update from sparkleup

writing/post-self/toledot/index.md

@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ Nearing the 200th anniversary of System secession from humanity, the System and
     * [o] [Launch: launch-side: Codrin#Blue](launch/launch/Codrin-blue/001) - Codrin#Blue interviews Dear about why it actually uploaded - 1767
     * [o] [Launch: launch-side: Codrin#Green](launch/launch/Codrin-green/002) - Codrin#Green writes eir thoughts on why Dear may have uploaded (showing divergences). - 3488
     * [o] [Launch: phys-side: Douglas](launch/phys/Douglas/004) - May had responded immediately, ofc, but asked about life on earth (hinting she uploaded ~time of Michelle), reminisces about childhood - 4738
-    * [ ] [Launch: sys-side: Ioan](launch/sys/Ioan/004) - Ioan interviews May about why she stayed behind, thoughts on not telling Douglas re: herself as Michelle
+    * [o] [Launch: sys-side: Ioan](launch/sys/Ioan/004) - Ioan interviews May about why she stayed behind, date of upload, thoughts on not telling Douglas re: herself as Michelle - 2725
     * [ ] [Secession: phys-side: Yared](secession/phys/Yared/004) - another change from Yosef, Yared starts to actually kind of believe that this is a good idea
     * [ ] [Launch: launch-side: Codrin#Blue](launch/launch/Codrin-blue/002) - Makes up with Dear, who gives suggestions on some names to interview and how to go about them
     * [ ] [Secession: sys-side: True Name](secession/sys/True-Name/002) - Meets with Jonas to discuss latest post from Yared, picking up on secession undertones, Jonas admits to own clade (explain that reputation doesn't exactly go down, but is spread among instances (changed later)).
@@ -124,6 +124,7 @@ Nearing the 200th anniversary of System secession from humanity, the System and
 * [X] Dear says in Qoheleth that it uploaded in the 2130s after the L5 station had been set up, have to address this incongruence (either shift dates, or give it a reason to lie; probably the latter, to downplay stuff to one it does not yet trust)
 * [.] True Name and Jonas begin wielding more and more power within the council despite the promise that forks will not influence balance of power, leads to Debarre and user11824 leaving council
 * [ ] Normalize "LVs", capitalizing Secession, launch arms vs struts, Council of Eight only exists in Secession (now viewed as i.e: founding fathers)
+* [ ] Easy to cut people off, build enclaves, isolate (thus "System freeze"); w/o shortages, leads to complacency, easy to govern/steer w/o big deal
 
 # Older stuff
 

writing/post-self/toledot/launch/sys/Ioan/004.md

@@ -119,3 +119,111 @@ She grinned and shook her head. "He will. He has already made up his mind, he ju
 Ioan straightened up. "Me?"
 
