update from sparkleup
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<p>As it was, ey did eir best to guess, and when introductions made their way around the table, ey found eir guesses to be correct in each case. </p>
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<p>At last, the parade of bows and greetings out of the way, each of the thirteen — counting em, Jonas, and Zacharias — pulled out a chair and sat down, though ey noted that End Waking didn’t sit so much as hover on the very edge of his seat. He still looked wide-eyed, feral.</p>
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<p>“Aaalright,” Jonas said, plopping his hands, palm down, on the table. “To business. I’m pleased to see you’re alive, but can’t say that I’m pleased to see you’re about.”</p>
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<p>“I imagine not, no,” True Name replied, folding her paws on the table before her. “From what Ioan says, you know the general facts of what I know. There has been a long-running plan, perhaps mostly operating as a back-up plan, to shift one or more of me to the side depending on the status of the System. This revolved around the use of Zacharias as a tool to shape my responses while incomplete information kept me from recognizing this. Tell me, though. Are you still leaning on the multiple-Systems-multiple-governments strategy?”</p>
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<p>“I imagine not, no,” True Name replied, folding her paws on the table before her. “From what Ioan says, you know the general facts of what I know. There has been a long-running plan, perhaps mostly operating as a back-up, to shift one or more of me to the side depending on the status of the System. This revolved around the use of Zacharias as a tool to shape my responses while incomplete information kept me from recognizing this. Tell me, though. Are you still leaning on the multiple-Systems-multiple-governments strategy?”</p>
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<p>Jonas nodded. “Yes. Oligarchy on Pollux, <em>status quo</em> on Castor, and invisible monarchy here on Lagrange.”</p>
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<p>“You believe that this tripod will be the most stable political structure?”</p>
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<p>“I know you don’t agree, but it’s not a tripod, True Name. By this point, the three Systems are so far apart that they are no longer three branches of the same government. They’re three countries, and three countries with identical governments yet divergent societies are unstable.”</p>
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@ -87,9 +87,9 @@
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<p>“That is–“</p>
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<p>Jonas laughed, “Just shut up, Zacharias.”</p>
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<p>“No,” the fox growled, his whiskers all abristle and claws digging at the tabletop. “I played my role, but that does not mean that I am some disposable Judas here. A role is as much the actor as it is– <em>stop!</em>“</p>
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<p>There was a loud thump beneath the table, though this time, Zacharias appeared to have pulled his foot away in time to keep his toes from being stomped on, as he instead pushed himself away from the table and to his feet. A brief flicker of ungrounded rage flashed across Jonas’s face, but was quickly replaced by that bright, friendly grin.</p>
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<p>There was a loud thump beneath the table, though this time, Zacharias appeared to have pulled his foot away in time to keep his toes from being stomped on. Instead, he pushed himself away from the table and to his feet. A brief flicker of ungrounded rage flashed across Jonas’s face, but was quickly replaced by that bright, friendly grin.</p>
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<p>“Fine, fuck you too, then.”</p>
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<p>There was no signal — or if there was, Ioan missed it — for Guōweī to step into the sim, hand already raised as if for a slap, a short blade held between his fingers. Unassuming, easy to carry, symbolic, and certainly crowded with whatever it was that induced a crash in one’s instance.</p>
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<p>There was no signal — or if there was, Ioan missed it — for Guōweī to step into the sim, hand already raised as if for a slap, a short blade held between his fingers. Unassuming, easy to carry, symbolic, and certainly crowded with whatever virus it was that induced a crash in one’s instance.</p>
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<p>What happened next happened almost too quickly for em to comprehend. Zacharias shouted, but the cry was cut off in a muffled <em>oomf</em> as an instance of May appeared near him, almost totally overlapping the space that he’d occupied. The collision algos knocked him backwards with enough force to slam him against the door, leaving him to crumple to the floor.</p>
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<p>Guōweī’s palm came down flat against May’s shoulder, but there was no time to see whether or not the virus would affect an instance so far diverged, as that instance of her quit and was immediately replaced with another one, this overlapping the assassin’s space, knocking him back nearly a meter, only for the skunk to fork again to repeat the maneuver. With the momentum already in play, this sent the man flying, his head cracking against the wall hard enough to leave a sizeable dent in the drywall.</p>
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<p>And then it was over. Zacharias’s yell faltered, and he stared up, wide eyed, with his gaze darting between Jonas and the remaining instance of May. Jonas had lurched away, looking more disgusted than startled.</p>
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@ -113,8 +113,8 @@
