Gao
[sad jester jingle noises]
THE LAZARUS.
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RAT
THE
LAZARUS
LAZARUS
ㅎㅎ
LOCATION
MAIN DECK
MENTIONS
SAAR, PERCY.
MERCY DOWN — S. JAMES.
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YOUR JOURNEY IS
to be short-lived, and there’ll come a time you no longer search for a remedy, but a soft place to bury your bones.
CHAPTER TWO.
Saar. The woman bites with a cutthroat temper, with vitriolic acid that boils the meat of her smile to a chill. He knows her name but the anonymity that scrutinises him now is something new, the turn of her facets, rather define her by that cold precision rather than the lotus eating curve of her common smile.
It is the glimpse of ice seen at the wrong angle, seeing something below that incites a rabid glee in the rodent. The inkling they might be similar blooms in the arctic waste of her steel-cold stare, the recognition between two liars. Saar, she repeats. Has neatly carved a generous path for him to follow with understanding, and yet– Rat has learned long ago it is better to walk on his own.
“Is what I saids.” He responds evenly. “Ratsie saids that, he did do.”
Begins his mild satisfaction, someone worthy of his nuisance. He’ll always throw a bone to the reactive, let them pay tribute to his oddities with their sacrifice of patience. The act of misnaming her is permeated with severity and he pens this result as a note of interest.
The curt little smack has the acrobat withdrawing, and Rat would have to be blind to not see he’d hit more than a thinly-skinned bone. Without Percy over him like silk draped loose across beams, he can see them hover peripherally like a moth around flame. They are not much different, he supposes, toying with fire will often result in a burn.
And the burn is the gap Saar fills to ostracise twinkletoes to the outside. A barrier of carnivorous black, the rodent almost guffawed at the petty action. Poor thing undermined and ignored for someone named Rat, even the botanist can admit that must be a critical blow to their confidence.
“What is your function aboard the ship? I do hope it is as fascinating as you sound yourself. Do tell.”
She is very good at this, he realizes, always encouraging others to speak yet not saying much about herself. And when she does, she mentions others. The Captain, the crew, the passengers, the acrobat friend, Rat the sir, all perfectly calcified in likeable politesse.
Fortunately the botanist does not care much for likeability or good manners.
“Awfully rude of Rat to not say, me bethinks. Grows nice plantsies, we does.” Vermin may be disloyal, but even a parasite has a purpose. “Botany for the King, you sees, you saw, we all saw the sea shore. Wee Ratalie fears 'tisn't as fascinating as yours.” He has gathered assumptions on her position, to be able to speak so casually about the Captain and ascertain others without naivete; either the first-mate, or this is the Captain’s wife.
Either way, poor her.
“A moment, I haven’t even told you the times or the location.”
Desperation has a name, Percival Griffin. A driving revolt against getting cast aside, it is to Rat’s personal amusement seeing the Christmas bauble scuttle back into view. This one had an insatiable need to ensnare attention, no longer man or human but pure performance. All tales go like this, grind oneself to the bone for that revering greed until you earn that recognition for all the wrong reasons.
Their unbecoming smile is like a second skin, ill-fitting blurry fog, yet achieves exactly what Percy wanted: they’ve certainly left an unshakeable impression. The determination they cling to could morph a searing hatred, and Rat knows he’d take painful delight in that deformation. He’d even muster some sympathy if the pallid edges of their smile did not have him grinning like a shark.
“Yada yada Pet Perry,” he cannot help himself from indulging a taunt, “quit ya natterin’ when adults are talking.”
♡coded by uxie♡