Codrin was, as ey supposed everyone must be, primed to hunt for patterns.
The Odists, as much as they tried to resist it, were as beholden to living within a pattern as any other group of individuals. Perhaps more so than other clades, but certainly well within the realm of societies, or even families. It wasn’t just that they were all weird — though they were — nor that many of them fit the mold of either the human or skunk versions of Michelle Hadje — though that was certainly true. It was a matter of bearing, of how they carried themselves, of how they expressed themselves. Not all were as excitable as Dear nor as affectionate as May Then My Name, but all of the ones that ey had met had the same walk, the same smile, the same sensation of quiet when they were quiet and the same way of speaking when they spoke.
-The differences, then, were in the details. Where Qoheleth had opted for the biblical look, May Then My Name had decided on a comfortable softness that befitted her similarly comfortable, soft nature. And where Dear had wholly owned a look that somehow managed to be painfully well-dressed and playful, the woman before em exuded all of the casual cool of one who was relaxing on a summer Saturday. It was a weekend look, and ey could not find any other way to describe it.
+The differences, then, were in the details. Where Qoheleth had opted for the biblical look, May Then My Name had decided on a comfortable softness that befitted her similarly comfortable, soft nature. And where Dear had wholly owned a look that somehow managed to be both painfully well-dressed and playful, the woman before em exuded all of the casual cool of one who was relaxing on a summer Saturday. It was a weekend look, and ey could not find any other way to describe it.
Ey was surprised when ey had been contacted by her, rather than the other way around.
Hey, there is this neat bar I know. Come check it out, and we can chat there.
— Why Ask Questions Here At The End Of All Things of the Ode Clade
It came as a letter. An actual, honest-to-goodness letter, slipped under eir door (which is how the sim decided to interpret it), written in a rounded hand on yellow legal pad paper.
-Ey spent nearly five minutes just staring that the letter, turning it over in eir hands, inspecting the writing, the ink (shitty ballpoint, ey had noted with distaste), the creases. Ey couldn’t make either heads or tails of it. It was incredibly Odist while at the same time being totally unique.
+Ey spent nearly five minutes just staring that the letter, turning it over in eir hands, inspecting the writing, the ink (shitty ballpoint, ey had noted with distaste), the creases. Ey could make neither heads nor tails of it. It was incredibly Odist while at the same time being totally unique.
When ey showed it to Dear, the fox rolled its eyes and handed it back.
“She is a shithead.”
“A shithead?” Ey laughed. “How so?”
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@Codrin refolded the note and tucked it into a pocket in eir tunic. “You sound less than fond of her.”
The fox shook its head. “Not at all. I like her quite a bit, but I like her because she is good at making others like her.”
“Aren’t you all, though?” Dear’s partner called from the couch. “Look at what May Then My Name is doing to poor Ioan.”
-“Yes, but she is particularly good at it, and that is why she is a shithead. She is some strange antithesis of May Then My Name.” It grinned at Codrin and took eir hand in its paw to give the back of it an affectionate lick. “You do not need to be careful, though. She is harmless to any one individual, and any harm that she might cause to a group will be welcomed with open arms and all of the love in the world.”
+“Yes, but she is particularly good at it, and that is why she is a shithead. She is more like some strange inversion of May Then My Name.” It grinned at Codrin and took eir hand in its paw to give the back of it an affectionate lick. “You do not need to be careful, though. She is harmless to any one individual, and any harm that she might cause to a group will be welcomed with open arms and all of the love in the world.”
“Sounds charismatic.”
“That is not quite the right word, but it will suffice.” It laughed, pushing Codrin’s hand away again. “Go on, then. Enjoy. If it is the bar that I am thinking of, you will doubtless have a good time.”
“And will I get more of this story that keeps coming up?”
@@ -50,8 +50,8 @@She reached out for the drink, and ey shrugged, sliding it over to her. She took a sip, made a sour face, then dipped her fingers into the glass to fish out one of the shellfish ice cubes to crunch on. The sour face turned to one of disgust.
The move was so innocent, so playful, that eir first reaction was to laugh rather than get upset at someone’s fingers in eir drink. Ey liked her at once, then grudgingly admitted to emself that, yes, she was kind of a shithead for just how effortlessly she had made em laugh, not three minutes into meeting her.
Once ey had eir drink again, ey asked, “So, why did you invite me here?”
-“You are doing your thing with Dear, are you not? Your…” She spun her finger in the air as she pulled up the word she was looking for. “History? Your myth? It is so fascinating! There is so much story to be had, after two hundred years. Creation, Secession, Launch; so much happened around those and between them, and sure, there are timelines and dry textbooks and whatever, but this! You are one of the first ones who is actually pulling a story out of it.”
-Ey grinned. “That’s the hope, yeah. I was originally going to just make it about the launch, but there are more parallels between Secession and the launch that I’d expected.”
+“You are doing your thing with Dear, are you not? Your…” She spun her finger in the air as she pulled up the word she was looking for. “History? Your myth? It is so fascinating! There is so much story to be had after two hundred years. Creation, Secession, Launch; so much happened around those and between them, and sure, there are timelines and dry textbooks and whatever, but this! You are one of the first ones who is actually pulling a story out of it.”
+Ey grinned. “That’s the hope, yeah. I was originally going to just make it about Launch, but there are more parallels between Secession and the launch that I’d expected.”
“There are, yes. And you know, I wonder if we will start thinking of the launch in the same way as Secession. You can almost hear the capital-S in Secession, and now I hear it in Launch.”
“Perhaps. Maybe we’ll just do it from here and the L5 System or Castor will do something else.”
“Mmhm.” She grinned at em. “I have already heard from Castor via the system that we are starting to diverge in pretty major ways.”
@@ -122,7 +122,7 @@She winked at em, and with that, the interview was over.