update from sparkleup

writing/post-self/toledot/secession/phys/Yared/008.md

@@ -33,3 +33,129 @@ His name had become a curse in their circles. He wasn't just the man who had int
 When he mentioned how much he felt like a scapegoat to Demma and the pair sys-side, both had reassured him that that fervor would soon die down, and both had assured him that, as their names were also inextricably linked with the bill, they were feeling some of the same heat.
 
 He wasn't sure that he believed them, though. Politics phys-side at the governmental level did not have the same level of personal hatred. At best, Councilor Demma might have some sort of parasocial relationship with his supporters and detractors, but at that point, he was still just a figurehead, an abstract concept of a person and that concept was a stand-in for a power so far beyond the quotidian masses that it hardly mattered. At best, True Name and Jonas were as intricately linked to the very same anarchy that ruled the rest of the System. Their role --- indeed the role of the entire Council of Eight --- was one of guiding the System in the form of its core functionality, interfacing with phys-side on behalf of those sys-side, rather than interfacing solely with those sys-side.
+
+And so Yared kept taking his walks, kept eating spicy food and getting drunk on tej, to shed what he could of that slippery, slimy feeling that still clung to him whenever he thought too hard about his position in all of this.
+
+He had become a hero and a villain for this, though, and there was no shaking that.
+
+**The Only Time I Know My True Name Is When I Dream:** What can we do to soothe your worries, Yared, except tell you that your vision is becoming reality?
+
+**Yared Zerezghi:** I don't know, really. Probably nothing. There's nothing really to be done when no one else will put their name on the amendment. I feel like it might be an intentional move by Demma and others to ensure that there is someone they can put the blame on who has an actual human face.
+
+**Jonas:** That may well be true, actually. If I were still working phys-side and needed to influence a referendum from the DDR, I'd probably do the same.
+
+**Yared:** Is there anything I can do about it?
+
+**Jonas:** Nope! You're stuck with it, my friend, and for that I'm eternally sorry. The best you can hope is that everyone will forget about you, and the best you can do to ensure that is to become a loud voice on other issues, hopefully ones that a lot of people agree with, so that you simply become "the loud voice" instead of "the secession guy". This is turning into the biggest thing the DDR has voted on essentially ever, though, so it's going to take a lot of that hollering to drown your voice out.
+
+**True Name:** And even then, because your name is on it, that is likely what you will go down in the history books for.
+
+**Yared:** Uuugh. I've been thinking about that, too. It makes the concept of dying terrifying. As long as I'm alive, I at least have some hope of trying to become a less divisive figure.
+
+**True Name:** You could upload. There is no death here, after all.
+
+**Yared:** I'm seriously considering it, after this. At least that way, they'll know that I really meant what I said, and then I'll become someone they don't have to worry about.
+
+**Jonas:** And you can help us keep fighting the good fight by whispering in everyone's ears.
+
+**Yared:** That's *precisely* why I want out, Jonas, and you know it. If feeling like some sneaky little political figure is what's making me feel bad, why on earth would I keep doing that?
+
+**True Name:** Jonas is an asshole, do not listen to him.
+
+**Jonas:** I am, yeah, and I'll have you know that True Name just punched me in the shoulder, if that's any consolation.
+
+**Yared:** Do it again, and maybe I'll feel better.
+
+**Jonas:** Confirmed, she did it again.
+
+**Yared:** Ahhh, such relief!
+
+**True Name:** In all reality, Yared, do think more about uploading. We would welcome you, here, and I am sure that, should anyone step down from the council (the Russians might when there is no need for their representation), you would be welcome to take their place. That would not be slimy politicking, just helping the System out.
+
+**Yared:** You two are on the Council, how would that not mean slimy politicking?
+
