Marsh

marsh/content/001.tex

@@ -44,13 +44,13 @@ I stumbled to the side, laughing. Our own champagne from earlier added a pleasan
 
 ``Is that so bad?'' I asked. ``Alternatively: am I not allowed to be a bit maudlin? It's fucking New Year's, Hanne.''
 
-``\,`Maudlin'? Is that even the right word?''
+``\hspace{1pt}`Maudlin'? Is that even the right word?''
 
 ``What? Uh\ldots{}'' I hunted down a dictionary on the exchange, prowled through it. ``Oh. Mawkish, that's the one. Or saccharine, maybe? I don't know. Maudlin still kind of works, doesn't it?''
 
 She tilted her head at me.
 
-``\,`Extremely sentimental', it says. Pretty sure that fits.''
+``\hspace{1pt}`Extremely sentimental', it says. Pretty sure that fits.''
 
 Hanne rolled her eyes, grinning. ``Okay, yeah, that fits you to a tee.''
 
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ I laughed. ``So many questions tonight.''
 
 She grinned, shrugged.
 
-``Well, I think half of it was that there was just too much pressure at the time. Like I said, the WF was swinging conservative, so there was this push to assimilate, and we internalized that pretty hard. We felt pushed to just shut up and be a man, just disappear --- that or become a woman, have kids, let the first upload for the payout --- and always felt that we fell short despite all we did to try, but on Lagrange, we could do that right off the bat.''
+``Well, I think half of it was that there was just too much pressure at the time. Like I said, the WF was swinging conservative, so there was this push to assimilate, and we internalized that pretty hard. We felt pushed to just shut up and be a man, just disappear—that or become a woman, have kids, let the first upload for the payout—and always felt that we fell short despite all we did to try, but on Lagrange, we could do that right off the bat.''
 
 ``So they went back to being trans--''
 
@@ -118,7 +118,7 @@ The shadow of her shoulders relaxed again in the dark of the night. ``Even after
 
 ``Is that why you forked, too?''
 
-I grinned. ``I forked for fun. Even if it's still a tender spot, I think I'm still way more relaxed than Marsh is, though it's been a while since we talked. There may be a bit of that in Tule, I guess. He's still pretty happy being a guy --- he's the only one out of all of us, come to think of it. Rush is as ve is of vis own choice, though, and Sedge is pretty much us pre-transition.''
+I grinned. ``I forked for fun. Even if it's still a tender spot, I think I'm still way more relaxed than Marsh is, though it's been a while since we talked. There may be a bit of that in Tule, I guess. He's still pretty happy being a guy—he's the only one out of all of us, come to think of it. Rush is as ve is of vis own choice, though, and Sedge is pretty much us pre-transition.''
 
 Hanne looped her arm through mine. ``Well, I still like you as you are.''
 
@@ -138,9 +138,9 @@ Hanne looped her arm through mine. ``Well, I still like you as you are.''
 
 She shrugged. ``Sure. But either way, they were somewhere in the middle, maybe. There was this big push from the liberal side on the climate, and this big push by the conservatives on the financial side. They said they could cut costs on services if there were fewer of us. Dad was with them, mom was with the libs. It was one of the few things they could agree on. They said they'd miss me, but they weren't exactly sad when I went the Ansible.''
 
-``\,`Went the Ansible'? Is that what you called it?''
+``\hspace{1pt}`Went the Ansible'? Is that what you called it?''
 
-``\,`Uploading' sounds so sterile,'' she said, nodding. ``\,`Went the Ansible' just made it sound like moving away from home.''
+``\hspace{1pt}`Uploading' sounds so sterile,'' she said, nodding. ``\hspace{1pt}`Went the Ansible' just made it sound like moving away from home.''
 
 ``Well, I'm glad you went the Ansible, then.''