I wasn't at all surprised -- or particularly pleased -- that Hopper clearly found the whole thing disgusting. That was the proper reaction that someone should have to this kind of thing. It just assured me that he was a standard level good human being. Which was good.

"Exactly," I said, nodding. "It's like, a tradition. It dates back centuries. Which is weird in and of itself." For other reasons that I wasn't about to explain to him right now. The city was weird enough without taking into account the fact that it didn't really exist that many years ago.

"But, yeah, ask any Darrow native and they think it's completely normal. And good."