For Want of a Nail [o]

[Makarov]

He lounged within the room he had come to call his "study", an impressive length of PVC piping both long and tall. The warped walls curved in to meet dead center on the ceiling above him and they were lined with impossible rows of bookshelves almost from end to end. From small lengths of chain hung lantern sconces guarding the fires which illuminated every inch of the place and bathed it in an eerie pallor. The floor was lined with textiles of various backgrounds and ethnic spices, ranging in all kinds of colors and designs, even a couple of furs that had been pillaged and cleaned by scouting teams. To enter the Study of the Rat King Cane Dantzig one had to follow a couple less well known sewerly hallways off of the main pipe before they came to a very indistinct door in the wall of the construct, built into the bricks themselves. If you were to poke your head inside you found yourself coming in on the far end of the length of the buried pipe.

A quick skip hop look to the right and one would spy the gruesomely shadowed, grotesque bulk of the King himself, hunched studiously over his own stomach and his desk. He was muttering to himself, a piece of charcoal clenched in one fist as he seemed to hover over some sort of manuscript of plans before him.

"No no no," he snarled and with frightening resoluteness slammed the writing utensil down onto his desk, causing it to crumble into a handful of ash. Simultaneously he pushed his bulk away from the desk, teetering precariously on his seat before he rounded about easily and came to his hindpaws, immediately beginning to pace.

King Cane was not a small rat by any standards, though his size lay mainly in the ample circumference of his gut then the flex and pull of his bunches of muscles. His beady, dark, red-tinged eyes were narrowed and creased and his jaw was set grimly, the grinding of his teeth audible even against the crackling of the warm fires in the sconces above his head. And everytime the king swung his body around upon completing a round of the entire length of his study, his cape would flap gently around his ankles. His movements were tight and frustrated and he knew most rats in their right mind would not even look at him twice. His mood of late had been so unpredictable it was hard to figure if you were going to get a calm, diplomatic response or an off-the-handle shitstorm of epic proportions. It felt good to be feared though, damn did it ever. That was not the point though, he was fuming to know there was such discord going on out on the streets. Rats working to dethrone him and overrun his kingdom with their so-called valiance.

So many rats out there thought they knew what was right but their endevours were foolish and emotionally driven. They looked to stories of mythical battles and heroes of old and thought they could replicate such things like children playing pretend. Voss, Mako, they wanted to charge headlong into their doom, and Cane would be damned to hell if he would let them drag his kingdom down with them. "Go ahead and get yourself killed! Bunch of barbarians and bloody freaks!" His voice jumped to a sudden shout in the silence as he threw he paws up in the air. In this outburst he was not very aware of his surroundings, and it drowned out the feint rap rap rap on his Study door.

Unlucky for him the door was already cracked open.

[Hoax]

Tiny pink paws hurried through the endless miles of piping that made up the sewers beneath the vast city of London. The dainty rat had only lived in the ultimate maze of her life for a few short months, but she knew almost every nook and cranny that was beneficial to her. Almost. Ecko still had miles upon miles of piping to venture through.

A muffled sound of anger poured through the moldy walls. Stopping mid-step, Ecko peered down a tunnel that she hadn't yet explored. A feeling of curiosity mixed with dread knotted up her tiny stomach. A moment or two passed before curiosity won, inching slowly down the path until adrenaline rushed through her veins. Turning down a second hall, Ecko came face to face with a door built into the brick wall. A small puddle of light poured out around the door. Recognizing the scent of the Rat King, Cane. Just the rat she was looking for.

Having wanted to discuss the matter of the rat rebellion with him and maybe find a way to defuse to situation. She would be willing to talk to Mako and ask him to detach himself from the vile group. To encourage him to go back with just the other lab rats; hopefully to retain the "peace" that was in place before the arrival of herself and the other lab rats. She felt no more blood should be shed over something they could easily fix for themselves.

