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Oscar takes the train back to London and starts asking around about Roby.
A person buying a book mentions that Randolph Carter had known Roby, and the next morning he can set up some time to talk to him.
Huh, wasn't that the guy Terrence talked to at the party? He seemed a bit much. But that's like 40% of his customers; he has a lot of experience in this area.
"What do you need, Sal?" Terrence gets up to offer and pour coffee for people once it's ready.
"I actually had some questions about the play, Terrence. Not about the contents, about its... effects."
"In general, but also -- I have been noticing that the people we've been talking to who read it also grow very interested in the occult, and other people have reported some strange goings-on around them. And I -- well, listen, I don't want to get your hopes up, I don't want you to bug me about this. But I've been... looking into it a bit... and it really does have a strange feeling to it."
"And I was wondering if you'd... noticed anything? Or heard anything along those lines? Or if you might have any similar interests?"
"Not -- I'm not asking if you've seen sorcerers performing magic or anything. But just... anything hard to explain."
"Hm! Yes, intriguing. No, I see. I mean - I, uh, I don't know many other people who've read the book." He sits down with his coffee and adds cream, looking thoughtful. "Oscar, I suppose. I mean, Roby technically, now, Estus technically, but - you know. And Roby is one thing but Oscar is another, he bounced right off it, so - that's a small sample size, so take this with some salt."
"I... don't think there's so much in the line of direct... you know... tangible miracles, or what have you. But the mind is a powerful force and the King in Yellow is a powerful book. A powerful play. It plants ideas with deep roots. Let me think."
"Interest-wise, I was interested in the occult and the history of spiritual practices for a long time, I've contributed to research on related topics for years. It did evoke a current interest, but I should think that in the same way that learning something new ever evokes an interest - you know what I mean?"
"It has, um - it's affected my dreams." He looks uncomfortable as he says this. "But that's part of the mind too, so."
"Um, excuse me - " and he gets up to open the door. "Oscar! Good timing, I just made coffee. Come in."
"Hi, Terrence. Sorry to bother you but I just read the news-- Jesus Christ, right? Oh, do you have any cream and sugar, by the way? Bad habit."
Why is William Jing in Terrence's apartment.
Why is he covered in hickies? What has he walked into?
"Coffee would be great." This is one fucked-up brunch. He's been to weirder parties; he can take it in stride.
"Well, you know, dreams can tell us a lot about the mind," Sal says lamely. (He's followed Terrence over to the coffee.) "Roby had -- not that yours and his are -- just, if you'd like to tell me about them, I'd love to hear."
Oscar and Jing Yi are in the awkward position of having some Fellow Feeling about the dream talk.
He can just listen but this conversation went very badly the last time he tried to have it in a group. With Jing Yi in particular.
"You can write them down, if you'd rather, I know some things can be private."
Is anyone going for that...? This is so strange and the coffee is not helping him keep his cool.
Surely all of these people will stop looking so WEIRDLY at each other with some coffee in them. Come on, we're all colleagues here. Jesus, this is just like faculty meetings.
"I - might take you up on that sometime," Terrence says vaguely. "It's more - I don't know, they're disconnected, and I wouldn't want to ramble."
"These dreams," Oscar says casually, as if he's just formulated a bit of small talk. He takes a polite sip of coffee, even. "How's the tone? Emotionally?"
This is maybe the first time Terrence has seemed offended by something Oscar said.
In response to Oscar, since I mean, a question deserves an answer: "Um, mixed? Fearful at times, ecstatic at others - powerful but chaotic. I don't know."
Mental note: alert Inaaya to Terrence's weird dreams. She has more experience here. "You mentioned Estus, too. You talked to him about the play, didn't you? Did he say anything strange about it? Or that didn't... immediately make sense?"
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