move from work dir

toledot/content/secession/phys/Yared/001.tex

@@ -0,0 +1,276 @@
+\hypertarget{yared-zerezghi-2125}{%
+\chapter{Yared Zerezghi — 2125}\label{yared-zerezghi-2125}}
+
+Although Yared Zerezghi was treated with the deference that was afforded to those who had attained such feats as he had, he was also regarded with the wary eyes due to anyone who might be considered hero and villain both.
+
+At least, he realized, until he had made it to the airport. No one wanted to be there. No one wanted to sit through that liminal process. Everyone wanted to be where they were going, not sitting in uncomfortable chairs surrounded by people they were studiously trying to ignore.
+
+The last flight to Yakutsk was dull, but it was that singular type of dullness that allows anxiety to build and grow. He stared out the windows at first, watching the cities and towns that built up around the transit hubs, and then, when all was replaced with desert or windswept grass or bare mountains or burnt husks of forests, he would stare instead at the pages of his book. He could not get the symbols on the pages to line up into words and sentences, but it was better than looking out at the world he was leaving.
+
+The book remained unread when he finally landed in Yakutsk and, as he was about to pack it into the small plastic bag that was his only luggage, he thought better of it and shrugged, handing it to the passenger next to him.
+
+``Want a book?''
+
+She frowned. ``Are you\ldots just giving me your book?''
+
+He turned it so that she could see the cover. It was something on politics. Pop drivel, mostly. ``I guess I am, yeah.''
+
+``Why?''
+
+``I won't need it.''
+
+A look of understanding bloomed on her face and her expression shifted from confusion to a cautious smile. ``No, I suppose you won't. Well, thank you. I'll give it to the library if I don't wind up reading it.''
+
+Yared nodded and gave a gesture of thanks. It was only after the conversation was over that he felt a hotness in his cheeks. He had been lucky that the woman spoke English so well. She was very white, and while that might not mean anything, he \emph{was} flying into the Sino-Russian Bloc, and she could just as well not have been a native speaker.
+
+The act of landing, of deplaning and customs, was as dull and rote as he expected it to be, and yet some protective action of his mind had buried that overwhelming anxiety under a blanket of numbness, which had soon spread to encompass all of his feelings and emotions.
+
+The stop through customs was met with another wide-eyed expression.
+
+``You are the first that I have met,'' the agent said.
+
+``Oh?''
+
+``The first of the ones heading to the System.''
+
+Yared nodded.
+
+``I think that I will see many more the longer I work here.'' The agent stamped his passport with an expert twist of the wrist, adding a smear to the ink which added a layer of authenticity. It would be all but impossible to mimic that smear. She handed his passport back with a sly smile and a tap to her temple, ``I do not think I will go. I am terrified enough of my own head.''
+
+Yared could only smile back and move on through the line.
+
+He was met at baggage claim by a slight man who took him by the hand and led him out into the heat of the afternoon. He was shunted into the air-conditioned back of a black car---so many memories of weeks and months ago beneath that blanket of numbness---which took him to an unassuming office complex.
+
+Unassuming from the outside, at least. Inside, he was met with white tile and calm, efficient staff who swished on the floor with white, paper booties.
+
+He was directed to a waiting room where he was instructed to disrobe and push his arms through the sleeves of a paper gown. He was even provided with his own booties.
+
+``You have fasted?''
+
+``Yes?''
+
+``Forty-eight hours?''
+
+``More like seventy-two.''
+
+The nurse looked up from her tablet and gave him a kind smile. ``Are you nervous?''
+
+``I\ldots don't know.'' He looked down at his hands. They were perfectly still for the first time in three days. ``I was. I don't know what I am now.''
+
+She nodded and swiped something on the tablet before clipping it to a bandoleer of various medical goodies strapped across her front. ``If you would like medication for your anxiety now, I can provide. Your procedure is in ten minutes, however---you understand the rush---so if you can wait that long, you will shortly not feel a thing.''
+
+Her English had the same clipped, stilted accent of the man who had driven him to the medical center, of the customs agent, of all of the flight agents. He wondered briefly if it was some S-R Bloc accent, or if the overwhelming numbness had distorted all he heard.
+
+``Please, Mr.~Zerezghi. If you would lay down here. I will place an IV, and we will get you to the surgery immediately. You understand, yes? We are on a schedule, yes?''
+
+He nodded and did as he was told. The numbness, he realized, had extended to the physical as well, as he didn't notice the needle in the back of his hand until the nurse clipped a line to it.
+
+The surgery was\ldots well, Yared was something not quite awake, not quite asleep for most of it, but what he did remember was that it was in all ways unpleasant. The noises that drifted in and out of his awareness, the last remaining scent, the last remaining taste, both of some nickel-plated sourness that he could not place. The last remaining sight of just light, just light.
+
+And then a stretching. A stretching up of his arms while his feet remained anchored, there on that bed. He stretched up tall, kilometers up, light years. So tall that he began to thin out, tapering in the middle until he thought that he would snap\ldots{}
+
+Whether there was any discontinuity or not, he did not know. He was simply\ldots there. Simply standing in a cube of grey walls, grey ceiling, grey floor. It was lit by lights that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere, and the lack of a shadow was disturbing in a way that he could not place.
+
+A soft, feminine voice spoke to him, then. Or did not come to him. He did not hear it through his ears, but it was there, nonetheless, through something more and less than hearing. ``Yared. Can you speak?''
+
+He opened his mouth and exhaled in a gasp. His throat worked at least, though everything was\ldots different. So different.
+
+Remembering---somehow---how to move, he tilted his head forward to look down at himself. Naked, but sharp and clear. He lifted his hands to look at them, seeing the same dark skin, the same well-trimmed fingernails.
+
+But no contacts. None of those silvery pads on his fingers. He rubbed his thumb over the spots where they had once been, then reached his other hand up to touch at the back of his neck where the long-familiar exocortex implant was missing. Smooth, soft skin, with only what hair and blemishes he remembered from this afternoon, from so long ago.
+
+He took another breath, and let it out in a long \emph{aaah}, then another and said, ``Yes, I think so.''
+
+``Fantastic,'' came the voice once more.
+
+``Is that\ldots are you True Name?''
+
+A soft chuckle, and then, ``Yes, it is me. Or a portion of me, at least. You are still in the upload clinic's system, which cannot easily fit two.''
+
+``So, not in the System yet.''
+
+``No, but the transfer is nearly complete. You will not remember this encounter, I am afraid, but you will have new ones.'' The voice sounded as though it was smiling. ``So very many new ones. I am just happy to see you move and hear you speak, as it means that the same will be true sys-side.''
+
+Yared frowned. ``I will\ldots{}not remember?''
+
+``This instance is in a temporary location for the purpose of testing, so eventually, you will either quit or be halted, yes.''
+
+``But then I'll be in the System?''
+
+There was a pause, and then a laugh. ``You already are. The upload has completed, and I---the real True Name---am speaking with you.''
+
+``But I will die here?''
+
+``Not die, no. You will quit. You are already living on.''
+
+The words made him tremble. They were so final, which jarred against a tone of comfort, of reassurance. ``I don't know if I'm ready for that.''
+
+The voice still sounded like it was smiling. ``There is little I can do to reassure you, so, tough shit. You are already on the other side.''
+
+And with that, Yared Zerezghi ceased to be.
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{0.5pt}\end{center}
+
+``Yared. Can you speak?''
+
+He blinked open his eyes, confronted with a shape of black and white, then shouted and fell backwards.
+
+The shape that stood before him, laughed and leaned down to offer a hand. ``I will take that as a yes. I am True Name. Do you remember me?''
+
+He stared up at the shape, something half human and half animal, a tapering snout and white-striped black fur. Feminine form. Soft tail. Friendly eyes.
+
+``True\ldots Name? The Only\ldots The Only Time\ldots{}''
+
+``The Only Time I Know My True Name Is When I Dream, yes.'' It-- she was smiling, though Yared was not sure how he knew that. She wiggled the fingers of her offered hand---paw? Paw---and said, ``Come on, let us get you up.''
+
+Yared still did not accept the offer, looking around himself instead. He sat atop a small hill in a grass field, dotted liberally with dandelions. The sky was cloudless and blue above him. The sun stood on high.
+
+He shook his head, marveling at the sudden change from cold clinic and unpleasant sensations to so prosaic a landscape, then took the paw at last, letting himself be helped to his feet.
+
+``There you go,'' True Name said. ``How do you feel?''
+
+``Um.''
+
+``Naked, perhaps?''
+
+He looked down at himself and started back from the animal. ``Uh\ldots yes. How do I\ldots{}''
+
+``Picture yourself clothed how you wish. Your favorite outfit, perhaps. Picture that, and then want it. Want to be clothed.''
+
+Squinting his eyes shut, Yared did his best to think his clothes into being. He heard a laugh from True Name.
+
+``Relax. Breathe in, and then when you breathe out, think of that outfit and say to yourself, `gosh, I wish that I was wearing that right now!', and then smile.''
+
+``Smile?''
+
+``That part is not necessary, but I find that it helps with the newly arrived.''
+
+\emph{Breathe in.}
+
+\emph{Breathe out.} ``I would like to be wearing that nice thawb I got to try on.''
+
+\emph{Smile.}
+
+And then he was. He felt the fabric hanging comfortably from his shoulders. It was not sudden or slow, he did not feel the transition, he just was simply wearing the garment as if he always had been.
+
+``There, see? It will become second nature, and you will not need to smile or speak out loud.''
+
+Yared nodded. Breathed in, breathed out, and then the fabric had two gold brocade stripes heading down from the shoulders to the hem.
+
+``Excellent!'' The skunk---as he now remembered her to be---clapped her paws. ``I figured you would be a fast learner after so long.''
+
+``Where are we?''
+
+``We are in a private sim. Usually, new arrivals show up in a gridded gray box, and then a guide will arrive and show them basically what I showed you, but you are something of a celebrity, at least among the circles that I run in, and so I pulled some strings with the Council of Eight.''
+
+He nodded absentmindedly, reached down, and plucked at a dandelion. It felt real enough. Finally, he said, ``You are not exactly how I pictured you. I've seen pictures of Michelle.''
+
+``What were you picturing?''
+
+``I don't know.'' He frowned. ``I guess I never really internalized the whole `skunk' thing.''
+
+True Name smiled and shrugged. ``I look like this. Rather like my av back in the 'net. I can look--'' There was suddenly a short woman standing beside the skunk. The resemblance was clearly there in the shape of the profile and the way she moved, but for the fact that she looked like the photos Yared had seen. The human spoke. ``--like this, but that is not my preferred mode.''
+
+And then she was gone, with just the skunk standing before him.
+
+``What was that?''
+
+``I forked. I created a new instance of myself from that moment. I just let it slip back into that other form I remember.''
+
+``You can do that?''
+
+She laughed. ``I can, though it does cost some reputation if the fork lasts longer than five minutes.''
+
+``And then it just\ldots went away?''
+
+``She quit, yes.''
+
+``And I can do this, too?''
+
+Before she could respond, Yared breathed in, and then two of him breathed out. He let out a shout of laughter.
+
+True Name looked startled, then clapped her paws once more. ``Well done! Usually it takes new arrivals a few days to get to that point. Now, one of you---you have not experienced too much that is different from each other, so it doesn't matter which---one of you think, `okay, I am ready to quit'.''
+
+``And what will happen then?''
+
+``Then? Nothing. That instance will stop. If you quit--'' she pointed at the newer of the two Yareds ``--then you--'' and then at the first ``--will have the option of merging the fork's memories back in.''
+
+``Will I feel anything? Is it like dying?''
+
+``No, Yared. It is fine. The experiences simply stop.'' She smiled wryly, adding, ``We still have not answered the question of an afterlife, but we are told from outside that System capacity increases when an instance frees up space.''
+
+He frowned, but gestured to the newer fork, who backed away a step and crouched. ``If you promise it's not like dying. I can't\ldots I can't have gotten this far just to die.''
+
+``I have never died, so I cannot promise, but when I just forked and then merged, the memories that I received did not include anything that felt like death. They just stop.''
+
+Yared's fork---he realized he knew it as Yared Zerezghi\#323a998a, though not how---slowly straightened up, closed his eyes, and breathed out.
+
+Then disappeared.
+
+There was a sudden, demanding pressure on Yared, as though a memory of something important was \emph{right there}, and all he needed to do was remember it.
+
+So he did. He remembered the suddenness of the beginning of existence. He remembered the sight of himself. He remembered the different angle that he had seen True Name from, so incongruous with where he was standing now. The conversation, the shock of being informed that he should quit, the fear, the determination. And then the memories just ended.
+
+``See? There is nothing after.''
+
+He tilted his head, trying to remember anything past that point, but there was nothing else to grasp. ``Not really, but I suppose I'll get used to it.''
+
+``You do not need to fork if you do not want to. And you will learn how to control the merger over time, and only remember certain parts. You will learn. But come, secession and launch are only a few minutes away. Think to yourself, `I want to be at Josephine's\#aaca9bb9.' You will also get used to remembering those letters and num--''
+
+Yared's eyes took a moment to adjust to the dim, steamy light of a restaurant. It was chilly outside, but delightfully warm inside, where silver and red stools lined a bar and the sizzle of eggs could be heard from a griddle. There were a few dozen people inside, including a gaggle of other skunks and women that looked eerily like True Name and Michelle.
+
+True Name appeared beside him, laughing. ``That was fast. I know that I should not be surprised at the quickness with which you are picking this up, but I am.''
+
+The skunk padded over to a corner booth where seven others waited. Three well-dressed individuals, a dirty pile of rags that may have contained a human, a nondescript face that he couldn't seem to focus on, another animal of some sort that reminded Yared of a ferret he had seen once, and a perpetually smiling man with artfully tousled hair.
+
+Both of them slid into the booth, and as they did so, the noise of the restaurant dimmed almost to inaudibility.
+
+``Uh, hi.''
+
+``Mr.~Zerezghi, a pleasure!'' The tousled man reached out his hand and Yared shook it on instinct. ``Jonas. Happy to meet face to face at last.''
+
+Yared straightened up. ``Jonas? Really? Nice to meet you as well. Is this\ldots are you the Council of eight?''
+
+True Name nodded. ``That is us, yep. Michelle could not be here tonight, so I am here in her stead.''
+
+``You meet at a diner?''
+
+``We meet all over,'' Jonas said. ``There is no headquarters, \emph{per se.} We just find interesting places and meet there.''
+
+``Wherever's most boring.'' The nondescript person shrugged.
+
+A mug of coffee was placed before him and Yared lifted it automatically for a sip. He wasn't sure why this surprised him, but he figured he had a lot to learn.
+
+``You're the last one,'' rasped the pile of rags. ``The last arrival before secession. You didn't want to be the first one after? It's your big deal, right?''
+
+``No.~I don't know why. I suppose just in case something goes wrong with the launch.''
+
+``Nothing will go wrong. There is a backup facility, anyway,'' the ferret-shaped one said. ``Debarre, by the way. Nice to meet you.''
+
+The rest of the council introduced themselves.
+
+``So, how long until secession takes effect?'' True Name asked.
+
+One of the well-dressed women tilted her head, then smiled. ``Ten seconds.''
+
+Yared set his coffee down quickly as the table began a countdown. He looked around and then realized everyone was counting down. Shouting the numbers. Grinning and laughing and clapping.
+
+By the time they hit four, Yared was counting along with them.
+
+``Three!'' he shouted.
+
+\emph{This is what it was all for,} he thought. \emph{Sitting in a diner, drinking terrible coffee, and meeting friends.}
+
+``Two!''
+
+\emph{I dreamed for so long, and I get here minutes before it all happens at once. This is what it was for.}
+
+``One!''
+
+\emph{It was all for these smiling faces and complete and total freedom.}
+
+Everyone began cheering at once. The windows lit up with a fireworks display. True Name stopped clapping in order to hug him around the shoulders, and after a moment's hesitation, he returned the gesture.
+
+``This is why you wanted to be the last one, is it not?'' she murmured in his ear just loud enough for him to hear. ``You greedy son of a bitch. You just wanted to be the last one to join the party.''
+
+He laughed. ``You know, I think you may be right.''

