update from sparkleup

writing/post-self/toledot/launch/launch/Codrin-castor/006.md

@@ -1 +1,63 @@
 # Codrin Balan#Castor --- 2325
+
+While he didn't quite have the singular ability to immediately make em like him as many of the Odists seemed to, Codrin found emself immensely charmed by No Jonas.
+
+"I got the short end of the stick." He laughed, gesturing Ioan into what appeared to be a living room of an apartment quite similar to the one ey had interviewed True Name in. "Jonas prime decided to name all of his instances with one consonant, one vowel, I got stuck with No, of all things. I'm sure there are sillier ones, at least. We Jonas? Oi Jonas? Just call me Jonas so we don't get confused."
+
+Codrin grinned and sat on a reasonably comfy --- if slightly ratty --- chair  across the table from the couch that Jonas flopped down onto. "I suppose there has to be some scheme for dispersionistas to use to keep track of each other that isn't just the default random string of letters and number."
+
+"Of course! You know the Odists. I should've done something like that. Take an old rock song and name myself after each of the lines." He shrugged. "But no, I think they've got a lock on that idea. This one's inventive enough without being too annoying. Usually."
+
+"They do pull it off quite well," ey said, pulling out eir pen and paper. "Though some of their short names work better than others. I like Dear, and I think True Name works well as a...well, name."
+
+"Oh? Did you talk with her?"
+
+"Yes, she was the last Odist I interviewed, actually. At least, here on Castor. The Codrin on Pollux is interviewing others, and my down-tree instance on the System is taking yet another path."
+
+"How is Ioan, by the way?" Jonas asked, winking at Codrin. It was a sly enough way to let em know that he'd done his reading.
+
+"Oh, well enough. We've all been stressed in our own ways."
+
+"I'm sorry to hear that. I'm curious, in what ways do your stresses differ?"
+
+Codrin tilted his head. "Well, Codrin#Pollux recently had a dinner party with some other Secession-era people. Some from the Council of Eight, and a Yared Zerezghi, who was apparently important phys-side."
+
+"Ah!" Jonas said, grinning. "How is Yared? Though I guess you weren't there."
+
+"He sounded alright. He told a story about how he worked with politicians both here and phys-side." *About you and True Name,* Codrin thought to emself.
+
+"We spent a lot of time working together, yeah. Nice guy. Did Codrin#Pollux have much to say about Debarre and user11824?"
+
+Ey froze in the middle of eir note-taking.
+
+Jonas held up his hands. "Just a guess. Ezekiel never leaves his border of Jerusalem, the Russians are gone, and I doubt Dear would've let True Name visit."
+
+"Well, fair enough. They all certainly sound interesting. Debarre seems nice, user11824 seems weird. Ey also talked to me about eir interview with Ezekiel, which was apparently quite prophetic."
+
+Jonas laughed.
+
+"And Ioan is getting hounded by strange historians while also doing eir best to keep up with interviewing the Odists." Ey hesitated, considering whether to pass on the warning that Ioan had received from End Waking, then decided to plow ahead. "One of them told em to be careful interviewing you, that you'd control the whole thing."
+
+"Did he now? Well, I suppose I will. It's one of those second nature things, you know. I apologize if that sounds scary, I promise it isn't. I do as Jonases do, just as you do as Balans do."
+
+Codrin nodded as ey wrote. "Well, alright. You alright if I start asking questions, then?"
+
+...
+
+It wasn't until Codrin was back at the house on the prairie, back with eir family, back where ey was comfortable enough to work on transcribing eir notes, that ey came across the phrase that had left em so wrong-footed during the interview.
+
+Ey frowned, stood up, and paced around eir office for a few minutes, stopping at the end of each circuit to stare out at the prairie beyond the windows. Ey was starting to feel as though there were coils of some sort wrapping around em. Thick, fleshy things that squeeze around eir middle, bound eir hands, held em silent. They did not kill em, did not force em to move, to watch. They did not force em do do anything. They just held em there, letting em know that, at all times, they were present.
+
+So ey sat at eir desk and wrote a footnote for eir transcript that ey'd send back to Ioan and May Then My Name.
+
+> Check my work, Ioan. As you have read, Jonas asked what each of our stressors were, and I mentioned a sentence or two about each of us and what we'd been doing that had been keeping us busy.
+>
+> You'll notice that, for you, when talking about End Waking, I said, "One of them told em to be careful interviewing you, that you'd control the whole thing."
+>
+> His reply: "Did he now?"
+>
+> I don't think I messed up the transcription, and you know as well as anyone that our memories are all there for our perusal. I've thought and thought and thought on it. I shouldn't doubt, and yet I do, so check my work.
+>
+> I said "one of them", and Jonas said "did he now". I asked Dear, and it said that there were relatively few male Odists in the clade (*"one less, now"*).
+>
+> Did you tell anyone that you were interviewing End Waking other than May Then My Name? I don't mean to cast doubt on either of you. I think you feel just as bound up in this as I do, but I need (we're beyond wants, now, I think) some clarification as to how Jonas knew that you had interviewed one of those relative few.