Chapter 2
Hannibal is... beautiful is not the word he is looking for. His face is arresting, bewitching, his eyes flames of ferocious intelligence and his lips, still tilting to the side in a smirk of unfunny proportions is delectable. Will licks his own lips in retaliation and sees Hannibal zoom on that. Will can actually envision the moment Hannibal made the captain of the boat that brought him here the first time, how he must have urged them to get so far away from their destination, to dock here and to get them to search for him afterwards. He is just that magnetic.
And isn’t it a wonder that such a man is hidden away in this ice held fortress, of his own making and happy to be here. Will cannot help feel his admiration for Hannibal get warmer. “Don’t you ever get lonely?” Will asks, a tad sadly and suddenly. Hannibal stares at him, smirk nowhere to be seen and says, “I like being alone.”
“I meant lonely, not whether you are okay being alone,” Will clarified in a lower voice.
“I will tell you later, perhaps when we are actual friends huh?” Hannibal replies back pleasantly. Will looks at him and can discern a hint of minty anger coming off him. Thinking it best not to visit the topic again in the near future, he waves his hand around the small room and says, “How on earth did you get people come and build this. The materials aside the labour must have been atrociously priced.”
“I built all of this myself,” Hannibal supplies before giving him a slight nod and heading out of the room. Will stared after him, watching his retreating back, when Beverly pokes her head in through the door and asks Will some question about the placement of the equipment. As plans go, they are hoping for half of shots of the emperor penguins in their natural habitats and other half of how Hannibal runs his laboratory and how he interacts with his subjects. They are also praying for some miracle shots with the other aquatic animals that may be found in that area.
Will gives his directions and the cameras with the cold covers are brought over to do some opening shots of the Quinpool in water and Hannibal’s house as it stands, with lots of close-ups of innocuous things and wide shots of the icy shores and the wide expanse of the plains like areas grouped around by striking mountains that glitter in the sunlight. The sheer drops can be seen from far away, no means of getting there without better equipment and hearts of steel. This was a difficult place to live in, hence hardly any human habitation. Yet, Lecter made it his home and was now letting strangers into his home to capture the moments for posterity.
Brian was setting out his sound equipments whereas Jimmy was looking around for locations for shooting with Beverly. Alana and Margot were given the work of sample collection and data transference, with their laptops being the datadump for the whole operation as everything was sent to the institute to be looked over by Jack in case some things needed to be reshot or recollected. It was a good system, that they had got going through their previous three documentaries. One of them even ended up in a list of the best documentaries of the year lists that can still be found online. It had been an express matter of pride for Brian and Zeller and both actually did a youtube video thanking the listers. Sadly, it got only 10 views.
The rest of the crew were post grad students who were there for their beck and call, keeping track of every piece of equipment and make sure that the members of the boat party were all accounted for at any given time. The boat crew were not members of the documentary team, but knew Hannibal as they had previously lugged luggage for him. So, it was a small community where everyone knew each other by face if not by name and everyone knew Hannibal. And Hannibal took to this social situation with alarming alacrity.
Each day, he would haul in lots of fish to feed the masses, which had to be cooked over the gas tank fuelled grills on the ship and they in turn let him have some of their tinned and preserved stuff they had brought along. In the evenings when on a more warmer place, there might have been bonfires and drinking, everyone got together on the deck of the ship even Hannibal and listened to the radio for news and music. There was alcohol enough to get a sip or two, but never enough to get drunk on. Hannibal hardly ever drank, and when not in his cabin, apart from the meals, Hannibal would be with the penguins or off collecting data and the document team would follow him with the least amount of sound made.
The penguins thankfully took the new members as non lethal on being there account of Hannibal and a few even made them offers of half digested fish parts and strangly weeds. Those made for fantastic data, to measure the acidic ration to food and assorted tests. They also made Zimmy squeal in delight over their antics while Beverly handled the camera. It was quite work and fun at times. And Will directed everything so that they could keep to their schedule. That did not stop him from looking at Hannibal every chance he got and be impressed by the man anew at every new revelation
Beverly took to teasing Will over Hannibal and Will would shove her while she cackled delightedly. Soon everyone was in the secret and Will found he could no longer see Hannibal silently as their whoops and teasing comments would make his face flame up and shy enough that he looked away from Hannibal entirely. None of that stopped either one of them from doing their work beautifully, but it was just that, what all being in the Antarctica and all, entertainment was hard to come by, and Will really did blush so beautifully, as Beverly explained to him one day, far away from Hannibal’s hearing.
Or so they assumed. And now that Will was not looking at Hannibal as much, he kept missing how much Hannibal would look at him. Beverly caught on quickly and could only give a big sigh at the antics of the two.