Hmmmn, its so tempting to see if I can sneak swearwords into this mass of text... do you think the admins are watching?


*Chapter 10: Decadence*


Despite being early morning the peace tavern was already crowded, or at least busy since its customers weren't the type to crowd anywhere. Very few of them were drinking, yet several were unconscious. They busied themselves gambling, arguing or just sitting around morosely As Schrock entered a knife whizzed past his head and thunked into the wall opposite. He didn't bother to duck, people never bothered to aim. Schrock knew the place never officially closed as such, it merely got quieter around dawn, the yellow rabbit that had hired them was serving at the bar, but as soon as they entered she removed her apron and tossed it to Erst. Schrock couldn't blame her, this place could grow on you, or at least it was damp enough to make something grow on you.

He busied himself behind the bar, there was a surprising amount to be done, nobody seemed to have kept any records about anything, inventory, customers, payment, you name it. He'd even found an arm in a container of spirits on his first shift and he was quite sure there were many more such surprises lying around the place, probably deposited as payment for booze. At least he'd managed to clear a small corner of junk and assorted objects, if there was one thing Schrock liked it was a decent amount of order. If only the world took a bit of time to get itself organized, there'd be so much less trouble around the place than there was, that was his firm opinion.

He looked briefly up from his sorting as the yellow rabbit entered, approached a pile of garbage and deftly removed a dusty jacket and backpack from it "No, no, doesn't make much difference, they look like small piles of compost whether or not you're wearing them. The rabbit didn't even flicker. "Yeah well some of us have so wear clothing and this is the best I can afford. My aunt moved to shellian solely so she could walk down the street nude." This gave Schrock pause for thought. "She moved there yet you can't afford clothing that's not sprouting weeds? How does that work? "Simple she went to carrotus castle and snuck jalapeño peppers into the queen's breakfast." "Ah." Schrock knew about the deportations, the rabbits dealt with their worst criminal elements by simply shipping them elsewhere. Or executing them. Those that were 'unpatriotic' were deported to shellion, apparently a very fitting destination. What happened of course was the creation of Rabbits Against Rabbits, or RAR, perhaps the only organization in existence whose members were all banned, according to their own charter, from joining.

The rabbit stared at him for a while, as if trying to make up her mind about something. "You- your brother, the guy out front; what exactly is with him? The whole shell thing and all that? Major weird going on there." Schrock was quite surprised. "You noticed? I'll be; I didn't think any of the rabbits had picked it up. Yeah, you'll just have to put it down to him being a bit... odd. He tries his hardest, it's complicated." The rabbit nodded. "My brother eats q-tips, so I get your point. If you're going to be fiddling with stuff al day, try not to wake me up huh? I get too little sleep as it is." Schrock looked around. Ah yes, someone had stuffed a pile of blankets and a pillow into a corner, when really they should have had them quarantined and incinerated.

The rabbit sniffed. "You really don't like this place do you? I can tell by the way you try to avoid touching things." "Yes, I want to live thankyou. Anyway, since we're going to be working together, and sharing living quarters it appears, just out of curiosity, what's your name? I mean, according to this lump of paperwork you don't even have a contract here." The yellow rabbit stiffened. "Yes, well, I'm the daughter of the proprietor, so you're not going to find any paperwork." Hmmm, procrastination, Schrock was interested. "And the name?" "Mumblemumble" "I'm sorry, didn't quite catch that." The rabbit practically growled the response. "Trixxie, its Trixie, short for Trixxibelle, you ever mention it again and so help me I'll cut out your tonge." "Hey, don't worry about it; you won't believe what my name means in shellian, some mothers must want revenge for all the crud we put them through. Suffice to say Erst was named after the shelian word for a hive of bees, and he got the better deal."

Schrock sat back and tried to work out who R. and S. were, they were the only people mentioned on this payment slip. After a while he heard the sound of someone being strangled or drowning in cough syrup, eventually he realized it was snoring. Out front he could just discern Erst's ever cheerful voice as he handed out booze, accepted the occasional payment and dragged people outside when they couldn't stand anymore. For the first time since he'd arrived he felt he finally had someplace where he felt at home. It was musty, dark and fetid.

It also had a rabbit in it, but hey, nothing's perfect.

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