update from sparkleup
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<p>“I am, but–“</p>
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<p>Jonas laughed, “Just shut up, Zacharias.”</p>
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<p>“No,” the fox growled, his whiskers all abristle and claws digging at the tabletop. “I played my role, but that does not mean that I am some disposable nothing, here. A role is as much the actor as it is– <em>stop!</em>“</p>
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<p>There was a loud thump beneath the table, though this time, Zacharias appeared to have pulled his foot away in time to keep is toes from being stamped on, as he instead pushed himself away from the table and to his feet. A brief flicker of something akin to rage flashed across Jonas’s face, but was quickly replaced by that bright, friendly grin.</p>
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<p>There was a loud thump beneath the table, though this time, Zacharias appeared to have pulled his foot away in time to keep is toes from being stomped on, as he instead pushed himself away from the table and to his feet. A brief flicker of something akin to rage flashed across Jonas’s face, but was quickly replaced by that bright, friendly grin.</p>
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<p>“Fine, fuck you too, then.”</p>
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<p>There was a no signal — or if there was, Ioan missed it — for Guōweī to step into the sim, hand already raised as if for a slap, a short blade held between his fingers. Unassuming, easy to carry, symbolic, and certainly crowded with whatever it was that induced a crash in one’s instance.</p>
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<p>What happened next happened almost too quickly for em to comprehend. Zacharias shouted, but the cry was cut off in a muffled <em>oomf</em> as an instance of May appeared by him, almost totally overlapping the space that he’d occupied, knocking him backwards with enough force to slam him against the door, leaving him to crumple to the floor.</p>
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@ -95,7 +95,7 @@
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<p>“Life, yes,” she said. “Alive. Living. I want to get back to breathing and eating and drinking and sleeping. Do not take my words too far.”</p>
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<p>He laughed, shooting his cuffs. “Well, if <em>that’s</em> all you want, then we could have done without all this fuss, couldn’t we? All you need to do is just…go away. Just disappear. Just be gone, True Name. Curl up around your little Name thing and stay there.”</p>
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<p>May’s expression remained calm, but ey could feel the tension in her paw increase, and beyond her, ey could see End Waking bare his teeth. Even the Odists on Jonas’s side the of the table flinched. None of them looked pleased. Even Why Ask Questions, jovial as she usually was, seemed to be gritting her teeth.</p>
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<p><em>He doesn’t know, does he?</em> ey wondered. If ever there was a way to keep a group of Odists in check, that might just be it.</p>
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<p><em>Wait, does</em> he <em>know?</em> ey wondered. If ever there was a way to keep a group of Odists in check, that might just be it.</p>
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<p>Only True Name, of all of them, remained calm. Serious, yes, but calm.</p>
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<p>“What does disappearing and being gone look like to you, Jonas? Do you want me to hide away in a hidden sim forever?”</p>
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<p>“I wouldn’t say no,” he shot back.</p>
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@ -107,12 +107,12 @@
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<p>“Yep,” he said, grin tight and false.</p>
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<p>“I have already begun,” she said, and with a brief pause, ey saw her features relax, and the sudden shift towards an expression ey knew intimately from eir partner fell across her features. She continued in a voice softer than what it had been. Lilting, less space between the syllables. “Because I already am May Then My Name Die With Me–” Another pause, another shift, one more towards stony and stoic voice suddenly dry and simple, almost cerebral. “–and I am already Do I Know God After The End Waking.” Finally, she fell back into that first register. “And I remain True Name, and yet I am none of these. I could not go back to that which I was even if I wished to.”</p>
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<p>Jonas raised his eyebrows at the shifts in expression and voice. The frowns around the table on the faces of the other Odists only deepened.</p>
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<p>“How can I even begin to trust you on that? You merged your two cronies, so what? You going to go cuddle-camping with Zacharias or something?”</p>
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<p>“How can I even begin to trust you on that? You merged your two cronies, so what? You going to go cuddle-camping with Zacharias or something? You’re still you.”</p>
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<p>Both May and End Waking bristled at this, but neither spoke.</p>
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<p>“I am not what I was.”</p>
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<p>“I can tell, sure, but you know that’s not enough, True Name.” His voice was intent, serious in a way ey hadn’t seen before. “I am saying that you need to disappear. There is no stable future for the System if you show up in anything close to the same form as you were, and you know that. You were almost assassinated, and doubtless more than you three–” He nodded at May, End Waking, and Ioan. “–know. You show up as you are, and everything crumbles, or at the very least, starts to shift in unstable ways. Plan A was you gone, but plan B relies on you understanding that there’s no recovery from a failed plan A that involves you.”</p>
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<p>“You…what, want me to look different? Sound different?”</p>
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<p>“You need to go away, True Name. I don’t fucking care how.”</p>
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<p>“You need to go away, True Name. I don’t fucking care how. You make it happen or I will.”</p>
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<p>There was a moment’s thoughtful silence from the skunk before she stood, pushed her chair back in, and turned away from the table.</p>
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<p>In the most stunning display of forking ey’d ever seen, True Name began to change.</p>
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<p>Ioan had seen eir share of Dear’s exhibitions, not to mention those of other instance artists the fox had introduced em to along the way, and the forking involved in all of them had been perfect. They were well rehearsed dances of duplication that told a story.</p>
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@ -210,7 +210,7 @@
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<hr />
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</article>
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<footer>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-07-06</p>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-07-09</p>
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</footer>
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</main>
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