From 5f1c77d0ae19069baf4f6c9192ab2485cbe10887 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Madison Scott-Clary Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2021 17:00:10 -0700 Subject: [PATCH] update from sparkleup --- .../toledot/launch/launch/Codrin-castor/006.html | 6 +++--- .../toledot/launch/launch/Codrin-pollux/006.html | 4 ++-- .../post-self/toledot/secession/sys/True-Name/006.html | 10 +++++----- .../post-self/toledot/secession/sys/True-Name/007.html | 4 ++-- 4 files changed, 12 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-) diff --git a/writing/post-self/toledot/launch/launch/Codrin-castor/006.html b/writing/post-self/toledot/launch/launch/Codrin-castor/006.html index 758ce8e52..39d9aa984 100644 --- a/writing/post-self/toledot/launch/launch/Codrin-castor/006.html +++ b/writing/post-self/toledot/launch/launch/Codrin-castor/006.html @@ -68,7 +68,7 @@

“Are we your constituents?” ey asked. The words were out of eir mouth before ey had time to consider it.

Jonas laughed, shaking his head and tugging that fiber on the couch all the looser. “In a way, yes. We may be a separate legal entity, but we don’t work the same. We’re not a government. There are no representatives. We don’t vote. Better to say that the System is our singular constituent. You are our constituents only in the sense that there are still some who have to work on keeping the System going. We’re the ones who organize with the phys-side engineers to keep everything ticking along. We’re the ones who ensure that new uploads are smoothly integrated. We’re the ones who ensure that the System keeps growing.”

“Keeps growing? Can you expand on that?”

-

“It’s nothing complex. The larger a system — that’s system with a lower-case ‘s’ — is, the more stable it is because it tends towards stasis. This applies to political systems, as well. The Western Fed and the S-R Bloc kept their stalemate for god knows how long because they were too large to do anything but, and the only reason they stopped was that they were each subsumed into even larger political entities.”

+

“It’s nothing complex. The larger a system — that’s system with a lower-case ‘s’ — is, the more stable it is because it tends towards stasis. This applies to political systems, as well. The Western Fed and the S-R Bloc kept their stalemate for God knows how long because they were too large to do anything but, and the only reason they stopped was that they were each subsumed into even larger political entities.”

“So, if I’m understanding you right, keeping the population of the System growing over time–“

“Not just the population,” Jonas interrupted. “The capacity. The complexity.”

“–the more stable it is because it tends toward stasis?”

@@ -87,7 +87,7 @@

“It’s certainly intriguing. You’ve given me a lot to think about, and I’m sure Ioan will agree.”

“Of course. If you have any further questions, don’t hesitate to ask.” He smiled to Codrin, and the smile was the least earnest ey had seen yet. “And I look forward to seeing what you come up with.”

It wasn’t until Codrin was back at the house on the prairie, back with eir family, back where ey was comfortable enough to work on transcribing eir notes, that ey came across the phrase that had left em so wrong-footed during the interview.

-

Ey frowned, stood up, and paced around eir office for a few minutes, stopping at the end of each circuit to stare out at the prairie beyond the windows. Ey was starting to feel as though there were coils of some sort wrapping around em. Thick, fleshy things that squeeze around eir middle, bound eir hands, held em silent. They did not kill em, did not force em to move, to watch. They did not force em do do anything. They just held em there, letting em know that, at all times, they were present.

+

Ey frowned, stood up, and paced around eir office for a few minutes, stopping at the end of each circuit to stare out at the prairie beyond the windows. Ey was starting to feel as though there were coils of some sort wrapping around em. Thick, fleshy things that squeezed around eir middle, bound eir hands, held em silent. They did not kill em, did not force em to move, to watch. They did not force em do do anything. They just held em there, letting em know that, at all times, they were present.

So ey sat at eir desk and wrote a footnote for eir transcript that ey’d send back to Ioan and May Then My Name.

Check my work, Ioan. As you have read, Jonas asked what each of our stressors were, and I mentioned a sentence or two about each of us and what we’d been doing that had been keeping us busy.

@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@