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Madison Scott-Clary
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<h1 id="ioan-balan-2346">Ioan Bălan — 2346</h1>
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<p>Ioan knew well enough what was coming, so ey was able to brace emself well enough when May came barrelling out of the default entry point on the dandelion-ridden field that ey was not totally bowled over, managing at least a graceful descent to the ground. The skunk had already looped her arms around eir middle and tucked her head up under his chin before ey was even able to sit up straight enough to get eir arms around her.</p>
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<p>Ioan knew what was coming, so ey was able to brace emself well enough when May came barrelling out of the default entry point on the dandelion-ridden field that ey was not totally bowled over, managing at least a somewhat graceful descent to the ground. The skunk had already looped her arms around eir middle and tucked her head up under his chin before ey was even able to sit up straight enough to get eir arms around her.</p>
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<p>“You nut.” Ey laughed, reaching up to tug at one of her ears affectionately. “Good to see you too.”</p>
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<p>“Ioan, I am in no way sorry for knocking you over,” she mumbled, her grip around eir middle tightening. “Though I am dreadfully sorry that this happened again. I missed you.”</p>
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<p>“Ioan, I am in no way sorry for knocking you over,” she said, voice muffled, her grip around eir middle tightening. “Though I am dreadfully sorry that this happened again. I missed you.”</p>
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<p>Giving up on the prospect of sitting up straight so that ey could keep both arms around her, ey leaned back onto one hand, propping emself up. “No need to apologize, May. I’m just happy to see you again.”</p>
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<p>The skunk leaned away from em enough to dot her nose against eirs. Her eyes were quite red and ey could see tear-tracks in the fur of her cheeks. She looked a mess. “Do not take my apology away from me. I have been saving that one up.”</p>
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<p>“Alright, alright,” ey said, pressing eir nose a little more firmly to hers for a moment before leaning back again. “Apology accepted. Are you feeling better?”</p>
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<p>“So, what news of the aliens?” Douglas asked.</p>
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<p>The skunk squinted at him. “Has Ioan not been keeping you up?”</p>
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<p>“A little. Ey said ey wanted to wait until you got here, though.”</p>
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<p>She rolled her eyes. “Well, out with it, then.”</p>
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<p>“Whatever.” She rolled her eyes. “Well, out with it, then.”</p>
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<p>“I’ve gotten several messages from Codrin over the last few days, but nothing as of this morning, when ey said they were heading out to start the talks.”</p>
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<p>“So they are already a week into them.” She looked thoughtfully up to the ceiling. “Perhaps well into them by now.”</p>
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<p>“Or maybe they’re already over,” Douglas said.</p>
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<p>“A gloomy thought. I would like to hope that they are going quite well. Codrin is there being a Bălan, Tycho is there being a nerd, this Sarah Genet is there being a whatever a Genet is like, Why Ask Questions is there being a shithead.” She wrinkled her nose. “And True Name is doing her best control the whole thing.”</p>
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<p>“A gloomy thought. I would like to hope that they are going quite well. Codrin is there being a Bălan, Tycho is there being a nerd, this Sarah Genet is there being a whatever a Sarah Genet is like, Why Ask Questions is there being a shithead.” She wrinkled her nose. “And True Name is doing her best control the whole thing.”</p>
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<p>Ioan was pleased to see the mildness of the skunk’s expression. It really did seem like much of those overwhelming emotions had burned themselves out over the last few days.</p>
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<p>“It’s weird,” Douglas said. “Every now and then, I’ll hear about something from one of the LVs that’s anchored to a certain time and I’ll remember, “Oh shit, yeah, they’re billions of kilometers away by now”, and then I have to spend some time trying to conceptualize that distance.”</p>
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<p>Ioan nodded. “The transmission delay throws a wrench in things, doesn’t it? I was just thinking about that on Secession day. We were celebrating and it sounds like they were, too, but we didn’t learn about their party until a week later.”</p>
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<p>“The thing that always catches me off guard is that our days do not seem to line up any longer,” May said around a bite of sandwich. “I mean, they do, but when the delay is off by half a day, we start getting messages at shit o’clock in the morning. It is a strange feeling.”</p>
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<p>“Exactly.”</p>
