update from sparkleup

writing/post-self/marsh/002.md

@@ -334,6 +334,8 @@ Systime 246+41 00:17.
 
 "246? But--"
 
+"It says 2369, too!"
+
 Everyone talking at once quickly grew overwhelming. Reed shook his head, covered his ears with his hands, then, remembering that he was standing in the middle of a small crowd, tried to mask the movement by turning it into running his fingers through his fur.
 
 "Okay, one at a time," he said, having to speak up to drown out further exclamations. "I'm seeing 246+41. Everyone else seeing the same thing?"
@@ -348,7 +350,7 @@ Silence.
 
 Everyone in the room turned to look at Dry Grass, who shrugged helplessly. "Not that I can remember. The closest would be periods of downtime. It has happened a few times over the centuries. There was a few days of downtime while Lagrange was being set up during Secession."
 
-"But not, what...thirteen months?" Cress asked. "Thirteen months and ten days, almost exactly."
+"But not, what...thirteen months?" Cress asked.
 
 "I have never seen that amount of time lapse, no."
 
@@ -377,3 +379,80 @@ She jumped as Pierre sagged briefly against Vos, then either quit or left the si
 *Do you two need anything?* Reed sent to Vos. *Or just space and quiet?*
 
 *The latter,* she replied after a few long seconds. The sensorium message was so clearly sent between sobs that Reed had to swallow down a similar sensation rising in his throat.
+
+"Give them some space," he mumbled, still feeling that awkward pressure in his chest. "So, okay. What's the whole story again? Midnight hit and suddenly it's thirteen months--"
+
+"Thirteen months and ten days, almost exactly," Sedge corrected.
+
+He sighed, nodded. "Right. Midnight hit and the date jumped forward and now there are thousands of--"
+
+"Tens of thousands," Dry Grass said, then averted her gaze. "Apologies."
+
+"It's alright. Tens of thousands of people missing. The feeds are going nuts. What about phys-side? Anything from them?"
+
+Dry Grass shrugged. "I have not been looking. I am uncomfortable with phys-side. There is a reason I am no longer a tech."
+
+"I'll take a look," Rush said. Ve forked quickly, the new instance disappearing as ve stepped from the sim. "Though I'm not as fast at it as you are."
+
+"Anything from Castor or Pollux? Or Artemis? It's only a few months round trip, definitely less than thirteen. We don't really talk. I don't have anything from any of the Marshans on the LVs."
+
+"Shit," Dry Grass muttered, expression darkening. "Yes, there is."
+
+When she didn't continue, Lily stamped her foot, growling, "And? You can't just leave that hanging there! I don't fucking get you Odists, you're always--"
+
+"Lily!" Tule and Cress said as one
+
+She made a show of regaining her composure, her movements overly liquid as she straightened up and brushed a lock of hair out of her face. "Sorry."
+
+An awkward silence lingered, overstaying its welcome. Eventually, Dry Grass's shoulders slumped. "You do not need to apologize. The messages will only affirm your feelings about my clade. The eighth stanza continues to manage the flow of information in--" She cut herself off and dug her hands into her pockets, an oddly bashful gesture. "I should not be telling you this, understand. I am not even supposed to be in contact with them, but An Answer has been in contact. Please do not share any of this. They continue to manage the situation, and, from the sounds of it, they are describing it as an issue with the Deep Space Network and the Lagrange station. There are few mentions of the Lagrange System itself. I can read between the lines as well as any of them, though, and I do not think this is true. At least, not wholly."
+
+"Wait," Cress said. "So they're saying that there's a problem with the DSN and the station? How do you mean?"
+
+"There are a few messages from over the last thirteen months, but they are queued up as though they have been held until now. There has been no contact between the LVs or Artemis and Lagrange." There was a pause as Dry Grass's gaze drifted, clearly scanning more of those messages. "Most messages have been discarded...only a few from the Guiding Council on Pollux plus a few clades on Castor...have been let through...outgoing messages are ungated..."
+
+"There's a bit about that in news from phys-side, actually," Rush said, looking thoughtful. "Communications failure on the Lagrange station. Something about aging technology. The DSN was also having problems so a few new repeaters were launched. Some from the station, even."
+
+"But nothing about the System?"
+
+Both Rush and Dry Grass shook their heads.
+
+"What did you mean about reading between the lines, though, love?" Tule asked.
+
+"The messages are very stilted. There is panic beneath the surface. That they mention so little about Lagrange is as telling as if they were to say they did not know. They *do* know, they are just refusing to talk about it over messages."
+
+"Why?" Lily asked. While there was still an edge to her voice, genuine concern covered it well.
+
+"'Information security and hygiene'. At least, that is what they would say were I to ask. Even if the messages were to fall into the wrong hands, sys- or phys-side, they would not show anything else having happened. I am of them, however. I can read some of the words that were not written."
+
+"But news from phys-side says the same thing," Rush said.
+
+She shrugged, another sheepish motion, and averted her eyes. "Do you really expect that we are receiving unfiltered information from phys-side?"
+
+Reed stole a glance at Lily. She looked to be spending every joule of energy on keeping her mouth shut.
+
+There had been an enormous row within the clade when first Cress, then Tule, had gotten in a relationship with a member of the Ode clade. While the rest of the clade had largely written off the stories of the Odists' political meddling as overly fantastic, yet more myths to keep the functionally immortal entertained. Even if they had their basis in truth, they remained only stories.
+
+Lily, however, had had an immediate and dramatic reaction, cutting contact with the rest of the clade --- including Marsh --- for more than a year. She had even refused to merge down for two years until tempers had settled.
+
+Hanne spoke up. "Listen, can we maybe give this a few hours to play out? I need to sleep, and if Reed doesn't take a break, he's going to explode."
+
+The others laughed. Reed felt a twinge of resentment, but it was true enough, and if they stood around the living room spinning their wheels any longer, tempers would continue to flare.
+
+"Yeah," he said. "Give me at least four hours. I'll do a little digging and grab some sleep, then maybe we can meet up somewhere else and talk through what we've learned."
+
+"I'll keep digging at phys-side news," Rush said. "Want to help, Sedge?"
+
+She nodded.
+
+Tule and Cress nodded. "We'll help out Dry Grass," Cress said.
+
+"Lily?"
+
+"I'm just going to get some sleep. Sorry for yelling."
+
+Cress shook its head, leaned over, and hugged her. "Take the time you need."
+
+"Right. Let's meet at a park or something in the morning. Hanne will kill me if you all pile in here again," Reed said, at which Hanne nodded eagerly. "And I imagine things are going to be really weird out there, so I don't want to pile into a bar or whatever."
+
+"Really, really weird," Sedge muttered.
+

