update from sparkleup

writing/post-self/marsh/004.md

@@ -158,7 +158,7 @@ A snort of laughter and she nodded. "Sneaky is one way to put it, yes. They shap
 
 Wary of letting the topic drift too far, I said, "Have they gotten anything else from phys-side, then?"
 
-She shrugged. "There has been little enough interaction with sys-side over the years, and even less of late, now that the climate has started to level out back on Earth. The rate of uploads has even leveled off from its slow increase over time. We rarely hear much except what comes through the newly uploaded." She sipped her mocha, seeming to take that time to sort out her thoughts. "Our political relationship with phys-side is cordial. It is one borne of necessity. Our social relationship is more complicated. Many have expectations of a long peace for themselves once they join us, and many more have loved ones who have joined us."
+She shrugged. "There has been little enough interaction with phys-side over the years, and even less of late, now that the climate has started to level out back on Earth. The rate of uploads has even leveled off from its slow increase over time. We rarely hear much except what comes through the newly uploaded." She sipped her mocha, seeming to take that time to sort out her thoughts. "Our political relationship with phys-side is cordial. It is one borne of necessity. Our social relationship is more complicated. Many have expectations of a long peace for themselves once they join us, and many more have loved ones who have joined us."
 
 "Right, I still talk to a bunch of friends I knew phys-side who uploaded later. Or Marsh does." I winced, amending that statement. "Did."
 
@@ -204,7 +204,7 @@ She nodded.
 
 "Oh, absolutely," Dry Grass replied, turning and leaning over to give Cress a kiss on its cheek. "How are you feeling, loves?"
 
-"Terrible," Tule said cheerfully. They had apparently collected Rush and Sedge before arriving, as all four of stood in almost identical postures, each holding their coffees in their right hand --- just, I realized, as I was doing. "All my emotions are wrong. I'm jittery and tired and I want to get another few hours of sleep but feel guilty every time I lay down."
+"Terrible," Tule said cheerfully. They had apparently collected Rush and Sedge before arriving, as all four stood in almost identical postures, each holding their coffees in their right hand --- just, I realized, as I was doing. "All my emotions are wrong. I'm jittery and tired and I want to get another few hours of sleep but feel guilty every time I lay down."
 
 I laughed. "Yeah, that sounds about right. I keep feeling like I'm having the wrong sort of reaction to all of this."
 
@@ -216,7 +216,7 @@ A moment of silence followed.
 
 "Have you lost any?" Cress asked, and I thanked it silently for getting to the question before I worked up the courage to do so myself.
 
-Hesitating, Dry Grass's confident mien fell. Eventually, she reached out to take each of her partners' hands in one of her own, then offered the other to me. "Come. Let us walk, yes? We will talk as we hop sims. I have more places full of comforting memories to show you."
+Hesitating, Dry Grass's confident mien fell. Eventually, she reached out to take both of her partners' hands in one of her own, then nodded to me. "Come. Let us walk, yes? We will talk as we hop sims. I have more places full of comforting memories to show you."
 
 While I mulled over her focus on comfort and memory, we linked by touch, Tule and Cress with their partner, and Cress, Rush, and Sedge with me.
 
@@ -264,7 +264,7 @@ She laughed. "Yes, yes. The whole of the clade is like this, I can promise you t
 
 "Are you ready to talk about what you've learned?" I asked. "If you need a bit more time, that's fine, of course."
 
-"I am ready. Thank you for giving me a bit of space." Once Cress had finished setting its tile and hopped back down to the ground, we all walked back out into the street, back out where the sun shone down on us. "We have passed one billion reported missing instances." She held her hand up to forestall the comments that were already coming. "That is all instances, to be clear, not differentiated individuals, not cladists, and certainly not clades. Many of those who have reported missing were ephemeral: they are one-offs created here and there. We do not yet know about cladists or clades. The number is high, but I did want to provide that qualification."
+"I am ready. Thank you for giving me a bit of space." Once Cress had finished setting its tile and hopped back down to the ground, we all walked back out into the street, back out where the sun shone down on us. "We have passed one billion reported missing instances." She held her hand up to forestall the comments that were already coming. "That is all instances, to be clear, not differentiated individuals, not cladists, and certainly not clades. Many of those who were reported missing were ephemeral: they were one-offs created here and there. We do not yet know about cladists or clades. The number is high, but I did want to provide that qualification; there are three totals to consider, and we are learning only one of them."
 
