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"Make the lice on it's body revolt?" Iamel suggested, his dark eyes wide. Diacyns head had been abandoned for leaning on his chair. The object tilted dangerously to the back, toes curling in his sneakers.

"Or magically levitate a knife and STAB it." A pause, "Are we gonna stab the mice? I wanna see a mice stabbed. OOOOH. Make it eat ITSELF. ...but that's not you. Nrrr."

The woodpeckers butt wriggled in the chair, staring at Savius and Shanuh and that RAT intently. he was no raptor... but he knew death when he saw it.

"Voting on the lice thing, though."

Reluctantly, he picked up his mouse. This felt wasteful. What were they going to do with them afterwards? Just throw them away? He looked miserable, even his bright colors looked muted. He couldn't hide his feelings, not even if he wanted to.

Rascir looked to the others, they all seemed eager and curious about death. He was feeling absolutely sober and a little frightened. Was something wrong with -him-? That was a thought that had never crossed his mind until now.

All that time he'd been reading books at the public library, since he had no friends to speak of save for those he said "hello" to from time to time. So he'd been burying his imagination into books. He taught himself the alphabet, watched television to learn how to use words in the right way, and even listened to all sorts of music and wanted to learn how to read the notes on music sheets. He wanted only to grow up and learn up until this point.

But he had a job, didn't he? A job he wasn't entirely aware of. He felt it in the core of him, tugging at him incessantly and he'd ignored it by smothering it with good things. If he was there to kill things, he didn't want to do it needlessly. A thought crossed his mind. Maybe they could compromise?

"Can I bring it back after I'm done with it?" he hoped out loud.

Self harm, well, that found promising. It was certainly easier than trying to do the whole lice revolt. Besides, he wasn't completely sure he could think about such tiny things. Picturing the mouse was easy. He could feel it in his hands, shivering and squeeking frantically.

He stroaked the little creature with what appeared to be affection, fingers running lightly over its pale fur. Mentally, he let himself sink, let himself not think about Iamel, Diacyn, Xaxis, poor Rascir. Let himself not think as he fell back into that old, hungry part of him, which he associated with the raptor but was much older than that.

He let himself forget about the whole humanity game, and focus on what was true.

His hand kept moving, and the rat kept shivering as he carefully knelt and set it on the floor.

For a second, there was no movement, the poor wide eyed creature just shivered and whimpered in place. A furious squeek, and with no one else to attack, it turned on itself, twisting and viciously biting and scratching at its own flesh. It began chewing at it's foot, harsh furious bites that revealed the reddish white of bone beneath muscle.

And then it stopped, as if shocked out of the trance by pain. Pale fur now deeply stained with blood, it whimpered weakly, huddled helplessly on the floor.

And still it lived.

"Maybe now Rascir could end its suffering?" He suggested, looking at the creature with a gaze that wasn't completely devoid of compassion. "Otherwise, I'll eat it."

Diacyn, probably the only one who had heard Iamel's confession, was suddenly sad for his friend. Only when he was angry? That didn't seem fair. Diacyn himself was snarky and grumpy most of the time, but he had only felt the white-hot heat of anger a few times, and he didn't like it. He didn't like pain, either...

Ignoring his own mouse for a minute, he touched Iamel gently on the shoulder, the most sympathetic gesture he could muster. "Wow... maybe it'll get easier when you practice, though? Then it won't hurt so much, and you won't have to get mad..." He didn't have a clue if he was right, though. "At least you've done something. I never-"

He, too, was shocked as Savius's mouse suddenly collapsed into violent self-cannibalism. His mouth gaped for a minute in awe, then snapped shut as he tried not to look too jealous.

"I can do that," he muttered, more to himself then Iamel.

"Maybe," He agreed with Diacyn, glancing up at the touch. Diacyn didn't often touch unless they were in the midst of something exciting or dangerous. It wasn't a BAD thing, but hey.. the little woodpecker wanted to distract himself. "Like a muscle."

He was still staring at the self-gnawing mouse when Diacyn spoke the next time, trying to blink himself out of it, glancing at the owl. "Can you?" The child queried, eyes floating over to Rascir.

"And can he? This is going to be fun..." The woodpecker leaned over, whispering i n Diacyns ear so Rascir couldn't hear, "Think he's gonna cry?"

(( s**t! I rolled and it ate it!! DX I'll roll again... If it messed up I'll try again in a fresh post. Okay, I got a 2. LoL! Go figure. ))

Rascir had never done anything like this, he looked the rat over as he crouched to get a look at it. His heart wasn't in it, not totally, and that was his failing when he tried to pet the miserable creature squeaking in pain.

All at once he felt lost at what to do.

"I can't... figure out how to do it," he looked up questioningly at Shanuh. "How are we supposed to do it?"

Savius watched with concern as Rascir failed at his first attempt to kill the bleeding, wounded mouse. Not that he'd succeeded in his attempt either, but he'd gotten something to happen. The songbird looked so... confused.

"You've got to think of the quiet bits of yourself." He advised, not sure exactly what he meant but knowing that it was what he had done. "Not the parts that you think with."

And that was all the wisdom he had to offer. Maybe he should just reach down and break the things neck. That would end this all quickly, and the mouse wouldn't have to hurt and Rascir wouldn't have to kill.

Except that the songbird did need to kill. For whatever reasons he believed in, it was what he was supposed to do.

So he waited.