Stone's Throw

[GamesMaster]

"Of course." He looks a little more pleased. "And you came here to ask this?"

[Andreas Amell]

"And... and to, ah, pay my respects to the previous Keeper?" he says carefully.

[GamesMaster]

Now Don looks older, sadder. "Ah. Of course. He will be glad to see you, I think."

[Andreas Amell]

"He... will?" Despite himself, the words are spoken in a child's voice, uncertainty and fear of rejection cracking the polished charm he'd been trying to portray this entire conversation. 

[GamesMaster]

"Of course. He asks about you often, at least from Miki. I rarely have news for him. he has always wished you well."

[Andreas Amell]

"...why didn't he-- any of you-- reach out to me then?" Andreas breaks a little, the demand slipping out despite himself. "Even Miki only came when Mother--"

[GamesMaster]

"We have had as much contact as your mother desired," he says, a little sharply. "It would be inappropriate to cross her wishes."

[Andreas Amell]

"Shouldn't have I gotten a say in that?" Andreas asks, hurt and unsettled by this whole thing. "Not as a young child, fine, but surely once I was a teenager..."

[GamesMaster]

"You are nearly an adult. I would have reached out then."

[Andreas Amell]

"When I was an adult," Andreas repeats, tone conflicted. "That's... something," he allows, "but... an adult doesn't... not like a child..."

[GamesMaster]

"This new way, this human way... it is not for our people, Adonis. I never knew my mother, as was proper."

[Andreas Amell]

"As is--" Andreas cuts himself off with a wince. Mentally pictures a brush smoothly curving across a canvas, leaving a single streak of light blue. "I am unable to see anything but how-- but the negative, yet I am certain there must be more to it. Can you explain what brightness this way brings?"

[GamesMaster]

"Your mother and I have not been in the same room, before the other day, since you were small. We cannot be together, and she cannot abide my presence any longer. And yet, there is no fighting. There is no strife. You were not raised in chaos, or split between two households. You were raised by a single, unified, loving family."

[Andreas Amell]

Nodding slowly, Andreas nevertheless frowns. "Is that... common?" he asks, tone showing his doubt. Surely I would have heard gossip and such if catfolk mates were routinely hostile towards each other.

[GamesMaster]

"Breakups are common among our kind. In fact, long-term relationships are rare. We have wandering spirits, and we tend to love freely among many."