update from sparkleup
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<p>Ioan,</p>
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<p>I must admit, I’m really not sure what to say about all of this. Thank you for waiting until you have a substantial amount to send to me, at least. Dear threw a little tantrum about about this “We have received messages over the last few days” bit, but I appreciate having an initial digest to work with so that I’m not left a fretting mess (as you say you were) by the simple news that, oh look, aliens! I threatened to bundle it up in blankets until it was immobile for a few hours, though, and it calmed down. I may do so anyway.</p>
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<p>Four races! Five thousand years! One language! Have you learned any of that, yourself? And yet maybe it’s all a dream! Truly fascinating. As you can imagine, Dear latched onto that quite quickly.</p>
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<p>How is May Then My Name taking it? You mention True Name, but have you heard from any other Odists? Any other friends? If Lagrange System is anything like Pollux, people are talking about little else.</p>
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<p>How is May Then My Name taking it? You mention True Name, but have you heard from any other Odists? Any other friends? If Lagrange is anything like Pollux, people are talking about little else.</p>
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<p>The news broke over here much as it sounds as though it has done on Lagrange: with tightly controlled excitement. There is no doubt that the powers that be continue their work across all three Systems, but it’s always fascinating to see. The amount of bafflement was outweighed by the amount of excitement. The excitement also outweighed the amount of fear. Everyone’s eager for every scrap of news that they can get.</p>
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<p>How much of the delay in sending word to us was due to True Name and her friends? I imagine she had words about the first message, at least, but a whole week’s worth of messages feels like a good deal.</p>
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<p>No matter, though. We’re all eagerly awaiting every little snippet that we can get from you. I know that you won’t get this for another, what, seven days? Eight? And that seven or eight days from when you sent it! I know you won’t get it for a few weeks, is what I’m saying, but please know that you’re free to pass on information directly from here on out! We’ll be learning plenty from the news we’re allowed to see over here, anyway, so any juicy tidbits in addition to that will be greatly appreciated.</p>
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<p>I don’t know how much of Codrin#Castor and my messages between each other that you’ve read, or if that would even have helped, but watching the slow individuation of a loved one is an experience unique even from watching oneself individuate. The Dear I am in love with feels much like the Dear I fell in love with decades ago, and yet slowly the Dear on Castor begins to feel like a stranger to me.</p>
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<p>Dear#Castor sounds so much more conservative — in its approach to life, of course, rather than that of the division of the Odists — than what I’ve grown used to. The prairie remains the same. The house remains the same. Codrin#Castor’s struggles with agency and directedness in life feel as unfamiliar to me as you have mentioned. You have taken control of your life as I have taken control of my own, each in our own way. To put this on the Odists feels at once unfair, unfortunate, and totally accurate. May Then My Name has changed you in so many irreversible ways, just as Dear changed me so many years ago. Changed you, too, for when we merged and then diverged, you were no longer the same Ioan that remained behind. You were the type of Ioan who could fall in love with May Then My Name in the first place.</p>
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<p>So when Dear gave up the prairie and dragged Serene over to build out our little world into something grander, a place more well-rounded than just flat plains, we were both ready because, hey, this was Dear, right? So we built out our little world of plains and hills, forests and lakes. And then that spur-of-the-moment shift redirected our lives in unforeseen ways. With the acceptance of variety, Serene moved in to continue her work, and then her elliptical orbit passed through our lives for a while before she drifted away again.</p>
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<p>Despite lingering taboo, I am not ashamed of having wound up, for that one short year, in a relationship with two members of the same clade. None of us are. Not even Dear and Serene, they promise us. It’s not shame that keeps me from telling those on Castor about this. It is the completely alien nature that those who feel as though they ought to <em>be</em> us interact with the world that leads to such. I do not feel as though I am able to tell Codrin#Castor about what happened because to do so feels like explaining the alien to someone who really, truly, in all ways ought to know. Ey ought to be able to feel the same things that I feel, correct? Ey ought to also love Serene, oughtn’t ey? Ey must, for ey is me, is ey not?</p>
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<p>Despite lingering taboo, I am not ashamed of having wound up, for that one short year, in a relationship with two members of the same clade. None of us are. Not even Dear and Serene, they promise us. It’s not shame that keeps me from telling those on Castor about this. It is the completely alien way that those who feel as though they ought to <em>be</em> us interact with the world that leads to such. I as though I am unable to tell Codrin#Castor about what happened because to do so feels like explaining the alien to someone who really, truly, in all ways ought to know. Ey ought to be able to feel the same things that I feel, correct? Ey ought to also love Serene, oughtn’t ey? Ey must, for ey is me, is ey not?</p>
