And then he's left with William Jing for the first time in, uh, a long while. Of course.

"It's fine," he says primly. "Same old." He can't resist-- "You got any productions coming up?" He takes a sip of coffee.

"The Roby case has been taking up most of my time for auditions. But it pays better, so that's fine."

There it is. "The pay's not bad." Especially for a struggling actor. "Yeah, always curious what goes on in the theater, books take all my time."

Jing Yi kind of doubts that he is actually that interested in the theatre, but he appreciates the pretense of them getting along and having a normal social conversation. "It's 70% art and 30% petty social nonsense. And hard to explain nonsense that doesn't mean much to people outside it, at that. Though I imagine running a shop is similar."

"I've been talking to this guy Lawrence about his manuscript," Oscar says. This is a great way to reward William Jing for his sparkling conversation.

"Is it any good?"

"Yes," says Oscar. "I'd say it's good-- I forget it must be the same way for you, auditions take up most of your time." He sips his coffee. "Are you often at Terrence's?"

"--We're roommates. This is my apartment too."

Oh.

"Crazy that's never come up," he manages.

"He's much more of a homebody than me. That's probably how," he says, trying to to help Oscar save face here.

This is a lot to process?

"Right," he says. "I mean, I don't really know him well, outside of--" he gestures expansively, as if to indicate the whole world-- "this Roby situation."

"We've kind of ended up being a bit of a Merry Band because of that."

"Oh for sure."

Implies William Jing and Terrence weren't super close before which is something.

"I've made some progress with getting Roby out, but it's been a bit two steps forward, one step back. Graham Roby is Not Keen." This is a risk, but Oscar is very keen on Standing For Those Unjustly Accused, so this might be worth it. "I've had a look at the police report, and I think Roby is covering for someone."

"You don't say?"

"His balcony door was broken from the outside. He said he was there all night, and had no explanation for how it got broken. And the coroner seemed to think there was a right and left handed attacker. I'm not saying Roby can't be ambidextrous, but--"

"I think you're onto something. This is really good news."

Meanwhile--

"Does this work?" ... The best private space is probably Terrence's bedroom, then, since the apartment is not large - but it doesn't have to be weird.

Terrence is committed to not making it weird. The pages of handwritten notes covering the desk, and literal red string tacked to various cards on the walls, and doodles of the yellow sign - mostly visible only once you're inside the room - are the ones making it weird.

"I have -- a friend," he says carefully, "who has provided me with unusually strong evidence that certain psychic phenomena are real, most centrally psychometric impressions. Now, I can't provide that evidence, and I can't say I'm very certain about the truth of the matter myself, and I won't ask you to believe me about this. But -- if I were to -- how well would that fit into your current understanding of what is possible?"

Terrence blinks. He opens and closes his mouth a few times, then blinks some more. "If you'd ask me a few months ago, I would - probably have said something about, I don't know, the histories of apparent encounters with the supernatural as a matter of fact, and how the brain may be shaped by its surroundings to believe all manner of unlikely events as plain fact."

"What would you say now?"

He spreads his arms, looking a little helpless and a little sheepish. "I'm more open to unlikely events than I used to be."

"That makes two of us. Absent the evidence I can't provide you I'm not really sure this means anything, but I asked them to take a look at your copy of The King in Yellow. If you're interested."

"...What did your friend say?"

"I'm not sure how to describe the emotional impression" without making Terrence mad "but there was also a sensory and conceptual component. I've copied down their notes on the subject." Here we go. It felt like being: a princess, a god, a king, a lake, a city, an island, the yellow sign, a star, a planet, lost Carcosa, a play, a meme, a word, a symbol, Cassandra(?), Camilla, a stranger, rags in tatters, a pallid mask, a mask, a mask, a mask, like wearing no mask.