update from sparkleup
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<p>“Sorry, Reed.”</p>
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<p>“No, it’s okay,” he said, feeling a rush of warmth to his cheeks. “Didn’t mean to get too pushy. It’s still a little tender, I guess.”</p>
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<p>The shadow of her shoulders relaxed again in the dark of the night. “Even after so long?”</p>
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<p>“Yeah. Like I said, we internalized it pretty hard, even as they tried to diversify later on. I headed back trans, Lily headed back feminine, and Cress sits in between.”</p>
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<p>“is that why you forked, too?”</p>
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<p>He laughed. “I forked for fun. Even if it’s still a tender spot, I think I’m still way more relaxed than they are. There may be a bit of that in Sedge, I guess. He’s still pretty happy being a guy. Rush is as ve is of ver own choice, though.”</p>
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<p>“Yeah. Like I said, we internalized it pretty hard, even as they tried to diversify later on. I headed back trans, Lily headed back feminine, and Cress embodies the negation.”</p>
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<p>“Is that why you forked, too?”</p>
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<p>He laughed. “I forked for fun. Even if it’s still a tender spot, I think I’m still way more relaxed than they are. There may be a bit of that in Tule, I guess. He’s still pretty happy being a guy — he’s the only one out of all of us, come to think of it. Rush is as ve is of ver own choice, though.”</p>
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<p>Hanne looped her arm through his. “Well, I still like you as you are.”</p>
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<p>“What, trans?”</p>
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<p>“No, a huge nerd.”</p>
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<p>“That’s only supposed to happen when quitting would mean the loss of too much memory, though. The root instance can barely quit at all in the older clades–” Dry Grass winced. Reed did his best to ignore it. “–because the System really doesn’t like losing a life if it won’t be merged down into a down-tree instance.”</p>
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<p>“So, you couldn’t quit because…” Hanne said, urging him on.</p>
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<p>“Well, I imagine the same is true for anyone with lots of memory inside them. If there’s no one to merge down into, it just looks like…like…”</p>
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<p>“Like death,” Dry Grass said darkly. “It looks like death. You could not quit because, to the System, you and all of your memories would die. That is what it felt like, is it not? It felt like you could not possibly quit without pushing the weight of the world uphill?”</p>
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<p>“Like death,” Dry Grass said darkly. “It looks like death. You could not quit because, to the System, you and all of your memories would die, and the System is not built for death. That is what it felt like, is it not? It felt like you could not possibly quit without pushing the weight of the world uphill?”</p>
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<p>Reed frowned. “Perhaps not all that, but it certainly felt like I was trying to push against something really hard. It didn’t feel like it was impossible like anything else the System would prohibit, it just felt like I was being forced away from that option.”</p>
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<p>“Like death,” she muttered again. Vos began to cry “Marsh is not on the System, then, no.”</p>
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<p>“So is he…is Marsh dead?” Pierre whispered, his own voice clouded by tears. Vos towered over him — over all of them, really — and had always seemed as though she could weather a storm better than any stone, but now, both looked suddenly frail, fragile in the face of the loss they were all talking around.</p>
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<p>“He’s not on the System,” Reed and Dry Grass echoed in unison.</p>
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<p>“How can you be sure, though?” Hanne asked. “You can’t merge down, sure, and you can’t ping, but could he just be in some locked down sim or a privacy cone or something? Can those even block merges?”</p>
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<p>“Like death,” she muttered again. Vos began to cry. “Marsh is not on the System, then, no.”</p>
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<p>“So are they…is Marsh dead?” Pierre whispered, his own voice clouded by tears. Vos towered over him — over all of them, really — and had always seemed as though she could weather a storm better than any stone, but now, both looked suddenly frail, fragile in the face of the loss they were all talking around.</p>
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<p>“They’re not on the System,” Reed and Dry Grass echoed in unison.</p>
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<p>“How can you be sure, though?” Hanne asked. “You can’t merge down, sure, and you can’t ping, but could they just be in some locked down sim or a privacy cone or something? Can those even block merges?”</p>
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<p>Lily shook her head. “Not that I know of, no. I don’t think anything blocks a merge.”</p>
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<p>“Nothing blocks merges, correct,” Dry Grass said. “That would leave potentially much in the way of memory lingering with nowhere to go, and the System does not work that way.”</p>
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<p>Slowly, all within the room had begun to face her rather than Reed, at which he breathed a silent sigh of relief. That he was the oldest fork of Marsh’s didn’t necessarily give him any more of the information that they all so desperately craved.</p>
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<p>Slowly, all within the room had begun to face her rather than Reed, at which he breathed a silent sigh of relief. That he was the oldest fork of Marsh’s didn’t necessarily give him any more of the information that they all so desperately craved. Dry Grass was more than a century older than he was.</p>
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<p>“How do you know, love?” Tule was asking.</p>
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<p>“I worked as a sys-side System tech.”</p>
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<p>Cress laughed. It sounded forced. “And you never thought to tell us?”</p>
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@ -173,9 +173,9 @@
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<p>“Well, how do we check those?” Rush said, speaking up for the first time since that initial clamor of voices.</p>
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<p>Dry Grass spread her hands helplessly. “I do not know. Again, it has been two centuries since I worked as a System tech. The technology has changed much. I would need access. I would need time to remember. Time to research.”</p>
