update from sparkleup
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<p>Vos took another half-step back. “Wait, <em>thousands?</em>“</p>
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<p>“It is proving difficult to keep up with the feeds,” she said, speaking slowly. Perhaps still receiving updates? “One of me is just reading the feeds and marking a tally every time a missing instance is mentioned.”</p>
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<p>“Thousands, Jesus,” Hanne whispered. “I should check in on Jess. And probably–”</p>
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<p>She starts as Pierre sags briefly against Vos, then either quits or leaves the sim. “He…I mean…” Vos begins, shakes her head, and then follows suit.</p>
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<p><em>“Do you two need anything?”</em> I send to Vos. <em>“Or just space and quiet?”</em></p>
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<p><em>“The latter,”</em> she replies after a few long seconds. The sensorium message is so clearly sent between sobs that I have to swallow down the same sensation rising in my throat.</p>
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<p>“Give them some space,” I mumble against that awkward pressure in my chest. “So, okay. What’s the whole story again? Midnight hit and suddenly it’s thirteen months–”</p>
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<p>“Thirteen months and ten days, almost exactly,” Sedge corrects.</p>
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<p>I sigh, nod. “Right. Midnight hit and the date jumped forward and now there are thousands of–”</p>
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<p>“Tens of thousands,” Dry Grass says, then averts her gaze. “Apologies.”</p>
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<p>She started as Pierre sagged briefly against Vos, then either quit or left the sim. “He…I mean…” Vos began, shook her head, and then followed suit.</p>
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<p><em>“Do you two need anything?”</em> I sent to Vos. <em>“Or just space and quiet?”</em></p>
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<p><em>“The latter,”</em> she replied after a few long seconds. The sensorium message was so clearly sent between sobs that I had to swallow down the same sensation rising in my throat.</p>
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<p>“Give them some space,” I mumbled against that awkward pressure in my chest. “So, okay. What’s the whole story again? Midnight hit and suddenly it’s thirteen months–”</p>
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<p>“Thirteen months and ten days, almost exactly,” Sedge corrected.</p>
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<p>I sighed, nodded. “Right. Midnight hit and the date jumped forward and now there are thousands of–”</p>
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<p>“Tens of thousands,” Dry Grass said, then averted her gaze. “Apologies.”</p>
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<p>“It’s alright. Tens of thousands of people missing. The feeds are going nuts. What about phys-side? Anything from them?”</p>
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<p>“I have not been looking. I am uncomfortable with phys-side. There is a reason I am no longer a tech.”</p>
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<p>“I’ll take a look,” Rush says. Ve forks quickly, the new instance almost immediately disappearing as ve steps from the sim. “Though I’m not as fast at it as you are.”</p>
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<p>“I’ll take a look,” Rush said. Ve forked quickly, the new instance almost immediately disappearing as ve stepped from the sim. “Though I’m not as fast at it as you are.”</p>
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<p>“Anything from Castor or Pollux? Or Artemis? It’s only a few months round trip, definitely less than thirteen. We don’t really talk. I don’t have anything from any of the Marshans on the LVs.”</p>
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<p>“Shit,” Dry Grass whispers, expression falling. “Yes, there is.”</p>
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<p>When she doesn’t continue, Lily stamps her foot, growling, “And? You can’t just leave that hanging there! I don’t fucking get you Odists, you’re always–”</p>
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<p>“Lily!” Tule and Cress say as one.</p>
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<p>She makes a show of regaining her composure, movements overly liquid as she straightens up and brushes a lock of hair out of her face. “Sorry.”</p>
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<p>An awkward silence lingers, overstaying its welcome. Eventually, Dry Grass’s shoulders slump. “You do not need to apologize. The messages will only affirm your feelings about my clade. The eighth stanza continues to manage the flow of information in–” She cuts herself off and digs her hands into her pockets, an oddly bashful gesture. “I should not be telling you this, understand. I am not even supposed to be in contact with them, Hammered Silver would have my head if she knew, but An Answer has been in contact. Please do not share any of this.” </p>
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<p>“‘Eighth stanza?’,” Hanne asks.</p>
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<p>“Yes. One hundred of us, each named after a line in a poem broken into ten stanzas,” she says. “The eighth is–”</p>
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<p>“True Name,” Lily says through gritted teeth.</p>
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<p>“Sasha,” Dry grass corrects, then shakes her head. “Apologies. Yes, that is the stanza focused on…politics and information control.”</p>
