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[ukan]

This is Lark Tennant, leave a message.

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[ukan]

"Tell me what Lent is like." He's always been curious, but never had time to ask anyone who actually partook of it. "I've only observed Mardi Gras."

[atowncalledtreffy]

His brow furrows as Trevor translates:

"Fat Tuesday? I mean, Lent is...it's Lent. It's dark and you're hungry and you can't eat or drink what you want. I'm not so observant as I once was. But back before people were starving to death, you fasted for half the year and Lent's the most important and longest fast of that year. "

[ukan]

To most people that sounds awful. To Lark? It's exciting.

"What's the purpose behind the fast?"

[atowncalledtreffy]

He gives him a weird look. It's like explaining to a child why the sun rises in the morning.

"Religious observation. Jesus Christ did it so now his observers follow in his footsteps. We're supposed to be...I don't know, refraining from physical pleasures of the earth. We're denying what's tempting to us for something more powerful: God's grace, or forgiveness or whatever. There's like four priests on this tub and I'm not one of them; I can't give you better answers than that."

[ukan]

"We should observe it this year." Trevor doesn't sound particularly religious about it so Lark needn't be either. They can get some other meaning from it.

[atowncalledtreffy]

He laughs, harsh and bitter but with a tinge of amusement;

"You're only saying that because you have to cook all the food for this lot. With Lent you eat one meal a day for forty days."

[ukan]

Even better. "If rationing continues we'll make the whole ship observe. Otherwise, you and I."

[atowncalledtreffy]

"I think I'll pass." He says, and hauls the pig over the threshold into the Barge proper. "But feel free to starve yourself for whatever reason you want."

[ukan]

A chuckle. He picks the pig up by its bound hind feet and slings it over his shoulder. "Is that a 'no' to a Mardi Gras celebration?"

[atowncalledtreffy]

Walking with Lark, Trevor heads towards the kitchen to butcher the pig.

"I don't know. Not much one for celebrating. Anyway, that's months off."

[ukan]

"Not even your victories? That's criminal." Especially when Trevor has to pry his wins from the jaws of literal monsters.

[atowncalledtreffy]

"Honestly the celebration is getting to live another day." Trevor exhales, smiling a little. "Anything else could be considered excessive. Fuck, now I'm talking like Alucard."

[ukan]

"Celebrations break up the monotony here. I suspect that's why they existed in your time, too." He gives him a sage look. "There's more to life than just surviving through the night."

[atowncalledtreffy]

He squints back at Lark over his shoulder.

"There hasn't been much celebrating in the last year or so." He counters. "Been a shit time for everyone. I don't think anyone feels much like celebrating - there's monotony and then there's outright tragedy. Feels different."

[ukan]

"Well, here your survival is guaranteed." Or very nearly guaranteed, anyway. "So you get to examine what you want besides 'just to wake up breathing'."

[atowncalledtreffy]

"Lucky me." He grunts with the effort of hauling the boar up into the elevator. At least here he can take a short rest.

[ukan]

"You're being facetious but there is some luck in being here."

[atowncalledtreffy]

"Yeah? I don't want it." He says, leaning up against the elevator wall. God, this conversation again? He's so tired of it all.

[ukan]

"Yes, I know." What it's like. Someday he'll meet someone who is actually willing to use and abuse the Barge and its opportunities, but alas.

"But if I had to be stuck sharing a ship with someone who hunts my kind, I don't hate that it's you."

[atowncalledtreffy]

"Can't hunt you anymore, can I? Cursed into uselessness." Trevor picks up the boar after the elevator opens and starts lugging it down the hall.

"What a final moment for the ancestral clan."

[ukan]

"I would hope that you wouldn't hunt me," he drawls. "Besides, not having your whole arsenal on hand hasn't stopped you from fighting."

[atowncalledtreffy]

Trevor feels like shit. He had hoped that Lark might have volunteered to lift the curse himself but that doesn't seem to be happening and he's too proud (and tired) to beg.

"It's not that. I can fight in self-fucking defense, which is useless. I can't defend someone else. According to the fucker who put the thing on me, I'm supposed to 'call for help'. Like that's ever worked in the history of human-fucking-kind."

Bitter now, he waits for Lark to unlock the kitchen doors.

[ukan]

He opens the door and holds it for Trevor. "I'm not your warden which means I can't lift it. But if I was your warden, I'd ask you how far back your idea of 'defense' goes. Would you kill someone over something they might do?"

[atowncalledtreffy]

Trevor lugs in the meat and sets the animal up on the table, then goes to seize a knife. Hygiene? What's that?

"You're my temporary warden. What good's a temporary one if they can't do all the regular shit on a temporary basis? And sure. If I thought there was a good chance of them doing it again."

He bends down to start working on the boar.

"Take what happened a few days ago with the animal souls everyone had. One person starts beating up on his: it's a defenseless little rabbit. He beat the shit out of her. She's hiding under the table in a crowded lunchroom and no one gives a fuck, clearly, because it's somehow all right if it's his. I go to break his arm and the curse triggers."

[ukan]

Lark frowns and gets the mop. They'll need it. "That's different. That's reacting to something that is actually happening. And if it was up to me, you would have been able to stop him."