update from sparkleup

writing/post-self/mitzvot/003.md

@@ -90,6 +90,88 @@ Ioan tilted eir head thoughtfully. "Sounds like, yeah. At least, from what I hea
 
 Ey nodded. "Right, sorry."
 
-"It is alright. Thank you for understanding." She raised her cup towards em in a small toast.
+"It is alright. Thank you for understanding." She raised her cup towards em in a small toast. "As to your book, however, I found it most interesting in that I was able to learn much about the assessment and impact of the events on the...ah, liberal side of the clade."
 
-((Talk more about the play, conservatives' view on it. Somehow get to the fact that #Castor never told her about Codrin learning the name, maybe she asks what news from Castor got em thinking about that in particular, since it Qoheleth had little to do with Michelle/Sasha))
+Ioan had to focus on keeping eir expression neutral. True Name hadn't had the kindest of words for the self-proclaimed liberal Odists. "I'll admit, I was worried as to how the book would go over with the conservatives."
+
+"There were no assassins in the night, I trust?" she asked, grinning.
+
+"Uh...well, no," ey stammered, caught off guard by the humor. "Actually, no contact at all. I don't think I've even talked about what happened with the other side of the clade until now."
+
+"'The other side of the clade' is a more appropriate phrase, is it not? We are spread along a spectrum. Those like Dear, May Then My Name, and A Finger Pointing at one end, those such as Praiseworthy, Those Who Forge, and Teeth Of Death somewhere in the middle, and then me and my ilk on the other." The skunk finished her coffee and leaned forward to set her cup down before continuing. "To soothe any fears you may have, it was not me who hired Guōweī, nor am I pleased with what happened and how."
+
+"Who did? Do you know?"
+
+She smiled pityingly at em. "Ioan, please."
+
+"Right, of course you do. I don't imagine you feel comfortable telling me who, though."
+
+"It is not a matter of comfort, my dear, it is one of information hygiene. The fewer people who know, the less of a chance there is of plans going awry. Besides," she nodded toward em. "We considered the impact that *Perils* would have on the System, and leaving that element of mystery in it accomplished our goals."
+
+"Goals?" Ey shook eir head. "How do you mean?"
+
+The skunk folded her paws in her lap, leaning back against the couch. "What would you say the current public opinion is of the book?"
+
+"I...well, hmm. If you'd asked me that a few weeks ago, I wouldn't have been able to say, but I've been digging back into it for this project. I guess most seem to see it as a sort of cautionary tale. I didn't publish the internal report, so I think the fact that it read like investigative journalism made people treat it almost like a work of fiction."
+
+"Yes, and mystery plays a role in that. This is why we suggested you not publish the clade-side report. There is an appropriate level of mystery in what you did publish that aligned with our goals."
+
+"So, similar to what you did with the *History*."
+
+She smiled and gave a hint of a bow. "Yes. In a relatively short time, both have started to fade into a near mythical status. A credit to your skills as a writer, Mx. Bălan."
+
+Ey smiled faintly. "Thanks, I guess. Why, though?"
+
+"Why are they becoming myths?" She shrugged. "Life on the System is shaped by the modes of our existence. Creativity has assumed a level of primacy that was not feasible phys-side, and so successful creative works accelerate more quickly toward myth, here."
+
+Ey nodded. "And you? What do you think of it?"
+
+"Of *Perils*?"
+
+"That, the possible play, the events as a whole."
+
+There was a moment of silence as the skunk thought, brushing a paw over one of her knees to smooth out her slacks. "With the understanding that there is much that I cannot tell you about my feelings on the proceedings, I found it all frustrating and unnerving. I worked with Qoheleth on several occasions throughout the years, and watching his...I will not say decline, as I think the metaphor fails, but his metamorphosis from Odist to Qoheleth touched on some primal distress. As I have said, I am not pleased with what happened or how. I liked Qoheleth quite a bit."
+
+This seemed to deserve another moment of silence, one of acknowledgement rather than thoughtfulness, and so ey let it play out, the muffled clatter of the rest of the cafe coming through the cone of silence suddenly much more present.
+
+"What news from Castor had you thinking about *Perils*?"
+
+"I'm sorry?"
+
+"Well, I do not associate aliens or time modification or the...ah, struggles that Answers Will Not Help experienced with what happened with Qoheleth." She hesitated, added, "Or Michelle's struggles."
+
+Eir mind raced. How could ey possibly bring up the Name? That Codrin now knew it and that knowledge --- at least at one layer of remove --- had propagated through the clade? Surely she knew that, at least, but how could ey say that out loud to her?
+
+"Mx. Bălan?" True Name was frowning, whether at eir silence or expression ey couldn't guess. "I am guessing that the answer is complicated."
+
+"It...uh, yeah. What Codrin heard on Artemis...I mean..."
+
+The skunk tilted her head, gestured for em to continue.
+
+*Doesn't she know?* ey thought. *She has to.*
+
+"Well," ey stammered, hastily backtracking through eir train of thought. Perhaps ey should stick with ignorance as well. "All that about getting lost, and how fourthrace experienced similar and also dealt with long-term effects."
+
+Still frowning, she nodded.
+
+"It was all bound up in some clade-eyes only thoughts," ey hastened to add, hoping that the slight untruth would be enough. "Eir worries about Dear...but I don't want to say anymore."
+
+That seemed to have been enough, as the tenseness that had been building in her shoulders relaxed, though her frown remained. "Of course, yes, I did not mean to press. My apologies."
+
+Ey shook eir head and waved a hand. "It's okay, promise, I just had to disentangle all those thoughts really quickly."
+
+"You are a very thoughtful person," she said, a hint of a smile creeping back onto her muzzle. "In the common sense as well as in the sense that you seem to be at all times full of thoughts."
+
+"I lost track of the number of times May's accused me of living up in my head a long time ago, yeah."
+
+"There is no harm in it, my dear. It serves you well." She settled back against the couch once more and sighed. "Pleasant as it has been, I have spent more time talking than intended. I would like to get a bit of work done before I lose track of the threads, if that is alright."
+
+Ey smiled and nodded. "Of course, True Name."
+
+As the skunk's focus drifted away, ey opened eir notebook again and stared at what ey'd written already. The words were marks on the page, ey could tell, but eir mind was so wrapped up in the conversation that ey wasn't able to make sense of them. Too much had gone on in too short a timespan. All that talk of Qoheleth, of the conservatives' opinions of the events, or at least of True Name's.
+
+She'd been so candid about it all, just as she'd been growing more candid with em in general over the last few years. She had all the reason in the world to use her centuries of skills to use that intentionally, though. Ey'd never met anyone so tightly in control of themself as her. Perhaps even now, dozens, hundreds of sensorium messages were flying across her stanza preparing a oft landing for eir play in light of the fact that others now knew the Name.
+
+And yet...
+
+And yet ey couldn't stop emself from thinking, *Holy shit, I don't think she knows.*