update from sparkleup

writing/post-self/marsh/018.md

@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ We were once more dropped into utter blackness, treated to nearly five minutes m
 
 The analogy was clear --- almost ham fisted --- and it left my stomach churning. It left a lump in my throat and a hotness on my face. It left me sobbing. Me and so many others in the audience, from what I saw when the lights came back up. Each seat had a cone of silence above it, preventing me from hearing anyone else. Beside me, Dry Grass had started crying from the beginning and hadn't lifted her head from her arms folded on the small table before us throughout the entire performance.
 
-The auditorium, full at the start, was half-empty by the end, so many of the audience members having left in disgust or pain. <!--Günay, who had uploaded not two weeks prior, left before the stage went dark. PENDING "SENTENCES"-->
+The auditorium, full at the start, was half-empty by the end, so many of the audience members having left in disgust or pain.
 
 But now it was over and the house lights were coming back up, illuminating the two score crescent moon tables scattered through the room, the remaining audience sitting behind them in comfortable chairs. I stayed beside Dry Grass, rubbing her back gently as she worked to get her emotions under control. The audience filed out slowly while a few techs tore down the stage, gesturing at various props and the like, which either blipped out of existence or floated back into storage on their own. The blood on the stage was, thankfully, in the former category.
 
@@ -52,13 +52,13 @@ I glanced back to the stage, realizing that it was actually canted toward the au
 
 The two Odists --- one tall, slender, and human, the other a shorter, softer skunk --- made their way far more sedately toward our table. They walked arm in arm, leaning affectionately against each other, each carrying a drink in their free hand and paw.
 
-"Reed!" A Finger Pointing began, reaching out with one arm to offer me a hug. "I am pleased you made it." She glanced at Dry Grass with a rueful smile. "I hope we did not traumatize you *too* much. Have you heard back from the LVs, yet? It is about time, is it not?"
+"Reed!" A Finger Pointing began, reaching out with one arm to offer me a hug. "I am pleased you made it." She glanced at Dry Grass with a rueful smile. "I hope we did not traumatize you *too* much.
 
-I watched as Beholden started pulling chairs away from the next table over with a gesture, sliding across the floor so that she could flop down into one. As soon as she and A Finger Pointing had done so, Motes forked off two more instances to go pile into each of their laps as well.
+I watched as Beholden started pulling chairs away from the next table over with a gesture, one sliding across the floor so that she could flop down into it, with another for her parter. As soon as she and A Finger Pointing had done so, Motes forked off two more instances to go pile into each of their laps as well.
 
-"You have, but Motes has already apologized," Dry Grass said. "But yes, news has started to come in from Castor and Pollux. I believe Reed even has a letter."
+"You have, but Motes has already apologized," Dry Grass said.
 
-I nodded. "I do, yeah, but that can wait a bit. How're you? Feeling good about the play?
+<!-- more, slow hours vs beholden, come back to it later with reconciliation -->
 
 A Finger Pointing winced at Dry Grass' words, setting her drink down and offering a bow. "I am sorry, my dear; I recognize that our approach to reclamation is at times quite uncomfortable. I will endeavor not to be so careless in the future."
 
@@ -70,7 +70,11 @@ The skunk lingering on Dry Grass's lap grinned proudly to me.
 
 Dry Grass sighed. "That it does, my dear, and that is what keeps it a trauma worth processing."
 
-Beholden laughed. "You are so very much yourself, Dry Grass." She gave her instance of Motes a squeeze. "Please do keep that up. But how are you feeling beside that, Reed?"
+Beholden laughed. "You are so very much yourself, Dry Grass." She gave her instance of Motes a squeeze. "Please do keep that up. But how are you two feeling beside that? Any news?"
+
+"Yes, have you heard back from the LVs, yet? It is about time, is it not?" A Finger Pointing asked.
+
+"Yes," Dry Grass said. "At least I have. News has started to come in from Castor and Pollux. It was a shock to hear from In The Wind#Pollux. I have set aside processing that for later, though; I believe Reed even has a letter."
 
 I sighed, leaning forward to grab my drink off the bar before settling back in my chair. I was glad I'd gone for a wine rather than anything fizzy. My throat still felt raw from the crying. "I'm doing okay, I think. Coming to terms with it all. The play was...a lot. I guess part of why it hit me so hard was because I heard back from Marsh#Castor today."
 
@@ -84,7 +88,7 @@ Motes, preoccupied obtaining as much affection as she could, merely shrugged.
 
 I laughed, nodded.
 
-A Finger Pointing leaned down to her Motes's ear. "My dear, could you--?" she cooed, beckoning Beholden and the other Motes to join us at the table. "Please, Reed; I am *intensely* curious what they have to say about all this."
+A Finger Pointing leaned down to her Motes's ear. "My dear, could you--?" she cooed. The little leaned up, dotted her nose affectionately to her cheek, and then quit. "Please, Reed; I am *intensely* curious what they have to say about all this."
 
 Beholden seemed focused on straightening out Motes' mane --- perhaps a little more than could be expected, as though working to distract herself --- though she nodded all the same.
 
@@ -136,7 +140,13 @@ Dry Grass nodded. "There were times throughout our history that Michelle felt mo
 
 Beholden looked suddenly away, mastering some intense emotion that washed over her face. She seemed to want to speak, though, so we all remained in silence.
 
