Spoiler warning! This article contains plot details up to and including the latest episode, as well as the novels and live shows. Browse at your own risk. |
Here's something odd: there is a cat hovering in the men's bathroom at the radio station here. He seems perfectly happy and healthy, but it's floating about four feet off the ground next to the sink. |
— Cecil |
Khoshekh Gershwin-Palmer[2][3] is a floating cat who resides about four feet above the ground next to the sink in the men's (now unisex) bathroom of the Night Vale Community Radio Station.
History[]
He appeared in the men's bathroom during the episode 2 and was adopted soon after as the station pet. He purrs and rubs on your hand like a normal cat, but is trapped in a floating prison and cannot travel. Cecil admits that while he is normally not a cat person, he has grown to love the cat, which has been named Khoshekh. The men of the station care for Khoshekh by leaving the sink running so that he has drinking water. They also take turns buying Science Diet Low-Calorie Cat Food for the immobile feline, which they leave on the counter where he can easily reach it.
As of Episode 159, "Cat Show", Khoshekh is stated to have white socks, black tails, spine ridges, tentacles, pincers, wings, a stinger, more than two eyes, and five rows of teeth. He is able to produce both ordinary feline mews and low, guttural growls.
In the two-year anniversary live show, it is revealed that Cecil, being one of the few who actually cares about Khoshekh, has taken to carving sculptures of the beloved "Feline", and posting said sculptures on his Tumblr blog. The Tumblr URL is currently unknown (or may not exist in real-world Tumblr), and no pictures of said sculptures have been found.
Due to the fact that Cecil is Jewish (according to Joseph Fink, as of "Ghost Stories"), Khoshekh's name is a Hebrew word- חושך, meaning "darkness".
In Silias the Thief, Part 1, it is revealed that Khoshekh is a cursed art thief named Silas. During Them Woods Are a Maze, Khoshekh goes missing, and in LOST: CAT we are told that Silas has returned to his human form and is now living with Sandrine.
Mentions[]
- Episode 2 "Glow Cloud": First mention of Khoshekh, who is not yet named.
- Episode 9 ""PYRAMID"": Intern Brad, one of the few station interns who was never described as dying or meeting a horrible fate, fixed up a litter box for Khoshekh using a combination of carpentry and dark magic.
- Episode 23 "Eternal Scouts": Cecil proudly announces that Khoshekh has given birth to an adorable litter of kittens. For any listeners wondering how a male cat could give birth, Cecil waves aside the question, noting that "some things just aren't meant to be questioned."
- Episode 26 "Faceless Old Woman": Cecil explains that Khoshekh cannot be photographed. He does not show up in photographs, and anyone who tries to photograph him dies a pretty agonizing death within a week. Khoshekh also has a meow like a terrifying monster.
- Episode 39 "The Woman from Italy": Cecil proudly reports how Khoshekh's kittens have grown bigger, molted twice, and grown "their grownup kitty spine ridges". He then warns the owners of the kittens that while visiting them, they should avoid the poisonous spine ridges and their venom sacs as two cat adopters have already been lost.
- Episode 43 "Visitor": Khoshekh is badly injured by a StrexPet.
- Episode 44 "Cookies": it was revealed that Khoshekh survived the attack by the Strexpet, however, he has lost an eye and a portion of one of his paws. Cecil was able to hold him, and Khoshekh is currently being kept in Cecil's home, despite Carlos's allergy (Cecil got him some allergy medicine).
- Episode 48 "Renovations": Lauren sends Daniel to take photos of the kittens, and Cecil finds him lying dead (or, perhaps, inoperative, as he isn't sure if he Daniel identified as organic or not) as he returns to the station, carrying Khoshekh.
- Episode 55 "The University of What It Is": Cecil reports that Khoshekh is doing well, and that "his fur cusp is as radiant and sticky as any cats’ has ever been".
- Episode 75 "Through the Narrow Place": Khoshekh is reaching that time in a cat's life when its skull is completely visible. Some of his kittens are nearly fully grown. The anterior spines of Cecil's favorite kitten, Mixtape, are coming in fast. Cecil mentions that he has been posting a lot of photos of Khoshekh on Snapchat lately.
