it can't be seen.] I promise.

Mm.

[ She wasn't going to care if it did, not at all. But with the wedding vows had come the obligation to tell him. So. That was done. ]

If you try to seduce Jeff into not plus one-ing me, I wanna watch.

[Up goes an eyebrow. He's void of weariness, more like this particular topic's given him a much needed second wind. His tone isn't accusatory, holds nothing negative as he comes to the most seductive conclusion.]

You just want Jeff and I all over each other for your eyes and your eyes only.

Mm, you can be for my eyes only if you want. Jeff's got to bring in the money. He takes up all the bathroom with his product.

[Which she helped to deprive him of. So helping. See how good she can be, too?]

[Well, well. The door is shut. And if April's properly distracted, she can't scream bloody vengeance at Frederick Chilton over the Network. Who loses here? No one. No one loses.]

If I want? [So incredulous, borderline hurt he is as he moves to close any gap.] You think I'm tempted? By Jeff?

[He is Wounded by the mere hypothetical accusation. How poorly she thinks of him, he sees now, casually draping his arms over her shoulders.]

That's not. Mm. [Not gonna fly!!!] I can't let you leave until I've made certain you know I'm not looking at anybody else but you.

ic contact 2 mask or menace

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