update from sparkleup
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<p>That was enough for now, though. Ey got started going through the room from top to bottom, wiping it of eirs and May’s presence. Anything that wasn’t the bed, the nightstands, and any other furniture was evaluated and either left for its decorative value or swiped away to nothingness. A damp May joined em partway through the exercise, and by the time they were done, the room was left clean and neat, sparsely decorated without being oppressively empty.</p>
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<p>“Hopefully it’s not too bleak,” ey said once May had fetched True Name. “I gave you some ACLs over the space if you need to make or recycle anything. Just let me know if the room itself needs changing.”</p>
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<p>She stood silent and still for nearly a minute, leaving em to fidget while May looked on, frowning.</p>
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<p>Finally, she cleared her throat and said hoarsely. “This is more than enough, my dear. I do not know why you two…but, well, perhaps I should get cleaned up and then we can talk proper. I am perhaps a little too emotional for that at the moment.”</p>
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<p>Finally, she cleared her throat and said hoarsely. “This is more than enough, my dear. I do not know why you two…but, well, I should get cleaned up and then we can talk proper. I am perhaps a little too emotional for that at the moment.”</p>
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<p>May sighed, nodded. “At your own pace.”</p>
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<p>They both bowed and backed out of the room to let True Name shut the door behind her so that she could shower. May took eir hand in her paw and led em over to the bean bag to get comfortable once again.</p>
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<p>“You okay?” ey murmured, once she was properly nestled against em, head tucked up under eir chin.</p>
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<p>“How do you mean?”</p>
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<p>She shrugged. “It is much easier to hate from a distance. Especially when one is built as I am.”</p>
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<p>“To love?”</p>
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<p>She nodded.</p>
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<p>She pressed her face against eir chest, sighed.</p>
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<p>Ey wanted to ask her how well that fit her monologue, that idea that to be built to love is to be built to hate yourself. Ey wanted to go back sixteen hours or however long it had been and kick Jonas’s ass. Ey wanted to go back twenty-four hours and warn True Name, to go back three and a half years and warn the True Name ey’d first gotten coffee with.</p>
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<p>Instead, ey said, “You’re a good person, May.”</p>
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<p>She tightened her grip around em. “Thank you, my dear.”</p>
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<p>“I do not want to impose on you more than I already have,” she began. “I will certainly stay out of your private space, and I figure a closed door is a plain enough signal to be left alone. Should I stick to my room for the most part?”</p>
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<p>May let out a snort of laughter. “I am sorry, True Name. I do not mean to laugh, but I have never heard you so deferential in my life.”</p>
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<p>The skunk canted her ears back. “I am in shock, May Then My Name. My coworker of two centuries just tried to kill me. My life’s work has been cut off from me. I have been invited to stay with one of the two up-tree instances of mine who dislike me the most, and I have never had to live with anyone before, not since before we uploaded. The offer remains for me to dig my own sim.”</p>
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<p>Eir partner bowed apologetically.</p>
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<p>May bowed apologetically.</p>
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<p>“I’d feel better if you stayed,” Ioan admitted. “It’d be too easy for you to either disappear into your new sim forever or wind up with another attempt on your life whenever you left.”</p>
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<p>May nodded readily. “You are safer here where no one can act openly against you. It may not be the most comfortable of situations, but I would also prefer that you not die.”</p>
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<p>“Good points. Both of you. I would prefer not to die as well.” She straightened up in her chair and smiled, a hint of that confidence showing through. “So, to my question. Do you have any thoughts?”</p>
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<p>“Not everything need be complicated, my dear. Boundaries are most often found by crossing them. We will have negotiation ahead of us as well, I am sure.” May shrugged, adding, “This does not make our relationship any less complicated, but endlessly refining rules ahead of time will only stress all of us out.”</p>
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<p>“I guess,” ey mumbled. “I just don’t want you at each others’ throats.”</p>
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<p>“If we fight, we fight,” she said. “But if we are to be stuck together, then we will fucking get over it and have a civil house, at the very least. I will do all of the exercises Sarah has given me at once if that is what is needed to keep home from becoming unbearable.”</p>
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<p>True Name nodded in agreement. “I will do what I can to keep things comfortable. We will work it out if one of us gets upset. That includes you, Mx. Bălan. Please voice your concerns when they arise.”</p>
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<p>True Name nodded in agreement. “I will do what I can to keep things comfortable and be out of your hair as soon as this is resolved. We will work it out if one of us gets upset. That includes you, Mx. Bălan. Please voice your concerns when they arise.”</p>
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<p>Ey shook eir head. “Alright, alright. Only concerns I have right now are taking a shower and a nap, then. I’ll trust you two to make things work and will try not to mediate every single little disagreement.”</p>
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<p>“Excellent. About fucking time,” May said, patting eir hand. “I will join you for the nap and try to be up for lunch.”</p>
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<p>“Naps all around,” True Name agreed. “Again, thank you two.”</p>
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</article>
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<footer>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-07-20</p>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-07-29</p>
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@ -13,8 +13,8 @@
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</header>
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<article class="content">
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<hr />
