For lastvoyages: Hallway Spam for Level 3

[cannibalmind]

 [A tiny girl pushes open the door to Hannibal Lecter's room. She is barefoot, in a pale ragged jumper and , her face smudged. For some reason there is a chain around her neck, which she sometimes tugs at uncomfortably. She looks around, then walks over to Mr. Pink's door and starts to knock on it shyly with a rather thin little fist.]

Comments

At some point. On level 3.

[wemaketheworld]

[Rorschach's been wandering, getting a feel for the latest disruption. The new faces, the missing ones. The general increase in disorganization among general population.

...The child, however, catches him off-guard, and he spends a few long moments just regarding her with a combination of curiosity and a flickering sense of concern he tries to suppress.

It won't end anywhere good, he should quash the fleeting feeling before it settles.]

At some point. On level 3.

[aubergine_cherub]

[She notices him, and looks back at him very solemnly, looking just as haggard in her own way as he. Then she raises her hand and waves hi.]

[wemaketheworld]

[The lines in his face tense, clearly uncomfortable, but he waves back, cautiously, a slight stiff twitch of fingers and a gruff "hello" to accompany it.]

[aubergine_cherub]

Are you lost, sir? [She can't maintain solemnface very long.]

[wemaketheworld]

No. Live here.

[A pause.]

Are you?

[aubergine_cherub]

No sir. I'm here for my brother. I need to leave him a message but I cannot write.

[wemaketheworld]

Your brother.

[It's a question, even if it doesn't sound like one; he didn't see what room she came from, or else he would have figured it out already.

A moment or so of hesitation. He shouldn't. Shouldn't even consider it; it's not his place.

And yet.]

Could write message for you.

[aubergine_cherub]

My brother Hannibal. Hannibal Lecter.

Would you? I would be very very grateful and bring you berries.

[wemaketheworld]

[One single blink. As well as a vaguely surprised Rorschach; he wasn't expecting that revelation.

Which would be why he just kind of grunts. Okay then.

Belatedly, he remembers you need to be lower when talking to kids, and he moves into a crouch. This is what Daniel was useful for, he isn't very good with kids. Not anymore. They're too small, too easily broken.

He nods.]

Yes. Have paper and pen here.

[He roots around in a pocket for them. There's a pause. And a raised eyebrow.]

Berries?

[aubergine_cherub]

It's okay mister soldier. You're doing fine.

Yes, berries! I am glad to have them again before I go.

[wemaketheworld]

[He shrugs, but it's really only a slight twitch of a shoulder. Pen and paper located, he slips both free, though doesn't use either just yet.]

Name's Rorschach.

[He frowns.] Don't have berries back home?

[aubergine_cherub]

Ror-schach. Yes sir.

Um...the trader brings them, but he can't bring them now that there's tanks.

[She looks at the pen and paper and her little face screws up in concentration.]

I know Brother can save me from the bad men, specially now that he's a grownup. I need to ask him to please save me and protect me like he promised.

[wemaketheworld]

Don't need to call me sir. Not a soldier. Tanks?

[A slight shift and now he's seated fully on the ground, legs curled up in front of him. He scratches out the message, nodding in acknowledgment.]

[aubergine_cherub]

That's funny. You're all lumpy like a soldier. But I will call you Ror-schach if you want.

[She chews her lip.]

They say he became a bad man but I don't believe it. He was the best brother.

[wemaketheworld]

[Lumpy. What. Small children, you do not make sense. But he's not going to question it too much.

Scribble, scribble.]

Heard sometimes good people do bad things.

[Not that he really believes this, but. He doesn't really know the man enough to make a judgment, and from what he's seen he didn't seem particularly criminal. Untrustworthy, maybe, inclined towards luxury and a life of excess, but not criminal.]

[aubergine_cherub]

That must be why you're here then. You're not bad.

[She thinks very hard, chewing her lip.]

I just want my brother back. That's all.

[wemaketheworld]

[He hasn't done anything particularly bad that he can see either, but he just grunts; it's not really a conversation fit for children.]

Will tell him.

[Pause pause, and what do you do with children. He doesn't know.]

...Hungry?

[aubergine_cherub]

[She's three, and she was being starved in a Nazi irregulars camp. FOOD.]

They have chicken in the dining room. [terribly important.] And the berries.

[wemaketheworld]

Know where it is?

[It's okay. He'll probably escort anyway. SHE IS THREE, she clearly cannot be allowed to run around unattended. She may...fall. And break in half. Or something.]

[aubergine_cherub]

[She points to the elevator.] You go in there and push the button with one line on it and it goes up.

[wemaketheworld]

[A brief nod, and he stands, tucking the note away in a pocket for safekeeping.]

Little more complicated. But yes.

[aubergine_cherub]

Let's go then. [She doesn't take his hand, but toddles along beside him at a close proximity, but not underfoot.]

[wemaketheworld]

[He wouldn't let her get underfoot anyway; he's watching her like a hawk, acutely aware of where she is at every moment. He lets her in first then follows, waits for her to push the button (if she wants; if she can't/won't he'll do it himself easily enough), and though he has the feeling there's something he should say he hasn't a clue. So he keeps quiet.]

[aubergine_cherub]

[She peeeeeers up at the button and then remembers she is supposed to push it. Her tongue pokes out of the corner of her mouth and she reaches up and gives it a poke.]

People here have been good.

[wemaketheworld]

[She's a child, of course they have been; everything else about criminals aside, all but the worst ones harbor some kind of soft spot for children.]

Met many of them?