dear_mun | voice testing...

[ Lecter smiles, but it's a gesture that seems indulgent more than anything else. He waits through the pause because he expects his answer to come, and it does. The end is acknowledged with a thoughtful little nodding, and he seems to be absorbing it all. That lasts a beat. ]

And now, that having been said, have I ever struck you as inconvenienced? Have you ever seen me engaged in a conflict?

Also, for your reference, we haven't seen one another in person for, oh, I suppose it's been fifteen years now.

[ Hannibal's lips thin just slightly, as if he's not wholly content with something around the last sentence. His gaze traces over Crawford, inscrutable at large, but tainted with some distance from reality as it stands. It's a moment that lasts for all of, perhaps, a second, before his expression is back to expectancy.

Well, Jack? Can you think of a moment where you've ever seen him look the slightest bit inconvenienced? Think about it. ]

Edited 2013-05-02 09:42 (UTC)

This isn't how the game is played, Dr. Lecter. You're overlooking one point: I acknowledge your technical superiority. Passive, active, latent, or continuing aggression - I acknowledge that you are better intellectually armed than I am to pursue all and any of these. Any attempt to engage you in cat and mouse wordplay involves starting at the massive disadvantage represented by your skill set.

If the lion wants prey that willingly walks into his den to get his head chewed off, he'll have to provide incentive.

Jack.

[ And this carries a tone that's patient, almost gentle. Doctor to patient. Settle down now... ]

You've made quite a lot of assumptions about the nature of our disassociation with one another. I find the best way to correct someone is to invite them to re-examine their logic. I don't think that's aggressive. If I simply tell you that you're wrong, you are a failure and little more than that. You develop no intellectual growth by my simply telling you how to think. That isn't how the game is played, Jack.

...

A lion and its prey - my, my, how quickly your perception of me alters with only a few criticisms. And to think, at this point in time with my counterpart, you have enjoyed two dinner services in my home. Tell me, Jack - what sort of lion begins preparing a spread like that a day in advance for a mere prey-beast?

Edited 2013-05-02 10:29 (UTC)

Given your... comments about how I delegate legwork, the unfortunate affection that emerges from a doctor-patient relation, and your statement of hostility, I can imagine very well what this is about, Dr. Lecter.

[ The sigh is more afterthought, time-biding. ]

I assume we've reached a point of... drastic disagreement over the situation of Will Graham. Like Dr. Bloom before you, you must have concluded he should be withdrawn from active duty. You probably also took my refusal poorly.

[ Oh, Jack. If only you knew. ]

If this is the case, Dr. Lecter, I refuse to engage you in argument. As I've said before, you'd win. And it would still change nothing.

[ Oh, Jack. But Lecter doesn't bother to argue with the man, only gives a thin, mysterious smile. He'll lead you around to the truth eventually, Jack, because he knows you'll never be able to leave this strange land with what you find out. That isn't how the game is played. ]

No matter what your intentions may be, you are a bully, Agent Crawford.

[ His tone is perfectly level, casual, courteous. ]

If you can't intimidate someone, physically, into obeying you, you resort to emotional and moral appeals. You may think your ends justify your means, but I assure you that you may observe your tactics in the halls of any middle school today, and the most general explanations for how spousal abuse can go unnoticed for years.

It's you who decides to end our association, largely due to the fact I'm impervious to bullies of any kind.

[ Well, Dr. Lecter, that certainly is one way of putting it. ]

Edited 2013-05-02 11:54 (UTC)

[ He's had this conversation before - often, with himself. It's a regrettable, tiring ordeal, that starts with a premise of incompatibility between a state and a person's morality, and ends with largely the same. He's tired of it.

And the forced smile might just be enough to betray that. ]

Congratulations. You've won. Will that be all?

You know, for a man in charge of behavioral science, you're very small-minded, Jack. Your preoccupation with polarities - win or lose, good or evil - stunts your imagination and sense of empathy. It makes you very predictable.

[ All of this is said in a manner that almost purrs out of him, tone rich with . ]

I know you're aware of it because you're good at delegating, making up for what areas you lack. Your wife is aware of it, too.

That's why she resents you, you know. That's why she delegates the task of helping her to her final result to me. I never did get to attend her funeral, but I don't doubt it was a respectable affair. I did wire some roses.

