update from sparkleup
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Madison Scott-Clary
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<li class="done4"> <a href="launch/phys/Douglas/007.html">Launch: phys-side: Douglas</a> - Learns more about the clade, but still not about names, mentions some concerning stuff re: patterns phys/planet-side - 1855</li>
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<li class="done4"> <a href="secession/phys/Yared/007.html">Secession: phys-side: Yared</a> - Introduces secession amendment himself, it goes over poorly initially, contacts Demma who reassures him that it will swing in secession’s favor after some unsavory strings are pulled, told to keep pressing sys-side on secession - 2640</li>
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<li class="done4"> <a href="launch/sys/Ioan/009.html">Launch: sys-side: Ioan</a> - Ioan, already worried, interviews Do I Know God After The <em>End Waking</em> (skunk male, druid type) at eir home, who was tasked by True Name and Jonas to meddle with phys-side finance late 2100s to increase sys-side population by paying for uploads (as Ioan was), liberal now, regrets his actions; points em to Jonas still on system; conversation with both End Waking and May about what she meant about system being more subtle viz dandelions (even after all this time, it’s still a dream, May’s been dreaming with em, not uncommon for emotionally entangled people) - 3217</li>
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<li class="done3"> <a href="launch/launch/Codrin-pollux/006.html">Launch: launch-side: Codrin#Pollux</a> - Has Yared, Debarre, and user11824 over, who talk about how the council was undermined, then overridden by Jonas/Odists after secession, Yared talks about Toledot Yeshu, Demma as Paul (left unsaid whether or not Demma was influenced by anyone sys-side, implied no; phys-side still had its own politics, then) - 2856</li>
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<li class="done4"> <a href="launch/launch/Codrin-pollux/006.html">Launch: launch-side: Codrin#Pollux</a> - Has Yared, Debarre, and user11824 over, who talk about how the council was undermined, then overridden by Jonas/Odists after secession, Yared talks about Toledot Yeshu, Demma as Paul (left unsaid whether or not Demma was influenced by anyone sys-side, implied no; phys-side still had its own politics, then) - 2856</li>
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<li class="done3"> <a href="secession/sys/True-Name/006.html">Secession: sys-side: True Name</a> - Meets with Debarre, who says he understands better now, thanks her for all her work; after he leaves, meets up with <em>Life Breeds Life,</em> But Death Must Now Be Chosen (human male, scholar type) to help keep up appearances during secession work that the clade isn’t growing, minimize actions in history so that the clade doesn’t appear to have done anything, that Michelle was on the Council and the clade just helped. - 2317</li>
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<li class="done3"> <a href="launch/launch/Codrin-castor/006.html">Launch: launch-side: Codrin#Castor</a> - Interviews No Jonas, hints at how big an influence he and Odists (not just TN!) had on both phys/sys side after secession, anything to keep System growing - 2471</li>
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<li class="done3"> <a href="secession/sys/True-Name/007.html">Secession: sys-side: True Name</a> - walks sims, thinking about what the System will look like after secession (doesn’t share Yared’s pessimism), how to keep it running, remembers conversation about birth laws in S-R Bloc, forks End Waking to investigate that, revealing that at some point, Jonas showed her how to manipulate reputation markets to make sure she could always fork. - 1378 Expand?</li>
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<p>Despite not having the chance to meet him yet, ey had also learned much about Debarre from eir conversations with the various members of the Ode clade, as well as eir research into the Council of Eight.</p>
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<p>At one point, ey asked Dear how it was that a full quarter of the council that guided the System toward secession was made up of furries, and the fox had laughed.</p>
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<p><em>“Can you not guess why a furry might be an early and ardent adopter of a system that seems purpose built to allow one to assume what form feels most natural?”</em></p>
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<p>Made sense.</p>
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<p>Made sense. Ey still looked forward to meeting Debarre that evening.</p>
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<p>There was a strange atmosphere at the modern house on the prairie that afternoon. It hovered somewhere between a party, or at least a gathering of friends, and a council meeting.</p>
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<p>What had started as a suggestion to get a few voices together for Codrin to interview had then turned into a suggestion for a dinner party, and from there into what promised to be a cozy, wine-fogged house party that might sprout from a group of friends who enjoyed company, but also quiet.</p>
