He has to take the next few days actually running the country, as does Findekáno. Kib could go visit a different set if he wants to play.

He does not feel the need to play daily Governor. He has notebooks to read and a very long-suffering husband to love on and he's working on writing down what he remembers of being catatonic and interpreting it in retrospect. Iobel visits, but just to chat, which helps too. She brings her cat. The cat is soft.

The King will drop by in the evening with desserts Kib and Aydanci used to like and say hello to Iobel and her cat.

The cat is suspicious of the King!

"Sorry, he doesn't like Mitros and is suspicious of you by proxy."

"Ooh chocolate."

"I have noticed that Bells don't have identical food preferences - more than chance but not identical - but if you like these I bet I will too -" Yoink.

"What'd Mitros do?" he says agreeably, sitting down. "It is definitionally I suppose what I'd have done in his place so Cricket's suspicion is justified."

"...uh, he needed to get married to be King and... didn't tell me he was gay until after he kissed me."

"That I wouldn't have done. Though! I did tell Kib in public that his sexual orientation was disgusting and repulsive, so if he had a cat that cat'd probably be mad at me too."

"Cricket dislikes the overwhelming majority of people, often for entirely trivial reasons, so yes, if Kib had a Cricket the Cricket would probably not like you, for that or something else."

"I would in general try very hard to be liked by someone who likes practically nobody, just as a point of pride. But my behavior around Kib when he dropped on us was rather astonishingly adolescent, a cat'd find plenty to hold against me."

"He did like Mitros for a while."

Cricket sits in Kib's lap and lashes his tail.

"Is it rude to osanwe him? Does it work?"

"You can try it if you want but there's a reason I didn't give him an Allspeak installation, it's bad enough that everyone who does have one can understand him now."

Hello! he says to Cricket. Have you met Aydanci? I am prepared to testify that there is nothing at all objectionable about him. And Kib adores him.

He is too twitchy, says Cricket.

His husband was tortured. Makes one twitchy.

He is like a very gangly rodent. It is unbecoming.

He bursts out laughing. "Do you like chocolate, Iobel, we can export it if it'd be popular back home."

"I love chocolate, although we do have it. This particular whatever-it-is is new though."

"I suppose it makes sense that your influx of space Elves wouldn't have the same cuisine we had back in Tirion."

"Yup. Or I just haven't done enough culinary tourism on their island."

"They're taking a big risk, sounds like if they're spellbinders and their familiar's killed they might not be retrievable even by Cam?"