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<p>“Yeah, that sounds way too sweet for me,” I said, grinning.</p>
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<p>Grinning back, she gestured down the street in an invitation to walk, and we fell in step beside each other, saying nothing.</p>
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<p>The sim was, indeed, beautiful, though it did bear some trademarks of early sim design, with the cobblestones perhaps a little too perfectly fit together, a little too flat, and the hexagonal lamp posts bearing corners that were perhaps a little too sharp. Still, for a morning walk with coffee (my third of the day; I’d have to turn off the caffeine sensitivity later), it was ideal. The sim was quiet and calm, with the sun blessing the street with long shadows and cool air that felt on the path to warming.</p>
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<p>“It’s so quiet,” I observed. The act of speaking out loud into the quiet air was enough to knock me back into the context of what had happened. “Oh.”</p>
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<p>“It’s so quiet,” I observed. The act of speaking out loud into the still air was enough to knock me back into the context of what had happened. “Oh.”</p>
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<p>Dry Grass readily picked up on the meaning behind that syllable, nodding to me. “I do not imagine that it is so quiet because so many are missing, but I do think that many are staying home, hunting for lovers and friends, trawling the feeds. Heading out to public sims is, perhaps, not at the tops of their minds.”</p>
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<p>Looking around did indeed provide a better sense of the mood. Those who <em>were</em> out and about looked somber, distracted, walking with heads down or talking in hushed tones two-by-two.</p>
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<p>So were we, I realized.</p>
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<p>I made an effort to straighten up and look out into the clear morning. “Is the toll still climbing?” I asked.</p>
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<p>“Not so rapidly, no. It is currently–” She tilted her head for a moment before continuing. “–just over two hundred million. I have also been able to get in contact with a phys-side engineer who has been…well, she has been cagey, but she is at least confirming some of my estimates and guesses as I pass them on.”</p>
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<p>“It is currently–” She tilted her head for a moment before continuing. “–just over two hundred million. I have also been able to get in contact with a phys-side engineer who has been…well, she has been cagey, but she is at least confirming some of my estimates and guesses as I pass them on.”</p>
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<p>“Oh?”</p>
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<p>She nodded. “Günay is quite nice, if perhaps a bit breezier than one might expect on hearing that millions of individuals have disappeared from the System. I do get the sense that she is a fairly cheerful person overall, at least.”</p>
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<p>“Did she have anything to say about what might have happened?”</p>
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<p>“No, not particularly. When I say that she has confirmed guesses, what she has done is invite me to talk and simply agreed when something I have said is right, perhaps expanding on it by small amounts.” Her expression soured. “I get the impression that she would <em>like</em> to share more with me, but that she is simply not allowed to.”</p>
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<p>I frowned. “You mean someone’s keeping her from doing so?”</p>
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<p>“It is a hunch. Perhaps our communications are being monitored, and she is being instructed to limit the topics or act in this way. While talking with Need An Answer, she suggested that this is also what the eighth stanza is used to doing, but they are the political ones.”</p>
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<p>“It is a hunch. Perhaps our communications are being monitored, and she is being instructed to limit the topics or to act in this way. Perhaps her implants limit her by NDA. While talking with Need An Answer, she suggested that this is also what the eighth stanza is used to doing, but they are the political ones.”</p>
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<p>I dredged up what history of the System I had learned, all of those sensationalist stories about the few old clades steering the direction of the lives of however many billion uploaded minds — certainly well over a trillion, if one counted the two launch vehicles, Castor and Pollux that had been sent out seventy five years prior.</p>
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<p>“And they’d be sneaky like this, too?” I asked.</p>
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<p>A snort of laughter and she nodded. “Sneaky is one way to put it, yes. They shape interactions by second nature, for which much of the clade has distanced themself from from. We — Hammered Silver’s up-tree instances — are not supposed to be speaking to any of them, but there are a few that I like plenty, and given our current status, I have begun interacting more openly with Need An Answer.”</p>
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