Codrin Bălan#Castor — 2325
It took Codrin nearly a week to calm down enough to send True Name another message requesting to meet. It began with an apology.
-“True Name, I’d like, first of all, to apologize for becoming so heated during our last interaction,” ey said to er recording instance. “When confronted with information at such a scale, it is easy to become overwhelmed. I have since had time to read through both my notes from our meeting and the notes from Codrin#Pollux, and I think I understand better about what it was that you were trying to tell me. With that in mind, I’d like to meet up again to discuss some of the questions I didn’t get to previously, and to allow you to explain anything you would like to. Please let me know when you would like to meet. Thank you.”
+“True Name, I’d like, first of all, to apologize for becoming so heated during our last interaction,” ey said to er recording instance. “When confronted with information at such a scale, it is easy to become overwhelmed. I have since had time to read through both my notes from our meeting and the notes from both Codrin#Pollux and Ioan, and I think I understand better about what it was that you were trying to tell me. With that in mind, I’d like to meet up again to discuss some of the questions I didn’t get to previously, and to allow you to explain anything you would like to. Please let me know when you would like to meet. Thank you.”
Dear was nowhere to be found, this time. The fox had spent much of the last week alternating between requesting to be left alone and crying against eir shoulder. The story of what True Name had told em in combination from the news from Pollux had struck a deep chord with it, and when it did speak on the issue, the conversations would quickly end with “I did not know. I promise, Codrin, I did not know.”
So ey waited, ey read, and ey calmed down, and then ey scheduled eir interview.
The response came five minutes later, a simple ping of acknowledgement followed by a calm suggestion that immediately would be as good a time as any.
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@“Now, what would you like to ask me? I think it would go a bit more smoothly if you led.”
Ey nodded. “Alright. Let’s start with Launch this time. It sounds like you were involved with that as well. Can you tell me about that?”
“Of course. Is there any particular area you would like me to begin? Launch is a very broad topic.”
-“Well, Ne Jonas told Codrin on Pollux that we — that is, the Bălan clade and the liberal elements of the clade — toward beginning this project. Is that true?”
+“Well, Ne Jonas told Codrin on Pollux that we — that is, the Bălan clade and the liberal elements of the clade — were guided toward beginning this project. Is that true?”
If the phrase ‘liberal elements’ or its implication that True Name must be one of the more conservatives had any effect on the skunk, she didn’t show it. Instead, she simply nodded. “Yes. A project such as this was deemed important in that it would add the spice needed to keep System life on its toes, much as Ne Jonas mentioned. Does that make sense?”
“I suppose. When did the nudges come?”
True name sighed and rested on her forearms on the desk. “To answer that question requires answering a different question. We began by canvasing various art institutes, actually. I do not know why we simply did not track Dear or May Then My Name or any of the Hammered Silver stanza, as that would probably have shortened our search a good deal. All the same, we came across an exhibition at the Simien Fang School of Art and Design on history and its context in the world of the System by one Ioan Bălan. Do you remember that?”
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@“I suppose, not,” ey said.
“But perhaps we ought to talk about Michelle, as well. I also said in that interview that I no longer considered myself Michelle Hadje, having diverged too far from her to be the same person. That is why we had no real compunctions about influencing her as well. That began many years back, of course, but when your root instance makes a suggestion to you, you are quite likely to follow it, are you not? That provides quite a useful tool when interfacing with all elements of the clade, so we decided to take advantage of that early on.”
“You…influenced Michelle to steer the Clade?”
-True Name nodded, smiling. “It is what we are good at, yes, so we nudged her to suggest what she did to the first lines, all vague pronouncements, which helped us guide everyone toward the project.”
+True Name nodded, smiling. “It is what we — the clade, yes, but my stanza in particular — are good at, yes, so we nudged her to suggest what she did to the first lines, all vague pronouncements, which helped us guide everyone toward the project.”