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<p>The next few days felt careful. They weren’t walking on eggshells around each other. It was not a worry of offending, but they all seemed to be hyper-aware of each others’ presence in the house.</p>
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<p>Ioan and May called out from their performances and, when A Finger Pointing asked why, May had spent half an hour locked in the bedroom on a silenced sensorium conversation. Ioan received a very sincere note soon after wishing both May and em, as well as True Name well. While she’d never spent much time worrying about the things True Name did, A Finger Pointing’s tireless desire to be friends with everyone did not exclude her cross-tree instance.</p>
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<p>The next few days felt careful. They weren’t walking on eggshells around each other, it was not a worry of offending, but they all seemed to be hyper-aware of each others’ presence in the house.</p>
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<p>Ioan and May called out from their performances and, when A Finger Pointing asked why, May had spent half an hour locked in the bedroom on a silenced sensorium conversation. Ioan received a very sincere note soon after wishing all three of them well. While she’d never spent much time worrying about the things True Name did, A Finger Pointing’s tireless desire to be friends with everyone did not exclude her cross-tree instance.</p>
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<p>For her part, True Name spent much of the first day silent in her room, though whether that was to sleep or salvage the situation, ey couldn’t tell. She poked her head out around dinner and said that she was too tired to join and that she would see them in the morning. </p>
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<p>Ey couldn’t blame her. Even with the two hour nap before lunch, Ioan felt groggy and disoriented for the remainder of the day. <em>I’m becoming like May,</em> ey thought. <em>I don’t sleep well alone, or even separated by camp bed frames.</em></p>
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<p>All three of them slept in late the next morning, Ioan only rising at nine when ey received the gentlest possible sensorium ping from True Name.</p>
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<p>Ey showed her where they kept the mugs, then the cream and sugar for doctoring coffee and spoons for stirring. Once the pot finished brewing and all three cups had been poured, ey excused emself back to the bedroom with eirs and May’s coffee to finish waking up with eir partner.</p>
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<p>And so it continued. They would speak in the morning and over dinner, perhaps a few times throughout the day, but otherwise, they worked on their own projects. They’d say good morning to each other, say good night to each other, say polite things in passing. Little of it felt like it was done out of kindness, but rather out of a need to remain cognizant of each others’ presence, to keep a semblance of peace through performative normalcy.</p>
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<p>Even the weather felt careful. The snow first melted and then was replaced when a new storm lay down a delicate few inches.</p>
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<p>It was the third full day since their return when the spell was broken. Shortly after lunch, True Name stepped into her field of view, bowed, and politely requested a conversation with May.</p>
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<p>It was the third full day since their return when the spell was broken. Shortly after lunch, True Name stepped into May’s field of view, bowed, and politely requested a conversation with her.</p>
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<p>The skunk frowned and beckoned her over to the couch.</p>
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<p>True Name apologized to Ioan, then set up a cone of silence with secure visual ACLs.</p>
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<p>Three days was just long enough to start building up the scaffolding of habits, such that Ioan was left anxious and jittery when they were jostled.. Seeing it from the outside for the first time, ey was left with a slight sense of disorientation from the way the cone blurred both the occupants and the background, the edges of its boundaries unnervingly sharp.</p>
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<p>Three days was just long enough to start building up the scaffolding of habits, such that Ioan was left anxious and jittery when they were jostled. Seeing it from the outside for the first time, ey was left with a slight sense of disorientation from the way the cone blurred both the occupants and the background, the edges of its boundaries unnervingly sharp.</p>
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<p>There was nothing to be gained from watching the indistinct shapes within. A quiet conversation had them simply looking like two black forms against the relative brightness of the balcony. Ey couldn’t see expressions, couldn’t see but the most grandiose of body language.</p>
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<p>And yet ey watched, slipping over to the kitchen to clean, or at least dream up some chore that needed doing there, just so that ey could keep an eye on the cone.</p>
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<p>It was boring, and that it was boring only drove eir anxiety higher.</p>
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<p>The conversation lasted nearly an hour, and when the cone dropped, ey was greeted once again by the sight of the two skunks. To say that neither looked happy missed the mark: True Name had a dullness to her expression, something between hopelessness and resignation, while May looked apoplectic. She’d clearly been crying quite hard at one point.</p>
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<p>Ey ducked around the kitchen counter as quickly as ey could. “May? True Name? Are you–“</p>
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<p>May waved a hand dismissively and blipped out of the sim. There was a sensorium ping a moment later, a view of Arrowhead Lake.</p>
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<p>May waved a paw dismissively and blipped out of the sim. There was a sensorium ping a moment later, a view of Arrowhead Lake.</p>
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<p>“What just happened?”</p>
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<p>True Name shrugged, the movement looking as though she was struggling against dozens of gravities rather than just one. “I explained what has been happening.”</p>
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<p>Ey frowned, feeling eir own anger rise out of anxiety. “Well? What’s been happening? I don’t exactly like seeing her that upset.”</p>
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<p>She shrugged again, slowly rolled up off the couch to her feet, swayed for a moment, then walked off to her room, the door snicking shut behind her.</p>
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</article>
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<footer>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-07-20</p>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-07-29</p>
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