update from sparkleup
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<p>Ioan half lay, half slouched against the headboard with May draped bonelessly up along eir front. She’d gotten up to make them both coffee to drink in bed, then proceed to doze off again, using eir chest as a pillow and the rest of em as mattress.</p>
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<p>Ey, meanwhile, had made it through most of eir coffee, resting the cup between the skunk’s shoulder blades between sips. It was technically Christmas, though neither of them cared much for the holiday, but that did mean it was the day for the <em>tocană</em> and <em>mămăligă</em> that had become tradition for them. Ey hadn’t learned to cook much prior to uploading — just a few simple dishes for a poor student — and it wasn’t until ey had wound up on the System in eir current sim that ey’d gone back to teach emself all the things ey’d loved growing up.</p>
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<p>It promised to be a lazy sort of day otherwise, which felt necessary. May’s spike of anxiety when ey’d gone out for coffee a few days prior had quickly tapered off, but it had not simply gone away. The days that followed had included a lot of asking em if ey was okay and taking breaks to sit and look out the picture windows, lost in thought.</p>
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<p>It promised to be a lazy sort of day otherwise, which felt necessary. May’s spike of anxiety when ey’d gone out for eir meeting with True Name a few days prior had quickly tapered off, but it had not simply gone away. The days that followed had included a lot of asking em if ey was okay and taking breaks to sit and look out the picture windows, lost in thought.</p>
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<p>Still, last night had been delightful, with the skunk far more relaxed while they cooked — or tried to cook — shitty fast food for each other. After dinner, they moved to the couch with Ioan resting eir head in May’s lap so that she could tease her fingers through eir thick hair while they hummed silly little songs to each other.</p>
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<p>Today promised to be equally comfortable.</p>
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<p>Ey frowned when ey lifted eir mug, only to find it empty. Equally comfortable but for that, ey supposed.</p>
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<p>“I’m going to drink your coffee, May.”</p>
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<p>“If you do, I will pin you down and pluck your eyebrows bald,” she mumbled, slowly lifting her head and reaching out toward her mug on the nightstand.</p>
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<p>“That’s a new one. Sounds painful.”</p>
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<p>“Add it to the list,” she said after she was able to get at least a few laps of coffee.</p>
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<p>“Add it to the list,” she said after she was able to get at least a few sips in.</p>
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<p>“One day, they’re going to find my dead body, clearly smothered to death, my eyebrows fully plucked, sand in my shoes, cracker crumbs in my bed, all of my pens un-capped, all of my book pages dog-eared, with skunk fur in all the food,” ey said, laughing. “I’m pretty sure they’ll know it was you.”</p>
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<p>She lifted her chin to park it on eir shoulder. “Mm, well, it is a risk I am willing to take.”</p>
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<p>Ey tilted eir head to give the top of her own a kiss. An awkward affair, but worth it. “You stay up too late again?”</p>
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@ -52,7 +52,7 @@
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<p>“I wouldn’t call you stupid, May. Bumbling, though…”</p>
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<p>She rolled her eyes. “Thank you, I think? But yes, even bumbling is a calculated gesture to be inoffensive.”</p>
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<p>“End Waking said similar.” Ey dug through eir exocortices until ey came up with the memory of the conversation, “He said it was a matter of intent.”</p>
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<p>“It is, yes. I am sure that some of the wider clade who remain skunks are so without a second thought, but that is not how True Name worked, and so it is not how we work.”</p>
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<p>“It is, yes. I am sure that some of the wider clade who remain skunks do so without a second thought, but that is not how True Name worked, and so it is not how we work.”</p>
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<p>“And she did that for the same reasons? To be inoffensive?”</p>
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<p>She nodded. “In a way. At first, she could not be anything but, as that is how she was forked, but she kept it because of the way the Council worked. She was a skunk, Debarre was a weasel, Ezekiel spent half the time looking like a shambling pile of dirty rags and the other half like an unhoused man, and user11824 looked like the least remarkable person possible, as though your eyes simply slid right off of him. The ethos of the Council was to be just ordinary people who were weird before uploading and remained weird after.”</p>
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<p>“Jonas wasn’t that weird when I met him.”</p>
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<p>The dinner itself wasn’t exactly onerous. A stew of pork — ey’d been raised on a version with lamb, which May hadn’t liked — tomatoes, and mushrooms in a garlicky, paprika-filled gravy served with polenta. Still, it benefited from a longer cooking time, so ey began that after eir shower and set it to simmering.</p>