She debated for a moment before knocking. Inhaling deeply, she rapped on the door with a balled fist. Suddenly the furious sound of the king's voice bellowed out. She cringed a bit, afraid to peek in the crack of the door. Taking another deep encouraging breath, Ecko knocked again, this time a bit louder. Followed by a shaky "Your Majesty? Is everything alright?"

[Makarov]

His paws were still raised painfully high above his head, just a little too high. Cane moved just the slightest and he felt a stitch rip angrily up his side, wincing a little he gingerly lowered his forelimbs and rubbed his side. "Blast it all," the large black and gray rat muttered to no one in particular. Little did he know he was not as alone as he would have liked to think. A voice filled up the doorway behind him, tinkling and feminine and gentle (though this did not take away from the fact that it startled the antsy King heavily). His hackles flew up and the bulbous rat skipped easily towards a gilded table on which stood his bottlecap crown on a plush purple pillow. He shoved it onto his head in between his little ears with haste, as if being seen without his symbol of authority would suddenly waive his word null and void. I left the door open. Should have closed the sodding thing.

Properly hatted he spun around, whipping his cloak around with him and he fixed his savage, dark, red-tinged eyes upon the tiny muzzle poking in his opened doorway. His nose twitched from side to side rigidly as he drank in her pale figure, dwarfed by his own general ginormous size. King Cane took a deliberate couple steps forward and his shadow leaped up demonically across the walls and even his own face, painted by the firelight and lack thereof. He seemed to scrutinize her for a painful amount of time before his body finally relaxed a little bit. She was a former lab rat who had come over across the graying lines of insanity to the side of common sense. Cane did not know her name, and though she was a deformed freak these rats did have their uses. His hackles had gone down against his neck but still an unease kept his muscles tense and ready. The King was wringing his paws together lightly but he tried to remain steadfast as he tried to pour over what she had initially asked him. It had almost slipped his royal mind.

"Your Majesty? Is everything alright?"

The kingdom is falling into shambles, daft woman, of course I'm not alright! His mind was screaming an indignant protest but he cleared his throat gently. "Aherm, well as you know black times have befallen the Ratdom; As your King there is much for me to do, especially for the safety of my loyal subjects. I am alright as long as my peoples are..." False concern dripped off of his lips like venom. So very well rehearsed.

Cane's sobering gaze left her as he turned away for a moment, striding with his heads behind his back. A good deal of weight ago perhaps he might have even been able to allow his hands to meet back there but no longer. The long years of abuse to his form had turned him into a jolly old bowl of jello indeed. The king paused before a shard of mirror before he fixed his beady eyes upon Ecko once again. "What is your name, lass? What has possessed you to wander through the tunnels to seek out your King unattended? And for that matter where are the guards that are to be posted outside of my Study?!" He was shaking his head, striding right passed Ecko and gazing out into the empty tunnel. The lonely plip plop of water in the pipes and the echo of his last phrases rang off in the distance and that was all.

"Ridiculous ridiculous," he tutted. "But please, come in lass. Speak with your King." He held the door open fully and faked a smile. Somewhere behind lurked a scared monster, slowly being pushed into the corner of it's cage.

[Hoax]

The tiny pinkish ears flattened themselves against Ecko's skull. The sound of the king's voice wasn't soothing or kindly at all. If she had to describe it to anyone, in her opinion it sounded of rusty metal scraping against black top. His large form did nothing to bring comfort to her either. The large black and gray creature nearly made her cringe inward. "And they say we're deformed and disgusting. Tch," the thought sank just as quickly as it had come. Straightening herself, she looked up at the large rat, into his red tinged eyes. Holding his sobering gaze with a look of curiosity in her own ruby eyes.

"My name is Ecko and I wanted to discuss a possibility with you. As for the guards, there are none." She moved away from him as he leaned out the door to look for his guards, somewhat repulsed by the idea of being touched by this creature. The wild rats of the ratdom were not the only ones with prejudice, some of the lab rats, including Ecko, thought of the wild rats as strange and disgusting. Ecko was willing to look past this cultural difference, if it meant that somehow things would be better for them all.

