Bermondsey hadn't been back long. In fact, he hadn't planned on coming back at all. One could wish for a happy-ever-after, where he had finally gotten away, completely intact with the remainder of his family in tow, but luck was rarely on the side of a cursed one like himself. At least they were alive, he thought. There were worse things to be than alone again. He had never wanted kits in the first place, and in a way, wasn't this better? That he could be free to do as he wished now?

The tall cat was deep in thought, still prowling the edges of the city–neither a Primal Instinct cat nor an outsider–unaware of the she-cat heading his way until her melodic tune could be heard and his expression was once again as cold as steel. "Who goes there?" he spoke, a commanding tone to his voice, not quite fitting for a cat who didn't exactly belong in this territory.

Bermondsey was used to scouting an area–his initial reaction had been to climb something higher, to look upon the other cat without revealing himself. It was harder to do so without the thick cover of trees in Primal Instinct's old forest–his father had trained him mostly to leap from tree to tree, never touching the ground–but his long legs gave him an advantage in leaping up onto a low stone wall, his green eyes narrowed at the other cat.

They didn't look like a threat. No ambush would start with a cat humming a tune unless they were bait, but he knew better than to let his guard down just because someone didn't look dangerous; that was how he operated too. Lanky and thin, he rarely looked the part of a dangerous cat either.

"Let's just say I'll attack if you do," he replied smoothly, revealing his position as he sat regally, a tail curled across his paws, "back from a little excursion? I didn't know the suburbs were...so fascinating for a city cat."

(yeah that’s fine! Bermy hasn’t been back to PI since years back so I’m having him drift into their territory so we can consider him as like, not yet joined maybe?)

His beady eyes held Blushing’s gaze evenly, contemplative of her answer. So this was what Primal Instinct was now? Parties and kittypets and cats that seemed to care more for their pampered lives than anything else. Bermondsey couldn’t say he was surprised; the city had its reputation for being...indulgent. This was nothing like the league he had left in his youth.

“The name is Bermondsey,” he spoke, standing up as he descended the higher wall with a certain grace unfitting of his lanky form, “I suppose I could be a threat if others wish me to be. My business is to see what’s happened to the crypt I once called home. The league has left the forest for the city and I suppose, left some kind of sense back in those blasted ruins, hm? My business is my own, but I’m only a threat if you raise a claw first. I’m here to....observe for now.”

He was standing on level ground with Blushing now, amusement in his gaze. “Though I suppose I never thought I’d hear a league cat complain about breaking a nail; that’s new. Were you born here or are you...new?”

The cat must’ve been new, but Bermondsey certainly didn’t expect this. Surely, Blushing wouldn’t survive the league if she had been born during his mother’s reign. Even Safiya, sweet Safiya, had been smart enough to keep her mouth shut long enough to make her leave. This one didn’t seem to have any sense of that at all. How did the League ever hold its reign of terror over cats like this? He found himself baffled and torn between the desire to rebuild it in his mother’s name or to be glad that kits here wouldn’t have had to suffer the way they did then.

Still, his own wards were smarter than this cat; didn’t anyone ever tell her not to speak to strangers?

“I see,” he replied curtly, “and this Freya, she’s been here the longest?” He couldn’t remember a cat named Freya at all, but he had always lived separate lives to most when he had grown up here, “how you’ve survived this far baffles me, especially here.”

He didn’t mean to be rude, but Bermondsey often lacked tact. “Tell me, where can I find your core group? The nemesis perhaps? Surely you would know at least that, no?”

He had been gone when Vera E'tani had taken over the league; his father had already gone mad by then, and most of his siblings had disappeared into the night throughout those years. Still, there wasn't a single thing about this cat that seemed like a threat, and Bermondsey followed without hesitation. At least there was still something akin to the camp, though he wondered whether he'd be welcomed there as easily. This cat seemed naive, perhaps a little slow on the uptake. The others? He wasn't sure he could say the same.

"So tell me, what has this Freya taught you so far then?" he prodded, "how to hunt? How to fight? Anything useful?"

There was one thing the tom had learned, and it was that any knowledge was useful, and it could come from anywhere, even cats he considered a little less clever.

He didn't really understand why they kept a cat like this around either, other than for...bait or something, but he didn't speak his thoughts, still humouring the young cat without a word. "So where's the best place to be around here anyway?" he spoke. Certainly, the landscape was different from what he was used to, but there were things that were all the same no matter where they were. Lookout spots. Hunting places. Fighting rings. Landmarks. Borders. Those things never changed.

"Where do you usually spend your time, other than playing around with kittypets?" he asked dryly, "I know nothing of the league's activity these days other than rumours, I suppose."

(yeah same! no worries ahah)

"Districts?" he echoed, looking rather surprised. How long had he been gone? He didn't know what the other cat meant by districts; he assumed that the city was...laid out differently than the forest once was. He understood that things changed in different circumstances, but every change he discovered only served to add to a mounting frustration, that he was in fact new to a place that should've felt a little more like home.

"What kind of things were you seeking for?" he queried. After all, what did cats like them have a need for human things?