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<p>After that, they set some music to playing — the overlap of what they both enjoyed wasn’t large, given the more than a century’s age difference, but piano jazz seemed to work for both of them — and set to work on whatever it was that was occupying their minds.</p>
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<p>Or tried to, at least.</p>
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<p>Eir conversation this morning as well as eir meeting with True Name a few days prior left Ioan in mind of skunks and the Ode clade, and even though those both featured quite heavily in the stage adaptation of <em>On the Perils of Memory</em>, nothing ey tried seemed quite in the right vein.</p>
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<p>Their conversation this morning as well as eir meeting with True Name a few days prior left Ioan in mind of skunks and the Ode clade, and even though those both featured quite heavily in the stage adaptation of <em>On the Perils of Memory</em>, nothing ey tried seemed quite in the right vein.</p>
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<p>Ey flipped to a blank sheet of paper and began a letter, instead.</p>
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<blockquote>
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<p>True Name,</p>
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@ -129,10 +129,10 @@
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<p>The skunk let out a melodramatic groan and slid off her stool to the floor, landing on her hands and knees before flopping onto her side, laughing. “What a fucking brat.”</p>
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<p>Ey stared at her, nonplussed.</p>
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<p>“Oh God, Ioan, you do not know pain until you work with choir kids.”</p>
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<p>Ey laughed and shook eir head, leaning forward to ruffle over her ears. “You’re right, I don’t. I’ll just have to trust you on that. Skunks are so weird.”</p>
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<p>Ey laughed and shook eir head, leaning forward to ruffle over her ears. It was a much more pleasant response to a note from True Name than ey’d expected. “You’re right, I don’t. I’ll just have to trust you on that. Skunks are so weird.”</p>
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</article>
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<footer>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-07-29</p>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-08-13</p>
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<p>“This is by design.”</p>
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<p>Debarre laughed, shaking his head. “I’m just worried about so many changes in so short a time.”</p>
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<p>“How so?”</p>
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<p>“I don’t know,” Debarre mumbled. “I just think there’s a lot of subtle things — more like the little stuff May Then My Name talks about — and I’m worried those will break or disappear.”</p>
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<p>“I dunny,” Debarre mumbled. “I just think there’s a lot of subtle things — more like the little stuff May Then My Name talks about — and I’m worried those will break or disappear.”</p>
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<p>End Waking hummed thoughtfully. “They have survived Secession and Launch.”</p>
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<p>“Yeah, but those were political things, right? Not technological things.”</p>
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<p>“You are worried external engineers will tamper?”</p>
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<p>There was a long, long silence before the skunk replied. “Sleep, my love. There is work to do in the morning. Sleep, and dream beautiful dreams.”</p>
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</article>
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<footer>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-07-29</p>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-08-13</p>
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<p>“Nah, go ahead. I’ll wait. You never told me what you’re doing here, though.”</p>
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<p>She stuck her tongue out at him. “Am I not allowed to be a pest? That is my role in life.”</p>
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<p>“‘Course you are, just that usually you’re a pest with news.”</p>
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<p>“Fine, fine, yes,” she said. “It can wait until after coffee, though. How are you, my dear? I was not expecting you to be back just yet.”</p>
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<p>“Fine, fine, yes,” she said. “It can wait until after coffee, though. How are you, Debarre? I was not expecting you to be back just yet.”</p>
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<p>“It is my fault,” her cocladist said. “A tree fell on me back around–“</p>
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<p>“<em>What?!</em>“</p>
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<p>He shrugged. “There was a wind storm late last year and a tree fell across my tent. It crushed the frame and floor, knocked over the back wall, and impaled my thigh on a splintered board.”</p>
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<p>“He didn’t wanna fork to fix his leg,” the weasel said, rolling his eyes.</p>
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<p>“I do not fork often, you know that.”</p>
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<p>“There was a plank through your leg, E.W.,” he retorted. “That wasn’t just going to heal okay on its own.”</p>
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<p>It was the skunk’s turn to roll his eyes. “You are no fun, my dear.”</p>
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<p>It was the skunk’s turn to roll his eyes. “You are no fun.”</p>