As King Cane opened the door fully, Ecko walked in with confidence, her head held high. There was no way she would allow anyone to see her as meek or afraid at this critical moment. Once she was in, Ecko spun on her heels to look at the king. "I wanted to discuss the possibility of myself, or another of the lab rats, speaking to Mako and encouraging him to end this silly business of a rat rebellion. To encourage him to allow only the lab rats to go back to the labs to set the others free." Strictly business. After she finished speaking, Ecko glanced around the piping. Taking in the books and the desk. The paper and pile of ash beside it. After becoming aware of her surroundings, she returned her curious gaze to King Cane.

[Makarov]

With the door open the little rat who had announced her name as Ecko - a pleasant if not odd little title - came scurrying inward, careful to keep out of the lumbering path of the rat King. She did well to do this, being crushed under his bulk surely being a fate no rodent wished their foulest enemy to endure. Cane was still studying himself in the mirror a little, running his tiny pink paw and human-esq fingers along the slope of his mountainous belly and running it along the satin sash wrapped around what presumably had once been a waist. He could not have looked better in his own eyes though, no sirree. King Cane you see, was afflicted by a condition in which his eyes only saw what his mind wished, or perhaps it was just a less then sane way to deal with the fact that he was slowly slipping over the edge and there was no scrabbling his way back up. He narrowed his tiny beady eyes the slightest before gazing at her out of the corner of his gaze.

"So what are these possibilities you speak of, Ecko?"

Here and there he swore he saw her cringe. Not even passing over the possibility that it could have been both his physical appearance and foul covering up of true intentions. No, he assumed it was out of sheer fear, for Cane truly was a beast to be reckoned with, even if most underestimated him for a fat slob and a stark raving lunatic. In fact he was quite sly, and it was his naturally bobbing and fearful nature itself that made him quite uniquely dangerous in all his own rights. Cane's ears flickered over in the direction of the petite female.

"I wanted to discuss the possibility of myself, or another of the lab rats, speaking to Mako and encouraging him to end this silly business of a rat rebellion. To encourage him to allow only the lab rats to go back to the labs to set the others free."

A triumphant trumpet sounded off inside of Cane's head as a shadow slid insidiously off of his sly, pudgy features. Careful not to let his excitement dribble out he moved as if floating towards the far end of the room, ducking behind a bookshelf as he tossed a couple scraps of parchment and a book or so behind him. "You don't say," he had piped. "Well then that truly is a matter we must discuss a little further." Then He soon produced a smallish, paw-made stool and sat the decadent little thing near to but just far enough away from his personal desk so that he and Ecko may sit and talk in comfort. Plopping himself down on his own overstuffed, wingback chair - which groaned in immediate protest - he beckoned to Ecko with a deft flick of his paw.

"Have a seat. I have been racking my brain for a solution to this insanity. Voss is a dangerous and ambitious rat who leads others into misery and hardship to quench his own hunger for power. Mako has been entranced by his conniving ways though. Do you believe the word of one rat - even of his own...kind - will be enough to make him sway his mind and weigh other options?" His piercing gaze drilled into Ecko with the force of a dull auger. He leaned forward slightly, and his chair creaked now in earnest. Eyes afixed to her like twin lanterns, much akin to the ones hanging from his study ceiling. They seemed to consume everything. "And how do I know they will not be so barbaric as to steal a loyal rat of my Kingdom.. As a prisoner under war-like circumstances? In other words, Ecko, will this be a mission to which I must expend some of my forces in order to assure you safe passage?"

[Hoax]

Feeling dwarfed compared to this colossal creature, Ecko twitched and flinched openly. Some of it was fear, she had seen what he did to the court jester; the rest was disgust. Ecko watched as the King moved about, wondering how he managed to maneuver himself around the study and not notice the huge gut he had accumulated during his cushy life. Shaking her head to rid herself of her thoughts, she watched as he rummaged behind a bookshelf.

