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[rathercommon]

crystal | letter | cease and desist notices slipped under her door | action

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[rathercommon]

Oh.

[ Faintly alarmed: ]

I don't - know how to - do that.

[justashotaway]

It is not difficult.

[Or, at least, Matthias insists it isn't. The same thing????]

[rathercommon]

Caring for a cat? Keeping something alive?

[ That does not. sound easy. ]

[justashotaway]

It knows how to keep itself alive. You would keep it safe.

[rathercommon]

From - what?

[ Then, self-consciously - ]

I know I must sound awfully stupid right now. I'm just used to strays.

[justashotaway]

...I am, too.

[She has to think about the question; she doesn't know exactly what the answer is. The cat knows that it should eat mice and other pests, and there are few predators to be concerned with in the Gallows. But she dislikes the thought of the kittens remaining in storerooms and kitchen cupboards, and Matthias had spoken of giving kittens to others...]

They are still very small. If you take one, you must keep it from hurting itself and leave water out for it to drink. Or table scraps, if it is hungry.

[Another pause, this one of a different sort of uncertainty. It feels personal to mention.]

If you are kind to it, it will vibrate.

[rathercommon]

[ Oh - ]

You mean purr?

[justashotaway]

Yes. That is what it's called.

[rathercommon]

Why is it you who's giving cats away, anyway?

[justashotaway]

I found them.

[rathercommon]

Oh. It's good of you to take that on.

[justashotaway]

[a pause. this entire conversation feels about as steady as half-frozen ice underfoot, but it hasn't turned yet.]

Thank you.

[rathercommon]

[ Kitty squirms a little through that silence, and then finally breaks. ]

Look - sorry. I was an arsehole, last time we talked.

[justashotaway]

Thank you.

[That is...nice, she decides, for Kitty to say. It takes some of the uncertainty out of speaking to her, if not all of it.

Laura is fairly certain she's supposed to apologize as well; she's observed arguments from the shadows and broken up fights in taverns, and the people who are willing to say look - sorry often fare better. So Laura takes a moment to think about which part of the argument she might be sorry about. (Her opinions on smells aren't on the list.)]

I'm sorry I said you did not know things. I do not know what you know.

[rathercommon]

I don't know what you know, either. So.

[ A little sigh. ]

I just - You know, I grew up in a city, one a lot bigger and a lot smellier than this one. And I miss it a lot. So I guess I was trying to defend it. Silly, I know.

[justashotaway]

What is your city called?

[rathercommon]

Oh - you won't ever have heard of it. I'm a Rifter.

[justashotaway]

Oh.

What was it like?

[rathercommon]

What, are you trying to make me sad?

[justashotaway]

No.

[rathercommon]

[ There's just a slight moment, because that question was mostly rhetorical and Kitty hadn't really expected an answer. But, well - ]

It's really big. Much bigger than any city in Thedas - even Minrathous and even Val Royeaux. There've been wars through the city, so it's still scarred in places with these - these spots where magic cut into the earth. There are people from all over there, from across the world, coming to sell their wares, or just coming to live there, so no two people look the same, and you can walk down a single street and hear forty different tongues - and the city's streets are impossibly dense, and impossible to navigate, so you can wander and get lost with no difficulty at all. And there are some who say that the people are wicked, that they're criminal, that they're lazy, that they can't stand on their own legs, but there's no greater lie, 'cause you can sit out on the street for just half an hour and see two hundred different ways of life.

[justashotaway]

[Rhetorical questions are hard. She's working on them. For, she listens.]

Like the Gallows. But bigger.

[Kirkwall as a whole, perhaps--there are people from all over the place, not only the Marches--but Riftwatch holds something of everywhere in Thedas.]

Do you wish to go back?

[rathercommon]

Oh, I can't.

[ She tries to make her voice sound light. ]

I don't really exist there, see. As best anyone can tell, I'm just a dream of the real Kathleen Jones, who's still in London. So I can't go back, because I was never there to begin with.

[justashotaway]

Oh.

[She's skeptical, longing to ask more questions. This isn't the Fade, so you cannot be a dream. Why does the real person not wake up? How did you get here? Can people touch you, if you are a dream? Do you know what is happening to her? How--

But Laura has lived in Kirkwall for nearly half a year now. She has spent hours observing others' conversations for shadows, as well as having her own. And she does not think Kitty will want to answer these questions.]

I am sorry. [A pause, while she looks for something else to say. Something that will not make her cry.] Why do they call you Kitty?

[rathercommon]

Oh.

[ That's an easier question. ]

Well, Kitty's a nickname for Kathleen, or Catherine, sometimes. So it works out. One of my schoolmates started calling me that - can't even remember why. But I liked it, and stuck with it, 'cause - you know - claws.