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<p>“Do we even have time?” Lily growled at her, frustration apparently winning out over panic. Cress and Tule both gave her a sharp glance.</p>
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<p>00:15</p>
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<p>“I do not know. I am sorry,” Dry Grass said, bowing. “I will fork and read up as fast as I can. May I remain here?”</p>
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<p>“Please,” Cress and Tule said in unison. The rest of the clade along with Marsh’s partners all nodded. Lily did not. Hanne only frowned.</p>
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<p>00:15</p>
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<p>Dry Grass bowed once more, forked, and the fork stepped from the sim to, ey supposed, go lose herself in the perisystem architecture, hunting down what information she could. They could only hope that she still had the permissions to find what she needed.</p>
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<p>“Hey, uh,” Sedge said into the uncomfortable silence that fell once more. “Has anyone checked the time?”</p>
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<p>Everyone tilted their heads almost in unison. It was more a habit than anything, not a required motion, but the habit that Marsh had formed so many years ago had stuck with all of the Marshans throughout their own lives.</p>
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<p>“Wait, what–“</p>
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<p>“246? But–“</p>
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<p>“It says 2369, too!”</p>
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<p>Everyone talking at once quickly grew overwhelming. Reed shook his head, covered his ears with his hands, then, remembering that he was standing in the middle of a small crowd, tried to mask the movement by turning it into running his fingers through his fur.</p>
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<p>Everyone talking at once quickly grew overwhelming. Reed shook his head, covered his ears with his hands, then, remembering that he was standing in the middle of a small crowd, tried to mask the movement by turning it into running his fingers through his hair.</p>
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<p>“Okay, one at a time,” he said, having to speak up to drown out further exclamations. “I’m seeing 246+41. Everyone else seeing the same thing?”</p>
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<p>Nods around.</p>
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<p>“Any, uh…” He swallowed drily, looked around, and grabbed the glass of water that still sat, neglected, on the table beside the couch. After a careful sip, he tried again. “Any ideas as to what might have happened?”</p>
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<p>Silence.</p>
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<p>“Well, has anything like this happened before?”</p>
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<p>Everyone in the room turned to look at Dry Grass, who shrugged helplessly. “Not that I can remember. The closest would be periods of downtime. It has happened a few times over the centuries. There was a few days of downtime while Lagrange was being set up during Secession.”</p>
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<p>Everyone in the room turned to look at Dry Grass, who shrugged helplessly. “Not that I can remember. The closest would be periods of downtime. It has happened a few times over the centuries. There was a few days of downtime while Lagrange was being set up during Secession, a few hours here and there.”</p>
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<p>“But not, what…thirteen months?” Cress asked.</p>
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<p>“I have never seen that amount of time lapse, no.”</p>
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<p>Tule piped up, saying, “Nothing on the perisystem about anything like this happening before, but holy shit are the feeds going off.”</p>
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<p>Dry Grass tilted her head, then nodded. “Another fork is keeping a tally. Missing instances are now numbering in the thousands.”</p>
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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 (TODO). And probably–“</p>
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<p>She jumped 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>“Thousands, Jesus,” Hanne whispered. “I should check in on Jess. And probably–“</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> Reed 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 Reed had to swallow down a similar sensation rising in his throat.</p>
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<p>“Give them some space,” he mumbled, still feeling that awkward pressure in his chest. “So, okay. What’s the whole story again? Midnight hit and suddenly it’s thirteen months–“</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 Reed had to swallow down the same sensation rising in his throat.</p>
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<p>“Give them some space,” he mumbled against that awkward pressure in his 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>He 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>Dry Grass shrugged. “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 said. Ve forked quickly, the new instance disappearing as ve stepped 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 muttered, expression darkening. “Yes, there is.”</p>
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<p>“Shit,” Dry Grass muttered, 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, her 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, but An Answer has been in contact. Please do not share any of this. They continue to manage the situation, 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 System 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>“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. They continue to manage the situation, 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 System 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 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 news from phys-side says the same thing,” Rush said.</p>
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<p>She shrugged, another sheepish motion, and averted her eyes. “Do you really expect that we are receiving unfiltered information from phys-side?”</p>
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<p>Reed 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. While the rest of the clade had largely written off the stories of the Odists’ political meddling as overly fantastic, 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>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, 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 two years until tempers had settled.</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. Reed felt a twinge of resentment, but 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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