OOM: Concert, part 2

[electro_kinetic]

The stage itself is backed by a huge screen, big enough to nearly be an IMAX presentation, and the orchestra is in front, chairs empty. They're fashionably close to the starting time, because Noriko hates being late, and she didn't want to be too early: tucking her free hand in her coat pocket she walks with Hannibal, trying to keep her heels from clicking too loudly on the floor.

The seats printed on both tickets are quite good, being the center of the closest balcony, where the sound will blend and amplify without too much distortion, and a clear view to both the screen and the plalyers, but before they see any of that, there's the lobby to get through.

"Wow," Nori says, looking up at the starburst lights. "This place is pretty huge."

Comments

[electro_kinetic]

It takes a few minutes, and Noriko only barely shifts towards the road when a flash of yellow turns the corner; she's fidgeting with turning one of her earrings when there's a scuffle behind her and then pressure from an arm banded around her throat and dragging her backwards. She's better at screaming loudly than most people give her credit for, though, and the noise rings out as she stumbles, thrown off-balance by her heels and leaning awkwardly.

"Hannibal!"

[cook_the_rude]

Hannibal turns quickly, and follows Noriko and her attacker into the shadows of the next alley.

[electro_kinetic]

Noriko is only dragged partway into the alley, kicking down hard on the man's instep and resulting in a yell that makes her wince, it's so close to her ear. She tries to claw at the arm blocking her air, but gets nowhere, glowing dangerously bright as she charges up.

[cook_the_rude]

Hannibal advances quickly, one hand in his pocket.

[electro_kinetic]

There's a noise like a loud snap, and Noriko squeezes her eyes shut, and a bright flash envelops her and the man at her back; the searing smell of burning skin is sour as she takes advantage of her attacker's momentary lapse in concentration. Nori slips free, scraping her knees and leg on the rough concrete, coughing.

[cook_the_rude]

Hannibal closes the distance to the attacker, takes his hand out of his pocket and briefly, almost casually, slashes at his throat.

A spray of blood glistens in the distant light of a cab passing the mouth of the alley, and Hannibal gets a handkerchief from his other pocket to clean his scalpel while the attacker crumbles to ground, gurgling, and then falls silent and stops to move.

[electro_kinetic]

Noriko is silent.

She's just watched a man she considers a friend--possibly against her better judgement, conflicted as she is about Hannibal--murder someone for being rude to her at a concert. And he'd come prepared to do so, given the scalpel in his pocket. For a moment her glow is as small and flickering as a candle flame, and as telling of her shaken mood; her throat is sore and her knees and one calf are bleeding from the scrapes they'd earned on the ground, and Noriko stares at Hannibal, unsure of what to say.

[cook_the_rude]

"Did he injure you?" Hannibal asks, looking at her with worry. "Do you need a hospital?"

He turns the corpse over so it lies on its face.

[electro_kinetic]

"My legs are scratched," she answers, after a moment where, true, she is concerned, but then lifts her head to meet Hannibal's gaze, calm and unafraid.

She isn't afraid of Hannibal. Neither does she trust him much, but she won't act like prey; that's the first thing Noriko learned living on her own, to not act like prey. She doesn't intend to change now. "There are always broken bottles and glass on the ground. The cuts aren't deep, they'll heal."

She'd appreciate some help up, and the black stockings she had been wearing are now toast, but she can deal with that. There's nothing she can do about the bruise she'll have across her neck.

[cook_the_rude]

Hannibal straightens, and offers her a hand up. "I'll clean them out, of course, but I guess we won't need an emergency room."

[electro_kinetic]

Noriko takes his hand and picks herself up, twisting her hip so she can see the extent of the scratches. They're bleeding, but not deep, having only a few bits of glass stuck in them. She has no idea if they'd need stitching or not.

"I don't want to go to the ER," she says, shaking her head. "Why did you kill him, Hannibal?"

[cook_the_rude]

Hannibal looks at her as if she had just sprouted tusks.

"Because he attacked you and dragged you into a dark alley," he says, shrugging. "I would have thought that was obvious."

[electro_kinetic]

"Is it because of that, or because he was rude?" she asks, bending down to brush her knees off and hissing when it gushes a little bit of blood again, with a fresh sting.

"I actually was looking forward to dinner." Maybe--obviously--not like this, but she was hoping for a nice night.

[cook_the_rude]

"We can still have it," Hannibal says, getting a very small first aid kit from his coat pocket.

Hannibal Lecter, apparently, comes prepared.

"Just let me see to your scrapes first, and then maybe get some emergency stocking at a, what are they called here, bodega?"

[electro_kinetic]

"Yeah," Noriko says, nodding. "Bodega. Not that I care about my tights right this second."

She sighs, and is beyond even trying to be surprised that he's that prepared for things. She wants to know how deep the pockets on that coat are, though. "It kinda sucks that they closed the Four Seasons, it would have been really close," she murmurs, apropros of really nothing, but it was in her head. "I'd never been in there."

[cook_the_rude]

Hannibal kneels down and starts cleaning her scratches and bruises. "For the Four Seasons, you would have had to have tights," he says. "Definitely. Why did they close it?"

[electro_kinetic]

"I think they'd have had more of a problem with the hair than the lack of tights," Noriko says, with a hiss as he pulls out a bit of broken glass. It stings.

"Too many bad reviews. They had a bunch of them that said--ow--that they were selling overpriced and underwhelming food to pretentious businessmen and tourists," she says. "So the guy that owns the building didn't let them renew their lease. It only closed like...two or three days ago."

[cook_the_rude]

"We have a kitchen, then," Hannibal says, concentrating on a larger scrape near her knee.

[electro_kinetic]

"What do we need a kitchen for, Hannibal?" Noriko asked, looking down at him.

The corpse behind him was the obvious answer, but she remained in the hope that he wouldn't actually follow through on the cannibalism thing in her world. The thought doesn't exactly hold up, given she knows he's fine it elsewhere.

"What if I don't want to eat...him? That?" she asks, unsure of what reaction tip expect from the man kneeling in front of her.

[cook_the_rude]

"We can find ourselves something else to cook," Hannibal says. "But it would be fun to cook in a professional kitchen."

[electro_kinetic]

"...Isn't Milliways a professional kitchen?" she asks.

And belatedly: "Aren't you a little bit concerned that you just slit a man's throat?"

[cook_the_rude]

"No," Hannibal says. "I'm not done yet."

[electro_kinetic]

Noriko gives him a look.

"...With what?"

[cook_the_rude]

"Dealing with this sorry excuse for a human," Hannibal says. He bends down, turns the corpse over, and divests the corpse of its jacket and shirt, and gets out his scalpel again.

[electro_kinetic]

She says nothing for a minute, protractedly silent as if wanting to speak up and not sure if she should or what she should say if she didn't.

"Hannibal, what are you doing?" Noriko asks. It's a stupid and pointless question, she knows what he's doing, but she still has to ask. "I don't want to have to lie about what happened here, and if you leave a mutilated body here I will be." She's not exactly someone people don't notice.