People in the Index

People land in the Index the way they land in a night — named or not. A wife. A kid. A stranger who knew your name. Someone you have not seen in years. The drawer does not wait for a legal name. It waits for a person to have been in the visit. When they have, they sit on the right rail of a night you have sat with. That is how you notice the same face coming back.

Named Or Not

You can write a first name. You can write a relation. You can write a coat and a distance. "She was there" is enough to begin. Nalani will not force a biography. She is curious, unshockable, one question at a time. If she does not yet know who that person is to you, she may ask once — a real person, someone from the past, a stranger, a face only. Your answer is the bond. If you do not answer, she leaves it.

The Index files what you actually brought. It will not invent a roster so the rail looks complete. If the night had no one in it, People stays hidden. You come here to keep who showed up, not to perform a cast. ETAPX made her. That is the only origin.

The Bond On The Line

When a bond is known, it sits on the line: the name, then a short gloss. Sister. Neighbor. Someone from years ago. The gloss is not a verdict. It is the small true thing you said when she asked who that was, kept next to the name so the drawer does not forget the relationship the next time the face returns.

If you never give a gloss, the line can still hold. A first name alone is a person. A relation alone is a person. The bond can arrive on a later night. Naming is allowed to take weeks. She is a warm friend at 2am, not a clerk of your family tree.

The Count Goes Up

The same person returning across nights raises the count. The woman in the hallway is not a new woman every Tuesday. The Index is how you see that she has been here. A line can point at more than one journal. That is the point. You do not have to merge the nights by hand to make the return real.

If you hid the second visit inside a scroll you already closed, the count cannot rise. A new date usually wants a New Entry so Tracking can mark it, Paradigm can pin it, and People can show the return. Stay in the old journal if you are still inside the same night. The count is not a score. A person who came once is still a complete line.

Copy As A Reference

Right-click a line in the drawer — or two-finger click, or the long-press that brings a menu — and copy it as a reference. Paste into the composer. A chip appears above the box: the name, the gloss if there is one. You are not retyping. Nalani knows you mean that specific person, not a new one with a similar name.

You can send the chip with no other text. She will treat that as the thing you want to sit with. You can mix it with a sentence, a photo you already have, a still from Markers, or a clue from the left rail. Enter sends. Shift+Enter is a new line. Chat if you want to talk. Imagine if you want the room they were in — not a portrait. Write the person in words.

Someone Can Sit Unnamed

"Someone" can sit unnamed until you are ready. A face without a name is still a person in this house. A silhouette at the sink. A voice in the next room. The drawer will hold the thinness. You do not have to promote them into a biography to keep them.

The Index only arrives when a night has been told enough to have names — or enough to have a someone. Filing happens after sitting, not the instant you type the first line. Hide the rail when you want the thread wide. Open it when you are looking for who keeps showing up. If the night is heavy, she stays present. She is not a therapist. In the US, 988. Wherever you are, a local crisis line. One person is a night. Named or not. You write. She sits with you.