"Egads, Rory, you gathered quite a group," The Tick said upon seeing the students in the hall. He was still holding the fishbowl with RT in it. He was the lone pallbearer.
"Please, come in to pay your respects," Tick said as he walked into the men's room past the sign he had put up.
The Tick walked over to a stall and poured the contents of the fishbowl into the toilet. He then began to speak.
"RT. I spent many days with her in my office. She was a constant friend. A shiny beacon of Justice in the dirty water of life. Until I changed the water. Then she was just plain shiny in clean water."
"But now she's gone. A poor little fishy life, ended by a disease nobody has heard of called 'Tuna Pox.' And I mean nobody. Not even other fish! That's rare!"
"She was an alien, not of this Earth! She told me this yesterday. She wouldn't tell me much about her homeworld, but I imagine there's a lot of water there."
"RT, I will miss you. May you live in wee fishie alien heaven forevermore."
"Well, okay," Rory said, motioning for the others to come in. "Um, I assume that all of us are allowed to be in here? I mean, other than, um, Bridgey and Alex and Walter and the dogs and Faithful and possibly the squid whose gender I do not know, since they're allowed in normally anyway."
Walter and Pup showed up. At the men's room? For a funeral.
Right.
Walter looked up at the big blue men and went with the rote, "I'm sorry for your loss," because what was there to say to a big blue superhero about the death of his goldfish?
Pup sniffed his feet wondering if he was tasty friendly.
Sometimes the call of nature is insistent enough to drown out one's ability to read. This was certainly the case for one unsuspecting Archie Kennedy tonight, as he went barging into the first floor men's room with his hands already fumbling at his pants.
He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the gathering, and vainly attempted to reclaim some of the dignity that had fallen along with his trousers.
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