update from sparkleup
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Madison Scott-Clary
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<p>“How do I get back?”</p>
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<p>The firstrace…member? Firstracer? The firstracer dipped its snout with a twist to the side that gave em the sense of a shrug. “There is no hurry. We exist in synchrony. I will teach you to find common time. I must ask: you are four individuals in five forms in two phenotypes. Are you still five consciousness-bearing systems?”</p>
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<p>It took em a moments work to disentangle the question before ey realized that Turun Ko was asking about True Name and Why Ask Questions. They were, ey supposed, still closer to being one individual than any two non-cladists.</p>
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<p>“Yes. The Only Time I Know My True Name — or just True Name — and Why Ask Questions Here At…” Ey trailed off, looking at the woman who still appeared to be in mid-shout. The splash of skunk-fur appeared to have crept further up her cheek, though so out-of-phase was she with eir local time that it was hard to say for sure. More, though, something seemed…off about her. She seemed not quite as ey expected.</p>
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<p>“Yes. The Only Time I Know My True Name — or just True Name — and Why Ask Questions Here At…” Ey trailed off, looking at the woman who still appeared to be in mid-shout. The splash of skunk-fur appeared to have crept further up her cheek, though so out-of-phase was she with eir local time that it was hard to say for sure. More, though, something seemed…off about her. She seemed not quite as ey remembered.</p>
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<p>“Recorder Codrin Bălan, please continue.”</p>
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<p>“Uh, right, sorry. True Name and Why Ask Questions Here At The End Of All Things are cocladists, forks of the same root instance. Why Ask Questions is actually a fork of True Name, who is, in turn, a fork of the root instance, Michelle Hadje. They have individuated. They are…separate consciousness-bearing entities.”</p>
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<p>Turun Ko lifted its chin once more. “Why Ask Questions is in pain.”</p>
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<p>Turun Ko lifted its chin once more. “Representative Why Ask Questions is in pain.”</p>
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<p>“Pain?”</p>
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<p>“Pain-of-existence. Pain-of-state-of-being. She is un-whole. This is why must ask.”</p>
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<p>Ey nodded. “She looks scared. Frightened, or something.”</p>
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<p>“Frightened, <em>anem</em>, the correct word. Both Why Ask Questions and True Name are frightened. They are un-whole. They are in pain. True Name is hiding-obscuring it better. Why?”</p>
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<p>“Frightened, <em>anem</em>, the correct word. Both representative Why Ask Questions and leader True Name are frightened. They are un-whole. They are in pain. Leader True Name is hiding-obscuring it better. Why?”</p>
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<p>Something about this discursive, almost lazy form of questioning made Codrin feel as though ey would be late for something. Ey wanted to urge Turun Ko to get them back to common time. <em>That’s silly, though,</em> ey thought. <em>We have all the time we need, if hardly any is passing out there, if ‘out there’ is even the right term.</em></p>
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<p>Ey said, “I only have a guess as explained by one of their cocladists, that–“</p>
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<p>“Cocladists is multiple forms of one individual, <em>anem?</em>“</p>
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@ -62,7 +62,7 @@
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<p>“Will they remain afraid-in-pain? Will they cohere?”</p>
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<p>Codrin was silent for a long moment as ey thought about this. The part of em that wanted to say ‘yes, of course’ argued against the part of em that was intensely focused on that wave of skunk fur creeping its way up over her cheek.</p>
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<p>“I don’t know,” ey said at last. Ey pointed carefully toward that trim of fur. “How long did it take for this to appear?”</p>
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<p>“Zero-point-eight-two seconds common time from your arrival-constitution.” Turun Ko stepped closer, bowing its head to investigate the fur. “She is existing-in-time slower. She appears-seems frozen because she is in slow-time. She departed-slid-away from common time zero-point-one-six seconds after arrival by a factor of negative two-point-six. Think-remember, Codrin Bălan, and you will know these things.”</p>
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<p>“Zero-point-eight-two seconds common time from your arrival-constitution.” Turun Ko stepped closer, bowing its head to investigate the fur. “She is existing-in-time slower. She appears-seems frozen because she is in slow-time. She departed-slid-away from common time zero-point-one-six seconds after arrival by a factor of negative two-point-six. Think-remember, recorder Codrin Bălan, and you will know these things.”</p>
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<p>Ey tilted eir head and then, considering how it felt to have a merge available to remember, tried to remember the factor by which eir experience of time differed from common time. The concepts were hazily defined to em — ey didn’t know what common time was, where the point of reference lay — and yet all the same, ey knew that eir time-skew factor was two-point-one-eight.</p>
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<p>On a spark of intuition, ey tried to ‘remember’ being at a skew of one, and sure enough, the world slid smoothly into movement again, though everything was moving half as fast as ey expected. Sound came through slowly, and ey could hear words beginning — words from Sarah, from Tycho, from Turun Ka. It was unnerving to hear that they had been time-stretched without having their pitch modulated, but ey supposed that would be helpful in time-skewed conversations.</p>
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<p>Ey felt the briefest twinge to eir sensorium and frowned. “What was that?”</p>
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