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<p>Lily pointedly looks away.</p>
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<p>“Shit,” Dry Grass whispered, expression falling. “Yes, there is.”</p>
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<p>When she didn’t continue, Lily stamped her foot, growling, “And? You can’t just leave that hanging there! I don’t fucking get you Odists, you’re always–”</p>
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<p>“Lily!” Tule and Cress said as one.</p>
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<p>She made a show of regaining her composure, movements overly liquid as she straightened up and brushed a lock of hair out of her face. “Sorry.”</p>
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<p>An awkward silence lingered, overstaying its welcome. Eventually, Dry Grass’s shoulders slumped. “You do not need to apologize. The messages will only affirm your feelings about my clade. The eighth stanza continues to manage the flow of information in–” She cut herself off and dug her hands into her pockets, an oddly bashful gesture. “I should not be telling you this, understand. I am not even supposed to be in contact with them, Hammered Silver would have my head if she knew, but An Answer has been in contact. Please do not share any of this.” </p>
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<p>“‘Eighth stanza?’,” Hanne asked.</p>
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<p>“Yes. One hundred of us, each named after a line in a poem broken into ten stanzas,” she said. “The eighth is–”</p>
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<p>“True Name,” Lily said through gritted teeth.</p>
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<p>“Sasha,” Dry grass corrected, then shook her head. “Apologies. Yes, that is the stanza focused on…politics and information control.”</p>
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<p>Lily pointedly looked away.</p>
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<p>“They continue to manage the situation, I mean, and, from the sounds of it, they are describing it as an issue with the Deep Space Network and the Lagrange station. There are few mentions of the Lagrange <em>System</em> itself. I can read between the lines as well as any of them, though, and I do not think this is true. At least, not wholly.”</p>
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<p>“Wait,” Cress says. “So they’re saying that there’s a problem with the DSN and the station? How do you mean?”</p>
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<p>“There are a few messages from over the last thirteen months, but they are queued up as though they have been held until now. There has been no contact between the LVs or Artemis and Lagrange.” There’s a pause as Dry Grass’s gaze drifts, clearly scanning more of those messages. “Most messages have been discarded…only a few from the Guiding Council on Pollux plus a few clades on Castor…have been let through…outgoing messages are ungated…”</p>
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<p>“There’s a bit about that in news from phys-side, actually,” Rush says, looking thoughtful. “Communications failure on the Lagrange station. Something about aging technology. The DSN was also having problems so a few new repeaters were launched. Some from the station, even.”</p>
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<p>“Wait,” Cress said. “So they’re saying that there’s a problem with the DSN and the station? How do you mean?”</p>
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<p>“There are a few messages from over the last thirteen months, but they are queued up as though they have been held until now. There has been no contact between the LVs or Artemis and Lagrange.” There was a pause as Dry Grass’s gaze drifted, clearly scanning more of those messages. “Most messages have been discarded…only a few from the Guiding Council on Pollux plus a few clades on Castor…have been let through…outgoing messages are ungated…”</p>
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<p>“There’s a bit about that in news from phys-side, actually,” Rush said, looking thoughtful. “Communications failure on the Lagrange station. Something about aging technology. The DSN was also having problems so a few new repeaters were launched. Some from the station, even.”</p>
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<p>“But nothing about the System?”</p>
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<p>Both Rush and Dry Grass shake their heads.</p>
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<p>“What did you mean about reading between the lines, though, love?” Tule asks.</p>
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<p>Both Rush and Dry Grass shook their heads.</p>
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<p>“What did you mean about reading between the lines, though, love?” Tule asked.</p>
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<p>“The messages are very stilted. There is panic beneath the surface. That they mention so little about Lagrange is as telling as if they were to say they did not know. They <em>do</em> know, they are just refusing to talk about it over messages.”</p>
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<p>“Why?” Lily asks. While there’s still an edge to her voice, genuine concern covers it well.</p>
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<p>“Why?” Lily asked. While there was still an edge to her voice, genuine concern covered it well.</p>
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<p>“‘Information security and hygiene’. At least, that is what they would say were I to ask. Even if the messages were to fall into the wrong hands, sys- or phys-side, they would not show anything else having happened. I am of them, however. I can read some of the words that were not written.”</p>
