update from sparkleup

writing/post-self/neviim/local/tycho/012.md

@@ -42,6 +42,61 @@ He nodded, sighed, and rubbed over his face with a hand. For as little as was ac
 
 "Oh?"
 
-He smiled lopsidedly. "True Name 
+He smiled lopsidedly. "True Name cornered me when this whole thing began and quoted some poetry at me that got me in mind of keeping track of all this. Something about how we may sit humbly at each others' feet and share our later sciences."
+
+"I can never pick apart when she's being blunt or subtle."
+
+"Well, she followed it up with, "That is a poem about death. Please understand that there is risk here, as well" so, maybe it was a bit of both."
+
+Sarah laughed. "Well, okay. I'll grant you that. Sounds like working with her has been kind of fraught. You've had more experience than I."
+
+He rubbed his hands together and chewed on his lip thoughtfully. "It hasn't been too bad. She's been nothing but polite, and sometimes even nice. It's hardly been a bad time. I think the biggest block has actually been squaring what I'm experiencing with what I'd assumed about her from the *History*."
+
+"She didn't exactly come off as kind or polite in there, no."
+
+"Codrin mentioned something about that, about how they wanted the *History* released, but wanted to control how. Ey said that she'd acted as dramatic as she had in order to make the end result seem more sensational than reality."
+
+Sarah laughed. "Well, I'd certainly call *that* subtle."
+
+"Right," he said, grinning. "So I guess it's kind of making me reassess how I feel about them."
+
+"The Odists?"
+
+"Them too, but I was thinking more the *History* and *Mythology*. Like, if they're the product of social engineering to make them sound worse than they are to achieve a goal other than what Codrin and May Then My Name intended, then it's probably worth me actually paying attention to how things really are. That, and how they're engineering what's going on here."
+
+"Sure, that makes sense," Sarah said, sitting back with her hands folded in her lap. "I can pick up little bits and pieces of her and Why Ask Questions trying to nudge things this way or that, with mixed results. It's giving me a new appreciation for what Codrin does, honestly. Ey's got maybe the hardest job of us all."
+
+Tycho nodded. "I don't envy em that. Ey told me at the beginning that I'd be doing the same, in my own way --- listening and coming away from this with a more complete picture --- and I think I lack the experience ey has, both the training as an amanuensis and from living with an Odist."
+
+"They're cute together, though. Pulling Dear's tail sounds like a recipe for disaster, but I guess if you've been together for forty years or whatever, you can get away with it."
+
+He laughed and shook his head. "Yeah, no way. Never really was my thing, so I have no idea how it all works."
+
+"What's that?"
+
+"Relationships. Never really got into them, so the banter is cute to watch, but just as over my head as all of the politicking."
+
+Sarah nodded. "They're not for everyone, especially here, where you have the problem of perpetuity."
+
+"Precisely," Tycho said. "I can't imagine being around one person or group of people for forty years and still expect to do so for a hundred more."
+
+"To be fair, neither can I," she said, laughing.
+
+After a suitable pause, he nudged the subject back toward a previous topic. "Has your opinion of the *History* changed at all?"
+
+"A little, I suppose. A lot of the dramatic interactions felt like just that: drama. It's the type of thing that I'm attuned to, though, based on my work. The Odists have a flair for that, though, which I guess makes sense, given where they come from." She paused, gaze drifting off towards nothing. "I guess if my opinion has changed, it's been to understand just how deep it all goes. Not the behind the scenes stuff, but their control over themselves. True Name especially."
+
+"It kind of makes me wonder--"
+
+Tycho was cut off from the rest of his sentence by Codrin stepping into his field of view outside the cone and waving. He dropped the silence.
+
+"Sorry, you two. Time to head back."
+
+"Everything alright? You look...I don't know, like you were just put through the wringer."
+
+Ey smiled weakly, shaking eir head. "Not me, no. I'm very tired, though, and I imagine things are only going to get more stressful over the next few hours."
+
+"Why? What--"
+
+"I'm sorry, Tycho, I really do want to answer your questions, but we really don't have time."
 
-Talks with Sarah Genet about what the two parties are learning and how he's reevaluating the History, writes note to #Emissary