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<p>“I hope they’re still in the talks, too. Codrin sounded hopeful, at least. The messages that they’d been getting from the Artemisians were interesting. I’m guessing the powers that be made em promise not to send the full message text yet, but what they have learned is fascinating. Four races on one ship must be a hell of an experience. The DMZ sim sounds pleasant, though, and all of the work they’ve done to prepare is really kind of impressive.” Ey sipped at eir coffee to buy a moment’s time to think before saying, “There was a bunch of stuff in there for you, too, May. We can go over that later, though.”</p>
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<p>“I hope they’re still in the talks, too. Codrin sounded hopeful, at least. The messages that they’d been getting from the Artemisians were interesting. I’m guessing the powers that be made em promise not to send the full message text yet, but what they have learned is fascinating. Four races on one ship must be a hell of an experience. The DMZ sim sounds pleasant, though, and all of the work they’ve done to prepare is really kind of impressive.” Ey sipped eir coffee to buy a moment’s time to think before saying, “There was a bunch of stuff in there for you, too, May. We can go over that later, though.”</p>
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<p>The skunk frowned, finished the last of her sandwich, and then settled back in the chair with her coffee. “You cannot leave me hanging, my dear. May I at least have a preview?”</p>
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<p>“Well, Codrin’s worried about you, as is Dear.”</p>
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<p>“The memory thing?” Douglas asked.</p>
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<p>Ey nodded.</p>
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<p>May sipped at her coffee, looking out the window to the rolling field beyond. “I am worried, too. You know that.”</p>
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<p>May sipped her coffee, looking out the window to the rolling field beyond. “I am worried, too. You know that.”</p>
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<p>“I know. Reading between the lines, though, I think ey’s worried about the whole clade. Ey’s worried about you and Dear, and ey’s worried about how True Name and Why Ask Questions are going to act through this. Dear reacted poorly to the whole time-modification thing.”</p>
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<p>She nodded and sat in silence for a minute before setting her cup down. “We are not doing as well as many of us would like, no. I have news as well, but I would like to share it outside where I can sit in the sun and feel the grass. Is that okay?”</p>
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<p>Ioan and Douglas collected plates and coffee cups, then the three of them trooped out into the field while May spoke.</p>
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<p>She continued after a few minutes of mastering emotions, voice clear once more. “In Dreams and I talked quite a bit. She said that there have been fewer instances of instability in older clades than expected, given <em>On the Perils of Memory</em>. Fewer uploads are susceptible to the long-term effects of unceasing memory than expected, I guess. I was pleased to see that Debarre seems to be doing well.”</p>
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<p>“That’s heartening,” Douglas said. “At least in a way.”</p>
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<p>The skunk nodded. “I am happy that the System is more stable than feared, but I am unhappy that we seem so strongly affected. In Dreams said that she is going to do some research and see if there are ways that we can at least improve on the way we deal with the effects. I do not know that there is a way to get rid of them entirely, at least not without further individuation, but the least we can do is help keep ourselves sane for longer.”</p>
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<p>Ioan took her paw in eir hand and lifted it to kiss the back. “Please, yeah. If you go bonkers, I’ll be furious.”</p>
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<p>Ioan took her paw in eir hand and lifted it to kiss the back. “Please, yeah. If you lose it, I’ll be furious.”</p>
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<p>She laughed and gave em a pitying look. “Mx. Ioan Bălan, you are pretty good at acting furious on stage, but I do not believe for a second that you could actually feel that way. Even Codrin was able to have a normal meeting with True Name after she did as she does with em.”</p>
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<p>Ey did not laugh. Neither, ey noted, did Douglas.</p>
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<p>“I am sorry,” she murmured, ears laid flat.</p>
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<p>“‘Furious’ is the wrong word, May. I’d lose my damn mind.” Ey took a shaky breath and rubbed at eir face. “I can’t tell you you’re not allowed to or anything, since I know it’s not really up to you, but please at least try to stick around.”</p>
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<p>“I’m not going to pile on or anything,” Douglas said. “But I will say I’d be pretty upset, too, so if there’s anything I can do to help, I will.”</p>
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<p>May dragged them both to a stop in the field. Her expression started out angry, then screwed up into sadness, and finally settled on tired. “I love you both, each in your own way, and I promise I will do what I can to stay here, stay grounded. I cannot speak for the rest of the clade, and certainly not for Dear, but I will do what I can.”</p>
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<p>May dragged them both to a stop in the field. Her expression started out angry, then screwed up into sadness, and finally settled on tired. “I love you both and I promise I will do what I can to stay here, stay grounded. I cannot speak for the rest of the clade, and certainly not for Dear to soothe Codrin’s fears, but I will do what I can.”</p>
