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There are several large books stacked around Helen. Three in a language known in some worlds as Russian, one in a language known on some worlds as Greek, one that died out on most Earths long enough ago to not be known by anthropologists (but one significant slice of Earths became very prominent and important), and five in English. They all have titles about cross-dimensional travel.

She decided to stop researching in her room. So the young girl is researching at a table down here--that's totally the same thing as socializing, right?

Right.

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Helen nods, briefly. "The House of Uquar preserves and seeks knowledge. It was thought I should learn of traverses and their use for when the Wider Times return. That's when they're supposed to open up, again."

Helen shrugs, quick and awkwardly thirteen. "Why were you studying analytical geometry? That's to do with coordinates in this language, yes?"

Bella returns the nod.

"Yes. Coordinates and how they change in relation to each other. I was studying it because I have a paper to hand in next week."

*pauses, and considers that Helen meant more generally*

"I'm reading mathematics because I would like to teach someday."

"You're a scholar?"

"Yes. I would like to be, at any rate."

Something about Helen relaxes slightly--a tension in the shoulders, maybe.

"Your world is one of those that've got a lot of schooling before you can become a scholar?" She asks, nearly friendly.

"Yes. And even then, there's no guarantee of finding a position at a university."

And even then, as in the case of Bella's father, no guarantee of keeping one's position.

"I am so sorry! I forgot to introduce myself. Bella Moriarty. 1891."

Helen's startled by the apology, and she ducks her head formally. "Helen, of the House of Uquar. The day we meet is calm, Honored Bella.

"1891 is your...year?"

It would be very short for a coordinate.

Bella is rather surprised by the formal greeting, but not taken aback. She smiles.

"Yes, 1891 would be the year. I'm at Heidelberg at present, although I have family in Switzerland and England."

"I don't know them," Helen admits, politely. "I'm not from Earth."

Bella's met loads of people not from her time: people from the past, people from the future, people from other dimensions. However, she's never met anyone from another planet.

"Oh?" she asks, "Where are you from?"

(OOC: I'm sorry, I was bowled over by the flu. Do you want to continue?)

Helen tells her, giving brief coordinates based on the Uquar system within her section of the multiverse.

"It is not much like the Earths I have heard of, here."

OOC: No problem! I'm glad you're feeling better!! Sure, but it might be slow for a while.

The specific coordinates might not help, especially since Bella's fairly certain no one on Earth has even heard of Uquar. That being said, she'll check with the astronomy faculty back home, just to be sure. She jots down the coordinates in a notebook.

"What is it like?"

Helen gives her a long look, then tilts her head.

The resulting explanation is in the cadences not of something learned by rote, but of someone used to giving long and detailed explanations.

Brevity is not a factor for Helen, sometimes.

"It is the size of Earth, with a diameter of roughly 8000 miles at the equator. It's mostly covered with deserts or swamps, due to our weather systems which were broken by Them a long time ago. So most plants do not like to grow except very hardy ones. In the part of the world I live in most of it is desert, though the sand is not very deep everywhere so you can work the soil beneath if you have the right equipment. Mostly we make compost and have shelters against sand coming in, so more grains grow. There's still not many, so we don't have the big grass-eating animals that used to live in our world--and might, still, in some places. We only raise pigs, because they do not fuss over what they eat and they are easy to keep within the walls."

Helen shrugs. "Most Houses fight each other, because they think they have more food or because they think they have equipment they can steal, or usually because a hundred years ago those people attacked them. And they take their enemies bones and store them against the future, because they think burning them releases them back into the world, to attack them again.

"The House of Uquar burns bodies," Helen she adds, pushing her hair back, "but not because we think it releases them back into the world. It's sanitary."

"The warlords lead groups that are small compared to many places, but some band together in small cities. They usually don't last beyond two or three generations, though--a feud always tears them apart. But because everything's so small they can't really have people who are deformed being a burden, or criminals, so they send them outside the gates for the dinosaurs. They blood the criminals, first--stone them--and exile them. So the dinosaurs can smell them, and aren't scared off by their size."

Helen shrugs. "That is my world. Is that anything like yours?"

Bella thinks.

"In some ways. We still have wars over colonies and resources. And there's a greater variety of plant life, but what can be grown in different areas still is limited by climate and soil. The dinosaurs went extinct several millenniums ago, and most societies hang or imprison their criminals."

The ones they catch, at any rate.

Helen nods. "Then it sounds much like the Earths I have studied. There are wars everywhere because people don't want to be reasonable during discussions."

Stupid unreasonable people, says her tone.

"Unfortunately, yes."

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