From d0492ceaa2e369c357b9c63a309b8bb927a6f5c5 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Madison Scott-Clary Date: Sun, 14 Jan 2024 21:05:11 -0800 Subject: [PATCH] update from sparkleup --- writing/post-self/motes/007.html | 18 ++++++++++++++---- 1 file changed, 14 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-) diff --git a/writing/post-self/motes/007.html b/writing/post-self/motes/007.html index 23daf97ae..df88f56c5 100644 --- a/writing/post-self/motes/007.html +++ b/writing/post-self/motes/007.html @@ -73,19 +73,29 @@

At some point, though they disagreed on when — was it five years later? Ten? Each argued passionately for one, and then the other — they became dates.

There was sense of aromancy in A Finger Pointing that grew after she forked. She never could say where from; perhaps it was simply that she would rather have been friends with anyone rather than foster a particular friendship with one person. And yet there was something about Beholden. Something fulfilling, perhaps, or complementary, or a self-love that rose above others.

And so they fell in love, each in their own way. They fell in love and, for the most part, reveled. Yes, they had their spats. Yes, they had their flings besides, and the occasional relationship, all negotiated and cherished and bound up in compersion. But yes, they had each other.

-

There was, of course, the social implications to consider, the taboo around intraclade relationships, the implications of narcissism and masturbation. Suggestions were made from on high, such as it were, from across the clade.

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There was, of course, the social implications to consider, the taboo around intraclade relationships, the implications of narcissism and other, far more crass terms. Suggestions were made from on high, such as it were, from across the clade.

True Name suggested. She suggested that, as pleased as she was for them, their relationship remain something for behind closed doors. Something where they kept their I-love-yous and kisses for a shared bed rather than out on the town or at however many gatherings they might wish to go to. Politics was, as ever, politics, and here are the political reasons laid bare.

Hers were the kind suggestions. The comprehensible suggestions. The ones based in logic and explained clearly: maintaining a sense of taboo in what was quickly becoming a queer-normative society added to the desire for change. Comprehensible, yes; the logic was sound, internally consistent. Wrong, of course, but if such was to be the way of things, then so be it.

Other suggestions: not so kind.

-

For there was Hammered Silver, strangely quiet during one of A Finger Pointing’s many lunch dates with her. Quiet and distant, all conversation polite and full of nothing comments about the sim, the salad, the coffee. -((the past: relationships))

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For there was Hammered Silver, strangely quiet during one of A Finger Pointing’s many lunch dates with her. Quiet and distant, all conversation polite and full of nothing comments about the sim, the salad, the coffee, all gazes cast upon everything but her.

+

When pressed, she had simply shrugged and offered some plainly false words about being distracted.

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A Finger Pointing hardly needed to wait for some explanation more true, for when she arrived home — home to that apartment building, home to the simple and cozy unit that Beholden had only moved into a few weeks prior — there was an envelope waiting for her, taped unceremoniously to her door. In it were words of scorn, a sense of a nose pointed snootily up into the air as though to escape some rancid smell.

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Did she not know what she was doing? Did she — A Finger Pointing! One of the first lines! — not consider the optics of an intraclade relationship for the rest of her stanza? The rest of the clade? Really, the A Finger Pointing ought to know better.

+

It was the first letter of several. It was the first time of many that she stood stock still, seethed, and counted to ten before opening her door to greet Beholden — her partner regardless of Hammered Silver’s haughty implications — with her usual smile once more firmly in place.

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((Waking World and Dry Grass))

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((the past: Motes))

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((bitterness and compromises with Dry Grass))

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((the past: family))

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((Contacting Hammered Silver))

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((The present))

-

((fallout))

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+

((fallout, or move to next chapter in conversation))