 "Hanne said that one of her friends, Shu, was missing entirely," I said, once the words had sunk in. "Similar to Marsh, I mean. It wasn't just that she wasn't responding, it's like she was just never there, like the System didn't know about her."
 
@@ -272,7 +272,7 @@ She laughed. "Yes, yes. The whole of the clade is like this, I can promise you t
 
 I shrugged. "It might be worth asking, at least."
 
-She nodded and gestured us back down to the beach. "I will." She took a deep breath before continuing. "Now, the current population in terms of instances is something like 2.3 trillion. A billion is a very small fraction of the System in terms of numbers, but it is what we are working with. A billion instances appear to have been...ah, lost, along with thirteen months, ten days, seventeen minutes, and some seconds. On speaking with Günay, this downtime was observed phys-side, though she was not able to tell me much about it besides that. I have the sense that there is more that she *could* have said, but that she was not able to for whatever reason."
+She nodded and gestured us back down to the beach. "I will." She took a deep breath before continuing. "Now, the current population in terms of *instances* is something like 2.3 trillion. A billion is a very small fraction of the System in terms of numbers, but it is what we are working with. A billion instances appear to have been...ah, lost, along with thirteen months, ten days, seventeen minutes, and some seconds. On speaking with Günay, this downtime was observed phys-side, though she was not able to tell me much about it besides that. I have the sense that there is more that she *could* have said, but that she was not able to for whatever reason."
 
 This had apparently been the first that Rush and Sedge had heard about this, so a few minutes were spent bringing them up to speed as we walked down the hill to the shore once more. I took the opportunity to focus at something far off, something further ahead of me than my own two feet. The horizon, the dark ocean breaking against the shore in a rush of white out where the arms of the bay projected into the water.
 
@@ -298,7 +298,7 @@ If it had been intended to be a joke, it fell flat. We remained in silence for a
 
 She sighed. "My apologies. It is still important to me, however. It is-- Ah, there she is." She raised an arm and waved to a figure crouched at the edge of the walkway just before the next platform. With the heat-haze and mugginess, their form was somewhat indistinct. They wore a frowzy white dress, along with some sort of hat --- or perhaps a rather tall hairstyle. As we walked toward them in single file, she explained, "This sim was designed by Serene; Sustained And Sustaining, whom you shall meet in a moment. She is my cocladist from the ninth stanza, and one of my favorite people in the world. I asked her to meet us here."
 
-As we got closer, the strange hairstyle that I had noticed on the figure resolved into a pair of tall canine ears, and what I had assumed was a mask of some sort turned out to be a short, pointed muzzle. Serene stood up and stretched, smiling wanly to us before bowing in greeting.
+As we got closer, the strange hairstyle that I had noticed on the figure resolved into a pair of tall canid ears, and what I had assumed was a mask of some sort turned out to be a short, pointed muzzle. Serene stood up and stretched, smiling wanly to us before bowing in greeting.
 
 "Serene, this is Tule and Cress, my partners, as well as a few more of their clade: Reed, Rush, and Sedge."
 
@@ -310,7 +310,7 @@ The fox --- a hunch confirmed by a quick check of the perisystem --- nodded. "Of
 
 At this, we all *did* laugh.
 
-"I have asked to meet with her and several others to ensure that we could get a view of what is going on from someone else, because this is getting a bit out of hand for even me."
+"I have asked to meet with her and several others to ensure that we could get a view of what is going on from someone else," Dry Grass said, "because this is getting a bit out of hand for even me."
 
 Serene nodded and started strolling down the path toward the next patch of grass, claws clicking dully against the wood. We fell in step behind her as she asked, "And what was it that you wanted to hear from me, my dear?"