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<p>May Then My Name, having finally calmed down enough to speak, said, “Well, thank you, Debarre.”</p>
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<p>Debarre nodded.</p>
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<p>She sighed, smiling weakly at End Waking. “I am glad you are okay, skunk. I would be lost without you.</p>
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<p>“The trees do not know how to kill me, My Then My Name,” End Waking said, frowning. “There is no virus within them. Debarre was right to get me to fork to fix, I will admit, but I would have done anyway had it landed more fully on me.”</p>
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<p>“The trees do not know how to kill me, My Then My Name,” End Waking said, frowning. “There is no virus within them. Debarre was right to get me to fork to fix, I will admit, but I would have done so anyway had it landed more fully on me.”</p>
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<p>When all that greeted this was silence, he sighed and let his shoulders slump. “I am sorry. I have set up the new camp in a location with sturdier trees. I will endeavor to remain cautious.”</p>
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<p>May Then My Name crawled around the fire to dot her nose against the skunk’s cheek. He looked uncomfortable, but tolerated the touch.</p>
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<p>“Thank you, my dear,” she said. “I do not mean to lecture. I am just…well, if the coffee is ready, please pour yourself a cup, Debarre, and we will talk.”</p>
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<p>“Is that a thing that even needs to be done?” Debarre said. “Wasn’t she just leaving you alone before?”</p>
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<p>“Yes, thankfully. It is just…” She frowned, poking at the packed earth with a claw. “That has been necessary to prevent anger, but it has still not been comfortable. There are plenty of people who I no longer see and do not miss, or do miss and think about with some frequency. It was such an uneasy silence.”</p>
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<p>“And you think Ioan’s doing the right thing?”</p>
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<p>“Ey is. Ey is ensuring that there remains a distance between you two without it being an unbridged distance. That would just leave you to stew, knowing how you work. You would never let it go and spin yourself into a whirlwind of emotion,” End Waking said. “The Bălans are perhaps a little awkward at times, but they do not lack all social graces.”</p>
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<p>“Ey is,” End Waking said. “Ey is ensuring that there remains a distance between you two without it being an unbridged distance. That would just leave you to stew, knowing how you work. You would never let it go and spin yourself into a whirlwind of emotion. The Bălans are perhaps a little awkward at times, but they do not lack all social graces.”</p>
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<p>May Then My Name rubbed her paws over her face. “I knooow,” she whined. “And I love em for thinking of that.”</p>
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<p>“You just still resent her,” the other skunk said.</p>
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<p>“Yes.”</p>
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<p>“There is no penance,” End Waking said plainly, dishing out the oatmeal into the mugs they’d been using for coffee. “True penance is borne out of feeling bad about what one has done and wanting to change, to make up for it, not merely about responding to how others are reacting.”</p>
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<p>May Then My Name toyed with her oatmeal. “Yes. Maybe she does and just does not know how to show it. I just do not know how to truly believe that.”</p>
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<p>“Worried she’s just acting?” Debarred said, blowing on a still vigorously steaming spoonful of oats.</p>
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<p>“Perhaps. That was ever the dilemma of us going into theatre. Did we love it or did we merely want to become someone else?”</p>
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<p>“Be wary of your pessimism,” End Waking said calmly. “It takes attention and effort, May Then My Name, at least when one has intentionally tamped down emotions to the point that she has. If I could teach her, if either of us could teach her, I think we would, but I do not know that one can learn penance from anyone but oneself.”</p>
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<p>“Perhaps. That was ever the dilemma of us going into theatre. Did we love it or did we merely want to become someone else? To hide from who we were?”</p>
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<p>“Be wary of your pessimism,” End Waking said. “It takes attention and effort, May Then My Name, at least when one has intentionally tamped down emotions to the point that she has. If I could teach her, if either of us could teach her, I think we would, but I do not know that one can learn penance from anyone but oneself.”</p>
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<p>She nodded, looking distracted and thoughtful. “If it were as simple as merging down…”</p>
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<p>End Waking stiffened, frowned around his bite of breakfast.</p>
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<p>She smiled to him apologetically. “Sorry, I will stop for now. Thank you both for listening to me bitch.”</p>
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<p>“If you can swing a hammer, then yes, that would be wonderful.”</p>
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</article>
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<footer>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-07-29</p>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-08-13</p>
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