"Why I think that.  I think my reasoning is very sound and they would agree with it if they knew it."

"How about I turn on speech to text, and whenever I translate something you're saying it'll show up there for you to have a look at." He does this and relays Princess's remarks.

"I like that!"  As the words appear she makes notes next to words she has guesses about, some of which are wildly incorrect but any of which are not.

"Yeah, that sounds reasonable, assuming it's all right with you," says the person who by process of elimination must be Ian, to Cam.

"Assuming what, giving Princess treats? I can do that. Princess, what kind of treats do you want?"

"No, to - uh, the cat who's with you, I didn't catch their name - "

"The kind Nicholas gives me!!!  They are so good!!"

"He's Cricket. She wants the kind Nicholas gives her, what's that kind?"

"Oh, is that why she likes him so much.  Well - " he looks around the room, "I don't think any of us knew he was doing that, so, not much help there.  - And even if we did it'd probably be smart to veto on the grounds that I bet they're drugs."

"He wouldn't drug my cat."

"Ah-huh."

"It's not his style."

"If you say so."  Handsqueeze.

"...why is this suspected?"

"Well, he's a New Year's; they're kind of evil.  - Not like me; like, on purpose.  Though in fairness not in a way where you can't have mutually beneficial relationships with them.  . . . Maybe 'evil' is unfair if you aren't already familiar with the associations.  Definitely at least spooky."

"Princess, you catch all that?"

Princess has figured out that she can sit up on her hind legs and use both front paws to type, and is typing much faster than she was before though still not very fast objectively.  The notes are more on hypothesized grammar structure than vocabulary, which she has mostly abandoned trying to have guesses about on as little information as she has.

"They said 'Cricket' and 'Nicholas' and 'cat'!"

"They think maybe the treats Nicholas gives you have drugs in them. That might even be why they're so appealing. Would you like some fish or something instead?"

"Okay!  I like fish too."

Sashimi for Princess.

Om nom nom nom n - she pauses and checks whether Cricket got any, bravely prepared to pass over half of hers should the answer, stars forbid, be 'no'.  She is a good kitty, even when that means making terrible sacrifices.

Cricket has some!

NOM NOM NOM NOM

While she's working on that Cam sets Princess up with a cat-hardware program for teaching new daeva English.

"Oh good, now I can learn all the words I don't know!  Like pets; I thought the word might be [kisses] but apparently that is only one part of pets and attention I think."