Video, Horseshoe 16 (After arrivals)

[tactlesstantei]

[The video clicks on to show Masumi in the library looking a bit annoyed over something. What it is becomes clear as she pulls a stack of four books into view and places them on the table next to her.]

I decided to test some things with the order system on the train since it seems that the train got odd versions of certain books instead of what was expected, so I ordered four books that I know exist back in my world.

[Here she picks up two books from the pile; one the first book in the Night Baron series and one the first in the Detective Samonji series.]

I haven’t had time to do more than a quick skim, but these two appear to be what I expected to get. I’ll have to read them to be sure they’re the same, but it looks like these two are unchanged.

[Setting the two aside, she picks up the remaining two books. It looks like she tried to order copies of The Hound of the Baskervilles and a Nancy Drew book, but they’re visibly different.]

These two are different, and quick skims show that the content seems to be altered as well. I’d have to read these too to see how different they are, but my theory is that these are alternate world versions of what I wanted. I don’t know why the train picked these ones to be the alternate world copies while the other two are what I expected, but here we are.

I’ll be putting these in the library when I’m done with them, if anyone wants to check them out.

Comments

voice

[blitzcheer]

Alternate...world? [ ??? ]

So are they the same books? Or- They're the same but...no?

[ ???? ]

[tactlesstantei]

They appear to have the same general plot, but with different titles and names for the characters. I still have to see if there are other differences, but I'm thinking that the train got alternate world versions of those two books since multiple worlds do exist.

[She's a bit confused by this too, since the train did get two of the books right.]

[blitzcheer]

Oh, so you mean like worlds having a lot of the same things? Sure, there's a lot of Earths out there and... Californias? I've heard that come up for Earths.

A book's weird though. You'd think those would be more different than just a couple of words or names.

[ Would you, or is he just being dense about 'alternate worlds'... ]

[extrasaltypotato]

Curious. Every book I asked for, I received - but some were books from Mundus, and some from Earth. A Mundane magic textbook, a Mundane work of comparative religion, two players guides to Another World Online, and a guilty pleasure.

I am increasingly suspicious that the world I knew as a game's milleu is a real world, one this train could visit.

[tactlesstantei]

Huh, so you got books from a game world? I take it they’re exactly what you expected to get?

[That made it even odder, if the train could pull books from an assumed fictional world and yet insisted on giving odd copies of some books. Presumably the train was capable of getting what she had wanted, so why the alternate versions?]

[Voice] /locked to the car Masumi is in in an attempt to keep down the noise.

[iamnotgod]

[While Webmind elects not to use video, Masumi may recognize him by voice anyway.]

It does seem to be a consistent principle - particularly regarding mysteries, but I have had some trouble myself in my attempts to bring many classical works to the train.

I will transfer the data for printing, but in doing so the words themselves change. Largely the phenomenon is limited to names, but other differences have also occurred.

[tactlesstantei]

[She does recognize him by voice, but is visibly put out on finding out that not even transcribing the books directly works.]

That's...kind of suspicious, how we can't even print out these specific books without changes to the text. It's able to drag all of us from our own worlds, can void travel, and can otherwise get what we wanted to get from the shop, but can't get us certain books for some reason?

/attempts to minimize Webmind's potential awareness of the fourth wall...

[iamnotgod]

Perhaps we are not supposed to have them.

The phenomenon seems to extend to works of film, as well; have there been any shows in the Cinema you've recognized, or do they seem more like spoofs of things you do know?

[zechs_isonfire]

Curious. I haven't heard of the Night Baron or Detective Samonji, but I have heard of Sherlock Holmes and Nancy Drew.

[ Frowns at the camera ]

So why would there be censorship of books that are shared between worlds? It seems counterproductive, if that's indeed the uniting factor between changed books.

[tactlesstantei]

It is. The train apparently wants us to be happy, since there was a poll about what kind of new carriage we wanted before the library was added, but then it goes and gives different versions of certain books instead of the versions we wanted.

[Now the question was why only books shared between worlds, if that was the connecting factor?]

[zechs_isonfire]

[ He had an inkling of a theory, even if he needed much more data than a single conversation. But he suggested; ]

Perhaps the more people know of a story, the less likely it'll appear. Perhaps your books are available on my world, but they're merely obscure, or forgotten.

So, perhaps ... this train sees a work we collectively think about and consider as dangerous.

[ Why else censor it? ]