"Join and be bitterly, bitterly disappointed at their pittance wages while I flaunted my impressive girth," he said with a chuckle.

"This is the kind of skill I enjoy learning." He cracked open the crab in his hand and set it aside for the next. "Immediate results from the hard work. No waiting years for it to pay off, when you can finally disarm your weapon trainer only to have him pull out some other move you've never seen and topple you onto your arse. They're tricky that way, the training officers. They don't want you getting full of yourself. But this? If I'm not full by the time it's over, we've done something terribly wrong, like discarded the good bits and saved the rubbery ones."

It was messy work but not at all unpleasantly messy, not like smearing the bait in the bait wells. That alone ensured he would never take up crabbing in any serious capacity. The scent of rancid fat would eventually be enough to put him off of his prizes. He was sure of it.