“And did you nudge her to quit?”
The skunk did not speak. A non-answer that spoke volumes.
Codrin spent a minute tamping down eir temper. Ey had, after all, promised to remain calm. When ey felt like ey could speak in a level tone of voice, ey asked, “So you began the project of the launch long before it was really an open discussion. What were the various aspects involved in that?”
@@ -52,12 +52,12 @@“And Michelle quitting? Ioan told me that May Then My Name put it, “She could not do but what she did”.”
“If that is how she felt, then I suppose there is little that I can do to change it, given that she is gone. I apologize that May Then My Name feels upset about it, but again, there is little that I can do to change that.”
Ey sighed, nodded, and wrote down her answer. “And how have you felt now that you’ve pulled all this off.”
-True Name looked genuinely thoughtful. “I hesitate to say ‘proud’, but I am pleased that it went off as smoothly as it did. There were a few bumps on the road, but nothing difficult to overcome. We — the Odists you have called conservative — continue to work as we will. Jonas, bless his stupid heart, continues to work as he will. We stay in contact and keep divergence to a minimum until we are out of harm’s way, and then we ensure that we will keep our own projects safe. Castor, Pollux, and the L5 System. It is all going as close to plan as we could have expected.”
+True Name looked genuinely thoughtful. “I hesitate to say ‘proud’, but I am pleased that it went off as smoothly as it did. There were a few bumps on the road, but nothing difficult to overcome. We — the Odists you have called conservative — continue to work as we will. Jonas, bless his black heart, continues to work as he will. We stay in contact and keep divergence to a minimum until we are out of harm’s way, and then we ensure that we will keep our own projects safe. Castor, Pollux, and the L5 System. It is all going as close to plan as we could have expected.”
“So you’re…happy?”
“Pleased,” she repeated, laughing. “I will have time to be happy when I am dead. Until then I will continue to be pleased and continue to work.”
Codrin re-capped eir pen and folded eir hands on top of eir notebook.
“Does that mean we are done with the interview, Mx Bălan?” True Name asked, smiling.
-“I’m out of energy, as you put it.” Ey sighed. “Unless you have anything else to share, maybe we can put off any further questions until next time.”
+“I’m out of energy, as you put it.” Ey sighed. “Unless you have anything else to share, maybe we can put off any further questions until next time. I’m sorry it was so short.”
True name smiled and stood, brushing her paws down over her blouse to straighten some imagined crease. “Then I must thank you. It has been surprisingly fulfilling to be able to talk through all of this. It is, as your partner states, irreversibility. We cannot un-diverge from Pollux or the System. You can surely appreciate that.”
“I’ll have to tell it that when I get back. It’ll be excited to hear its idea out in the wild.”
The skunk ushered em to the door and grinned. “It will be fucking pissed, Codrin Bălan, and we both know that.”
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@“Afternoon,” ey mumbled.
“Evening, actually. I wanted to let you sleep, but dinner will be up shortly.”
Codrin nodded. “Thanks, I suppose. Stressful.”
-“It is difficult, is it not?” Dear murmured against eir neck. “I apologize that this was the way that you had to learn the truth. I apologize that I was not able to tell you. I apologize for many things, my dear. I cannot apologize for what the other elements of the clade, but I am sorry all the same.”
+“It is difficult, is it not?” Dear murmured against eir neck. “I apologize that this was the way that you had to learn the truth. I apologize that I was not able to tell you what I did know, and I apologize that I did not know the rest. I apologize for many things, my dear. I cannot apologize for what the other elements of the clade did, but I am sorry all the same.”
“You don’t have to apologize for her. For them. What did you call them before?”
“Batty,” the fox giggled. “They are all batty.”
“Very, very batty,” Codrin mumbled, and there was a pleasant silence between the two.
@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@“No.” Codrin finally allowed emself to be pulled to eir feet, smoothing out eir rumpled clothing. “No, I suppose not.”