update from sparkleup

writing/post-self/mitzvot/036.md

@@ -114,4 +114,92 @@ The other skunk smiled faintly, nodded. "Though for all Ioan talked about trying
 
 "I wasn't going to say anything," Ioan said, grinning.
 
-May elbowed em in the side. "Hush, you. 
+May elbowed em in the side. "Hush, you."
+
+"I will not laugh at you two too much, then." Serene laughed. "What are your plans moving forward? I trust that you are essentially locked out of what you were working on as True Name."
+
+"Yes, and while there is a part of me that remains disappointed about this outcome, there is little to be done about it but move forward." Sasha brought her tail around to her lap to brush it out. It was shorter than a striped skunk's tail, it seemed, but no less thickly furred. "I will take a vacation, first. I will sleep a normal amount. I will eat good food. I will wear myself out on the hunt and take what comfort I can while I remain here. I will rest, and then I will write."
+
+"Write? Really?"
+
+"Yes. I will be careful not to influence, lest I bring on Jonas's ire, but I would like to share the story of the last few centuries from my point of view. I do not know who will be interested except perhaps our two clades, but I will write."
+
+"Well, if it's anything like the *History*," Ioan said. "It'll wind up wildly popular and then fade into part of the mythos of the System."
+
+May grinned. "And all will be as it should."
+
+"Of course. I will not complain. So long as I am better able to understand who I have become and fill my time with something fulfilling, then I will be happy."
+
+"*Will* you be happy?" Serene asked.
+
+There was a long silence as Sasha finished brushing out her tail and spent a few minutes simply staring across the lake, perhaps mapping the opposite shore and marking spots for future exploration.
+
+Finally, she said, "I think that I will be. I am of three minds and will ever be such. I will have moments of happiness, moments of sadness and terror and regret, but they will ever be in thirds."
+
+"Are you okay with that?"
+
+Sasha stood and stretched, finally turning her gaze back to them. "Himself has but to will And easy as a Star Look down upon Captivity And laugh."
+
+With no further explanation, she bowed and edged around them on her way down off the rock. She moved quietly and efficiently, and it was a matter of seconds before they lost sight of her in the trees.
+
+They sat, silent, through the remainder of the evening.
+
+-----
+
+The next Odists to visit were A Finger Pointing and Slow Hours, once more arriving as a pair and hugging Sasha in turn. They set up a cone of silence and spoke together for a scant twenty minutes before dropping it again and inviting Ioan and May to join. They pulled the beanbag a little closer to the couch and settled down on it together to listen.
+
+"It is easy to say that all is full of love," Slow Hours began, smiling to Sasha. "But now, I think, you have a sense of your own."
+
+The skunk smiled and bowed her head.
+
+"Life will be easier for a while, and then it will be harder. You will share your loves, first with another and then with solitude, and with each you long for the other until you return. Does not matter a bit, though, so I would not worry."
+
+"Mere breath?" Sasha asked, grinning.
+
+"A chasing after the wind, yes."
+
+"And you will come to a performance," A Finger Pointing added. "I am no oracle, but if you do not come, I will hunt you down myself. It has been too long, my dear."
+
+She laughed. "Of course, of course. So many threats to hunt me down, these days. But yes, thank you."
+
+"And if you do not watch me perform my monologue, I will trim your claws too short in your sleep," May said. "There is a monologue night coming up soon."
+
+"Far worse than being hunted down, that. I will be there."
+
+May preened.
+
+After that, they fell into quiet conversation. Sasha joined Ioan and May on the beanbag to get some pets --- the talk having apparently nudged the affectionate part of her to the fore --- while Slow Hours spoke in less 'will's and 'shall's and settled down into the normal conversational mode of the rest of the Odists. They spoke of performances past, going all the way back to before the founding of the System, with the four Odists performing a small segment of the Dickinson play they always seemed to quote from, a first for any of the Bălans in nearly fifty years.
+
+-----
+
+It was nearly a month before Debarre, Douglas, and Sasha agreed to meet. Debarre's side of the conversation remained somewhat stiff and distant, while Douglas seemed to have set aside any sense of caution, speaking with palpable excitement. As soon as he'd learned of the change of name back to something more closely associated with his distant relative, he'd hardly talked of anything else.
+
+The meeting was set up for dinner on the dandelion-dotted field, a small potluck picnic late in the evening so that the skunks wouldn't overheat in the sun.
+
+Everyone arrived simultaneously by Debarre's request so that no one was left waiting for anyone else. Ioan, May, and Sasha stepped into the sim just in time to see Debarre and End Waking arriving. The six of them stood in a circle in front of Douglas's stoop, dandelions and evening bumblers tickling at their ankles.
+
+Or, at least they stood in a circle for a moment. Sasha stumbled backwards from the group, turning in two slow, wavering circles before falling to her knees.
+
+"Sasha?" Ioan said, watching anxiously.
+
+"Too much," she mumbled. "Too much at once."
+
+May padded over to kneel next to her. "May I hug?"
+
+After a moment of strained silence, Sasha slumped against May's side, and the two sat together while she let out that overwhelming emotion within a cone of silence.
+
+Ioan, Debarre, End Waking, and Douglas took the time to set up the picnic, a rickety table bearing plates of various salads, roasted vegetables, and the makings of venison sandwiches, courtesy End Waking. They moved in silence, hesitantly, each pausing every now and then to watch as Sasha slowly worked to calm herself.
+
+"That was not the greeting that I had intended," she said, once she had cleaned up in Douglas's house and joined them at the table to pick up a plate. "I was hoping that I would be able to greet you all politely, settle into some easier conversation, but that of True Name has not been here in too long. This place is too charged with memories, as are your faces. Even for that of End Waking and May, there is too much bound up in the last few months."
+
+"Are you feeling better now?" Douglas asked.
+
+She nodded. "I am leaning on the other portions of myself now. I will have much processing to do yet, but tonight is for dinner with friends, or at least with those I hope will be friends."
+
+"I mean, I hope we can be friends." Douglas laughed. "I mean, those are the first words we've ever really spoken to each other, but I'm happy to have the chance to meet you."
+
+"Or at least a third of me."
+
+"Well, yes, but you're still a new person to me and very...uh," he trailed off, frowning down to his plate. "Well, very close to someone I've thought a lot about, I guess."
+
+She smiled and leaned over to pat his shoulder. "We will talk, dear. That part of me has heard so much about you and is so colored by what the other parts of me know, that I am eager to learn, as well."