As she rounds a bend, there's a cat, sitting on the side of the road, staring intently at her, flicking its tail.

Oh gosh, how surprisingly delightful.  She could use a quick rest anyway; she'll just, without any sudden movements, face a quarter-turn away from it and squat down and act super interested in doodling in the dirt and playing with this leaf.  You're probably not supposed to pet cats you just find places, but she doesn't actually expect this strategy to be successful in anything but delaying it from running away for a little while, so what's the harm.

Cat slowly comes around so he's in her line of sight, tilting his head.

It takes her a while to notice, enthralled as she appears to be with this leaf and bit of dirt, but she can't quite sustain the willpower to not look up at all.  She smiles at the ground and does her best to fidget interestingly enough that it'll want to come investigate.

Sniff. Stalk closer. Freeze. Sniff sniff. Slink a bit farther -

And then he's close to her, eyes focused alternatively on her leaf and her hand.

This is definitely the best thing that's happened to her today.  That'd probably even still be true on days with less inconvenience!

...Maybe it's okay to pet cats you just find places if you're very careful about moving slowly and smoothly and watch really closely for any indication they don't want to be touched and stop if you notice that?  She decides that the dangerous part is probably risking getting bitten or scratched, and not the actual petting.

Creeping ever closer - 

And batting at her leaf. Rawr leaf, die!

She's careful to make sure her hand stays out of the way of claws.  "You're incredibly ferocious," she states, faux-serious, grabbing another leaf by the stem and rolling it between her fingers close to the ground.

Leaf gets slapped down. He then pauses and sniffs her hand.

She holds so still.

Sniff sniff sniiiiiiff -

Curious headbutt?

Very slow and gentle forehead petting with the back of her fingers!  Paying careful attention to body language!

Cautious purr.

(eeeeee)

Scritches?

Scritches are acceptable!

Best cat best cat!

"Wow.  Thank you.  I really appreciate you letting me do this.  You're very handsome and pretty and gorgeous!  Did you know that?"

Cat seems to know that, but appreciates the reminder!

"I bet you do!  I bet everyone tells you that all the time, because you're such a handsome pretty gorgeous - and sweet and generous - kitty!"

She'll probably continue with the petting and compliments until he starts to seem annoyed or something interrupts her.

There's a loud sound off in the woods that makes him jump after a bit.

She startles too, jerking her hand back and snapping her head in the noise's direction.  She waits a moment to see if anything makes itself apparent.

The cat hisses at... Whatever... (There's a flash of white maybe?)

Okay, probably time to immediately start walking home.  She refrains from giving any final goodbye pats on the head and - ow her legs hurt from squatting so long; she would've sat down if the ground weren't so wet - briskly continues in the direction she was originally going.  Or as briskly as she can with waking-up legs.  "Bye kitty; really appreciated the petting; hope I see you around," she says, low and fast, as she goes.

Cat is still freaked out by the mystery thing and runs into the undergrowth on the other side of the road.

It's unfortunate that that ended so abruptly, but once it's clear that whatever-it-was isn't coming after her, Ari finds herself in a pretty good mood.  After she gets home and changes out of her work clothes, she sets about making herself a slightly higher-effort meal than usual.  Maybe she should get a pet - it would've been a bad idea before, but now that she's living somewhere she intends to stay in and has a job she intends to keep, she lets herself actually consider it instead of immediately dismissing it to the realm of "that sure would be nice" fantasies.

The next morning there's a somewhat familiar cat sitting in her kitchen window, peering inside.

Isn't that interesting.  Well, it's a little cool for it, but she puts on a heavy sweater, grabs a book, and heads outside.  Definitely no ulterior motive here, just gonna sit in a lawn chair and read and enjoy a nice fall morning on her day off.

Cat comes over to investigate her, staying out of grabbing range for now.

She doesn't look up from her book.

Cat starts winding around her chair.

She lowers one hand over the arm of her chair, evenly and predictably, until it reaches a height convenient for, say, sniffing or headbutting.

There are a couple of cold kitty nose boops while the cat sniffs her, then a slow headbutt. 

Mission success!  She peers over the side of the chair and begins gentle pets, assuming he continues to seem amenable to that.

Yes that is indeed an acceptable response!

This is a good human who gives very good pats. Cat approved.

