update from sparkleup
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<p>“I can never pick apart when she’s being blunt or subtle.”</p>
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<p>“Well, she followed it up with, “That is a poem about death. Please understand that there is risk here, as well” so, maybe it was a bit of both.”</p>
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<p>Sarah laughed. “Well, okay. I’ll grant you that. Sounds like working with her has been kind of fraught. You’ve had more experience than I.”</p>
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<p>He rubbed his hands together and chewed on his lip thoughtfully. “It hasn’t been too bad. She’s been nothing but polite, and sometimes even nice. It’s hardly been a bad time. I think the biggest block has actually been squaring what I’m experiencing with what I’d assumed about her from the <em>History</em>.”</p>
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<p>He rubbed his hands together and chewed on his lip thoughtfully. “It hasn’t been too bad, all told. She’s been nothing but polite, and sometimes even nice. It’s hardly been a bad time. I think the biggest block has actually been squaring what I’m experiencing with what I’d assumed about her from the <em>History</em>.”</p>
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<p>“She didn’t exactly come off as kind or polite in there, no.”</p>
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<p>“Codrin mentioned something about that, about how they wanted the <em>History</em> released, but wanted to control how. Ey said that she’d acted as dramatic as she had in order to make the end result seem more sensational than realistic.”</p>
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<p>Sarah laughed. “Well, I’d certainly call <em>that</em> subtle.”</p>
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<p>“Right,” he said, grinning. “So I guess it’s kind of making me reassess how I feel about them.”</p>
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<p>“The Odists?”</p>
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<p>“Them too, but I was thinking more the <em>History</em> and <em>Mythology</em>. Like, if they’re the product of social engineering to make them sound worse than they are to achieve a goal other than what Codrin and May Then My Name intended, then it’s probably worth me actually paying attention to how things really are. That, and how they’re engineering what’s going on here.”</p>
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<p>“Them too, but I was thinking more the <em>History</em> and <em>Mythology</em>. Like, if they’re the product of social engineering to make them sound worse than they are to achieve a goal other than what Codrin, Ioan, and May Then My Name intended, then it’s probably worth me actually paying attention to how things really are. That, and how they’re engineering what’s going on here.”</p>
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<p>“Sure, that makes sense,” Sarah said, sitting back with her hands folded in her lap. “I can pick up little bits and pieces of her and Why Ask Questions trying to nudge things this way or that, with mixed results. It’s giving me a new appreciation for what Codrin does, honestly. Ey’s got maybe the hardest job of us all.”</p>
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<p>Tycho nodded. “I don’t envy em that. Ey told me at the beginning that I’d be doing the same, in my own way — listening and coming away from this with a more complete picture — and I think I lack the experience ey has, both the training as an amanuensis and from living with an Odist.”</p>
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<p>“They’re cute together, though. Pulling Dear’s tail sounds like a recipe for disaster, but I guess if you’ve been together for forty years or whatever, you can get away with it.”</p>
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<p>“Everything alright? You look…I don’t know, like you were just put through the wringer.”</p>
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<p>Ey smiled weakly, shaking eir head. “Not me, no. I’m very tired, though, and I imagine things are only going to get more stressful over the next few hours.”</p>
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<p>“Why? What–“</p>
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<p>“I’m sorry, Tycho, I really do want to answer your questions, but we really don’t have time.”</p>
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<p>“I’m sorry, Tycho, I really do want to answer your questions, but we just don’t have time.”</p>
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</article>
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<footer>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-01-16</p>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-02-12</p>
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@ -31,7 +31,7 @@
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<p>Answers Will Not Help, however, was a mess.</p>
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<p>Her form rippled between species, and with it, so too did her expression. She would veer wildly between barely constrained laughter and agony, all while tears coursed down her cheeks or left tracks in fur. She managed to keep quiet for the most part, though occasionally a snippet of poetry would escape her: here a line of the Ode, there a bit of Dickinson. She had even startled Tycho at one point by quoting something ey didn’t quite recognize: “I have sown, like Tycho Brahé, that a greater man may reap…”</p>
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<p>This wild dissociation from the world around her was made all the more unnerving by the fact that ey could tell that she was having a difficult time staying within common time. </p>
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<p>She never veered far from it, only within a range of point one to either side, but even that carried with it a sense of wrongness. They were in a unison room, which ey’d been told meant that she specifically <em>shouldn’t</em> be able to do that — something that she had specifically requested.</p>
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<p>She never veered far from it, only within a range of point one to either side, but even that carried with it a sense of wrongness. They were in a unison room, something that she had specifically requested, which ey’d been told meant that she specifically <em>shouldn’t</em> be able to do that. Skew simply wasn’t available to em when ey reached for it.</p>
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<p>Iska had hardly taken their eyes off her since they’d noticed as well, as though they were trying to puzzle out just how it was that this was happening.</p>
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<p>They were only two and a half days into the conference and, while both sides had learned much about the other, ey wondered if they’d even be able to make it to a week.</p>
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<p><em>Or even the end of today,</em> ey thought. <em>Answers Will Not Help looks like she’s about to explode.</em></p>
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<p>The skunk looked as though she hadn’t the faintest idea of where to begin, as though too many thoughts clouded her mind for her to decide.</p>