writing/post-self/marsh/index.md

@@ -21,9 +21,9 @@ NB: It's frankly astonishing how few cats there are in this story. Fix that.
 * [o] [Intro](001) --- The false start
 * [.] Part 1 --- Marsh has gone missing and the date has jumped forward --- whaaaa --- exploring the new System, what it looks like, contact from the LVs
     * [.] [002](002) --- It all kicks off
-    * [ ] [003](003) --- Dealing with fallout of Marsh being gone
-    * [ ] [004](004) --- Exploring other clades throughout Lagrange, walking sims and seeing how others are reacting
-    * [ ] [005](005) --- The perisystem feeds, tallying up the missing, building up percentage of lost personalities
+    * [ ] [003](003) --- Dealing with fallout of Marsh being gone, starting later that night when Marsh catches up with Vos and Pierre, deals with his own grief
+    * [ ] [004](004) --- Exploring other clades throughout Lagrange, meeting up with other Marshans to talk through results, walking sims and seeing how others are reacting
+    * [ ] [005](005) --- The perisystem feeds, tallying up the missing, building up percentage of lost personalities, the Marshans wind up leading an effort, Dry Grass working behind the scenes because Odist
     * [ ] [006](006) --- Working with Dry Grass on trying to figure out sys-side, she hints that phys-side is being slow/difficult
 * [ ] Part 2 --- Phys-side is being a little sketchy about what happened, turns out there was a reset and a lot of work behind the scenes after a coordinated attack between phys- and sys-side, taking the form of a generalized weapon that wiped out most of the System. Large chunks of it were restored after a lot of work and help from the Artemisians, but not total success --- virus loophole was fixed (incl. singular attacks), but no guarantee there won't be another work-around, plans to split the System into smaller pieces, move some of them to Earth/Sun Lagrange points
     * [ ] [007](007) --- Dry Grass loops Reed & co into discussion with phys-side engineers