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<p>The guests started arriving in the late afternoon, with the first to arrive being Debarre. Dear greeted him with a grin and a hug before the slender mustelid greeted both of the fox’s partners with paw-shakes and half-hugs.</p>
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<p>Ey stopped halfway through opening a bottle of wine. “Really? I wasn’t expecting a dinner full of politicians.”</p>
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<p>They laughed. “I don’t think any of them would call themselves politicians. Dear would call itself an “interested party” or something similarly vague. I think Debarre would call himself a guide, or maybe a dupe. user11824 would just call himself boring. Get used to that word, he uses it a lot.”</p>
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<p>“And Yared? He seems, I don’t know, nervous.”</p>
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<p>“He was just a DDR junkie. He followed politics more as a hobby, but with a single-minded focus that made him attractive to both phys- and sys-side on the debate.” They shrugged and pulled down wine glasses from the cabinet one by one. “I think he’d call himself a pawn. A puppet, maybe. The nervousness stems from being so thoroughly used by both sides, I think, but don’t quote me on that. Take these.”</p>
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<p>“He was just a DDR junkie. He followed politics as a hobby, but with a single-minded focus that made him attractive to both phys- and sys-side on the debate.” They shrugged and pulled down wine glasses from the cabinet one by one. “I think he’d call himself a pawn. A puppet, maybe. The nervousness stems from being so thoroughly used by both sides, I think, but don’t quote me on that. Take these.”</p>
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<p>Codrin frowned, nodded, and accepted two of the glasses to carry out with the wine, while Dear’s partner brought out the other four.</p>
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<p>Once the drinks had been poured and passed around, Dear stood and, in the grand style that ey had come to love, declaimed, <em>“First, we will have a toast, and then we will drink. After that, we will eat, and then — only then, my dear — may you ask your questions.”</em></p>
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<p>Ey laughed and raised eir glass. “I’m in.”</p>
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<p><em>“The toast, then!”</em> Dear composed itself, standing up straighter and holding its glass aloft. <em>“To the complete and utter stupidity of anyone unlucky enough to wind up in politics, and the utter hubris of anyone who tries.”</em></p>
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<p><em>“The toast, then!”</em> Dear composed itself, standing up straighter and holding its glass aloft. <em>“To the complete stupidity of anyone unlucky enough to wind up in politics, and the utter hubris of anyone who tries.”</em></p>
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<p>Debarre laughed and raised his glass, “I’ll drink to that.”</p>
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<p><em>“Then, by all means, let us drink,”</em> the fox said, and did just that.</p>
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<p>The dinner was, as always, delicious: a spicy peanut and bell-pepper soup and a few dishes of beef, vegetables, and lentils. Far more food than was strictly necessary, but Codrin suspected that it was more for Yared’s sake than anyone else’s, as he calmed down greatly after having eaten (and having had a few glasses of wine), complimenting the food several times. He even began joining in the conversation towards the end of the meal. </p>
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<p>“Yeah, but you’re a writer, Dear’s a whatever-the-fuck, and they’re a cook and I guess painter. Boring on, like, a subatomic level.”</p>
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<p>“Boring is nice, sometimes,” Dear’s partner said.</p>
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<p>“Oh god, you’re telling me,” user11824 laughed. “I’d never turn it down. Excitement always means that something horrible is happening.”</p>
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<p>“You know,” Debarre said, nodding to the ill-defined man. “I think that’s the first time you’ve ever actually said anything about that when I’ve been around. I always just thought you were bitching whenever we went somewhere or had a conversation and you called it boring.”</p>
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<p>“You know,” Debarre said, nodding to the ill-defined man. “I think that’s the first time you’ve ever actually explained that when I’ve been around. I always just thought you were bitching whenever we went somewhere or had a conversation and you called it boring.”</p>
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<p>“If we’re somewhere exciting or a conversation is actively interesting, it means that someone’s fucked up.”</p>
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<p>Dear laughed. <em>“It is important to fuck up, my friend. Otherwise, the boredom may become terminal.”</em></p>
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<p>He rolled his eyes and mumbled, “Fucking boring.”</p>
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<p>“Me either,” Debarre said.</p>
