[1872] Did I wake you up?

[OGRuddawg]

Insect hunting is on point with Tony. I approve.

(I am also an insect lover)

[csj]

Nothing says hot piece of ass like drowning bugs in alcohol.

[Deleted]

To elaborate somewhat more seriously on the prior joke:

Tension arises mostly between the characters' intents and the author's. Surma, on the most immediate level, sees the extinguisher and first-aid kit (or rather the reassuring Greek cross printed on top) as provisions for an emergency (and isn't it fun that Tom chose to unite in Annie's parents both the possibilities of nurture and natural disasters? placing these objects there reinforces, to me at least, a sense of a fragile balance about Annie's life), but from purely my own judgment call, is unlikely to connect them to herself; Tony may or may not link them more closely to Surma (and might in fact have these thoughts get in the way).

Those trifles, though, were in fact placed by Tom, whose intent is for these characters to marry (of which they'll only be growing vaguely aware at this point in time), Tony to become a surgeon (it's possible that he's not anticipating this yet; there's an obvious interest in anatomy, but that could go several ways), and Surma to pass on the fire to their daughter (according to Renard), Tony presumably acting as a "fire extinguisher" -- which is a wrong assumption, but specifically, it's the assumption that he might have made about himself, as he spends years trying to save, then recreate Surma while unwittingly fueling his brief eidolon with the very same flame. The characters are unaware, the reader is not; the author needn't light the hut on fire to make the extinguisher serve a purpose. Nor is this "foreshadowing" from the reader's point of view, because these events are already known to us. Nor is this "symbolic" because the extinguisher only serves as a reminder to the reader, tying in a (muted, faceless) panel of conversation into the larger story; it does not "stand for" anything. If I could better describe why I find this so appealing, perhaps I should not.