Taking notes, with a stack of books around them. They look a bit bored, but not like they're actively looking for something else to do.

Yeah, may as well look at the further reading. It'd be rude to interrupt them, anyway.

There's a selection of books: theories about dunjes and weapons and wielders, laws about dunjes, dunjes in pop culture, psychology of weapons and wielders, guides for the new wielder that model themselves like self-help books...

Hmm... guides for a new wielder would probably be the most immediately helpful. And also the most embarassing to pick up. But the most useful.

She suppresses her flinch and picks one of them up.

This one's mostly fluff about finding yourself and developing a good relationship with your weapon. The author seems confused about whether weapons are people or pets.

Okay that's-- that's pretty creepy. No. Just-- no. Weapons are people and people are people and No. Back to the shelf it goes, where it can stay and hopefully never get picked up again.

The psychology one might be more-- okay, there's a reasonable chance it would just be more Scientific about weapons being pets, but there's also a reasonable chance that it might contain sense. She picks it up.

This one treats weapons like people! Though it cautions that weapons who are born as weapons sometimes have non-human psychologies. It mostly seems to consist of the author's expounding on the results of a lot of different psychology tests given to benchmark non-wielders and non-weapons, wielders who are not weapons, born weapons, born humans who are weapons but not wielders, and a full two people who are both weapons and wielders. Weapons and wielders both on average score higher than baseline humans on marks of aggression, willingness to physically intervene if they see a problem, extroversion... (Though the author notes that certainly there are shy, introverted weapons who would be too anxious to interfere).

Wielders have a statistical skew in favor of people in support careers, like nurses, teachers, and customer service people. Weapons, especially born weapons, seem to have a higher tolerance for isolation than baseline humans. Weapons are significantly more likely to express transhumanist tendencies and desires. Human-born weapons are statistically more likely to be transgender than other humans, and weapons in general are more likely to have a complicated gender identity.

Weapons and wielders being more aggressive isn't particularly surprising. Especially the wielders. Even if weapons were on average pretty similar to non weapon people-- the wielders are the people who chose to pick up weapons, presumably to use them in an aggressive manner. It's not a surprise.

(Though higher willingness to physically intervene if they see a problem-- that's her. That's her to a T. She is a statistically average weapon and/or wielder. Damnit.)

And the rest of the info-- it may not be relevant right now, but there's a chance it'd come in handy later. Thanks book, for being actually helpful. And not weirdly dehumanizing either.

She puts the book back.

How's Lianne going?

They seem to be getting bored, having turned to look out the window instead of focusing on the notes.

"You nearly done, or do you want more time?"

"I think I just need to note down my place; seems despite being more interested in this stuff now I'm not any better at reading..."

"Yeah, being interested doesn't perfectly translate into easy reading. Made any progress?"

"Some. Found a new book about dunjes, too, that has some information about where they form, which is probably relevant to the why and how I'm after."

"Yeah, if there's a pattern, that probably means something."

"It's hard to figure out how they cluster, but there's definitely some correlations with population - they're way more likely in cities - and possibly with specific areas."

"If the dunjes want something, going where people are wouldn't be a bad choice."

"Yeah. Also - it's weird, how the portal stones are different than the dunj? I've had a theory that the dunjes are made, and by different people than whoever or whatever is causing the portals."

"Would be there are reason you'd want a dunj but not a portal, or portal but not your own dunj?"

"We don't know if the portals are the only way in or out, is the thing. And there are a lot of reasons someone might want any sort of pocket dimension, and reasons they might abandon them. For the portals - I'm not sure on motives. Causing chaos without expending the resources a dunj might require? Social engineering? Looking for something?"

Yep, that is definitely an expression in response to the idea of causing chaos.

"I mean, the things that are capable of making dunjes may not be capable of making portals, or vice versa. Like how the dunjes contain critters, but probably are not made by them."

They nod. "We don't know what's out there, certainly, which is why - " And they gesture, frustrated, at the books. "But it seems no one knows much concretely."

"Yeah. Guess it's like-- if some aliens found houses, but not people, and had to work out what was going on from just that."

They nod. "At least our own archaeologists have a common species."

"Which is highly convenient. It'd be awkward if they were all assuming we had six arms, or something."

"They'd end up quite confused!"