update from sparkleup

writing/post-self/qoheleth/Ioan/002.md

@@ -3,13 +3,13 @@
 
 Ioan\#c1494bf found emself twenty meters in front of a squat, flat house.
 
-It was as modern on the outside as it had appeared on the inside: a concrete block, a thick wrap-around patio covered by cantilevered eaves, floor to ceiling glass for walls. Ey wouldn't be surprised if the far side of the buiding --- ey couldn't see it very well, with the slope of the shortgrass prairie it huddled on --- jutted out at some crazy angle.
+It was as modern on the outside as it had appeared on the inside: a concrete block, a thick wrap-around patio, bordered by dandelions and covered by cantilevered eaves, floor to ceiling glass for walls. Ey wouldn't be surprised if the far side of the buiding --- ey couldn't see it very well, with the slope of the shortgrass prairie it huddled on --- jutted out at some crazy angle.
 
 Smiling ruefully, ey walked up toward the house. Ey had eir own aesthetic. Ey knew the trappings. Might as well own it.
 
 A soft tone, a vibraphone struck with a soft mallet, sounded both inside and outside of the house as soon as ey'd passed the barrier between grass and patio. Ey stood on the concrete, waiting to be either admitted or greeted.
 
-A shadow of a person --- human --- peeked out through the glass at em, gave a pleasant wave, and hollered through the glass, "Ioan! Hi! I'll grab Dear."
+A shadow of a person --- human --- peeked out through the glass at em, gave a pleasant wave, and hollered through the glass, "Ioan! Hi. I'll grab Dear."
 
 Before the person could do so, Dear came padding from around the side of the house, looking slightly more collected than it had during the message.
 
@@ -25,13 +25,13 @@ Fox and writer settled for an L-shaped couch, facing each other across the bend.
 
 After a moment's hesitation, Ioan began, "I must apologize, Dear. I'm not sure that you have quite the right person. I'm not really a detective, wouldn't know the first way of finding the one you spoke of."
 
-Dear shook it's head. *"No, I'm pretty sure you're the right person. My search of the markets was quite specific, and you topped all the lists. I'm not really looking for a detective, per se. There's enough of those in the Ode clade. They'll suss out the whens and wheres."*
+Dear shook it's head. *"No, I'm pretty sure you are the right person. My search of the markets was quite specific, and you topped all the lists. I am not really looking for a detective, per se. There's enough of those in the Ode clade. They will suss out the whens and wheres."*
 
 "Then what--"
 
-*"There's a few types of people in the world, Ioan,"* the fox said, voice low and calm. Low enough and calm enough to take the sting out of the interruption. *"There's forgers and honers. Most are familiar with those. Forgers build a thing and plow ahead, and honers settle on a thing and perfect it. Artists generally fall into these classes, and they map to two outcomes in particular: prolific and unfruitful artists, respectively.*
+*"There are a few types of people in the world, Ioan,"* the fox said, voice low and calm. Low enough and calm enough to take the sting out of the interruption. *"There are forgers and honers. Most are familiar with those. Forgers build a thing and plow ahead, and honers settle on a thing and perfect it. Artists generally fall into these classes, and they map to two outcomes in particular: prolific and unfruitful artists, respectively.*
 
-*"But you're not an artist. You write, yes, but that's ancillary to what you do. A side effect. After all, there are some other types of people out there, too. Catalogers, feelers, experiencers."* Dear shrugged. *"For its own reasons, the clade needs someone to experience this along with us. Someone specifically out-clade There's a lot of history in this, a lot that we've forgotten before uploading, a lot that we're trying to remember. Maybe even some that we're trying to forget. I want you to help figure out the history of this, yes, but I also want you to experience it and tell a coherent story after."*
+*"But you are not an artist. You write, yes, but that's ancillary to what you do. A side effect. After all, there are some other types of people out there, too. Catalogers, feelers, experiencers."* Dear shrugged. *"For its own reasons, the clade needs-- I need someone to experience this along with us. Someone specifically out-clade There's a lot of history in this, a lot that we've forgotten before uploading, a lot that we're trying to remember. Maybe even some that we're trying to forget. I want you to help figure out the history of this, yes, but I also want you to experience it and tell a coherent story after."*
 
 "An amanuensis," Ioan said.
 
@@ -43,25 +43,25 @@ The fox nodded, then looked up, smiling as the person Ioan had first seen came i
 
 Dear watched them go.
 
-"Your partner?" Ioan asked. A moment of chitchat felt necessary. Ey grabbed eir mug carefully. It smelled quite good.
+"Your partner?" Ioan asked. A moment of chitchat felt necessary. Ey lifted eir mug carefully. It smelled quite good.
 
 The fox nodded, picked up it's own mug, and leaned back into the cushions of the couch, slouching. *"Mmhm. Finally decided to explore relationships again,"* it said. *"They accuse me of treating it like an art project"*
 
 Ioan grinned. "Well, are you a forger or a honer of relationships?"
 
-Dear rolled its eyes, said, *"Touché. I'm trying to be a honer, with this one. I gave relationships a miss after...well, some stuff before uploading. For a long while, I forked to create lasting relationships rather than holding any myself. Gets lonely, though. It was like being turned down every time. At least from my-- from this instance's point of view."*
+Dear rolled its eyes, said, *"Touché. I am trying to be a honer, with this one. I gave relationships a miss after...well, some stuff before uploading. For a long while, I forked to create lasting relationships rather than holding any myself. Gets lonely, though. It was like being turned down every time. At least from my-- from this instance's point of view."*
 
 Ioan felt they were getting a little too deep for having just met, so ey steered the conversation along a tangent. "You fork quite often, then?"
 
