update from sparkleup

writing/post-self/mitzvot/027.md

@@ -6,17 +6,17 @@ Still, that night, they slept for more than ten hours. It had taken May a while
 
 Eventually, though, they settled down into their usual spots and made it to sleep. 
 
-It was almost certainly the stress from the day before, ey reasoned. So much had happened in so short a time. Even the time spent relaxing on the beanbag with May felt at least productive, if still restful. So much had been packed into those last few hours, though, and so much emotion overall through the day, that the sleep felt necessary.
+It was almost certainly the stress from the day before, ey reasoned. So much had happened in so short a time. Even the time spent relaxing on the beanbag with May felt at least productive, if still restful. So much had been packed into those last few hours, though, and so much emotion overall through the day, that sleep became necessary.
 
 True Name had spent most of the rest of the evening outside, dragging one of eir chairs down from the balcony to park herself in the yard. Despite the lingering vestiges of snow and the chill of the evening, she spent hours out there, either staring up into the sky or grooming bits of forest litter out of her fur.
 
-Ey imagined that she must have made it into bed at some point, though she still woke well before them, as when they finally managed to pry themselves out of bed, there were two steaming coffee mugs sitting on the edge of the kitchen counter, one black and one sweet and creamy, and the skunk was once more sitting outside on the chair, her own coffee held against her chest.
+Ey imagined that she must have made it into bed at some point, though she still woke well before them, as when they finally managed to pry themselves out of bed, there were two steaming coffee mugs sitting on the edge of the kitchen counter, one black and one sweet and creamy, and the skunk was once more sitting outside on the chair, tail wrapped around her feet and coffee held against her chest.
 
 Ioan sent her a gentle sensorium ping, just to let her know that they were awake, then sat at eir desk. Ey had no clue what to even do, there, but if nothing else, ey had to have something comforting in front of em, something known. 
 
 "Well, nothing for it," ey mumbled, swiped a new notebook into being, and began to compile notes of the last few weeks. If ey was to write a book of this whole crazy affair, might as well keep eir thoughts organized.
 
-Ey began with a timeline, starting all the way back at the arrival of the Artemisians and that first meeting with True Name. Then followed the list of the times they'd met for coffee through the years. Ey dug through eir memories for any that stood out as particularly interesting. Primarily early on, ey found, when they were still feeling out each others' boundaries, though the last few before the assassination attempt held some fascinating insights in the context of all that had happened since, as well.
+Ey began with a timeline, starting all the way back at the arrival of the Artemisians and that first meeting with True Name. Then followed the list of the times they'd met for coffee through the years. Ey dug through eir memories for any that stood out as particularly interesting. These were primarily early on, ey found, when they were still feeling out each others' boundaries, though the last few before the assassination attempt held some fascinating insights in the context of all that had happened since, as well.
 
 Finally, the last almost three weeks were laid out in much finer detail. The assassination, the clearing of the house, the meeting with End Waking, all the way up through the meeting with Zacharias the night before.
 
@@ -29,11 +29,11 @@ She stood up from where she'd been crouched beside em, laughing. "It is well on
 "Wait, really?" Ey frowned when ey checked the time. "Great. Sorry about that, May."
 
 They pulled together the remaining few dishes of comfort food and called out to True Name to invite her in for a meal.
-Ey chose the last of the poor skunk's risotto, added a healthy dusting of paprika, and got another cup of coffee to go with it.
+Ey chose the last of the poor skunk's risotto, added a healthy dusting of pepper, and got another cup of coffee to go with it.
 
 "Thank you for lunch," True Name said, once she'd eaten most of her pasta. "When you have a moment, Ioan, I would like to see about expanding the sim as we discussed."
 
-"Right, yeah. Sorry I got so distracted this morning." Ey browsed the markets for appropriate wide open spaces ey could tack onto one of the borders of eir sim. Perhaps right beneath the skunk's window would be best. Ey could even extend the balcony and provide her with a set of stairs down into it. "Alright. What sort of environment? There's some pretty good plains and parks, an okay forest, hmm...this mountain one isn't bad, but the trees are kind of planted in a grid."
+"Right, yeah. Sorry I got so distracted this morning." Ey browsed the markets for appropriate wide open spaces ey could tack onto one of the borders of eir sim. Perhaps right beneath the skunk's window would be best. Ey could even extend the balcony and provide her with a set of stairs down into the space. "Alright. What sort of environment? There's some pretty good plains and parks, an okay forest, hmm...this mountain one isn't bad, but the trees are kind of planted in a grid."
 
 She grinned. "That sounds cheesy. However, let us go with a plain of some sort. I do not want to go back to a forest unless it is the one I remember, and a park would be too sterile. Is there nothing like Arrowhead Lake?"
 
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ The three of them stood and walked into the skunk's room. Ey was somewhat crestf
 
 Ah well, easy enough.
 
-Ey dumped a chunk of reputation into the purchase of the sim. Ey wasn't poor, and it wasn't a very pricey one, but it was still a noticeable ding, and ey was sure that Jonas would be keeping tabs on eir acquisitions. There was nothing to be done about it, though.
+Ey dumped a chunk of reputation into the purchase of the sim. Ey had plenty of reputation and it wasn't a very pricey one, but it was still a noticeable ding, and ey was sure that Jonas would be keeping tabs on eir acquisitions. There was nothing to be done about it, though.
 