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<p>It was not uncommon for these reunions to be tearful, Ioan knew, but it was a different sort of pang that settled in eir chest with the news, and it was a few minutes before ey was able to speak again. “Sorry, you two.”</p>
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<p>The skunk stuck her tongue out at em. “I will allow you this one apology, but do not make a habit of it. You are allowed to cry at sad shit.”</p>
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<p>Ey rolled eir eyes and shoved at her.</p>
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<p>“Well, I was promised laying in the grass and baking in the sun,” Douglas said. “So come on, we can at least enjoy the rest of the afternoon.”</p>
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</article>
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<p>Page generated on 2021-12-09</p>
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<p>Page generated on 2021-12-19</p>
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<p>And then, those seconds passed, and the noise was less blinding, and when ey opened eir eyes, ey no longer felt deafened, and ey was able to take in the world around em. The floor, the colonnaded walls, the greenery beyond. Tight-fitting stone, slick and polished.</p>
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<p>Before em stood who ey supposed must be the Artemisian delegation.</p>
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<p>Turun Ka and Turun Ko, judging by their artificial appearance, stood half again as tall as em. Their flesh, what might have otherwise been skin, was made of what looked to be a supple, rubbery material in gunmetal grey. Powerful thighs supported a stocky torso, and the fact that they were leaned slightly forward was counterbalanced with a thick, lizard-like tail behind them. Their shoulders were sloped and narrow, and ey could see now why they had described themselves as equally comfortable on both two and four legs: their hands were clawed and padded with five fingers and an opposable thumb, but so were their feet.</p>
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<p>And atop a long neck rising from their shoulders sat heads with a distinctly canine bent. They were shaped, in fact, not too dissimilar from Dear’s, though the ears were less outrageously large.</p>
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<p>Atop a long neck rising from their shoulders sat heads with a distinctly canine bent. They were shaped, in fact, not too dissimilar from Dear’s, though the ears were less outrageously large.</p>
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<p>It was the faces, though, that captivated eir attention. They did not have visible mouths or noses, their ‘muzzles’ instead being covered with a somewhat lighter grey version of that same supple coating. <em>Porous, perhaps?</em> ey thought. <em>To let them smell? I don’t suppose they need to eat. Maybe for speech?</em></p>
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<p>Rather than eyes, there was a mirrored panel of black, looking more mercury than plastic or glass. No visible eyes, no visible expressions.</p>
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<p><em>Well, this will be interesting.</em></p>
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<p>To their right stood on two legs a being of similar shape, though far smaller, coming up only to Codrin’s breastbone. The longer ey looked, however, the more those similarities began to fall away. Yes, it stood on two powerful legs; yes, its body was canted forward and kept on balance with a thick tail; yes, it had an elongated snout.</p>
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<p>However, rather than that supple plastic, it was coated in a scaly hide, washed in oil-sheen colors. Where the firstrace representatives had little in the way of facial features, though, Stolon, ey assumed, almost seemed to have a surfeit. Their eyes were bright and curious, their mouth seemingly ready to a smile — or some other expression, ey reminded emself, as what appeared to be a smile to humans may not be so to secondrace. They did not have hair, as made sense for a lizard, but they did have a crest of what appeared to be feathers of a sort, or at least massively elongated scales.</p>
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<p>Beside Stolon and standing a head shorter than even them was a creature that reminded em so much of Debarre that ey did a double-take. The resemblance was uncanny: a svelte coat of brown fur with a creamier white starting beneath the chin and heading down over their front — or at least, ey assumed it continued beneath the thin, silky tunic they were wearing — and a black-tipped tail behind. Plenty of whiskers, curious eyes.</p>
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<p>The last of the Artemisians, Artante Diria, looked almost-but-not-quite human. Her features seemed far smoother, with a nose that almost melted into her face and earlobes that ramped smoothly down into her neck below. Beyond that, however, the differences were negligible. She could easily get lost in a crowd of humans with no problem whatsoever, another face of Asian descent.</p>
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<p>However, rather than that supple plastic, it was coated in a scaly hide, washed in oil-sheen colors. Where the firstrace representatives had little in the way of facial features, though, Stolon, ey assumed, almost seemed to have a surfeit. Their eyes were bright and curious, their mouth seemingly ready to a smile — or some other expression, ey reminded emself, as what appeared to be a smile to humans may not be so to secondrace. They did not have hair, as made sense for a lizard, but they did have a crest of what appeared to be feathers of a sort, or perhaps massively elongated scales.</p>