Cat petting is so good, and so much better when you're comfortably sitting in your yard!  "Some people would be bothered by having their reading interrupted, you know."  Pet pet pet pet.  "But I'm not one of them right now.  This is a shitty romance novel."  Scritches.  "Sometimes shitty romance novels are exactly what I need on like, an emotional level, but honestly I just grabbed it on my way to come see you, which I did because you are a delightful, wonderful being.  So I'm not like, super invested in it, at present."

She sets the book in the adjacent chair and leans over the side of hers so she can pet with both hands.  "You are very sweet and nice and soft.  Are you somebody's?  I feel like cats that aren't somebody's aren't this great and cool and pettable.  Although I guess I wouldn't know."

"Mrow." (His face scrunches up like he tastes something bad.)

She pauses pats, hovering her hand a few inches away from him, in case that was the problem.

No, she can't stop petting him! Headbutt time.

Pats resume!  "Pfft, okay, sorry."  But hmm, can she use infrequent stops to lead him around to the front of the chair, where she can then try to encourage him to hop in her lap via such advanced strategies as stopping leaning over, scritching at the fabric of her jeans, and asking him if he wants to?

That's a bit uncertain, but he eventually decides that laps are a superior place for receiving appropriate scritches.

They totally are; observe the increased scritch quality!  And she's taking care to avoid doing anything that would prevent him from hopping down if he wanted to.

"You're totally somebody's; there's no way feral cats are this friendly, otherwise I would've already gotten buddy-buddy with like a hundred of them.  I think that means the responsible thing is probably to call animal control?  Or like, put up found posters or something; I bet whoever it is really misses you."

Angry mrow.

She - moves her hands out of biting distance?  That seems like the thing to do.  "You're giving me some real mixed signals here, bucko."

Huff. He puts his chin on his crossed paws as dramatically as he can.

This gets a small giggle out of Ari.  "You're quite the character."

She picks up the book again and starts reading.  After a little while, she starts petting him with her free hand, almost absentmindedly.

That is acceptable. He's now friendly again.

Ari can't claim to understand the capricious whims of cats!  Although that's probably more to do with how there are lots of things she doesn't understand than cats being something inherently nonsensical.  She keeps up the reading and slow, calm pets until either he moves or she gets too cold.

Probably she's going to get too cold first.

It takes her a while to notice; it's not until after she's been shivering for a bit that she realizes that oh, hey, sitting still outside when the weather's this crisp is not very sustainable, even when you have the nicest of lap warmers.  And then she's faced with a dilemma, because on the one hand, she's gonna freeze out here, but on the other, cat.

She puts down the book so she can pet with both hands again, both to get the most out of the last few minutes before she goes inside and to warm up her book-holding hand.  "I'm gonna have to leave in a second, but you're very nice and sweet and I hope you keep showing up."

Mrp.

He stands, stretches, and jumps down to walk over to her door, glancing behind his shoulder.

Huh.  That's....weird.  Like, actually weird, not mildly-amusing, aren't-cats-funny weird.

Eh, whatever, looks like she'll be able to be able to not freeze and keep being catfriend, so she's not complaining.  She re-scoops her book and opens the door.

Cat goes inside and starts inspecting the room beyond.

It's a niceish little apartment.  There are only a few rooms: a living room with a couch and TV, connected to a kitchen with an attached dining area, two half-open doors to a bedroom and a bathroom, and a closed door or two that are probably closets.  The main table has one side against the wall to save space and has a few things set on one half that would probably have to be moved if more than one person was going to eat here.  There's a gaming system hooked up to the TV and some shelves full of books, movies, and a few video and board games, with an instrument case leaning against the side.  Overall, it's not tidy but is clean.

Ari closes the door behind them, takes off her shoes, and starts to microwave a mug of water.

He mostly just explores and then claims half of the couch for the country of cat.

She drinks the water without putting tea or anything else in it.  When she's halfway done with it (and feeling much warmer), it occurs to her to put down a bowl of water for him.  And after some more thought, she puts some canned chicken on a plate and microwaves that too, just for a couple seconds to warm it up a little, and sets it on the floor next to the water.

Nom nom nom slurp.

This is a quite hungry and thirsty cat.

She was worried he might be.  She gives him as much (warm) water as he'll drink and, remembering hearing about not letting starving people eat too much right away, does not immediately give him more chicken.  Probably she should call a vet to ask about this?  She gets out a phone book and starts looking for a relevant number.

He finishes his water, then jumps up on the counter to see what she's reading.

"Nope!  No kitties on the counter.  Not allowed."  Picking up even very sweet stray cats seems like a great way to get bit, so - maybe if she just tries to use the phone book to nudge him towards the edge, he'll jump down on his own?