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<p>“You just can’t be around. You can’t be you anymore. You can’t be walking around and having people point and say, “Hey, it’s that piece of shit skunk!” You need to just disappear, because anything else is just going to destabilize your precious System. Imagine! True Name, who didn’t die, wants to bring back political parties! I’m prepared for that, but I don’t think you are.”</p>
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<p>“We are of one mind on that.”</p>
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<p>Jonas snorted. “Fuck if I believe you on <em>that.</em>“</p>
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<p>Ioan watched with increasing intensity. The actual words of the conversation aside, True Name’s calmness seemed to be overwhelming Jonas’s restraint. He seemed to be having a hard time restraining snark, all that sarcasm that made for good entertainment, perhaps, but was increasingly unbecoming for what ey thought of as a politician.</p>
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<p>Here was the Ode clade slowly diverging past reconciliation, here ey was mumbling all the more, as the skunks had pointed out, and now Jonas Prime, for all his stability seemed to be having a hard time maintaining his own brand of control.</p>
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<p>Ioan watched with increasing intensity. The actual words of the conversation aside, True Name’s calmness seemed to be overwhelming Jonas’s restraint. He seemed to be having a hard time holding back snark, all that sarcasm that made for good entertainment, perhaps, but was increasingly unbecoming for what ey thought of as a politician.</p>
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<p>Here was the Ode clade slowly diverging past reconciliation, here ey was mumbling all the more as the skunks had pointed out, and now Jonas Prime, for all his stability seemed to be having a hard time maintaining his own brand of control.</p>
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<p>Eir frown deepened. Perhaps this was more than just a political dispute.</p>
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<p>She shook her head, but whether at his words or his audacity, ey couldn’t tell. “Alright, disappear. You want me to stop being a figure and start being a person. You want me to be other than I am.”</p>
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<p>“Yep,” he said, grin tight and false.</p>
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<p>“May, what–“</p>
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<p>“One moment, my dear,” she said, then turned to face this new True Name with a grin. “Will there be a change of name?”</p>
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<p>There was a vanishingly faint hint of rehearsal to the words, well masked to anyone who didn’t know her as intimately as ey did. Ey realized this must be their plan. Hers and True Name’s and End Waking’s, the one they’d been working on for days.</p>
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<p>“There…there has to be,” When I Do Not Remember said, and a brief tense from May confirmed that the trap had been sprung.</p>
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<p>“There…there has to be,” When I Do Not Remember said, gaze still locked on True Name, and a brief tense from May confirmed that the trap had been sprung.</p>
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<p>While he lacked the context for whatever had surprised her cocladists, even Jonas sounded impressed by the display. “I won’t let you leave as True Name. Stability, remember? That name means too much here.”</p>
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<p>The other seven members of True Name’s stanza nodded as one, and Unasked Questions said, “You cannot be us. You cannot be who you were.”</p>
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<p>The skunk bowed. “You may call me Sasha.”</p>
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<p>“It is not a statement of reality, dear. I cannot reintegrate those aspects of myself that are not up-tree from me, and even if I could, there are those who no longer exist or who have left Lagrange,” she said, that slight smile growing. “It is a statement of hope, perhaps, or a desire for completion. It is an understanding of the ways in which I fall short expressed in my very name. Will this sense of a truer life last? Perhaps. It will certainly not always feel good, and will at some point cease feeling new, but I plan on owning it for as long as I am able.”</p>
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<p>“And how is it that this pisses off Jonas?” Ey snorted. “He certainly sounded pissed.”</p>
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<p>Sasha knelt across from Ioan, followed shortly by E.W. and May to either side of em, May summoning up plates and cutting thick slices of cake. It was strange to see so many smiles, still strange to see May so happy around her down-tree instance and stranger still to see E.W. even in the same sim.</p>
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<p>“What Jonas was expecting was for me to remain True Name in everything except form and name,” she said. “He was expecting someone deeply cowed by his political genius. And do not underestimate him, he <em>is</em> still a genius. He felt that he had won his spot as rightful leader of Lagrange, if such a thing can even be said to exist. He thought that he had beaten me down and left me either unable to continue or unwilling to try.”</p>
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<p>“What Jonas was expecting was for me to remain True Name in everything except form and name,” she said. “He was expecting someone deeply cowed by his political genius — and do not underestimate him, he <em>is</em> still a genius. He felt that he had won his spot as rightful leader of Lagrange, if such a thing can even be said to exist. He thought that he had beaten me down and left me either unable to continue or unwilling to try.”</p>
