There were any number of pleasures to be found in the ABC and tonight Lena had settled on gin as her vice. She had avoided a row with her mother – fortunately Sunday dinner had been saved by Helga talking about the season again - and she was rewarding herself with the possibility of seeing her favourite barmaid. Sadly she was absent but there was always someone to talk to here.

“I thought I told you to call me Marlena,” she said as she approached Kieran’s table, noting as she did that he looked gaunter than she had ever seen him, which was saying a lot given his usual state as a shabby skeleton.

“Merlin, you look dreadful,” she said bluntly, avoiding the drips of ink that were spilling off the table. “Are you alright?”

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MJ: still raising the graphics bar as of 2022