update from sparkleup

writing/post-self/neviim/interlude/000.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # RJ Brewster --- 2114
 
-There was some draw, some appeal to Dr. Ramirez for RJ. At first, ey suspected that it was the quiet intensity of her confidence, the way she moved through the world with a hunger for knowledge that was at all times colored by the light of the desire to do right by the world as a whole. Then, ey thought that it might simply be that she was a good person. She was the one who believed hard enough and strong enough to follow up on the lost. She was the one who had actually tried, had actually moved forward at a pace that meant progress on the case. Recently, ey had been thinking that it was something more abstract than that.
+There was some draw, some appeal to Dr. Ramirez. At first, RJ suspected that it was the quiet intensity of her confidence, the way she moved through the world with a hunger for knowledge that was at all times colored by the light of the desire to do right by the world as a whole. Then, ey thought that it might simply be that she was a good person. She was the one who believed hard enough and strong enough to follow up on the lost. She was the one who had actually tried, had actually moved forward at a pace that meant progress on the case. Recently, ey had been thinking that it was something more abstract than that.
 
 Concrete? Abstract? The line had long since blurred to meaninglessness.
 
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ Ey had been lost for something beyond an eternity, for 'eternity' implied the ex
 
 She had been the first one in more than forever that ey had seen. She had been the one who broke through the wall of eir solipsistic existence and encouraged em to reengage with the world. As the orbits of eir life grew smaller and smaller, they had collapsed into a wandering figure-eight around Sasha, the one who made em complete, and Carter, the one who tied em to reality.
 
-And so it was that, even beyond the meetings and interviews, beyond the panels and studies, ey found emself staying in touch with her. Once a week or two, ey would make the long walk from eir flat down to the cluster of UCL buildings and wait until she was free for lunch or dinner, or, had ey yet again forgotten the meaning of time, wait for her to arrive at work early in the morning so that they could grab coffee together.
+And so it was that, even beyond the meetings and interviews, beyond the panels and studies, ey found emself staying in touch with her. Once a week or two, ey would make the long walk from eir flat down to the cluster of UCL buildings and wait until she was free for lunch or dinner, or, had ey yet again forgotten the meaning of time, wait for her to arrive at work early in the morning so that they could get coffee together.
 
 She had not questioned it at all. Even that first time, after ey had hunted down her office in the UCL directory and arrived, unannounced, outside of it to wait awkwardly until she pulled back from her rig. She had simply smiled, shaken eir hand, and they had gone out for an afternoon cup of coffee with no further discussion. It had simply become the thing that they did every now and then. 
 
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ Ey smiled too, though ey could feel exhaustion tugging at eir cheeks. Ey had sle
 
 "I am not sure." Ey sipped at eir tea, still too hot to drink comfortably. "Whatever wellspring that was unstoppered in...in there."
 
-"And it's stuck around?"
+"Seems like it stuck around."
 
 Ey nodded.
 
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ Ey nodded.
 
 Perhaps sensing some emotion deeper than exhaustion laying beneath the equivocation, the table fell silent, and ey once again looked out the window into the greying afternoon, thumb-tip tapping rhythmically along each of the contacts on the middle joints of eir fingers.
 
-Once the food arrived, the mood loosened up, and ey was able to smile and laugh and take part in the conversation, and even managed to apologize for being a damper on it only twice.
+Once the food arrived, the mood loosened up, and ey was able to smile and laugh and take part in the conversation, and even managed to apologize for being a damper on lunch only twice.
 
 Spring rolls and phở occupied their attention for a while, then, and they ate in silence except for the occasional 'good soup' and other such nothing compliments.
 
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ Ey made it a block away before ey heard the sound of jogging behind em, and step
 
 "Hey RJ, mind if I walk with you for a bit?"
 
-"Sure." Ey frowned. "Why? Do you not have work?"
+"Sure." Ey frowned. "Do you not have work?"
 
 He shrugged. "I do, but I'm getting sick of being cooped up. Begged an additional hour off to just get out for a bit."
 
@@ -106,9 +106,9 @@ At this, ey really did stop up short. "What do you mean, 'somewhere new'?"
 
 RJ blinked, nonplussed.
 
-"Technology, however, brings with it a status of its own." Prakash smiled, neither pityingly nor happily. Dreamily. "So if, as you say, dreams are the plate-glass atop memory, and if, as you've said in the past, getting lost put you in a mirrored cage, then these are bits of information related to technology. If one could drop the cage metaphor and set up a mirrored *world*, well, that would be quite the status symbol."
+"Technology, however, brings with it a status of its own." Prakash smiled, neither pityingly nor happily. Dreamily. "So if, as you say, dreams are the plate-glass atop memory, and if, as you've said in the past, getting lost put you in a mirrored cage, then these are bits of information related to technology. If one could set aside the cage metaphor and set up a mirrored *world*, well, that would be quite the status symbol."
 
-RJ stood a while in thought, searching Prakash's face until the man averted his eyes, and even after. "What would be required of me?"
+RJ stood a while in thought, searching Prakash's face until the man averted his eyes. "What would be required of me?"
 
 "Nothing, for now. Just to stay in touch. Eventually, though, we'll get you somewhere we can dig into research and after that, you'll be one of the founders of something big. Really big."