cannot stop thinking about single dads hannigram🙈 Will struggling to manage a baby and college/police academy, spilling milk all over his shirt, feeding mia in one hand, shaving in the other. And Hannibal chilling with four nannies and a nurse
This flashed in my head like a little montage hahaha.
Will was a mess. A complete, absolute disaster of a man.
The morning had started as it always did—Mia wailing at an ungodly hour, Will bolting upright in bed, disoriented, hair standing up like he’d been electrocuted. He barely had time to grab her bottle before she started making noises that could only be described as prelude to destruction. He held her in one arm, rocking her, while his other hand fumbled to pour milk into the bottle. His half-asleep brain miscalculated. The milk missed. Spilled down his uniform.
“Goddammit—”
Mia blinked up at him.
He sighed. “Yeah, yeah, watch the language.”
Still holding her, he shoved a spoonful of baby food into her mouth while gripping his razor in his other hand. He tilted his head, trying to shave without slicing his throat open, but Mia decided now was the perfect time to smack the spoon, sending mushy sweet potato onto his already ruined shirt.
“Great. Fantastic. Just wonderful.”
By the time he got to the academy, he looked like a man who had lost a fight with a blender. His shirt was wrinkled and vaguely orange. He had one spot on his chin that he’d completely forgotten to shave. His bag was barely hanging onto his shoulder as he lugged Mia inside, balancing his textbooks while muttering under his breath about how people shouldn’t have to choose between passing an exam and keeping a small human alive.
Meanwhile, across the country, Hannibal Lecter was having tea.
He sat in his pristine, art-filled home, dressed immaculately, a soft classical piece humming in the background. Mia was babbling nonsense to herself in Will’s arms, but here—here was Amara, quietly nibbling on a perfectly cut fruit arrangement prepared by one of the four nannies standing by in case she so much as coughed. A nurse stood nearby, making sure her little cardigan was perfectly buttoned.
Hannibal sipped his tea.
Thank you @suchawrathfullamb
To read, just click on the title. It’s revised and full of new, amazing details by Lamb, so make sure you reread even if you already read all three chapters (there’s also a new part added).
hi Milk!! Huge fan of your essays and narrative writing. You have such a wonderfully unique perspective on everything. Im so fascinated by it, and it resonates very deeply pretty much all the time. Ive been loving Rotten Meat so far too! Im so compelled by the differences and similarities you've drawn between them all so far, as shown in the posts you've made expanding on the three girls.
I was wondering, just so I can sort of mentally gauge my expectations, what kind of story are you hoping to tell with Rotten Meat? Will it be a kind of twisted self-discovery like we see in the show for Will, but independently with each of these girls? Will it be them processing their fatherhood trauma together, messy healing and resisting? Enabling eachother, "getting worse," for a lack of easier terms? Is this more of a character exploration than anything else, letting the story unfold as you go now that you've laid the groundwork?
Thank you!! Keep up your amazing work!! I love checking your acc after a busy week!! You inspire me to write more myself!!
(P.S. - how do you feel about the idea of fan works such as fan art or writing, either loosely or directly, inspired by Rotten Meat?)
Thank you for your wonderful words, it’s so kind of you!
Rotten is a treatise on broken minds and how their shards wound those who hold them close. It’s a testimony of robbed girlhood, a commentary on human bonding, repression of desires, an exploration of the psychological fractures caused by the imposed construct of family, its inherent artificiality and the quiet violence it inflicts on the psyche. It is still a story about love, and how it shapes around trauma.
Hii Milk!🥺 Good to see signing me with the worm emoji was a great idea to make myself known even anonymously! I hope you don't hate me for the many questions I'm sending you haha.