-*"Yes. Dispersionista through and through. Or perhaps profligate tracker. Sometimes I don't have the option to let instances linger."* Something seemed to occur to it, and the fox sat up straighter again. *"Speaking of, do you know much about the Ode clade?"*
+*"Yes. Dispersionista through and through. Or perhaps profligate tracker. Sometimes I do not have the option to let instances linger."* Something seemed to occur to it, and the fox sat up straighter again. *"Speaking of, do you know much about the Ode clade?"*
 
 Ioan shook eir head, sipped eir coffee. It *was* good.
 
-*"It's an old clade. One of the oldest on the system. Our root instance, Michelle Hadje, uploaded basically as soon as she could, and quickly became one of the loudest voices on the system. She campaigned for more advanced sensoria to be included."*
+*"It is an old clade. One of the oldest on the system. Our root instance, Michelle Hadje, uploaded basically as soon as she could, and quickly became one of the loudest voices on the system. She campaigned for more advanced sensoria to be included."*
 
-"I've heard of Michelle." Ioan nodded. "Usually in the context of the founders. You speak of her like she's someone else."
+"I've heard of Michelle." Ioan nodded. "Usually in the context of the founders. You speak of her like she's someone else, though."
 
-*"Dispersionista habit. We're quite different from each other, by this point. If you get the chance to meet Michelle --- and you may --- you will see the differences."*
+*"Dispersionista habit. We are quite different from each other, by this point. If you get the chance to meet Michelle --- and you may --- you will see the differences."*
 
 "So what is Ode, then? Her old username?"
 
@@ -73,17 +73,17 @@ Ioan shook eir head, sipped eir coffee. It *was* good.
 
 "Is that where your names come from?"
 
-*"Yes. Each of us is named after a line in the poem. I'm Dear, Also, The Tree That Was Felled, and my first long-lived fork is Which Offered Heat And Warmth Through Fire. My immediate down-tree fork is Dear The Wheat And Rye Under The Stars."*
+*"Yes. Each of us is named after a line in the poem. I am Dear, Also, The Tree That Was Felled, and my first long-lived fork is Which Offered Heat And Warmth Through Fire. My immediate down-tree fork is Dear The Wheat And Rye Under The Stars."*
 
-Dear splayed its ears, grinning sheepishly, *"It's perhaps not a very good poem. Michelle was...well, she had some experience relating to the...ah, origins of the poem which I shall not get into here, but even she will admit that. The sentiments are nice, but this friend was not a poet. When they died, when they killed themselves, it really tore her up. We all still think of them often."*
+Dear splayed its ears, grinning sheepishly, *"It is perhaps not a very good poem. Michelle was...well, she had some experience relating to the...ah, origins of the poem which I shall not get into here, but even she will admit that. The sentiments are nice, but this friend was not a poet. When they died, when they killed themselves, it really tore her up. We all still think of them often."*
 
 Ioan nodded, once more steering the conversation away from more sensitive topics. "It must be quite long, then."
 
-*"One hundred lines divided into ten stanzas. There are only ever ten branches as direct ancestors of Michelle, and each branch only ever has ten long-lived up-tree instances. We may be Dispersionistas, but we're a small clade."*
+*"One hundred lines divided into ten stanzas. There are only ever ten branches as direct ancestors of Michelle, and each branch only ever has ten long-lived up-tree instances. We may be Dispersionistas, but we are a small clade."*
 
 "And the poet? Who are they?"
 
-Dear bristled, then mastered some complex set of emotions Ioan didn't understand. *"That's the Name that we don't share. The information that someone supposedly did share, I mean. Someone of the clade or close enough to it to know."*
+Dear bristled, then mastered some complex set of emotions Ioan didn't understand. *"That is the Name that we don't share. The information that someone supposedly did share, I mean. Someone of the clade or close enough to it to know."*
 
 Ioan's brow furrowed, startled by the fox's reaction, not to mention the concept of not sharing a name that was clearly important. "I see," ey said into eir coffee, covering eir confusion. "So you'd like me to help in finding this person and act as amanuensis along the way?"
 
@@ -95,10 +95,10 @@ Ey nodded, reached out and shook the fox's paw.
 
 Dear grinned, shook back.
 
-*"Excellent. I've shared just about all I have to share on the topic for now, though as we get updates, I'll pass them on to you."* Dear leaned back into the couch once more, lapped at its coffee. *"For now, stay. Finish your coffee, at least, though feel free to putter around for a while. Or just stay here. We've got an apartment on the side of the house. I've already talked with my partner about it."*
+*"Excellent. I have shared just about all I have to share on the topic for now, though as we get updates, I will pass them on to you."* Dear leaned back into the couch once more, lapped at its coffee. *"For now, stay. Finish your coffee, at least, though feel free to putter around for a while. Or just stay here. We have an apartment on the side of the house. I have already talked with my partner about it."*
 
 Ioan nodded, "Thank you. I think I'll head home in a bit and sync up with myself, then start the research plan. Do you have any suggested avenues I should start down?"
 
-*"Of course."* Dear smiled. *"As for research, dig a bit more into the Ode clade for now, probably. When I send you updates, maybe those will lead to different topics."* The smile turned into a sly grin. *"I know you're not a big fan of sensorium messages, but as that's how the clade communicates --- those of us who do, at least --- I regret to say that you'll be getting quite a bit more."*
+*"Of course."* Dear smiled. *"As for research, dig a bit more into the Ode clade for now, probably. When I send you updates, maybe those will lead to different topics."* The smile turned into a sly grin. *"I know you are not a big fan of sensorium messages, but as that is how the clade communicates --- those of us who do, at least --- I regret to say that you will be getting quite a bit more."*
 
 Ioan gave eir best polite smile.