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<p>“But news from phys-side says the same thing,” Rush says.</p>
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<p>She shrugs, another sheepish motion, and looks away. “Do you really expect that we are receiving unfiltered information from phys-side?”</p>
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<p>I steal a glance at Lily. She looks to be spending every joule of energy on keeping her mouth shut.</p>
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<p>“But news from phys-side says the same thing,” Rush said.</p>
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<p>She shrugged, another sheepish motion, and looked away. “Do you really expect that we are receiving unfiltered information from phys-side?”</p>
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<p>I stole a glance at Lily. She looked to be spending every joule of energy on keeping her mouth shut.</p>
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<p>There had been an enormous row within the clade when first Cress, then Tule, had gotten in a relationship with a member of the Ode clade. Most of the Marshans had largely written off the stories of the Odists’ political meddling as overly fantastic schlock, yet more myths to keep the functionally immortal entertained. Even if they had their basis in truth, they remained only stories.</p>
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<p>Lily, however, had had an immediate and dramatic reaction, cutting contact with the rest of the clade — including Marsh — for more than a year. She had even refused to merge down for years until tempers had settled.</p>
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<p>Hanne speaks up. “Listen, can we maybe give this a few hours to play out? I need to sleep, and if Reed doesn’t take a break, he’s going to explode.”</p>
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<p>The others laugh. I feel a twinge of resentment. Shouldn’t they be dumping all of their energy into this? Shouldn’t they all fork several times over and throw themselves at the problem? Still, it’s true enough, and if they stood around the living room spinning their wheels any longer, tempers would continue to flare.</p>
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<p>“Yeah,” I say. “Give me at least four hours. I’ll do a little digging and grab some sleep, then maybe we can meet up somewhere else and talk through what we’ve learned.”</p>
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<p>“I’ll keep digging at phys-side news,” Rush says. “Want to help, Sedge?”</p>
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<p>She nods.</p>
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<p>Tule and Cress nod. “We’ll help out Dry Grass,” Cress says.</p>
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<p>Hanne spoke up. “Listen, can we maybe give this a few hours to play out? I need to sleep, and if Reed doesn’t take a break, he’s going to explode.”</p>
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<p>The others laughed. I felt a twinge of resentment. Shouldn’t they be dumping all of their energy into this? Shouldn’t they all fork several times over and throw themselves at the problem? Still, it was true enough, and if they stood around the living room spinning their wheels any longer, tempers would continue to flare.</p>
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<p>“Yeah,” I said. “Give me at least four hours. I’ll do a little digging and grab some sleep, then maybe we can meet up somewhere else and talk through what we’ve learned.”</p>
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<p>“I’ll keep digging at phys-side news,” Rush said. “Want to help, Sedge?”</p>
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<p>She nodded.</p>
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<p>Tule and Cress nodded as well. “We’ll help out Dry Grass,” Cress said.</p>
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<p>“Lily?”</p>
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<p>“I’m just going to get some sleep,” she says stiffly. “Sorry for yelling.”</p>
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<p>Cress shakes its head, leans over, and hugs her. “Take the time you need.”</p>
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<p>“Right. Let’s meet at a park or something in the morning. Hanne will kill me if you all pile in here again,” I say, at which Hanne nods eagerly. “And I imagine things are going to be really weird out there, so I don’t want to pile into a bar or whatever.”</p>
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<p>“Really, really weird,” Sedge mutters.</p>
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<p>“I’m just going to get some sleep,” she said stiffly. “Sorry for yelling.”</p>
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<p>Cress shook its head, leans over, and hugged her. “Take the time you need.”</p>
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<p>“Right. Let’s meet at a park or something in the morning. Hanne will kill me if you all pile in here again,” I said, at which Hanne nodded eagerly. “And I imagine things are going to be really weird out there, so I don’t want to pile into a bar or whatever.”</p>
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<p>“Really, really weird,” Sedge muttered.</p>
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</article>
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<footer>
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<p>Page generated on 2023-08-11</p>
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