“I understand.”
“I do not want to hear you say that you are sorry, Sasha. I do not think that is how this works as you are now. I do not want to hear your justifications and explanations; I can understand them as well as anyone. I just want to hear your acknowledgement.”
After setting her plate and fork down on the low table again, Sasha folded her paws in her lap, sat for a moment in silence, then said. “For as much as I tried to do — for as much as Jonas and I both tried to do — I do not think we had nearly the effect on the world around us as we thought we did, not on the grand scale. We played our games of politics and influence, but it was a game of relationships from start to finish, you are correct. True Name changed relationships. May Then My Name changed relationships. End Waking played his part. I do not know if it was for the better or for the worse, but I do acknowledge that it made a good many of them far more difficult.”
-There was another moment of silence, then Serene’s wild grin returned. “Well, so did Praiseworthy, so, fuck it. Let me finish my pasta and I will fuck your sim up but good.”
+“Well, okay. Perhaps one apology.”
+“I am sorry, Serene; Sustained And Sustaining.”
+There was another moment of silence, then Serene’s wild grin returned. “Well, that felt good. Praiseworthy did all that shit, too, so, fuck it. Let me finish my pasta and I will fuck your sim up but good.”
Ioan blinked, looking between skunk and fox. “Wait, that simple?”
“Of course, my dear,” Serene said around a mouthful of pasta. “I already told you of my thoughts on the matter. I have done my processing.”
“And now you cannot simply say something about skunks being brats,” May chimed in. “Though I am pretty sure we all knew that foxes were, too.”
Serene made a rude gesture, still grinning.
-Once they’d finished dinner, Serene stood, stretched, and then leaned against the railing staring out over the plain. “Ioan, I will need ACLs over at least the exterior, including your yard, though I will do my best to keep it intact.”
+Once they’d finished dinner, Serene stood, stretched, and then leaned against the railing staring out over the plain. Her expression was calm, pleasant, though focused on something ey couldn’t see. “Ioan, I will need ACLs over at least the exterior, including your yard, though I will do my best to keep it intact.”
Ey nodded, focused, and made the grant.
“Thank you. Now, you may stay out here and watch, but I warn you that it can be a bit dizzy-making.”
Ey exchanged glances with the two skunks and shrugged. “I think we’re all eager to see.”
-“Suit yourself. It was your dinner.”
+“Suit yourself. It was your dinner. Thank you, by the way.”
There was no further announcement. Nor, even, any change in Serene. She still looked out over the railing with a dreamy, far away look on her face even as the world dropped out beneath them.
-The plain rippled and stretched, arching up high to the sky as though stretching after a long nap. Trees pried their way from the soil. Rocks broke free from the land. The river — the one immediately before them, at least — collapsed into itself to form a wide lake. The rest of the echoed versions of the plain where not occupied by mountains crinkled into some more complex geometry, the rest of the range echoed outside the valley.
-It was dizzy-making, too, but the worst of it wasn’t due to the sudden change in the shape of the landscape, but in just how, well…serene it all was. The river shaping itself into the lake was not accompanied by some grand splashing of waves, simply the remaking of the water. There were no falling rocks or grand earthquakes, just the reshaping of the world. The light shifted. Gravity swayed, settled.
+The plain rippled and stretched, arching up high to the sky as though stretching after a long nap. Trees pried their way from the soil. Rocks broke free from the land. The river — the one immediately before them, at least — collapsed into itself to form a wide lake. The rest of the echoed versions of the plain where not occupied by mountains crinkled into some more complex geometry, the remainder of the range echoed outside the valley.
+It was a little vertigo-inducing, too, but the worst of it wasn’t due to the sudden change in the shape of the landscape, but in just how, well…serene it all was. The river shaping itself into the lake was not accompanied by some grand splashing of waves, simply the remaking of the water. There were no falling rocks or grand earthquakes, just the reshaping of the world. The light shifted. Gravity swayed, settled. All of it was silent.
And then it was done.
-“H-holy fuck,” ey managed, clutching at the railing of the balcony.
+“H-holy fuck,” ey managed, clutching at the railing of the balcony. Both May and Sasha stood defiantly against the change, though neither looked as casual as the fox.
+“I have set your house up the hill a ways from the default entry point to the old sim,” she said, gesturing them down the steps from the balcony. They landed on a concrete pad set into the bed of pine needles, a small trail winding its way down the slope toward the water. She gestured toward the small ridge that rose next to them. “I had to modify the terrain a little bit to keep your yard level. You should be okay, but if you run into erosion problems, do let me know. I have been told of your affinity for weather, Ioan.”
+Sure enough, the fence remained level, wrapping around a small rectangle of hidden grass, the tops of lilac bushes overflowing.
+The trail teed with the long familiar deer trail that wound around the lake, and, out of habit, they all started down towards the rock.
+“Fauna?” Serene asked.
+“Please.” Sasha grinned sheepishly. “I would not like a repeat of that particular mistake.”
+Grinning and nodding, Serene kept up her steady pace, humming a little under her breath. There was no change that ey could see, though ey imagined her counting deer, rabbits, squirrels, and birds into existence.
+For eir part, ey simply walked, hand in paw with May, and marveled. Ey’d discovered the lake decades ago, had spent countless days out here on walks, and at least one night camping. Still, it felt somehow new. Ey was rediscovering this place that ey’d not seen in months — though ey’d spent longer stints away from it in the past — and marveling at the detail all over again. A glance back over eir shoulder showed eir flat-roofed house peeking shyly from amid the trees, but other than that, it was, ey assumed, the same as it had bit.
+After so long away and after so much stress it felt all the more real.
+They sat on the rock near the end of the lake and enjoyed the last of the sun. It was a little tight for four, but May tucked quite nicely up against eir side