update from sparkleup

writing/post-self/neviim/local/codrin/011.md

@@ -1,3 +1,17 @@
 # Codrin Bălan#Artemis --- 2346
 
+Despite the excitement, the talks remained surprisingly banal. Even when the topic of the Odists' deception and the troubles that True Name#Emissary still suffered on Artemis, the talks still felt like political talks. The conference was still a conference, with its cloth-covered table and shitty pens, its uncomfortable chairs and weary participants.
+
+Ey counted emself among the weariest of them all. Tycho was still in his stride, and Sarah was keeping up well enough, though she remained fairly quiet throughout, focusing on watching rather than speaking or taking notes. Why Ask Questions had proceeded as though the news had never happened, continuing on in her litany of questions around biology and linguistics. In fact, the only one more tired seemed to be True Name.
+
+There was a tension around the skunk's eyes, a tightness to the face that ever so slightly drew her lips back. Even when she smiled, her expression remained fixed and rigid.
+
+It made sense, after all; acting in the capacity of leader was more than just overseeing the talks: it meant wrangling every conversation, and still managing to keep up her own side of it.
+
+Sleep seemed to bring no relief.
+
+The beds were comfortable, but empty. There was no wind against glass, no crickets stilled to silence with the passing of some imagined bat. There was no fox to curl around, no soft sounds of breathing. Nothing to love, only respect.
+
+Ey plowed through two cups of (thankfully quite good) coffee on the morning of the fourth day, and brought one with him to the conference table.
+
 Codrin gives Turun Ko a copy of *On the Origin of Our World* (against TN's suggestion, but she is in damage-control mode), which, after (**pronoun**) reads it, turns out to be the penultimate step towards moving forward with accepting as fifthrace. Yay Codrin