update from sparkleup

writing/post-self/mitzvot/036.md

@@ -210,4 +210,182 @@ Eventually, he cleared his throat, set his plate down, and stared steadily at Sa
 
 As she had done with Serene, Sasha set her plate down as well, folded her paws in her lap, and bowed to the weasel. Ioan could tell by the set of her features and the straightness of her shoulders that she was indeed doing her best to keep that part of her at the fore. "I am sorry, Debarre. The things that I did were for what I thought was best, but they wound up hurting everyone. They were not fair to you and I apologize for the pain I caused. While I do not think I even *could* anymore, I will endeavor not to act in such single-minded ways again."
 
+Ioan couldn't read Debarre's expression well enough to judge his thoughts on the matter, but judging by the way he loosened up and joined in more of the conversations after that, speaking even with Sasha, he seemed to at least have accepted the words to an extent.
 
+Debarre and End Waking stayed for a few hours after dinner, long enough to see the first stars show themselves above the field, before they stepped back to the skunk's sim.
+
+Shortly after, Sasha stood, the other three following suit. She hugged Ioan and May around the shoulders and gave each of them a nose-dot kiss to the cheek. "If you two do not mind, I would like to go for a walk with Douglas and speak with him alone."
+
+They nodded and returned the hugs and kisses, getting hugs from Douglas as well before they stepped back home.
+
+(( Ioan and May talk ))
+
+-----
+
+Not all of these visits went nearly so smoothly, of course.
+
+In Dreams arrived early on a Saturday on an hour's notice and bowed formally to Sasha.
+
+"Ioan, I believe Jonas hired you as an amanuensis?" she said.
+
+"He did, yes. Do you need me for that, too?"
+
+"Please. This story is not over, will not be over for a long time yet. Listen. Watch."
+
+Sasha immediately picked up on the mood and stood up straight after returning the formal bow. She offered In Dreams a seat and coffee, both of which were declined, then said, "How may I help you?"
+
+"I have a request from both my stanza and that of Memory Is A Mirror Of Hammered Silver. You will also be presented with this request in writing as an individual-eyes-only message."
+
+Sasha nodded. "I understand."
+
+"We request no contact between you, your stanza, or the Bălan clade moving forward."
+
+"Wait, what?" Ioan said. May edged around a little ways behind em, clutching at eir arm.
+
+"You are too entangled in the matter. No contact with this situation means no contact from you, May Then My Name Die With Me, or Do I Know God After The End Waking. This request is in effect until further notice, and will also apply to our stanzas on Castor and Pollux. None of us are on Artemis, but I will also be passing this request on to Sorina Bălan. This also applies to general intraclade communication; we will add visibility exceptions to our messages and request that you do the same."
+
+"I understand, accept, and offer you my best," Sasha said, bowing once more.
+
+"I do not want your best." In Dreams said, voice flat. "Ioan?"
+
+Ey blinked, hesitated, then bowed in turn. "I understand and accept."
+
+"And May Then My Name?"
+
+It took the skunk a moment to swallow back a rising wave of emotions before she could manage a shaky nod and a hoarse, "Understood."
+
+"We are of one mind, then," she said, bowed, and stepped from the sim. A few seconds later, three sheets of paper scrolled out of the air above the dining table, all set as individual-eyes-only for each of them. Ioan read through eirs several times with a hollow feeling in eir chest.
+
+They didn't speak for the rest of the day. Ioan and May collapsed onto the beanbag and stayed there through much of it, each processing in their own way, while Sasha disappeared outside to lose herself in the wilderness, not returning until late that evening, bearing a lanky hair and double-pawful of chantarelle mushrooms, which she cooked down into a simple stew. They ate on the balcony to enjoy the late summer's evening as best they could.
+
+Sasha joined them in bed that night, and they took what comfort they could from each other's company.
+
+-----
+
+The last meeting of note came as Autumn began creeping over the edge of the hills.
+
+May stumbled in the middle of a rehearsal, falling to her knees and panting before pushing herself to her feet. She managed to make it through the rest of the scene before forking off so that she could continue as best as able while her root instance ducked back home.
+
+Once there, she darted over towards where Ioan sat at eir desk, working through the process of writing Jonas's book. She knelt beside em, clutched a pawful of eir shirt and set up a cone of silence. Ey felt the ACL-scape of the cone shift several times until it was just about as secure as could be made.
+
+"May? What--"
+
+"Zacharias! He has been pinging me once every few seconds for the last minute!" She was on the verge of hyperventilation, eyes wide and tail bristled. "I do not know what-- *fuck!*"
+
