update from sparkleup

writing/post-self/toledot/launch/sys/Ioan/007.md

@@ -10,9 +10,9 @@
 > 
 > **Ioan:** Have you done much exploring in the mountains around here?
 > 
-> **Jinzai:** Oh, sure. They're fine. Some of the ones that I've gotten around to visiting are really nice. They've got a lot of variety and all. There are some that are more like the Alps and some that are more like the Himalayas and some that are kind of like the ones back home, but it's not that I miss, like, the idea of mountains. I miss the little bits of the mountains that made them mine. I miss all the little caves that you could find, or the trees that had fallen over and their root-balls had been pulled up and you could sit under them if you weren't afraid of bugs or anything [laughter]. I miss the little shacks that people had built years and years and years ago, and, like, you have no idea what they were there for, right? Maybe this one is next to a pond, so it's for fishing, but then that one is just kind of in the middle of a forest, and it's too big to be an outhouse and too small to be a cabin, so maybe its a, a [snapping] hunting blind? Is that the word?
+> **Jinzai:** Oh, sure. They're fine. Some of the ones that I've gotten around to visiting are really nice. They've got a lot of variety and all. There are some that are more like the Alps and some that are more like the Himalayas and some that are kind of like the ones back home, but it's not that I miss, like, the idea of mountains. I miss the little bits of the mountains that made them mine. I miss all the little caves that you could find, or the trees that had fallen over and their root-balls had been pulled up and you could sit under them if you weren't afraid of bugs or anything [laughter]. I miss the little shacks that people had built years and years and years ago, and, like, you have no idea what they were there for, right? Maybe this one is next to a pond, so it's for fishing, but then that one is just kind of in the middle of a forest, and it's too big to be an outhouse and too small to be a cabin, so maybe its a, a [snapping fingers] hunting blind? Is that the word?
 > 
-> **Ioan:** Where you sit and wait for animals to go by?
+> **Ioan:** Where you sit and wait for animals to go by while hunting?
 > 
 > **Jinzai:** Yes! A hunting blind. And then I miss --- and this is really silly --- I miss logging. It's horrible, right? [laughter] I know that it's horrible. Some people put in logging trails on their mountains, but they don't put those big swaths of woody trash that the loggers leave behind. I kind of miss that, you know? I miss looking out to the next mountain over and seeing this big rectangular patch of brown. I miss hearing chainsaws running miles away across the valley, but it sounds like, I don't know, like a dream, because it's echoing around the hills. 
 > 
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@
 
 -----
 
-Ioan didn't know quite what it was about the latest messages from the launches that was was nagging at em so much. It wasn't that either of the Codrins were sending back anything that was particularly surprising. Sure, the Odists had been a big part of Secession, but ey knew that, hadn't ey? They dealt with propaganda and speeches and politics, but the must have, right? That's what aimed for something like seceding from the rest of the governments on earth, right?
+Ioan didn't know quite what it was about the latest messages from the launches that was was nagging at em so much. It wasn't that either of the Codrins were sending back anything that was particularly surprising. Sure, the Odists had been a big part of Secession, but ey knew that, hadn't ey? They dealt with propaganda and speeches and politics, but the must have, right? That's what was needed for something like seceding from the rest of the governments on earth, right?
 
 It wasn't even particularly the more personal notes that ey'd gotten, expressing how life was going out on the LVs, all of the ways in which it was exactly the same, except for some key difference in sentiment. Those on the LVs felt like they were going on a journey, and those who remained at the L<sub>5</sub> System felt like they weren't, so there was an entirely different feeling between two societies that were otherwise identical.
 
@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ And yet, still...
 > 
 > **Ioan:** I'm sorry. Do you still talk with your children, at least?
 > 
-> **Magnús:** I talk with Anita sometimes. She says she might upload in a few years. She says married life isn't what they expected, and now they're in much the same position I was. They have kids. They're less strapped for cash with their husband's job, but they're still not going to get anywhere. It sounds like she has a much better relationship with their husband, though, so maybe it won't just be the same old cycle again.
+> **Magnús:** I talk with Anita sometimes. They say they might upload in a few years. They say married life isn't what they expected, and now they're in much the same position I was. They have kids. They're less strapped for cash with their husband's job, but they're still not going to get anywhere. It sounds like they have a much better relationship with their husband, though, so maybe it won't just be the same old cycle again.
 > 
 > **Ioan:** How do you feel about that as an option for them?
 > 
@@ -96,16 +96,18 @@ And yet, still...
 > 
 > **Ioan:** What sorts of things will you show them when they upload? What are some things that you like best up here?
 > 
-> **Magnús:** There's the things that I like best, and then the things that I think we'll like best together. The things that I like best are the really relaxing things. I like swimming and then going and laying on the grass. I like reading. I like just sim-hopping and people watching. The things that I think we'll like best together are probably some of the game sims that people have set up. She really liked a lot of the spy sims back on the 'net, like the ones where you hide behind walls and sneak through a base and play capture the flag or whatever. I always found them stressful when I did them on my own, but doing one with them, one where we had to escape from a search party, is one of my best memories of them. They have some good ones here that I think she'd like.
+> **Magnús:** There's the things that I like best, and then the things that I think we'll like best together. The things that I like best are the really relaxing things. I like swimming and then going and laying on the grass. I like reading. I like just sim-hopping and people watching. The things that I think we'll like best together are probably some of the game sims that people have set up. They really liked a lot of the spy sims back on the 'net, like the ones where you hide behind walls and sneak through a base and play capture the flag or whatever. I always found them stressful when I did them on my own, but doing one with them, one where we had to escape from a search party, is one of my best memories of them. They have some good ones here that I think they'd like.
 