"It is so, your greatness," she squeaked, moving out of the way of the flying book. He produced a small stool, thinking of the little object as cute, a smirk etched her delicate features. As Cane plopped into his own chair, the protest of the chair was slightly audible, Ecko looked away in shame. Settling her creamy white body upon the stool, folding her little pink paws in her lap. Listening to his words.

Tilting her head to the side, staring right back at the King. "I do not know Voss nor what he is like. But Mako was desperate for help. When you denied him that help, he found it else where. Mako is a very resourceful rat," despite her siding with the rat King's logic, she would defend Mako's decision for siding with Voss. He had, after all, set her free of the cruel humans. "His desperation was a response to the stress he was under. I do believe now that he's free of certain stressful conditions, he'd be more willing to consider other, more logical options," Ecko chose her words with care, weighing them before speaking. She wanted this to work, she wanted everyone to live peacefully.

Mako? Taking prisoners of war? This all seemed very surreal and disturbing to her. Ecko sat in silence for a moment, thinking about how to respond to this. Suddenly, she sprang from her little stool and paced up and down the study, wringing her small paws. At the end of the study, near the door, Ecko turned to face Cane. "If you could arrange for Mako and I to meet alone, or in a safe place away from Voss, I do believe I could convince him." Ecko moved slowly back towards Cane. "Maybe you could send Bogart to get Mako, the female rat by the river trusts him. And Mako trusts her."

[Makarov]

If the Rat King was taking note of the pure distaste with which Ecko observed him, he was making a good show of not paying very much mind to it. In fact he seemed rather oblivious, staring across the gap at here in the leaping light with his dark little beady eyes. Their red tinge had always possessed this ominous glow, one that spoke of it's own hidden agenda. The little female seated herself with a very proper rigidness to the way she sat, or perhaps it was just the discomfort she faced being in the presence of this disgusting excuse for a rat. He ran his tiny pink hands together, smeared with the charcoal he had crushed moments before and rubbed away a bit of the dust to very little avail. All the while he seemed raptly attentive, his savage eyes almost never once leaving the tiny..creature seated before him.

"I do not know Voss nor what he is like. But Mako was desperate for help. When you denied him that help, he found it else where. Mako is a very resourceful rat..."

"That he is," said Cane, leaning back in his great, wingback chair and stroking his paw beneath his prissily waxed chinfur. There was a slight growling edge to his tone that he tried only very slightly to hide from his guest.

"His desperation was a response to the stress he was under. I do believe now that he's free of certain stressful conditions, he'd be more willing to consider other, more logical options."

Cane took a deep breath, turning his round head about to gaze at the papers he had been writing so deftly upon, parchment filled with empty thoughts and paranoid dillusions. His tried to wipe this all away and twitched the tip of his tail, taking for a moment to fussing with a button on his forecoat. He seemed to be considering all things, a million thoughts running through his mind and when he finally lifted his head a little he spoke. There was the surefire confidence of a king laying in those tones. "Perhaps, perhaps there could be a way. Go on, Ecko." And go on she did, again Cane listened and rolled all the aspects around in his mind, storing some of them away for further mulling upon in the future.

She went over the option of meeting Mako in a safe place, which Cane of course agreed to wholeheartedly. He was not about to give up perfectly good females just yet to the likes of those uncouth rats who lived out in the boonies. The mention of Bogart sparked a little flame that began to roar full force inside of the king's nimble mind. He was quite quick for a portly man, of course.

"Ah yes, Bogart. He is a good and faithful rat, he knows his way around, and he will know how to take you to see Mako. I will converse with the Captain of my guard and perhaps grant you a chaperone of sorts to ensure the safest passage possible. He will - of course - only be a trustworthy and strong warrior."

The King scanned her tiny pale face for any kind of reaction. He was such a sly being, oh yes indeed.