update from sparkleup
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<p>The stream of Odists who came to visit Sasha in the days and weeks after the excursion to Jonas’s was surprising. They seem to have accepted her change in identity far easier than expected. There were no instances of deadnaming (unless they were specifically talking about her past as True Name, as requested), no fights, no arguments.</p>
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<p>Not everyone was happy, to be sure. Many of the discussions from those who stopped by were quite serious and, even though many took place in cones of silence, Ioan could easily guess that there was much in the way of airing of grievances. As far as ey could tell, though, it was done with an eye towards catharsis and reconciliation.</p>
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<p>Serene, for instance came over the day after the whole kerfuffle, surprising the three of them well into the evening. They’d settled for a middle ground of dinner out on the extended balcony — close enough to the house for them to cook a proper dinner without leaving Sasha feeling cooped up inside — when the ping against their sensoria caused the three to jolt as one.</p>
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<p>Serene, for instance, came over the day after the whole kerfuffle, surprising the three of them well into the evening. They’d settled for a middle ground of dinner out on the extended balcony — close enough to the house for them to cook a proper dinner without leaving Sasha feeling cooped up inside — when the ping against their sensoria caused the three to jolt as one.</p>
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<p>“That will be Serene!” May said excitedly, setting her half-finished plate down and hopping to her feet. “I opened the ACLs to a few, hope you do not mind.”</p>
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<p>“Opened– wait, when?” Ioan asked, setting eir own plate down. “And to how many?”</p>
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<p>But the skunk was already gone, bounding inside to greet the fox with a hug and excited chattering.</p>
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@ -143,7 +143,7 @@
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<p>“Zacharias! He has been pinging me once every few seconds for the last minute!” She was on the verge of hyperventilation, eyes wide and tail bristled. “I do not know what– <em>fuck!</em>“</p>
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<p>Ioan slid from eir chair as the skunk started to slump over to the side. Ey helped her to her feet and over to the beanbag. “May, what’s happening?”</p>
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<p>“He keeps…quitting and…sending high-priority merges…” she gasped. “The cone will not…stop those…”</p>
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<p>“You okay for few seconds?”</p>
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<p>“You okay for a few seconds?”</p>
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<p>Slumped over on the beanbag, the skunk nodded.</p>
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<p>Ey stepped from the cone, where May had clearly blocked sensorium messages from the fox, so that ey could holler into a message, “What the fuck do you want?”</p>
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<p>“Ioan! I need to…can I–“</p>
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@ -177,7 +177,7 @@
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<p>“If you say so,” he said, paused, then continued, “Alright, he should be able to enter.”</p>
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<p>Ioan nodded and sent a brief ping to Zacharias.</p>
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<p>He arrived within a fraction of a second, yelped, and fell backwards, paws balled up into fists and pressed tight against his eyes.</p>
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<p>“How long as it been for you, my dear? Since you were forked?” May said, kneeling down before the fox. Her voice had grown cloyingly sweet, that ‘my dear’ carrying nothing but spite.</p>
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<p>“How long has it been for you, my dear? Since you were forked?” May said, kneeling down before the fox. Her voice had grown cloyingly sweet, that ‘my dear’ carrying nothing but spite.</p>
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<p>“Y-yes,” he gasped. “Did…did we have to meet here?”</p>
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<p>“Where better?”</p>
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<p>Zacharias moaned. He forced himself to lower his paws to the ground, gripping at clumps of grass and dandelions. Finally, he opened his eyes and stared out toward the horizon of the field. “I–“</p>
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<p>“Wait, what?” Ioan said. May edged around a little ways behind em, clutching at eir arm.</p>
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<p>“You are too entangled in the matter. No contact with this situation means no contact from you, May Then My Name Die With Me, or E.W. <em>né</em> Do I Know God After The End Waking. This request is in effect until further notice, and applies to our stanzas on Castor and Pollux as well, where Dear, Also, The Tree That Was Felled will be presented with the same request. None of us are on Artemis, but I will also be passing this on to Sorina Bălan. This includes general intraclade communication; we will add visibility exceptions to our messages and request that you do the same.”</p>
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<p>“I understand, accept, and offer you my best,” Sasha said, bowing once more.</p>
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<p>“I do not want your best.” In Dreams said, voice flat. “Ioan?”</p>
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<p>“I do not want your best,” In Dreams said, voice flat. “Ioan?”</p>
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<p>Ey blinked, hesitated, then bowed in turn. “I understand and accept.”</p>
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<p>“And May Then My Name?”</p>
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<p>It took the skunk a moment to swallow back a rising wave of emotions before she could manage a shaky nod and a hoarse, “Understood.”</p>