toledot/content/secession/phys/Yared/002.tex

@@ -0,0 +1,156 @@
+\hypertarget{yared-zerezghi-2124}{%
+\chapter{Yared Zerezghi — 2124}\label{yared-zerezghi-2124}}
+
+\begin{quote}
+When one is uploaded, the only thing that is left behind is the body, and that in pieces. It is an uncomfortable, perhaps gruesome fact of the process, but unavoidable. The intellect, the emotions, and all that makes a person an individual are sent to that building (or compound, we don't know what it looks like) in the Sino-Russian Bloc and then they become a part of the System. We do not see what they see, and cannot, but we do talk to them. They are quite the talkative bunch, and they describe all sorts of wonders. The System is much like our sims but far, far more real. Realer than we could ever imagine. It is, I'm told, quite literally a dream world.
+
+All of this---the chatter from the System, the continuity of lives from here to there, the vibrancy of the place---points to a collection of real, actual people. They may not have the bodies, but they are no less real, living, feeling, laughing, crying, joyful beings, and they deserve the recognition of their reality, their individuality.
+
+I hear many arguments against their individual rights:\pagebreak
+
+\emph{``Because we cannot interbreed with them, they are a different species, and thus are not guaranteed the same rights.''}
+
+This is a crass and ridiculous idea. Of \emph{course} we cannot interbreed, The chances of us interbreeding with a moth are more likely, as at least a moth has a body! However, if we see that their lives in the System are continuous progressions from the lives they lived here and they had inalienable rights here, then there must also be continuity of rights. Whether or not we can interbreed is nothing but a distraction.
+
+\emph{``They should have to pay for the power requirements for running their system.''}
+
+This argument carries weight when it is viewed from a strictly logical point of view. Running the System \emph{does} cost money, and even if they have little need for money in there as they go about their day-to-day lives, perhaps they can to find a way to help subsidize that ability. I can think of a dozen ways off the top of my head even while writing this.
+
+However, for the argument to be used as a reason that they must not have individual rights---those of freedom, happiness, and access to necessities---borders on the incomprehensible. When an individual is out of a job outside of the System, we do not simply strip away their rights on the spot! We must have the correct conversation, here, and this is just muddying the waters
+
+\emph{``If they are essentially expert systems running on a computer, they should be treated as such and used to run expert systems out here.''}
+
+This is it, here. This is the worst of almost all of the myriad arguments that I've heard. This is the pillar of cynicism that everyone's inner sociopath leans against. This is the bit of us that says: if I cannot see it, it isn't worth the scantest thought. This is the bit that says: every individual must serve a tangible use in the world in order to exist. This is the bit that says: they deserve this because I am also a cog in this horrendous machine.
+
+Humanity is, as ever, a race of cynics-at-heart, yet this approaches such a low as to turn the stomach. You would afford dogs and cats greater rights than those who we know for a fact can think and talk and feel and know. We know this because they \emph{are} us.
+
+Without compromising their identity, I can say that I have received a letter from two representatives of the Council of Eight, the leadership within the System, and on this we agree. They are alive, and because they are alive, they deserve the rights guaranteed those who are alive. They are individual, and so those rights must be individual. They can feel happiness, they know what it means to be free, and they are completely dependent on this one necessity, and so those rights afforded us must be granted them.
+
+One of these representatives with whom I have been speaking is one of the lost. I know that the collective conscious moves quickly, and it's a lot to ask it to keep in mind a single incident from nigh on twelve years ago, but they are important. They were among the lost, those unlucky few trapped within their own minds and exocortices by the whims of tyranny, and when they were returned to our shared existence from their solipsistic one, they were among the voices campaigning for change from the very political systems who failed them and many others. As one of the lost, their experiences were integral to the creation of the System, and have been a part of it from the inside for almost a decade.
+
+Their memories are real.
+
+Their life is real.
+
+Vote for the granting of rights. Vote yes on \emph{referendum 10b30188}.
+
+Yared Zerezghi (NEAC)
+\end{quote}
+
+\noindent Yared submitted the post to the DDR forums and swiped his way out of the whole damn trash fire, feeling for that cool air on the back of his neck, backing out of his rig fast enough that he teetered on his chair.
+
+Every time he had to write something about this, every time he had to force himself to reiterate the arguments of others, it made him angry. Irrationally so.
+
+He slung his bag over his shoulder, donned his cap, and stomped out of his apartment. He needed away from computers after something like that.
+
+Sunlight assailed him on the street. The view was as bright as ever, the weather as oppressively hot as always. He swayed for a moment as he struggled to acclimate, and once he was able, continued to stomp his way down the street to the coffee shop on the corner.
+
+He could let his anger cool, but it felt too good to nurse it just a little while longer.
+
+His usual low stool was free, so he claimed that and sat to watch as the coffee was roasted, ground, boiled, strained, poured. Despite the urge to stoke that fury further, the meditative aspect of watching the coffee being prepared, the smell of it and the small cakes of himbasha, calmed him quickly.
+
+He was partway through his second cup and nibbling on his second slice of the sweet cardamom bread when another man sat down next to him. This would not normally be cause for concern, except for the fact that the man was wearing a suit. A \emph{black} suit. This was not just incongruous, it was alarming in a place where the sun shone so hot.
+
+Yared looked around, then spotted the black car parked down the cross street. Obviously that must have a cushy, air-conditioned interior, which would at least make the choice of clothing tolerable.
+
+He nodded to the man, who nodded back, ordered three coffees, and waited.
+
+Yared finished his cup and reached out his hand to grip the contacts to pay for his coffee, but the man gently pressed his arm down.
+
+``Please, allow me to purchase your coffee and food. Do you like the himbasha here?''
+
+Frowning, he nodded. ``It's quite good. May I ask why you're paying for me?''
+
+``My passenger would like to meet with you,'' the man said, nodding over toward the car. ``The coffees are for the three of us.''
+
+``With me?''
+
+``Yes, Mr.~Zerezghi.''
+
+Yared reached once more for the contacts to pay, hoping he could simply walk away from the situation, which was quickly moving from alarming to frightening, but his arm was once more gently pushed away. Instead, the man reached forward and let his implants connect with the contacts, the touch completing the payment.
+
+``I think I should leave, sir.''
+
+``Please, stay. It is cool in the car, and we only wish to talk.''
+
+``About what?''
+
+The coffee was poured into paper cups and the himbasha was slid into a paper packet.
+
+``Please, Mr.~Zerezghi, this way.''
+
+Yared remained seated. ``You haven't answered my question, sir. About what?''
+
+By way of answer, the man smiled, not unkindly, and said, ``My passenger has read your post from this morning and was most impressed. Please, you may stand outside the car if that would make you feel better.''
+
+Still frowning, Yared stood, nodded to the woman who had prepared the coffee and let the man in black lead him to the car.
+
+The man set the tray of coffees on the roof of the car, removed one and set a slice of himbasha on it, before opening the back door and handing the tray and other slices to the person inside.
+
+So incongruous was the context that Yared did not recognize him at first. The man was dressed much as he was, in loose white pants and a white shirt, but the clothing was much finer, with an elaborately embroidered neckline on the shirt, and spotless pants where his own were dusty and overdue for a wash.
+
+Still, the face was unmistakable. ``Councilor Demma?'' he asked, voice small.
+
+``Mr.~Zerezghi! The very one. Please! Come in and sit with me, and we can drink our coffees. They smell delightful.''
+
+Yared stood at the door a moment longer, feeling the cool air against his face. His mind had gone blank. Any thought of the coffee, of the message earlier, was gone, and all he could think was, \emph{What in the world does Yosef Demma want with me?}
+
+A gentle hand on his shoulder from the driver urged Yared into the back of the car where he took a seat opposite Councilor Demma, who handed him his coffee and offered him the bag of himbasha, which he declined.
+
+``I suppose you've already eaten plenty, hmm? It does smell delicious. I rather like it when they put orange in it as well as the spices.'' He broke off a corner of the bread and set the rest aside. ``I will get straight to business, Mr.~Zerezghi, as I know that this is rather unexpected for you. We have been keeping tabs of your posts on the topic of individual rights on the DDR forums. Your voice is one of the loudest, most consistent, and most eloquent out of the whole system, and we would like to work with you on those.''
+
+Yared coughed on a swallow of coffee. ``You have been\ldots watching me?''
+
+Councilor Demma laughed and waved his hand, chewing on his sweet bread. After swallowing, he said, ``Do not worry, Yared. The NEAC Council is a political body, the DDR is a political entity, so of course we monitor the forums. We are monitoring everybody, not monitoring you specifically. Except, of course, inasmuch as you are a part of that everybody.''
+
+``But you came for me, sir.''
+
+``That we did. Your posts have attracted our attention. They are quite well written, very well researched, and the information you have by virtue of your relationship with your two companions is invaluable. We---that is, the interests in the council that I represent on this topic---feel that you would be a useful aid in reaching our goals.''
+
+``And what goals are those?''
+
+Councilor Demma smiled in a way that did not exactly instill confidence. ``Individual rights and autonomy of the System.''
+
+Yared blinked, frowned, and took the few seconds offered by a sip of his coffee to work up the courage to ask, ``Autonomy?''
+
+``We are like you, Yared. We desire that the uploaded individuals maintain individual rights. Our dreams are perhaps a little bigger, is all. You fight for their rights, but we fight for their independence.''
+
+``How can they be independent. Aren't they a part of the S-R Bloc? Those who upload have to get a visa, even if only for a few hours, before they join the System.''
+
+``Yes, but it is dual citizenship!'' the councilor said, stabbing his finger toward Yared. ``They remain citizens of the Western Fed or of the Northeast African Coalition or wherever they are from. They essentially only have a visa for the S-R Bloc. If they are our citizens, they must still have the rights we grant them. That is your argument, yes?''
+
+Yared nodded numbly.
+
+``We, like you, wish to protect those rights, but we want to grant them even more. We want to grant them their independence.''
+
+The import of Councilor Demma's request struck him like a blow to the stomach. ``You\ldots you want to help them secede?''
+
+The man across from him smiled and finished his coffee, setting it aside before taking another bite of the himbasha. ``This is quite good, Mr.~Zerezghi. I will have to remember this place.''
+
+Yared frowned at the non sequitur.
+
+``This is not something that they have in the System. They do not have delicious coffee and delicious desserts. Neither do they have hamburgers or Sichuan noodles. They have none of the same stuff as us, as crude or as plain or as beautiful as it may be. They don't have the same stuff that makes our societies what they are. They have their own society-stuff. They have their own world and their own customs.
+
+``Have you heard about the way that they can make copies of themselves and become two individuals? It is fascinating to me. They call those collections of individuals clades, because they can form a branching tree of personalities. Wonderful! Can you imagine the culture that must spring up around that? Are clades families? Do they fight like siblings? Culture has sprung up around our coffee, our himbasha, our \emph{stuff}, and it certainly does not involve these clades of theirs.''
+
+The councilor was intensely charismatic. The argument made sense, too, and a part of him was ready to dive in head-first if it would accomplish his goals. The rest of him prevailed, though, and he asked, ``But where do I come into this?''
+
+``Excellent question.'' That disconcerting smile again. ``All we would like you to do is continue on your campaign for individual rights now. However, we would like to suggest some small changes to your arguments, just little nudges here and there. They will not start right away, but soon, we would like you to shift the language you use. We have confidence that individual rights will be granted, but we want the way primed for what comes after.''
+
+``Confidence?''
+
+The councilor tapped his temple. ``We keep an eye on the forums, remember? We keep our finger on the pulse of the DDR. I also have the interests that I represent, and I have confidence in them.''
+
+``You just want me to campaign as I usually do, but subtly suggest that the System should secede?''
+
+``Ideas grow organically, Mr.~Zerezghi, but they all start from a seed. You are ideally placed to be that seed, both for the DDR and for the Council of Eight.''
+
+Yared sat up straighter. ``Oh, so not just the DDR, but also the System?''
+
+Councilor Demma nodded, still smiling. ``There is nothing you need to do yet, but let us meet up for coffee again, yes? Perhaps here, again, in two days time? I would love to make these chats over coffee a regular part of our schedules.''
+
+``Can I take those two days to think on it?''
+
+That smile faltered only briefly but was quickly replaced. ``Of course, Yared, I understand that this is a large request to make of you. All the same, I do hope that you will agree to join us. Much is resting on this venture.''
+
+At some unseen signal, the car door was opened from the outside. The meeting, it seemed, was at an end, and he was back on the street, back in the brightness and heat, watching the car disappear around a corner.

