update from sparkleup

writing/post-self/toledot/secession/sys/True-Name/004.md

@@ -90,4 +90,52 @@ She was, indeed, cuter, but this was tempered by a more conventionally attractiv
 
 "Oh, this is delightful."
 
-Praiseworthy beamed. "I am glad that you enjoy. 
+Praiseworthy beamed. "I am glad that you enjoy."
+
+They worked next on how to better her affect. Smile more earnestly, laugh more easily, transition from those expressions to stern or confident or pitying. There were a few more forks as they worked on ways to soften True Name's voice, pitching it just a little lower, rounding some of the vowels, practicing elocution.
+
+Eventually, when the practice and modifications had wrapped up, nearly two hours later, the two skunks sat at the top of a low raise in the landscape, and True Name discussed the other reason that she had sought out Praiseworthy.
+
+"I need help in spreading ideas. I know that you seem to have settled back into some acting and directing, and I realize that I do not have the time or energy to guide emotions and reactions to news while still working on this political angle." She plucked at a few blades of grass, rolling them into little balls between fingerpads. "I know that propaganda is not the same thing as theater, but would you be willing--"
+
+"Yes!" Praiseworthy laughed. "Of course I am. There is more than a little propagandizing in trying to get actors to do their fucking jobs, even when the actors are yourself. What precisely do you need? Speeches? Words whispered here and there? Posters?"
+
+True Name laughed and shook her head. "Not quite the answer that I was expecting, but yes. Speeches and letters specifically. Some geared toward phys-side, some toward the Council, and probably a few towards other groups sys-side. I would not turn down a few words whispered here and there, though that will take some strategizing. There will be an instance of Jonas who we will be working with, as well."
+
+"I will look forward to it, then."
+
+They sat for a while in the sun, each looking out into the fields. At one point, Praiseworthy took off her glasses and set them on the bridge of True Name's muzzle, shook her head, and slid them into a jacket pocket.
+
+It was good to be around oneself, True Name realized. There was none of the pressure involved with interacting with others, none of the careful maneuvering required when talking with Jonas. They could just sit there, side by side, and understand that there was nothing between them that the other did not also, at least to some extent, understand.
+
+"Have you talked to many others in the clade?" Praiseworthy asked.
+
+She shook her head. "Here and there. I have a meeting scheduled with Life Breeds Life, but that is about it. You?"
+
+"You were the last I had yet to speak with. It is interesting to see how we have each decided to focus on different areas. You dove hard into the political machinations. I tried to get back to theater, but enough of that desire remained in me that your propaganda sounds fun. Life Breeds Life is quite strange. He has been focusing--"
+
+"He?"
+
+Praiseworthy shrugged. "I guess. He has been focusing on historical stuff. Documenting this and that, digging into old things. I have no idea where that came from. Hammered silver is writing, these days, May One Day is fiddling with reputation markets --- or at least as much as Debarre will let her --- and last I heard, Loss For Images has just been either chilling here with Michelle or sim-hopping."
+
+"How is she, anyway?"
+
+"Michelle?" Praiseworthy frowned, ears tilting back. "Much the same. I think the last of her energy went into us, and she is...I don't know. Empty? She spends a lot of time sleeping, a lot of time sitting and thinking. She has come to a play, but left partway through. She is still of two minds."
+
+"And she still hasn't explained why she never fixed it?"
+
+The skunk shook her head.
+
+"Any guesses?"
+
+"Nothing solid."
+
+True Name nodded and turned her gaze back to the rolling plain. So much grass. So many dandelions. "There is a time and a place for dwelling in memory," she said. "But Michelle does nothing else. It is no wonder she is stuck. When...when ey died, I think she began to as well. When she she dumped the last of herself into the Ode, she sealed the deal."
+
+Praiseworthy said nothing.
+
+"She is dead, I think. There is no more life in her. There is nothing to be done but let her enjoy that death as long as she would like. I do not expect that she will come back."
+
+The other skunk drew her knees to her chest and folded her arms across them. "Yeah, I think you may be right in that. Let her do what makes herself happy."
+
+"Only, I wonder if she knows it, yet," True name said, then let silence fall again, watching as afternoon slid carefully into evening.