video;

[sketchycharacter]

['sup everyone. It's your friendly historianerd here today, speaking into his TAB from...somewhere kinda high, judging by the background.]

I've been doing some exploring in Region Five lately, and I think I figured something out—everyone who came from the Moira, we're not the first humans to get here. [He laughs.] Well, obviously—there are other people who look like us. But it's not some sci-fi TV show thing where they're just aliens who happened to look the same. Check it out.

[He angles the TAB camera around, and it becomes clear that high is high—not skyscraper-level, but Nate has scaled some centrally-located building with a good view of various streets.]

Over there—Victorian houses right next to Edwardian ones, like the block is showing the passage of time. Couple streets over [the camera swings around] and you've got the late Italian. That's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to architecture.

And on some of the nicer streets and in parks there's Colombian statuary from mid-1700s, some Greek stuff—I did some sketches if anyone wants to see. [No one does. Probably.] it's the real thing, too, the actual style and not some fake imitation bullshit.

It's not that surprising, right? Ingresses existed before we ever showed up on the Moira, so they probably grabbed people from Earth before we ended up here, too. The point is, this planet isn't just a crossroads of culture, it's a crossroads of history, too. If people brought their architecture and their art, they brought all kinds of other knowledge too, things that might not have made it into the historical record, at least not in detail. We should take advantage of that. I've already seen one library that's as big as the Moira's, if not bigger—I'm gonna go exploring there once I get down from here.

[So this is basically an overly excited PSA for the local Kauto library, apparently.]

Comments

Video

[poolhall_killer]

[He turns his end on the moment he hears the magic word]

Where is this library located?!

[This is as excited as Venom gets. You might never see it again, Nate.]

Video

[sketchycharacter]

It's at the end of the block with all the Greek architecture. [He uses the TAB to show it.] Haven't spent much time in it yet, but the stacks were pretty deep when I stopped in before.

video;

[flynnitomite]

[In the dryest tone he can dredge up.]

Oh yes very impressive, Drake. You have eyes.

[sketchycharacter]

[He is too excited even to be bothered by you today, Flynn.]

Hey, I didn't even mention all the stuff I found that's the real thing—not just a pastiche or inspired by. There's stuff here I'd have killed to explore back home.

{ video }

[frostedplum]

[ Have an excited Mei. ]

Is there any Chinese architecture there? You sound like you can recognize the differences in styles.

{ video }

[sketchycharacter]

I'm not as knowledgeable about Chinese building styles, but I passed some places that might qualify. I could send you some sketches.

[Or take a fucking picture, Nate, Jesus.]

Video

[prorenataa]

[ Someone is puttering in an apple orchard doing ... apple orchard type things. ]

Which history though? [ Came the doctor's voice from somewhere off to the right. ]

The Ingress moves not only across dimension but across time as well. The buildings may be from a period that in your linear time is past for you but could easily be present, even now, for the builder.

Fold time in on itself and all points become possible until quantified by the reality of the a moment.

Video

[sketchycharacter]

Yeah, isn't it great?

[Nate just grins.]

We already know that some of the Moira crew came from entirely different versions of Earth with different timelines, so I figure that's the same here. But plenty of us did come from the same world, different eras, so that's likely the same as well. And in a way, people bring pieces of their home with them.

voice;

[brokeassgoing]

You ever thought those other guys are takin' advantage of all our knowledge and cultures too? And are biding their time for...who the fuck knows what. Not saying you shouldn't nerd out, but smell the flowers, man.

voice;

[sketchycharacter]

Don't you think that's a little paranoid?

video;

[brochtuarach]

[ Nate, plz. ]

If ye needed proof that the Ingress brings from all time periods...

[ You've spoken to him, dude. ]

video;

[sketchycharacter]

[He laughs.]

Yeah, fair enough. But all this shows it's been happening for a long time—some of these buildings are old. Hey, think about it, some famous missing persons cases could be because they ended up here.

video;

[otiosity]

No, no. You're supposed to wait until I've taken my allergy medicine before you talk like this. That's when it's the most interesting.

video;

[sketchycharacter]

No way. I'd explode if I had to hold it in until you took your magic pills.

video;

[redshitlord]

... that's cool. But uh.

Is that all you've been doing? Looking at houses and stuff, man?

video;

[sketchycharacter]

Of course not.

[warandpeace]

I'd noticed it too and had sort of thought the same. But there's another thing I noticed, at least aboard the Moira.

People from Earth or Earth similar places are usually the targets of the Ingress. But often it chooses people with something exceptional about them.

[He doesn't want to think about the idea of not going home, though, or that some of these people trapped here had kids. What if their parents were returned and never knew afterwards? Sort of a scalding thought.]

[sketchycharacter]

Maybe everyone's got something exceptional about them, if you know where to look.

video

[nicearsenal]

Okay be so real with me: is this, or is this not, your equivalent of all your Christmases coming at once?

video

[sketchycharacter]

A little bit, yeah.

video;

[survivra]

I'll take your word for what all the buildings mean. I've not seen anything like any of them.

[ history: wouldn't be her strong point even if she did come from a modern world ]

Do you think any of them ever learned something about those who brought us here? Something that might be useful?

video;

[sketchycharacter]

Maybe. But it's not like there's anything stopping us from learning the same now. You could go to the Ingress complex and talk to the scientists there.

[He assumes??? He hasn't tried himself.]

[polyphobic]

Are you able to know how long the buildings have been there?

[sketchycharacter]

i didn't get construction dates but a lot of them have clearly been there for a while
probably decades
at least

[iattractmushi]

[Some of the buildings look old, even through the tab. Ginko frowns a little at his screen.]

So you're saying this has been going on for a long time. Think they lied to us about letting us go back to our worlds?

[The thought has crossed his own mind more than once, this past month. They made it to the place the ship was going...and instead of letting them go it's just turning into another cage. Bigger, at least, but a cage is a cage no matter how invisible the bars.]

[sketchycharacter]

It doesn't have to be a lie. I mean, I guess it could be. But it's just as likely that it isn't that easy to find the way back. People end up here for years, they set down roots.

video;

[arcreact]

[ Okay, so this is actually interesting information, but more importantly: ]

... Did you spend your afternoon climbing up the side of some random building to admire the architecture?

[ Fuckin nerd. ]

video;

[sketchycharacter]

Uh, yeah?

[He says this like it's obvious, and that in fact Tony is the silly one for questioning him.]

video

[gentlemenpreferblondes]

[There's video of J, looking at him with her sardonic eyebrows raised up while she's taking a big drink out of rather large red wine glass. The room behind her suggest that she's in one of the R5's smaller restaurants that are built according to fifties' style.

And that's it. She's just giving him the look without saying anything.]

video

[sketchycharacter]

[What. What is that look for. Why is she making that face.]

What?