four { video } hypnotizability

[lurings]

[ abigail is at the bait shop, sitting behind the counter. beside her is a rack of fish themed valentine's and little pink stuffed fish. ]

I was unaware there were so many fish puns that related to Valentine's Day. So... Hook, Line and Tinker is having a sale. By sale... I mean sale. Everything must go. Please take these off my hands. This was a horrible mistake and I regret my life choices.

[ /stares at camera like jim halpert. boy, does she ever. she will probably give them away free if you buy a pack of gum. how are she and will in business still? well, she's actually a really good saleswoman when it comes down to it.

just not right now. when cutesy fish are making cutesy faces at her. ]

Unrelated to flirty flounders, someone asked me about... well, basically about this place and I realized I've been kind of willingly ignorant to anything that's going on around me. I've read the FAQ, but is there anything else I should know?

[ you'd think after three months in a basement she would want to know more, but nope. at least she does now. only took six months. shut up, she's dead. she had to deal with that for a while. ]

Also, small show of hands -- I hope it's small -- who else is dead in their worlds?

[ so casual. she gives the camera a brief, wry smile and cuts out. ]

Comments

[lurings]

[ she's not unused to people being upset on her behalf, most people are when they get more than the bare minimum of details abigail will let free of her grasp. kate knows almost as much as will and freddie. more than chilton and gideon.

but the upset makes abigail curl her arms around herself. she's not unused to it, but nor does she thinks she deserves that kind of fervent defense. ]

I don't know how to be angry with him. [ her eyes drop again, as if unwilling to look at kate. ] Because I'm mostly still too scared.

[gevurah]

[ Her anger doesn't let up completely, though her eyes do soften with understanding. ]

I'm sorry.

[ From her experience words never did much, but it's almost always automatic. What else can she say or do through a communicator? ]

He's not here anymore, is he?

[lurings]

No.

He left, a few months ago. Right before the whole kidnapping thing. I know, because he would have noticed that and he would done something. He wouldn't have let anyone hurt me.

[ well. anyone else.

she sniffles a little. as much as her feelings for hannibal are conflicted, she does think he cared for her, in his way. he would have been upset to find she'd be held hostage for the manipulator's game. ]

He's like my dad like that. [ possessive. ]

[gevurah]

If he ever returns, I won't let him touch you.

[ She says this with absolute resolution. ]

[lurings]

No!

[ er. that was fast. ]

No. Please don't. If he comes back, don't go near him. Please..

[ she can't translate how much she wants kate to never be near hannibal at all ever. she doesn't want hannibal to breathe near kate. ]

[gevurah]

You don't need to worry about me, Abigail.

[ She's dealt with worse, she thinks. ]

[lurings]

[ :| ]

Then you don't need to worry about me.

[ boom. turnaround. ]

[gevurah]

[ She didn't get murdered!

... by Hannibal Lecter anyway. ]

You're scared of him. That's enough.

[lurings]

Enough for you to stay away from him. [ her voice rises slightly, pitching up. she's less okay with kate and hannibal than she is about herself and hannibal. ]

[gevurah]

[ A long, measured pause as she debates confessing this to Abigail or not. ]

I've faced monsters before, Abigail.

One of them is still here.

[lurings]

[ and silence.

when she woke up here, abigail hadn't been afraid of hannibal, not the way she is now. he'd been a staple of her life for three months, the only staple of her life and, much like with her father, she knew how to maintain the status quo to keep herself safe. stay useful, stay out of trouble, make sure will stayed attached. that was her job, to lure him in. if she did that right then she would be safe, will would be safe, freddie would be safe -- as much as abigail could keep freddie safe. none of them would wind up bleeding to death on the kitchen floor.

but then she had time with other people, outside of the oppressive, possessive presence of hannibal. she'd had to learn how to talk to people after months of basically talking to herself, but she made friends somehow. and then hannibal left and it was like the weight of the world fell off her shoulders, atlas taking his burden back, a burden she didn't even realize she'd been carrying.

if hannibal came back now, after abigail has had time to have a life again? the thought of it makes her ill, pale cheeks going even paler at kate's words.

no.

she isn't attached to kate the way that she's attached to freddie and will, but when she rattled off to chilton the short list of people she trusted to go to if she needed someone to take care of her, kate had been on it -- more as an older sister than as a parent figure. she's strong and thoughtful and kind of abigail when she needs it and unflinchingly sharp when abigail needs that, too. a monster from kate's past is not a monster abigail wants to exist.

finally, licking her lips, she asks: ] Who?

[gevurah]

[ Despite her own warnings, Kate is drawn to Abigail and protective of her the way she was with Nill. It's largely due to Nill's absence that she feels this way, trying to fill a place Nill once occupied in her heart and mind.

But she failed Nill in some ways, so she wants to ensure she doesn't let Abigail down the way she did with Nill or anyone else. ]

Harvey Dent.

[ Said without the inflection one would expect when someone mentions they have their own personal "monster".

She's never admitted it aloud. It gives him power over her, something she normally refuses to allow. ]

[lurings]

[ the name is vaguely familiar, like she's seen it before, read it out in the mind but never bothered to look at whatever had popped up on her communicator. she's going to now, of course.

a flippant, but 100% serious "do you want me to kill him?" is on the tip of her tongue, but she manages to quash it, knowing the answer without having to voice it. not incredibly startled that that was her first thought, nor startled much by knowing she would follow through without a second thought. murder is, after all, inexplicably and contrarily tied to abigail's idea of safety. ]

I don't know who that is.

[ it's almost apologetic. ]

[gevurah]

It's okay.

[ It's better that way. ]

Just a pain in my side sometimes.