- Episode 90 "Who's a Good Boy? Part 2": Cecil mentions that the bathrooms at the radio station are now all unisex, and that means new people are able to visit Khoshekh. He then says that Khoshekh has been enjoying the extra attention, buzzing and licking visitors with his chest tongues. Later in the episode, Cecil reports that Intern Kareem found Khoshekh in the bathroom all scratched up, with a piece of fur covered flesh in Khoshekh's second row of teeth.
- Episode 111 "Summer 2017, Night Vale, USA": Carlos visits Khoshekh in the bathroom for the first time, noting that "cats don't float".
- Episode 159 "Cat Show": Cecil enters Khoshekh in Night Vale’s annual Cat Show. Near the end of the episode, Khoshekh hypnotized the cat show judges, as well as the cats themselves.
- Episode 190 "Listeners": Cecil sends a photo of Khoshekh to The Purrcast.
- Episode 195 "Silas the Thief, Part 1"
- Episode 196 "Silas the Thief, Part 2"
- Episode 198 "Them Woods Are a Maze": Cecil reports that Khoshekh has been sick with an infected tooth and he asked veterinarian Dr. Joe Hinson to come visit. Khoshekh is now feeling better, however Dr. Hinson dissolved into a smoking pulp after being scratched by Khoshekh. Later, Cecil reports that Khoshekh has disappeared.
- Episode 200 "Susan Willman Comes Clean": Khoshekh is still missing. Cecil has put up missing posters, but they all get slashed to ribbons with "Do Not Look For Us" written across Khoshekh's picture.
- Episode 207: "LOST: CAT"
- Episode 208: "Cecil in The Big City": Carlos mentions that Khoshekh has been missing for 6 months. After Cecil and Carlos return from the Big City, they find Khoshekh in his normal spot in the bathroom. He doesn't stay long, but Cecil knows he will return eventually.
Khoshekh's Kittens[]
Despite being a tomcat, Khoshekh gave birth to a litter of kittens in Episode 23, "Eternal Scouts". They were all adopted by Episode 26, "Faceless Old Woman", but, since they cannot be removed from the station men's room, their owners must visit them there. Like Khoshekh, they are floating in the station men's room, but at different heights. It is not clear how many kittens there are.
Some known named kittens (and their owners) are:
- Anissa, has tortoise shell fur
- Jeremiah, aka Larry Leroy (owned by Larry Leroy (out on the edge of town))
- Rafael, has tortoise shell skin. Adoptive name is Mixtape (owner unknown), though he prefers his adoptive name over his given name.
Physical Features[]
Khoshekh’s features cycle in and out, they never have all their features at once.
“I sometimes I have wings, or even tentacles” - Silas, 196 - Silas the Thief, Part 2
- White socks
- Slight chub
- Poisonous kitty spine ridges
- Tendril hubs
- Venom sacks
- Poisonous claws that inflict Tetanus
- Tongues on chest
- Visible skull
- Elegant black tail ("like an overused feather duster")
- Floofy, black, and slimy tentacles
- Squishy faced
- Mostly long-haired, but short-haired along his caudal spine and pincers
- Multiple tails
- Multiple eyes (possibly 8), allow 360-degree clarity
- Nacreous scales
- Five rows of teeth
- Wings
- Fur is mostly needle-sharp quills
- Skin, hard and scaly, almost armor-like
- Pointy ears
- Stinger
Trivia[]
- The character was created by Jeffrey Cranor. [4]
- Khoshekh means "darkness" in Hebrew and was one of the ten plagues of Egypt in the story of Exodus. The Hebrew חֹשֶׁךְ or חושך is pronounced "choshech" (ch as in challah) (emphasis on the first syllable), different from how Cecil pronounces Khoshekh.
- Кошак [Koʃʌk] is a recent colloquial expression for "male cat" in Russian. Its pronunciation is slightly different from how Cecil pronounces "Khoshekh" (the emphasis in the Russian word is on the last syllable: ko-SHUCK). "Khoshekh" (as Cecil pronounces it) in Russian would mean "кошек", gen.pl. or acc.pl. from "кошка" 'cat' (so, it would mean "of the cats" or "them cats").
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Episode 195 "Silas the Thief, Part 1 "
- ↑ Spelling of Khoshekh
- ↑ Episode 159 "Cat Show"
- ↑ Good Morning Night Vale episode 2, Good Morning Glow Cloud