toledot/content/secession/phys/Yared/003.tex

@@ -0,0 +1,189 @@
+\hypertarget{yared-zerezghi-2124}{%
+\chapter{Yared Zerezghi — 2124}\label{yared-zerezghi-2124}}
+
+\begin{quote}
+The discussion of speciation continues, I see.
+
+And you know what? You all begin to convince me of this fact. If you have been following the System feeds, you will have doubtless seen the ways in which the System differs from life phys-side in levels so completely fundamental that they strain the imagination. We (by virtue of the fact that you are even reading this) have all used the `net. To greater or lesser extents, we have all felt the ways in which it is different than 'real life'. I myself have often found the ways in which tactility differs here from out in the world: there is touch, yes, and there is something akin to the sensation of hot and cold (thermoception, the dictionary tells me), and it obviously could not function without a fairly accurate simulacrum of proprioception. If you don't know where you end and the rest of the sim begins, it is nigh useless as a shared space.
+
+But touch? Touch is subtly different in so many ways. I remarked on this to a friend who is far, far more into the tech side than I am, and he immediately mentioned that he had felt similar. The reason, he explained, is that no matter how hard the implants try, they can only approximate the sensation of touch. Hearing? Fine. We have decoded the phenomenon of sound well enough that we are able to toss that sense in there just fine. Smell? Well, that's a bit more difficult, as I've read that there is some funny quantum aspects to that sensation. In the end, however, it is just a matter of simulating chemical interactions well enough.
+
+Touch is so inexact, though. For each person it is different, and for each location on the body, the reaction is different. If you touch me on the shoulder, I might turn around to look at you. If you stick your finger in my ear (please don't) I will likely react much more violently. However, if \emph{I} stick my finger in my ear, it elicits no such reaction, and can even feel pleasant.
+
+Those in the System talk of such varied experiences, but when I brought this up over the chat-line with some friends that I've made over there (I've been asked to withhold their names), they seemed more confused than anything, and had me try in several ways to describe this difference in touch, the way I sometimes fail to sense a touch, or the way I sometimes feel a strong, sudden pressure (for who has not accidentally stubbed a toe?) with about the same level of intensity of brushing my fingers over a surface.
+
+They said that there is no such issue within there. The dreaming brain is far more capable of coming up with the sensation of touch than the limited version we find in our implants.
+
+An example: One of these friends is a furry, which means that her form (what we might think of as an avatar) comes with all the accoutrements that that entails. She has fur, whiskers, and a tail. Those may come with some expanded sensations via implants, but in there, in the dream, her body knows how they work. She can wag her tail (if that's a thing that her species does, I don't know the specifics), can feel the ways in which the teeth of a comb move through her fur, can lick her chops, and has even told me that she enjoys having her ears petted. None of these, she told me, were things that she found possible via the 'net.
+
+This is a complete and total fundamental difference between us phys-side and those who live sys-side.
+
+And what a small one, too! Consider the larger ones:
+
+\begin{itemize}
+\item
+  \emph{Forking:} Those who upload can create copies of themselves. Complete and total copies that live and experience completely separate lives. Not only that, but when a fork wants (\emph{if} a fork wants!) it can merge back with the original copy or persona or whatever you want to call it, and then that persona has the memories of \emph{both} copies. This beggars the imagination: we simply have no way to \emph{actually} understand this, bound as we are by those pesky laws of physics.
+\item
+  \emph{Reputation markets:} Well, I say we're bound by the laws of physics, but on a subtler level, they are as well. The System only has so much capacity (though it is growing every few months), so in order to limit this potentially boundless expansion, there needs to be some factor which places limits on them, whether it's strictly for keeping bad actors at bay or simply to conserve space for new arrivals.
+
+  But of what use is money to them? They don't \emph{need} to eat. They don't \emph{need} to pay for travel. There is nothing for them to buy except this capacity to create, which means there is no money changing hands. Instead, they have decided on a currency of reputation. The more you do and interact and contribute, whether it is from being on the Council of Eight or simply having a really good conversation with a friend, you accrue reputation, and it is through this mechanism that one pays for expansion. Create more? Interact more? Gain the \emph{ability} to create more, the \emph{ability} to interact more.
+\item
+  \emph{Creative potential:} This is what happens when you combine the first point with the second. Say you are a mathematician. It can be frustrating to work on a complex problem one step at a time, and managing a team comes with its own problems. What if you had more brain power to throw at the problem, and that brain power had \emph{exactly the same knowledge} going into it? Obviously, there are plenty more situations that require collaboration with other unique individuals, but this alone makes it worthwhile. Already, there have been great contributions to the fields of math, theoretical physics, literature, and sociology/psychology. Hell, some of these are already being used to earn money which is being put to use in the day-to-day demands of the System. For them, though, this is the basis of an economy that cherishes such pursuits. Already, we are seeing more individuals in those fields uploading than any other.
+\end{itemize}
+
+When I think about all of these facts, I have to admit, I think that you may be right on the question of speciation. It is not just that we cannot interbreed with them, for that is a question of biology, and one party lacks that aspect. It is not just that they are not of human stock, for that is demonstrably not the case. But it does come down to a complete and fundamental change in the very fabric of being.
+
+The term ``post-human'' has been thrown around plenty, of course. It mostly fits, too, but I would argue that it also implies some remnant of humanity other than those within the System have (the creation of new, unique post-humans springs to mind). They are something \emph{more}. They are something \emph{different}. They are exohumans, perhaps. Post-biological. The language fails.
+
+They are uploads, and we are not.
+
+I stand by my firm argument against so many tired and played ones that I have seen. They are beings. A new species, perhaps, but we afford rights to \emph{beings}. We afford rights to \emph{individuals}. That they can fork presents new problems, but what has ever stood between humanity and a solution but staunch conservatism?
+
+Vote for the granting of rights. Vote yes on \emph{referendum 10b30188}
+
+Yared Zerezghi (NEAC)
+\end{quote}
+
+\noindent As soon as he received confirmation that his post was visible on the DDR forums, Yared backed out from his rig and headed for the door, stretching a crick out of his spine as he went.
+
+This had become routine. The action of posting a particularly frustrating essay to the forums had often been followed by going out for coffee, but now, as soon as he posted, he knew that Councilor Demma would arrive for a debriefing. This had turned into coffee together every two days. Yared would always go to the shop at the end of his street and wait for Demma's tireless driver to show up, buy three coffees and three pieces of himbasha, and lead him to the car. Sometimes, they drove out past the edge of the city to the fields of low-moisture corn and beans. Sometimes, they drove into the city center by Government House and circled the perimeter.
+
+Or, as today, they simply sat in Demma's car, sipping on coffees and nibbling sweet bread while they talked.
+
+``Mr.~Zerezghi,'' the well-dressed driver said, enough acknowledgement for the day.
+
+The owner of the coffee shop had already made their order as soon as Yared showed his face, so they collected their tray of drinks and food and walked through the late morning heat to the black car that stood idly by.
+
+As always, it took Yared a moment to acclimatize to the blast of conditioned air that greeted him when he slipped into the car, so Yosef Demma sipped his coffee and waited until Yared could speak once more.
+
+``Mr.~Zerezghi, a pleasure to see you as always. How are you? Have you had a good day?''
+
+``Yes, Councilor,'' Yared said, sipping at his coffee to stave off the chill of the air. ``I trust that you have as well?''
+
+``Quite good, quite good.''
+
+The formalities, those were also rote by now.
+
+``We have read your post. It is quite the well written essay.''
+
+Yared nodded. ``Thank you, sir.''
+
+The councilor leaned back against his seat, switching his coffee for a slice of the himbasha. ``You know, originally, my constituents and I were nervous about the idea of letting you craft your own posts. Many thought it unwise to let you choose your own words, thinking it best that we write your arguments for you and have you simply post them. I disagreed, as I think that something of your style would be lost in the process. You rely on a lot of imagery and word choices that are good at swaying readers, and I think this isn't necessarily a thing that my speech writers would be able to accomplish. You have recently changed their minds.''
+
+``I'm happy to hear that. I like to think I'm a good writer.''
+
+``You are, you are,'' Demma nodded. ``But it is always good to see that working to your advantage. To our advantage.''
+
+Yared suppressed a smile.
+
+``We are also pleased to see the way in which you incorporated our suggestion.''
+
+``I'm glad to hear. I was worried, I'll admit. It's not that I don't agree with the speciation argument, I just had originally worried that it was distracting from the topic at hand.''
+
+``Of course, Yared. You have your own reasons to argue for individual rights, and we do want to respect those. You must understand, however, that we have the benefit of a team of analysts on our side, and they have determined that, from the Direct Democracy angle, this is the most efficient way forward specifically for the secession movement.''
+
+Leaning back into his seat and holding his empty coffee cup in his hands to leach the last bits of warmth from it, Yared sighed. ``Of course. And as I mentioned, I'm not necessarily against the arguments you suggested.''
+
+The note had come late the night before, delivered via courier, along with an apology that he had been given so little time to work it into his next post. \emph{Begin to agree with speciation,} it had read, and a tang of distaste tickled at his senses. \emph{Not quickly, just hint that you're being swayed. Say you're starting to be convinced, but that this only strengthens your arguments.}
+
+Demma reached out a hand for Yared's cup, as he always did, and crumpled it together with his to dispose of in a waste basket hidden in the back of one of the seats of the car. ``Mr.~Zerezghi,'' he said, bowing slightly in his seat. ``Thank you once more. I won't take up any more of your time. You should have your next suggestion in the next day or two.''
+
+Yared returned the bow and, as if that were the command he was waiting for, the driver opened the door to let him out into the growing heat of the day. He swayed once more at the shock of the temperature difference.
+
+``Yared,'' the driver said, nodding, then slid back into the driver's seat of the car.
+
+Once he could walk again without stumbling, he made his way back to his room and out of the sun. It was air conditioned, yes, but the unit in the wall had seen better days. \emph{Much} better days.
+
+A sudden wave of exhaustion crashed over him, but all the same, he settled back into the chair before his rig and delved in once more.
+
+A message was already waiting for him at his desk, so, in the sim, he sat down before it, smiling inwardly at the oddly duplicated action.
+
+\begin{quote}
+\textbf{Jonas Prime:} Yared! Beautifully done. Ping when you're back around.
+\end{quote}
+
+\noindent He swiped a keyboard into view and instructed his desk to do just that.
+
+\begin{quote}
+\textbf{Jonas:} Welcome back. How goes?
+
+\textbf{Yared Zerezghi:} Well enough. Hot as ever. Thanks, by the way. Think the post will help?
+\end{quote}
+
+\noindent Inwardly, he fretted, worrying that his counterparts in the System had picked up on the slow change in direction over the last few posts.
+
+\begin{quote}
+\textbf{The Only Time I Know My True Name Is When I Dream:} Probably! I am pleased that you enjoyed my description of brushing and petting.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} I felt it got the point across quite nicely.
+
+\textbf{True Name}: That it did.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} We've been tracking the speciation argument, as far as we can see, and it's an interesting idea. I go back and forth on it. Sometimes, it feels like a distinction without a difference, and sometimes, phys-side ideas just leave me completely baffled. I've forgotten how strange the System sounded when I was outside of it.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} Yes. It is a good talking point, but also a line that you should walk carefully. I worry that it will lead the discussion back to the ``sub-human'' arguments that pop up here and there.
+\end{quote}
+
+\noindent His heart dropped. So they had picked up on the change.
+
+\begin{quote}
+\textbf{Yared:} I'm worried about that as well. Still, when I've argued on the forums in the past, I've found that building a strong argument and then slipping a little bit of empathy for the other side nudges them to do the same.
+\end{quote}
+
+\noindent A lie, but hopefully a helpful one.
+
+\begin{quote}
+\textbf{True Name:} I had not thought of that, but I was never big into the DDR. Calling it both ``Direct Democracy'' and a ``Representative'' made it sound disingenuous.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} I mean, it makes sense. If they start feeling our empathy in the equation, maybe they'll start feeling empathy towards us.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} That's the hope! Some of these people though\ldots{}
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} Numbskulls.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} Dipshits.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Both accurate.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} Just do not generate too much empathy in them. I do not want them latching onto anything to use against you.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} Against us, in the end.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Of course! I'll keep monitoring the forums and chatter, and it looks like some governments are waking up to it.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} Whoopee.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} I'll have you know that she just rolled her eyes at me.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} Jerk.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Haha. Still, I think it'll help. It means that this is is going to be taken into consideration and not just turn into a DDR-only referendum. If we get them discussing it, then we have a smaller target to influence. DDR votes carry less weight when gov'ts weigh in. They read the forums as much as any DDR junkie, so the arguments can sometimes carry more weight.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} As much as it pains me to admit, you have a point.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} When you get a chance, you and I can go into it more in depth, Yared.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Have some thoughts?
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} I was a politician phys-side, so, yeah.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} WHAT
+
+\textbf{True Name:} You are kidding.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} I'll have you know that she just punched me in the shoulder.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} And I will do it again. Fucking gross.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} I'll have you know that she did, indeed, do it again.
+\end{quote}
+
+\noindent Yared laughed. He was pleased to see them in good spirits.
+
+\begin{quote}
+\textbf{Yared:} Don't beat him up too bad, True Name. He probably does have some good info, even if it is a few years old.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} \ldots{}
+
+\textbf{True Name:} I GUESS
+\end{quote}

