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Indulge me a moment.

You haven't been rewound into a young man fresh out of Johns Hopkins, have you?

No, I have not.

Why do you ask?

The network turned up a point of curiosity you'll have to see for yourself.

[ and oh, does he see for himself. The question is, how much does he reveal to Will? Will hasn't exactly been trusting as of late. ]

I have reached out to the boy. What do you think of him?

[ Trusting, no, and he approached out of necessity, though expecting clarity from Hannibal is treading on a minefield and expecting not to lose a limb. ]

He presents an interesting conundrum, that's for sure. I find him polite. Unrefined.

He's a child. I was just as unrefined at that age, weren't you?

[ Not that you're not still unrefined, but at least you are now unrefined like a raw diamond that glitters in uncontrolled angles. ]

What do you perceive the conundrum to be?

I was working on motor boats for money under the table for about six or seven years by that point. Unrefined as crude oil, but that's my lot.

[ All that hoary obfuscation, and never once did you doubt your judgment. Just how many times have you done this? ]

Where to start? Two of the same person, from different temporal locations, and also from a world where you somehow existed as a teenager during the fall of the Nazis.

It's a bit much.

[ Enough times to learn from experience when someone is worth pushing a little more than others. ]

I admit I was taken by surprise by his time-frame, though I can't say I was blessed with a life that was entirely Nazi-free. And while he does share my name and the face of my youth, among some other smaller details, that does not make us the same person. Nature and nurture work in tandem, not one with greater dominance than the other.

[ Half truths and half lies. He knows enough of the boy's history, should he be who he thinks he is, from the book to know that they are indeed the very same person. Will, though, doesn't need to know that. Not when an opportunity has presented itself. ]

Full of surprises, doctor.

[ He's not sure how else to verbalize it; Nazis are the things of Saturday morning History Channel binges and backdrops for pulpy horror novels, not part of the lives of anyone he knows personally. Hannibal's past isn't a subject that is brought up except in passing, but Will is somehow certain that attempts to pry further detail would be redirected, an easy sleight of hand. ]

Just how much resemblance does he bear with you? Nurture can produce drastically different results.

[ In truth, Hannibal sees in the boy a rippled mirror reflection of himself. Some warps exist but the image still remains clear, with those same empty eyes staring back at him. His concerned do not so much come from what differences they have but in their similarities--or, the similarities that this young man might have to him when he was that age.

He had left rashness behind, but that boy who shared his eyes had not. ]

From what I understand, the environment that he comes from, being some fifty years earlier than my own, may very well be drastic enough. Who can say what that might lead him to do or not do. Trauma can outweigh other forms of nurture entirely.

I think that there is potential, in his nurture, to be the very worst of myself. Perhaps even what you believe to see in me. You know as well as I that while our nature defines who we can be, it is what we do with that nature that turns potential into reality.

If my being returned to this place is your doing, I am not amused.

And how do you imagine I could have achieved that?

Welcome back.

I do not know, but if anyone in this place were capable, it would be you.

[It's an indirect compliment that out of all those in Wonderland, including the supposed Queens, that he believes himself the only one with a strong enough will to send or draw people there.]

Did any of the others leave with me?

I would be flattered if you were not, in saying so, also complimenting yourself.

Not with you, but Dr. Chilton seems to have left as well.

Perhaps. Perhaps not.

Did he? A shame.

What of Mr Stark? Before I left, there had been some squabble about him or one of his people.

Before you left, I heard that he was murdered.

I haven't been paying him much attention regarding that, though you might want to.

You should know I always pay attention to matters that concern me.

[Although he hadn't to this, not precisely. Given his technological knowledge limitations and absence, there hadn't been a good way to find out. Didn't help that he trusted no one but himself.]

Stark deserved it.

I don't doubt that he did.

I couldn't help but notice a pronounced silence. Are we going to be keeping our usual appointment this week, Doctor?

[ The pronounced silence as he put it had been half circumstantial, and half planned. After that event and after the last murder, he found it best to keep his head down. Normally he wouldn't even consider such a thing but alas, this is Wonderland, a place where he can't kill people to keep them quiet and can't escape if need be. For all the playful enjoyment he gets out of hiding in plain sight, it would not work out in his favor here.

And what a shame.

That event in itself had been too revealing, and frankly embarrassing. So, silence, waiting for Will to contact him first. Feigning disinterest heals many an oversight. ]

I do apologize, Will, it seems that I lost track of my schedule and couldn't find the time to reach out properly. Of course your appointment remains as long as you choose to keep it.

[ Will considered as much and dismissed the strong implications behind it. Hannibal's motivations aren't thrown off course by an idiotic high school fumbling, but it pays to make sure.

So. What to talk around, and what to confront? ]

It's not a problem. I don't get many opportunities to be concerned over you.

Do you have something you want to discuss outside of professional bounds?

There isn't often the need for concern, though I do appreciate the sentiment.

As for personal versus professional bounds, I was under the impression that our conversations always straddled the line between the two. Is there something you want to discuss?

I thought it was somewhat more vital to check, as we find ourselves in quite the unique friendship. I don't know what I would ask about your curious behavior during the event, even if I could narrow it down to anything outside of teenage oddity. I guess the surprise is that you had the capacity for it at all. Sometimes I imagine you sprung forth fully formed at birth in a suit and tie, or perhaps you simply always have been.

But I did want to say that our last dinner has made me look forward to the next.

[ There is so very much to parse through in Wills series of statements. In the word choices and sentence structure, Hannibal hears an echo of himself. In speech he would be proud of that, but in text? He's still too proud but the hint of perhaps intentionality pricks him gently. ]

I am capable of a good many things, Will. As it happens that includes making you a follow up appointment with a nice Chianti, perhaps this time with my shirt sleeves rolled up.

[ It's a joke, Will, a jab at your jab. As for his behavior during the event though, the portrait of the artist as a young man was hardly flattering and he chooses not to touch that. ]

Do not lie to me, Doctor.

Do they speak truth of you?

They is an ambiguous direction. Do you mean Evelyn or the rabble?

You are an intelligent man. You know exactly what I mean.

[ He pauses, and she can't see him smile. ]

Evelyn uses words she doesn't understand to label me in ways she can't possibly comprehend. That said, she is unquestionably an honest, moral person. She speaks what she believes to be the truth.

Do not think for a moment that you might dance around the question. I only asked for the truth; I do not want pretty words and mockery.

She says it is the truth and yet it is not; is that what you mean? Speak plain.

I have no intention of mocking you, Daenerys. Sometimes the truth isn't so simple.

If you would like me to speak plainly I believe I deserve the same. Some of the things she says are true and some are not, you're going to have to be more specific.

Have you murdered and eaten some of our number in the mansion?

I have, though I'm not the only one.

How does that make you feel about me?

"Not the only one?" And who else is there to take blame?

I feel betrayed; though you may not have lied directly, you have been purposefully deceitful. Were you planning on murdering me, Doctor?

Two very different questions, which one would you like the answer to?

Your feelings of betrayal are understandable but unfounded. As you said yourself, I never lied to you, and if it makes you feel better I never had any intention of harming you.

If that helps at all, I would much rather have this conversation in person.

Both, if you feel you can provide suitable answers.

Fine. But if you make any move against me, I will never forget it.

[Oh, he can, but the question is whether or not he wants to. ]

You've eaten with me, have you not?

[ oh fiddlesticks ]

If you have fed me another of the residents of this mansion, I will never speak with you again.

Not residents of this mansion, no.

[ Yeah, okay, she can't handle this right now. With a disgusted scoff, Dany ends the call. She has to think about her life choices for the moment... ]

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