update from sparkleup

writing/post-self/marsh/017.md

@@ -196,4 +196,76 @@ We talked for a while longer, though descriptions were slim, repetitions of what
 
 "Hey," they said at last, once the line of questions had died down. "What do you say about inviting Vos and Pierre over. Maybe they'd like to meet me."
 
-I winced. I'd been dreading this moment. I'd intentionally not brought up the subject of Marsh's partners, lest that dissuade my cocladists. Admonitions rang in my ears, Hanne's and Dry Grass's.
+I winced. I'd been dreading this moment. I'd intentionally not brought up the subject of Marsh's partners, lest that dissuade my cocladists. Admonitions rang in my ears, Hanne's and Dry Grass's. *I'm a bit wary you won't get what you want,* Hanne had said. *The potential for pain,* Dry Grass had said.
+
+There was a long silence that followed as we all seemed to digest the ramifications of this.
+
+"Yeah, I guess," Sedge said warily. "I don't know how it'll go, but yeah."
+
+A few minutes later, we sat staggered on the stairs before the front door, New Marsh sitting up front, waiting. A knock, hesitant, sounded, and Cress called out from beside Tule, "Come in."
+
+Vos and Pierre stood frozen, both with their hands raised in a wave, their eyes locked on this new version of their partner, slowly pushing themself to their feet to stand front and center before them.
+
+"Marsh?" Vos croaked?
+
+Pierre only darted forward, nearly taking New Marsh down as he collided with them arms cinched firmly around their middle with his face buried against their shoulder, sobbing.
+
+Stunned, New Marsh patted awkwardly at his shoulder before slowly enveloping them in a hug.
+
+"What...but they...what?"
+
+"Vos," I said, standing as well and moving to stand beside the pair. "I want you to meet someone."
+
+She swayed on her feet, eventually reaching out a hand to prop herself up against the door jamb.
+
+"One of the changes made in the System during the downtime was to enable cross-tree merging. It hasn't been announced yet, but Sedge and I were at the meetings, so we, uh..."
+
+"I'm all of us," New Marsh said, voice strained from the force of Pierre's hug. "I'm their entire clade. I'm as much of them as I could manage."
+
+Pierre quickly unwound his arms from them, staggering backwards with such hurriedness that he nearly tripped were it not for Vos, there to catch him. "What the fuck..."
+
+"All of..." Vos, realizing she was all but out of air, gasped for breath. "All of you? *All* of you?"
+
+New Marsh nodded.
+
+"But...but Marsh..." Pierre whispered.
+
+Vos's gaze bore into New Marsh. "You told me something on New Year's Eve, right before you headed up to the study. You looked me dead in the eye and smiled and said something."
+
+They blanched.
+
+"What did you say to me?"
+
+Looking over to me nervously, they began to shake.
+
+"What did you say to me? Tell me," she said, voice growing louder, higher in pitch, until she was nearly screaming. Pierre quit unceremoniously, and she stomped forward a few paces. "What did you fucking say?! What did you say? What did you say, whoever you are? You said it every fucking year! *What did you fucking say?!*"
+
+New Marsh quailed at her advance, ducking around to hide behind my arm. I could read the way that Cress moved in them, could see that warring with the need to be understood that I felt in myself, the need for my little bargain to work.
+
+Vos's gaze shifted to me. "*You,*" she growled. "This was *your* idea, wasn't it?"
+
+I swallowed dryly and nodded.
+
+She finished her advance in two long strides, hand already winding back, and struck me across the face hard enough to knock me to the side against the wall. I crumpled under the sudden rush of pain, winding up in a jumbled heap on the floor at the base of the stairs. New Marsh darted back as the rest of the clade cried out.
+
+""I'll see you in a few, love"," she spat, tears coursing down her cheeks. "That's what they said, you awful piece of shit. "I'll see you in a few.""
+
+"Vos, I–"
+
+I didn't get the chance to finish. She had already stepped away.
+
+About thirty seconds later, a sensorium message hit me with such force, with so much adrenaline, that I slumped over to the side. Regardless of the strength of the message, her words were dangerously calm. *"No contact."*
+
+It took nearly a minute of silence before the shock wore off enough for New Marsh to creep back into view, carefully helping me to my feet once more. My lip was split with blood trickling down my chin, and my nose felt broken, though it still looked straight. All the same, I forked as soon as I was calm enough to, letting my still bleeding down-tree quit.
+
+Even hale once more, the memory of pain lingered.
+
+"I need a fucking drink," Lily said. She sounded exhausted. "Come on, I know a place."
+
+-----
+
+The place turned out to be a coffee shop that seemed to specialize in coffee-inspired cocktails.
+
+We stepped first to Infinite Café, an enormous sim that allowed any coffee shop on Lagrange to link an entrance. It took the form of an enormous ring looping up over us with what looked to be thousands of mismatched buildings lining its single avenue. A sign before us announced this to be the cocktails district.
+
+I upped my estimate to tens of thousands.