"You obviously know the text well." Carefully chosen words.

"Do you want to hear my theory about Roby?" Oscar asks. "It's kind of a hunch, but I'm a pretty good judge of character." With some notable exceptions.

"Absolutely, my dear fellow." He leans in.

Oscar's going to ignore that.

"So," he says after a pause. "We know Roby's grieving, right", he begins. "And he loves books-- doesn't have much stuff aside from them, or many people to talk to-- that's pretty common in institutions, I think." He pauses a second, looking thoughtful. "I think that due to the gruesome and very personal nature of the events, Roby has detached somewhat from reality. It's too terrible, right. He's not 'insane'-- he just needs a layer to hide behind. A mask, I guess you might say. And the King in Yellow-- I guess it's provided the symbols he needs to talk about this thing he can't say directly." He pauses again. "That's why I think it's important we all attend to big motifs of this play, whatever our level of understanding-- or appreciation for-- the text."

(Wow, he regrets saying that last part, but he hopes Terrence will ignore it.)

...he's going to have to talk to Roby via what he remembers of the play. While having like, two hours of sleep. On Oscar's advice. ...joy.

"...I understand you, I believe. I think you may well be onto something. If you all are agreeable... Let me get my notebook."

He leaves to get his notebook.

And now instead of the table being slightly less than half people who are hard to be at a table with, it's exactly half! This morning is going great!

".....hm, I do think it's a good idea to learn the motifs of the play, but it's a complicated theory on not much evidence? Certainly it's a compelling-sounding story but it's easy to make up a compelling-sounding story and it's harder to make up a true one."

(Inaaya disagreeing with Oscar is not going to escalate into a stabbing attempt, and watching her is not going to make that less likely to happen and is just going to make people notice him again. ...but he is keeping a close eye on her pockets in his peripheral vision.)

"It seems clear he's trying to say something, and the words he's saying have to do with the play. Whatever it is he's talking about."

"I did say it was a hunch," Oscar allows. "And- to tell you the truth-- I'm not exactly keen on mastering the details of The King In Yellow, uh. But-- Terrence really seemed to speak his language, you know. I guess we could try talking to Roby and seeing how he responds to other things."

Terrence comes back with his notebook and a pen.

"Where should we start with your notes?"

He does his best to explain the major themes and beats of the King in Yellow.

Oscar takes out a notebook and pen and does his damnedest to take decent notes on the King in Yellow, though some ???s appear.

He's trying to be helpful, he doesn't just want to make this a pitch for reading the book, but he does emphasize that a lot of the good stuff of the book is in the wordcraft and you probably should just read it, it's not that long. He sincerely believes this.

Jing Yi is Paying So Much Attention! He is So Awake and Alert Right Now! ...please, no one question how much he is remembering of this summary.

"Thank you, Terrence," he says. It's sincere! He's going to ignore the entreaty to appreciate The King in Yellow as art and focus on the fact Terrence isn't a bad lecturer at all. He's precise-- if sometimes fussy-- with his wording and honestly, his voice is okay too.

It's nice to get some idea of what happens after the first act. (He's getting the feeling if he spends another few days on this mystery he's going to have to actually read the thing.)

Inaaya is also taking careful, detailed notes. And ignoring the pitch to probably just read it and the descriptions of the wordcraft etc, because that's not the important part here.

And once that's concluded, they break their separate ways to go investigate.

Montague Edwards is checking on a patient when Terrence finds him.

"Hello, Mr. Edwards, do you have a moment? I'm Terrence Markham, I don't know if Dr. Aarons mentioned, I'm here with some colleagues consulting on Alexander Roby's case."

"I do have a moment," Edwards says.

"I was wondering if you had any... thoughts or impressions of Roby, or his case. Anything that might be helpful for understanding his situation. Just between us, of course."

"I don't know very much about him, I'm just a nurse. He likes poetry."