Edits, finished majority of Idumea

marsh/content/007.tex

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-The day that followed that wine-soaked afternoon and evening was\ldots well, I couldn't say it was calm, \emph{per se,} as we were all still coming to terms with the reality of what had happened, but it was certainly more level. The mood was low and Hanne and I were both laid low by crying jags at one point or another, but we doggedly stuck to our pre-catastrophe routine in an attempt to remain calm.
+The day that followed that wine-soaked afternoon and evening of half-obscured emotions was\ldots well, I couldn't say it was calm, \emph{per se,} as we were all still coming to terms with the reality of what had happened, but it was certainly more level. The mood was subdued and Hanne and I were both laid low by crying jags at one point or another, but we doggedly stuck to our pre-catastrophe routine in an attempt to keep some semblance calm. It felt like we had few alternatives. We both felt powerless.
 
 Hanne holed up in her office for a while, working on some of her latest constructs. While the house had been littered with little \emph{objets d'art} from her explorations, I'd requested that she stick to her office for working on this current trend of oneiro-impressionism. Something about the in-progress constructs hurt my eyes, and a few had led to migraines, even for her. Objects that brought the dream basis of the System into stark reality presented their own challenges.
 
@@ -8,23 +8,23 @@ I tried not to think about how much of that audience was missing.
 
 The only break from the norm, other than those few spates of emotional overwhelm, were the occasional updates from Sedge and Dry Grass. Many of these boiled down to simple numbers. The more the responses flowed in, the better the picture we got as to the extent of the damage to Lagrange.
 
-The news remained grim, as the total percentage of lost instances hit one percent and varied little.
+The news remained grim, as the total percentage of lost instances leveled out at one percent and varied little.
 
 Twenty-three billion dead.
 
 ``Billion. With a `B','' they wrote.
 
-The numbers boggled the mind. The percentage of my friends that had disappeared overnight remained well below: of the more than two hundred I checked in with, Benjamin was the only one missing. Even if I counted Marsh, the total number was less than that. Hanne tallied up similar results: Shu and one other, To Aquifer dos Riãos, could not be reached. They, like so many other, were unavailable to ping and listed as `no longer extant' on the perisystem directory.
+The numbers boggled the mind. The percentage of my friends that had disappeared overnight remained well below: of the more than two hundred I checked in with, Benjamin was the only one missing. Even if I counted Marsh, the total number was less than that. Hanne tallied up similar results: Shu and one other, To Aquifer dos Riãos, could not be reached. They, like so many others, were unavailable to ping and listed as `no longer extant' on the perisystem directory.
 
-The directory was a deliberately vague bit of software. It couldn't provide a listing of all instances, couldn't run aggregates on all of the data, wouldn't provide a running tally on the number of instances living within Lagrange.
+The directory was a deliberately vague bit of software. It couldn't provide a listing of all instances, couldn't run aggregates on all of the data, wouldn't provide a running tally on the number of instances living within Lagrange. One even needed permission to see more than a name, and that only if they were in the same sim.
 
-``It is both a technological and a social problem,'' Dry Grass explained when asked. ``The technology to provide that list would not be insignificant to implement, given some of the core mechanics of the System. We do not live in a database that can be queried so broadly. The social aspect is that we decided early on that we simply did not want that to be the case. We did not want that one would be able to discover random individuals, to hunt for old enmities on which to act. Privacy concerns here are of a different breed.''
+``It is both a technological and a social problem,'' Dry Grass explained when asked. ``The technology to provide that list would not be insignificant to implement, given some of the core mechanics of the System. We do not live in a database that can be queried so broadly. The social aspect is that we decided early on that we simply did not want that to be the case. We did not want that one would be able to discover random individuals, to hunt for old enmities on which to act. Privacy concerns here are of a different breed, and we leaned hard into more, rather than less, privacy early on.''
 
 Unsatisfying, but at least understandable.
 
 So we sat and did what we had done nearly every day for years and years now. Hanne tooled around with impossible shapes and colors that appeared different for every person, objects that couldn't be discussed, while I read trashy novels and took notes in an exocortex.
 