He huffs and jumps to the floor, then starts pointedly grooming himself.

What a personality.  She moves to the couch to finish looking up the number.

Good, he can join her there for book-reading.

Huh, she's seen animals watching TV before, but she can't remember hearing about them watching books.  Although it does kind of make sense; the last thing she was visibly paying attention to was the water and chicken, so he's probably curious about anything she's focusing on.  She finds a number and gets up to go call it.

He is unsure about this vet thing, and spends a bit glaring suspiciously at the page, before following her.

She spends the time it takes for them to pick up being vaguely grateful that her weird work schedule allows her to be off at times when other businesses are open.  "Hi, I'm um, Ari Williams, and I found this stray cat?  He's super friendly; he's in my house right now, and he's, uh, pretty hungry.  I gave him like, a handful and a half of chicken, and I was just wondering how much more it's good to give him and in general what I should do?  Uh-huh.  Yeah.  No, and I don't have a car right now; maybe I could pick one up in a few days if he sticks around that long?  Mm.  No yeah the grocery store's close enough that I could get some; that's fine.  Yeah.  Sure.  Um, not like super thin I think?  I don't know anything about it but as a guess I don't think it's been too long since he was eating regularly.  Yeah, I was wondering that too.  No, nothing.  He's white with blue eyes, if anybody's looking."  She writes down a few notes.  "Okay.  Yeah, that sounds good, just - I don't know for sure when my car'll be out of the shop?  I mean, it shouldn't be more than a few days, but - oh, okay, cool.  Yeah, I'll call you once I know, and we can make an appointment then?  Cool.  Okay.  Thank you so much!  Bye."

What a strange human.

He will wind around her legs.

This gets an awww out of her, and then she disentangles herself to go get some blankets from one of the closets.  She does her best to make a little nest out of them on the couch, and then curls up on the other side of it with the extra one and her book.

Yes this is Cat Approved. He chose this human very well.

She would be so flattered if she knew he thought that!  As is, she just continues reading until she finishes the book, tops off his water, and says, "Okay, I'm gonna run to the store and pick you up some food and stuff, uh, please don't wreck my apartment while I'm gone?"

Agreeable meow.

"You're so expressive!"  She gives him a parting scritch, bundles up, and heads out.

He curls up to nap.

It takes about an hour and a half for her to get back.  She sets up the litter box that she failed to talk herself out of buying and puts down a small serving of dry food, still in an intended-for-humans bowl.  The bags she sets on the counter seem to be full of a can or two each of several different brands and flavors of wet food.

What is the purpose of this box of weird-smelling dirt. It is highly suspicious.

Aww.  She calls him over to make sure he's noticed the food once he seems to be done investigating.

That is definitely food! He tries a few pieces. He's unsure it's edible food.

Maybe once he gets hungry.

It was kind of a long walk, especially carrying the litter; she's gonna just flop on the couch for a few minutes.

He flops beside her. 

Cat: pet.

Cat: purr!

He's content to laze here a while. He spent an awful lot of energy napping earlier. He needs to prepare for further naps.

Well possibly she'll remain flopped for more than just a few minutes, then.  Especially if she can convince him to get on her lap again.

Hmmmmm that is a more dubious prospect.

Fair enough.  She continues pets for a while and eventually gets up to make lunch.

This is clearly an activity which requires feline supervision!

Then he can supervise her making a turkey sandwich and putting it with some chips on a plate!

Some of that turkey is surely for cat, right?

She should probably stick to the schedule of small meals she planned out.  On the other hand: cat cute.  - Oh, and he didn't eat the dry food, did he; that means she's totally allowed to tear off at least a small strip off for him.

Success!

He enjoys his turkey quite a bit.

Oh, good, it would've been so disappointing if he didn't.

"You like movies, kitty?"

Curious meow.

(He's never seen a movie.)

"Too bad; I do, and I'm the one with hands."  (Ari thinks she's funny.)  She goes over to the shelf of VHSs to pick something out.

Kitty comes over to squint suspiciously at the writing. Do any mention cats?

There's The Aristocats and The Lion King.

Paw taps The Aristocats. He is a cat, not a lion, so.

Tap tap. He turns to stare at her and meows.

Okay.  She's just going to.  Put in The Aristocats, and sit down to watch it, and eat her lunch, and glance over at the cat (???) next to her every couple of seconds.

He sits, and watches very intently, occasionally making little 'mew' sounds when something funny or interesting or dramatic happens.

Aaaaaa.  That's super cute but aaa.