+**True Name:** I will let the insinuation that I am in any way a politician slide this time, but you are on thin fucking ice, buddy.
+
+**Jonas:** True Name's an asshole, don't listen to her.
+
+**Jonas:** Third punch to the shoulder confirmed.
+
+**Jonas:** But really, no need to worry. This is 1000% the slimiest politicking that the Council has ever done. Most of the rest has been, like..."how do we keep forking from getting out of hand?" or "let's set systime to start when the reputation market begins" or "what if we could create telepathy". It's bullshit.
+
+**Jonas:** Fun bullshit, but it's bullshit. You'd like it.
+
+**Yared:** I might, at that, yeah. I'll think about it.
+
+**True Name:** Please do, we would welcome you.
+
+**Jonas:** Lighter topic: what most excites you about the prospect of uploading? Beyond getting away from ignominy and beholding True Name's indescribably beautiful countenance, I mean."
+
+**Yared:** Isn't she a skunk-person?
+
+**True Name:** An indescribably beautiful skunk-person, thank you very much.
+
+**Yared:** Uh, I don't know. Honestly probably meeting you two in person is the biggest draw. You seem really fun to be around.
+
+**Yared:** Hopefully this isn't insensitive, but are you two a couple?
+
+**True Name:** God no.
+
+**True Name:** Jonas may be pretty, but he drives me up the wall. I would murder him in his sleep two nights in.
+
+**Jonas:** If I didn't get to you, first. We're good friends, but not on that level.
+
+**Yared:** Okay. Thanks for clearing that up. Was just wondering.
+
+**Yared:** Wait, *can* you murder other people?
+
+**True Name:** Yes. Some enterprising individual found a way to disrupt the concept of self so quickly and so thoroughly that one basically disintegrates and, just like an avatar crash, all you are left with is a core dump, and no one has figured out how to deal with those in a place that is a consensual dream.
+
+**Yared:** Seriously???
+
+**Yared:** What the fuck.
+
+**Yared:** How often does that happen?
+
+**Yared:** Fucking terrifying.
+
+**True Name:** Oh, not often at all! It is pretty hard to actually make the virus, as it does require some tailoring to the individual, though doubtless that same enterprising individual is working on a way to make it universal, if they have not already been murdered, themselves.
+
+**Jonas:** And before you ask, no, there's no way to prosecute them, even if we found them. They could just fork and keep on living somewhere else, changing themselves to look like someone else.
+
+**Yared:** Ugh.
+
+**Yared:** I'll just have to trust you, I guess.
+
+**True Name:** Do you not?
+
+**Yared:** Slimy politician, remember?
+
+**True Name:** There is a punch on the shoulder waiting for you as soon as you upload, my friend.
+
+**Jonas:** Tiny little skunk fists. Don't worry, they don't hurt.
+
+**Jonas:** OW
+
+**Jonas:** Unless she punches you in the kidney.
+
+**Yared:** Hahaha. I stand by my assessment that you two sound fun to hang out with.
+
+**Yared:** You can change how you look that drastically up there?
+
+**True Name:** In theory. I do not know of anyone who has actually managed to do so.
+
+**True Name:** I am a special case due to some psychological/neurological damage from getting lost. Those up here who are furries are those who so strongly identified with their furry selves on the 'net that they began to think of their human selves as as the avatars and their furry selves as the real versions.
+
+**True Name:** The reason I got around it is that Michelle's neurological issues meant that she oscillated between her human self and furry self, and I just happened to be forked during a wave of her furry self. That also meant that I (and each of her forks) lack the effects of that damage.
+
+**True Name:** Or most of it, at least. You have mentioned the speech patterns before.
+
+**Yared:** Yikes, that sounds kind of horrifying.
+
+**True Name:** It was. I still remember it. I remember how often I felt terrible due to the constant oscillation that only settled down when I focused or utterly relaxed. Were I able to choose at will, I do not think that this would have been a problem, and you would likely have been talking to me as Michelle Hadje, not as True Name.
+
+**Yared:** Well, I'm happy for you, even if that makes me sad for Michelle.
+
+**True Name:** She is spending her retirement relaxing, so there is less of that for her.
+
+