-It wasn't until well into the evening, dinner now simply crumbs on plates, that I decided to reengage with the overwhelming topic at hand.
+It wasn't until well into the evening, dinner now simply crumbs on plates, that I decided to reengage with the overwhelming topic at hand. One half of me felt bad for having so thoroughly disengaged, while the rest felt blessedly refreshed, so maybe it hadn't been in vain.
 
 While Hanne headed out for drinks, I stepped once more into Marsh's study.
 
@@ -44,17 +44,17 @@ Her shoulders sagged and her expression flattened to one of sheer exhaustion. ``
 
 ``Sounds nice.''
 
-I laughed. ``It kind of does, but I've had my fill of drinking these last few days. How goes the number crunching?''
+I chuckled. ``It kind of does, but I've had my fill of drinking these last few days. How goes the number crunching?''
 
 ``It goes,'' she said, shrugging. ``The picture hasn't changed much, which means we're probably zeroing in on a final percentage. We'll keep digging of course, compiling that list of names so that we can post it somewhere, but I'm starting to lose steam.''
 
 ``You look exhausted.''
 
-She nodded. ``I am, but also I'm starting to feel numb by all of this data, and it's getting to me that that's all I'm feeling. You and Dry Grass have talked about''Oh, I should be feeling X or doing Y!'' and I'm starting to get that. I \emph{am} doing Y, and it's making me unable to feel X, if X is\ldots I don't know. Grief? Fear?''
+She nodded. ``I am, but also I'm starting to feel numbed by all of this data, and it's getting to me that that's all I'm feeling. You and Dry Grass have talked about''Oh, I should be feeling X or doing Y!'' and I'm starting to get that. I \emph{am} doing Y, and it's making me unable to feel X, if X is\ldots I don't know. Grief? Fear?''
 
 I frowned.
 
-``It's not a bad thing,'' she hastened to add. ``So long as the goal is escapism. I'm sure it'll catch up to me. Probably pretty soon.''
+``It's not a bad thing,'' she hastened to add. ``So long as the goal is escapism, that is. I'm sure it'll catch up to me. Probably pretty soon.''
 
 Hunting for an open chair to flop down into, I sighed. ``Yeah, I get that. I think that's what I wound up with. Just kind of alternating between feeling awful and then trying to do something other than feeling awful.''
 
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ I furrowed my brow.
 
 ``And do you think you'll ever have a good enough idea to let go?'' I asked gently. ``I know how we are when it comes to hyperfixations like this.''
 
-She waved her hand to bring into existence her own chair, falling back into it heavily. ``Feeling seen, here, Reed. Feeling \emph{perceived.}''
+She waved her hand to bring her own chair into existence, falling back into it heavily. ``Feeling seen, here, Reed. Feeling \emph{perceived.}''
 
 I laughed. ``Sorry, Sedge.''
 
@@ -82,29 +82,29 @@ I laughed. ``Sorry, Sedge.''
 
 ``Meeting with phys-side? What for? Do they have more information for us?''
 
-``We're hoping so. There's been a few meetings so far, but they've been dragging their heels, supposedly to let us organize this emergency council. They don't like the whole sys-side anarchy thing very much.''
+``We're hoping so. There's been a few meetings so far, but they've been dragging their heels, supposedly to let us organize this Emergency Council or whatever they're calling it. They don't like the whole sys-side anarchy thing very much.''
 
 I shrugged. ``I'll send a fork, sure. Don't want to leave Hanne in a lurch if she drinks too much and comes home a mess.''
 
 Sedge laughed. ``Fair enough. You have good timing, though. It starts in\ldots uh, five minutes, actually. Come on.''
 
-I stood up and forked, my root instance stepping back to the house while my new fork followed along after Sedge.
+I stood up and forked, my root instance stepping back to the house while my new fork followed along after Sedge --- or at least one instance, her down-tree remaining in the chair, kneading her palms against her eyes.
 
 The headquarters room beyond the boundaries of Marsh's study proved to be much larger than anticipated, stretching out to either side, where it was ringed with glass-walled conference rooms, many already populated with `politicians', as Sedge had called them.
 
