a character prompt from the NaNo forums today:

Your MC is in a well-traveled public area, like a grocery store or a park or a fair. He or she happens upon a box marked "Free Kittens!" There are four kittens in the box. If there are no kittens in your universe, the box is filled with something equally helpless and cute. What does your MC do?

Jonas passes by the box of kittens, then does a double take and turns back around. Someone left perfectly innocent kittens out in the weather. This is Not Acceptable. He picks up the box and carries it a few blocks to the creche where he was raised; when he was a child, they had two dogs, so three four kittens shouldn't be a strain. Oh, who's he kidding? The creche is only getting three of them. That grey one is really sweet. And it looks like it'll be the quiet, sleepy sort that won't disrupt the workshop. Hopefully.

Tentatively Named Marianne Engel looks at the kittens for a while, then sighs and picks up the grey one. She'll teach it to ride on her shoulder. It'll look nice with her coloring.

Villain Who Has No Name And Probably Could Use One picks up the whole box immediately, not bothering to wait until the little girl who's playing with the kittens is done. He takes them home and gives three of them samples of the dream-mints he's working on. The fourth one, which is white and fluffy, he'll leave healthy. For some reason, he feels oddly compelled to stroke it while planning his revenge.