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<p>Ioan half lay, half slouched against the headboard with May draped bonelessly up along eir front. She’d gotten up to make them both coffee to drink in bed, then proceeded to doze off again, using eir chest as a pillow and the rest of em as a mattress.</p>
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<p>Ey, meanwhile, had made it through most of eir coffee, resting the cup between the skunk’s shoulder blades between sips. It was technically Christmas, and while neither of them cared much for the holiday — Michelle Hadje had been raised Jewish and the B that did mean it was the day for the <em>tocană</em> and <em>mămăligă</em> that had become tradition for them. Ey hadn’t learned to cook much prior to uploading — just a few simple dishes for a poor student — and it wasn’t until ey had wound up on the System in eir current sim that ey’d gone back to teach emself all the things ey’d loved growing up.</p>
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<p>Ey, meanwhile, had made it through most of eir coffee, resting the cup between the skunk’s shoulder blades between sips. It was technically Christmas, and while neither of them cared much for the holiday — Michelle Hadje had been raised Jewish and the Bălans had all but ignored the holiday that so pervaded western culture — that did mean it was the day for the <em>tocană</em> and <em>mămăligă</em> that had become tradition for them. Ey hadn’t learned to cook much prior to uploading — just a few simple dishes for a poor student — and it wasn’t until ey had wound up on the System in eir current sim that ey’d gone back to teach emself all the things ey’d loved growing up.</p>
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<p>It promised to be a lazy sort of day otherwise, which felt necessary. May’s spike of anxiety when ey’d gone out for eir meeting with True Name a few days prior had quickly tapered off, but it had not simply gone away. The days that followed had included a lot of asking em if ey was okay and taking breaks to sit and look out the picture windows, lost in thought.</p>
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<p>Still, last night had been delightful, with the skunk far more relaxed while they cooked — or tried to cook — shitty fast food for each other. After dinner, they moved to the couch with Ioan resting eir head in May’s lap so that she could tease her fingers through eir thick hair while they hummed silly little songs to each other.</p>
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<p>Today promised to be equally comfortable.</p>
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<p>“Skunk girl.”</p>
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<p>“Well, yes, but still.” Still bouncing, she twirled around behind the couch, tail trailing along behind her. “I will get ready. I am hungry now, so too bad if you are not.”</p>
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<p>One of the things that Ioan appreciated most about J2 over all of the other sushi places May had dragged em to is that it was the most amenable to em eating with eir hands. May was quite nimble with chopsticks — no mean feat with paws and claws — but ey’d never quite picked it up, so being able to eat those little bullets of rice and fish with eir hands suited em quite well.</p>
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<p>It had a channel of water floating along between the booths, small dishes drifting by lazily for the diners to pluck from the water. This obviated the need for any staff, real or simulated, as each dish would be replaced from behind a bend in the river. With no need to pay beyond a token amount of reputation, it simply became a pleasant evening out, plates stacking up at the edge of their table, a tacit contest with other diners.</p>
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<p>It had a channel of water floating along between the booths, small dishes drifting by lazily for the diners to pluck from the water. This obviated the need for any staff, real or simulated, as each dish would be replaced from behind a bend in the river. With no need to pay beyond a token amount of reputation, it simply became a pleasant evening out, plates stacking up at the edge of their table a tacit contest with other diners.</p>
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<p>“Did you get what you needed out of your walk earlier?” May asked before popping a bit of fish into her muzzle.</p>
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<p>Ey shrugged, finished chewing, and said, “I guess. Was doing some thinking into that feeling that I have to fix every problem in front of me when it comes to relationships.”</p>
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<p>“I have noticed that in you, yes,” she said. “Beyond when we specifically talk about it, I mean.”</p>
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<p>“Oh, uh,” ey stammered, setting eir plate on top of the stack. “Sorry, May.”</p>
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<p>“No, no, you are fine! I accept it in the spirit in which it is given. You want to do right by me and your friends, even when ‘doing right’ is not your responsibility. So long as you do not overstep boundaries, I can at least understand it.”</p>
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<p>“Well, all the same, it’s not like it’s comfortable. I don’t think anyone likes feeling helpless, but I just wish I didn’t get hung up on finding solutions to everything.”</p>
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<p>“You know, it is weird,” she said, jabbing a shrimp at em. “For someone who spent so long purely observing, a busybody tendency feels out of place.”</p>
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<p>“You know, it is weird,” she said, gesturing vaguely with a shrimp. “For someone who spent so long purely observing, a busybody tendency feels out of place.”</p>
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<p>Ey shook eir head. “Observing is situational. If there’s something happening that has a start and end, or which I can come home from, then I can just observe it. If it’s something that’s ongoing or integral to a person, especially a meaningful person, then I feel like I really want to help.”</p>
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<p>She had taken the opportunity of em talking to eat the bit of shrimp she’d used as a pointer, and when she finished, she asked, “Is this a new thing?”</p>
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<p>“How do you mean?”</p>
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<p>It wasn’t until they’d made it back to bed and curled up together that ey was finally able to truly let go of the topic, though; even throughout eir writing, a small portion of eir mind had been dedicated to the question of what eir role was between the two skunks and why it both rankled and felt necessary.</p>
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</article>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-10-07</p>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-10-22</p>
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<p>Right.</p>
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<p>Forcing emself to concentrate on eir writing at least bought em ten minutes of work.</p>
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<p>“Huh,” True Name mumbled, frowning.</p>
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<p>“Mm?”</p>
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<p>“Hmm?”</p>
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<p>She shook her head. “Nothing, I suppose. Just got a merge from an instance, and it sounds like Jonas is looking for me. He knows that I am–“</p>
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<p>Ey jolted back as the skunk leapt to her feet, gaze whipping about the room, then out through the windows to the street. Her tail was bristled out, ears pinned flat, and paws clenched tight, something ey’d only seen in May, and then only a handful of times.</p>
