Erin's question stops Ducky short, and she licks her lips before speaking as if tasting the air, working very quickly through layers of implication.

"That she wasn't certain that the author Howard Phillips Lovecraft existed and came to prominence as a writer in the world we're in. And I'll admit, I've given his books a miss myself. I only allot so much time to fiction, and giving a virulent xenophobe the time of day has never seemed worth it. But that isn't the point. By asking that, our visitor is asserting she's not from this world--this dimension?--and she's uncertain of how deep the divergence is. Accurate assessment, miss?"