Luckily, it's pretty short as movies go, so she doesn't have to wait too terribly long before she asks, "So!  Did you," come on, you're alone in your apartment and you talk to animals all the time anyway; it's not a big deal if you're wrong, "enjoy the movie?"

Meow!

"Cool.  Cool.  Are you, like, um.  A person?"

Obviously???

Indignant meow.

And, just in case he's just meowing at everything she says and there's been a whole lot of coincidences, she says, in as similar a tone of voice as she can manage, "Are you, like, not a person?"

Huff. Head on paws, annoyed tail flick.

Cool cool cool cool cool.  Cool.  "Okay.  You can read?"

Mrow!

"Alright.  Hang on a second."

She takes Scrabble down off the shelf and starts setting up the letters on the floor, one of each and then three extra that she designates as 'yes', 'sort of', and 'no'.

These are very interesting little blocks! He's sniffing them but not batting at them.

"Okay, so, I unfortunately don't speak cat as well as I would like, so, now you can, uh, tap on these letters to talk to me.  Hit the Y if you understand?"  She's mindful of not like, encouraging him to do that with her body language or anything.

Very clever human, though this will take a while.

He taps the 'y' with one paw.

Okay yeah she's just gonna operate on the assumption that either he's a person or someone's working very hard to trick her.  Or maybe she's hallucinating - she counts her fingers (yeah, still ten) - but in any case it seems best to play along here.

"So, yeah, just spell out whatever you need to, and then you can use these on the side for shorthand: y for yes, s for sort of, and n for no.  - Actually, wait a sec."  She puts another tile underneath the s.  "And d for if you don't know."  She adjusts the y and n so they make a little diamond.

"This seems tedious but I don't really have any better ideas on short notice; I'll try to ask questions you can answer with these to cut down on that as much as possible.  Unless you had anything pressing you wanted to let me know about?"

He taps the 'n'. 

"Okay!  Um, are you a human that looks like a cat right now?  As opposed to a cat who's for whatever reason sapient."

'N.'

A pause.

'C.'

She nods.  "C?"

"A. T."

"Ah, okay.  Are you magic?"

"S."

"Are you sapient because of magic?"

"D."

"Do you know enough about, hm, how you came to be what you are, that I should keep poking at it?  Or do you think I should move on to something else."

Unimpressed look. That was not a yes or no question, and he doesn't have numbers.

She waits expectantly for a moment.  "What di - oh, whoops, okay, sorry.  I'll try to avoid that.  Uh, just the second one, I guess."

'S.'

"...You want me to...try briefly and then give up if it doesn't go anywhere?"

'R. E. L. A. T. E. D.' Pause. 'Q.'

"Should I ask questions about magic?"

Not what he'd necessarily been getting at, but he still taps 'Y.'

"Okay.  Uh, can everybody use magic if they know how?"

'Y.'

"Sweet.  I don't suppose there's like, a single word you can use to summarize it, give me something to work off of?"

'N. E. C. R. O. M. A. G. Y.'

" - Ah."  That's surprising enough that it takes her a moment to come up with a useful question.  "...Is there an afterlife?"

'Y.'

"Does magic do stuff with souls?"

'S.'

"Does magic do stuff with people's remains."

'S. O. M. E.'

"Some people's remains?"

'S. O. M. E.' Pause. 'M. A. G. I. C.'

"Oh, so then all magic does stuff with souls?  Sort of?"

'Y.'

"Does it...take people out of the afterlife?"

'S. O. M. E.'

"Do you want a dedicated 'some' tile?"

'Y.' 

This seems a bit more emphatic than usual.

"P for 'partial' sound good, since we've already got an extra S?"

He nods.

She puts a P tile in the center of the diamond.  "Is it - the sort of afterlife people want to be taken out of?"

'P.'

"Does how good the afterlife is vary a lot, person to person?"

'S.'

"Is - how familiar are you with humans' concept of hell.  - Sorry.  Are you familiar with humans' concept of hell."

'N.'

"Okay, uh, uh, do, do you think we have, um, similar ideas about what is and isn't torture?"

'D.'

She takes a deep breath.  "Are people in the afterlife regularly in a lot of physical pain?"

'N.'

Well that's a relief.  "How about emotional pain?"

'P.'

"More than living people?  - I guess you might not know how much emotional pain living people are usually in.  Hmm.  Uh, are there forces in the afterlife that're intentionally trying to cause people pain?  Like, widespread, systemically, not just a couple jerks."

'N.'