 -----
 
 Eir current best guess at what kept their anxiety level always at least a little bit above baseline was the obvious similarities between Secession and Launch. It wasn't just that the Odists were involved in both, because both felt like something that the Odists would be interested in.
 
-Rather, it was the fact that the very same individuals had wormed their way into the vary same roles with two projects of very similar structure. Again, on the surface, not too surprising, but the result of that was that the two events started to look almost the same, which in turn made Ioan think that Secession had been almost a practice run for Launch.
+Rather, it was the fact that the very same individuals had wormed their way into the very same roles with two projects of very similar structure. Again, on the surface, not too surprising, but the result of that was that the two events started to look almost the same, which in turn made Ioan think that Secession had been almost a practice run for Launch.
 
 Obviously it wasn't. At least not precisely. Secession was a necessary thing based on the politics of the time phys-side, while Launch was something that was borne out of a desire to explore.
 
+Wasn't it?
+
 It just felt an awful lot like those who had helped the most with Secession used their work as a template for executing the launch.
 
 -----
@@ -114,7 +116,7 @@ It just felt an awful lot like those who had helped the most with Secession used
 > 
 > **Rosemary Seeley:** I think just how lonely it was at first.
 > 
-> **Ioan:** Can you expand on that a little?
+> **Ioan:** Can you expand on that?
 > 
 > **Rosemary:** I mean, when you first upload, you're kinda dumped into a set of common areas until you get figure out where you're going to stay or whatever. You can meet up with family members if you have them --- I didn't --- or you can meet up with those of a similar culture or religion --- I'm from the middle of the blandest town on the planet and don't hold to any religion --- or maybe you can meet up with others base around a similar interest. Thing is, I'm really interested in just cooking and chatting and reading.
 > 
@@ -150,7 +152,7 @@ It just felt an awful lot like those who had helped the most with Secession used
 
 And so here ey was, hunting down those who had uploaded specifically for the money that it would leave their families and friends back phys-side. Their stories were, ey figured, just as valid as anyone's. They were just as valid as eir own, for had ey not done the same? Here ey was, interviewing those like emself.
 
-These were the people who had moved to the system out of some sense of not just a better life for themselves, but one for those whom they had left behind. Ioan had had few enough ties back to eir family phys-side after uploading --- only enough to ensure that the payments had gone through and that they were alright --- and then none since then.
+These were the people who had moved to the system out of some sense of not just a better life for themselves, but one for those they had left behind. Ioan had had few enough ties back to eir family phys-side after uploading --- only enough to ensure that the payments had gone through and that they were alright --- and then none since then. If any of eir family had uploaded since then, none had gotten in touch.
 
 Eir hope in undertaking this exercise had been to learn a bit more about the time between Secession and Launch, about what had lead to the demographics of a System that had decided to hurl large portions of itself out into space. Was it something perhaps borne of the sentiment of the population that had grown in the intervening years? Was it something that had always been there?
 
@@ -158,7 +160,7 @@ When ey had come up with the list of questions, ey had intended to divine why th
 
 And yet now, it seemed like that was, at most, a secondary effect.
 
-So much was going on that had gone on before and so many of the same actors were involved, that although these interviews had been interesting in and of themselves, it seemed doubtless that such had had any notable affect. 
+So much was going on that had gone on before and so many of the same actors were involved that, although these interviews had been interesting in and of themselves, it seemed doubtless that such had had any notable affect. 
 
 -----
 
@@ -174,7 +176,7 @@ So much was going on that had gone on before and so many of the same actors were
 
 > **Ioan:** How do you feel about the launch?
 > 
-> **Magnús:** I don't care. It doesn't matter, does it? It's just this wild-eyed idea that feels like it doesn't have much relevance. I don't remember having any interest in exploring the galaxy [said in a singsong voice] when I was on Earth, and I don't have any now, so why bother? I don't think anyone else did, down there, either.
+> **Magnús:** I don't care. It doesn't matter, does it? It's just this wild-eyed idea that feels like it doesn't have much relevance. I don't remember having any interest in [said in a singsong voice] exploring the galaxy when I was on Earth, and I don't have any now, so why bother? I don't think anyone else did, down there, either.
 > 
 > **Ioan:** Did you send a fork along with the launches?
 > 
@@ -192,4 +194,4 @@ So much was going on that had gone on before and so many of the same actors were
 
 -----
 
-And so ey went home, back to work on the project, back to receive more updates from the Codrins and the LVs. Back to sit in front of an empty page, considering what it meant that they felt caught up in some storm, some vortex that ey could not see except that the occasional landmark would pass through their field of view, once every two hundred years. Back to sit with May and at least feel comfortable with someone, even if that someone was starting to feel, for some reason ey could not divine, tied to that very vortex.
+And so ey went home, back to work on the project, back to receive more updates from the Codrins and the LVs. Back to sit in front of an empty page, considering what it meant that they felt caught up in some storm, some vortex that ey could not see except that the occasional landmark would pass through their field of view, once every two hundred years. Back to sit with May and at least feel comfortable with someone, even if that someone was starting to feel, for some reason ey could not fully understand, part of that very vortex.