HANNIBAL LECTER | HANNIBAL RISING ❝Hannibal looks at the painting he took from his mother's hands and knows the past was not the past at all; the beast that panted its hot stench on his and Mischa's skins continues to breathe, is breathing now. He turns the "Bridge of Sighs" to the wall and stares at the back of the painting for minutes at a time - Mischa's hand erased, it is only a blank square now where he projects his seething dreams. He is growing and changing, or perhaps emerging as what he has ever been.❞

SPOILERS, EXTREME GORE- PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK

IN A NUTSHELL:
HANNIBAL RISING » If you're looking for a happy ending, this isn't that story. The novel kickstarts at the tail end of World War II and follows Hannibal and the Lecter family from their castle walls to a hunting lodge in the woods, where every single person he knew or loved was brutally killed. His parents and their servants were caught (out in the snow) in the crossfire of the Germans in the Soviets. Leaving both he and his younger sister, Mischa, alone and prey for a group of soldiers that are looking for shelter.

It takes most of the novel for this to officially come to light (something he doesn't discover until well into his medical studies) but they killed and cooked his sister into a soup in order to survive. Something he blocks out as he stumbles through the snow with a head injury, a broken arm and a chain around his neck.

The gist of the story revolves around him obtaining those memories and ignoring those currently involved in his life to avenge Mischa. He seeks out the soldiers, one by one and confronts them for what they did during the war, and then kills them with no remorse whatsoever.

THINGS I AM OKAY WITH:
» character death: within reason, let's talk about it!
» character injury: go for it. hit him in the face.
» people being onto him, knowing something's off, pushing his buttons, etc.
» just ask- probably down with whatever.

THINGS I AM NOT OKAY WITH:
» FOURTH WALLING: no, no, no. for the love of god, no.

EVERYTHING ABOUT HANNIBAL YOU SHOULD PROBABLY KNOW:
» he is (for the most part) an unfeeling bastard, so good luck with that.
» he immensely enjoys being a condescending prick and making people feel stupid. humiliation makes him smile.
» also: pain. not his own. any kind of suffering is probably his favorite hobby. power play, get.
» EYES STARING IN THE DARK ALWAYS. and mouthbreathing.
» he's actually perfectly content to not say a word sometimes.
» he's canonly one of the youngest medical students ever to be permitted into college.
» he works primarily in a morgue, preparing bodies for anatomy classes. but post-novel he has an internship to John Hopkins.
» hannibal rhymes with ... yeah, he eats people.
» he will always think he's the smartest person in the room.
» and the strongest- so, mind your manners. he won't tolerate rudeness.
» he has a thing for fine dining and dishes most people haven't heard of; he may or may not cook body parts into something and try to feed it to people.
» he's probably armed and if he isn't- he still bites.
» he's killed at least six men and shot or attacked a few others. he has a history of violence towards "bullies."
» and most importantly, he's probably reading WAY too far into your life with word choice and body language.

Basically, I know Hannibal isn't everyone's cup of tea and this is a super belated post but I want everyone to feel like they can opt out on CR by commenting here on this post. No hard feelings. Alternatively, if you want him to come creep on your space kids, let me know on that too. If you know what you're looking for, tell me. If you just want to throw them in a room and see what happens, we can do that too.