True Name leaned back against the couch and stared out the picture windows into the yard for a few minutes as she thought. “Perhaps not, no,” she said at last. “It is difficult to reconcile those two parts of me. They are arguing, in a way. Each is strident in their belief, and some higher part of me will occasionally get stuck trying to get them to just settle down and fucking agree on a course of action or the next sentence or whatever it may be.”
Ioan nodded, saying, “Sort of like Michelle and Sasha?”
She laughed. “No, not quite like that, thankfully. There are some similarities — the sense of there being two parts of me, the internal split — but it is lacking the dire nature, whatever it was that made her completely helpless before the duality of her self. It is still something that I can override. I can respond as True Name would or as End Waking would, but I am still just me, and I am learning to unify those natures. I am becoming a synthesis.”
+ +May fiddled with eir sweater vest from where she lay against em. “I will admit that, for a while there, I was considering merging down with you before I saw how poorly End Waking’s merge went.” After the silence stretched out, she laughed nervously, adding, “Sorry, I suppose that is a pretty awkward thing to say.”
“It is okay, May Then My Name,” True Name said, smiling reassuringly. “A large part of me wishes that you had rather than End Waking, if I am totally honest. I understand why you did what you did, and I think I agree with it, but on a personal level, I would much rather be integrating your memories than his.”
She winced. “That bad?”
@@ -114,7 +116,7 @@ Ey chose the last of the poor skunk’s risotto, added a healthy dusting ofShe laughed and nodded to em. “Yes, of course. There is much to think about.”