+Ioan slid from eir chair as the skunk started to slump over to the side. Ey helped her to her feet and over to the beanbag. "May, what's happening?"
+
+"He keeps...quitting and...sending high-priority merges..." she gasped. "The cone will not...stop those..."
+
+"You okay for few seconds?"
+
+Slumped over on the beanbag, the skunk nodded.
+
+Ey stepped from the cone, where May had clearly blocked sensorium messages from the fox, so that ey could holler into a message, "What the fuck do you want?"
+
+"Ioan! I need to...can I--"
+
+"No. No coming over."
+
+"A neutral place?"
+
+Ey thought quickly, sent a message to Douglas on a whim. "Do you need May there?" ey finally replied to the fox.
+
+"Yes!"
+
+Ey sighed. "I'll ask. No guarantees."
+
+"No, I...no," the skunk mumbled once ey stepped back into the cone. She'd managed to sit up and the panicked look on her face had calmed somewhat. "Or...well, I can, but he cannot come here."
+
+"I suggested Douglas's to maybe freak him out. I figure if Sasha's reaction was anything to go by, it might quell him, or at least keep him quiet."
+
+The skunk sat, silent, for a moment, holding onto one of eir hands tightly. "Alright. Will Douglas be around to sweep if needed?"
+
+Ey nodded.
+
+"Now?"
+
+"Yeah, I think so. Do you need anything before we go?"
+
+That panic on her face had slowly transmuted to anger, and ey could feel the same rising within em. "No. Let us get this the fuck over with."
+
+She dropped the cone, letting Ioan send a message to Zacharias spoken aloud for May's benefit. "The Field#002a0b1."
+
+The reply was frantic. "What?! No!"
+
+"There or no meeting."
+
+"F-fine."
+
+Ioan helped May to her feet, placed a kiss between her ears before both of them forked and stepped from the sim.
+
+Douglas stood at the top of his stoop, arms crossed, frowning. "Ioan, what is this?"
+
+"Zacharias made it out of the whole thing alive," May growled. "And now he is freaking out and wants to meet. I will not have him at our home."
+
+Douglas's frown deepened. "So you're bringing him here? The ACLs are pretty locked down right now."
+
+"Yes. We need somewhere where someone can sweep him if need be." She grinned, adding, "And if this place freaks him out, all the better.
+
+"If you say so," he said, paused, then continued, "Alright, he should be able to enter."
+
+Ioan nodded and sent a brief ping to the fox.
+
+He arrived within a fraction of a second, yelped, and fell backwards, paws balled up into fists and pressed tight against his eyes.
+
+"How long as it been for you, my dear? Since you were forked?" May said, kneeling down before the fox. Her voice had grown cloyingly sweet, that 'my dear' carrying nothing but spite.
+
+"Y-yes," he stammered. "Did...did we have to meet here?"
+
+"Where better?"
+
+Zacharias moaned. He forced himself to lower his paws to the ground, gripping at clumps of grass and dandelions. Finally, he opened his eyes and stared out toward the horizon of the field. "I--"
+
+"What did you want, my dear? You sounded on the verge of panic."
+
+"It is Jonas!" he said, finally snapping out of his daze. "Jonas! He killed all of my instances!"
+
+"Did you expect anything else?" Ioan asked.
+
+"I...well."
+
+"You are the root instance, I am assuming?"
+
+He nodded, the movement jerky. "I have not left home since. I dug a new one, you see."
+
+"And what can we do for you?"
+
+"Help! You can help me get away from that...that lunatic!"
+
+"Is your home no longer safe, then?"
+
+He reached out to clutch at May's paws. She startled backwards, but did nothing to push him away. "I cannot...I cannot be alone any longer. I have to...to be near--"
+
+"No," she said flatly.
+
+"But--"
+
+"No." The skunk shook her head, leaned forward and pressed her nose to Zacharias's briefly. "You are on your own, my dear. I will not accept any further messages or merges. No contact."
+
+He slouched once more, eyes still wide. "May Then My Name, I--"
+
+She extracted one of her paws from his and slapped him firmly across the snout. "And that is for before."
+
+Yelping, he fell back onto an elbow. He opened his mouth to respond, but May had already nodded towards Douglas, who swept him from the sim.
+
+"I've never seen you like that before," he said, once they'd made their way inside, the three of them clutching glasses of water. "I knew he was a shitbag, but God damn."
+
+"I am...not okay," she said, whispering down to her glass. "I am not okay."
+
+The skunk refused to say any more that day, and after they made it back home, informed Ioan that she would need at least a day, if not more, on her own.
+
+"Can I move elsewhere in the sim, or would you like the whole place to yourself?"
+
+She shook her head. "Just the house. If you can...I mean, if Sasha will let you stay at her tent, you can stay, but I need the house."
+
+"Now?"
+
+Nodding, she wrapped her arms around em and squeezed tighter than ey knew she could. "I love you more than anything, my dear. Now."
+
+Ey waited until ey could breathe properly after the squeeze, then kissed the top of her head. "I love you too, May. Please be safe, okay?"
+
+She nodded once more, relinquished her grip on em, and nudged em out toward the back door and outside.