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<p>May added, “I suspect that he is starting to crack.”</p>
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<p>Ioan nodded.</p>
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<p>“Perhaps,” Sasha said. “He has not seemed fully grounded in many years, but again, do not underestimate him.”</p>
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<p>The weasel said nothing, looking stunned.</p>
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<p>“This is– was Tr–“</p>
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<p>“Sasha. I am Sasha. I was her as well,” she said, voice gentle but insistent enough to stop Ioan from continuing.</p>
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<p>He stepped back a half pace, crouching as though to flee. “Sasha…? What the fuck?”</p>
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<p>He stepped back a half pace, crouching as though to flee on foot. “Sasha…? What the fuck?”</p>
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<p>Ioan, still feeling eir head spinning from so much happening so quickly, tried to pin down eir open question in eir mind while still watching the exchange intently.</p>
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<p>“I am not what I was, Debarre. I am not True Name. I am not May or E.W.” She hesitated, then continued, “I am not even the Sasha you remember, but I am, I think, closer to being her than any of the Ode clade is currently.”</p>
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<p>“Bullshit,” he growled. “If there’s even a little bit of True Name in you, you can’t be her. If you’re even the slightest bit her I’m fucking out of here.”</p>
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<p>“But I haven’t yet, though.”</p>
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<p>“Of course, but if he had decided to take Sasha out anyway, you would still be left to write about <em>that</em>. Your name is already trusted enough on the System that if you were to write something after her assassination, it would still have gone poorly for him. If he had taken you out as well — something I doubt he was prepared to do anyway — he would be in even deeper shit.”</p>
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<p>Ey shook eir head. Ey was feeling very far behind but needed to understand if ey was to write this book. More, ey needed to understand for emself. “So why not become Michelle?”</p>
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<p>“Because look at me,” Sasha said, laughing and spreading her arms. “I am a furry. A <em>skunk</em> furry, no less. There is benefit to being something that is just a little silly, just as there always has been. Even after all these years, it is difficult to take someone pretending to be a small furry animal seriously, so that disarms me in the eyes of the observers.”</p>
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<p>“Because look at me,” Sasha said, laughing and spreading her arms. “I am a furry. A <em>skunk</em> furry, no less. There is benefit to being something that is just a little silly, just as there always has been. Even after all these years, it is difficult to take someone pretending to be a small furry animal seriously, so that disarms me in the eyes of the observer.”</p>
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<p>“So he will just leave you alone?”</p>
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<p>“He will have to if he wishes to remain in his position. He answers to his desire for power, I answer only to my desire for stability and continuity. In that I remain earnest in my conviction,” she said by way of answer. “Even that of me which is E.W. and May. E.W. cannot love his forest if politics overwhelm his existence. May cannot hold onto her devotion. These things I know.”</p>
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<p>May nodded slowly. “You are not wrong. I would not have used such words, but you are not wrong.”</p>
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<p>“That of me which remains True Name has settled down,” she continued. “And she still holds to the idea that politics is a means to an end. She is good at it. She enjoys it. She is willing and able to utilize it.”</p>
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<p>“So,” Debarre said slowly. “When did you realize this might even work?”</p>
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<p>“So,” Debarre said. “When did you realize this might even work?”</p>
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<p>“It was a chance I took. One that might have failed, yes, but a good chance. It was that comment about you and Michelle not being fit to lead. Jonas had a view of me that was as inaccurate as it was easy to use against him. I have my political acumen and you have your own small group.”</p>
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<p>Ioan watched Debarre stiffen, making note of his response. It didn’t feel like the type of thing to include in the story, but it did make rather a lot of the weasel’s words and actions make more sense.</p>
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<p>“You’re nuts,” Debarre said, rubbing his paws over his face to cover that response. “You’re all fucking nuts.”</p>
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<p>The three skunks laughed while ey and Debarre leaned across the circle to shake hands.</p>
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</article>
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<footer>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-10-15</p>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-11-09</p>
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</footer>
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</main>
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