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<p>Beside Stolon and standing a head shorter than even them was a creature that reminded em so much of Debarre that ey did a double-take. The resemblance was uncanny: a svelte coat of brown fur with a creamier white starting beneath the chin and heading down over their front — or at least, ey assumed it continued beneath the thin, blue tunic they were wearing — and a black-tipped tail behind. Plenty of whiskers, curious eyes.</p>
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<p>The last of the Artemisians, Artante Diria, looked almost-but-not-quite human. Her features seemed far smoother, with a nose that melted into her face and earlobes that ramped smoothly down into her neck below. Beyond that, however, the differences were negligible. She could easily get lost in a crowd of humans with no problem whatsoever, another face of Asian descent. She even wore a blue tunic and sarong of nearly identical cut to what ey had worn for so long.</p>
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<p>All five of stood still, expectantly.</p>
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<p>No, not still. Frozen. They stood frozen before the party of emissaries, unmoving. Nothing was moving. The air was still, the light seemed frozen, and even the noise seem to wash over em in strange, coarse waves.</p>
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<p>Frowning, ey looked beside em at eir own cohort, and much the same held true. There, at least, there was a hint of movement: Sarah was turning slowly to face a noise to her left, over towards where Why Ask Questions was standing. The movement, however, was more than just slow. It was syrupy. It was thick. It was out of phase with em.</p>
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<p>Sarah: shocked, startled, curious.</p>
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<p>Why Ask Questions: mid-shout, a splash of black fur creeping up over her cheek, a ghost of a muzzle before her face.</p>
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<p>“What the hell?” ey repeated.</p>
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<p>“You are Codrin Bălan, <em>ka?</em>“</p>
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<p>“You are recorder Codrin Bălan, <em>anem?</em>“</p>
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<p>Startled, ey whirled to face the party of Artemisians. One of the firstrace members had stepped forward. Assuming the lineup was similar to their own, ey supposed it must be Turun Ko, the recorder, if Turun Ka as leader was on the end. Its voice was surprisingly mellifluous for a being that seemed to be an artificial construct.</p>
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<p>“Y-yes,” ey said, shaking er head. “What…is this…time?”</p>
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<p>“Y-yes,” ey said, shaking er head. “What…is this…I mean, is this time?”</p>
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<p>Turun Ko tilted its chin up in a gesture ey could not understand. “Yes. You have departed-slid-away from common time. It is normal-not-unusual for the recorder consciousness-bearing system to detach-accelerate from common time at first. Those such as you and I are primed-eager to observe over time.”</p>
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<p>Codrin gripped eir notebook and pen closer to eir chest. “Common…so, the other emissaries are moving at the same time, I’m just moving slower?”</p>
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<p>“Faster. You are existing-in-time faster, thus the other emissaries appear-seem to be moving slower.”</p>
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<p>The firstrace…member? Firstracer? The firstracer dipped its snout with a twist to the side that gave em the sense of a shrug. “There is no hurry. We exist in synchrony. I will teach you to find common time. I must ask: you are four individuals in five forms in two phenotypes. Are you still five consciousness-bearing systems?”</p>
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<p>It took em a moments work to disentangle the question before ey realized that Turun Ko was asking about True Name and Why Ask Questions. They were, ey supposed, still closer to being one individual than any two non-cladists.</p>
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<p>“Yes. The Only Time I Know My True Name — or just True Name — and Why Ask Questions Here At…” Ey trailed off, looking at the woman who still appeared to be in mid-shout. The splash of skunk-fur appeared to have crept further up her cheek, though so out-of-phase was she with eir local time that it was hard to say for sure. More, though, something seemed…off about her. She seemed not quite as ey expected.</p>
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<p>“Codrin Bălan, please continue.”</p>
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<p>“Recorder Codrin Bălan, please continue.”</p>
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<p>“Uh, right, sorry. True Name and Why Ask Questions Here At The End Of All Things are cocladists, forks of the same root instance. Why Ask Questions is actually a fork of True Name, who is, in turn, a fork of the root instance, Michelle Hadje. They have individuated. They are…separate consciousness-bearing entities.”</p>
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<p>Turun Ko lifted its chin once more. “Why Ask Questions is in pain.”</p>
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<p>“Pain?”</p>
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<p>“Frightened, <em>anem</em>, the correct word. Both Why Ask Questions and True Name are frightened. They are un-whole. They are in pain. True Name is hiding-obscuring it better. Why?”</p>
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<p>Something about this discursive, almost lazy form of questioning made Codrin feel as though ey would be late for something. Ey wanted to urge Turun Ko to get them back to common time. <em>That’s silly, though,</em> ey thought. <em>We have all the time we need, if hardly any is passing out there, if ‘out there’ is even the right term.</em></p>
