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Amy has hot chocolate, pizza, and a pile of correspondence she brought along in the hopes of getting somewhat caught up after being away from home for nearly a month.

At least, that was the plan.

Now that she's here, though, it's hard to find any enthusiasm at all for the papers on her table, so she's largely ignoring them while she looks around the bar.

After all, there's always something interesting going on at the end of the universe.

And anyway, they'll keep.

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"No," X says.

Though now that she thinks about it . . .

Nope. Still no.

"I do not understand how that could be confusing. To people."

"How a person could think someone had proposed when they hadn't, do you mean?"

"Yes."

X still looks a little bewildered.

"If it was not deliberate."

"Perry managed to do it once," Amy says. "Just after he'd proposed to me, his cousin Persephone thought he was proposing to her.

"I think a lot of it is that the person you are talking to desperately wants to hear it. So she, or he though that would be quite unusual where I am, she just sort of forces what she wants to hear onto to what you're saying.

"And I think, too, that sometimes when we are trying to be nice or kind we soften things we should state quite clearly. Because being blunt is perceived to be unkind. So instead we create situations that truly are unkind."

"Oh."

X absorbs that for a few seconds.

Then, carefully --

"I am not good at that."

From the sound of it, that is kind of a relief.

"It's probably not a skill you need to cultivate, either, so that's just as well."

"Yes," X agrees, very firmly.

Then she takes a bite of pizza.

"But at least it gave everyone something to talk about," Amy says.

"And I think we've almost gotten all the ladies involved calmed down.

"So you shouldn't need to worry about it affecting your visit, when you come."

"It is good when people are busy," X offers.

Carefully.

Gossip is confusing.

Still.

"But it is also good that I do not have to be careful. When I visit."

"You know, if you aren't busy, you could always come back with me now.

"I think Susan is just about done with her lessons for the day."

X finishes swallowing her current bite of pizza, sets down the slice, and then nods.

Her pleased look has not gone away.

"That would be good."

For both of them, really. Timing-wise.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome.

"I think she was planning to visit Francis this afternoon.

"That's the ghost, from the world under the palace.

"He's trying to haunt one of our towers."

X's eyes widen, just for a second.

"He remembered his name? The ghost."

Beat.

"And you do not mind? That he is trying to haunt your castle."

"Susan named him," Amy says.

"And, no, I don't. He seems harmless, Susan likes him, and he's dreadful at actually haunting, anyway."

"Failure can be very loud," X offers, a little hesitantly.

"If he is using chains."

That is about all she remembers about ghosts. Blame her teammates.

"I don't think we'll suggest chains," Amy says.

"Mostly, he paces.

"And tries to remember that it's boo he's meant to yell."

"Oh."

X absorbs that, blinking once, or maybe twice.

"I do not understand why 'boo' is effective."

"It's really not, but it's traditional."

"Okay."

X looks more than a little dubious, however.

Lack of effectiveness is just weird.

"There will always be things that people do because they think that's the way they're supposed to do them.

"It doesn't always make sense.

"But sometimes you don't argue with them about it, because there are other things it's more important to try to change."

"It would be more important if people were actually afraid? Of him."

Beat.

"Francis."

"I think it's probably more important to stop him from being afraid of people, first.

"He was on his own for a very long time."

"Oh."

X considers that. Carefully.

It is something to which she can relate, in the proper context.

"He does not remember. How to talk to people."

"No, I don't think he does.

"It's why Susan goes to visit."

"I can try to help," X offers, a little hesitantly.

"Too."

Beat.

"When she goes."