Hou-- Office centipede

I was walking past my coworker's desk yesterday just as she was saying "Oh, I have a pet. Mike, kill it!" I looked over and an inch-long house centipede was shambling across the carpet.

"Oh, neat," says I, and I tell her its name. "There's no need to kill it. They look creepy but they're actually good to have around. They eat small insects and other pests, and don't bother people or damage anything, and they don't really spread disease. They're a little venomous, but it's really rare that they'd bite a human."

In the meantime, the centipede has crawled over to my desk. I watch it crawl under my file cabinet, and mention how they like dark, damp places like drains and cracks in the wall. Then I sit down to gather my things for lunch, pleased that something remotely relevant to my own background came up at work.

So as I left to get some food, my head was full of happy thoughts of arthropods I have known. This of course meant I wasn't paying attention to where I was stepping, and... yes, I accidentally squished the house centipede on my way out.