01 || [Video]

[sleuth_ing]

[Sup, Anatole. There is a confident-looking youth sitting at a table, centered in the camera. Close-cropped blue hair and a matching hat frame an androgynous face, and at first it is difficult to guess the gender of the person gazing keenly at the Forge. The voice, however, is female enough, although on the deep side.Hello. If I understand

Comments

video - Verity is so a good person to model for roles! I mean....

[calamitousnaiad]

I agree entirely! The problem is discovering the principle on which the Door operates. If that could be figured out, then perhaps we might have a way to at least guess at trends as far as arrivals and departures. But I'm afraid too many of the variables may be beyond our ability to observe.

[Welp. That makes two of them.]

Wonderful. I'll have to look for those next time I'm in the library. Thank you very much for the recommendations, Naoto. I'd love to discuss them with you once I've read them, if you'd be up for it. It's that much move fun to read a book when you have someone to talk about it with, don't you think?

[And at the prospect of sharing her favorite books with someone who has yet to read them, Verity brightens up even more. She's positively effervescent.]

I can certainly help you there! I've been collecting some of my favorites as they show up in the book shop. I could lend you some if you like. Furthering your education and promoting the female authors is most definitely a worthy cause, I should think. And I promise you, the women are every bit as good as the men at mystery! Maybe even more so.

video - NAOTO IS LIKE. AWESTRUCK SO FAR, SRSLY.

[sleuth_ing]

[Yeah, Verity sure sounds like she knows what she's talking about. Which is exciting! Everyone else here seems so... quaintly oblivious.]

I was thinking if I could gather some statistics about the people who've come through - geographical location, the dates in their worlds, and such - it might shed some light on what you're talking about... the trends, as you call it. A consensus, perhaps. It might be tedious, but it might go a long way to shedding light on the behavior the portal located inside the Door.

[As if that wasn't enough to get excited over - talking? Discussing books? ... There's a bit of a surprised pause.]

Ah... yes. Yes, I think I'd like that. If you aren't too busy, of course.

[Verity. Where. Have you been all her life.]

Th-thank you! That would be... very nice.

video - So cute, Naoto. Verity loves her already.

[calamitousnaiad]

That is a very good thought, Naoto. I hadn't really thought about that, though I can say that I've noticed that there are several specific time periods in specific locations outside of this world from which the portal seems to draw people. Large families have come through separately over a short period of time, acquaintances, friends, co-workers all from relatively the same time and place. That seems like proof, to me, that the Door can not be drawing people here randomly. It's practically impossible, statistically speaking, given that there are not only an unimaginably astronomical number of separate worlds and even realities that the portal can draw from, but within those separate worlds the specific geographic locations and possible times from which people can be pulled are almost incalculable. It seems so ridiculously unlikely that even two people who come from the same general vicinity should show up here, and yet there are comparatively huge groups of people who know each other and are even related, socially or familially. Perhaps finding out their exact times and spaces could tell us a lot about why the portal chose them, because I find it very hard to believe that any of this can be random.

[Oh, Naoto. Here five minutes and already Verity is spewing her theories all over you. She is articulate despite her enthusiasm and the speed at which she speaks and it is clear she has spent a lot of time considering things and observing her fellow denizens of this world.

And books, too. Naoto is already well on her way to becoming one of Verity's favorite people.]

Of course! I can always find time to discuss a good book. And Dorothy Sayers is one of my favorite authors, so I'm more than glad to share her work with you. I like this idea very much, a little literature exchange!