<p>“Yeah,” she said, leaning briefly against him as they walked. “I’m in the market for a new year. Sell me the 2406 model. I’ve got a wide variety to choose from, so tell me why you decided to live through this one.”</p>
<p>Reed scuffed his heel against the pavement of the street. New Year’s Eve, and everyone was still inside. Bars: full. Restaurants: packed. There were a few scattered couples or groups around, but they were all walking with purpose. Champagne called. Canapes. Crudites.</p>
<p>And here they were, Reed and Hanne, arm in arm, strolling leisurely down the street, heedless of the passersby, to celebrate the last day of 2406, systime 282+365.</p>
<p>“If you’re looking for the utmost in luxury, then it’s really hard to go wrong with 2406. The ride was just about as smooth as could be.”</p>
<p>Hanne laughed. “Cute. How about the exterior?”</p>
<p>“No clue. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve had any reason to pay attention to the world outside. I imagine it looks just as confusing as it anyways has.”</p>
<p>“Well, okay, fair enough. You’ve been here longer than I have.”</p>
<p>“I keep forgetting you’re younger than me.”</p>
<p>She nodded. “Robbing the cradle, you are.”</p>
<p>She laughed and shoved him away from her. “Now who’s the nerd? Gross.”</p>
<p>Reed stumbled to the side, laughing. Their own champagne from earlier added a pleasant freedom of movement he only ever noticed at two drinks. Any more and he became too loose and had a hard time staying upright. Any less and he didn’t notice that any freedom was lacking.</p>
<p>“Is that so bad?” he said. “Alternatively: am I not allowed to be a bit maudlin? It’s fucking New Year’s, Hanne.”</p>
<p>“What? Uh…” He hunted down a dictionary on the exchange, prowled through it. “Oh. Mawkish, that’s the one. Or saccharine, maybe? I don’t know. Maudlin still kind of works, doesn’t it?”</p>
<p>They walked in silence for a few minutes. Reed tallied the occupants of the various restaurants along the way, making note of the busiest to check out on some less-busy night. Good date spots, perhaps.</p>
<p>“What was it like when you uploaded?”</p>
<p>“You mean phys-side?”</p>
<p>Hanne nodded. “What was Earth like? What was your life like?”</p>
<p>He shrugged. “Fine, I guess. The Western Fed was swinging conservative again, it was hot as hell all the time, most places were starting to subsidize uploading despite an already declining population. I guess that makes it sound terrible, and maybe it would have gotten worse, but I wasn’t around to see it. We were doing alright, so maybe I was kind of sheltered.”</p>
<p>“I hear you on the hot as hell part. We couldn’t afford moving south when it got too bad, so we moved up into the mountains. It helped a little bit, at least.”</p>
<p>Reed nodded. “I guess that’s what I mean by sheltered. We were already up in Newfoundland. Summers sucked, winters sucked, but it was alright between them.”</p>
<p>“Autumn or spring?”</p>
<p>“Huh?”</p>
<p>“Pick one, dummy,” she said, laughing.</p>
<p>“Oh, autumn, for sure. Autumn bitch all the way.”</p>
<p>“I knew it.”</p>
<p>He rolled his eyes. “I’m nothing if not myself.”</p>
<p>Hanne shook her head. “You said to transition, sure, but didn’t you already do that back phys-side?”</p>
<p>He stayed silent, picking apart his thoughts on the matter. “I– Marsh got sick of being trans. They wanted to just be a man, not a trans man.”</p>
<p>“Well, I think half of it was that there was just too much pressure at the time. Like I said, the WF was swinging conservative, so there was this push to assimilate, and we internalized that pretty hard. We felt pushed to just shut up and be a man, just disappear, and always felt that we fell short despite all we did to try, but on Lagrange, we could do that right off the bat.”</p>
<p>“So they went back to being trans–“</p>
<p>“No, it’s okay,” he said, feeling a rush of warmth to his cheeks. “Didn’t mean to get too pushy. It’s still a little tender, I guess.”</p>
<p>The shadow of her shoulders relaxed again in the dark of the night. “Even after so long?”</p>
<p>“Yeah. Like I said, we internalized it pretty hard, even as they tried to diversify later on. I headed back trans, Lily headed back feminine, and Cress embodies the negation.”</p>
<p>“Is that why you forked, too?”</p>
<p>He laughed. “I forked for fun. Even if it’s still a tender spot, I think I’m still way more relaxed than they are. There may be a bit of that in Tule, I guess. He’s still pretty happy being a guy — he’s the only one out of all of us, come to think of it. Rush is as ve is of ver own choice, though.”</p>
<p>Hanne looped her arm through his. “Well, I still like you as you are.”</p>
<p>“What, trans?”</p>
<p>“No, a huge nerd.”</p>
<p>“Of course.” He bumped his shoulder to hers. “Why’d you upload, then?”</p>
<p>“The weather. The money. All the same stuff the government told us. Same as most people, I think. I internalized that as much as Marsh did the whole gender thing.”</p>
<p>“Was the WF still on its conservative swing?”</p>
<p>“The Republic of Argentina wasn’t part of the Western Federation.”</p>
<p>“Oh, right. I guess I knew that.”</p>
<p>She shrugged. “Sure. But either way, they were somewhere in the middle, maybe. There was this big push from the liberal side on the climate, and this big push on the conservative side on the financial side. They said they could cut costs on services if there were fewer of us. Dad was with them, mom was with the libs. It was one of the few things they could agree on. They said they’d miss me, but they weren’t exactly sad when I went the Ansible.”</p>
<p>“‘Went the Ansible’? Is that what you called it?”</p>
<p>“‘Uploading’ sounds so sterile,” she said, nodding. “‘Went the Ansible’ just made it sound like moving away from home.”</p>
<p>“Well, I’m glad you went the Ansible, then.”</p>
