The death of rats...

[triadruid]

Odd little dream to wake up from; started out as a zombie/post-apoc/post-hurricane (the weather seemed very warm) scenario where we were having to be taught how to kill rats for food by someone in the group (possibly niveus_tigris or iron_clad; some sort of Alpha Male for our little band). capriciouslass was there, as was featherynscale, druidevo, possibly princessboredom, and (at least eventually) rougewench, though I'm not sure which persona she was in (this becomes somewhat important later).

I was having trouble initially with the concept of twisting the rat's little neck to kill it (which doesn't seem a very clever way to avoid being bit to begin with), but eventually managed. We're hunting them all through this little bungalow; at some point, we've acquired a variety of weapons, including me gathering a halberd from somewhere. This leads to be a bit of Laurel-and-Hardy farce where we're more focused on not running into/hitting each other than taking out the rats, some of which are more than a foot long. Then I bring the halberd down on one, but only manage to hit it on the nose/face, which partially cuts off its snout. Everybody stops and stares, which is just as well because the now snub-nosed rat backs up, sits up, and grows to about 4-5' tall. Without a rat nose, it looks disturbingly human, and it also speaks or implies speech through the bloody ruin of its face.

At this point, our Fearless Leader yells "(substitute "Red" or "Denise", though I can't remember which now), don't you feel like kissing somebody?", and she growls "Absolutely.", and drags me off to another, possibly upstairs part of the house. Not, mind you, for the purpose that one might think she'd growl in that tone of voice for; mainly it was a pre-arranged signal to get ME away from the were-rat, so the rest of them could fight it off. Again, for some reason, I seemed to be fairly useless...

Comments

[teross50.livejournal.com]

Which we know, not to be true.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Keep telling him that, would you? He doesn't buy it from me, but he might believe you. :)

[teross50.livejournal.com]

I believe it, and will always remind him.

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm not useless on a generalized scale, but in the Killing Rats for Food department, I failed spectacularly last night. I just couldn't get the hang of it...

[teross50.livejournal.com]

It's all in the seasoning, LOL Ya it is much harder to get your fresh rat on the run, Even harder than catching the chicken, or greased pig. ;-)

[biscuitgod.livejournal.com]

I can see where a man's ego might get in the way...but to have friends and allies protect one from harm is a great omen. I'd say you have many friends who will defend and uphold you through tough times.

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

That's a good point. I don't think my ego was getting in the way, it was just a weird way of accomplishing the goal (although, putting a pretty redhead in my way to distract me/the enemy is never a bad bet).

Good to hear you've got my back, but you might want to put some pants on, first. ;)

Should you need to...

[wildnsquirrelly.livejournal.com]

I've found that there's nothing better for killing rats than a good dog that's willing to do the job for you. After that it's really a matter of flushing 'em out.

A decent BB/Pellet gun works well, too, and in a post-apocalyptic environ I'd imagine they'd be worth their weight in rat haunch.

Re: Should you need to...

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, employing dogs would have negated the "for food" component of the exercise (I don't know why we were eating rats, except that if they'd grown to 2' in length, they'd probably be worth domesticating).