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<p>Nodding, she wrapped her arms around em and squeezed tighter than ey knew she could. “I love you more than anything, my dear, but yes. Now.”</p>
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<p>Ey waited until ey could breathe properly after the squeeze, then kissed the top of her head. “I love you too, May. Please be safe, okay?”</p>
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<p>She nodded once more, relinquished her grip on em, and nudged em out toward the back door and outside.</p>
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<p>Sasha had set up a tent similar to E.W.’s though she had skipped the process of building it herself, instead creating from similar materials off the exchange. She’d set it up nearly on the other side of the lake from their house, so that she could have the solitude that she needed without having to create some new sim of her own. When the need for solitude struck her, it never quite got to the point that it did with E.W.. She would need away from their presences. They felt like a constant weight on her shoulders. Light, yes, but continually present, she would say.</p>
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<p>Sasha had set up a tent similar to E.W.’s, though she had skipped the process of building it herself, instead creating from similar materials off the exchange. She’d set it up nearly on the other side of the lake from their house, so that she could have the solitude that she needed without having to create some new sim of her own. When the need for solitude struck her, it never quite got to the point that it did with E.W. She would need away from their presences. They felt like a constant weight on her shoulders. Light, yes, but continually present, she would say.</p>
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<p>Ah well. This was the first time that May had overflowed in this living situation — and so dramatically, too; she’d never given em so little notice — so perhaps it would be helpful after all.</p>
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<p>Ey took eir time walking around the shore of the lake, using it to vent the emotions that had built up over the last few hours through tears, through shouting into a cone of silence, cursing.</p>
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<p>“Ioan? Goodness,” Sasha said.</p>
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<p>“Oh, shit. I wasn’t thinking. Douglas–” Ey moved to stand, but she grabbed eir wrist.</p>
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<p>“I had seen this coming, if I am honest, so it is not hitting me quite so hard as her. I will be okay.”</p>
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<p>Ey nodded, slowly settled back onto the step. “If you say so.”</p>
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<p>Sasha patted eir hand and bade em stay while she got up to stoke up the fire in her stove and fry up a simple meal of potatoes and vegetables. Ey couldn’t tell if it was just bland— as E.W. preferred — or if eir mind was too busy to process taste, so ey mostly just pushed the food around on the plate.</p>
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<p>Sasha patted eir hand and bade em stay while she got up to stoke up the fire in her stove and fry up a simple meal of potatoes and vegetables. Ey couldn’t tell if it was just bland — as E.W. preferred — or if eir mind was too busy to process taste, so ey mostly just pushed the food around on the plate.</p>
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<p>“Without contraries is no progression,” Sasha murmured after they’d finished. “Attraction and repulsion, reason and energy, love and hate, are necessary to human existence.”</p>
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<p>Ey started to ask what she meant, paused, then looked the words up in the perisystem architecture. “And here I thought you all were mostly into Dickinson.”</p>
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<p>She chuckled and elbowed em in the side. “This may be a True Name thing.”</p>
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<p>“Are you leaning into the “Good is the passive that obeys reason; Evil is the active springing from Energy” on this, then?”</p>
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<p>“Nothing is so simple, dear,” she said, shaking her head. “Blake was not of our kind, he would not have understood. He did get that right, though, in that we are a people of dualities. May sees in Zacharias all that she cannot — must not — be. In Dreams and Hammered silver see in me that which they are not, and yet we are not what we are without our opposites. Every idea’s opposite is just the absence of the idea itself.”</p>
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<p>“Nothing is so simple, dear,” she said, shaking her head. “Blake was not of our kind, he would not have understood. He did get that right, though, in that we are a people of dualities. May sees in Zacharias all that she cannot — must not — be. In Dreams and Hammered Silver see in me that which they are not, and yet we are not what we are without our opposites. Every idea’s opposite is just the absence of the idea itself.”</p>
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<p>“Maybe.” Ey sighed. “It’s all a bit over my head.”</p>
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<p>“I am also a little bit all over the place,” she admitted. “These events have me going in three different directions at once. The Ode clade is crumbling and I cannot deny that some…that much of that is on me. I am sorry, Ioan.”</p>
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<p>“It’s fine,” ey said, shaking eir head. “It’s kind of a lot.”</p>
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<p>“That it is. You are a good person, though. You love your partner. She knows this. I know this. You are good to her and it will all be okay. We may hope for neat endings but all we get are more beginnings.” She smiled, adding, “And yes, you may stay until she is feeling better.”</p>
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</article>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-08-14</p>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-09-06</p>
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