[ This smile is serene, yet somehow very sharp. ]

Edited 2013-05-02 23:59 (UTC)

[ There's an edge of ice by the end of it; a veneer. ]

Whatever you might think our circumstances are, Dr. Lecter - whatever they might be. I assure you. You are better than involving my wife in this conversation.

[ He's being very unkind now, and knows he is. Of course he never reports the whole truth, only what's relevant to his purpose which is, namely, degradation of someone who thinks far too highly of themselves for his tastes. Crawford is much better than what Hannibal tells him, but that doesn't make his conduct pardonable. He knows that Jack thinks he could control Hannibal, if he wanted; the version he knows, anyway. He's also been a bit bratty throughout the conversation, hasn't he?

There is the appeal to that sense of emotion, he sees. This isn't about Bella, though; it's about stinging Crawford. ]

A conversation or a game, Jack? You're contradicting yourself. Or could it be a conversation now that someone you actually care for is involved in it?

Don't you find it a bit hypocritical to admit you play dirty with the others so you can win, then condemn others for doing the same?

What I do saves lives. What you do - what you are doing right now - creates conflict.

[ His voice catches, formerly watered down indignation growing in density. ]

You tell me whether you find anything remotely redeemable about your activity here, beyond whatever... personal satisfaction you can derive.

[ At the end of the day, there's no need to be civil about it. ]

You can humiliate me, Doctor. You can't say it's for the better good.

Don't try to play the altruist, Jack. If you truly cared about serving the greater good, you wouldn't be so concerned about which department collars the killers you chase.

You are, though, very competitive. I might believe you if you claimed you wanted a win for your team, but it's still not as noble as you'd like me to think.

Tell me, Jack: would you trade those lives back, if it meant saving the one you can't? Of course, the noble answer would be to say absolutely not, but the honest answer is you'd think about it.

And I imagine you do think about it, counting all the times you've passed like ships in the night. Your preoccupation with end results doom you to seeing her as already dead.

You may love the bureau, Jack, but she's the only one who can love you back.

You listen here, and you listen now, how dare -

[ This will not get him anywhere, not far, and not fast. This is, with certainty, the only formula that will precisely and invariably lead to disaster. Calm down, Jack. ]

Do you believe what you are doing right now to be punishment, or education?

[ Lecter doesn't even twitch as Jack's temper flares, though his eyes might seem a little brighter. Unlike the dark shade the man Jack's familiar with, his gaze is bright, sky blue. A contrast like Heaven and Hell, one might be able to say. ]

I believe I'm telling you the truth.

Edited 2013-05-03 11:24 (UTC)

Don't stall. To what purpose?

[ A tilt of the head. ]

Why should that matter? Are you suggesting my intentions can influence facts?

Edited 2013-05-03 11:59 (UTC)

I am suggesting you don't operate instinctively and purposelessly in a vacuum. I am suggesting there is either a goal, or a motive you feel justifies you to this behavior. What is it?

You're entitled to take me to Sunday school about my M.O.? I'm entitled to ask what in God's name makes you think so.

And that's rather interesting, isn't it? You only question my motivations behind giving you my professional evaluation when it's something you'd rather not hear.

I think what you're really asking me to tell you is whether or not you're capable of changing enough to convince your Bella to let you escort her out of life, the way she let you escort her into matrimony.

I could tell you, Jack. You only need to ask.

[ Of course, Jack asking him for his opinion would confirm that everything else Lecter said was true. ]

I've asked a number of things so far, Doctor. I haven't found you particularly forthright.

I haven't found your questions thus far to be particularly relevant. I'd much prefer to give you answers worth knowing.

[ Basically, any question regarding his motivations are boring and irrelevant. ]

You don't have that prerogative.

[ Oh ho. That earns a curious stare. Oh, really? ]

Are you trying to suggest that you're better than me, Jack? That you're my superior?

Or are you simply saying anyone that criticizes you loses their right to tell you anything at all?

I'm trying to say - I am saying - that you can't decide what is, or isn't relevant for me to know. I'm not a nine year-old. On a good day, I'm not even a ten year-old.

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your jack tho

is a hypocrite, bless hannibal for noticing :' (

notices in the most dickish way

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