update from sparkleup

writing/post-self/qoheleth/RJ/005-a.md

@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 
 AwDae slowly picked emself up off of the floor, staggering to eir feet.
 
-Ey was standing, swaying, in the middle of a long row of lockers. And then ey was sitting again. Not from weakness, *per se*, but the shock of being in the tech booth and theater sim, and then suddenly being back in high school was taking its toll on eir wits.
+Ey was standing, swaying, in the middle of a long row of lockers. And then ey was sitting again. Not from weakness *per se*, but the shock of being in the tech booth and theater sim, and then suddenly being back in high school was taking its toll on eir wits.
 
 Ey swiped eir paw from left to right in front of emself to bring up the usual menu.
 
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ Ey sagged, rolling onto eir side in eir increasingly frustrated attempts to pull
 
 Frustration, anger, fear. Hopelessness. Terror. All simmered within em, working up to a boil as ey tried increasingly harder.
 
-Finally, ey gave up and, hastily brushing at the tears staining eir cheeks, slipped out of eir suit jacket as well. Why keep it? Yet another unfoxly garment.
+Finally, ey gave up and, hastily brushing at the tears staining eir cheeks, slipped out of eir tux jacket as well. Why keep it? Yet another unfoxly garment.
 
 Ey swished eir tail to the side and lay flat on eir back on the cool terrazzo floor. Ey pulled eir suit jacket up over eir face and buried eir muzzle in the soft lining. With paws holding the cloth to eir face, ey deliberately let the tears come. Willed them too. Forced. Screamed and begged. Anything for release from the tension building up.
 
@@ -63,13 +63,15 @@ It was in the middle of the second cuff that ey realized the absurdity of the mo
 
 So why was ey still in eir tux? Did ey even have a tux in eir wardrobe?
 
-AwDae puzzled over this for a moment before completing the cuff rolling. Something to look into later. For now, ey needed to find eir way out. Find eir way *back* out. Or, failing that, at least find one thing ey could complete. One, simple task to complete. Something to make em feel less powerless in the face of it all.
+AwDae puzzled over this for a moment before completing the cuff rolling. Something to look into later. For now, ey needed to find eir way out. Find eir way *back* out. Or, failing that, at least find one thing ey could finish. One, simple task to complete. Something to make em feel less powerless in the face of it all.
 
 Exploring, then.
 
+-----
+
 The sim was startlingly complete.
 
-Perhaps. Ey had been in London a few years, and before that, on the coast at university. Was it complete? Was it accurate? Despair lay around the corner: the thought that the chances of em being able to compare the sim and reality vanishingly small.
+Perhaps. Ey had been in London a few years, and before that, on the coast at university. *Was* it complete? Was it accurate? Despair lay around the corner: the thought that the chances of em being able to compare the sim and reality vanishingly small.
 
 In fact, the only thing that seemed to have changed was AwDae emself.
 
@@ -81,11 +83,11 @@ The house lights were at quarter, the stage lit only by utility lights from the
 
 AwDae brushed eir fingerpads along the lower lip of the soundboard. The screws were exactly where ey remembered.
 
-Swishing eir tail out of the way to, ey sat on the stool in before it. Ey reached a paw up past the master sliders, just around to the back of the board, where ey found the power switch.
+Swishing eir tail out of the way, ey sat on the stool in before it. Ey reached a paw up past the master sliders, just around to the back of the board, where ey found the power switch.
 
 Click.
 
-Nothing happened, so ey reached a little further back, finding the power strip for the booth itself, and toggled the switch on that. The board let out a satisfying pop of recognition as it came to life. The brief surge of power echoed throughout the room as speakers awoke. The theater uncoiled, purred to em, just as the one back in London had done...what? Three hours back? Five? A year
+Nothing happened, so ey reached a little further back, finding the power strip for the booth itself, and toggled the switch on that. The board let out a satisfying pop of recognition as it came to life. The brief surge of power echoed throughout the room as speakers awoke. The theater uncoiled, purred to em, just as the one back in London had done...what? Three hours back? Five? A year?
 
 Ey fumbled with the booth light, finding the ancient dial switch to wash away shadows with lazy red light. Light that illuminated a thin layer of dust covering the board and booth in a matte coating. Light that illuminated countless motes already disturbed. The only breaks in the coating were where eir fingers had brushed the dust away, leaving black slicks.