Normand is a very good friend indeed.

"Would you tell me?" she asks, as the end of their lunch hour approaches. "If I seemed -- not in my right mind, to you. Or -- taken in by a con artist, or otherwise misled."

"Yes."

That doesn't tell her what he thinks is going on. But it's also an indication that he doesn't think it's that. "I'll have to trust that."

"The things you say are unbelievable. But you seem-- steady. Reliable."

"That's good to hear."

Somehow she's disappointed. It would be far preferable if reality was something other than this.

Meanwhile--

Terrence also doesn't have a strong role to prepare for this. He checks his mail, anything from either of his letters?

Dr. Aarons returns a letter saying that he's added it to his reading list, and the literary magazine will accept his essay for their spring issue!

Woohoo!!!!! Good day for Terrence!!!!!

He's in an excellent mood when Oscar and Inaaya show up at his flat.

Evidently Terrence approves of whatever he got in the mail.

"Hi," says Oscar. "I hope I'm not interrupting you."

"Hello, my dear! Not at all - pardon me. Just good news about one of my papers." He folds the letters up and tosses them into the overflowing Inbox on the desk in his room.

He shuts the door behind him. "How are you doing?

Does Terrence call everyone "my dear"? No, he's not going to dwell on it.

"I'm hard at work delivering left-wing propaganda to your neighbors, and I thought maybe we could chat." The first part is technically true

"I'm alright, given the circumstances."

(Joan was, as one might expect, incredibly unthrilled about her girlfriend maybe-probably going off to die. Inaaya isn't thinking about that. She's not.)

"What about you, Terrence? Any news from the olive grove of academia?"

"Oh, nothing too interesting. I still have a job, which is pleasant in and of itself given that I've been spending all my time on - er - extracurriculars. Running off to the countryside. Kaplan's paper is going on. I don't know."

He waves a hand. "It hasn't had the same allure for a while now. Not that I have anything better to do workwise. ... Until becoming a consulting bohemian, I suppose."

Oscar remembers, the first few times he saw Terrence at the Forward, a few enthusiastic (if hard-to-follow) disquisitions on his research.

But he doesn't really talk about it anymore, does he. "...I'm sorry to hear that," he says for lack of a better response.

Terrence shrugs. "It's no issue. It's scarcely unheard of. What would you two like to talk about?"

Glance at Oscar. When she's brought up the King in Yellow in the past Terrence has tended to skate directly past it.

"I've been thinking about Jing Yi."

"Of course!"

"Yes. I'm glad to hear he's getting some space from that fiancée."

"As am I. I only regret that it didn't occur to me before." "Granted, I was a little overwhelmed by - other matters." He waves a hand again, to indicate everything that has happened.

"But I'm his roommate. We're friends. I shouldn't have been so slow on the uptake. But, well." He sighs.

Not an unfamiliar feeling. "You couldn't have known, could you? This type of thing is really subtle. But, um, Inaaya and I have actually been talking a lot about the broader subject."

Of mind control.

"Oh?" Terrence remembers himself and puts on some tea. (It's a small apartment, he's not getting away from them, he's still, like, right there.)

"Yes. Tea's nice, thanks." Terrence is so English. Perhaps the most English?

"Do... you remember when it was that your job started to seem less appealing?"

Inaaya does. Inaaya can pinpoint an exact week.