Both Cress and Tule nodded, though the statement largely went over my head.
Perhaps guessing at such, Dry Grass continued, “Each of our stanzas focused on something different. I am sure that much is in the stories you have doubtless read, if Lily’s reaction is anything to go by. She fusses at the eighth and their politics, perhaps the first with their habit of spying, but mine, the sixth, wound up with all of Michelle’s — our root instance — all of her dreams of and desire for motherhood. Motherliness. Caring and cherishing. That is why I have all of that art on the walls: it is all cherished, all lovely creations from Warmth and Motes, the clade’s little ones.”
“So In The Wind was the one who stuck with that moderation?” I asked.
-She nodded. “To an extent. She often explained how she would push the moderation duties off onto other systechs. She really was just as focused as I was on the tech side.” She rolled over onto her back so that she could look up to us, transferring my hand in hers from one to the other. “All I wanted to do was take a vacation. I should have known it would wind up far longer than the two weeks I had intended Michelle had already tried that, and she got an entire clade out of it, after all.
-“She usually got what she want, too. She worked the tech side, disentangling crashes and hunting for problematic objects. She is the one who generally kept me up to date on changes in the tech, whether over lunch or via merges.”
+She nodded. “To an extent. She often explained how she would push the moderation duties off onto other systechs. She really was just as focused as I was on the tech side.” She rolled over onto her back so that she could look up to us, transferring my hand in hers from one to the other. “All I wanted to do was take a vacation. I should have known it would wind up far longer than the two weeks I had intended. Michelle had already tried that, and she got an entire clade out of it, after all.
+“She usually got what she want, too. She worked the tech side, disentangling crashes and hunting for problematic objects. She is the one who kept me up to date on the tech side, usually over lunch.” I could hear the smile in her voice as she continued, “Those lunches were something lovely, sandwiches sitting unfinished as we talked and talked and talked about this whole confusing mess we lived in. The politics remained infuriating to me, which I suppose they also did for her, given the way she would rant. Even so, it kept the pilot light lit for me, that I might hear about this System I loved so much.”
Cress nodded. “It must be hard to lose that.”
“It is more than that,” Dry Grass said, sniffling. “I loved her, my dear. She was my sister, my twin. Fuck what my down-tree says, I lost family.”
“I’m sorry,” the three of us mumbled.
-She rubbed the back of her free hand against her eyes. “I will mourn the loss of a sister and friend. It will take time, and I can only just touch it briefly now. It is too hot.”
+She rubbed the back of her free hand against her eyes. “I will mourn the loss of a sister and friend. It will take time, and I can only just touch it briefly now. It is too hot.”
Familiar sensation, I thought, and from their expressions, I surmised that my cocladists were feeling much the same.
“Need some space from it, love?” Tule asked.
“Please.”
@@ -75,9 +75,10 @@Cress buried its face against Tule’s shoulder to muffle a giggle. “God, if they’re weirder than Dry Grass, they’d have to be.” It sighed, added, “But I guess that cross-tree merging sounds interesting. I can’t imagine what a mess the combination of all six of us would look like.”
I stiffened, restraining the urge to sit up straight. “Like Marsh, maybe?”
There was silence from both of my cocladists, though I could hear that their breathing had picked up in turn. “Well, now there’s an idea,” Tule said at last.
+We lingered in silence for the remainder of the night, the four of us piled into a bed now built for four. Two of my cocladists and their partner, and now me. Who knew what I was?