by Charis
Disclaimer: Sandman and all associated characters are the creation of Neil Gaiman. I'm just borrowing.
Notes: No pretenses. You know you're a fangirl when random lines in your bio lectures spawn these sorts of things. We were talking about making monoclonal antibodies ...
It's a bit squicky, I suppose, just because there is dissection involved. I've never dissected live vertebrates, but my mother used to tell me about things like this - and like that boy across the table from Thessaly, it was what kept her from staying in research.
2. Sacrifice your mouse and remove the spleen.
She frowned at the struggling creature pinned beneath her hand. Pink-tinged claws scrabbled futilely against the air, stark against the black countertop; pale whiskers twitched frantically as small squeaking sounds escaped. Across from her, a fellow student lowered his small mouse into a beaker, holding it gingerly by the tail. She watched impassively as the creature ceased squirming, a marked contrast to her classmate's green-tinged features.
She had been distracted; her own brown-furred mouse had managed to sink tiny teeth into her hand. With barely a flicker of motion, she slid a knife from the waistband of her jeans and pressed it against the small throat. Had she been given to personification, she would have imagined the mouse gulping in terror.
"Blood for blood. I suppose that's only fair."
With a few muttered words in a language few knew these days, she drew the knife smoothly through fur and tissue. The mouse gave a violent shudder and stilled. Ignoring the horrified look from the boy opposite her, Thessaly began slicing calmly downward to find the spleen.
- finis -