"StarClan isn't the whole afterlife, it's just what we call the part of it where all the Clan cats hang out.  The Jellicles have one too, called the Heavyside Layer.  They're working on reincarnation there but they haven't got it yet."

"Oh, huh. Them you can talk to?"

"Yes, it's all very nebulous; there isn't a consistent geography.  Just lots of little places kind of like this one, built partly by the expectations and partly by the intentions of cats in them, with some other rules.  I think most of the former Clan cats would pass on reincarnation because either they're doing good important work or they're doing stupid petty work or they're just sort of living about the same as they were except minus the scarcity and natural disasters and whatnot.  But probably a lot of kittypets will want to go for it; this place can't do humans very well.  They still move around and pet you and stuff but there's no one inside and you can tell."

"...would anybody like me to pet them while I'm here, and I can try to memorize a list of who-all wants to come back for whenever I find a family that would like a person-cat?"

"I'll ask around.  You can pet me if you want; I've never had a person do it I don't think.  Or the humans that were around me when I was alive might have ever but if they did I forgot about it because the part where they drowned me was much more memorable."

"Man, why did that one lady decide to uplift cats in a social environment where it's still socially acceptable to drown them." Pet pet.

"I don't know!  I think I'm glad for it anyway but I can't imagine it was very well considered."  He headbutts into the pets.  "This is pretty nice but it's not that much nicer than having another cat groom you.  - Oh, some of the other cats who were watching things with me thought you should pet Fireheart.  They said that he basically asked you to and it's just that he never says anything straightforwardly.  Or, it was just commentary; they didn't ask me to pass it on but I am telling you anyway."

"...I'm not actually sure that I should take your word for it, that would be pretty rude in my culture. Also I imagine if any other cats smelled it on my hand that would be embarrassing for him."

"That makes sense.  When are you planning to nap again?"

"I don't have a schedule like that, do I need one?"

"No, just if it's going to be a while I'd want to try and think of more things to tell you than if it was sooner."

"It'll be whenever I have a few minutes and a place to lie down, I guess. Or something to tell you. Will it be really noticeable to Cricket if you give him a word? Such that I could tell him to tell me if he gets a weird one?"

"Only if it comes up.  I guess you could . . . tell him a word, but not what it means, and that he should be on the lookout for suddenly knowing what that word in particular means?"

"Okay, how about 'somnolent' for if you want me to take a nap to talk pronto?"

"Cute, I like it.  For ones you initiate yourself it really does help if it's at night, by the way, though obviously daytime's not prohibitive.  - Also probably don't tell Clan cats that I'm cool and funny and informationally-transparent; StarClanners like to keep a very serious, mysterious image."

"That's so rude of them though!"

"It really is!  I think I'm doing an okay job of working around it though, since I can't fix it.  Except by facilitating communication between all thinking creatures in a way that will hopefully eventually lead to more open-mindedness."

"I appreciate this about you."

"Thank you!  I knew you would, that's why I helped bring you here."

"Here like the dream or here like the universe?"

"Both!  Or, I gave support to the 'fire alone' people even though I was mostly not involved with the technical implementation."

"And there was some intervention on setting up a circle for him? Was it aimed at me specifically, it didn't feel like it..."

"I think they had to be really really really exceedingly precise with the timing."

"Oh, that makes sense. How does your future-seeing work?"

"Hate to say it but that's also not my department!"