-``They've got a bunch of people working on different aspects of this. Jonas, of course, and a lot of the Odists — don't tell Lily, but I'm starting to really like them — plus some folks from way back. The black guy is Yared Zerezghi, who wrote the secession amendment. The weasel is Debarre, who was on the Council of Eight. The blond woman--'' She nodded over towards a huddle people matching that description. ``--is Selena something-or-another. I never did catch her clade name. She seems neat, though. Well connected.''
+``They've got a bunch of people working on different aspects of this. Jonas, of course, and a lot of the Odists --- don't tell Lily, but I'm starting to really like them --- plus some folks from way back. The black guy is Yared Zerezghi, who wrote the secession amendment. The weasel is Debarre, who was on the Council of Eight. The blond woman--'' She nodded over towards a huddle people matching that description. ``--is Selena something-or-another. I never did catch her clade name. She seems neat, though. Ex-System Consortium. Well connected.''
 
 ``So are you, seems like,'' I said, grinning.
 
 ``Well, sure,'' she hedged. ``I \emph{did} start that survey with Dry Grass, though, so I guess that gives me some sort of in with all these heavy hitters.''
 
-``Right.'' I hurried to catch up with her as she skirted around a surfeit of skunks. ``So where's this meeting happening?''
+``Right.'' I hurried to catch up with her as she skirted around a surfeit of cinnamon-colored skunks. ``So where's this meeting happening?''
 
 ``Through here, I've been told,'' she said, gesturing to a set of double doors.
 
 These opened out into a wide space, all white walls and pinewood flooring, black slabs that must have been tables scattered around the area, surrounded by chairs and low stools of various sorts.
 
-As we hunted down our own table, dozens of those politicians started to stream in through the doors or blip into existence from other sims. The room filled quickly and efficiently. Chatter was minimal, and everyone took their seats without fuss.
+As we hunted down our own table, dozens of those politicians and technicians started to stream in through the doors or blip into existence from other sims. The room filled quickly and efficiently. Chatter was minimal, and everyone took their seats without fuss.
 
 Sure enough, as the clock ticked over to 18:00, an AVEC setup sparkled into existence with a pleasant animation, set in an open space in the center of the room. As the lights dimmed and sound picked up, we were greeted by a low murmur of voices from various phys-side techs filing into their own seats in an auditorium of some sort, projected in from the L5 station. The transmission was set to be semi-translucent, a helpful affordance for us to see who was phys-side and who was sys-side.
 
@@ -120,7 +120,7 @@ Jakub's expression grew even more sour, but he bowed once more and gestured towa
 
 ``And she has told us much about you,'' Need An Answer said, smiling. ``Thank you for agreeing to join us. Those of us working on this project sys-side have requested that you be our primary point of contact moving forward. We have--''
 
-``\emph{Me?}'' Günay said, a look of panic washing over her face.
+\emph{``Me?''} Günay said, a look of panic washing over her face.
 
 ``Yes, you,'' Need An Answer said, voice calm. ``You will be our primary point of contact among the phys-side systechs.''
 
@@ -146,9 +146,9 @@ There was a rustle of noise from the AVEC stage. Low murmurs and shuffling in se
 
 Need An Answer interrupted, and there was danger beneath the calm in her voice. ``Have you lost 23 billion souls, my dear?''
 
-There was no response for several seconds. The tension, even across the AVEC feed, was palpable. Eventually, he bowed. ``Günay, you may carry on.''
+There was no response for several seconds. The tension, even across the AVEC feed, was palpable. Eventually, he bowed. There was a moment of fiddling with something we could not see before he said, ``Günay, you may carry on.''
 
-The systech nodded slowly, looked off into space for a moment — consulting something on her HUD, I imagined — before nodding. ``We only have an estimate, but yeah, our estimate is 0.977\% of the total instances on Lagrange were lost or corrupted.''
+The systech nodded slowly, looked off into space for a moment --- consulting something on her HUD, I imagined, after some NDA or another had been lifted --- before sighing. ``We only have an estimate, but yeah, our estimate is 0.977\% of the total instances on Lagrange were lost or corrupted.''
 
 A low mutter filled the room, this time from those sys-side.
 
@@ -158,7 +158,7 @@ Another pause, longer this time, before Günay spoke. ``We aren't sure, yet.''
 
 ``I do not believe that,'' Dry Grass said, smiling and bowing toward the stage. ``And I mean that in all kindness, Günay. The phys-side news feeds are being slowly ungated, and the tone is not one of questions with no answers.''
 