-"And we *do* have that in us," she said at last, voice thick. "We do have the capability--" A Finger Pointing reached over to her partner, pulling her close by the shoulders. She sniffed, sighed, then went on. "--in Death Itself and I Do Not Know, but also in Muse."
+"And we *do* have that in us," she said at last, voice thick. "We do have the capability--"
+
+When her voice failed, A Finger Pointing reached over to her partner, pulling her close by the shoulders. 
+
+She sniffed, sighed, then went on. "--in Death Itself and I Do Not Know, but also in Muse."
+
+<!-- more; tie in with nasturtiums -->
 
 Motes drew her legs up onto the chair with her and buried her face in her arms.
 

writing/post-self/marsh/index.md

@@ -30,23 +30,23 @@ NB: It's frankly astonishing how few cats there are in this story. Fix that.
     * [O] [004](004) --- Meeting up with other Marshans (minus Lily, plus Dry Grass) to talk through results, walking sims and seeing how others are reacting, meeting with Odists to estimate percentages, catching Lily up --- 10190
     * [O] [005](005) --- INTERLUDE: The perisystem feeds: tallying up the missing, building up percentage of lost personalities, the Marshans and Dry Grass wind up leading an effort --- 1975
     * [O] [006](006) --- Dinner with Reed, Hanne, friends (Warmth, My, Jess, Dry Grass), the Marshans, Lily sort of reconciles with Dry Grass, conversation 1 about what it means to be a clade without a root instance. --- 4379
-* [o] 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
+* [O] 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
     * [O] [007](007) --- Dry Grass loops Reed & co into discussion with phys-side admin and engineers, Günay made point and admin pushed to the side, Huddle to talk about why they're being so cagey --- 5747
     * [O] [008](008) --- Dinner and talking with Dry Grass, Cress, and Tule about feelings, Reed catching feelings --- 3324
-    * [ ] INTERLUDE: Millwright
+    * [o] INTERLUDE: Millwright
     * [-] 009 --- (MERGED DOWN)
     * [O] [010](010) --- Clade representatives form a group, contact chill phys-side systech, learning even more about both what happened WRT CPV bomb and collectives, plus how phys-side is seeing things, various changes to the System, AWNH and Jonas Fa are into knife play --- 5877
     * [O] [011](011) --- Meeting with member of The System Consortium, who is a member of a conservative collective, learning more about why the System was bombed --- 2346
-    * [o] [012](012) --- Visiting the morgue, funeral for Marsh, fight with Lily, who is reacting to grief with anger. --- 3345
-* [o] Part 3 --- The ramifications, both global and personal (but mostly personal) --- a lot of talk among the Marshans, their partners, and a chill phys-side systech --- looking into trying to reconstruct Marsh by cross-tree merging Reed, Lily, and Cress --- it doesn't work, so it turns into coming to terms with letting go of the past
-    * [o] [013](013) --- Dry Grass mourns, Reed catches Cress and Tule up with regards to System changes, cross-tree merges --- 2395
-    * [o] [014](014) --- Reed and Hanne talking, Reed admits to starting to grieve now that things are calming down, expresses doubts about reconstruction --- 1775
-    * [o] [015](015) --- Date with Dry Grass, talking about reconstruction --- 2002
-    * [o] [016](016) --- Discussing social changes both phys- and sys-side, improvements on the table, someone digging into Artemisian archives, Reed decides to go through with cross-tree merge --- 3975
+    * [O] [012](012) --- Visiting the morgue, funeral for Marsh, fight with Lily, who is reacting to grief with anger. --- 3345
+* [O] Part 3 --- The ramifications, both global and personal (but mostly personal) --- a lot of talk among the Marshans, their partners, and a chill phys-side systech --- looking into trying to reconstruct Marsh by cross-tree merging Reed, Lily, and Cress --- it doesn't work, so it turns into coming to terms with letting go of the past
+    * [O] [013](013) --- Dry Grass mourns, Reed catches Cress and Tule up with regards to System changes, cross-tree merges --- 2395
+    * [O] [014](014) --- Reed and Hanne talking, Reed admits to starting to grieve now that things are calming down, expresses doubts about reconstruction --- 1775
+    * [O] [015](015) --- Date with Dry Grass, talking about reconstruction --- 2002
+    * [O] [016](016) --- Discussing social changes both phys- and sys-side, improvements on the table, someone digging into Artemisian archives, Reed decides to go through with cross-tree merge --- 3975
     * [o] INTERLUDE: Nasturtiums
-    * [o] [017](017) --- It doesn't work, there is only them, no Marsh, Vos gets *very mad*, clade admits it's time to start grieving proper --- 3619
+    * [O] [017](017) --- It doesn't work, there is only them, no Marsh, Vos gets *very mad*, clade admits it's time to start grieving proper --- 3619
 * [o] Epilogue --- Life after
-    * [o] [018](018) --- (~8 months later, a letter from Marsh#Castor or #Pollux expressing grief, coming to terms with letting go of the past, conversation 2 with A Finger Pointing (and other Odists) about being a clade without a root)
+    * [o] [018](018) --- ~8 months later, a letter from Marsh#Castor or #Pollux expressing grief, coming to terms with letting go of the past, conversation 2 with A Finger Pointing (and other Odists) about being a clade without a root, cross-tree merges for reconciliation, bring up point from early 017
 
 ## Questions and notes