toledot/content/secession/phys/Yared/004.tex

@@ -0,0 +1,126 @@
+\hypertarget{yared-zerezghi-2124}{%
+\chapter{Yared Zerezghi—2124}\label{yared-zerezghi-2124}}
+
+\emph{Mention how the System almost feels like its own nation, mention L\textsubscript{5} but only in passing,} the note read. \emph{Expect agreement from a new faction. Act pleasantly surprised.}
+
+As he had found himself doing increasingly often, Yared stepped out of his apartment to walk the town and draft his new post in his head. They used to flow so easily, when each one did not feel like some school assignment.
+
+He walked out past the coffee shop, waving to the woman behind the counter, and shaking his head to an offer of coffee. He was already wired enough.
+
+He kept on walking, instead, out and down the street past apartments, the store where he bought his food, apartments, the restaurant that he ate at once every other week, and yet more apartments. Out and out until he ran into that patch of scrub that somehow never got developed, then right and into where the scrub turned into scattered bushes, and then trees. There had been a fence, once, but all that remained were the posts.
+
+He'd never bothered walking up here until he'd accepted the unnerving assignment to convince everyone to secede. Explicitly, to convince the DDR and various governments to allow it, but implicitly, he felt, to convince those he talked to on the System, as well. Convince True Name and Jonas to suggest it from the other side.
+
+It had been unnerving at first, at least.
+
+Why would he, a nobody who dumped all his free time into the 'net, into the DDR, be expected to make any change? He knew that, once a referendum was picked up by more than a couple of the various legislatures, it was hopeless to expect the DDR had any real impact. It became the joke that he was sure so many thought it was.
+
+He had picked up the topic of the System's individual rights as his next pet topic, for even though he had felt little interest in the System or its labyrinthine technologies at the time, when the previous bill he had hyper-fixated on had failed on the floor, and after a night of far too much tej, he needed to set his mind on \emph{something.}
+
+He didn't know why he did this, why he felt the need to dive into politics. He was a no one in Addis Ababa, a city which paled in importance in the NEAC, a governing body that paled in comparison to the others in the world.
+
+He had a data analysis job he could do from home reasonably well, and he didn't slack off while at work (though he did leave DDR alerts on in his field of view). He made enough of a living to stay in his apartment in an alright part of town. He was comfortable. He had no plans to upload.
+
+Or hadn't previously. The more he learned, the more enticing it seemed.
+
+It certainly seemed like an easier life than this, accepting messages from shadowy government agencies to try and influence what was supposed to be a direct means of being represented in the legislatures of the world. It was one thing to try to do so from one's own perspective, but to accept such influence, even if he was only paid in coffee and cake\ldots{}
+
+It had surprised him that he had even picked up the task at first. Secession seemed like such a strange thing to ask for. What did the NEAC---or any government, really---gain by having the System secede? What was the System doing that threatened them so much? There was the brain-drain that some feared, but this seemed to rely on some more basic instinct or need to have that which is different separated from that which was familiar.
+
+He didn't know why he had picked up the task, but it was working, even on him. \emph{Especially} on him. The idea of secession from a government's point of view was one that fit neatly into his worldview without him needing to change anything, and that was strange in and of itself.
+
+The System probably should secede. At that point, uploading became a simple matter of emigration, one to a country that was guaranteed to grant you residency. Not only that, but, though the cost might be high and the move permanent, it offered a ready-made haven for refugees, whether from the increasingly hot climate or the countless little spats along disputed borders. Uploading was an option for those who had nowhere else to go, and one that offered them more freedom than any other country on earth.
+
+And this new idea that had started showing up, first in his conversations with True Name and Jonas, and then on the DDR in general, of tacking the System onto one of the launches for the L\textsubscript{5} station construction. The timing---True Name and Jonas, then the DDR---made him wonder if the Council of Eight had its fingers in other pies, too.
+
+He wasn't sure how to feel about this. What an opportunity that had presented itself! All those arguments about the resources the System used would be all but put to rest. The station would house it, the station's solar power source would power it, and the Station Hotel's revenue would fund it. It would be another part of the tourists' experience. There were already plans for a new transmission system that would be easy enough to build for uploads to make it from Earth to the System without having to fly to the station first.
+
+It was all starting to feel like such a good idea, and some part of him felt embarrassed that Councilor Demma's bald-faced political machinations were working just as well on him as they promised to on the masses that filled the DDR forums.
+
+He realized he'd been so lost in thought that the wooded grove had already spat him out the other side, back into heat and back into traffic.
+
+``Well, shit,'' he mumbled, and began the long trek back to his apartment, polishing the draft of his post in his head.
+
+\begin{quote}
+I won't lie, I'm pleased to see this discussion take a turn to the positive. There are some great minds thinking and talking here. Here on the DDR forums, out on the 'net, and now out in the subcommittees that will feed into the legislatures of the world.
+
+What heartens me more than that, however, is to see some names that I had previously seen arguing \emph{against} independent rights now campaigning \emph{for} them (or, at the very least, neutral in tone). This is how the DDR is meant to work: it's a forum for us, the rank and file of the nations of the world, to be able to participate in the legislative process that will bind us in more ways than of old. No more relying solely on representatives. No more collecting signatures for yet another petition that will fall on deaf ears. No more letter writing campaigns that doubtless fed countless shredders and trash folders.
+
+To those arguing for independent rights, keep working hard, as there is still much to be done, but to those who are arguing against this referendum, I would like to address a few of those points that seem to keep cropping up:
+
+\emph{The System has no meaningful way for us to control its goings on, and thus could be a good place for disaffected citizens to coordinate with phys-side agents on acts of terrorism.}
+
+This is one of those arguments that is difficult to refute because, on the surface, it is indeed a potential reason that one might upload.
+
+That said, enough thought about how international terrorism works is enough to put this to bed as yet more FUD. First of all, it is the responsibility of each country to monitor their own citizens to within the limits of their national policies (and, let us not kid ourselves, well beyond). If a disaffected citizen is willing to engage in a terrorist act on their home soil, then it is the responsibility for the government to deal with that individual.
+
+I will grant that this leaves the upload to contend with. There is no easy way to detect whether or not the System has punished them, and there's certainly no way for them to be extradited, should they be discovered.
+
+Do not doubt your respective governments' abilities to track these actions, however. It is something of an open secret that they are always a decade ahead of us mere mortals when it comes to encryption, and thus cracking of those encryption methods used ten years prior. They'll be able to track communications from the System easily enough, just as they track any other form of text-based communication.
+
+(And to my NEAC government handler who reads all of my posts, finger hovering above the big, red `arrest' button: hello! I hope that you are well.)
+
+\emph{Without clear news sources coming out of the System, there is no way for us to tell that the Council of Eight is effective at governing those sys-side.}
+
+Disregarding the Council of Eight's mandate to ``guide but not govern'', I'm curious, now! What would a ``clear news source'' would look like?
+
+When one thinks about news sources here, one thinks of a stream of information about concrete events: what hurricane hit which part of North America; what stock jumped to what price; what the cricket scores are. These are all \emph{things.} They all have to do with \emph{stuff} or \emph{places} or \emph{money.}
+
+Think of one thing that has made news recently that does not have to do with any of those things. I will preempt many of your examples:
+
+\vspace{-0.25em}
+
+\begin{itemize}
+\tightlist
+\item
+  Legislation---that is, new laws to govern stuff, places, or money.
+\item
+  Scientific advances---that is, new ways to work with stuff, places, or money (and before you suggest theoretical sciences, consider that those are future ways to work with stuff. Psychological breakthroughs? Better ways to keep us happy so that we can produce and consume more stuff).
+\item
+  International relations---that is, which group people in which places have which stuff that which other group of people want.
+\item
+  Technological breakthroughs---stuff.
+\item
+  Exploration---places.
+\item
+  Travel, entertainment, comedy---commodified experiences.
+\end{itemize}
+
+\vspace{-0.25em}
+
+Here are some things that you might find in this theoretical news source that also appears in ours:
+
+\vspace{-0.25em}
+
+\begin{itemize}
+\tightlist
+\item
+  Opinions
+\item
+  Interpersonal relations
+\item
+  Religion, maybe?
+\end{itemize}
+
+When one is unbound by the constraints of stuff, places, or money, one finds that there is little news that is worth treating as news.
+
+Doubtless they have news out there. I don't mean to imply otherwise. Of what worth would it be to us to know of a cult surrounding, say, some upload who has found a neat thing to do with forking? Of what use is the knowledge of what is the new, hottest sim? Which of us really, truly cares about their petty squabbles?
+
+I would say that I do, but lets be honest, I can't even begin to understand those, but I can certainly respect their rights to have them.
+
+Now, tell me what effective governance looks like in such a system. Resources are controlled through the reputation market. As far as I can tell, there is no murder, there are no wars, fights can be over in a blink if one of the parties just leaves, and the worst offense someone can commit is stalking, and even then, one can be bounced from a sim.
+
+We come yet again to the idea of speciation. We are fundamentally different. Or, to use a metaphor from the first point, this is an entire \emph{society}, human or otherwise, that is fundamentally different, as one might see with the vast gulf between customs in different areas of the world.
+
+\emph{The L\textsubscript{5} station has no obligation to host the System.}
+
+Correct, and yet they volunteered. This is a non-argument for a non-problem.
+
+They are an international cooperative effort with business interests involved. The System is neither of those, true, but it is also not \emph{not} those, either. A nation to cooperate? It is not a nation, but I believe I've argued the point that, given fundamental differences, it might as well be. A business? It is not a business, but it does have employees and businesses associated with it, and it produces some delightful results in terms of the new ideas that constantly flow through the communications channels.
+
+Friends, I struggle to see the merit of many of these arguments, and of the ones that do hold water, there are sensible compromises available. These people are \emph{people,} and it has long been established that people deserve rights. They are a \emph{culture,} and it has long been established that cultures deserve protection.
+
+Vote for the granting of rights. Vote yes on \emph{referendum 10b30188}
+
+Yared Zerezghi (NEAC)
+\end{quote}