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<p>Ey said, “I only have a guess as explained by one of their cocladists, that–“</p>
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<p>“Cocladists is multiple forms of one individual, <em>ka?</em>“</p>
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<p>“Cocladists is multiple forms of one individual, <em>anem?</em>“</p>
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<p>“Yes…uh, <em>anem,</em> correct. One of their cocladists suggested that they might react poorly to the…” Ey trailed off, hunting for the best phrasing. “To the malleability of time. They underwent some experiences in the past regarding time, so I think they’re afraid.”</p>
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<p>“Will they remain afraid-in-pain? Will they cohere?”</p>
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<p>Codrin was silent for a long moment as ey thought about this. The part of em that wanted to say ‘yes, of course’ argued against the part of em that was intensely focused on that wave of skunk fur creeping its way up over her cheek.</p>
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<p>“I don’t know,” ey said at last. Ey pointed carefully toward that trim of fur. “How long did it take for this to appear?”</p>
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<p>“One point eight two seconds common time from your arrival-constitution.” Turun Ko stepped closer, bowing its head to investigate the fur. “She is existing-in-time slower. She appears-seems frozen because she is in slow-time. She departed-slid-away from common time zero point one six seconds after arrival by a factor of two point six. Think-remember, Codrin Bălan, and you will know these things.”</p>
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<p>Ey tilted eir head and then, considering how it felt to have a merge available to remember, tried to remember the factor by which eir experience of time differed from common time. The concepts were hazily defined to em — ey didn’t know what common time was, where the point of reference lay — and yet all the same, ey knew that eir time-skew factor was negative three point one eight.</p>
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<p>On a spark of intuition, ey tried to ‘remember’ being at a skew of negative one, and sure enough, the world slid smoothly into movement again, though everything was moving half as fast as ey expected. Sound came through slowly, and ey could hear words beginning — words from Sarah, from Tycho, from Turun Ka. It was unnerving to hear that they had been time-stretched without having their pitch modulated, but ey supposed that would be helpful in time-skewed conversations.</p>
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<p>“Zero-point-eight-two seconds common time from your arrival-constitution.” Turun Ko stepped closer, bowing its head to investigate the fur. “She is existing-in-time slower. She appears-seems frozen because she is in slow-time. She departed-slid-away from common time zero-point-one-six seconds after arrival by a factor of negative two-point-six. Think-remember, Codrin Bălan, and you will know these things.”</p>
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<p>Ey tilted eir head and then, considering how it felt to have a merge available to remember, tried to remember the factor by which eir experience of time differed from common time. The concepts were hazily defined to em — ey didn’t know what common time was, where the point of reference lay — and yet all the same, ey knew that eir time-skew factor was two-point-one-eight.</p>
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<p>On a spark of intuition, ey tried to ‘remember’ being at a skew of one, and sure enough, the world slid smoothly into movement again, though everything was moving half as fast as ey expected. Sound came through slowly, and ey could hear words beginning — words from Sarah, from Tycho, from Turun Ka. It was unnerving to hear that they had been time-stretched without having their pitch modulated, but ey supposed that would be helpful in time-skewed conversations.</p>
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<p>Ey felt the briefest twinge to eir sensorium and frowned. “What was that?”</p>
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<p>“I have tied-attached-slaved my time skew to yours. If you require help with skew manipulation, I will assist. Think-remember common time, Codrin Bălan.”</p>
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<p>“I have tied-attached-synchronized my time skew to yours. If you require help with skew manipulation, I will assist. Think-remember common time, recorder Codrin Bălan.”</p>
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<p>Ey nodded and slowly allowed Turun Ko and emself to slip back into common time. There was the faintest sensorium <em>click</em>, as though a pin had slid into a shallow notch, informing em that this was the shared moment.</p>
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<p>“–My True Name Is When I Dream of the Ode clade will go with,” Turun Ka was saying. “Artante will show you to your rest area. We will conduct formal greetings in one hour common time.”</p>
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<p>“–My True Name Is When I Dream of the Ode clade will accompany,” Turun Ka was saying. “Artante will show you to your rest area. We will conduct formal greetings in one hour common time.”</p>
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<p>True Name wavered, reaching out a hand to grip at Tycho’s sleeve. She remained stubbornly skunk, clinging to that appearance of being in control. “Thank you, Turun Ka,” she said, words coming out slowly, spoken through clenched teeth. “Our apologies.”</p>