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<p>“Same.” user11824 shrugged. “Though I’d be surprised if Dear had invited them.”</p>
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<p><em>“Quite,”</em> the fox said curtly.</p>
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<p>Debarre looked sheepishly at the fox. “Sorry, Dear. I know you’ve distanced yourself from all that.”</p>
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<p>“They were quite interesting,” user11824 said. “And I can’t think of anything worse.”</p>
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<p>Debarre looked sheepishly at the fox, ears splayed. “Sorry, Dear. I know you’ve distanced yourself from all that.”</p>
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<p>“They were interesting,” user11824 said. “And I can’t think of anything worse.”</p>
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<p>Codrin redirected the conversation. “That aside, then, when did you upload, Yared? Or any of you, I guess.”</p>
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<p>“I uploaded Secession day. Literally about an hour before Secession itself. I was the last upload before it took effect. An ‘honor’ they called it.”</p>
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<p>Codrin nodded, looked to Debarre.</p>
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<p>“The same day as Dear,” Debarre said.</p>
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<p>“What? Was that planned?”</p>
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<p>The weasel laughed. “Oh yes. Michelle and I pooled our money to upload as soon as we could.”</p>
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<p>Yared spoke up next. “I didn’t have anything to do with the launch effort. I dropped politics like a bad habit as soon as I saw the direction in which the Council was heading. That said, I couldn’t help but learn all I could about it, read every memo I could, learn about some of the physics of it. I was just done with being an active participant.”</p>
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<p>“Why is that?” Codrin asked.</p>
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<p>Yared turned his wine glass between his fingertips for a moment, simply thinking. “How much do you know about Christianity?” he asked.</p>
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<p>Ey must have looked decidedly nonplussed at the question, as Dear giggled.</p>
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<p>Ey must have looked quite confused at the question, as Dear giggled.</p>
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<p>“I promise I’m going somewhere with this,” Yared said, grinning nervously.</p>
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<p><em>“You can actually blame me for this, my dear. I helped him come up with the correlation he is about to use.”</em></p>
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<p>Codrin said, “I mean, I know the basic precepts. Some of the history, that sort of thing.”</p>
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<p>“And we know that Paul won that debate.”</p>
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<p>Yared nodded. “Yes. As soon as it was decided that anyone could become a Christian without becoming a Jew, Christianity effectively became its own religion, not beholden to the laws of Judaism.”</p>
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<p>“I can kind of see where this is going,” Codrin said slowly. “Secession is rather like the point at which the System effectively became its own country.”</p>
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<p>“Bear with me. What your partner showed me was an alternate telling of this story. Sometime back in medieval Europe, a Jewish community started circulating this story called “Toledot Yeshu”, which means something like the ancestry or generations of Jesus. Much of it is a retelling of the gospels with Jesus as a trickster magician. But Paul in this story becomes something more interesting, apologies to present company.”</p>
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<p>“Bear with me. What your partner showed me was an alternate telling of this story. Sometime back in medieval Europe, a Jewish community started circulating an old story called “Toledot Yeshu”, which means something like the ancestry or generations of Jesus. Much of it is a retelling of the gospels with Jesus as a trickster magician. But Paul in this story becomes something more interesting, apologies to present company.”</p>
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<p>user11824 rolled his eyes and finished his wine.</p>
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<p>“In Toledot Yeshu, Paul is actually hinted at being a plant from the Jewish authorities, though it is vague as to who, whose goal was to introduces enough changes to the budding religion to cause it to split away so that it wouldn’t remain a sect of Judaism.”</p>
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<p><em>“Many viewed Jesus as a rabbi,”</em> Dear interjected. <em>“And had that lasted to the point where Judaism headed into a rabbinical tradition, his teachings would have become part of the faith.”</em></p>
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<p>Codrin frowned. “Are you suggesting that Secession was engineered to keep the System from remaining a part of society, phys-side?”</p>
