"Unless you're Joan."

"...Okay, maybe you're right and what they've got in Bangkok is better than the L.A. stuff and this doesn't matter but I had an 8-year-long close-up of what Nectar was doing to Samson Trammel and the first time I could put a name to it my sister had gone insane and I had to shoot Ayers in the head and two days ago my teammate got dosed with Nectar and was dead before the end of the night. So -- I am a little bit slow to trust any version of this upfront."

He's getting things jumbled, he knows he's getting things jumbled. None of this means anything. He just opened his mouth and suddenly all these words were there and they don't form an argument at all.

"Trammel was on Nectar constantly for more than a decade. Nectar is dangerous but the continued presence of the Thing with a Thousand Mouths is also dangerous and-- we have to be smart enough to stop it."

"But our-- differing opinions-- on Nectar use are not the crux of the issue here. Savitree would be very pleased to be working with people who aren't associated with her and can go places we can't."

"Well, we are very with you that the Thing with a Thousand Mouths is dangerous and needs to be stopped."

"Come to Bangkok!"

The difference between Mordred when he's Very Very Chill And Relaxed(TM) and Mordred when the conversation is actually genuinely almost certainly not going to get them murdered is... visible. He's smiling at Inaaya.

"We would be very pleased to be working with people with more resources and idea what's going on."

"All right. Are there more issues that need to be addressed?"

(Zoe is trying to remember if they are supposed to tell them about the new moon maw lady thing. She thinks no?)

"Just one, I think. We were hoping to get - proof of concept, let's call it - on Cast Out the Black Pharaoh while we're here. We're still working on timing and so on but will have a more final plan in a few days; do you know of any compelling reasons not to try to close the mouth in Malta within the next week or so."

"Montgomery Donovan might kill you and thus end our budding partnership. I assume your-- Knights of Malta-- have a way of dealing with this?"

"--We would like to work with them as well, if they're amenable."

"Yep, that's accounted for." Not via Martin but that is really not his secret to tell as of right now. "And there's only the one left, everyone else died in the Congo some years ago, but I'll pass that along."

"All right. Nice speaking with you."

After they leave the Emporium, Zoe waits until it seems like they're alone.

"Sorry for leaving so abruptly earlier, I know it probably looked weird. I hope it didn't make things harder with the Emporium?"

"....it didn't seem weird at all actually. I don't think I even noticed."

"Oh, phew, I'm glad. I noticed Nephren Ka lurking around the park and thought it would probably be a good idea to keep him occupied."

"...You don't say!"

"He's very put out about us Cast Out The Black Pharaoh. Or at least, about me learning it? Also he had a lot of negative things to say about The Thing With A Thousand Mouths. Apparently it's unaesthetic."

"He didn't happen to confirm he was Nyarlathotep while complaining about our spell to cast him out, did he -- huh."

"I don't think he literally said but he was like 'you don't see me learning spells to cast you out' which seems pretty suggestive to me.

I offered we could Cast Out the Mouth Thing instead if he knew how to do that. He considered it but didn't bite."

"I wonder why he keeps...." None of the verbs that come to mind are good. "Showing up around you."

"Apparently, he likes my acrobatics act."

"...I think I could have gotten him to go for it if I'd had a better trade to offer? I said I could do a private show and he said he thought I was too busy. ...Maybe I should have just said I could make time in my schedule for him."

".........If this whole thing eventually ends with the Liar himself helping us fight the Mouth because it's unaesthetic I think I'll just give up on understanding anything that happened during this part of my career. I can see the trajectory from here to there and it's completely absurd and it's giving me a headache."

"To be fair he also said he disagrees with ... the aesthetics of some parts of him? I forget his wording. Apparently there is a tentacle monster in the Congo that is him but also gauche."

"If it's just that he likes your acrobatics act that seems like a hell of a coincidence.

On the other hand, it is possible and indeed probable that I'm just paranoid because Hickering kept mentioning ocean legends in the islands my family comes from."

"Well, that's all he's deigned to tell me. And he does come to all my shows."