Codrin Bălan#Castor — 2346
+Convergence T+1 day, 18 hours, 46 minutse
+
While it wouldn’t have been totally true to call the celebration at Codrin’s return ‘wild’, it was certainly rambunctious in its own delightfully Dear way, with dozens of foxes scattering around the patio in a flurry of forking. Plenty of hugging and chatting and laughing and smiling.
Ey’d been startled, in that half-doubled, roundabout way that an up-tree instance might feel, when ey merged down to find that True Name and Jonas had requested that Codrin#Assist stay at their compound rather than returning home except for a few hours around dinner. The fox’s excitement made more sense, knowing that.
At least ey’d had the chance to pull the fox’s tail.
Once it calmed down enough to do so, Dear dragged Codrin into the dining room, gesturing eagerly for Sarah to follow with. Their partner had a spread already laid out for them.
They spent the next hour recounting, carefully, the events of the talks. Codrin had requested that Sarah not discuss the Odists’ reaction to skew until ey’d had the chance to do so one-on-one with Dear. They spoke instead in general terms, discussing the topics that had come up during the talks, and the final announcement that they’d be welcomed aboard as fifthrace.
“What is the practical result of this decision?”
-“Well, the technical details are a bit beyond me,” Sarah said. “But the Artemisians and our own engineers are talking about how to let the DMZ grow in size to no more than a third of our total capacity. As many of them as want to join us within those limitations will be able to join us here. They will allow as many of us who wish to join them to do so, as well.”
+“Well, the technical details are a bit beyond me,” Sarah said. “But the Artemisians and our own engineers are talking about how to let the DMZ grow in size to some maximum capacity — maybe a third of what Castor has to offer. As many of them as want to join us within those limitations will be able to join us here. They will allow as many of us who wish to join them to do so, as well.”
“We’ll also be exchanging our shared libraries of information,” Codrin added. “I think that transmission effort has already begun, actually. We’re getting an enormous dump of information from four societies, and then we’ll upload all of ours to them. It’s going to be a field day for librarians, I bet.”
“Think you’ll join?” eir partner asked.
Ey shrugged. “I’m not sure, actually. It sounds fun, but I’m not sure I’m the same Bălan who wanted to be a librarian all those years ago.”
@@ -27,9 +30,9 @@“I know. I just don’t know if the same is something I’d like to do. I’ve got some thoughts on directions I might head instead, though. I’ve been talking with Sarah about it, and will tackle it deliberately.”
The fox nodded. “Of course, my love. I would be surprised if you were anything but deliberate.”
Ey laughed and bumped eir shoulder against its own. “Of course.”
-“This is all so delightfully exciting, is it not? I was worried at first that the drama would be too much. Aliens! Political summits in space! Imagine.” The fox giggled. “And it was dramatic, I suppose, but it has settled down into exciting. Aliens, yes, but boundless new knowledge. Political summits in space, yes, but also a mingling of societies that we could not possibly imagine.”
+“This is all so delightfully exciting, is it not? I was worried at first that the drama would be too much. Aliens! Political summits in space! Imagine.” The fox giggled. “And it was dramatic, I suppose, but it has settled down into exciting. Aliens, yes, but boundless new knowledge. Political summits in space, yes, but also a mingling of societies that we could not possibly comprehend.”
Sarah laughed and raised her coffee mug. “To the proper amount of excitement.”
-Dear hoisted its own mug as thought it was some ale-filled tankard. “Precisely, my dear!”
+Dear hoisted its own mug as thought it was an ale-filled tankard. “Precisely, my dear!”
Codrin smiled, sipping eir coffee as ey watched. Proper amount of excitement, indeed.
After Sarah left, the triad sat around the table, saying nothing, simply processing this new future that lay before them. It felt almost too large for Codrin to comprehend. Something new. Something enormous. Something that felt somehow larger than the launches. Those, at least, had the advantage of being something that ey could predict, a frame of reference. Society continued much as it had before, after all, hadn’t it? They had decamped from Legrange for the LVs and everything looked exactly the same, minus only the few friends who had not done so.
This, though, held so many unknowns.
@@ -45,11 +48,11 @@They stood and walked out into the prairie, Codrin brushing eir fingertips across the tops of eir cairns as they walked. They made it past three before ey was able to open up.
“You were right to warn me about True Name and Answers Will Not Help.”
Dear tilted its head. “I thought Why Ask Questions was the emissary.”
-Ey shook eir head. “They pulled some nonsense, I guess. Why Ask Questions was the delegate here on Castor, but they swapped in Answers Will Not Help for those who went to Artemis.”
+Ey shook eir head. “They pulled some nonsense. Why Ask Questions was the delegate here on Castor, but they swapped in Answers Will Not Help for those who went to Artemis.”
“Because of course they did.”
“I’d call it cheeky, but it was more distressing than anything.” Ey sighed. “They really didn’t do well with the time skew at all. When we first got there, Answers Will Not Help collapsed, and True Name was only just barely holding it together. Even when we were in a unison room — places where time skew was locked into…uh, consensus, I guess — they kept…well, they looked like Michelle. Alternating forms, exhausted, distracted.”
The fox splayed its ears, nodding. “I did not know how they would act, but I am not surprised that those memories would come home to roost. I am sorry for them. I am sorry that you had to experience that so directly. Did it negatively impact the discussion?”
-Ey thought back over the memories ey had been left with from Codrin#Emissary, frowning. “Not necessarily, though we didn’t learn as much as we had hoped, I think. Things just went poorly on their end. Very poorly.”
+Ey thought back over the memories ey had been left with from Codrin#Artemis, frowning. “Not necessarily, though we didn’t learn as much as we had hoped, I think. Things just went poorly on their end. Very poorly.”
Dear waited em out.
“Answers Will Not Help lost it. She quit.”
“‘Lost it’?”
@@ -104,7 +107,7 @@Codrin leaned in to kiss them on the cheek, still working on catching eir breath. “Yes. Definitely hash browns.”