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<p>Codrin nodded toward her, “By your leave, True Name?”</p>
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<p>“Please, Mx. Bălan.” She sounded quite relieved.</p>
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<p>“Prior to the founding of the System two hundred thirty-one years ago, long distance communication and interaction took place over a global network. It worked much as it does here, in that there are areas — sims, a name which has stuck with us — and we interacted through forms such as these. The origin of our System came about shortly after a brief period of political unrest wherein some political entities released a type of virus into the implanted hardware we used to connect to the ‘net. Those who came across too much information relating to this unrest had the virus triggered and were trapped in a vegetative state, locked within their minds.” Ey paused and looked to True Name, who nodded. Answers Will Not Help just hugged her arms to her front, looking pale as she silently mouthed some litany ey couldn’t guess. “Michelle Hadje, the root instance of the Ode clade, to which True Name and Why Ask Questions belong, was one of these individuals. The lost, they called them. Dear, my partner, is an Odist as well, and mentioned to me beforehand that a malleable sense of time sounded much like what it experienced during that period.”</p>
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<p>“Prior to the founding of the System two hundred thirty-one years ago, long distance communication and interaction took place over a global network. It worked much as it does here, in that there are designated locations — sims, a name which has stuck with us — and we interacted through forms such as these. The origin of our System came about shortly after a brief period of political unrest wherein some political entities released a type of virus into the implanted hardware we used to connect to the ‘net. Those who came across too much information relating to this unrest had the virus triggered and were trapped in a vegetative state, locked within their minds.” Ey paused and looked to True Name, who nodded. Answers Will Not Help just hugged her arms to her front, looking pale as she silently mouthed some litany ey couldn’t guess. “Michelle Hadje, the root instance of the Ode clade, to which True Name and Why Ask Questions belong, was one of these individuals. The lost, they called them. Dear, my partner, is an Odist as well, and mentioned to me beforehand that a malleable sense of time sounded much like what it experienced during that period.”</p>
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<p>“You are not normally like this,” Turun Ka said. A statement rather than a question. “My counterpart on Castor describes you as solely in the form you primarily occupy here, and Why Ask Questions solely in, <em>lu</em>…a human form. You are both described as calm, confident, and politically adroit.”</p>
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<p>True Name winced as though the words physically buffeted her. “It is uncomfortable for me to be in this state. I am not up to my usual standards.”</p>
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<p>True Name winced. “It is uncomfortable for me to be in this state. I am not up to my usual standards.”</p>
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<p>“This has led-turned-into a situation of unequality-power-dynamic,” Turun Ko said, picking up where the leader had left off. “For this we express-offer concern-well-wishes-condolences.”</p>
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<p>“We are unable, at this point in the convergence, to accept other delegates, or we would offer you greater respite than we have already,” Turun Ka finished.</p>
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<p>“Thank you for your concern,” the skunk said. “I understand your reasoning, and would not wish to miss these discussions. I have trust in Mx. Bălan, Dr. Brahe, and Ms. Genet, however, to share our load.”</p>
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<p>“Leader True Name,” Artante asked, voice just as soothing. “You do not need to answer, but may I ask what just happened?”</p>
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<p>“I will not answer, representative Artante Diria,” she said, voice once more slipping into exhaustion as a wave of human form washed over her features. “It is a private matter between me and my cocladist. My apologies.”</p>
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<p>The fourthracer bowed her head. “I understand. Would you like to take a break?”</p>
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<p>“Perhaps a brief break would be nice,” Sarah said, nodding. “We can collect ourselves and perhaps move onto a separate aspect of the history of the System.”</p>
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<p>“Perhaps a brief break would be nice,” Sarah said, nodding. “We can collect ourselves and move onto a separate aspect of the history of the System.”</p>
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<p>True Name nodded.</p>
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<p>“Your break-respite need not be brief-short,” Turun Ko said. “We are able-to-permitted skew the unison room to allow for longer rests.”</p>
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<p>“No!” This time, Answers Will Not Help did shout, voice shifting slightly as she slid this way and that away from common time. “Sorry. No, please do not — motes in the stage-lights — please do not modify time. No, no no no, please…”</p>
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<p>“No!” This time, Answers Will Not Help did shout, voice shifting slightly as she slid this way and that away from common time. “Sorry. No, please do not — motes in the stage-lights — please do not take time from us. No, no no no, please…”</p>
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<p>Iska’s expression had steadily grown more and more alarmed throughout the proceedings. “I do not–“</p>
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<p>“We will reconvene in fifteen minutes common time,” Turun Ka said. Nothing in its voice changed from how it normally spoke, though it having spoke was enough to quell Iska to silence. “Representative Artante Diria, representative Iska, please convene to address this issue moving forward from a technical and psychological standpoint. When we return, we will indeed move on to another subject.”</p>
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<p>Iska bowed their head in assent.</p>
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<p>“Now, I would like to lie down during this break. Please accompany me so that I may dictate this letter.”</p>
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</article>
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<footer>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-01-16</p>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-02-12</p>
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</footer>
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</main>
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