“I do!” Ey frowned. “I mean, of course I do.”
“So answer the question.”
“I…yes?”
-“Is that a question?”
+“Is that a question?”
Ey shook eir head. “I guess not.”
-“I told Douglas that I would wait for you to bring up the topic, and that when you did, I would make fun of you,” she said, grinning. “But you look like your head is about to explode, so I will save that for another time. You get so stuck up in your head sometimes, my dear.”
-“Really? Douglas is the one that got me thinking about asking.”
-The skunk stood up from her stool, drawing Ioan out of eir seat by the hand she still held. “Leave it to a Hadje to play two sides off each other.”
+“I told Douglas that I would wait for you to bring up the topic, and that when you did, I would make fun of you for a solid hour,” she said, grinning. “But you look like your head is about to explode, so I will save that for another time. You get stuck up in there so easily sometimes, my dear.”
+“Really? Douglas is the one that got me thinking about asking in the first place.”
+The skunk stood up from her stool, drawing Ioan out of eir seat by the hand she still held. “Of course. Leave it to a Hadje to play two sides off each other.”
Ey laughed, drew her into a hug, and kissed the top of her snout.
Later, as they sat on the bench swing, looking out over the dandelion-speckled yard, Ioan mused. “You know, I was thinking something.”
“Color me surprised.”
@@ -107,14 +107,14 @@“Kind of.”
May elbowed em in the side. “You are kidding, right?”
“No, seriously,” ey said, rubbing at eir side. “Codrin forked to work on the Qoheleth project, then got in a relationship with Dear.”
-A spark of recognition lit up May’s eyes and she grinned wide. “But you didn’t.”
-“No.” Ey shrugged. “I was the Bălan who didn’t wind up in a relationship with Dear, because that was my up-tree instance. I can’t go back and fork before we met or started working together or dating.”
-She laughed and shook her head, draping herself across eir lap. “There is no going and there is no back. You are stuck with me, Mx Bălan. Pet my tail, please.”
+A spark of comprehension lit up May’s eyes and she grinned wide. “But you didn’t.”
+“No.” Ey shrugged. “I was the Bălan who didn’t wind up in a relationship with Dear, because that was my up-tree instance’s experience. I can’t go back and fork before we met or started working together or dating.”
+She laughed and shook her head, draping herself across eir lap, resting her head on folded arms. “There is no going and there is no back. You are stuck with me, Mx Bălan. Pet my tail, please.”
Ey did as ordered, brushing fingers through thick fur as ey thought on the phrase. The fox had been right, ey supposed. There was at least some beauty in the irreversible.
One more one-way act floated to the surface in eir mind. “Does Michelle’s sim still exist, by the way?”
May frowned. “Yes. Why?”
“Well, we’re coming up on the one-year anniversary of Launch, right? Maybe we can do a picnic there, think about where this all started, and get blitzed on champagne. Bit of a memorial, you know?”
-She laughed. “Why the fuck not. It has been years since I’ve visited. We can make muffins and compare the smells.”
+She laughed. “You know, why the fuck not. It has been years since I have visited. We can make muffins and compare the smell with the dandelions.”
Ey grinned, nodded, and made a mental note to ensure that Douglas remembered the suggestion ey’d given those months back, that he’d be ready to upload in time.