update from sparkleup
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<p>Ioan heads out to Arrowhead Lake — the abandoned mountain lake sim that ey discovered decades back — for a walk to try and tease apart eir own feelings on being the bridge between May and True Name. Ey worries that ey has this urge to fix things in relationships, whether or not ey actually can (or whether or not those involved even want that). Ey’s been fretting about this for a while, and even May has picked up on it, as she mentions when they go out to dinner afterwards. She suggests that this is maybe something that has always been the case for em, and that em uploading to provide eir brother Rareș with the subsidy funds was a way for em to ‘fix’ the situation as best ey could.</p>
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<p>True Name and Ioan have agreed that their next monthly meeting should be on Secession/Launch day, January 21 (yes I chose my birthday, no I am not sorry). This time, though, True Name arrives looking terrible, paranoid, like she hasn’t slept in days, hasn’t showered in a week, and hasn’t changed her clothes in even longer. She says that she’s been struggling, but that she and <em>Jonas Anderson</em>, the other behind-the-scenes leader of the System, have a ‘gathering’ later in the day. Weird choice of words, but that’s what he said. As part of that, she’s distracted with the fact that her instances are going to merge down before the gathering to reduce conflicts. Partway through this, one merge has learned that Jonas is looking for her, which is weird, because he knows she’s with Ioan. The merges suddenly stop, though, along with all communication with her instances. She leaps to her feet, looks around the coffee shop, and sees the same assassin that killed Qoheleth walking toward them, so she grabs Ioan’s hand and yells for em to take her ‘somewhere, anywhere’. Ey tries taking her home, where they find the same assassin struggling with May, who forks, grabs the both of them, and yanks them to Arrowhead Lake. May is <em>furious</em>, and True Name caught in the middle of panic attack. She susses out that Jonas just tried to assassinate her.</p>
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<h2 id="part-2-conflict">Part 2 — Conflict</h2>
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<p>Well, shit, okay. Now May and the person she dislikes the most are trapped in hiding together with no idea what’s going on or how to move forward, and Ioan’s position as bridge between them means ey’s now trapped between them. True Name heads off to sit on the rock at the end of the lake to have a sulk and think about what to do next, leaving May to voice her frustrations and concerns to Ioan. She’s pissed that no matter how hard she tries to get away from all of the things she dislikes about True Name (and, unspokenly, many of the things that she used to be), she just can’t. She’s also worried about the fact that their home has been invaded.</p>
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<p>Thankfully, this <em>is</em> a thing that Ioan can fix. Ey steps back home and sneaks around, investigating for anyone left over but only finding the mess from the struggle inside. Outside, however, ey finds Jonas sitting on a deck chair despite the snowy weather. Before ey can sweep him, Jonas says that he was just stopping by to make sure that ey and May were alright, which Ioan scoffs at. Jonas is an infuriating little snot, riling Ioan up with implications that ey’s sweet on True Name before saying that he’s hiring em as amanuensis once more, this time to witness and write about a formal discussion between him and True Name as they hash out the new status quo, to take place within one year’s time. Ioan’s baffled, given that he just tried to kill her, but Jonas says that was just plan A, and he has all the way down to plan M for ensuring that he gets his way and refuses to elaborate further, saying “Sometimes mommies and daddies fight, Ioan”. He makes further implications about em an True Name, so Ioan bounces him from the sim. Ey sweeps the entire sim of everyone except emself and, while that action won’t tell em who ey swept, it will tell em how many, and it says ey swept 17.</p>
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<p>Once ey makes eir way back to the lake, True Name finishes her sulk and rejoins them. She thanks them for getting her out of that alive and starts to say that she’ll have to create a new sim for herself since home probably isn’t safe, but May reluctantly suggests that she stay with them, instead, reasoning that it would be too easy for her to just disappear in a private sim and either get got as soon as she leaves or go crazy in her solitude. If she stays with them, though, not only is she around others, but those others are well enough known on the System that it’ll dissuade Jonas from attacking her, lest May and Ioan, as trustworthy voices, catch him and make it public. It’s awkward, but about the best they can do. Still, no one’s comfortable going back just yet, so Ioan forks to meet up with End Waking and pick up camping gear so they can stay a night at the lake and have a night to regroup. End Waking and Debarre are supremely unhappy about the situation, and also kind of boggling at the fact that May is even putting up with True Name.</p>
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<p>While camping, True Name apologizes for the fact that she’s been spying on them, as those seventeen that were swept were some of her spies, mostly others from the clade. Combined with a hunch ey had during one of their earlier coffee dates, this seems to imply that True Name on Castor never told True Name on Lagrange about the whole incident of Answers Will Not Help losing it and saying the Name in front of Codrin, showing that maybe Jonas’s conspiracy includes the other instances of True Name as well, and it’s only this one he’s going after.</p>
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<p>Once they make it back home and get some coffee, Ioan expands eir house to include a second bedroom/bathroom for True Name to stay in. The next few days are very careful, though everyone’s polite and there’s no skunkfights. On the third day, though, True Name pulls May into a conversation in a visually secure cone of silence for about an hour. When it drops, True Name looks like she’s been put through a wringer and May looks apoplectic. May leaves without a word, only sending Ioan a brief glimpse of the lake to show she’s alright. True Name refuses to expand on what the conversation was about other than to make vague allusions to Jonas’s quip about mommies and daddies fighting.</p>
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<p>May visits End Waking and Debarre after crying herself out. She explains more about the current situation and says that what True Name told her is too much to even talk about, though we get the impression End Waking may know more than what she says aloud. She talks about how she’s feeling torn, that she wishes TN was no more so that she wouldn’t be in their lives, but also that she doesn’t want her to die. Debarre echoes this sentiment. End Waking is stoic some more until May suggests he merge down with True Name, at which he gets kind of shouty. After she leaves, Debarre and End Waking talk, the latter saying he’s not too keen on the idea of merging down because that means True Name will have his penance without having done any of the work herself. Debarre disagrees, saying that she’ll also have the memories of the work of penance. He suggests that one reason May might want him to do this is to hurt True Name, and that she’s even considering this means that she’s a more complex individual than previously, since she used to just love everyone. End Waking gets upset because that would mean that, for him to be a more complex individual, he’d have to admit something other than his solitude and penance into his life. It’s implied that they bone, after which End Waking jokes that, if he does merge down, True Name will have memories of that as well, to which Debarre says let her, at least she can have good things, too.</p>
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<p>With May out of the house, Ioan is anxious and True Name is mopey. They eventually pull themselves together enough to cook and eat dinner. May returns in the middle of it, acting a bit like a goofball, which she explains away as not wanting to fall back into just crying all the time as she had been around True Name. Over the next few days, May and True Name have a few more private conversations, and May heads out to visit End Waking a few more times. When she mentions to Ioan that they’ve been talking about the possibility of the merge, ey isn’t so sure; ey thinks it might be a good idea overall just to help True Name live a more complete life now that the one singular aspect she focused on has been taken away, but that if she’s to have a talk with Jonas, she probably needs to be in top shape to do so, not crushed under a century and a half of memories and all their conflicts. May reluctantly agrees, but when True Name goes on a bit of a rant about the position she’s found herself in, May gets too frustrated and signals to End Waking to start the merge process anyway. True Name collapses under the weight of having to actually process those memories, and May breaks down on realizing what she’s done.</p>
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<h2 id="part-3-apprehension">Part 3 — Apprehension</h2>
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<h2 id="part-4-reconciliation">Part 4 — Reconciliation</h2>
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</article>
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