 The sim landed on eir mind much as a pending merge might, demanding to be placed somewhere. Ey instructed the sim to put it in the corner formed by the fence of their yard and True Name's bedroom, expanded to be a mile on a side.
 
@@ -103,6 +103,9 @@ Asking how she was feeling felt counter to simply providing what she'd asked for
 
 Ey wasn't sure what May was doing, whether it was simply soaking up the affection and close proximity or some more thoughtful task. For eir part, though, ey went back to work on organizing events as they'd happened. Who knew what would come next.
 
+----- 
+<!-- maybe -->
+
 The next few days passed in relative peace, with both Odists slowly leveling back out to their baseline moods.
 
 Or, at least, May leveled out to her baseline mood. There still seemed to be some internal struggle within True Name. It wasn't that she was having to step away to sulk or caught in anger as she had been when she had begun to overflow, but that the conflicts were still showing in long silences that would sometimes take her in the middle of conversations, especially when the topic of meeting with Jonas came up.
@@ -125,7 +128,7 @@ May fiddled with eir sweater vest from where she lay against em. "I will admit t
 
 She winced. "That bad?"
 
-"Uncomfortable," the other skunk corrected. "But if I wanted to remain comfortable, I would have pushed back harder when you urged me to accept."
+"Uncomfortable," the other skunk corrected. "But if I wanted to remain comfortable, I would have pushed back when you urged me to accept."
 
 "What about May's merge would've been easier?" Ioan asked.
 
@@ -135,7 +138,7 @@ She winced. "That bad?"
 
 She nodded. "So I have noticed. Perhaps that is why it is proving to be such a project to settle into something resembling a singular nature again. I imagine that, given that May Then My Name has defined herself through something unique to her rather than some aspect of her relation to me, it would feel strange, but not so uncomfortable. Do correct me if I am wrong, though, my dear."
 
-She shook her head.
+May shook her head.
 
 "Well, besides," Ioan added. "She's certainly merged down way more recently than End Waking did."
 
@@ -153,7 +156,7 @@ May sighed and brushed her paws up over her head. "I said that I was working as
 
 A silence stretched out once more.
 
-Eventually, Ioan leaned over to put a kiss between May's ears. "Skunks are so complicated."
+Eventually, Ioan leaned over to tug at one of her ears gently. "Skunks are so complicated."
 
 She let out a pent up breath as a laugh. "I know, my dear. I am sorry. I am sorry to both of you. I believed it to be a small untruth. I wanted my relationship with True Name to seem simpler than it was to keep you feeling comfortable. I hoped that that would keep you from digging into my past. Fat load of good that did."
 
@@ -169,7 +172,7 @@ Ey laughed. "Really, *really* complicated."
 
 "Very." May turned her gaze back to True Name and said, "I have my apprehensions about merging, though. *We* have our apprehensions, I mean. After watching what happened with End Waking's merge, it all felt so much more complicated."
 
-"I do not know," she said, voice distant. "I said that I understand your reasons for what you did. You wanted me to change. You want me to be able to approach Jonas in some new way that will hopefully allow me to come out the other side with fewer assassins on my tail, yes?"
+"I do not know," she said, voice distant. "I said that I understand your reasons for what you did. You wanted me to change, to be other than I am. You want me to be able to approach Jonas in some new way that will hopefully allow me to come out the other side with fewer assassins on my tail, yes?"
 
 May nodded.
 
@@ -177,7 +180,7 @@ May nodded.
 
 Another nod.
 
-"I am amenable to both of those, then. But, May Then My Name, coming at this with both full knowledge and as an open conversation has me feeling more positive than perhaps you do," she said, voice having lost its thoughtful edge. "You are a fundamentally good person, my dear, and that is not something that I take lightly. You work on such a small scale and I have spoken against that in the past, but, well, a threat on one's life is a pretty good way to make one realize that the small scale is still important."
+"I am amenable to both of those, then, though perhaps my reasons differ. But, May Then My Name, coming at this with both full knowledge and as an open conversation has me feeling more positive than perhaps you do," she said, voice having lost its thoughtful edge. "You are a fundamentally good person and that is not something that I take lightly. You work on such a small scale and I have spoken against that in the past, but...well, a threat on one's life is a pretty good way to make one realize that the small scale is still important."
 
 "But Ioan and I--"
 
@@ -191,7 +194,7 @@ Ey took a deep breath, trying to bolster eir courage with it. "This last month h
 
 "And you, May Then My Name? We do not need to go too far into them, but if it is to be a discussion, I would like to at least have these thoughts laid out for perusal."
 
-Eir partner was a long time in responding. "I am with Ioan on this, in that I am protective of my devotion to em. It...is difficult to say this so openly, but I am also realizing how much I still care about you after the events of the last month, and the root of resentment that led to me urging End Waking's merge on you is no longer there, or at least no longer quite so strong, and I am uncomfortable pushing yet more resentment and difficulties on you. I do not want to hurt you."
+Eir partner was a long time in responding. "I am with Ioan on this, in that I am protective of my devotion to em. It...is difficult to say this so openly, but I am also realizing just how complex my feelings about you are after the events of the last month, and the root of resentment that led to me urging End Waking's merge on you is no longer there, or at least no longer quite so strong. I am uncomfortable pushing yet more resentment and difficulties on you. I do not want to hurt you."
 
 The longer May spoke, the more thoughtful True Name's expression became. She slouched down on the couch, until her head was resting against the back cushions. "I am not sure what to say to this just yet."