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<p>The firstracer bowed, tucking its chin close to its chest. “There is no need to apologize. Allowances are granted to those who arrive from new worlds. Stolon will accompany you to discuss further accommodations.” It turned to face the rest of the emissaries. “You all may rest and acclimatize in the rest area we have provided for you. We welcome you.”</p>
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<p>The firstracer bowed, tucking its chin close to its chest. “There is no need to apologize. Allowances are granted to those who arrive from new worlds. Iska will accompany you to discuss further accommodations.” It turned to face the rest of the emissaries. “You all may rest and acclimatize in the rest area we have provided for you. We welcome you.”</p>
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<p>Artante Diria bowed at the waist, a gesture so easy and recognizable that Codrin, Tycho, and Sarah all reciprocated more out of habit than anything. </p>
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<p>“Welcome. You may call me Artante. This way, please,” she said, gesturing with a hand.</p>
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<p>Codrin hesitated, watching as something happened to bring Why Ask Questions back into sync with common time. Her shout completed and then turned into a low moan as she crumpled to the ground, retching. For the first time since ey’d met Michelle nearly four decades ago, ey watched the dueling identities of a mind split. Skunk and human battled battled for primacy even as True Name helped her cocladist to her feet.</p>
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<p>“Where are they taking them?” ey asked once ey’d caught up with Artante and the other emissaries.</p>
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<p>“There are several unison rooms available in the compound. They will be given one as quarters.”</p>
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<p>“I’m guessing those are rooms where time can’t move?” Tycho asked.</p>
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<p>She smiled, nodding her head in assent. “Move is the wrong word, but skew is locked in unison for all of the inhabitants, though it may still drift from common time. Your rest area will not be a unison room, but if this proves uncomfortable, we will accommodate you. Through here, you will find your beds and desks. Should you need anything in addition, please ring the bell by the door, and someone will be by to assist. I will come for you in one hour common time for the formal greeting.”</p>
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<p>She smiled, nodding her head in assent. “Move is the wrong word, but skew is locked in unison for all of the inhabitants, though that of the room may still drift from common time. Your rest area will not be a unison room, but if this proves uncomfortable, we will accommodate you. Through here, you will find your beds and desks. Should you need anything in addition, please ring the bell by the door, and someone will be by to assist. I will come for you in one hour common time for the formal greeting.”</p>
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<p>They bowed once again and each walked to a bed, picking at random. They seemed comfortable enough. The desks, while plain, were a touch that Codrin appreciated, and ey set eir notebook and pen down so that ey could prowl around the room.</p>
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<p>The far wall held window seats that looked out over a garden of strange, colorful vegetation.</p>
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<p>As ey sat on one of these, playing with eir new-found ability to modulate time, Tycho approached. Ey enjoyed a secret moment of amusement, making the astronomer walk first slowly, now quickly, before settling back into common time once more.</p>
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<p>“Codrin,” he said, sitting down beside em. “I want to get your opinion on something before I say anything stupid.”</p>
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<p>“I am no stranger to saying stupid things, but I will do my best.”</p>
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<p>The astronomer’s smile was weak as he leaned in closer, whispering, “Just between us for now, promise?”</p>
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<p>Ey frowned, nodded. “Can you move to fast time? Same as hopping sims or creating things: have the intention of being at a time skew of negative two.”</p>
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<p>Ey frowned, nodded. “Can you move to fast time? Same as hopping sims or creating things: have the intention of being at a time skew of two.”</p>
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<p>Tycho blinked, looked nonplussed for a moment, then seemed to Codrin to start breathing incredibly rapidly. Ey followed him into fast time.</p>
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<p>“This is…strange. Very strange,” he said, looking around, back over to where Sarah appeared frozen in the act of sitting on the edge of her bed.</p>
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<p>“It really is. Still, this will give you enough privacy to speak freely.”</p>
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<p>He looked back toward the door, worry painted on his face, and nodded. “I don’t think that was Why Ask Questions. That was Answers Will Not Help.”</p>
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</article>
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<p>Page generated on 2021-11-27</p>
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<p>Page generated on 2021-12-19</p>
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</footer>
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</main>
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