Two pups, two muns

[cook_the_rude]

Today, Dr. Hannibal Lecter and a ten-year-old redhead known to be a younger version of Milliways' favourite baker are busy in the kitchen, making ice cream.

It's a slightly unusual kind, and involves grinding up gingerbread.

Comments

[collects_strays]

"Not everyone's like you, Rae."

His eyes stay down as he speaks. "Some people feel - unsatisfied during times like that."

[cook_the_rude]

"Satisfaction stems from being able to do what one likes and does well," Dr. Lecter says. "There are people who do best under tense circumstances, who like fighting and risking their lives, or merely reporting terribly desperate news. Of course there should be outlets for them in peacetime as well so they don't start wars out of boredom."

[sunbaked_baker]

The girl looks at them now with faint concern and consternation, remembering they do not come from her world, and don't know the Wars. They don't know. A shudder runs through her.

"Vampires started the Wars, because they were unsatisfied with not being allowed to freely kill people and drink their blood."




"I'm okay with them staying unsatisfied," Rae says, solidly. People - living, human people - want them unsatisfied. "Satisfied vampires means people dying. Horribly."

[collects_strays]

Graham lowers his head, and nods to Rae.

But without looking up, he asks, "What kind out outlet would you suggest for that, Dr. Lecter?"

[cook_the_rude]

"It seems quite legitimate to kill them all," Dr. Lecter muses. "They are harmful and dangerous. What would peace with them even entail?"

[sunbaked_baker]

Rae wipes her hands dry on her apron, grimacing slightly. "The news says they're offering as much blood as the vampires'd ever need. Cow, or pig's blood, whatever they'd want, just so long as it isn't people who are dying."

But, of course, it's human blood they want most.

[collects_strays]

"Some people aren't interested in bargaining," he murmurs.

[cook_the_rude]

"They set themselves up as outlaws, then," Dr. Lecter muses, "living and dying by their own rules. I suppose even the peaceful vampires would hunt them."

[sunbaked_baker]

"There're stories about nice vampires, but... no one's ever lived to report meeting one, so," Rae shrugs. It kind of tells its own story, doesn't it?

"Anyway, stories about 'nice' vampires are a bit like the story about the loathly lady who kills and eats the odd huntsman and hunting hound, and any other knights who fail to answer her questions right. When she finds a knight who does answer all her questions right, and chooses to be with her, she turns into the most beautiful and kindest lady the land has ever seen."

The girl's eyes are tired. Through the kitchen window, the winter clouds thicken outside. "As though that changes that all the other knights are still dead."

Being 'nice' doesn't change that one is a vampire at heart.

[collects_strays]

This is starting to feel like a dream.

Graham closes his eyes for a moment, but the sweet scent, the floor under his feet, clatter from the bar beyond and Rae's voice all seep in, regardless.

"You don't want kindness that's selective."

[cook_the_rude]

"All kindness has to be selective, unless you're a saint or bodhisattva," Dr. Lecter says.

[sunbaked_baker]

"Every person deserves kindness," Rae says, after a long moment of thought. Kindness is all that keeps some people going.

"What's a bodhisa... bodhisattva?"

[collects_strays]

"It's a word from a - belief system in our world."

He presses his hand to his forehead again, but then opens his eyes, and looks up. "For someone incredibly compassionate, who um, seeks enlightenment to benefit others."

[cook_the_rude]

"The could reach enlightenment and leave the circles of existence, but they decide to hang back and help other people," Dr. Lecter says. "Some people say they're Buddhist saints, but actually, that element of choice in taking up their role isn't represented in the Christian concept of sainthood."

[sunbaked_baker]

"I'm not... familiar with most belief systems, apart from myths and legends," Rae says. But all that sounds good, from her limited knowledge of the subject. Choosing to help people when you could be beyond the need for help, yourself. "But it sounds like the world might be better off, if there were more people like that."

[collects_strays]

Graham raises his eyebrows, and glances away. He seems to be considering the words for a few moments, before -

"Compassion can be - complicated."

[cook_the_rude]

"Compassion without non-attachment can be very painful, and lead to some sort of emotional overload," Dr. Lecter adds.

[sunbaked_baker]

Rae thinks on this. Though it is only just past mid-afternoon, it is inching towards sundown, on this the second-shortest day of the year. The girl is tired, and some of the conversations have been very difficult to follow, but she feels the subject at hand deserves thought. And there is still ice-cream to come, eventually.

"I suppose... that's their choice," she says, slowly. "Though they could be beyond it all, they decide to hang back and help other people, even knowing it will hurt. That's what makes them bodhis... what makes them what they are, right? And why they're thought of so highly? Choosing that."

On a sudden suspicion, she frowns. "They do exist, right? Not just stories?"

[collects_strays]

"They're not just in stories."

It seems like the fairest, and least complicated, answer.

[cook_the_rude]

"They're a matter of faith," Dr. Lecter says. "People pray to them and ask for their help."

[sunbaked_baker]

"Oh," Rae says.

Religion.

Right.

The syllable sounds disappointed.

[collects_strays]

It flickers behind his eyes, like a candle that's blown out.

He considers whether to rekindle it, or let it smoke. But ultimately, Graham says nothing, looking stead to Dr. Lecter.

[cook_the_rude]

"Faith is very important to people, and just as real as money, or borders, or gender," Dr. Lecter says.

[sunbaked_baker]

The girl doesn't really know what to say, and looks faintly uncomfortable. Faith has never been a much-discussed topic in the Seddon household. Or, for that matter, in the household that came before the Seddon household. Religion, even less so. Oh, Sunshine has faith in people. But people people, not faraway religious figures. That sort of wishful thinking has never much interested her.

"Are there... historical bodhisattvas? Like, real people who chose to not leave the, um," what had he called them? "the circles of existence, and help others?"

[cook_the_rude]

"Very much so," Dr. Lecter says. "As Buddhism believes in reincarnation, there are even living avatars of them around, the most famous and globally revered being the Dalai Lama from Tibet."