This time not a question directed to Mia or Amara, but the old ask of the daddies' reaction to their daughter killing made me think of something else but I thought to wait a bit since we're all so hyped for Mia, Amara and Savannah😅
I don't know if you ever heard of a Yandere? A term used in mangas/fictional stories who talks about a girl/boy obsessed with someone so much that they go too far like stalking and killing anyone trying to get in their and their's crush way. But some cases of real yanderes existed, and the closest diagnosis of these 'lovesick' individuals would be BPD, ASPD and even DPD (according to Google and various symptoms).
Now, I'm not really into yandere stories because they are most of the time not well written and stereotyped to the bone. And also a personal reason of mine, because I had to deal with a lovesick individual myself. So this is why I tend to avoid these topic even if I'm finding them fascinating in some cases. And the case would be a thing I've been thinking a lot of times; What would be the reaction of the parents (who are equally messed up individuals, with a history of crimes behind their shoulders) to a potentional child that begans to show worrying signs as the time passes, and eventually finding the person, and everything begans to go low and lower?
So this is the question; What would be the reaction of Hannibal and Will, to a child (either male or female) who is showing problematic behaviour, especially when they grow and find the love of their life? Making them going extreme to get the person they adore?
Andddd I send an another long ask, sorry this sounds so sudden but y'know, the topics less discussed can turn in something interesting. I like to talk about my daydreamings/tales my brain suggest, so this is a warning itself.😭
-🐛
Hi worm 🐛, always nice to see you here!
I don’t think Will or Hannibal could judge their child for displaying lovesick behaviors hahaha. I think they would see a mirror of themselves. I think Hannibal would not discourage completely, and I think Will would let them know that it leads to very dark places. But ultimately they wouldn’t get in the way. They would be curious to see what happens.
There is something almost mystical about naming our inner experiences. To take something abstract…an emotion, a longing, an undefined ache, and shape it into words is an act of manifestation, a process of making the intangible tangible. Language does not simply describe; it brings forth. And when someone else finds the words we could not, it is as if they have unlocked something inside us, a door we didn’t know was there.
This phenomenon is more than poetic, it is deeply psychological. Studies in affect labeling have shown that putting emotions into words regulates our nervous system, reducing emotional distress and increasing cognitive clarity. Naming what we feel gives us a sense of control, a way to structure and process the chaos of our inner world. This is why music, poetry, and literature resonate so profoundly; they articulate what we struggle to express, creating an immediate, visceral connection between us and the artist. When a songwriter captures our exact feeling in a lyric, or when a poet gives language to an experience we thought was inexpressible, it is as if we have been seen, understood, and, in a way, completed.
This idea also has a spiritual dimension. In many traditions, to name something is to invoke it into being. Words are acts of creation; they give form to what was previously formless. In this sense, language is not just a tool for communication but a means of birth, of taking something from the depths of our psyche and bringing it into the external world.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the way Hannibal and Will relate to one another. Their connection is forged, in part, through language. From the moment they meet, Hannibal begins naming Will’s unspoken truths. “No forts in the bone arena of your skull for the things you love,” he says, and Will looks shaken, almost shocked. It is the first of many moments where Hannibal puts words to what Will has always felt but never articulated. Each time this happens, we see Will’s expression shift, sometimes in realization, sometimes in relief, as if something long submerged has finally surfaced.
Because if you can name it, you can see it. And if you can see it, you can control it.
See? See?
Studies and Articles:
Affect Labeling: One, Two, Three, Four, Five
I see each one of you who always comment, like or/and reblog with special little anecdotes in the tags, and I love you, my little dragons 🐉
Sorry if you have answered this - but post fall in H&W's new life, who do you think would initiate intimacy/affection? Do you think they would avoid it at first and then eventually it would all just burst out in a big encounter?? I often thought Will would be the one to break and to try something but I change my own mind a lot lol.
I always see this scene where Will is freaking out about something, screaming and accusing and Hannibal is just trying to stay composed, he’s breathing deeply and closing his eyes, mustering the patience, but then he just shoves Will into the wall and shuts him up with his own mouth. He stops. Will is shocked for a few seconds, then he’s unto Hannibal like a hungry beast.
