Entry #004 | Video

[quaerit]

[ Here is Gansey, looking a little strange. He’s wearing a navy-blue sweater emblazoned with a raven – an Aglionby school sweater, over what appears to be ordinary clothes. His shoulders and hair are damp, like he’s been rained on, and he looks strangely pale. Despite that, he’s displaying a welcoming smile, and his hazel eyes are bright and vital with some emotion he’s holding back. ]

Apparently, I vanished yesterday.

I say apparently because it feels more like several weeks ago, but according to this – [ he holds up one of De Chima’s daily newspapers – a tabloid, headlined with speculation about the upcoming import elections ] – it’s only been a day.

A lot can happen in a day. Sometimes things that give you perspective.

Can I ask – the school year is almost over. Some of you will be graduating. I will. Which is odd, because I was here for eight months, and then I went home and it was Fall again, and Senior year was just beginning. I’m not completely sure what age I am now. I turned eighteen a couple of months ago.

[ Which, he actually never mentioned. It had seemed like there were more important things to be getting along with, and the thought of getting older in the wrong world had annoyed Gansey anyway. He’d kept quiet. Now, if he could do that over again, he thinks he’d celebrate it more – even though he’s only mentioning it now because it’s relevant to this. ]

Then I go home, and I’m seventeen again, so now I don’t even know what counts. Graduation will, though, I know that much.

So: to everyone else who’s graduating. Or even if you’re not, even if it’s just that you see change coming for you. What are your plans? Will you work, will you travel? What would you like to do, ideally? I think I’m ready for it to be summer again.

Private to: Billy Kaplan, Adam Parrish, Ronan Lynch, Noah Czerny, Matthew Lynch

[ This part goes to everyone’s private inboxes. Gansey’s smile is less presidential here, but his eyes are even sharper. He seems energized, like he’s on the edge of something. His voice is trying not to sound like it. ]

Hey, everyone. I very much hope I didn’t worry you. I think I was mid-conversation with you, Billy. I’ll have to blame my rudeness on the Porter.

Listen, I’m on my way home. Could someone bring the car and pick me up? I’m getting pizza from that Italian place near the porter in De Chima. I’m absolutely famished.

I’d…like to know if anyone else vanished, too. Ronan, Adam?

Comments

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[doubleblind]

Helena. She made her way back home a couple weeks ago.

Tell me about it. Pretty sure they found us all homes through, uh, not entirely legal means. My parents don't really talk about it. My sisters and I only found each other a year or so ago, thanks to a very good private investigator.

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[quaerit]

You mean she’s gone already?

[ Gansey is sorry to hear it. He’d liked her. Or, at least, the insufferable ten year old version of him had liked her. ]

That’s crazy, though. And terrible for you and your sisters, but I’m glad that you’ve found each other. How fascinating that the porter would have lifted you all. Even if one didn’t stay.

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[doubleblind]

She's gone, and not even for the first time. She and Sarah were both here long before the rest of us showed up.

That goes for you and your friends too. There's a lot of you guys here.

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[quaerit]

There are. It's a very strange thing, I wonder about it all the time. Of all the people in Henrietta, it brings me and my friends. And Kavinsky.

[ Who is very clearly not a friend, okay Cosima? ]

No one from the rest of our town, so far as I know, but people from different worlds entirely. Often, people who know each other. How are we chosen, and why? I know there's a pattern to all of this. there has t be.

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[doubleblind]

[Cosima brightens at the mention of a pattern of the arrivals, she's been looking for one too. In her mind, there's no way it's random who's brought here and who isn't. She ducks out of frame for a moment, resurfacing with a notebook in hand.]

Tell me about it. It's a crazy complicated pattern, but there has to be one. I can't believe that this is just random.

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[quaerit]

[ Gansey smiles at the sight of her notebook. He always enjoys finding a like-minded person. ]

No, it can't be. There's far too much coincidence involved with that theory, and I don't believe in coincidence at all.

