hellescapee | tlv inbox

About the Cat King? [He shouldn't be surprised that he's causing problems, but causing problems about him in particular is something else. Edwin sighs, supposing his book will have to wait.]

Very well. I don't really have any place here for tea, although you're welcome to bring some. Or I can meet you somewhere else?

My place, then. Deck three, cabin nine. No need to knock, just come on in. I'll be expecting you.

All right.

[It doesn't take him long to get there and, as advised, Edwin doesn't knock, he simply walks through the still closed door and into the room beyond.]

What as the Cat King been doing?

[Norton is seated on the settee with a tea display which includes two cups of tea. He's fairly sure ghosts don't drink tea, but it's for the ritual of hospitality as much as to drink, and if it turns out that Edwin is a type of ghost who can drink tea, Norton won't be caught unprepared.]

It's not so much what he's done--stalkery behaviour aside--as what he might do. To you, or to anyone else he perceives as an obstacle in his desire to have you. Am I correct in assuming you don't want to be courted by him?

[The tea set does take him back and Edwin pauses, staring at it and Norton. He considers it, clearly weighing it up, then carefully moves to take a seat. He doesn't take the cup but the fact that there is one is... oddly comforting.]

I should apologise, it's been rather a long time since I've sat down for tea with anyone and I'm afraid I was more focused on the other matter. It was rude of me to simply walk in without knocking.

[He's glad at least to have shown some decorum in that moment, because the question Norton asks very quickly undoes that work. Edwin pulls back, looking rather scandalised by it.]

No I do not! I don't know what he's been saying, but I am not... [His lips thin into a tight line and he quickly recalls what Hanna had said. That it wasn't as much of a concern here.]

I... have only just started to... consider such things. But not with the Cat King, no matter what he might be suggesting.

[Norton loosely flicks his hand in dismissal of the need for an apology.]

I invited you to walk in without knocking. No need to stand on formality.

[He notices that initial denial and tentative disclosure.]

Just to lay all the cards on the table as it were, I'm a homosexual so I'll not judge you for whatever things you may have started to recently consider. So...tell me about the Cat King. The person who expressed concern about the situation didn't provide any details.

[His eyes widen and Edwin shoots Norton a surprised look, somewhere between feeling further shock at the incredibly blunt disclosure and a sort of jealousy that he could be so free about such matters. He's not entirely certain how he feels about it, so is rather grateful that Norton doesn't try to push the topic any further.]

Well... [He clears his throat and attempts to focus properly, not paying attention to the questions rising in his mind.]

I'm not certain there is much to tell. He is a Cat King from Port Townsend and he was rather annoyed by my using a minor spell on a cat to gain information. He... suggested I could make amends by making him happy and when I declined, he ensured I was trapped in the town until I had counted all of the cats. A way to keep me there, close to him, he said.

He's a powerful magical creature who does whatever he likes in the moment. I'm certain his fixation will eventually pass and he'll find something else to pursue.

Sounds as if he needs to learn to take the answer "no" a little more gracefully. Maybe learn courtship techniques that don't involve trapping people.

[He bites his lip in thought for a moment and then continues.]

Sorry if this question is indelicate, but can a ghost even...do that? What the Cat King wants from you? What I mean is, I'm trying to assess what kind of threat he might be, which is hard to do since sometimes people don't seem like a threat until suddenly they are, but it could be a good-ish sign that he didn't really do whatever he liked with you, but I don't know if that was restraint on his part or because you'd just phase through the floor and vanish or something like that.

Can I-- [Technically speaking, Edwin knows that he shouldn't be able to blush, but his body is a reflection of his memory and his will and he remembers what embarrassment feels like enough for his cheeks to colour.]

I've never thought about it, if you must know. From a purely theoretical standpoint, then it would be possible, however ghosts don't really feel things like you do.

[To illustrate his point, he reaches out to pick up the teacup.]

I can interact with it, but it's only pressure. I cannot feel the heat, or the texture of the china. If I were to drink it, it would be like sand.

[He sets the cup down again and straightens it.]

But I could phase through the floor and leave. I doubt very much that the Cat King will have power to keep a warden in place here.

I understand. It sounds similar to being a pharadyne projection. Nothing quite feels the same when you don't strictly speaking have a body to feel it with.

Something to consider, to prepare yourself for, at some point or another, the Barge might change that temporarily. A flood or a breach. Some dimensional hiccup or another will turn you alive for a week. Or into a platypus for a week. You never know with these things.

Have you been a platypus?

[THAT JUST SEEMS INCREDIBLY SPECIFIC. Turning into animal without warning seemed like it would be unsettling regardless of the kind.]

And these situations... you're saying they're always only a week?

No, I've never been a platypus. Or seen a platypus, come to think of it. Just making a rhetorical point about the odd things Barge interdimensional travel does sometimes. I wouldn't say the situations are always a week, since every once in a while odd blips happen, but most of the time they come in predictable cycles and most of the time last for exactly one week.

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