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<p>There was a tense moment of silence before Yared nodded. “I was Paul. Or perhaps I was the tool of Paul. I was the tool of two Pauls, one in the form of a representative of the phys-side government who used me to steer public opinion toward permitting Secession, and one in the form of True Name and Jonas who wanted the System to be independent for their own reasons. It was not enough to ensure the System’s continued existence for them and it was not enough for the System’s participation to be limited from the phys-side point of view. It needed to become its own entity.”</p>
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<p>There was a tense moment of silence before Yared nodded. “I was the tool of Paul. I was the tool of <em>two</em> Pauls, one in the form of a representative of the phys-side government who used me to steer public opinion toward permitting Secession, and one in the form of True Name and Jonas who wanted the System to be independent for their own reasons. It was not enough to ensure the System’s continued existence for them and it was not enough for the System’s participation to be limited from the phys-side point of view. It needed to become its own entity.”</p>
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<p>All eyes were on Yared now, who sighed. “It needed to become its own entity by any means necessary, as soon as possible, and with as much plausible deniability as could be managed.”</p>
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<p><em>“Both sides wanted to preserve a way of life, and so differences were magnified to the point where Secession was inevitable,”</em> Dear said quietly. <em>“And so here we are, a completely separate entity, and we all thought it was our own idea. It is not some supercessionist nonsense, no matter what True Name and Jonas might have you believe. We all just wanted to live our best lives, and we all were made to believe that this was best solution for that.”</em></p>
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<p>Codrin finished eir wine and set the glass aside. “So you stayed away from the politics of Launch because you didn’t want to become another tool of Paul.”</p>
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<p>Yared nodded.</p>
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<p>Debarre said, “We all kind of were, towards the end. Anyone who was a true believer in Secession was a tool for them, in a way, or at least a potential tool.”</p>
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<p>Debarre said, “We all were, towards the end. Anyone who was a true believer in Secession was a tool for True Name and Jonas, in a way, or at least a potential tool.”</p>
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<p>“This was not what I was expecting out of the evening,” Codrin admitted. “I was going to just ask you all why you decided to join the launch and everything.”</p>
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<p>user11824 laughed, “New place to be bored, is all.”</p>
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<p>user11824 laughed. “New place to be bored, is all.”</p>
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<p>“Congrats on finding the interesting stuff,” Dear’s partner said.</p>
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<p>There were a few minutes of silence as everyone worked, in their own ways, to digest the information that had been shared.</p>
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<p>Finally, Debarre spoke up. “I’m happy that I’m still in touch with Dear and a few other Odists. Michelle is gone, but a lot of the good that was in her is still around. But man, I had no idea how thoroughly she was split, that those who are nice can be so nice, and those who aren’t can somehow completely lack all that made her good.”</p>
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<p>Dear raised its glass for a third toast of the evening. <em>“To her, to you, and to two hundred and thirty years of friendship.”</em></p>
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<p>Finally, Debarre spoke up. “I’m happy that I’m still in touch with Dear and a few other Odists all the same. Michelle is gone, but a lot of the good that was in her is still around. But man, I had no idea how thoroughly she was split, that those who are nice can be so nice, and those who aren’t can somehow completely lack all that made her good.”</p>
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<p>Dear raised its glass to Debarre for a third toast of the evening. <em>“To her, to you, and to two hundred and thirty years of friendship.”</em></p>
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<p>“To lost friends,” Debarre added.</p>
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<p>They all watched as Dear and Debarre drank to each other and those who were gone.</p>
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</article>
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<footer>
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<p>Page generated on 2021-10-13</p>
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<p>Page generated on 2021-10-17</p>
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</footer>
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</main>
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