Husband has said he wants to see me fight in the cage, so I have set my next fight to be tomorrow. Sunday is quiet enough at the diner for both of us to be gone. Myra said there may be fewer people, so my part of the take may be less, but perhaps that means there will be less chance of bandits as well.

I thought Amazon simply sold everything, but Husband told me its specialty is books. That it has many books that can be read on a computer, and that they sell something called a tablet to read them on, which is like a large phone and a small computer. That the tablet can hold many books, which is good because Amazon has many books.

In Tulsa he showed me how to buy a prepaid Visa for buying things from Amazon. I think I may buy many books, though Amazon also has some books for free.

But even with books on a tablet, I still like the library. It is meant for books and for reading. It is quiet, there are some soft chairs, there are many shelves of books, and there are people that are interested in books. Being surrounded by books makes me think of them, makes me think of reading and thinking and learning.

"word for feeling you get from a place": "ambience, atmosphere"

There are more children here on a Saturday than a weekday. They are a bit noisy when they are together waiting for a story, but they settle when the story begins. Some still call me the Cat Lady when speaking with each other. The ones who sometimes talk to me call me Miz Tsu'na.

The mothers still look a bit worried when the children talk to me. Do they think I would hurt children? Or is it the "tattoos and piercings" the woman at the diner talked about? My earrings are not that different from those Mrs. Hobbes wears, though perhaps since my ears are longer the earrings are more visible.

The Emperor's New Earrings were part of the invisibility glamour set, but I did not think to use them. Husband did; it was part of his every glamour plate. I understand it, now, in Earth, having seen very few males with visible earrings, and those few were quite small. But my invisible earrings are in my glamour dresser back in Eorzea. We would need to find new ones here, as well as glamour prisms.

Amazon has clear prisms. I am ordering some. Perhaps we can make glamour prisms from them. This is my first Amazon purchase. It is very easy.

A little girl is standing at my table.

"Hello."

"Hi. You're Miz Tsu'na?"

"Yes. Who are you?"

"Katie."

"Hello, Katie. Did you come for story time?"

"Yeah, but we missed it. Mom's car didn't work."

"That is sad. But there are many books here to read."

Katie nodded. She looked at me. I smiled. I did not know what else to say to her.

"What's it like being a cat lady?"

Husband tells stories about me, about my cosmetic surgery, about my martial arts training, about my time as a military contractor. I do not always remember all the details he uses. There have not been many times that people have talked to me about being a cosplaying fangirl, perhaps because of the time I ran out of the diner, and when they do I have said I do not like to talk about it.

But Katie did not ask me about being a cosplaying fangirl. She asked about me being a cat lady.

I could answer that.

"Cat people like me are called miqo'te. They come from a far away place called Eorzea. I did not grow up with them. My parents died in a war. I grew up with a hyur couple -- 'hyur' is what humans are called in Eorzea."

"Why aren't they called humans?"

"It is a different place, so they have different names for things."

"Mi-ko-ta?"

"Miqo'te. Yes."

"Are there a lot of miqo'te in Eorzea?"

"Yes. Some live in the forests of the Shroud, where they are hunters. Some are in the deserts of Gyr Abania, where they are traders. Some are on the islands of La Noscea, where they work on ships with the pirates."

"Aren't pirates bad?"

"These pirates were, but became good. Now they only rob ships from the Garlean Empire, who started the war my parents died in."

Other children came near to listen. A little boy asked, "Do cat people act like cats?"

"We are not cats. We are people with long ears and tails. Though some miqo'te like to say 'meow'. I think they think it is funny."

"Do you say 'meow'?"

"I do not say 'meow'."

They asked more questions. I told them more about Eorzea. I told them about the massive roegadyn, the tiny lalafel, the rabbit-eared viera, the horned au ra and the haughty elezan. I told them about the flying plant-people, the sylphs, and the tricks they like to play. I told them about the goblins and their herbal facemasks. I told them about the Ixali, the sad and angry bird-people who could not fly.

When Husband came to find me for dinner I was talking about the dragons of Dravania and their war with the people of Ishgard. Some of the mothers approached him, looking concerned. I took a moment to drink some water so that I could hear them talk.

"Oh yeah, sounds like she's talking about an online game we play. Final Fantasy Fourteen."

"But she talks like she actually believes it!"

"Well, sure, she's roleplaying. Best way to tell a story...makes it feel more real. Ever been to a renfest?"

The women looked less worried as Husband wrapped them in a blanket of reassuring words. I resumed speaking to the children, finishing what I was saying. "My husband is here. We are going to go to dinner now. We can talk more when you see me again."

Husband came over and the children turned to him. "Have you been to Eorzea?"

"Of course! That's where I met Miz Tsu'na. But she can tell you about Eorzea better than I can. Though would you like to hear about a time I was in Africa?"

He pulled up a chair and told a story about a tiger he encountered in a place called Africa. It was a little scary and had everyone, children and adults, listening silently. Then it somehow turned into a silly ghost story and everyone laughed.

As we were heading out, Mrs. Hobbes spoke to Husband. "So were you really in Africa?"

He smiled. "'In a Dim Room' by Edward Lord Dunsany."

Mrs. Hobbes seemed delighted. I am a woman who likes books, and I am married to a man who has read them.

It felt good talking about home, even if people thought I was telling stories. Husband understood when I explained it over dinner. "It actually creates context, fleshes out your character a bit. Just be sure to be non-Eorzean with the parents."

"I am a roleplayer."

"Exactly. And if they ask about the orphan thing, you can say something like, 'I'm dead to my parents, and they're dead to me.'"

"Which is partly true."

"But be careful about talking too much about fighting with the kids. They didn't grow up with war."

"What about the primals?"

He needed to think about that. "The whole enthrallment thing might be too much for them...the idea that people's minds can be gone just like that, making them permanent slaves. Maybe you could say people were taken prisoner and you helped rescue them?"

I remembered people that had been enthralled by Ifrit being put to death in front of me because "there was no other way." I remembered U'loonh's mother, driven mad from enthrallment, thinking a stone was her child. I remembered the Serpent Reavers, former La Nosceans all, enthralled by Leviathan, whom I killed in so many battles.

"Rescued them. Of course. That is what I did."

"They're just kids. Even in this world, FF14 is rated for teenagers and up."

"I will try not to scare the children."

"Cool. And I'll try to keep the parents happy."

We are storytellers. Some of the stories we tell are true.