I forgot about these tags until I was reading back through this today and Jesus fuck yes ghost shibari bondage, Edwin trusting TKC enough to want to offer up some genuine vulnerability and TKC saying "oh sweetheart I can *absolutely* figure this out."

OH AND OF COURSE CHARLES FINDS IT

CHARLES, fully fucking clutching his pearls: Edwin. Mate. What the bloody hell is this? Explain. Now.

EDWIN, king of intellectualization: Well, um. There are… activities… technically only possible for the living, and the Cat King had some...oh, some suggestions regarding how one might approximate-

THOMAS, lounging on a fainting couch that he materialized just for this entrance, leather pants, mink coat, no shoes no shirt, eating an apple: oh this is *fun*. Bc He wanted me to tie him up while I hit him with things, pretty boy. Don’t make that face. We use a safe word.

EDWIN, strangled: It’s… ‘veterinarian.’

THOMAS, hissing, suddenly much less composed: DON’T SAY IT CASUALLY.

CHARLES: WHY WOULD THAT BE THE WORD. NO, DO NOT TELL ME. NEITHER OF YOU EVER TELL ME.

EDWIN: Charles, I swear it’s not what it sounds like-

"You’d like me to believe that one of the royals tripped over their feet into a TNR trap from a well meaning old lady that smells like menthols and moth balls?” He tipped his head, arching an eyebrow down at Casper. “Do you really think that anyone in my family would be so stupid as to -”

And he stopped. He let the belt still, staring at a glittering reflection cast on the wall. “Shit.”

“Oh....kay,” Thomas said slowly, taking in Charles’ fevered expression and the agonized slant of Edwin’s shoulders. “Did you...think I could undo one of the Endless’ little pranks?” he asked incredulously. He turned a look on Edwin. “Did you think you could? Don’t get me wrong, babe, you’ve got a lot of horsepower under the hood, but even for you that’s thinking a bit much of yourself, isn’t it?”

"You’d like me to believe that one of the royals tripped over their feet into a TNR trap from a well meaning old lady that smells like menthols and moth balls?” He tipped his head, arching an eyebrow down at Casper. “Do you really think that anyone in my family would be so stupid as to -”

And he stopped. He let the belt still, staring at a glittering reflection cast on the wall. “Shit.”

"You’d like me to believe that one of the royals tripped over their feet into a TNR trap from a well meaning old lady that smells like menthols and moth balls?” He tipped his head, arching an eyebrow down at Casper. “Do you really think that anyone in my family would be so stupid as to -”

And he stopped. He let the belt still, staring at a glittering reflection cast on the wall. “Shit.”

It's Darkspawn Chronicles with the way we're crawling out of the Deep to answer The Calling