toledot/content/secession/phys/Yared/005.tex

@@ -0,0 +1,194 @@
+\hypertarget{yared-zerezghi-2124}{%
+\chapter{Yared Zerezghi — 2124}\label{yared-zerezghi-2124}}
+
+\begin{quote}
+\textbf{Yared Zerezghi:} I'm going to come clean right up front: I shouldn't be telling you this.
+
+\textbf{Jonas Prime:} Okay hold up.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} Before you actually tell us, I want to know why.
+
+\textbf{The Only Time I Know My True Name Is When I Dream:} As do I.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} I am sure you have your reasons, but if you need us to talk you out of it, we can do that, too.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Uh. Well, I wasn't \emph{specifically} told not to tell you, but I was left under the impression that I shouldn't be talking to you about this sort of stuff. Still, I've done my reading, and the line to the System is about as secure as it gets, and after all this time, I trust you well enough that you won't do anything crazy with the information, and that it'll probably help you in the end, as you work through all this sys-side.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} What, that you've been working with a government official who is making you steer the DDR towards considering secession?
+
+\textbf{Yared:} \ldots{}
+
+\textbf{Yared:} What the hell?
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Yes, but how the hell did you know that?
+
+\textbf{True Name:} Jonas has been waiting to drop that on you for some time now. He is currently laughing his ass off. You will have to forgive him.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} I mean, I am also laughing my ass off.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} I'm just more shocked than anything.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} I promise it's not out of cruelty, we just made a lucky guess, and I've been wanting it confirmed. Your tone at the start said it all.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} I guess I'm relieved.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} But also a little scared that everyone else has figured it out, too.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} I wouldn't count on it. Maybe some have, but few enough that they'll likely be laughed down as crackpot conspiracy theorists. Very few people pay as much attention to you as we do.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} Thank you for confirming this with us, though. It will help us work together more consistently between sys- and phys-side.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} That was my thought, as well.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} Was that all you were going to tell us?
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Most of it. I was just going to ask your help for the next step, afterwards. I'm \emph{definitely} not supposed to be doing that.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} Well, alright. How does this all work, anyway?
+
+\textbf{Yared:} I meet up with my handler, of sorts, on a regular basis, and we talk through the current sentiments, and then someone on his team will slip me a note specifying how I should steer my next post. Sometimes I'll write two or three posts on the subject, just so they can keep an eye on the response, then I'll get the next note.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} And this handler, are his initials YD?
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Okay, now you hold up.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} I \emph{need} to know how you guys figured that one out.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} Politician, remember?
+
+\textbf{True Name:} We noticed the contents of your posts starting to shift, then started considering possible sources that might be guiding you. That led us to council members, and from there, we were able to sift through who is on the council and come up with a short list of names. Yosef Demma just happened to be at the top.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} You still have me worried that others have this all figured out. Jonas, convince me not to worry. You're the politician, I'm the scared DDR junkie trying not to get stoned to death. Or worse, have my DDR account suspended.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} Alright, I'll try. I promise, no stoning. The number one advantage that we have is an entire team of instances working with you and on essentially no other projects. That means we have the resources to send a few of them chasing after this hunch that someone was steering you, do some textual analysis, find the patterns, then do some digging into NEAC politics, looking for people with both the resources, the motive, and the personality to pull it off.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} Remember, most of this team were phys-side politicians, too, so we have that head-start. The worst you have to worry about is the WF or S-R Bloc doing the same with their own people after they find out. We haven't seen evidence of that yet.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Multiple phys-side politicians?
+
+\textbf{True Name:} Multiple Jonases.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Oh! There are multiple forks working on this?
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} Of course.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} That's what I mean when I said few people pay as much attention to you as we do.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} Does that soothe your fears?
+
+\textbf{Yared:} I think so, yeah. Do you agree with Jonas on this, True Name?
+
+\textbf{True Name:} Having spent a considerable time with him and some of his forks, I trust him on this, yes.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} Now, can you tell us as much as you are comfortable about councilor Demma, your relationship with him, and what you suspect are his goals?
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Well, we meet for coffee regularly, like I said, and usually drink it in his car while his driver takes us around town. He seems like a nice, older gentleman, and pretty trustworthy. I suspect that's a bad sign in a politician.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} No comment.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Well, either way, he's nice enough to me, and I guess that's probably how he got me working for him. I think his motives basically boil down to the fact that the System has diverged considerably from the culture of any of the political entities left phys-side, both by virtue of who winds up there, and the obvious reasons of not sharing any of our concerns around trade goods.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} He is not wrong, but I do not think that is motive enough.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} I don't either. I suspect that he's not keen on something about the System where it is, whether that's its location in the S-R Bloc or that it remains a multinational entity where uploads retain their citizenship back phys-side. Maybe he just wants to make it a separate nation in order to allow it to be a place to send refugees, asylum seekers, and so on. Or maybe he wants to restrict emigration.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} Those are all good potential reasons, yes. Do you have any hints as to which may be the most likely?
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Not particularly. He's mentioned them all in passing.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} Alright. Keep us up to date, then.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} What was your most recent message from Demma and his people?
+
+\textbf{Yared:} That's what I wanted to talk to you about, actually.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} The thing that you're not supposed to do. Right.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Right. The message was: ``Gently broach the subject of secession. Keep it only to one sentence, and only as an offhand remark. Make it sound like it was sys-side's idea.''
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} Wow, that's not exactly subtle.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} Seems like a shitty thing to do.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} But that is coming from someone sys-side, so perhaps he sees it differently. My assessment is that he might not actually be wrong on this. If he pins it on us but does it gently enough, it can be seen as a situation where both parties are happy to agree on something. It will have to be done carefully, however. If it is suggested too strongly or too early, we risk the possibility of backlash for seeming too eager for secession, as though we are rebelling. If it is not suggested strongly enough, some might see it as secession being forced on us. Jonas? Thoughts?
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} I think you're spot on for the DDR. Yared, has any mention of secession come up in the forums yet?
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Only two or three times, but given that this topic is starting to be taken up on the governmental level, that amounts to almost none. That said, I'm seeing quite a few people taking to the launch idea, which they're now equating to something equivalent to secession---they're calling it separation from Earth or resource independence, stuff like that---as well as more talk about international rights, given that sys-side individuals technically retain their citizenship, which makes the System something like international waters.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} Clever. That might be far enough to drop some very subtle hints. I'm not sure about the word `secession' yet, given some of its past connotations. You've suggested that we have the nature of statehood, but you might try pushing harder on referring to us as a nation, a national entity, a nation-state, and so on. Maybe even use the word `statehood' directly.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} Do you have anything written yet?
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Sure, one moment.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} We continue to circle around this discussion of individual rights as though we are debating the individuality of those sys-side. It's important to understand, though, that this is a distraction from the actual point. Many have mentioned that those who have uploaded, whether or not they are individuals, are no longer analogous to humans (there's that speciation argument again!) and one wag even put it, ``Who cares if they're individuals? They can't even vote!''
+
+\textbf{Yared:} This is quite true, my dear wag. They can't vote. They have no say in our political affairs out here, just as we have no say in theirs. How could we? I mean, sure, I bet some of them read DDR posts and wonder \emph{what the hell is going on out there?} But consider what their politics must look like to us. What would \emph{we} vote on? Whether or not they must post signage that their sims allow non-euclidean space? Is it okay for you to try and impersonate someone when you can become like them to exacting detail (except for, surprise, their individual personality)?
+
+\textbf{Yared:} I think we're still split pretty evenly on speciation. Even I am. One day, I'll think, ``Sure, they may be fundamentally different from us, but they still \emph{think} like us. They still reason like humans. Except for the biological differences, they still are.'' Other days, though, I'll wake up and think, ``We have no common frame of reference with these people. They're just too different.''
+
+\textbf{Yared:} This actually came up in a few conversations with my friends sys-side. It sounds like they share some of that ambivalence toward speciation. They can't interface with phys-side as we can, and we can't interface with sys-side as they can, so how could they even be considered the same species as us? And yet here they are, taking place in a political debate as filigreed and baroque as any other, and doing so with the same rational minds that we have, even if only at one remove. ``At this point,'' one of them said as we laughed over another fruitless debate. ``I'm not even sure we should be discussing individual rights with governments that have no way of knowing how we work. We might as well just secede and end the discussion there.''
+
+\textbf{Yared:} But who knows if speciation will even wind up playing into it, in the end. I've noticed that, even though we remain split on the topic, tempers have cooled on both sides. I'm surprised---pleasantly so!---to see this agreement building even in Cairo; I know that many of my compatriots there bore apathy or even antipathy towards the System after previous dealings between the NEAC and the S-R Bloc. We're no longer at each others throats about whether or not they're so fundamentally different from us that it requires some strange new way to think of them as individuals.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} And honestly, that's my hope. I think that way whether or not they're humans, whether or not they have their own customs and social structure, whether or not they're even a separate country. Even those who are falling on the side of speciation are starting to refer to them in terms of individuals. ``Them.'' ``How many of them.'' ``Who in there even thinks X?'' All of these are ways that we refer to individuals, and, you who are still arguing this belabored point that they should have no choice on what is done with their personalities once\pagebreak\ their bodies are gone, you are now thinking of them as what they are: individuals.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} That, my friends, feels like progress to me. We are starting to come to an understanding of what the System is, whether it's a home for the disaffected and dying, an international forum where individuals can truly live together, or a country in its own right, is home to thousands of individuals, each with their individual lives, individual reasons, individual feelings. They're people. The System is their home. We cannot take that from them without violating their individual rights.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} Well written as always, Yared.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} Agreed. You have a way of agreeing with people just enough to make them feel like you might actually be on their side, and that perhaps they ought to work toward the same goal.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Thank you both. What do you think about the secession angle?
+
+\textbf{True Name:} It is a little blunt. It feels forced, the way it is just stuck in there. Perhaps you might soften it from ``We might as well just secede'', to something more like ``We would have better luck running our own government'', something like that. I agree with Jonas that there is fear bound up in the word `secede', and the phrase ``better luck'' implies a humorous remark.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} Yeah. You want us to be soft, kind, approachable, that sort of thing, especially if you're going to use your current tactic of ``agree with them enough to get them to fight for you''. We want to seem like good people who deserve our individual rights, that\pagebreak\ to not grant them would be, at best, a real shame, and at worst, an affront to their own ideas of freedom.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} This is especially true, given that very few phys-side are acting as our voices. They are arguing on second- and third-hand accounts, such as your own. To them, uploads are this mysterious entity that they might struggle to actually comprehend. You will have to, perhaps ironically, humanize us for them. We have to seem like we can still joke around, still hurt, and still feel the full range of human emotion.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} You've seen True Name and I joking around, after all.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Yeah. So what do you think about: ``At this point,'' one of them said as we laughed over another fruitless debate, ``I'm not even sure we should be discussing individual rights with governments that have no way of knowing how we work. We'd have better luck running our own government. We can herd our cats, they can herd theirs.''
+
+\textbf{True Name:} I like that. I am enough like a cat to be difficult to herd.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} Confirmed. Getting her to do anything she doesn't want to do is fucking impossible.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} I prefer to think of myself as `staunchly independent', thank you very much.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Haha
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Actually, how about I include some banter into the post?
+
+\textbf{Yared:} ``At this point,'' one of them said, as we laughed over another fruitless debate. ``I'm not even sure we should be discussing individual rights with governments that have no way of knowing how we work. We'd have better luck running our own government.''
+
+\textbf{Yared:} To which the other replied, ``We can herd our cats, they can herd theirs,'' thus spawning a good five minutes of cat-herding jokes, wherein we unilaterally decided that cats were, to put it politely, staunchly independent. I think that applies to them as much as it does to us.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} I like it! It'll need a bit of cleaning up to make it flow a little better in context, but I trust that that's something you can do on your own.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Of course.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} I am sorry to make such a cat out of you in this situation, Yared. You are being herded by two different camps, us and your councilor friend. Our goals align for now, for which I am grateful, but I understand that having both parties tell you not to tell the other about them is uncomfortable.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} On that note, it is probably best not to tell Demma about this conversation.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} Seconded.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Thirded. I don't know that he'd have my head on a platter if he knew that this conversation had taken place, but I don't know that he wouldn't, either.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} We don't want that, we like you too much.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} I was going to say that you are too useful to us, but I will grudgingly agree that we do rather like you.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} I'm pleased to hear that!
+
+\textbf{Yared:} I'll get this polished and posted. What's next on your side?
+
+\textbf{True Name:} Jonas will likely be snooping around for news and schmoozing where appropriate. I will be focusing on how to present this in the most empathetic, understandable way possible to the Council and other interested parties. I need to sell it to the System.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Does that mean you're for secession, then?
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} If the L\textsubscript{5} launch goes through, yes. If not, then it becomes more complicated, and we likely \emph{would} have to move to international waters.
+\end{quote}

toledot/content/secession/phys/Yared/006.tex

@@ -0,0 +1,150 @@
+\hypertarget{yared-zerezghi-2124}{%
+\chapter{Yared Zerezghi — 2124}\label{yared-zerezghi-2124}}
+
+For the first time since their arrangement had begun, Yared was greeted at his own door, rather than at the coffee shop down on the corner.
+
+He had yet to start his day, instead reveling in the cool quiet of the morning, before the sun levered itself up over the roof of his building to shine through his window and before the thrum of the air conditioning took over. The cool, the quiet, his pillow, his sheets, and the blessed nullity of not yet being awake enough to think, to worry.
+
+At least the knock on his door was polite.
+
+He hurried to throw on his clothes and kick his bed into something resembling a made state, toss last night's take-out container in the trash, and rub the last of the sleep from his eyes before answering the door.
+
+``Mr.~Zerezghi.'' Councilor Demma's driver nodded cordially. ``The councilor would like to speak with you at your earliest convenience.''
+
+\emph{At your earliest convenience} seemed to imply right now, so Yared nodded and kicked on his sandals to follow the suit out of the hallway and into the street. The pavement and buildings had yet to start to bake, but he could tell that it would be another day of hiding inside, or skittering from one air-conditioned place to another.
+
+\emph{If I make it through this,} he thought.
+
+Demma's car was parked down the block and on the other side of the street, and Yared was pleased to see a carrier with three paper coffee cups in it sitting on the roof. If nothing else, he'd be able to wake up a little, and that would provide him some semblance of normalcy to this strange shift in protocol.
+
+``Yared, wonderful to see you. I trust you are alright?'' Demma said, once he was seated in the car, coffee in hand. It felt far too chilly.
+
+``I'm well, councilor. I wasn't expecting to talk until later today.''
+
+The politician waved the statement away and nodded toward the driver, who slid the car smoothly out into the street and drove towards, Yared assumed, the city center.
+
+``I must apologize for waking you early. Please, enjoy your coffee for a moment. I am happy to enjoy the scenery for a while.''
+
+Something about that statement, or perhaps Demma's tone of voice, made it sound more like a command than a suggestion, so Yared did just that, sipping on his coffee as it cooled, as his mind raced. \emph{Did I do something wrong? Am I being taken to prison? No, almost certainly not, if Councilor Demma is here. Why am I being made to wait? Am I supposed to feel uncomfortable, or does he actually just want me awake?}
+
+After Yared finished his coffee and set his cup aside, Demma smiled.
+
+``Mr.~Zerezghi, I would like to thank you for all of your work on the project at hand. I believe that we have both seen the ways in which it is shaping the discussion on our small part of the 'net, yes? There are other forces at work, to be sure, but your voice is loud, and our little faction is adding in resources behind the scenes, as you have no doubt noticed.''
+
+Yared nodded, waiting for the hammer to fall.
+
+``I would, however, like to know the identity of who your contacts are, sys-side.''
+
+He tilted his head. ``What? Why?''
+
+Demma sighed and set aside his own coffee. ``I have a suspicion that I know who one of them is, and I would like confirmation of that. I would appreciate if you would tell me, so that I do not need to tip my hand and send you hunting him down. You understand.''
+
+``I suppose.'' Yared bit his lip and considered the possible consequences of sharing the names of his contacts, deciding that if he shared just one, that perhaps that would be enough without compromising the identity of both. ``You say `he'. The man that I'm in discussions with is named Jonas. Is that the one you're thinking of?''
+
+The councilor groaned and slouched back into the cushy microfiber seat. ``Yes. I was afraid of that.''
+
+``How so?''
+
+``He is a very slippery man, Yared. While I suppose that it's nice that his goals align with ours on the issue of rights and secession---I can read between the lines as well as he can, I know who he's tapped phys-side---that is not always guaranteed to be the case.'' He finished his own coffee and accepted Yared's cup when offered to dispose of in the trash. ``Slippery and manipulative. I worry that you are at risk of being played by him, of becoming his puppet.''
+
+\emph{Aren't I already yours?} he thought. Instead, he said, ``He seems friendly enough, but I guess I can see how that might be used to guide me. He hasn't asked for any favors or anything, at least.''
+
+``And have you told him about our little agreement?'' When Yared quailed under Demma's gaze, the councilor shook his head. ``I cannot say I'm pleased, Mr.~Zerezghi, but I'm also not particularly surprised.''
+
+Yared wiped his palms against his thighs, shaking his head. ``He guessed, councilor. He asked, and even knew it was you. I'm sorry, sir, I don't think there's anything I could have done to stop him from doing that.''
+
+``Oh, did he now?'' Demma's laugh was earnest. ``I'm not particularly surprised at that, either, and I suppose it does let you off the hook somewhat, doesn't it?''
+
+All he could think to do was nod.
+
+``Well, if Jonas Anderson has figured out what we're up to, that does change things somewhat. I know that our latest suggestion was that you mention independence for the first time. I'd like to modify that somewhat, if you haven't already written your post.''
+
+``Not yet. I was going to do it this morning before our usual meeting.''
+
+``Yes, well, do hold off for a little longer. I would like you to change it so that you quote Jonas in mentioning independence. Do keep his name out of your posts, of course. It's probably best that he remain your `friend' and not `one of the slickest politicians in the Western Federation' when people read what you have to say.'' Demma smiled kindly, adding, ``And if I may ask you a favor, please don't consult him about this post before you send it. You're welcome to keep talking with him and whoever his companion is, we won't restrict your access to that. Perhaps they're even another copy of him. I just want to hear what his reaction is when you put the word `independence' in his mouth.''
+
+``Of course, sir.''
+
+Nodding, the councilor said, ``Thank you, Yared. I'm glad to see that we are more on the same page, now. Stay wary of Jonas Anderson, maintain your friendship, and keep me up to date about the things that he says that don't make it into your posts. As long as our goals align, we should be able to work together through you.''
+
+``You won't talk to him?'' Yared asked.
+
+``That's far to risky for my current position. It's plausibly deniable that you were already talking to him before we reached our agreement, should that agreement be made public. It's true enough, isn't it? If I were to talk to him, though\ldots{}'' He trailed off with a shrug and a half-smile.
+
+``I understand.''
+
+``I'm glad that you do.'' Demma flicked his eyes up to the driver's rear-view mirror, and the car slid to a halt in a parking spot. ``Mr.~Zerezghi, a pleasure as always. We will be keeping an eye out for your post later today.''
+
+Yared sat up, looking out through the window at the outskirts of the financial district. It would easily be an hour's walk back to his apartment, and about as long of a bus-ride. He didn't even have his phone.
+
+The councilor was already holding his hand out to shake, so there seemed to be no argument that this is where he should leave. He shook the hand, climbed out of the car, and watched it slide off into traffic once more.
+
+Trudging to the nearest bus stop, he thought, \emph{I suppose as long as this is the only punishment that I get, I shouldn't be too concerned.}
+
+At least the bus was air conditioned, and it gave him time to draft his post in his head.
+
+\begin{quote}
+I cannot express just how pleased I am to say that I have no arguments to dispute, this time!
+
+It's tempting to slack off in one's campaigning when things start to swing one's way, but even I know that complacency will provide a wedge for dissenters to gain a foothold, so, despite the heat, I'm back with another of my posts. You'll all have to live with me so long as this issue is on the table, and doubtless, you'll have to keep living with me once I pick up my next little fixation. Both friends and foes will understand, even if their opinions of that fact differ.
+
+Today, then, instead of refuting arguments, I'd just like to express some of my gratitude and provide an overview of what is going on and why it is that I'm so pleased.
+
+First, I'm happy to see that the argument about speciation has all but stopped as an argument about independence. Oh, sure, it continues elsewhere on the 'net, but it's been all but dropped from the comments about this referendum. It remains fascinating to many of us, of course. The more I talk with my friends sys-side, the more I find myself split on the idea, and even they seem to have their own opinions on it. One of them said, ``Who even cares? We're still ourselves,'' to which the other responded, ``Right, but just think about how much of a wrench that it will throw into evolution.''
+
+Second, I'm happy to see the amendment to move the System to the L\textsubscript{5} station has been tacked onto the bill. It's mostly a formality, at this point. Those who work with the System phys-side have already signed a deal with the launch coordinators, and the amendment is simply to recognize that this is the case from a governmental point of view. It may make talking to my friends somewhat more difficult, due to the transmission delay, but I'm sure we'll survive. When I joked to them that, in space, no one can hear their ceaseless banter, they agreed that it was probably for the best, and said that they were looking forward to moving to cooler climes.
+
+Last, of course, I'm pleased to see the interest that the world's governments are taking in the issue. Sure, that means that our role here on the DDR is diminished, but \emph{it is not gone.} We have as much a say in the legislation as any one of them does. This is where my caution about not slacking will pay off. We have the S-R Bloc on our side, and the various African coalitions are drifting that way as well. The Western Fed seems to be cautiously on board. But we are still waiting on hearing from the middle eastern countries, Japan, and SEAPAC, which means that we will need to stay vigilant. While I suspect that Japan will side with individual rights, and the middle east will remain largely apathetic, I have no idea which way SEAPAC will swing, so our vote must still be counted among them as a voice in favor of the referendum.
+
+Now, instead of arguing any further points, I'd like to provide you with something lighter. I know that many enjoy the little snippets of conversation that I have with my friends sys-side, so I'm going to share a bit more of that with you. It's fun, yes, but I hope that it will continue to build empathy with them and their existence, even if I am not any good at writing anything beyond polemics on the 'net. As always, I will be protecting their identities, so I will go with John and Tara for their names.
+
+When John joked about moving to the coldness of space, I, naturally, complained about the heat.
+
+``How hot is it there?'' he asked.
+
+I said, ``Right now? About 43C.''
+
+Tara said, ``Yeowch. That is far too warm.'' (This is not actually what she said. She has quite a mouth on her, but I will soften that for the sake of propriety.)
+
+John said, ``You're covered almost entirely in black fur. You'd be warm in Antarctica.''
+
+She responded, ``Well, yes, I am \emph{here}. If I were actually in Antarctica, however, I would not be covered by fur that is a part of my body. A fur coat might be nice, however.''
+
+I asked, ``How does that work, anyway? Do you feel like a human except in a different shape?''
+
+Her response was a while in coming. ``Yes and no. I look different, to be sure. Anyone who has seen a furry can probably imagine what that means. My av on the 'net allowed me some sensation of that, in that I was provided with a vague sense of touch on my tail, and the sensation of my ears had been moved higher up on my head to approximate the location where the ears of {[}my species{]} are located. Having a muzzle worked well enough. Here, though, the proprioception is complete in a way that an avatar could not hope to be. It made the avatar feel more like a set of clothes and a mask than it did an actual form. Here, it is my form. It made my avatar feel almost cartoonish, with the standard fur patterns a bit too exact and the claws on my fingers nearly identical. Here it can be---must be---as detailed as I would like. My claws wear at different rates, fur colors mingle organically. That is a sign of aposematism, did you know that? It is a warning to those who would attack to stay away. I could even smell like my species, should I choose, though I have not.''
+
+John said, ``Confirmed. She smells like flowers.''
+
+I asked, ``Why did you choose that form?''
+
+She said, ``Because I wanted to and I could. It is what I am used to from my time before uploading. I think that I originally chose it for that concept of aposematism. I had probably gone through a bad breakup and was looking for something that said, ``Stay away, I am independent.'' I had terrible luck with relationships.''
+
+John said, ``She's more independent than is good for her, sometimes.''
+
+As this was the point in the conversation that I figured I might include it in a post, I guided it toward the topic at hand, saying, ``Is that why you're so interested in individual rights?''
+
+Tara said, ``Yes, in a way. You have to understand, though, that many of the arguments against them that you have shared sound mind-boggling at best, impossible at worst.''
+
+John said, ``We're more independent than I think a lot of people phys-side give us credit for. You keep talking of us as though we're almost a separate country, and honestly, you're not wrong. We've been questioning what the reasoning is for retaining dual citizenship other than for governments that essentially have no power over us to claim the rights to whatever it is we send out. We're ungovernable by conventional standards, and I wouldn't be surprised if someone does file a referendum for us to drop the pretense and become our own country in the next few months.''
+
+I asked, ``If you did, would you participate alongside the other world governments?''
+
+John said, ``Maybe on some things, but we wouldn't be able to relate to much in the way of legislation.''
+
+Tara said, ``If we do, John will have to be the representative. He is the politician.''
+
+John replied, ``You keep saying you're not a politician like that does anything to convince people that you are anything but, my dear.''
+
+I let them banter for a bit. The only other salient point was brought up by John, who said, ``If a vote for independence does show up, make sure you vote for it. It'll make all of our lives so, so much easier.''
+
+So, that was our conversation. I hope that this helps you understand a bit more what the lives of those who live sys-side are like. They joke around. They have strong opinions. They can look like anthropomorphic animals if they want. Who cares if they're human? Who cares if their bodies have died? They're just as real as any of us, and they deserve all of the same rights.
+
+Vote for the granting of rights. Vote yes on \emph{referendum 10b30188}.
+
+Yared Zerezghi (NEAC)
+\end{quote}
+
+\noindent He read over his post a few times to make sure it looked alright, then hit post and immediately backed out from his rig. He knew that he'd come back to messages from Jonas and True Name. He couldn't guess at what their tone would be, but he knew that he wasn't ready to deal with them.
+
+He just knew that he needed something spicy to eat and at least two glasses of wine.