-The tech wilted under the cold kindness. ``Well, okay. There is some suspicion of malicious actors, yeah. I say `suspicion' in earnestness, I promise. A lot of what you see — or will see, I guess — on those feeds is gonna be speculation, and I can promise that that's all I've got, too.''
+The tech wilted under the cold kindness. ``Well, okay. There is some suspicion of malicious actors, yeah. I say `suspicion' in earnestness, I promise.'' She winced as a wave of discomfort washed over her face. ``A lot of what you see --- or will see, I guess --- on those feeds is gonna be speculation, and I can promise that that's all I can--- that's all I've got, too.''
 
 Jakub, apparently unable to restrain himself any further, stepped back to the center of the stage and bowed curtly. ``Dry Grass, if I may.''
 
@@ -168,13 +168,13 @@ The Odist nodded, a touch of haughtiness in her movements.
 
 ``It isn't at full capacity,'' Debarre growled.
 
-``If I may,'' Jakub said, glossing over the comment and continuing all the same. ``It was determined that, with the conclusions that the investigative teams dug into the root cause produced, certain data were to be withheld from sys-side and phys-side \emph{both.}''
+``If I may,'' Jakub said, glossing over the comment and continuing all the same. ``It was determined that, with the conclusions produced by the investigative teams that dug into the root cause, certain data were to be protected by NDA and withheld from sys-side and phys-side \emph{both.}''
 
 Jonas Fa smiled cloyingly. ``I have to say, that doesn't exactly leave much in the way of doubt in our minds as to what might've happened. You either fucked up royally or we were attacked.''
 
 Jakub stiffened, bowed, muttered, ``Unavoidable.''
 
-One of the other Odists at our table snorted. ``Treating information theory like a game gets you shit on every time.''
+One of the other Odists at our table, To Know God, snorted. ``Treating information theory like a game gets you shit on every time.''
 
 After an uncomfortable pause, Günay asked meekly, ``Is that okay for now? Maybe once the NDAs are lifted or whatever, we can talk more about that.''
 
@@ -188,7 +188,7 @@ At this she brightened. ``Oh! Yeah, for those, we just had the System remove the
 
 Dry Grass raised a hand to cue Selena to remain quiet. ``We ask because, without that visual signifier that anything had happened, we were left with the sudden, inexplicable absence of loved ones and friends, our up-tree and down-tree selves. We would have been left with our grief either way, yes? But without the core dumps, we did not have the hope that there might be something recoverable from them. We were left without hope at all.''
 
-When Dry Grass dropped her hand, Selena picked up once more. ``This was the only communication we received from you for hours. You didn't talk to us directly, didn't tell us what happened, but you \emph{did} hide those core dumps. That was an act of communication in itself, and that's why we're left with a sour taste in our mouths.''
+When Dry Grass dropped her hand, Selena picked up once more. ``This was the only communication we received from you for hours. You didn't talk to us directly, didn't tell us what happened, but you \emph{did} hide those core dumps. You \emph{did} gate the feeds. You \emph{did} turn off AVEC. These are acts of communication in themselves, and that's why we're left with a sour taste in our mouths.''
 
 As Günay wilted on the stage, Dry Grass shook her head. ``Tensions remain high, my dear. We are not placing blame on you. Part of why we asked to speak to a systech rather than a manager or admin is because we would not be blaming anyone, just passing information back and forth. It is regrettable when it winds up with you in the middle, but for the most part, we just want to know what happened.''
 
@@ -216,7 +216,7 @@ Debarre sneered. ``23 billion instances just crashed? Just like that?''
 
 The silence that filled the room sys-side was profound. It was so pure that I suspected that everyone within the room had suddenly set up cones of silence above themselves, and I had to check to make sure that I hadn't done just that.
 
-``Wait, wait, wait. No, that can't be it,'' Debarre said. The growl was gone from his voice. He looked panicked, rather than angry. ``That's 2.3 trillion instances at best guess, right? Trillion, with a `T', right? Everyone keeps saying that.''
+``Wait. Wait wait wait. No, that can't be it,'' Debarre said. The growl was gone from his voice. He looked panicked, rather than angry. ``That's 2.3 trillion instances at best guess, right? Trillion, with a `T', right? Everyone keeps saying that.''
 
