update from sparkleup

writing/post-self/toledot/launch/phys/Douglas/007.md

@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ Ioan, too, had proven to be fascinating to talk to. Ey was, as May Then My Name
 
 They were also very clearly in love with each other, which Douglas found odd, for some reason, given how often they referred to each other simply as coworkers. Ioan, especially, seemed either completely unwilling to acknowledgement or simply had not internalized it on eir side.
 
-Ah well. It was an interesting fact, at least, in that when Douglas had interacted with couples before, he had often felt like...well, not a third wheel, particularly, so much as someone who simply did not understand the social dynamic at hand.
+Ah well. It was an interesting fact, at least, in that when Douglas had interacted with couples before, he had often felt like...well, not a third wheel, particularly, so much as someone who simply did not understand the social dynamic at hand. Not so with them.
 
 As enjoyable as all of the conversations were, however, and as much as he was beginning to understand sys-side life, he seemed to gain little in the way of actual knowledge.
 
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ Tonight, it was Ioan.
 
 **Ioan:** Hmm.
 
-**Ioan:** Intense, is maybe the right word? She doesn't chatter all of the time or run around or anything. Usually, she's just working, come to think of it, and she does all of her work up in her head. She'll have good conversations with me or with you, walk around, clean or cook, which I realize makes her sound very domestic, which isn't really the case.
+**Ioan:** Intense, is maybe the right word? She doesn't chatter all of the time or run around or anything. Usually, she's just working, come to think of it, and she does all of her work up in her head. She'll have good conversations with me or with you, walk around, clean or cook, which I realize makes her sound very domestic, which isn't really the case. Those are just things she enjoys.
 
 **Ioan:** But the whole time that she's doing those things, she's intense. Her expression, her personality, her words, her smile, her laugh, her eyes.
 
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ Douglas laughed, considered his options, shrugged, and typed his response.
 
 **Ioan:** You know, I'd never really considered that.
 
-**Ioan:** 'That' meaning that being a couple could come through in text.
+**Ioan:** 'That' meaning both being a couple and that such could come through in text.
 
 **Ioan:** I don't know that we are, actually.
 
@@ -64,13 +64,13 @@ Douglas laughed, considered his options, shrugged, and typed his response.
 
 **Douglas:** Shit, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to presume.
 
-**Ioan:** I also don't know that we aren't, either. Sometimes it'll come up in my mind and I'll wonder about it a little, but it always slips away and then I'm back to organizing my pen collection or whatever May accuses me of.
+**Ioan:** I also don't know that we aren't, either. Sometimes the question will come up in my mind and I'll wonder about it a little, but it always slips away and then I'm back to organizing my pen collection or whatever May accuses me of.
 
 **Douglas:** But you've never talked with her about it?
 
 **Ioan:** No. Same problem as mentioned above. Every time I think of asking she's already asleep or too busy or I'm out on an interview as #Tracker and then it just slips my mind.
 
-**Ioan:** You can't be a couple without agreeing that you are, right? So I guess that means we aren't!
+**Ioan:** You can't be a couple without agreeing that you are, right? So maybe that means we aren't? It's above my pay grade.
 
 **Douglas:** Do you want to be?
 
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ Douglas laughed, considered his options, shrugged, and typed his response.
 
 **Ioan:** Another incredible thing about them is that they are, to a one, incredible magnets for strange goings on. I guess that's part of being strange, but even so, every one of them has this incredible story about these events that have happened around them. I don't think it's a conscious thing, necessarily. Just by virtue of their intensity, they intense happenings, or intense friends, or intense reactions from those around them.
 
-**Ioan:** For example --- and this is public information here, now, I don't know if it ever made it phys-side --- it was one of them who discovered that those who live sys-side can't ever actually forget things. Instead of simply publishing some sort of report or studying the reality of it, he adopted the persona of a biblical teacher and organized an entire scavenger hunt to try and get the rest of the clade interested.
+**Ioan:** For example --- and this is public information here, now, I don't know if it ever made it phys-side --- it was one of them who discovered (or at least was public about) the fact that those who live sys-side can't ever actually forget things. Instead of simply publishing some sort of report or studying the reality of it, he adopted the persona of a biblical teacher and organized an entire scavenger hunt to try and get the rest of the clade interested.
 
 **Douglas:** That sounds incredibly dramatic.
 
@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@ Douglas laughed, considered his options, shrugged, and typed his response.
 
 **Douglas:** Can you tell me about their names? They all seem similar to the snippets of poetry that May Then My Name kept sending me.
 
-**Ioan:** They're all really strange, I can certainly say that, but they're also a very, very touchy subject for them, enough that Qoheleth, the one who did the scavenger hunt, the one I mentioned isn't here anymore, was assassinated for trying to divulge some information about their names.
+**Ioan:** They're all really strange, I can certainly say that, but they're also a very, very touchy subject for them, enough that Qoheleth, the aforementioned Odist who did the scavenger hunt, the one I mentioned isn't here anymore, was assassinated for trying to divulge some information about their names.
 
 **Douglas:** Assassinated?!
 
@@ -158,7 +158,7 @@ Douglas laughed, considered his options, shrugged, and typed his response.
 
 **Douglas:** Sure, I guess.
 
-**Ioan:** Great. I want to see her go nuts.
+**Ioan:** Great. Please do. I want to see her go nuts.
 
 **Ioan:** Strange question: you say that you don't start projects without a little push, but you also said that you applied for the launch director position on a whim.