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<p>“True Name?”</p>
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<p>“Guōweī,” she snapped, then shouted up to True Name, “Why the fuck was he in our house? What did you do?”</p>
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<p>The other skunk had shifted from her near feral crouch to standing, rigid and staring up into the branches, a look of dire concentration on her face.</p>
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<p>When she didn’t answer, May began pacing and muttering — whether to herself or through some sensorium message, ey couldn’t tell.</p>
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<p>Guōweī.</p>
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<p>The assassin. The reputation analyst who had killed Qoheleth in the middle of his speech. A quick prowl through eir memories lined up face with name.</p>
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<p>Guōweī. The assassin. The reputation analyst who had killed Qoheleth in the middle of his speech.</p>
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<p>A quick prowl through eir memories lined up face with name.</p>
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<p>Eventually, True Name’s shoulders sagged and she stumbled down from the trees, Ioan and May both watching her, wide-eyed. She kept walking past them, past the trail, down onto muddy beach, then out into the water. The short waves lapped up against her legs, soaking her slacks, and still she kept walking. She walked until the lake had made its way nearly up to her waist.</p>
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<p>And then she screamed.</p>
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<p>It wasn’t a shout, no words were behind it. It was a scream of pure, unrestrained emotion, though whether anger, fear, frustration, or something else, ey could not guess.</p>
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<p>Ey couldn’t tear eir eyes off the other skunk, and it took em a few seconds to even work up the concentration to reply. “Shortly before we left, one of her two merges said that Jonas was looking for her.”</p>
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</article>
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<footer>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-09-15</p>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-10-22</p>
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<p>True Name, having gathered her wits about her at least enough to trudge out of the lake and fork herself dry, requested directions to somewhere she could think alone. Ioan gestured down the path toward the rock, explaining that it’d be far enough away that they wouldn’t hear each other if she didn’t want a cone of silence, but that she’d still be able to see them at the entry point if anything happened.</p>
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<p>“I need to think. No one from the stanza is replying, I am not sure which friends I can trust, and I definitely do not want to speak to Jonas,” she explained, then rubbed her paws over her face. “Or perhaps I just need to sulk. I will return in an hour.”</p>
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<p>She bowed to em and May then trudged off down the path.</p>
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<p>May glared after her down-tree instance with her paws bunched into fists and ears splayed, then whirled on Ioan, waving a cone of silence into being.</p>
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<p>May glared after her down-tree instance with her paws bunched into fists and ears canted back, then whirled on Ioan, waving a cone of silence into being.</p>
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<p>“Ioan, I am not at all happy,” she said, voice frigid. “I know that none of this is your fault except inasmuch as you have been meeting her for coffee, but I am having a hard time keeping my anger to myself.”</p>
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<p>Ey took a long breath, ran eir hands through eir hair, and paced in an abbreviated line before her. “I know, May, I don’t blame you. I’m completely baffled. Go ahead.”</p>
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<p>“I spend two hundred fucking years trying to get away from that life, from all of her fucking schemes,” she said, voice quickly rising in volume. “And then I spend the last three trying to calm down so that I quit burning up whenever I so much as think about her, and now this. Look at us! Hiding in the woods from assassins. <em>Assassins!</em>“</p>
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<p>She sniffled and nodded. “You too, my dear. Good luck, and do not die.”</p>
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</article>
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<footer>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-10-07</p>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-10-22</p>
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<p>“Sure. I can start by mirroring our room and then stripping personal items while you’re getting cleaned up.”</p>
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<p>“Thank you both,” True Name said, tracing a claw along the wood grain on the table, an incredibly familiar gesture from years of living with May. “Again, I mean. I really do appreciate all that you are doing. Perhaps we can discuss boundaries and expectations later, but I am also looking forward to a shower.”</p>
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<p>Ioan nodded, finishing up the coffee prep — eirs black and both of the skunks’ sweet and creamy — and carrying the mugs to each of them. “I guessed,” ey said, setting one down in front of True Name. “Let me know if you need anything different.”</p>
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<p>Ey sat down carefully by May and held both of their coffees while the skunk scooted in close against em as usual before handing hers over. It felt good to be back in a more comfortable setting, back where May and em could could at least get close, even if everything still felt nerve-wracking. </p>
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<p>Ey sat down carefully by May and held both of their coffees while the skunk scooted in close against em as usual before handing hers over. It felt good to be back in a more comfortable setting, back where ey and May could could at least get close, even if everything still felt nerve-wracking. </p>
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<p>They drank in silence for a while, minus a thank you from each of the skunks, the three of them doing their best to un-cringe from last day’s worth of anxiety.</p>
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<p>It worked a little too well, perhaps, as ey had to nudge May awake to finish her coffee and shower, and the prospect of levering emself out of the beanbag felt out of reach. All the same, ey needed to at least get the other room created, then perhaps the three of them could nap.</p>
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<p>Once May was on her way to the shower, ey stood, finished eir coffee, and began to work. Ey dumped a series of intents into the sim. A doorway cut itself out of the wall opposite the one to eir own bedroom. A room extruded itself beyond the doorway, filling itself with all of the very same stuff that eirs and May’s contained. The sim’s boundaries whined in protest at not having enough for the windows to look out on and, too tired to think of any other options, ey mirrored the view of the yard as well so that True Name’s room looked out over yet more grass and dandelions.</p>
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<p>“Naps all around,” True Name agreed. “Again, thank you two.”</p>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-10-07</p>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-10-22</p>
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