toledot/content/secession/phys/Yared/007.tex

@@ -0,0 +1,195 @@
+\hypertarget{yared-zerezghi-2124}{%
+\chapter{Yared Zerezghi — 2124}\label{yared-zerezghi-2124}}
+
+\begin{quote}
+\textbf{Amendment to referendum 10b30188}
+
+The entity known as the System, with regards to its inhabitants, shall hereby secede and become its own self-governing entity.
+
+\begin{enumerate}
+\def\labelenumi{\arabic{enumi}.}
+\tightlist
+\item
+  Those who have uploaded to live on the System shall no longer hold their citizenship (sometimes known as ``dual citizenship'') to their country of origin.
+\item
+  The creations of those who have uploaded to live on the System shall henceforth be considered as originating in and governed by the System as a political entity.
+\item
+  The System as a self-governing entity shall enter into trade agreements with other governmental entities for goods and services required to maintain the System as a physical entity.
+\item
+  The exchange of goods and services between the System and the governmental entity named in the trade agreement shall be binding for those two parties only.
+\item
+  The act of uploading to the System shall be considered one of emigration, and regulations around immigration shall be set only by the System.
+\item
+  No governmental entity may set undue barriers to uploading to the System beyond existing expatriation agreements, nor may they intimidate, dissuade, or otherwise hinder citizens from choosing to emigrate.
+\item
+  As a separate governmental entity, the System shall be a valid destination for asylum-seekers and refugees regardless of their reasons for seeking such, with regulations for acceptance being set by the System as a self-governing entity.
+\item
+  Due to the nature of the System, the following limitations shall be put in place on this governmental entity:
+
+  \begin{enumerate}
+  \def\labelenumii{\alph{enumii}.}
+  \tightlist
+  \item
+    It shall not provide favor to any one governmental entity over another except through the agreements set above.
+  \item
+    It shall not enact any trade embargo, tariff, or other restriction on trade against any other governmental entity.
+  \item
+    It shall not be able to declare war on any other governmental entity.
+  \item
+    No other governmental entity shall declare war on or attempt to destroy the physical elements of the System.
+  \item
+    No other governmental entity shall aid or abet another governmental entity to conspire against the System.
+  \end{enumerate}
+\item
+  The physical elements of the System including but not limited to the System hardware, resource infrastructure, and the ``Ansible system'' required for uploading shall be considered property of the System as a governmental entity, with the offices containing the ``Ansible system'' being considered an international zone.
+\item
+  The System as a governmental entity shall enact any and all regulations relating to its own governance, which no other governmental entity may hinder.
+\end{enumerate}
+
+\emph{Sponsors:}
+
+\paragraph{Direct Democracy Representative signatory}
+
+Yared Zerezghi (NEAC) via Direct Democracy Representative, author.
+
+\paragraph{Supervisory government signatory}
+
+Yosef Demma (NEAC), Councilor.
+
+\paragraph{System-side signatories}
+
+The Only Time I Know My True Name Is When I Dream of the Ode clade by way of Michelle Hadje (Council of Eight), Council-member.\\
+Jonas Prime of the Jonas clade by way of Jonas Anderson (Council of Eight), Council-member.
+
+November 28, 2124
+\end{quote}
+
+\noindent The response to the proposal was immediate and dramatic.
+
+Yared had not known what exactly it was that he was expecting, but it certainly was not an immediate division within the DDR, with one half being suddenly and intensely for the referendum and its amendments, each for their own reasons, and the other half being suddenly and intensely against the referendum for completely separate reasons he could not fathom.
+
+It was not that he hadn't expected some division, but the strength of the divisiveness of the amendment itself was alarming. Where once there had been general consensus on the issue of individual rights and the L\textsubscript{5} launch amendment, there was suddenly no guarantee that the referendum itself would actually pass. It had been a foregone conclusion, and now, in the matter of minutes, the entire thing seemed to be crumbling around him, and, with his name attached as author and DDR signatory, he was responsible.
+
+His instinct was to leave. To run. To hide. Some adrenal reaction drove him to back out of the 'net, throw on his cap and nearly sprint from his apartment.
+
+He made it the several blocks up to the useless, wooded patch of ground before he calmed down enough to realize that, not only had he left behind any chance of responding to the flurry of comments on the referendum and its amendment (unless he wanted to use the clunky interface for doing so on his phone), but also any chance of syncing up with True Name and Jonas on the events.
+
+Now here he was, huddling at the base of a scraggly tree like some hunted thing, an animal seeking only to never be seen by unknown predators. Now here he was, completely alone.
+
+And yet he couldn't force himself to rise. Couldn't force himself to get up from his crouching position, couldn't force himself to walk back to his apartment or, really, anywhere else, couldn't even force himself to pull his phone from his pocket and get in touch with\ldots well, who would he even contact? The only one he interacted with in the subject---really, the only one he interacted with offline in any sincere capacity, these last few months---was Councilor Demma.
+
+Given this reaction, that seemed ill-advised.
+
+So he sat for an hour, back pressed against the trunk of the tree, searching for anything he could think of to ground himself.
+
+With a thrill up his spine along the exocortex and a gentle ping from his implants, his phone began to ring. Fears surged within him once again, and a glance at the screen confirmed those fears.
+
+Demma.
+
+``Shit, shit.'' He stood, paced around the tree in a circle. ``Shit. Shit, goddamn.''
+
+He stared at his phone for a few long seconds, torn on whether or not to let it simply go to voicemail.
+
+Eventually, that part of his mind lost out to the desire to hopefully find some reassurance, so he tapped at the phone to answer the call.
+
+``Mr.~Zerezghi,'' the councilor said. ``Wonderful to hear from you. I was wondering if you had a few moments to talk? We stopped by the coffee shop and knocked at your door, but there was no answer.''
+
+``My apologies, councilor. I went for a walk to clear my head. I'm\ldots{}'' He squinted around at the trees, then walked back to the street he'd come up. ``I'm at the wooded park area, a ways north of my place. Does your driver know where that is?''
+
+There was a moment's muffled conversation, then, ``Of course. We'll meet you on the road, yes? The residential side?''
+
+``Yes. I'll be waiting.''
+
+After the click of Demma hanging up, Yared trudged back the way he'd come.
+
+It was a short walk of perhaps only a minute or two, but even so, the car was waiting for him, the driver already standing beside it, waiting to open the door to let him in to talk.
+
+``Yared, wonderful to see you, as always!'' Demma said cheerfully. ``Please, sit! We have much to talk about. I'm sorry that I was not able to provide our usual coffee, but there's water behind the seat if you'd like.''
+
+Settling into the cushy and cold spot that he'd found himself in so many times before, Yared shook his head. ``No, thank you. I'm sorry I wasn't at home, I wasn't expecting you.''
+
+Demma waved the comment away. ``It's alright, quite alright. We probably should have planned better on when to introduce the amendment in order to meet up afterwards, but, well, we knew it was going to be today, so we figured that you'd be ready to meet either way.''
+
+``I just\ldots I just needed a walk.''
+
+``Burning off some steam? Enjoying some fresh air?''
+
+He fiddled with the hem of his shirt for a moment, then shrugged. ``I was a little surprised by the response to the amendment. It was making me anxious, and I stepped away to calm down.''
+
+``Of course, of course.'' Demma leaned forward to pat Yared on the knee before reclining again, looking relaxed, pleased. ``I've not been monitoring the DDR myself, but my assistants have been keeping me up to date. It sounds like there's a little bit of an uproar, there. You've certainly touched a nerve.''
+
+Yared nodded, numb. He could tell he was dissociating, feeling remote from his own body, yet couldn't do anything to bring himself back to the moment.
+
+``I have some thoughts on the response, both on the DDR and among the various representatives I've talked to, but I'd like to hear your anxieties first, to see if I can soothe them.''
+
+``I just wasn't expecting it to blow up in my face like that. There was so much general agreement on the ideas you've suggested. You and Jonas, I mean. I thought that it was all vague and positive enough to seem like the natural conclusion to the ongoing conversation, and it's not like it's the first amendment I've written--''
+
+``Indeed not,'' Demma said, laughing. ``That's part of why we chose you.''
+
+``Right. So I'm just not sure why it just all immediately went wrong. There was nothing in there that hadn't already been discussed in the forums, and even on the 'net from governmental types.''
+
+The councilor tugged at his chin absentmindedly. ``I think that there are a few reasons for that, Mr.~Zerezghi. The first is that there were no other co-authors on the bill, so it looked rather sudden. Even if you've been leading the effort quite effectively, and others look up to you, I can imagine that some see it as a power-grab once you'd reached that consensus.
+
+``Another reason is that you used the word `secede', which is something of a naughty word in many jurisdictions. North America in particular has some quite strong feelings on the matter, given the troubles of the last century. Don't misunderstand me, you had to use it for legislative reasons, but it still spun several people into a panic, particularly in what remains of the United States. Does that make sense?''
+
+``Yes, I suppose, but others were already using it. Respected voices, even. It's not the first time it's come up.''
+
+``Of course, but it is the first time it's been put in front of everyone as something they must consider.''
+
+Yared frowned. ``If that's the case, then perhaps we should have waited for a separate referendum.''
+
+``No, I don't think so.'' Demma smiled, looking very much the kind, grandfatherly type. ``Or rather, our analysts didn't think so. They ran several situations through their various models and came to the conclusion that an amendment was the best path forward.''
+
+``Why, though? I don't see how introducing something so divisive would lead to anything other than either the entire referendum getting thrown out or, at best, delaying the process for months.''
+
+``There may indeed be a small delay as debate kicks up again.'' Demma nodded toward Yared. ``Which we will help you participate in, much as we have up to this point. Still, broaching the idea as an amendment is a good way to get this idea in the forefront of people's minds. They can have the debate with lower pressure on acceptance. They can always vote on the original referendum without passing the amendment, correct?''
+
+Yared nodded.
+
+``So, if that happens, at that point, we can spin it off into its own referendum, and by then, much of the debate will have already taken place, and we can continue to work through the whole process calmly, as we have been.'' He spread his hands, still smiling. ``It is all a matter of risk management, Mr.~Zerezghi. You understand.''
+
+``I suppose.''
+
+``Have you had a chance to speak with Jonas and his strangely named friend yet?''
+
+He shook his head. ``Not yet. Like I said, I started to panic and went for my walk.''
+
+Demma nodded. ``I suggest you do as soon as you get back. I'm curious to hear their opinion on the result of this amendment. I suspect they are equally curious to hear your opinion. Please report back to me what they say, as you have been.''
+
+``Alright.''
+
+``Now, here are my thoughts on the matter,'' the councilor said. ``I think the amendment will be successful, and I have three reasons why. First of all, the DDR is far easier to send into a fit than you might be giving it credit for. We've watched it for decades now. It has a very short attention span, and dramatic reactions are part of that. Voters will work themselves up into a froth on whatever the current issue is, but there will always be another issue.
+
+``Second, there \emph{will} be another referendum introduced in December. It is already being drafted up in Cairo, and will involve some issue of mid-level consequence, but one that will be of interest to many of the regular DDR voices. You'll have to pardon me for not giving you more information until the referendum is made public, but I can tell you that it will involve both the subcommittees on environment and land management.''
+
+Yared blinked. Demma was right, of course, anything to deal with land rights, especially here in the Northeast African Coalition, was bound to draw many of the loudest DDR junkies, himself included.
+
+``Should I take part in that conversation, too?'' he asked.
+
+``You can if you'd like, so long as you don't drop your focus on the current referendum completely. I don't imagine you will, given that your name is on an amendment.''
+
+He nodded.
+
+``The third reason, however, is that there is more going on behind the scenes on the governmental level than you are privy to. It's often fashionable to ascribe ill intentions to politicians, but that is because they have often borne out when scandals come to light.
+
+``There is nothing scandal-worthy here, but there are still strings to be pulled. The correct hands shaken, the correct babies kissed, the correct promises of support on the correct issues. Some of those strings are the ones that everyone can see: the campaign contributions, the baby-kissing, the promises. Some of them are not, though. Thinly veiled threats, intimidation. Who knows, perhaps even some market meddling.''
+
+Yared's baseline frown deepened, to which Demma laughed.
+
+``Politics is politics, my dear Yared. It is a game, as I'm sure you've guessed from your interactions with Jonas, just one with high stakes. When there are high stakes, one must use all the tools at one's disposal, savory or otherwise.''
+
+``I understand,'' he said, still feeling that tension in his shoulders.
+
+Still smiling, Demma soothed, ``You have made your own harsh comments, I know. You have questioned your opponent's competency. You have suggested that perhaps others band up against them and nudge them out of the debate. You have the very same toolkit, if only on a smaller scale.''
+
+He finally let his shoulders sag.
+
+``So,'' the councilor said, ticking off on his fingers. ``The DDR is easily distracted, an additional distraction will be provided, and politics will be done where required. I promise that you'll quickly see a swing in favor of the amendment. I've promised such in the past, and surely delivered.'' His voice held a tone of conclusion, as though the conversation was nearing a decisive end.
+
+Yared nodded. ``Alright, councilor. I understand. I'm still having a hard time internalizing it, but I'll work on that. Should I expect further instructions?''
+
+``You'll get them, yes, but for now, please enjoy a few days off from the issue. You've done your work for now, let it simmer, and then you can come back to it. I know it'll be hard to do, but I trust you'll find a way. Enjoy good food. Drink good coffee. Talk with good friends.'' That avuncular smile returned. ``You deserve it, Mr.~Zerezghi. And, as always, thank you for all of your hard work.''
+
+And with that, the driver pulled the door open, and it was back out into the heat of the day for him. The heat of the day, the real world, and hopefully a bit of space from the stress. Hopefully. Hopefully he'd be able to let it go for a few days.
+
+He didn't believe it for a second.

