Marty shrugs. "Not much for philosophy -- you'd know better than me. And really? That's pretty awesome. I'll keep my fingers crossed you can get another month at least."

"Well, so long as they seem happy... Victor's Scatterbug is doing good," Marty reports, in case Jack is interested. "Victor named him Nibbles. He still spends a lot of time sitting on Victor's head."

And then Jack drops the bombshell about Penguin, leaving him blinking for a moment. "Penguin's -- oh, 1987? Yeah, that's definitely one I wouldn't have seen. Weird thought, though..." He scowls. "Better than killing her, yeah, but they couldn't even bother to have 'em break up or something? Maybe Penguin got stuck with a writer changeover and the new guy couldn't be bothered doing anything with the old guy's stuff. From what I hear, that happened a bunch." Then he smiles again. "Guy must be thrilled to see her again, though."