It annoys her, but in an unexpected way. Merle is a dangerous man, but Joan can deal with dangerous men. The fact that he ascribes, in some way, to her personal philosophy just backs that up. She may not like it, but she belongs, in her mind, to the same breed of creature he is. It fits, because she never liked who she was anyway.

But what rankles is the inconsistency. If he cares about living under his own banner, making his own life truly his, then that means... she'd guessed he was comfortable in the kind of place they're going, but she'd hoped to Christ Almighty he wasn't in charge of it.

She tries to keep a note of fear from her voice, covering her tone in disdain instead: "Don't tell me," she says, "you're King Big Dick of Fairyland."