"Enough for it to very nearly be expected," he answers with a grin. "But if it weren't we'd surely make more mark of it then is done. Unless it didn't bode well to have new arrivals."

Here and now, however, they're fairly welcome. If only for the fact that it means another person to help them fight in the war that is hanging too close over their heads for his liking. But best not to speak to that. Not when Chessur has never liked the idea of fighting

"Or did you mean many people, I wonder?"

"If the hands can be counted on to be hands and not something else." It's a comment that likely only makes sense to Chessur, since he certainly isn't expecting a new arrival to know that he's usually much more feline than he is now. Nor does he expect her to know that he still very much considers himself to be a cat, in any of the ways that matter.

"And I could be another. Or I could simply be me, and I'd much rather that."

Just a cat who's far more human than normal and has had to make do with having his usual evaporation traded in for something else. But there's a grin to go with his words all the same, and one that still holds something of the grins he'd been able to manage when he really *had* been a cat.

"You can ask. But there's only so much sense to be made, of a place like this."

He can - and possibly will - offer something a little less cryptic if she wants, but it's not something he's ever done willingly. Not even here, for all that he's certain it puts some people off a little.

(On the other hand, it's something he enjoys and thus hardly anything that's likely to change any time soon.)

"But surely you must have begun to notice that."

"You may call me Chessur."

He's not certain that he's really anyone who should be called sir - it's far too human a term, really - but he's not about to complain too much either. He still has a cat's pride, even if he might not look much like a cat at the moment.

Nor is he really making fun of her. It's simply how he speaks, and while it might be highly unusual outside of Underland, that too isn't likely to change anytime soon.

"Why, Loki's. A fitting house, if a cat must be assigned to one."

The house of tricksters and those more mischievous than they perhaps have a right to be. But it suits him, and though he's not fond of not having the same sort of abilities as he'd had in Underland, but he has no complaint about the house itself. Even if he spends more of his time not actually staying in his house's welcome hall.

(He's still a cat, if nothing else, and being tied to one location has never been for him.)

"You shouldn't need to beg for it, when I'm willing to give it."

His pardon, that is. Unfortunately, his answer is a far cry from the explanation that she'd likely been looking forward to. Especially as regarding the fact that he has just referred to himself as a cat. But he figures he can see where this particular answer of his should happen to go before anything else. It's hardly fun, to offer all the answers at once, or so it is with him.

"Do try to settle well."

There's a grin with his words, but he makes no other attempt to stop her from leaving. And he's noting, too, that she seems to be less inclined to stoop to the sort of wordplay that he prefers. A shame, but he can deal with it. There will be other people and perhaps he can try again when there's no settling to be done.