S. doesn’t really have anything to tell as there not really something he can relate to that is about his actual life. All he knows of himself and his world is after he bumped into the strange city with skewed dimensions. S. tries to talk about the ship but Osfour interrupts in between and presents no interest in  hearing about it. Osfour is very reserved and unfriendly but S. is still glad to have a companion. Everything looks the same in the city and it’s very easy to get lost. Osfour repeatedly talks about stories of people who are strangers to S. and the changing price of a specific kind of tea or the abilities of a particular wine to spark sexual desire. S. has slowly grown on Osfour and his stories.

During the context of the story when Osfours’s stories about particular tea and aphrodisiac qualities are being discussed, FXC mentiones in a footnote about similar wine that one of the contestants for Straka’s true identity, Gurthrie MacInnes had  that would guarantee him the favor of anyone with him he shared it. Eric notes that Straka had told FXC some stuff first hand.

TURNS OUT SHE DID HAVE FIRSTHAND KNOWLEDGE. HE TRIED THIS WITH DURANG + HE TRIED IT W/HER.

In the marginalia, Eric and Jen just discuss on the possible connections of Straka with FXC.

*What if he collaborators didn’t work together in person? What if everything went through Filamela so no one would know exactly who VMS was?

Eric thinks that FXC knew exactly who S members were but she didn’t really care, as she said in the foreword , because she knew Straka via his books+their letters. That was Straka’s idenity to her which was meaningful to her more than who Straka was in real.

No-WHAT SHE SAID IN THE FOREWORD WAS TRUE- SHE DIDN’T CARE WHO HE MIGHT HAVE BEEN- BECAUSE SHE KNEW HIM VIA HIS BOOKS+THEIR LETTERS.