Lulu the Lugubrious Voodoo Doll, now with free ball of cheeping dryer lint

[myironeyes]

[Open spam in the greenhouse.]

[It's a peculiar sight, even moreso than Marsh on his own. The man with spikes for eyes is carrying a very small, ugly, excitable cockatiel chick, carefully transferring her from one flowerbed to the next, letting her waddle intrepidly through the greenery, meticulously watching over her and snatching her gently away from any drop-offs or sinister-looking creeper vines while frowning in terse disapproval.]

[Private to Zane]

I'd like to teach you the fast way to kill an Inquisitor.

[It's neither an instruction nor a question; it's a preference. He knows Zane is struggling with his own relationship with violence right now. Zane could refuse, if he wants to.]

Just in case.


[Private to Barbara]

What is your opinion on mercy killing?


[Private to Erik]

How are you getting along with Kelsier?


[Private separately to Ned and Lua]

If you had to trust someone on this ship to kill you, who would it be?


[Private to Ryan Hardy]

I am your warden. I am still not a metaphor for anything.

We should meet.

Comments

private

[godsays]

How to kill you, you mean.

[myironeyes]

Yes.

[godsays]

All right.

[ He has misgivings. He can put them aside. ]

[myironeyes]

I assume you'd rather meet in your room.

[godsays]

...yes.

[myironeyes]

When should I arrive?

[godsays]

When you want.

[myironeyes]

Very well.

[Sometime later, he knocks.]

[godsays]

[Zane answers the door, though he's looking back over his shoulder at a creature on the bed. A rabbit. A rabbit with a lion-ish mane around its head, who is currently not eating a leaf of cabbage in front of it.]

[myironeyes]

[Marsh glides past Zane without brushing him. His blank gaze fixes on the rabbit for a time. He feels as though he ought to comment on the fact that they have both received pets for which they are inadequately prepared, but he wouldn't know where to start. It's not really important.]

[godsays]

I tried to put it in the hutch Kelsier got. But it won't go.

[myironeyes]

...do you want me to catch it before I go?

[Because it's going to poop on your bed eventually if no one moves it. 8/ ]

[godsays]

It lets me pick it up. Just doesn't want to go in the hutch.

[myironeyes]

I can give you fabric scraps to make it a nest in the corner, if you want. Easier to clean, but without the cage part.

[If that's what it doesn't like.]

[godsays]

...maybe so.

I think I'll try to make it one. Maybe it doesn't like the... plastic.

[myironeyes]

Plastic is odd.

[You have a sensible rabbit.]

[godsays]

[Zane agrees, privately.]

She - it doesn't seem to like the cabbage Kelsier gave me, either.

[myironeyes]

[From somewhere in the folds of his cloak, Marsh produces an apple and a little bone knife that looks too small for his hand. It's one piece, the edge fire-hardened, scraped, and nicked, and the handle - once a ball joint of some kind - long since worn smooth. It's not terribly sharp. But it's enough to carve out an apple slice, and set it experimentally next to the cabbage.]

[godsays]

[The rabbit inches forward, slowly, and sniffs up and down the apple slice. This examination seems to take a while. Enough for the silence to stretch out a bit awkwardly. And then, finally, she leans forward and takes a tiny nibble.

Zane relaxes, a little.]

[myironeyes]

[Vaguely self-consciously]

I don't think anyone really likes cabbage.

[It took him years to think of food in those terms. But people tell him this.]

[godsays]

Rabbits are supposed to like green, leafy things.

[Cabbage is self-evidently green and contains leaves. But this rabbit would not cooperate.]

...We don't have to focus on it - her.

[myironeyes]

Would Kelsier give you a rabbit that did what rabbits are supposed to do?

[This is a rhetorical question; no.]

[godsays]

Well.

[Good point.]

[myironeyes]

Cassel gave me a baby bird.

[He doesn't really know what to do with it either.]

I think they'll - let us know. If we try things, and pay attention.

[godsays]

There are books.

[Odd, that Kelsier gave Zane something, and Cassel gave it to Marsh.]