“Toulouse!” Thomas scolds. “You are a chicken. That is a tree. How on earth do you expect to lay eggs there?” sorry it’s so late but please do the commentary for this line which I think is perhaps my favourite.

Happy to do this one!

So – Thomas is not a farmer. At all. He’s probably never held a chicken, or dealt with collecting eggs, or gotten pecked at all trying to collect the said eggs (and I must confess that I have not either. I am a town-dweller and the nearest chickens lived down the road when I was a kid. Now the nearest ones live across a field and we are unfortunately not acquainted. I miss the days when they had a rooster – I used to hear him crow in the mornings and it somehow made getting up seem less unreasonable bc hey – the rooster’s up, clearly day has arrived). As far as Thomas is concerned, chickens have one goal, and that is to furnish his breakfast table with eggs. Toulouse the chicken, on the other hand, apparently likes trees like most chickens do, and poor Thomas has not grasped the idea that chickens are, in fact, birds and therefore food motivated. Poor Thomas – he’s got one idea of how to chicken and Toulouse just isn’t interested in his ideas!

I love that Dufresne says “He likes his books” with an eyeroll. He could have said it with a shrug and it wouldn’t be as much fun. Flint’s love of books must be so ridiculous that it warrants an eyeroll. lol

Since that’s coming from literally the only other lettered man on board – you’re absolutely right! I’m imagining book nerd James McGraw surfacing every time they’ve taken a prize, leading to him spending hours perusing the captain’s library instead of helping to move cargo or do literally anything else. Imagine Gates coming in to find James surrounded by books he’s pulled off the shelves, giving him a look like “you know you can’t possibly carry all of those, right?” and getting the stubborn “they’re coming with me” look in return.

3, 5, 7, for the writer ask meme?

3: Summarize your current project poorly

Cup of their Deserving: Man screws over best friend and girlfriend, has the nerve to look surprised when girlfriend wrecks his ass. Best friend and girlfriend team up to save the world mostly out of spite with the aid of best friend’s husband and assorted others.

Full of Grace: Local Douchebag wins Horrible Excuse for a Father of the year award, pisses off the wrong two people in the process.

And the Sea With Its Deepness: Man Thought Dead miraculously turns out to be alive. Man’s husband, father, and wife conspire to ruin a perfectly good evil plan while being Very Mad at each other.

5.
post a line from your current project without any context

CotD:
“Governor Rogers,” he greets. “Oh good. Everyone I want to shout at in one place.”

Full of Grace:
“I’ll start negotiations with the rats immediately.”

And the Sea With Its Deepness:

“All the things I have done to make this possible. All the people I have
failed -” He shakes his head. “I can’t let it all mean nothing,” he
says, opening his eyes again to look at Hennessey.

7.
would you want to live in the world of your current work? Oh hell no. there isn’t enough money in the world for me to willingly go live in a world where I would neither be taken seriously or be actually able to stay healthy given the distinct lack of the meds that keep me from living a short, unpleasant life. My best bet would be to pull an Anne Bonny and make everyone afraid to fuck with me and I’ve done that once. It wasn’t a good time.