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[ukan]

This is Lark Tennant, leave a message.

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[ukan]

Well that makes a lot of sense. Not that it will soothe Sephiroth any. As a defense, though, it's solid. Even better that Trevor isn't playing it up; he's a vampire slayer. He was doing what he'd been trained probably since toddlerhood to do.

"Did you know the Enclosure wasn't real? It's just a memory of his. The cabin was empty, no one on board was in the flames."

[atowncalledtreffy]

He shakes his head, once.

"Not until we were halfway through the fight and he told me. I knew the cabin didn't have anyone inside, the smell was..You don't forget the smell. But I didn't know the flames wouldn't carry outside. Sometimes with magic, you just don't know which way it's going to go."

He sniffs the air. Smells the unfamiliar scent of coffee. And looks questioningly at Lark.

"What are you making?"

[ukan]

"Coffee." He almost tells him that it's Guatemalan and then sees his expression. "To warm you up. It's bitter--I can sweeten it if you want, but give it a try."

He pours a mug and offers it, then pours one for himself.

Trevor thought he was protecting the ship. He thought Sephiroth was either a vampire or a demon. Even if Lark thought out and out punishment worked (and he knows it doesn't), Trevor was trying to do the right thing. Which means Lark is probably going to have to defend him from other wardens.

Troublemaker, Lark thinks at Trevor, grousing but hiding a smile behind his mug.

[atowncalledtreffy]

Oblivious as to the goings-on behind Lark's mug, Trevor nods and takes the cup, bringing it up to his face to sniff it. Smells oddly Turkish, in a way. Maybe one of the relatives came back with things from the Ottoman Empire to make him think that, suddenly.

"Thanks." He exhales, and takes a sip.

And immediately burns his tongue.

"Mmph!"

[ukan]

Oh. Right. People who haven't gone through law school probably haven't deadened the nerves in their tongue with years of scalding hot coffee.

"Here," getting him a glass of water. He'd normally offer cream to cool it down, but the last of the cream ran out three weeks ago. "Sorry. Let it cool."

[atowncalledtreffy]

"Christ almighty." He wheezes. "You weren't joking." That sure did warm Trevor up in a hurry. He takes the water, exhaling when he's able to cool his tongue.

Once Trevor clears that up, he returns his gaze back to Lark, a little flushed.

"So. You were saying something about that killer's response?"

[ukan]

He leans against the counter, mug between both hands. "You hurt him. And his ego. I can guess you aren't worried about him coming after you, and if this wasn't the Barge I'd buy tickets to that show. But it's a small ship and people will get hurt, and that worries me."

[atowncalledtreffy]

He nods, expression turning serious as he contemplates what Lark's telling him.

"Not if I do my job right. Keep his anger centered on me instead of anyone else. Would help if I could get a few more weapons."

[ukan]

"You don't understand how he fights. Or maybe you do," thinking of Dracula. "You saw what he did to that town. You might be the focus of his anger, but the ship isn't big enough for everyone else to avoid him."

[atowncalledtreffy]

Trevor nods, exhaling.

"Shit." He already caught him in a memory lighting innocent people on fire. The ship's probably next. Collateral damage indeed.

"So. What's the solution, appease his swollen ego? Ask him nicely not to burn everyone to the ground?"

Not likely to happen and not something Trevor would ever be okay with doing, but it's worth checking if Lark has a solution in mind.

[ukan]

"No. Appeasing a monster doesn't make it more gentle." And Sephiroth, whatever he is, is happy to do monstrous things. "I don't know what the solution is yet, Trevor. I'm trying to figure it out but in the very short-term I'm just trying to prevent tragedy. How do you protect people without escalating?"

[atowncalledtreffy]

He nods in agreement. Monsters don't get preferential treatment like that.

"You're asking me? Because normally we just kill them. And we protect people by showing them how to defend themselves."

[ukan]

"Ah, well that's something you'd think everyone here would already know. We have people here who have spent most of their lives fighting." Like Trevor. "I'm here to teach new ways of defending themselves. Sometimes it doesn't even involve blood."

[atowncalledtreffy]

"Well, that would be nice. Takes some work off my back."

Which only leaves one big, one-wing-shaped problem in front of him. Them?

"My plan was mostly just 'kill him as many times as possible until he pisses off'. Yours?"

[ukan]

"He can't go anywhere. He would love to leave, but he can't. Pissing him off means he takes it out on everyone else." Don't. Do it.

"But if he attacks you, you're free to fight back. And if he doesn't, I'd say work with Zack. He's the only one who knows anything about Sephiroth besides 'he kills people'. He might have better insights."

[atowncalledtreffy]

"At this point I think my heavy breathing around him would piss him off." Trevor points out, exasperated. He needs a new plan. One where he could incapacitate Sephiroth and stop him from hurting anyone else around them.

"Which one is Zack?"

[ukan]

Lark pulls up his device to show him a picture of Zack. "They're from the same place. But Zack is more like you; he's in the business of stopping people like Sephiroth."

[atowncalledtreffy]

He squints at the device; notes Zack's features, nods once.

"He's like you? A warden?"

[ukan]

"Yeah. He's a good man." As aggravating as Lark has found him in the past, he's never doubted Zack does his best to do whatever he thinks is right in the moment. And it is aggravating as often as it is admirable. "Sephiroth is with him right now, but..."

He fires off a quick text. "He should be able to meet with you one on one."

[atowncalledtreffy]

Good to know: wardens are probably honor-bound by some no-killing code so Trevor has his doubts about how useful Zack could be, apart from maybe knowledge into Sephiroth's mind and how best to stop him.

He exhales sharply when Lark says he's with him now.

"Seriously?" He barks a laugh. "Doing what? Braiding his hair and telling him it's okay, the big bad hunter's gone now?"

[ukan]

He raises an eyebrow. "Are you denying you're a big, bad hunter?" Joking aside: "He's keeping Sephiroth contained. If Sephiroth tries anything stupid, he can put him in a cell under the Barge."

[atowncalledtreffy]

All joking aside on Trevor's end as well;

"He burned a village down. He was imagining it all over again and he was smiling. And you're telling me he's going to do it again, here, because I hurt his feelings. Why the fuck isn't he there now?"

[ukan]

This is the part that is always hardest to explain. "Because Zack can redirect him. All Zero does is give him time to sit and plan--and we can't keep him there longer than a week. The cells open by themselves. At best, it's like a corner where you send a child, and it's about as effective."

This is one example of what he's meant by having to learn new ways of dealing with old problems.

[atowncalledtreffy]

He stares back, hollow and with a sinking feeling in his chest. He's on a ship with a mass-murdering monster - more than one, if he dares to think about it - without his proper weapons and people who think it's all right to talk about it and redirect that aggression elsewhere. Like someone else like Trevor's not just going to show up and piss on their dinners again and start the whole cycle over.

"So you don't have a way to contain him. Death won't stop him. And he's going to kill again because I gave him a scratch."

[ukan]

There it is. Lark reached that conclusion much later, on account of being one of those murderous monsters, but he remembers the moment the reality of the Barge's cycles fell on him.

"Yes." He won't try to dumb it down, won't try to make the truth sweeter than it is. "Which is where ingenuity comes in. I do have some ideas...I just don't know if the Admiral will allow them since I'm not his primary warden."