 "Of course. Can you think of a better myth? Can you think of a better story in history, of the man who brought the launches to fruition learning that he is talking to the very woman who helped bring Secession to fruition, the one who he has desired above all things to meet, who he thinks dead?"
+
+"A little grandiose, don't you think?"
+
+She stuck her tongue out at em, a strangely cute gesture. "Is that not a requirement of myths? A myth that is not grandiose is just a story."
+
+"You Odists do seem prone to grand gestures."
+
+May preened.
+
+Ioan set down eir pen and folded eir hands on the table. "Tell me a story about the clade."
+
+"One for the history? One for you?"
+
+Ey shrugged.
+
+She thought for a moment, once more drawing designs on the table with a claw.
+
+"Alright," she said, standing up. "Come with me, dear."
+
+Ioan stood to follow her as she padded from the common room to the balcony, then down the steps from their to the yard, a rectangle of grass hemmed in by a border of mulch, a fence of lilac bushes making up the border. It was technically the end of eir sim, though between the leaves and trunks of the bushes, one would occasionally catch a glimpse of another yard, another house, a street beyond.
+
+"Look," she said.
+
+Ey looked at the yard, at the lilacs, even the patio and the sky.
+
+"What do you see?"
+
+"My yard. What am I supposed to see?"
+
+"Look at the grass. What do you see?"
+
+Ey focused on the green carpet of grass, then frowned as ey began to notice the two or three yellow flowers spotting the yard just barely visible. They sat just a few millimeters below the tops of the trimmed grass. "What are those?"
+
+The skunk grinned to em.
+
+"May, what did you do?"
+
+"I talked you into a small addition. That is what I did."
+
+Ey knit eir brows. "Talked me into...how do you mean?"
+
+"You have ACLs over your property, I made a few suggestions, mostly when you were asleep --- or at least very sleepy --- or head in the clouds at work."
+
+"You're saying I made these?" ey asked, stepping out into the grass and bending down to inspect the flower, yellow, a myriad of pedals, grand-toothed leaves clustering the base.
+
+"I am saying that we made these." She bent down beside em and plucked the flower from its base, lifting it with a dreamlike smile. "I am saying that you trust me, and that life in the System is more subtle than you know. You trust me. You let me into your life as a coworker, then cohabitant, then cosleeper. You let me into your dreams, and your dreams influence this place as much as your waking mind."
+
+That waking mind was now whirling with the ramifications of what she was saying. "I did this on your suggestion?"
+
+She shook her head. "If you would like to think of it that way, yes, but I would prefer to say that we did this."
+
+"Is this your story?"
+
+"No. Sit down by me."
+
+They both shifted to a cross-legged position before this brand new plant in the yard, both looking at the yellow flower May turned this way and that in her paw.
+
+"This is a dandelion. It--"
+
+A memory clicked into place for Ioan and ey laughed. "Oh! Of course! I've been here too long, haven't I? Here in the system, here in the house with its perfect yard. They were all over back phys-side, though."
+
+May nodded and waited for em to continue.
+
+"We didn't have a yard where I grew up. Just an apartment block facing the street, a strip of weeds between the building and sidewalk, and then between the sidewalk and road. I only ever saw lawns in movies or on the net. The world wasn't as bad back then as Douglas makes it sound now, but still, we weren't wealthy." Ey laughed. "Well, we were dirt poor, I'll say. Most of the weeds were green, leafy things with fuzzy green flowers that would turn into bundles of seeds, but there were a few dandelions scattered about."
+
+"No lilacs?"
+
+"More stuff from media. I have no idea if they're accurate, but I remember loving the smell."
+
+"They're spot on, Ioan."
+
+Ey smiled.
+
+"So you uploaded and made your sim like this?"
+
+"Yeah. It was from some sim I frequented on the 'net, something a friend built. I found something close to it on the market, and when I had reputation enough, I dug the sim and grabbed that, then spent a year rebuilding the sim as best I could remember. No dandelions."
+
+She laughed, bumping her shoulder against eirs. "Of course."
+
+"They are a weed, yes. Or often thought of as one. The leaves make a good salad, though, and I was told that you could dry, roast, and grind the roots to make a coffee substitute."
+
+Ioan made a face. "I'd rather coffee."
+
+"I have no idea if the substitute was any good, but I like coffee, too." She held the flower up to her snout and smelled long at it. "Me, though, I like the flowers. They are too complicated for their own good, in this stage. Sure, they close up and then become the puffballs that spread them further and further, but here, they are almost platters of yellow."
+
+Ey grinned as she held the flower in both paws like a platter carrying food.
+
+"But that is not what I like about them. What I love is their scent." She held it up for em to sniff. "They smell like muffins. How can anything that smells like muffins be bad?"
+
+Ey breathed deep of that scent. There was, indeed, the scent of some baked sweet bread, but that layered atop a vegetal scent. It was not unpleasant, but not precisely like a muffin. Ey decided not to share this opinion with May.
+
+Instead, ey asked, "Is that your story, May?"
+
+"Of course not. You told the story." She laughed, peeking up to em slyly. "Or perhaps we told the story. You asked, so I suggested, and you told the story."
+
+Ioan frowned, then rolled eir eyes. "That's not what I asked, and you know it."
+
+"Tough shit. It is our story now," she said. "Now, give me your hand."
+
+Ey held eir hand out for her, then let her turn it over in her paws. Before ey could object, she flipped the flower over, pressed it firmly to eir skin, and rubbed it in a vigorous circle.
+
+"There." She held eir hand up so that ey could see, looking proud.
+
+On the back of eir hand, the skin shown a golden yellow in the circle where she had rubbed the flower.
+
+Ey shoved her over onto the grass, laughing. "You nut."
+
+She lay there among the grass, giggling helplessly. Among the grass, and a brand new dandelion in front of her snout. One that had not been there before.