It smiled wryly. “You know me well. Yes, I cannot seem to think of anything else. Fewer things in life than we imagine are truly irreversible. Time is the one that everyone thinks of, and whenever they name some other process in life that seems irreversible, it really boils down to the ways in which it is bound by time. Breathing? Digestion? Aging? Death? All time-bound aspects that only bear the semblance of irreversibility.
And yet we have short-circuited so much of that here. We have found ways to take time and set aside some of the constraints that it puts on those processes. Breathing, digestion, and aging are all optional, and death, as we must know, is something that must be chosen. Even then, a true death remains elusive. Perhaps we quit and merge down tree, but is that death? Perhaps all of our instances quit, but even this lacks some of the savor that a true death contains.”
“You’re declaiming again.”
-Dear stuck its tongue out at its partner, a gesture that felt out of place on that vulpine face. Its partner laughed.
+Dear stuck its tongue out at its partner, a gesture that bordered on cute on that vulpine face. Its partner laughed.
“It has already been established that I am excited. Permit me this!” After a laughing pause, it continued. “Now, however, we have been permitted the wonder and curiosity that drives so many images of the afterlife. Now, we get as close as ever to knowing that an afterlife exist, and ghosts will speak to us from beyond the heavens.”
“For a time,” Codrin said.
“For a time, and even that carries with it the irreversibility of time.”
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@“Where is May Then My Name?” Dear’s partner asked.
“Here.” Four heads turned to the watch the skunk, similar to Dear in so many ways but for species, padded around the corner. She smiled apologetically and bowed. “Sorry I’m late.”
Dear brightened and stepped quickly to the skunk, part of its own clade, and, once the bow completed, hugged her. “My dear, a pleasure as always.”
-Ioan waited for Dear to release May Then My Name Die With Me before getting eir own hug. After, she left her arm looped through eirs, letting em play the escort and settling into a familiar pattern of constant touch.
+Ioan waited for Dear to release May Then My Name Die With Me before getting eir own hug. After, she looped her arm through eirs, letting em play the escort and settling into a familiar pattern of constant touch.
“Glad you could make it,” Dear’s partner said.
“Of course! Would not miss it for the world. Besides, I am one of the honored guests, right?”
Codrin smiled. “We’ve only invited honored guests.”
@@ -95,7 +95,7 @@ For auld lang–“What an asshole,” she laughed.