toledot/content/secession/phys/Yared/008.tex

@@ -0,0 +1,216 @@
+\hypertarget{yared-zerezghi-2124}{%
+\chapter{Yared Zerezghi — 2124}\label{yared-zerezghi-2124}}
+
+Yared was not sure how he felt that the politicians---true politicians, at least---had been right. Demma had said so, Jonas and True Name had said so, and yet something about the whole process felt slippery to him. It was a feeling beyond even that, for while that implied that it was simply politics as usual, this was something more visceral. It was slimy, like the algae that had clung to his skin after he'd gone swimming in a small pond during a visit west: something that made him, specifically, feel disgusting.
+
+Because they \emph{had} been right, hadn't they? They'd been right that there were strings to be pulled. They'd been right that politics was a game that was played by the bigger players, that the bigger players used the smaller ones as pawns, that the goal was some non-zero-sum game of pushing the populace around like a fungible good.
+
+He had been the tool, and his belief had been his utility. He was the knight moving three spaces up, one space over to outwit some other politician's bishop.
+
+They'd been right, both Demma and the sys-side pair, because support for secession had swung his way with surprising rapidity, and there had suddenly been other strident voices that had once been on the other side of the equation agreeing with him, arguing alongside him for the right of the System to become a political entity of its own.
+
+There had been a logical procession to their thought process within their posts. It wasn't some sudden coin-flip, but over the course of the week, debates on the DDR-adjacent channels, where it didn't cost credits to post, suddenly swelled, and he'd seen the light dawning in their eyes, such as they were, as they realized that the System's political landscape fundamentally differed from that phys-side---that it couldn't but differ---given the root functionality of the populace, of the reality that sims were the only way to live. It was a true anarchy. There was no ruling class because of what utility would there be for a ruling class when one could just split off and create one's own sim or set of sims, such that any attempt to rule from some central sim could simply be ignored as though it had never happened?
+
+True Name and Jonas, now openly named, had been integral in helping convince him originally, and their words had played an enormous role through him to convince others. ``There are sims in which a strict monarchy rules,'' True Name had said. ``There are places governed by a theocracy. The Catholic church remains, albeit in reduced form without a bishopric, relying solely on adherents phys-side uploading all papal pronouncements, a near exact copy of the Vatican, where the phys-side pope and cardinals are represented by scrolling fields of text. Yet what influence could they hold on any other sim? What possible sway could they hold over anyone who did not subscribe anyway?''
+
+And so he dutifully passed these on under the tutelage of Jonas and True Name and Demma, and they, too, influenced the voices on the DDR.
+
+But for the voices to swing so quickly bespoke influence beyond just him. It showed that he was not the only pawn, that many of these other strident voices that quickly changed their voices were under the control of the big players phys-side, and perhaps sys-side as well; after all, why wouldn't True Name and Jonas be talking to other DDR junkies like himself?
+
+He was too afraid of them now to ask.
+
+All he could do was sit by and watch, and pray that the secession amendment wasn't altered to include some equally slimy additions that would limit the total freedom granted by the secession.
+
+Even there, he was lucky. The clauses about declaring war had been strengthened, the clauses about asylum seekers hardened with wording surrounding the impossibility of extradition and the acknowledgement that any such seeker would no longer have a tangible effect phys-side. In fact, the only provision that had felt sour was one to cut off communication with the System from suspected terrorist cells, but it had done little to dampen the feeling of success from the overall amendment, the overall referendum.
+
+The only issue, in fact, was a personal one. All of these changes of the amendment had been made under his name. Others had convinced him to add them. Even when the sour change had been proposed, Demma had strongly suggested that it be included.
+
+The end result was that his name was inextricably linked with the amendment. He was the sole author, meaning that those who hated it---indeed, those who hated the entire referendum---began to hate him, too. They hated Yared Zerezghi specifically.
+
+And they hated with a passion.
+
+His name had become a curse in their circles. He wasn't just the man who had introduced the amendment, he was the man who poisoned any hope of control over the System, that very System that they had declared a danger or a source of labor or a host to terrorism. He, Yared Zerezghi, was personally responsible for all that was wrong with the System.
+
+When he mentioned how much he felt like a scapegoat to Demma and the pair sys-side, both had reassured him that that fervor would soon die down, and both had assured him that, as their names were also inextricably linked with the bill, they were feeling some of the same heat.
+
+He wasn't sure that he believed them, though. Politics phys-side at the governmental level did not have the same tang of personal hatred. At best, Councilor Demma might have some sort of parasocial relationship with his supporters and detractors, but at that point, he was still just a figurehead, an abstract concept of a person, and that concept was a stand-in for a power so far beyond the quotidian masses that it hardly mattered. At best, True Name and Jonas were as intricately linked to the very same anarchy that ruled the rest of the System. Their role---indeed the role of the entire Council of Eight---was one of guiding the System in the form of its core functionality, interfacing with phys-side on behalf of those sys-side, rather than interfacing solely with those sys-side.
+
+And so Yared kept taking his walks, kept eating spicy food and getting drunk on tej, anything to shed what he could of that slippery, slimy feeling that still clung to him whenever he thought too hard about his position in all of this.
+
+He had become a hero and a villain both for this, though, and there was no shaking that off.
+
+\begin{quote}
+\textbf{The Only Time I Know My True Name Is When I Dream:} What can we do to soothe your worries, Yared, except tell you that your vision is becoming reality?
+
+\textbf{Yared Zerezghi:} I don't know, really. Probably nothing. There's nothing really to be done when no one else will put their name on the amendment. I feel like it might be an intentional move by Demma and others to ensure that there is someone they can put the blame on who has an actual human face.
+
+\textbf{Ar Jonas:} That may well be true, actually. If I were still working phys-side and needed to influence a referendum from the DDR, I'd probably do the same.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Is there anything I can do about it?
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} Nope! You're stuck with it, my friend, and for that I'm sorry. The best you can hope is that everyone will forget about you, and the best you can do to ensure that is to become a loud voice on other issues, hopefully ones that a lot of people agree with, so that you simply become ``the loud voice'' instead of ``the secession guy''. This is turning into the largest issue the DDR has ever voted on, though, so it's going to take a lot of that hollering to drown your voice out.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} And even then, because your name is on it, that is likely what you will go down in the history books for.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Uuugh. I've been thinking about that, too. It makes the concept of dying terrifying. As long as I'm alive, I at least have some hope of trying to become a less divisive figure.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} You could upload. There is no death here, after all.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} I'm seriously considering it, after this. At least that way, they'll know that I really meant what I said, and then I'll become someone they don't have to worry about.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} And you can help us keep fighting the good fight by whispering in everyone's ears.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} That's \emph{precisely} why I want out, Jonas, and you know it. If feeling like some sneaky little political figure is what's making me feel bad, why on Earth would I keep doing that?
+
+\textbf{True Name:} Jonas is an asshole, do not listen to him.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} I am, yeah, and I'll have you know that True Name just punched me in the shoulder, if that's any consolation.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Do it again, and maybe I'll feel better.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} Confirmed, she did it again.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Ahhh, such relief!
+
+\textbf{True Name:} In all seriousness, Yared, do think more about uploading. We would welcome you here, and I am sure that, should anyone step down from the council (the Russians might when there is no need for their representation), you would be welcome to take their place. That would not be slimy politicking, just helping the System out.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} You two are on the Council, how would that not mean slimy politicking?
+
+\textbf{True Name:} I will let the insinuation that I am in any way a politician slide this time, but you are on thin fucking ice, buddy.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} True Name's an asshole, don't listen to her.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} Third punch to the shoulder confirmed.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} But really, no need to worry. This is 1000\% the slimiest politicking that the Council has ever done. Hell, most of the rest of the council doesn't know or care how True Name and I have been handling this. Most of the rest has been, like\ldots{}``how do we keep forking from getting out of hand?'' or ``let's set systime to start when the reputation market begins'' or ``what if we could create telepathy''. It's bullshit
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} Fun bullshit, but it's bullshit. You'd like it. It's more like volunteering to be a crossing guard than anything.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} I might, at that, yeah. I'll think about it.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} Please do, we would welcome you.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} Lighter topic: what most excites you about the prospect of uploading? Beyond getting away from ignominy and beholding True Name's indescribably beautiful countenance, I mean.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Isn't she a skunk-person?
+
+\textbf{True Name:} An indescribably beautiful skunk-person, thank you very much.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Uh, I don't know. Honestly probably meeting you two in person is the biggest draw. You seem really fun to be around.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Hopefully this isn't insensitive, but are you two a couple?
+
+\textbf{True Name:} God no.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} Jonas may be pretty, but he drives me up the wall. I would murder him in his sleep two nights in.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} If I didn't get to you, first. We're good friends, but not on that level.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Okay. Thanks for clearing that up. Was just wondering.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Wait, \emph{can} you murder other people?
+
+\textbf{True Name:} Yes. Some enterprising individual found a way to disrupt the concept of self so quickly and so thoroughly that one basically disintegrates and, just like an avatar crash on the 'net, all you are left with is a core dump, and no one has figured out how to deal with those in a place that is a consensual dream.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Seriously???
+
+\textbf{Yared:} What the fuck.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} How often does that happen?
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Fucking terrifying.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} Oh, not often at all! Three times that we know of. It is pretty hard to actually make the virus, as it does require tailoring to the specific individual, though it is equally doubtless that same enterprising individual is working on a way to make it universal. If, that is, they have not already been murdered, themselves.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} And before you ask, no, there's no way to prosecute them, even if we found them. They could just fork and keep on living somewhere else, changing themselves to look like someone else.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Ugh.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} I'll just have to trust you, I guess.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} Do you not?
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Slimy politician, remember?
+
+\textbf{True Name:} There is a punch on the shoulder waiting for you as soon as you upload, my friend.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} Tiny little skunk fists. Don't worry, they don't hurt.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} OW
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} Unless she punches you in the kidney.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Hahaha. I stand by my assessment that you two sound fun to hang out with.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Skunk, though. You can change how you look that drastically up there?
+
+\textbf{True Name:} In theory. I know of few who have actually managed to do so, though that is rapidly changing with forking.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} I am a special case due to some psychological/neurological damage from getting lost. Those up here who are furries and look it are those who so strongly identified with their furry selves on the 'net that they began to think of their human selves as as the avatars and their furry selves as the real versions.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} The reason I got around it is that Michelle's neurological issues meant that she oscillated between her human self and furry self. That also meant that I (and each of her forks) lack the effects of that damage.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} Or most of it, at least. You have mentioned the speech patterns before.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Well, I'm happy for you, even if that makes me sad for Michelle.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} She is spending her retirement relaxing, so there is little need to feel sorry.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} Is there anything else you're looking forward to, Yared?
+
+\textbf{Yared:} I suppose just getting away from the DDR. I don't think I could manage to just drop it out here, as there's not really anything else I'm interested in enough to replace it.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Up there, though, I'd be forced to do something else, and that'd really keep me from getting so anxious about everything.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} Makes sense. What sorts of things do you think you'd go for?
+
+\textbf{Yared:} I like food, I guess. I like walking. When I'm not really around here, I'm sleeping, eating, or walking. I've never had the chance to really go for a hike anywhere that isn't still in Ethiopia, but I imagine there's places like the Alps or Himalayas that are delightfully cool.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} There are, yes. Plenty.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} A lot of the earliest sims were based around nature. It's as if people immediately wanted to reach for places that they loved phys-side.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} Or to counteract the thought that they now live in a computer.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} True Name, naturally, takes the pessimistic approach.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} To turn it around, what do you both like best up there?
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} Oh shit. You can't do this to me. I'm not ready!
+
+\textbf{True Name:} He loves that he can still be a slimy politician without any of the actual hard work.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} The problem is, you're not wrong. I loved what I did phys-side, and I have to admit that I still love it here.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} I also really like coffee. Coffee and food. I get to have all of those that I want without worrying.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} Oh! And alcohol. No liver disease, and also you can choose when to sober up.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Oh damn, that's awesome. I like wine well enough, but being drunk is mostly escapism. If I could find that fun balance with friends, that'd be nice.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} You can't phys-side?
+
+\textbf{Yared:} If I had any local friends, maybe.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} Ouch. Well, you have friends up here, and we would gladly take you to bars good and bad.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} As for me, I love all of the variety in sims and people. When I am not working or sleeping, I will walk the public sims, jumping from one to another when I have had my fill of them.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} That sounds nice. I've only traveled a few times. In Ethiopia, there's different climates and such, but only so much.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} I will take you walking with me, then.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} And I'll be a slimy politician with you!
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Ugh, you're the worst.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} Anyway, thanks for letting me vent and lifting my spirits.
+
+\textbf{Yared:} I needed it.
+
+\textbf{Jonas:} Of course, Yared.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} And please remember, uploading is always an option. We would welcome you with open arms.
+
+\textbf{True Name:} I know that you will come join us, anyway, sooner or later.
+\end{quote}

