update from sparkleup
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Madison Scott-Clary
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<p>Startled, she let her shoulders slouch and chin dip once more. “Sorry, Mx Balan. Thank you for reminding me again. I don’t like touch, you don’t like loud noises. <em>Quid pro quo.</em>“</p>
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<p>Ey didn’t think that’s quite what that meant. That, or if she did mean it as an actual this-for-that exchange, she was on far more levels of manipulation than ey was comfortable with.</p>
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<p>“Humor me in at least a few of the questions. Why are you here on the System? If you are also on the LVs, why remain here as well?”</p>
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<p>“If the patterns are also showing up planet-side, why on Earth would I leave?” she said, laughing. “Pardon the expression.</p>
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<p>“If the patterns are also showing up planet-side, why on Earth would I leave?” she said, laughing. “Pardon the expression.”</p>
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<p>“Okay.” Ey let the answer flow onto the page in eir shorthand. “And why did you upload in the first place.”</p>
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<p>Sabeena sat back suddenly as though slapped, blinking rapidly and tapping at the table anxiously. “I…I don’t know.”</p>
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<p>“You don’t?”</p>
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<p>“I really don’t,” she said. She was talking slow and quiet now. Her expression was as scared as her voice was. “I don’t know, I don’t know.”</p>
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<p>“Do you remember when, at least?”</p>
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<p>“2295, but I don’t know why.”</p>
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<p>“Alright. I feel like I’ve touched a nerve, for which I apologize. What do you miss most about living phys-side, and what excited you most about moving sys-side?”</p>
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<p>At this, the historian — if that’s what she was — relaxed. “I was fundamentally unhappy with the limitation of time and just how much research I could do at once, so I came to where I could fork.”</p>
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<p>Ey nodded and jotted down the answer. “And, last one, what’s the first thing that you did after uploading?”</p>
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<p>“I don’t…I don’t know.” </p>
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<p>Ioan held up eir hands disarmingly. “Let’s end the interview here, I think. I’ve clearly set you on edge, and you’ve given me a lot to think about. Is it alright if I get to work on processing this?”</p>
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<p>She nodded meekly. The shift in her attitude was so jarring that eir anxiety only spiked higher.</p>
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<p>“If I have any further questions, I’ll be in touch,” ey said, sliding out of eir seat in the booth, capping eir pen in the same motion. After a moment’s hesitation, ey added, “And I’d like to ask that you respect my boundaries and not try to engineer another meeting between us, okay? I think that would just stress the both of us out.”</p>
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<p>Another nod, and then Sabeena either left the sim or quit. Ioan couldn’t tell which, because ey was already heading for the exit of the building.</p>
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<p>Back at eir house, ey kicked off eir shoes, set eir half completed notes on eir desk, and immediately walked into the bedroom to lay down.</p>
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<p>May, ever attuned to eir mood, immediately forked and followed em to the room. “Ioan?”</p>
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<p>Ey paused, halfway into the bed.</p>
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<p>“May I join you?”</p>
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<p>Ey thought about all of the things Sabeena had said, all of the things ey’d learned about the Odists these last few weeks, both on eir own and through eir communications with the Codrins. Ey thought about all of the ways in which, whether or not they were true, this spoke to a level of manipulation that ey’d not suspected before. Ey thought, also, about how truly caught up in it ey was.</p>
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<p>And then ey nodded anyway, finished crawling into bed, and let May play with eir hair.</p>
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<p>Ey felt helpless to do anything but.</p>
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</article>
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<footer>
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<p>Page generated on 2021-09-13</p>
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<p>Page generated on 2021-09-14</p>
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</footer>
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</main>
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<script type="text/javascript">
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