“Say, ain’t he that thief’s-”

J was suddenly cut off by an incoming hand upon his mouth; he finds his lips have been rendered immobile by a fellow member of the congregation.

“Hush! Y’all don’t talk none ‘bout that boy like’at dagnabbit!”
“Do ya even know what Eli’s gon’ do when he catches you trash talking his brother!”

The man said, a bead of sweat forming above his brow.

“’Sides, the boy ain’t got a single sinnin’ bone in his whole body.”
“...Really makes ya wonder how a boy gits like’at with a brother like his.”

His expression loosens slightly, looking at the blue shark handing out soup. Seeing that the recipient of his warning had understood the implications of his actions, he hoists a burlap sack full of onions on his back, and walks away.

(Damn kid... I bet he’d cheat us all, soon as he gets the chance!)

Unsatisfied with the situation, he mutters, heading back into the church.

In stark contrast to his younger brother, the only benediction he would honor is that of bastards and heathens. We see the older of the two with his divine intervention held high, manifesting his destiny upon the town's mayor.

“You’re gon’ catch hell one of them days, boy”
“-With all them sins on your back.”

A grizzled man coaxes out from his clenched teeth. Eli laughs.

“Yeahhh...That dog don’t hunt my friend.”
“I ain’t the one lyin’ to god’s face, taxin’ the townsfolk to damnation.”

A heist! The hubris! The stakes were all too high for your regular, one-horse town bandit, but Eli was no such petty thieving dingbat on the street.

The young shark, holstering his Mk.4 self-ejector, flees the scene with tacit initiative.

Levi felt a tingling in his back; something bad had happened. Again. This young paragon of virtue sighs as he prepared for the fusillade of lead ball that awaited the siblings.

"Oh lord, why am I the sole witness to my brother's kindness, as you are the sole witness of our sins?"
"Why does the unholy chasm grow ever wider in breadth?"



-To be continued