toledot/content/secession/phys/Yared/010.tex

@@ -0,0 +1,112 @@
+\hypertarget{yared-zerezghi-2125}{%
+\chapter{Yared Zerezghi — 2125}\label{yared-zerezghi-2125}}
+
+If the new year were to be a thing for Yared to celebrate, that was lost on him. He had lost track of how old he was over the last year, and the passage of time had begun to smear into a haze of referenda, of voting and posting and debating. He knew the years by the seasons and the fact that all of his posts on the DDR had a date attached to them, but beyond that, the significance of December thirty-first ticking over into January first held little sway over him.
+
+If the passage of referendum 10b30188 was to be something to celebrate, that was also lost on him. The process of promoting and supporting the bill had long since taken over his life, and he had little enough energy left to acknowledge that it had even passed by a supermajority of votes.
+
+He should be celebrating both of these, he knew.
+
+He should be celebrating them because the rattle, pop, and boom of fireworks outside told him to celebrate the new year. He should be celebrating them because he was inundated not only with congratulatory messages telling him to do so for his pet issue passing, for his first major amendment passing, but for vile threats of harm, of finding him, of killing him, or for the media requests piling up in his inbox, and in the end, was that not a sign of success for a politician?
+
+He knew that he should be celebrating, most of all, because True Name and Jonas had each sent him dozens of messages telling him how the news had been received sys-side, describing the cheers of the Council of Eight, gushing about the unanimously positive moods of those who had been tracking the progression of the bill.
+
+And yet here he was, once more walking from his apartment to the patch of scrub grass and trees at the edge of his neighborhood, wishing he'd left his phone at home.
+
+The trees, at least, had nothing to say. They cared not about the new year except perhaps for the risk provided by the fireworks. They most certainly cared not for the secession of the System. All they cared about was their patch of dirt and the sun above and whether or not they got enough water. Yared wound his way around each of them in turn, sometimes sitting at the base of one or running a hand along the rough, papery bark of another, doing his best to absorb some of that apathy himself.
+
+No one, in the end, had been able to convince him that having his name inextricably linked to the secession amendment would be anything but trouble, moving forward. He had tried to pick up a new pet referendum to follow after the interest had swung hard in favor of secession, something about limiting the environmental impact of dune stabilization in the Sahara, but the first response to his post in the DDR forums was met with a derisive ``Of course the bleeding heart who either loves the System so much he bet his life guaranteeing their independence or hated it so much as to make it irrelevant to the rest of the world would be concerned about an issue he has absolutely no stake in. Either way, upload and find out, Yared, and the rest of us can move on.''
+
+That had stung so much that he'd not looked at the DDR forums or touched the debate sims since except to ensure that the referendum had passed. He was tempted to delete his account, after that, though he knew that that would be a mistake, inviting either further scorn from his detractors or disappointment from his supporters.
+
+He jumped from where he'd hunched down at the base of a tree, poking around the roots with a stick. His implants buzzed again and he pulled out his phone to check on who it was, groaning at the sight of Demma's name.
+
+``Mr.~Zerezghi,'' the voice on the other end said, sounding cheerful. ``Happy New Year. I was wondering if you would be so kind as to join us for the tail end of our celebrations?''
+
+``Join..?''
+
+``Of course, Yared. Are you at your park? We can meet you there and pick you up. The dress is semiformal. We can provide you with that, if you need.''
+
+``Celebration?'' he said, numb.
+
+Demma laughed. ``Of course, Yared. We'll meet you momentarily, and you'll see.''
+
+The car was once more ready and waiting for him at the edge of his mini-forest, still humming slightly from the radiator fan and air conditioner. The driver was once more standing outside, though this time he had a long thawb draped over one arm, gold brocade peeking out through folds in the cream-colored fabric.
+
+``This should fit over your current clothes, Mr. Zerezghi. Might as well put it on out here where you can move a bit more easily.''
+
+It had been a long time since Yared had worn a thawb, and it took a moment to navigate so much fabric, but soon, he had it up over his head and spilling down over his body, the linen tumbling down nearly to his ankles. It really was quite nice, too. The linen was pre-worn and soft, and the gold brocade ran in two thick stripes from shoulder to hem down his front. It felt somewhat bunched up with his shirt beneath it, but wasn't uncomfortable.
+
+The driver nodded appreciatively, saying, ``It looks good on you. Your shirt underneath may ride up, but feel free to slip off to a restroom when we arrive and you'll be able to take it off and check it at the coatroom.''
+
+Yared nodded, smiled as best he could, and bowed to the driver. It was the first time he'd seen the man's eyes, and he was pleased to note that they looked as though they were always a second away from crinkling in a smile.
+
+In the back of the car, Demma greeted him with a warm smile of his own, while a rather severe looking woman leaned forward to shake his hand.
+
+``Yared, I'd like to introduce you to Councilor Aida Tamrat,'' Demma said, gesturing. ``Aida, this is Yared Zerezghi, the author of the secession amendment.''
+
+``A pleasure, of course,'' she said. ``Thank you for all of your hard work.''
+
+Overwhelmed, he simply bowed as best he could from his cushy seat in the back of the car.
+
+From there, he said little, having little enough chance to speak. Demma and Tamrat continued their conversation from before, which seemed, on the surface, to be about the party they'd just come from---who was with whom, who wore what, what drinks had been most common---yet seemed to carry serious undertones of deep study, as though all of this information taken as a whole showed some gestalt of the political momenta this way and that. The driver, of course, remained silent, so all Yared could do was sit, smile, and nod when addressed.
+
+The short ride down familiar streets took them back to Government House, but this time, rather than simply sitting outside of the building, the car was waved through a gate and directed down a ramp to a parking garage underneath. From there, they were subjected to a security scan---pat-down and implant scan both---and whisked up a flight of stairs, through long halls, and eventually deposited in a chamber crowded with more nicely dressed persons drinking champagne from thin flutes.
+
+\emph{Very} nicely dressed, he quickly realized, and he wondered if not dressing him up more had been an attempt to make him wear his status as a lesser-than plainly.
+
+Later that night, nearing two in the morning, he realized that he could remember little of the party. He was handed a champagne flute and passed around the room as though an interesting object. Councilors and dignitaries of various levels shook his hand, smiled to him with unsmiling eyes, and once again congratulated him on a job well done.
+
+``These are the interested parties I've mentioned,'' Demma said at one point. ``They're all pleased to meet you in person.''
+
+If that was the case, then that pleasure had been slight indeed.
+
+Perhaps the party slipped so easily from his mind due to the sheer mundanity of it, but more likely, it was the following conversation that overshadowed it in importance.
+
+In the car, as he was being returned to his house, Demma broke the tired silence with, ``Yared, thank you again for your assistance in this project. I have a few requests to make of you before we part ways.''
+
+Yared nodded hesitantly. ``Of course, councilor.''
+
+``First of all, I hope you understand that your continued discretion is of the utmost importance. It is key to our trust and to your own safety and security.'' There was a meaningful pause before Demma smiled. ``From potential bad actors, of course.''
+
+``Yes, of course,'' he said, starting to rub his palms against his knees before he remembered that he was still wearing the long garment he had been loaned.
+
+``Thank you. Secondly, please do not contact me or any of the interested parties you met at tonight's soiree. This, I think, shall be easy, as many of them are quite difficult to reach, and the contact information we provided you with to stay in touch is now no longer active.''
+
+He nodded again, silent.
+
+``Third, keep in mind that, as you are now a person of interest to the government, all of your actions will be monitored simply as a matter of course. Please also note that your interactions on the direct democracy representative forums will be monitored closest of all, and should they deviate from NEAC majority party or coalition stance, you may be subject to reprisal.''
+
+Yared's breathing grew shallow. This was unheard of. As far as he could remember, a government had never required a single individual to tow the party line. But then, perhaps it was unheard of due to the implicit threat of violence that Demma had dropped early on, unheard of because it had never reached the light of day. He nodded slowly.
+
+``Excellent. Those are the three requests. In order to formalize this agreement, I'd like you to place your thumb here--'' the councilor had pulled out his phone where a rectangle outlined where his thumbprint should wind up. ``--and state aloud that you agree.''
+
+He hesitated long enough that Demma began to frown, but before any further encouragement was given, he did as he was told, pressing his thumb to the reader and saying, ``I agree.''
+
+``Thank you, Mr. Zerezghi.'' He sighed and slumped back into his seat. ``My apologies for the rather formal interaction, but it was necessary to get this out of the way.''
+
+Yared did not relax into his seat. He was as keyed up as he'd been before the night had begun, but now for entirely different reasons.
+
+After a long silence, he spoke up. ``Congratulations, councilor.''
+
+``Mm?'' Demma sat up, then, comprehending, waved a hand dismissively. ``Thank you. The bill passed as expected, and now we won't have to worry about it.''
+
+Yared frowned. ``Do you think there will be any further legislation around the System?''
+
+``The System?'' The councilor gave a short, sharp bark of a laugh. ``It's out of our way, as I say. Rubbish idea from the start, of course, but meddlesome minds will always meddle, so it's all we can do to keep them as far away from us as possible.''
+
+``I\ldots don't understand. What do you mean?''
+
+Demma grinned. ``There's no need for you to, but I'll do my best to explain if it will keep you placated. The System is a nuisance and a political thorn in everyone's side. It needed removal---as any thorn does---before the infection spread. Anyone who held onto their citizenship while making a one-way journey to a nowhere we aren't even sure is real could still have had influence back in their so-called home countries. Look at Jonas, if you need a prime example. Now they can't. That's that. It's a dumping ground for dreamers, and the less of those we have here, the easier our jobs get.''
+
+``But I thought,'' Yared said, voice raw. ``I thought you wanted to help them secede.''
+
+Demma only shrugged. ``I did. Just maybe not for the same reasons as you.''
+
+``I'm sorry, councilor. I had been under the impression--''
+
+``You, too, are a dreamer, Yared. One who is easy enough to control, but a dreamer nonetheless.'' Demma said, his smile kind and completely, totally discomfiting for it. ``If you wish to continue dreaming, then, well, I suppose I have already made my point about the System, yes?''
+
+The rest of the car ride proceeded in silence. The only other words that were spoken to him were by the driver as he helped Yared out of the loaned thawb.
+
+``Mr. Zerezghi, it was a pleasure sharing coffee with you,'' he said, and then they were gone, black car disappearing into gold-lit night.