update from sparkleup

writing/post-self/meeting-of-one.md

@@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
-Ioan Bălan, despite all attempts to keep emself from sinking into the depths of whatever it was studying, always managed to find himself mired in details ey could not hope to escape. They twined and twisted around eir wrists, tripped em up about the ankles, and tugged em ever deeper into the fractal complications of whatever topic ey decided would be the subject of eir next work.
+%title Meeting of One
+
+Ioan Bălan, despite all attempts to keep emself from sinking into the depths of whatever ey was studying, always managed to find emself mired in details ey could not hope to escape. They twined and twisted around eir wrists, tripped em up about the ankles, and tugged em ever deeper into the fractal complications of whatever topic ey decided would be the subject of eir next work.
 
 A recent paper ey had completed on an unnerving social breakdown in one of the old clades — those collection of individuals forked from a single uploaded consciousness — had garnered em no small amount of notoriety and plenty of credit on the reputation market.
 
@@ -10,15 +12,15 @@ Since the paper had been published and reviewed — and reviewed and re-reviewed
 
 This last was divided into roughly two piles, itself: the first was on topics of religion and the second was everything else. The first pile far and away outsized the second.
 
-Today's inquiry was that of "The Joseph Chace Friends Meeting".
+The current subject was spurred note ey had received titled "The Joseph Chace Friends Meeting".
 
-The name alone was enough to grab Ioan's attention. Was it a meeting of one person's friends? What would they meet about? A fan-club, perhaps? Those still lingered, even in this post-self society.
+The name alone was enough to grab Ioan's attention. Was it a meeting of one person's friends? If so, why was it tagged 'religion'? What would they meet about? A fan-club, perhaps? Those still lingered, even in this post-self society.
 
 The note clarified:
 
 > Ioan Bălan:
 > 
-> My name is Joseph Chace and I am the…well, the language fails me. Organizer? Sole member? Recorded minister?
+> My name is Joseph Chace and I am the...well, the language fails me. Organizer? Sole member? Recorded minister?
 > 
 > Either way, I am part of the Joseph Chace Friends Meeting. This meeting began on the occasion of my upload into the system as one of the first Quakers (or, at least recorded members).
 > 
@@ -26,23 +28,25 @@ The note clarified:
 > 
 > It is not a requirement, but as someone who spent their embodied life bounded by the constraints of a Quaker meeting, not having those things felt like leaving home.
 > 
-> To that end, and with the lack of other Quakers uploading, I devised a method for creating a meeting of my own. Given your work on the Ode Clade business (well done, by the way!), I thought you might appreciate my attempt at a meeting of one. I understand that you are a busy individual, but if you are able to, I would love to invite you to a meeting for worship. We will discuss more at the time should you accept.
+> To that end, and with the lack of other Quakers uploading, I devised a method for creating a meeting of my own. Given your anthropological work on the Ode Clade business (well done, by the way!), I thought you might appreciate my attempt at a meeting of one. I understand that you are a busy individual, but if you are able to, I would love to invite you to a meeting for worship. We will discuss more at the time should you accept.
 > 
 > Many thanks,
 > 
 > Joseph Chace (prime)
 
-This was not the first religious movement that Ioan had found or been asked to investigate. As an historian, ey was well acquainted with the unspoken maxim that, should one wish to be at the center of grand changes, whether in society or in thought, one ought to hang around centers of religion. In the past, ey had followed (with a fork, natch) more than one cult in whatever state of formation.
+This was not the first religious movement that Ioan had found or been asked to investigate, though it was certainly the oldest. As an historian, ey was well acquainted with the unspoken maxim that, should one wish to be at the center of grand changes, whether in society or in thought, one ought to hang around centers of religion. In the past, ey had followed (with a fork, natch) more than one cult in whatever state of formation.
 
 Ah well, it was worth checking out, was it not?
 
 -----
 
+As easy as forking one's personality was within the system, it always felt to Ioan as though it came with a brief thrill of splitting: a sudden doubling, a sudden branching of experiences. Four hands were better than two, though.
+
 Ioan forked into Ioan Bălan#d116001, who left with a pad of nice paper and a nice pen to go along with it to investigate this meeting of one.
 
 Ey was greeted by Joseph Chace. A Joseph Chace, ey soon realized, for unassuming building, low-slung and painted drab, seemed to be populated entirely by copies of the same person.
 
-"Joseph? Uh…Chace Prime?" Ioan asked.
+"Joseph? Uh...Chace Prime?" Ioan asked.
 
 "No, I'm Chace Epsilon. Prime's setting up, but we've all been briefed. Ioan, yes? A pleasure to meet you."
 
@@ -70,11 +74,11 @@ After the last of the Josephs Chace filed into the room and had taken their seat
 
 And with that, the meeting began. Prime sat down once more and the room fell to silence broken only by breathing and the occasional shuffle of legs being crossed or uncrossed.
 
-Ioan found emself somewhat shocked by the brief introduction followed by total silence. There was no sermon, no reading, no music. No call to the egregore preceded this sudden, overwhelming group awareness, and no words were spoken as slowly, the room seemed to fall into synchronized breathing and some unseen, unknown, unknowable…companionship welled within the room. Ioan could not think of a better word.
+Ioan found emself somewhat shocked by the brief introduction followed by total silence. There was no sermon, no reading, no music. No call to the egregore preceded this sudden, overwhelming group awareness, and no words were spoken as slowly, the room seemed to fall into synchronized breathing and some unseen, unknown, unknowable...companionship welled within the room. Ioan could not think of a better word.
 
 Ey felt apart, in this meeting of one, despite the twenty-odd individuals sitting in the room. Ey felt alone and individual, and not just for the occasional note ey scribbled on the pad. Ey felt apart, an other in the midst of a group so intimately bound.
 
-The silence was not heavy. It was not oppressive. It simply…was. Ey sat with legs crossed, and recalled previous investigations that required meditation, calling on those reserves to keep emself present and observant, not to mention to keep emself from fidgeting.
+The silence was not heavy. It was not oppressive. It simply...was. Ey sat with legs crossed, and recalled previous investigations that required meditation, calling on those reserves to keep emself present and observant, not to mention to keep emself from fidgeting.
 
 Perhaps twenty minutes elapsed in silence before one of the Chaces stood.
 
@@ -116,7 +120,7 @@ Ioan gave this comment the kind silence it seemed to demand.
 
 "Anyway, there were four of us, the other three descended from myself but sufficiently changed by their independent experiences so as to start to feel like new people and not just duplicates. It was Beta who suggested we try having a meeting for worship. A joke at first, but it wound up dredging up all sorts of comforting, communal memories, and so we all agreed to just keep meeting."
 
-"Did you ever fork specifically for the purpose of building this…uh, congregation?"
+"Did you ever fork specifically for the purpose of building this...uh, congregation?"
 
 Chace laughed. "A few times, I'll admit. Rather, I forked for things that probably didn't require it. A research interview I promised myself I was too busy to actually attend. A dinner function I didn't want to go to anyway. Just little things that didn't need another copy of myself, but that would simply add to the meeting."