Dear: I do not want to experience ceasing existing. That is just cessation, and I do not care whether or not there is anything beyond that cessation. It is all incredibly boring. What I want to experience is the process of death. Assassination would be acceptable, even if it is not preferable, because I would get to experience that process. Better, however, is the fact that these LVs are doomed from the start. Eventually, they will fail. The generator on board is guaranteed for some thousands of years or whatever, but it will fail eventually. Or the system will crash into a comet, or some ice ball out in the Oort cloud — I read about that, you know? It is all incredibly boring — or it will wind up flying too close to a sun and burn up. That, I think, is the end that I am most excited for. We are [shaking head] all of those on the LVs are encased in Castor and Pollux, yes? How fitting, then, that we die like Icarus! I imagine that we will not necessarily feel too much within our little System, but there may be some discontinuity, or perhaps corruption. How exciting would that be?
Codrin: [laughter] I’m not sure I share your excitement, there.
Dear: Lame. [laughter] But either way, I find it fascinating. Will we feel pain? Who knows! It is a new thing, and I am looking forward to experiencing something new.
+Codrin: That, at least, I can understand. I’d just prefer it if it didn’t involve dying horribly as the LV fails around us.
+Dear: [waving paw] Irrelevant. Boring. Do not care.
+Codrin: You’re a brat, you know that?
+Dear: I do. Ioan, my dear, please leave this in. I need written testimony that Codrin thinks that I am a brat. Ow! [laughter] And that ey kicked me in the shin.
+Codrin: No more than you deserved.
+Dear: Well, I can accept that. Do you have any more questions?
+Codrin: Two, yes. How do you feel about the knowledge of the Ode clade’s influence in the System?
+Dear: Do you mean separate from the relief?
+Codrin: Yes. You mentioned the relief in the context of no longer holding that secret. I’m curious how you feel about the reality of it.
+Dear: [long pause] I feel shame, I suppose. I wish that they had not done that. It goes beyond guilt for the actions, because I did not perform them. It makes me feel ashamed that I am a member of the clade. I do not wish them harm, of course, nor do I feel that they were acting in bad faith, at least for the most part. I feel that they were doing what they felt was best. It was just the means to those positive ends that are distasteful and make me ashamed. I also feel fear at what will come of this history and mythology. I know that True Name and Jonas said that they have prepared both sys- and phys-side for their reception, but, well, if there is any reason for me to be assassinated, it is that. As a public figure and an Odist, I am a visible representative of the clade, and should someone take umbrage with that, they have the motive right there.
+Codrin: Do you feel any pride about the ends, even if the means were unsavory?
+Dear: If I do, it is only a small amount. We have gotten here, and there is no changing that. We cannot be anywhere but here. That I am relatively happy here is inconsequential.
+Codrin: Alright, thank you. Last question: what’s next for you? Or next in general?
+Dear: For me? Short term, I plan on eating a good dinner, drinking a lot of wine, and making fun of you until you get mad and pull my tail. Mid term, I plan on working on another exhibition. Perhaps it will even surround death, though likely the topic will be more general, such as by beloved irreversibility.
+Codrin: And long term?
+Dear: I do not know.
+Codrin: You don’t?
+Dear: I do not. Is that not fantastic? I do not know, and I love that about this particular future. I simply do not know.