Something has made the Porter latch onto us and our friends, and not others. It makes no sense otherwise.

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[doubleblind]

I've tried and tried to find a common thread between everyone here. Something that ties each of us together. But I'm starting to think it's much more complicated than that.

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[quaerit]

We're talking about a lot of people from a great many different worlds. Perhaps the idea of one common thread between them is going too far.

Maybe it's more like...

[ He stops, abruptly, as though another train of thought has interrupted him. ]

Do you know that saying? That there are, what, five degrees of separation between everyone on Earth?

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[doubleblind]

Yeah, I think you're on to something. We're talking different worlds here, I'm guessing it's more than five degrees, but looking for connections, not just a single similarity... That's a good idea.

[quaerit]

[ She sees where he's going with it. Gansey points at her, nodding approval. ]

Exactly, yes. Finding what those connections are won't be easy, of course. Much like finding a needle in a haystack, there must be a trick to it. I still think we have to start with the Porter itself.

[doubleblind]

[Cosima's nodding too, flipping to an open page in her notebook and gesturing to him with one hand.]

The Porter? What if it's like, programmed to bring in people based on certain criteria and you could hack it? A program would explain how it could handle something as complicated as finding all those connections...

[quaerit]

Admittedly, I couldn't hack it. My computer skills barely rate as high as social networking.

But you could, maybe. If you're good at that kind of thing. We'd have to get close to the Porter first, and that's always been the problem. The military aren't keen for us to interact with the means of our capture.

[doubleblind]

I'm decent at bioinformatics when I have to be, but I'm not a hacker. Know a couple, but they're not here.

Do you know where it is?

[quaerit]

What, the Porter?

It's in Cape Canaveral, but it's never exactly not guarded. And I had a friend who was arrested for forcing his way in. We'd need a better plan than that.

[doubleblind]

Where's a friend with invisibility when you need one?

[quaerit]

Exactly. The last thing we need is to be arrested for our efforts. That would only set us back further.

[doubleblind]

Ever think about sending in some copies?

[quaerit]

As a diversion?

[ He gives her a considering look. He had not, in fact, thought about that. It's a little more direct than Gansey usually likes to be. ]

I'm fairly sure that would still be illegal. They're still essentially us, after all.

[doubleblind]

[Cosima shrugs, knowing it's not the most sophisticated plan, but plans similar to it have worked for her in the past.]

Are they really? I feel like a good lawyer could argue they're not.

It's just an idea. My sisters and I have successfully pulled off the Parent Trap routine before. It can work.

[quaerit]

[ Gansey leans back, considering it. ]

So our plan is to send clones to lead the guards on a merry chase, while we get close to the Porter.

I suppose then we’d need to know what we were doing to it. We wouldn’t have long.

[doubleblind]

We'd need to find someone who knows what they're doing, you mean. Like I said, I'm not a hacker.

[quaerit]

Even a hacker would need to know what to look for. We have to know what we're going in there for, before we do anything.

[doubleblind]

Yeah, which... Is where my plan sort of falls apart, sorry. I'm not sure what we'd be looking for. This is the first time I'm really thinking about it from this angle. But there has to be something we can use. Some info we could get from the Porter itself.

[quaerit]

It's all right. I don't truly know, either, and it's a risky card to play when we're uncertain.

[ And Gansey has, historically speaking, not been very good at risk. He's more willing for it than he used to be, though. He runs a thumb across his lip. ]

But I'm not opposed, if we can refine this further. It's an opportunity I wouldn't want to waste, that's all. You were right. It merits bringing more people on board.

[doubleblind]

[Rash decisions are practically genetic when it comes to Cosima and her sisters, but of all of them, she's the worst at improvising. She likes having a solid plan if they're going to do something reckless.]

Oh yeah, man, I'd want a real plan before we even thought about going through with it. You're right that it's not an opportunity we want to waste, especially because I can't imagine we'd get more than one chance at it. I just figure, we can do some research. See what others have tried to do regarding accessing the Porter and figuring out how it operates.