Har-bloody-har

[deaths_relation]

It was sitting on the table in the corner of the rec room. Innocuously, like it had been there all along.

Susan was pretty sure she would have noticed something like that when she came in, but the island is...well, you can never be really sure of something like that. More disturbing than it's sudden, if rather lacking in fanfare, appearance was the

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[the_dungbeetle]

"Is that a rat?" Gregor asked, unable to help himself, as he had been approaching the bookshelf. He'd rarely seen tame rats in his life, and it was clear this one was either tame or imecibly groomed and well mannered, but on the otherhand since having found the cockroaches he'd suffered quite a few odd glances and pulled faces that were plenty clear at expressing their disgust.

"Did you find it? I've notived the island giving gifts lately, I found one of my own."

[deaths_relation]

"It seems like it. The island seems to think I should be a rat owner." Susan was holding the rat securely, but not too tightly so it occasionally tried to wrestle out of her grasp.

"You found a rat too?"

[the_dungbeetle]

"The island also seems to think it is quite witty. I find it's sense of humous dubious at times, but other's I can admit I'm amused." The stories he'd over heard and read of in old issues of the newspaper had left him with an occasional apprehension, but he wasn't particularly alarmed.

"No, it gave me exotic cockroaches. The island must think itself funny, but I am quite happy with my gift, they are rather pleasant creatures if you can appreciate them."

[deaths_relation]

"Exotic cockroaches?" Susan said with slight surprise. "So not your general house variety? I didn't realise there were other kinds."

[pokerplayereyes]

Ned stopped in the doorway, with his arms folded across his chest. Anyone familiar with one Samuel Vimes would have recognised the stance; it was a copper's stance, with a definate air of What's All This, Then?

Ned raised an eyebrow, and, despite himself, looked amused.

"Didn't think they were supposed to come in boxes."

[deaths_relation]

"Or with flesh." Susan realised that probably made very little sense. "Never mind."

[pokerplayereyes]

"It's not dirty, is it?" Ned walked into the room, dropping down into a crouch to examine the thing.

Back home, the only rats were crawlin' with fleas. Ned was, frankly, dubious.

[deaths_relation]

"If there was a dwarf in the room we would be looking at rat-on-a-stick, put it that way." Dwarfs knew their rats, and preferred the cleaner variety.

Which is not to say they wouldn't eat the other kind...

[adorablespike]

A cloud of smoke floated over to Susan's side. In it was Adora Belle Dearheart, smoking - what else? - a cigarette.

"Something funny?"

[deaths_relation]

Susan coughed slightly.

"No. Absolutely not."

[adorablespike]

Adora Belle peered down, through the smoke, at what Susan had been 'laughing' at.

It was a rat. Adora Belle did not see what was remotely funny about rats - though the dwarfs did do some rather interesting novelty foods with them, such as ratsicles and rat-pops - so she fully understood Susan's lack of humour about the matter.

"Ah. The island's given you something, too, I see." Some more smoke from her nostrils joined the growing cloud.

[deaths_relation]

Unless you had been woken up routinely by a rat-shaped skeleton jumping on your bed it probably was rather hard to see the humour in them.

"It seems so. What were you unfortunate enough to receive?"

[loaded_wolf]

It was the woman's hair that drew Angua's attention before the rat did. The rat was at a close second, though. And oh, she might not have the same keen nose as she did back on the Disc, but she sure could smell that thing.

"What in the world is it in?" she asked, bypassing 'hello' or 'it's refreshing to see you while fully dressed' for the moment.

[deaths_relation]

It was refreshing to see Angua while they were both wearing clothes, and in a place other than Susan's bed.

"I'm not entirely sure. Some kind of enclosure, but it's not like anything I've seen before."

[loaded_wolf]

Angua hadn't either.

"An elaborate rat trap, maybe?" she guessed, wondering what Wee Mad Arthur would think of it.

[deaths_relation]

"Could be - although other than the hatch on the lid there is no way in. Whatever it is, the rat seems to enjoy being in there." Susan had some experience with interpreting rat-behaviour. Not that she was entirely comfortable with the concept that this rat bore resemblance to the snickering skeletal version she knew.