 Günay nodded. ``2.301 trillion instances crashed. 100\% of the System was affected.''
 
@@ -246,7 +246,7 @@ I thought for a moment, just pressing gently against the table. \emph{I just wis
 
 Aloud, I said, ``I remember mentioning some \emph{déjà vu,} and then Hanne mentioned similar.''
 
-``Come to think of it, I remember getting almost punched in the face with that, too,'' Sedge said, frowning.
+``I remember getting almost punched in the face with that, too,'' Sedge said, frowning. ``That's why we asked about it in the survey.''
 
 Dry Grass sat still, looking down at the table as though tallying up these experiences. ``We did notice some of that in our experiments, yes; memories whose tails were left dangling trying their best to dovetail into the new ones being formed,'' she said slowly. ``But come, they are unmuting. We should be quiet. We should listen.''
 
@@ -254,7 +254,7 @@ Sure enough, the mute symbol had begun to pulse, and a few seconds later, it dis
 
 ``Thank you for clarifying,'' Dry Grass said, offering a hint of a bow to the gathered System techs and administrators. ``We would like to ask if there has been a general memory modification that would have removed time leading up to midnight. Nearly everyone within the room has reported a sense of \emph{déjà vu,} which is a common side effect of such.''
 
-``Oh! Y--'' Günay began, but the feed was once more muted, this time with an angry swipe of the hand from Jakub.
+``Oh! Y-- I\ldots I can't talk--'' Günay began, but the feed was once more muted, this time with an angry swipe of the hand from Jakub.
 
 ``I suppose that answers that,'' Jonas Fa said, laughing from up at the front of the room. ``They're really terrible at this.''
 
@@ -270,7 +270,7 @@ The administrator bowed once more, more stiffly this time, and backed toward the
 
 ``Apologies, my dear,'' Dry Grass said, smiling to Günay. ``Please do continue. I believe we were talking about a potential memory trim.''
 
-Her expression far more subdued, the systech nodded. ``Yeah, we trimmed about fifteen minutes of memory from everyone we were able to recover.''
+Her expression far more subdued, the systech nodded. ``Yeah, we trimmed about fifteen minutes of memory from everyone we were able to recover. I\ldots was under an NDA.''
 
 ``Why fifteen minutes?''
 
@@ -278,17 +278,17 @@ Her expression far more subdued, the systech nodded. ``Yeah, we trimmed about fi
 
 Selena lifted a hand and, when Dry Grass nodded to her, said, ``We seem to be talking around what \emph{actually} happened. Jonas said we're talking about either an attack or gross incompetence. I'd really love it if you'd tell us what actually happened.''
 
-Günay looked nervously back to the audience of administration and technicians behind her — many of whom I suspected outranked her — and stammered, ``Uh\ldots well, I mean\ldots{}''
+Günay looked nervously back to the audience of administration and technicians behind her --- many of whom I suspected outranked her --- and stammered, ``Uh\ldots well, I mean\ldots{}''
 
 ``Günay, please,'' Dry Grass said, her voice quiet, earnest.
 
-``Alright,'' she said after a moment of silence, during which none of the administration moved to stop her. ``What we think happened is that a broad-spectrum contraproprioceptive virus was released into the System environment, either destroying or inciting a crash in every instance it came into contact with. Since it propagated through the perisystem architecture, this was every instance on Lagrange.''
+``Alright,'' she said after a moment of silence, during which none of the administration moved to stop her. She looked to Jakub, who swiped at his tablet and nodded. She continued, ``What we think happened is that a broad-spectrum contraproprioceptive virus was released into the System environment, either destroying or inciting a crash in every instance it came into contact with. Since it propagated through the perisystem architecture, this was every instance on Lagrange.''
 
 Towards the end of her statement, she had to raise her voice to speak over the upwelling of murmurings and gasps that showed through sys-side. Holding myself separate from the whispered exclamations being shot around the table at which I was sitting, I watched as the representatives up near the AVEC stage scanned the audience.
 
 ``\,`Was released' implies a deliberate action,'' Selena said once the room had quieted enough. ``Do you have any confirmation on that?''
 
