-----

Ioan pulled together a stack of eir notes and, with a little concentration and a gesture, moved them over to a once-blank notebook, the pages now filled with eir scratchy shorthand. To this was added one of eir nicer pens, clipped to the cover, and a few slips of foolscap besides.

Tucking those under eir arm, ey walked over to May's desk and bent down to give the skunk a kiss atop her head, right between her ears. "I'm heading out. No messing with my pens, okay?"

Rather than the usual 'do not die' joke, the skunk turned on her stool, looped her arms up around eir shoulders and pressed her nose to eirs. "You will be okay, right?"

Ey hesitated. Something about her tone pointed more towards anxiety than simple seriousness. Ey leaned forward to set eir notebook down, tugged up on eir slacks, and settled to eir knees in front of her. "Of course, May. Will you?"

"I will be fine," she said, smiling. "I am just a little worried today, is all."

"Want me to leave a fork behind?"

"Will they be intolerable and antsy?"

Ey laughed. "Depends on how much pestering you do."

She lifted her snout enough to lick eir nose-tip, then shoved at em playfully. "I am busy, my dear."

"You fork more than anyone I know, you can just--"

"I am trying to tell you to get out of here, Ioan," she said, grinning. "Do not mind a little bit of anxiety. Good luck, have fun, and do not die, okay?"

Ey shook eir head and stood again, grabbing eir notebook. "Skunks. I swear..."

Ey stepped out of the sim before she could kick eir shin.

Ey ordered eir usual coffee and staked out eir usual spot on the couch. Rather than getting to work while ey waited for True Name, ey simply sat and enjoyed eir coffee as best ey could, staring off into nothing while mulling over May's words.

*You will be okay, right?* Ey frowned and shifted eir gaze down to eir coffee, half gone by now. There were relatively few occasions that would bring about anxiety in eir partner, and ey knew the majority of them stemmed from within her.

She'd often been upset by her down-tree instance, though that hatred she'd borne for so long had softened to something more like distaste of late. She'd occasionally gotten upset at em, often when ey'd not picked up on some cue that she'd given for some emotional need ey wasn't meeting. Both of those she'd express as best she could with a little burst of anxiety.

All of the other times, though, it had come from within. Whatever dire emotions that dwelt beneath the chipper, goofy, sarcastic, and delightfully earnest layer that made up the most of her would peek through and a little spark of something more profound and inexplicable would come over her. 

Ey frowned down to eir coffee, and considered whether ey should start laying in supplies for her overflowing. If this was the first sign, though, ey at least had some time yet.

"Mx. Bălan?"

Ey jolted and sat upright. True Name stood on the other side of the low coffee table from em, not yet having made the move to sit. "Sorry, True Name."

She bowed, smiling kindly. "May I join you? You looked quite deep in thought, and I am happy to meet up at another time."

Returning the bow apologetically, ey gestured toward her usual spot on the couch. "No, no. Sorry, I was a bit stuck up in my head. Could probably stand with getting out more often."

The skunk nodded and sat, blinking a cone of silence into being. She lapped at a bit of the whipped cream atop her mocha to get down to the drink. "I quite understand. Bit too cooped up of late?"

"A little, I guess. Heads down, maybe. Performances, helping May write a monologue, working on my own next project."

She grinned. "Plenty on your plate, then. May I ask how May Then My Name is doing?"

"Oh, she's alright."

Ey must have hesitated before responding, or not kept eir own anxiety out of eir voice, as True Name's expression fell briefly, though it was quickly replaced. "Say hi for me?"

Ey nodded. "Of course."

"I am also curious to hear about her monologue. It is something I remember thinking about occasionally and yet never getting around to doing. I am pleased that one of us is."

That also felt like a closed topic, so ey shook eir head. "I'm not comfortable talking about that without her permission. Sorry, True Name."

She smiled disarmingly and held up her free paw. "Of course, Ioan, no trouble. Can you tell me about your own project, perhaps?"

Ey opened eir mouth, closed it, and laughed. "I feel like I laid a bunch of landmines around me. Hopefully it's not awkward, but with all that went down on Castor, I've been toying with rewriting *Perils* as a play."

The skunk got a strange look on her face, then laughed. "Oh really? Cheeky! I do not know if I will be able to make it to a performance, but I will be delighted to read the script, if you wind up publishing it."

Ey laughed as well, more relieved than anything. "I'll make sure you get a copy, then. Was worried you'd be upset by it."

She waved her paw dismissively. "Of course not, my dear. That whole kerfuffle was, what, forty-four years ago? It has been comfortably relegated to memory and is thus fair game for artists."

Nodding, ey finished eir coffee and set the cup down on the table so ey could pull out eir notebook and get to writing.

Ey worked for a few minutes. They both did, if True Name's thoughtful gaze up into nothing was anything to go by. Ey'd wound eir way past all those conversational mines --- May, her monologue, the play about Qoheleth --- and now felt free to relax into the afternoon.

"You know," the skunk said thoughtfully, bringing em out of eir writing. "I was quite pleased when that book came out."

"*Perils*?"

She nodded. "It was something of a relief in a strange, roundabout way. While I would have preferred that it had not ended the way it did, it wound up being a pretty efficient way to bring all of that to the surface. A lot of very smart people have been thinking about it over the last few decades, and I am pleased to see some progress being made."

Ioan tilted eir head thoughtfully. "Sounds like, yeah. At least, from what I hear from May and Codrin. A Finger Pointing has been pretty tight-lipped about her own therapy and I don't think End Waking went along with it."

"He does not seem the type, no."

"Is it working out well for you, too?"

"Well enough," she said. "Though I am not comfortable discussing beyond that."

Ey nodded. "Right, sorry."

"It is alright. Thank you for understanding." She raised her cup towards em in a small toast.

((Talk more about the play, conservatives' view on it. Somehow get to the fact that #Castor never told her about Codrin learning the name, maybe she asks what news from Castor got em thinking about that in particular, since it Qoheleth had little to do with Michelle/Sasha))