undergrounds | [open] From the Cripples to St. James'...

There's a right nip in the air when the Dodger steps out in the early morning to begin his business for the day. Well, his business, Fagin's business, it's all the same when it comes down to brass coins dragged from the bottom of pockets. He rubs his hands together, making a note to lift himself some gloves at some point during the day - if he recollects correctly, the ones from last year weren't really as decent as he would have liked. Not terrible, but for a gent of taste like himself, they weren't up to scratch.

Scratch... scratchings... pork scratchings. Hm. His stomach grumbled a bit. Looks like the sausages at the den weren't enough. Right, well that decided the plan for the day then. Breakfast first, and then on with the work of the day. The markets would be the best places to check. Maybe the one down by St James, folks would be too distracted to pay attention to a kid nipping among them.

Seemed like a good plan, and the Dodger grinned, adjusting his hat to just the right angle.

Right. Time for work.

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"Well...no." The kid had a point. "Guess I'm just not used to seeing that."

"See, that's a problem of yer modern society, not me," the Dodger flipped his hat in his hand, a conversational tone in his voice. "Ain't right no one's showin' manners."

Roddy shrugged. "Didn't say showing manners was a problem. Just that I don't see it much."

"Just makin'... what d'ya call it... social commentary, that's the one!"

"Yeah, that's it."

Okay, and part of him just found it suspicious, but he also saw no point in saying that, when really, there was no evidence of anything but the kid being overly polite.

"The old man saw to it I was dragged up with good manners," the Dodger adds.

It's certainly true, even if they're a bit older than is strictly necessary. Fagin, Dodger would openly admit, was a bit of an odd one. Scoundrel through and through but such a stickler for good manners in his kids.

"My dad was less concerned with good manners. More concerned with the idea that everything's going to eat me alive. Figuratively speaking."

No, not figuratively speaking, but without the person knowing he was a rat some of the time, Roddy figured it would make more sense if he assumed that was the case.

"Or literally, round here."

He says it so cheerfully, with such a bright smile on his face. Surely he's just joking. Surely.

Roddy shot the kid a surprise look, wanting, in that moment, to ask him how much he knew, but that wasn't something he could really ask. Not without already having the answer.

"Yeah. That. Especially that."

And oh, how many things would eat a rat shifter.

"Well, you ain't got to worry about that," the Dodger added, all cheerful and smiles.

"Oh, and why's that?" he asked, curious as to where he was going with this.

"You ain't small enough to eat," was the simple reply, followed by laughter.

"Yeah, well, sometimes particularly aggressive housecats think I am."

Because sometimes, he was small enough for a housecat to eat.

"Yeah, but cats are plottin' to kill us all."

Serious? Hard to tell from the expression on his face. He doesn't really get on with most cats, truth be told. He likes them well enough but sort of more at a distance type thing?

"Really?" Okay, he couldn't be serious. Even if he sounded like he might be, he couldn't be. "And here I thought the only actual plotting they did was against rodents."

"Oh yeah," he nodded. "Mate of mine reckons they ain't forgotten when the Egyptians used to worship 'em as gods, an' they ain't happy we don't do that now."

"Right. I'm sure they're bitter about that. Just as soon as they stop getting distracted by laser pointers to think back on it."

Sure, he'd heard that joke before, too. That didn't mean he couldn't make a jab at the attention span of an animal that he was used to thinking of as a big, scary predator.

"Not all cats get distracted by those."

Yeah. He knew from experience. Evil little bugger that one was.

"Good to know," he commented. "I'd hate to put all my hope in a laser pointer, just to get mauled anyway."

"Big bloke like you gettin' mauled by a cat?" Is he playing dumb? It's never easy to tell with the Dodger, is it? Well, he wouldn't be the Artful Dodger if it was easy to tell with him.

"Well, some cats are pretty nasty, and their claws are pretty sharp. I mean, I'd be fine," unless he was in rat form, but he wasn't going to tip his hand if it wasn't already tipped. "But it's not like I'd want to deal with a thousand tiny scratches."

"Well, they'd be right painful, mate," the Dodger said, agreeing with him. "So I reckon, don't piss off any cats an' you might be fine. Unless you somehow get smaller than 'em, an' then you should think smart."

Okay, that definitely sounded like this guy had some idea of what Roddy might be. The fact that he mentioned that Roddy might be able to get smaller than them, and the fact that he sounded like he was seriously addressing that possibility, was simply impossible to ignore.

"I don't do anything to piss them off. It's just that sometimes, they look at me and all they see is a small, fuzzy rodent."

A way of admitting it without actually saying in public that he was a shifter.

"But you're you, an' no some small, fuzzy little thing," the Dodger replies with his usual type of grin. He can - kind of - tell when he's in the company of someone who can shift forms, but he generally doesn't let on about it. Unless it would help him out by distracting them from what he was doing. He's not making this guy a mark, but ... he might have noticed what he was doing earlier and better safe than sorry.

"Though reckon that's not the best sort of position to be in. Smaller than them."

Roddy shot Dodger a suspicious look, wondering what the kid was playing at. Judging by some of the comments before, and his grin now, Roddy suspected he knew that Roddy certainly was a small, fuzzy thing at least some of the time. Well, two can play at the game of hinting, then taking it back.

"Yeah, well...then I guess it's a good thing I'm not."

Edited 2017-01-17 02:16 (UTC)

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