The stream of Odists who came to visit Sasha in the days and weeks after the excursion to Jonas's was surprising. They seem to have accepted her change in identity far easier than expected. There were no instances of deadnaming (unless they were specifically talking about her past as True Name, as requested), no fights, no arguments.
Not everyone was happy, to be sure. Many of the discussions from those who stopped by were quite serious and, even though many took place in cones of silence, Ioan imagined that there was much in the way of airing of grievances. It was always done with an eye towards catharsis and reconciliation, however.
Serene, for instance came over the day after the whole kerfuffle, surprising the three of them well into the evening. They'd settled for a middle ground of dinner out on the extended balcony --- close enough to the house for them to cook a proper dinner without leaving Sasha feeling cooped up inside --- when the ping against their sensoria caused the three to jolt as one.
"That will be Serene!" May said excitedly, setting her half-finished plate down and hopping to her feet. "I opened the ACLs to a few, hope you do not mind."
"Opened-- wait, when?" Ioan asked, setting eir own plate down. "And to how many?"
But the skunk was already gone, bounding inside to greet the fox with a hug and excited chattering.
Ioan and Sasha followed after more sedately, both waiting until May had gotten her greeting out of the way before bowing to Serene.
"Ioan, a pleasure! It has been too long," she said, grinning widely. The grin faded, and she nodded to the spotted skunk. "And Sasha."
"Serene, thank you for stopping by. I was not expecting to see you so soon."
"I do not imagine so. May Then My Name has been conspiring behind the scenes, so this was all worked out ahead of time."
"Oh? How cheeky," Sasha said, laughing. "Were you really that confident that everything would work out, dear?"
May shook her head. "Reasonably confident, but I want Arrowhead Lake back no matter what, so I arranged for us a little meeting."
"Skunks, I swear." Ioan shook eir head. "Well, welcome all the same. We've got pasta, if you'd like."
Once she'd heaped a plate high with pasta, Serene followed them out onto the balcony to join them for the rest of their meal. She wrinkled her nose at the sight of the plain. "I suppose this was the best one could do on short notice, yes?"
"It wasn't too much, and it fit the need, yeah."
"It has served its purpose," Sasha said. "And it is not so bad close up. A little too flat, perhaps, but the river is nice."
Serene nodded and finished a mouthful of food before setting her fork down again. "I have at least come bearing a gift."
"Did you find your student?"
"Yes. He was still about, though he has...changed much in the intervening years. He was not as pleased to see me as I might have liked."
Sasha dipped her snout. "I am assuming that he has picked up on the sentiment surrounding the clade."
Serene nodded. "He read the *History* and came to the same conclusion that the rest of the System did. Our name is not mud, but, my dear, relationships changed after that knowledge became public."
"I understand."
"I do not want to hear you say that you are sorry, Sasha. I do not think that is how this works as you are now. I do not want to hear your justifications and explanations; I can understand them as well as anyone. I just want to hear your acknowledgement."
After setting her plate and fork down on the low table again, Sasha folded her paws in her lap, sat for a moment in silence, then said. "For as much as I tried to do --- for as much as Jonas and I both tried to do --- I do not think we had nearly the effect on the world around us as we thought we did, not on the grand scale. We played our games of politics and influence, but it was a game of relationships from start to finish, you are correct. True Name changed relationships. May Then My Name changed relationships. End Waking played his part. I do not know if it was for the better or for the worse, but I do acknowledge that it made a good many of them far more difficult."
There was another moment of silence, then Serene's wild grin returned. "Well, that felt good. Praiseworthy did all that shit, too, so, fuck it. Let me finish my pasta and I will fuck your sim up but good."
Once they'd finished dinner, Serene stood, stretched, and then leaned against the railing staring out over the plain. Her expression was calm, pleasant, though focused on something ey couldn't see. "Ioan, I will need ACLs over at least the exterior, including your yard, though I will do my best to keep it intact."
There was no further announcement. Nor, even, any change in Serene. She still looked out over the railing with a dreamy, far away look on her face even as the world dropped out beneath them.
The plain rippled and stretched, arching up high to the sky as though stretching after a long nap. Trees pried their way from the soil. Rocks broke free from the land. The river --- the one immediately before them, at least --- collapsed into itself to form a wide lake. The rest of the echoed versions of the plain where not occupied by mountains crinkled into some more complex geometry, the remainder of the range echoed outside the valley.
It *was* a little vertigo-inducing, too, but the worst of it wasn't due to the sudden change in the shape of the landscape, but in just how, well...serene it all was. The river shaping itself into the lake was not accompanied by some grand splashing of waves, simply the remaking of the water. There were no falling rocks or grand earthquakes, just the reshaping of the world. The light shifted. Gravity swayed, settled. All of it was silent.
"H-holy fuck," ey managed, clutching at the railing of the balcony. Both May and Sasha stood defiantly against the change, though neither looked as casual as the fox.
"I have set your house up the hill a ways from the default entry point to the old sim," she said, gesturing them down the steps from the balcony. They landed on a concrete pad set into the bed of pine needles, a small trail winding its way down the slope toward the water. She gestured toward the small ridge that rose next to them. "I had to modify the terrain a little bit to keep your yard level. You should be okay, but if you run into erosion problems, do let me know. I have been told of your affinity for weather, Ioan."
Sure enough, the fence remained level, wrapping around a small rectangle of hidden grass, the tops of lilac bushes overflowing.
The trail teed with the long familiar deer trail that wound around the lake, and, out of habit, they all started down towards the rock.
"Fauna?" Serene asked.
"Please." Sasha grinned sheepishly. "I would not like a repeat of that particular mistake."
Grinning and nodding, Serene kept up her steady pace, humming a little under her breath. There was no change that ey could see, though ey imagined her counting deer, rabbits, squirrels, and birds into existence.
For eir part, ey simply walked, hand in paw with May, and marveled. Ey'd discovered the lake decades ago, had spent countless days out here on walks, and at least one night camping. Still, it felt somehow new. Ey was rediscovering this place that ey'd not seen in months --- though ey'd spent longer stints away from it in the past --- and marveling at the detail all over again. A glance back over eir shoulder showed eir flat-roofed house peeking shyly from amid the trees, but other than that, it was, ey assumed, the same as it had bit.
They sat on the rock near the end of the lake and enjoyed the last of the sun. It was a little tight for four, but May tucked quite nicely up against eir side and Sasha, having slipped more into an End Waking mindset, had settled off to the side. She looked antsy, and ey suspected she'd request time to hike soon enough.
"How is the rest of the clade taking this?" she asked. "I sent a clade-wide message, but have not received responses."
Serene looked up from where she was investigating a few pine needles plucked from a branch on the way over with a discriminating eye. "I think that reactions will be largely positive. Several of my stanza have been been talking, and many feel as I do. It is fine, I am sure, and I have processed what I needed to and gotten what I wanted."
"Of course. I have been abandoned by the rest of my stanza, but at this point, the larger part of me does not want to have anything to do with them, anyway. I do not imagine Loss For Images and her ilk will take it well. I do hope that A Finger Pointing and I will have a chance to speak soon, as I am now enough May that I would enjoy attending a play or two."
"'May'?" Serene said, tiling her head and looking to the other skunk. "Have you forgiven her, then?"
May nodded. "Forgiven is maybe not the best word. I have internalized the way things are and accepted the way things are. I am pleased to know Sasha and who she has become."
The other skunk smiled faintly, nodded. "Though for all Ioan talked about trying to fix things, I place the largest part of who I have become on you, dear."
"I wasn't going to say anything," Ioan said, grinning.