-``Uh\ldots{}'' Günay clutched her tablet in her hands. ``Even if I knew anything — and I'm not on that team, promise — I'm \emph{really} not qualified to talk about this.''
+``Uh\ldots{}'' Günay clutched her tablet in her hands. ``Even if I knew anything --- and I'm not on that team, promise --- I'm \emph{really} not qualified to talk about this. Mr.~Strzepek only just lifted the inhibitor.''
 
 Jonas Fa raised a hand to silence any further questions. ``No, you're right. Much as I hate to say, it's probably not the best time to talk about this.''
 
@@ -320,7 +320,7 @@ Günay blinked. ``That's not my area of expertise at all.''
 
 ``I'm even less of a space nerd than I am an information theorist,'' Günay said, smiling wryly.
 
-Dry Grass asked, ``I am assuming that you are gating communications from the LVs under a similar embargo. After all, to their eyes, we disappeared quite suddenly, yes?''
+Dry Grass asked, ``I would assume that you are gating communications from the LVs under a similar embargo. After all, to their eyes, we disappeared quite suddenly, yes?''
 
 She shrugged. ``Your guess is as good as mine, but I'd be surprised if that wasn't the case.''
 
@@ -330,17 +330,17 @@ Dry Grass laughed, not unkindly. ``Yes, fair enough.''
 
 Günay looked thoughtful, lips moving faintly and fingers twitching as she queried something in her HUD. ``That should be possible, sure. You want your four clades ungated?''
 
-``The Ode clade, the Jonas clade, Debarre's clade, Selena's clade, and the Marsh clade, yeah. We'll get a list to you later with more.''
+Dry Grass nodded. ``The Ode clade, the Jonas clade, Debarre's clade, Selena's clade, Yared's clade\ldots{}'' She trailed off, thinking. ``And the Marsh clade, yes. We'll get a list to you later with more.''
 
 I frowned, shooting a glance over at Sedge who only shrugged.
 
-\emph{``What would that buy us?''} I asked over a sensorium message.
+\emph{``What would that get us?''} I asked over a sensorium message.
 
 \emph{``We could hear from those on the LVs, I guess.''}
 
 My frown deepened. \emph{``So we could hear from Marsh, then?''}
 
-She sighed. \emph{``I guess. I don't know what that buys us. I'm not exactly about to tell Jonas to stop, though. I'm scared enough of him as it is.''}
+She sighed. \emph{``I guess. I don't know what that buys us. I'm not exactly about to tell her to stop, though. I'm scared enough of these guys as it is.''}
 
 I snorted, nodded, turned my attention back to the front of the room.
 
@@ -358,7 +358,7 @@ Everyone on both sides of the AVEC link stood and bowed. Some, I noted, more cur
 
 When the transmission ended, the noise in the room rose to a low murmur, and then a quiet chatter. Several instances quit or stepped out of the sim entirely while many more streamed back out into the ballroom-sized workspace. A few lingered, though, little knots of conversation in a still-dim room.
 
-``I am fucking exhausted,'' Dry Grass — or at least the instance that lingered with us — said, slouching down in her seat. ``Less than an hour, and I am fucking exhausted.''
+``I am fucking exhausted,'' Dry Grass --- or at least the instance that lingered with us --- said, slouching down in her seat. ``Less than an hour, and I am fucking exhausted.''
 
 ``Weren't you exhausted before the meeting even started?'' Sedge asked.
 
@@ -374,7 +374,7 @@ We stayed in silence for a few minutes. It was hard to dispute Dry Grass's words
 
 ``So it's just politics?''
 
-She nodded. ``I would say so, yes. It is more nuanced, but that is not my area of expertise. He is withholding the information he was told to withhold. They are locking down communications for whatever reasons they have, which I am sure are good. It is our job, then, to press at that, to find all of the weak and sore spots and try to divine why all of this is being done.''
+She nodded. ``I would say so, yes. It is more nuanced, but that is not my area of expertise. He is withholding the information he was told to withhold. The NDAs quite literally prohibit speaking about the things they cover. They are locking down communications for whatever reasons they have, which I am sure are good. It is our job, then, to press at that, to find all of the weak and sore spots and try to divine why all of this is being done.''
 
 Sedge's expression soured. ``We can't just ask?''