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[ukan]

This is Lark Tennant, leave a message.

[Or a note, or a drop-by]

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Re: Audio

[ukan]

How big is the wound and do you need a tetanus shot?

[For John's sake and his own suspicions about this wound, he marks this thread private retroactively and from this point on]

Re: Audio

[power_of_yes]

Bigger than a Band-aid and I've been vaccinated. I'm not that sort of religious nut.

Re: Audio

[ukan]

I'll just have to trust your word on that. [But he's teasing]

Come over to 404.

Re: Audio

[power_of_yes]

John does and knocks at the door.

He has his coat on, but it probably won't cover the smell of blood - John's blood. There's no apparent injury on him. At least, not at first.

Re: Audio

[ukan]

Lark has a med kit out on the counter.

"Was this penance or something else?" He isn't overly concerned, because John isn't.

Re: Audio

[power_of_yes]

And this is exactly why John goes to Lark. This is why he trusts him. This is why he asks him what he won't ask anyone else.

Lark knows. Doesn't make a goddamn fuss.

"No. Penance is the fasting," he says softly, saying it aloud for the first time. "Though that's quickly becoming a necessity."

He takes off his coat, revealing a shirt with patches of blood staining along his upper arm. That comes off next, revealing the scars and tattoos that are normally hidden. WRATH along his side, cruelly crossed off. The sigil of Eden's Gate under his navel. YES in big letters along his ribs. LUST on his shoulder blade. The crossed swords underneath.

And a newly scrawled ENVY in angry red on his left arm that he reveals underneath bloody bandages.

Re: Audio

[ukan]

Lark washes his hands and pulls on gloves, sets John's arm over an absorbent sheet and examines it. Realistically some of it probably needs stitches, but he won't give them because the point is the scar.

"I know you've taken care of wounds before but Alec is a doctor so I'm required to tell you to change the dressing twice a day," he drawls, cleaning the blood off, making sure all the dried bits are scrubbed off, then applying antiseptic.

"You don't have to tell me the story behind this one but I certainly won't complain if you do indulge me." It still isn't concern in his voice. He's genuinely curious; John is the only person here besides himself who adheres to a strict code, and he enjoys every time they get to talk about the Ukan path or the Power of Yes.

Re: Audio

[power_of_yes]

He lets Lark move him around at will, straightening his back and glancing down to make sure that he doesn't fuck up his work. John knows what he's doing. He knows how to make it scar. He knows how to make it look good. Once it's healed, he'll scar it again- cross it through, cut it out. For now, he'll wear it.

Once he's satisfied that Lark's not going to do anything to mess up the lettering, he seems to relax.

"There is something here I desire," he says, keeping the story vague. If Jon's going to tell the other wardens about it, there's nothing John can do about it. "Desire more...anything I've ever wanted. Something that someone else wants."

Re: Audio

[ukan]

Lark glances at him as he waits for the antiseptic to dry, then applies a nonstick pad, then begins wrapping his arm. "Other than freedom?"

Re: Audio

[power_of_yes]

He laughs softly. "Yes," he tells him. "A power."

But he doesn't know how much he wants to say.

"Something that someone else has, I mean. Something that was more important, in the moment, than God."

Re: Audio

[ukan]

Lark straightens a bit, really looks at him. "What could be more important to you than God?"

Re: Audio

[power_of_yes]

He shakes his head. "Nothing now," he lies. "I wear Envy on my skin now. My sins are for all to see. And I'll carve it out if I have to."

Re: Audio

[ukan]

"You know how privilege works, John," he says mildly, a very small note of warning in his tone. "You don't need to lie to either one of us here."

Re: Audio

[power_of_yes]

"You're not my lawyer," he says, meeting that warning with a laughing tone of his own. He might not be a wolf, might not be alpha, but John's always been a predator.

"It's not important."

Re: Audio

[ukan]

"I am a warden, and I believe you deserve a space to confide without it going to other wardens," he retorts. "But you should know that I can sense lies, so you're better off just telling me when you don't want to answer something."

Or don't, his smirk says. The lies tell him plenty as well.

Re: Audio

[power_of_yes]

"I suspected you could," he says blandly. "I don't - lie often. Not willingly."

[ukan]

"You don't seem to have much reason for it," he nods. "So why did you lie just now?"

[power_of_yes]

"Because I need it to be true. I wear it on my skin. It has to be true," he answers softly.

[ukan]

"But if you lie, how true is it in the moment?" He takes his gloves off. "It can become the truth later. With work. You don't have to pretend."

[power_of_yes]

He glances over to his marks, to the bandages, and sighs. "I know." A bit of false contrition. Not quite a lie, not quite he truth. He's giving Lark what he thinks he wants, accepting it, deferring to him.

But quietly seething about it.

[ukan]

He throws the bloodied bandages away and motions for John to follow him. There's a basket of unfolded laundry on the stairs. "All right. Same question, then: what replaced God, even for the moment?"

[power_of_yes]

John stands up to follow him. "The means to end the world."

[ukan]

That makes sense, given John's fixation on it. "To rebuild it in the aftermath, or just to have it all gone?"

He finds a dark t-shirt for him and hands it over.

[power_of_yes]

He looks at the t-shirt and then up to Lark with a Look before throwing it on over his head.

"To kill everyone," he says easily.

The farthest thing from a lie.

[ukan]

"A power taken from God's own hands," he muses. "Even your brothers?"