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<p>And yet ey is not. I cannot bring up our relationship with Serene because Codrin#Castor — that is, specifically <em>me</em>#Castor — does not have the same thoughts around intraclade romantic relationships that I do, and by virtue of the direction that the Odists steered us (or, as feels more accurate, crashed with us headlong and heedless) into this future, we are now completely different in that way. </p>
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<p>The Dear that I live with has, in comparison to Dear#Castor, relaxed and moved on to an approach to life that is far more laid back. As a result, we <em>all</em> have, me included.</p>
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<p>Also, as an internal postscript, I should note that the three of us are all still deeply in love with Serene, and she with us, so please do not misconstrue the past tense above, but good Lord. Two foxes in the same house? Never again.</p>
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<p>This is the end of the private content of the letter. Please redact this in its entirety should you pass my thoughts on to Castor.</p>
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<p>This is the end of the private content of the letter. Please redact this in its entirety should you pass my thoughts on to Castor (though of course you may talk about it with May; she’ll understand the sensitive nature of the topic).</p>
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<p><strong>END IOAN BĂLAN INDIVIDUAL-EYES-ONLY MATERIAL</strong></p>
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<p><strong>END BĂLAN CLADE-EYES-ONLY MATERIAL</strong></p>
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<p>I am settling in quite well at the university and they are as excited as I am to receive the inevitable dump of information that comes from Artemis. It is a librarian’s dream. I have seen quite the bump in my reputation, oddly enough, just by having my cocladist’s name attached to the project over on Castor. No complaints, but honestly, what is a librarian to do with reputation?</p>
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<p>Codrin,</p>
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<p>Wonderful as always to hear from you. This will, of course, reach you long after the point where I could answer any pertinent questions about Artemis that I have not already done so by forwarding on what I’ve learned, myself. The amount of updates quickly got to the point where it didn’t feel worth it to try and summarize them at all, so you’re getting them all. Besides, you can summarize as well as I.</p>
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<p>I’m curious about how things are working out over there with True Name and the leadership. We haven’t heard anything yet from Castor about how she’s doing over there, but it’s always good to get a fuller picture of how things are going when they are, yet again, involved in something enormous.</p>
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<p>Hell, on that note, how is the sentiment overall? There’s been a lot of chatter, and, on the night of the announcement, we had to cancel a performance due to how excited everyone was. A Finger Pointing was quick to capitalize this, and went on a tear of digging up every single production that she could find about aliens to start scheduling. When she found a relative paucity of such, she started digging into sci-fi, including going all the way back to R.U.R. I have, surprising no one, been contracted to write one for the occasion, and I’ve been doing so with what information that I have.</p>
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<p>Hell, on that note, how is the sentiment overall? There’s been a lot of chatter; on the night of the announcement, we had to cancel a performance due to how excited everyone was. A Finger Pointing was quick to capitalize this, and went on a tear of digging up every single production that she could find about aliens to start scheduling. When she found a relative paucity of such, she started digging into sci-fi, going all the way back to R.U.R. I have, surprising no one, been contracted to write one for the occasion, and I’ve been doing so with what information that I have.</p>
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<p>(Also, to your question: yes, End Waking and Debarre have settled back into dating. I do wish you’d gotten a chance to meet End Waking. He is a delight to be around in his own coarse, woodsy way.)</p>
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<p>At time of writing, there is only a small amount of news. The talks will have started by now, but the last bit of clade news that we received from Castor was more about mechanics. They have decided to ensure that there is no radio communication between the DMZ and Artemis just for safety’s sake, so all communication between those tagged #Castor and those tagged #Artemis is done through an instance Codrin has tagged #Assist. #Assist will transit the border between LV and DMZ and exchange notes with #Artemis then send them to Artemis itself via radio. It all sounds very convoluted, but I’m sure they have their good reasons for it. The upside is that we may get a few messages during the talks from #Assist.</p>
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<p>I’ll pass on the snippets of secondrace language that I’ve received so far. Codrin promises that the grammar and dictionary will be forthcoming, but says that True Name has suggested that any large messages from Artemis be sent after a thorough evaluation. I can’t tell if that means an evaluation of their contents or an evaluation of the Artemisians’ intent.</p>
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<p>Ioan Bălan</p>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-03-06</p>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-03-16</p>
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