Toledot minus epilogue

toledot/content/launch/launch/Codrin-castor/002.tex

@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ It was just a lot.
 
 The first time that Codrin had stepped away from the house when Dear was being a lot, the fox had gone into a small sulk, sending Codrin a curt apology via sensorium message and not responding when Codrin said that ey'd be back in a bit. They had soothed ruffled fur over dinner. Now, when Codrin stepped out to take a break from a very intense fennec, ey would leave with a reassurance and still take comfort in the loneliness of the prairie.
 
-Dear had been a lot today. Codrin had suggested that they do an interview together after Ioan had sent both launches---Castor and Pollux---a note asking that Codrin include the trio's reasons for leaving as well as those ey would be interviewing.
+Dear had been a lot today. Codrin had suggested that they do an interview together after Ioan had sent both launches—Castor and Pollux—a note asking that Codrin include the trio's reasons for leaving as well as those ey would be interviewing.
 
 \emph{``We already told em that our fireside stories would be the only reasons we would send.''}
 
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ But it had stopped talking about regrets once the project had been completed. It
 
 \emph{``Well, okay, yes. But still! The Bălan clade! How delightful!''}
 
-Was it something to do with the clade? The Odists had been around long enough---what had Dear said? After Secession? 2130 something? Still almost two centuries---that there was certainly enmity between the various factions, perhaps there was some regret there.
+Was it something to do with the clade? The Odists had been around long enough—what had Dear said? After Secession? 2130 something? Still almost two centuries—that there was certainly enmity between the various factions, perhaps there was some regret there.
 
 Ey sat before the cairn so that it came up to eye level, and watched the long, slow sunset begin.
 
@@ -145,7 +145,7 @@ Its partner had a strange look on their face, somewhere between anxiety and drea
 
 Codrin shrugged, nodded. ``If it's a story about you, I don't see a reason why not.''
 
-\emph{``Thank you, dear. But no, I uploaded in 2117. I---Michelle---was one of the Council of Eight.''}
+\emph{``Thank you, dear. But no, I uploaded in 2117. I—Michelle—was one of the Council of Eight.''}
 
 Ey coughed on eir next sip of wine. ``What? You were? Uh\ldots holy shit.'' Ey looked to it's partner. ``You knew this? I don't mean that in an accusatory way, sorry. I'm just a little shocked. More than a little.''
 
@@ -159,13 +159,13 @@ Ey coughed on eir next sip of wine. ``What? You were? Uh\ldots holy shit.'' Ey l
 
 Codrin nodded dumbly.
 
-\emph{``We pooled our money and uploaded together. He was also on the Council.''} Dear sighed and rotated its wine glass anxiously on the tabletop. \emph{``Michelle soon became unable to participate in the council---you saw her before she\ldots before she quit---so she forked the first ten lines, dumping much of her reputation into the process, and talked the council into letting them sit in her place.''}
+\emph{``We pooled our money and uploaded together. He was also on the Council.''} Dear sighed and rotated its wine glass anxiously on the tabletop. \emph{``Michelle soon became unable to participate in the council—you saw her before she\ldots before she quit—so she forked the first ten lines, dumping much of her reputation into the process, and talked the council into letting them sit in her place.''}
 
 ``So it became the Council of Eighteen? Er\ldots Seventeen? I'm realizing how little I know about the Council.''
 
 \emph{``No, no. Not at first, at least. The deal she struck with the other members of the Council was that her responsibility would be split evenly among the ten. At first, The Only Time I Know My True Name Is When I Dream was the only one to sit council, then as her responsibilities to the secession process began to grow, more of Michelle's ongoing projects were given to further first lines.''}
 
-``You said not at first. Did she---the Odists---wound up with more than an equal share of responsibility?''
+``You said not at first. Did she—the Odists—wound up with more than an equal share of responsibility?''
 
 Dear nodded. \emph{``It was slow and subtle, and, initially, unintentional. She was--''}
 
@@ -187,7 +187,7 @@ Codrin nodded for it to continue.
 
 Codrin shook eir head. ``At least, I don't know the acronym.''
 
-\emph{``It stood for Direct Democracy Representative. It was a silly idea to allow for members of the public to have direct debates and to vote on referenda.''} Dear's expression soured. \emph{``A terrible idea, I should say. It is what lead to the lost debacle, and we learned nothing from it. It was still heavily used during Secession, and the debates surrounding individual rights on the DDR were heated. Some wanted to treat it---the System, that is---as essentially an employer, having those who uploaded be treated as employees who must work to earn their place. This, I think, stemmed from the fact that many who uploaded were middle or upper middle class. The wealthy remained, preferring to keep their wealth, and the lower classes could not afford it.}
+\emph{``It stood for Direct Democracy Representative. It was a silly idea to allow for members of the public to have direct debates and to vote on referenda.''} Dear's expression soured. \emph{``A terrible idea, I should say. It is what lead to the lost debacle, and we learned nothing from it. It was still heavily used during Secession, and the debates surrounding individual rights on the DDR were heated. Some wanted to treat it—the System, that is—as essentially an employer, having those who uploaded be treated as employees who must work to earn their place. This, I think, stemmed from the fact that many who uploaded were middle or upper middle class. The wealthy remained, preferring to keep their wealth, and the lower classes could not afford it.}
 
 \emph{``Some who uploaded agreed, at least after a fashion. They suspected that they would be brains-in-a-jar who would be able to devote themselves entirely to their science or art. Those phys-side wished to use uploads to drive factories or fly planes or what have you. Menial labor. Capitalism is ever the opportunist, and we were seen as tools, as was any employee.''}
 
@@ -195,7 +195,7 @@ Codrin shook eir head. ``At least, I don't know the acronym.''
 
 ``Capitalism was never one to let impossibility stand in its way,'' Dear's partner laughed.
 
-\emph{``Yes, well, there were at least still those phys-side who wished to help. Dreamers to the last.''} It smiled fondly, lifting its glass to swirl the wine within. \emph{``Many of them uploaded. You have doubtless talked to a few without knowing. I don't know if Yared---he was our biggest champion---decided on joining the Launch. Perhaps he did. If he did not, I will nudge Ioan to him if May Then My Name does not do so first. If he did, you may yet meet him.''}
+\emph{``Yes, well, there were at least still those phys-side who wished to help. Dreamers to the last.''} It smiled fondly, lifting its glass to swirl the wine within. \emph{``Many of them uploaded. You have doubtless talked to a few without knowing. I don't know if Yared—he was our biggest champion—decided on joining the Launch. Perhaps he did. If he did not, I will nudge Ioan to him if May Then My Name does not do so first. If he did, you may yet meet him.''}
 
 ``Dear,'' Codrin began, softening eir tone. ``You don't have to answer this, but do you have regrets about this period in your life?''
 

toledot/content/launch/launch/Codrin-castor/003.tex

@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ All the same, ey tried eir best to keep up eir smile as ey spoke. ``And you're M
 
 ``What a curious choice of phrase, in the flesh.'' His tone was droll, bored. ``Have you stopped to think of all of the little idioms we bring with us from `phys-side'? Even that term! Phys-side. It spells out very plainly that we do not exist in that form any longer. We exist in \emph{opposition} to it. `Sys-side' contains no such sense of our abstract existence.''
 
-Ey nodded, smiling ingratiatingly. The man was clearly used to having the chance to expound on his own ideas, and anything that anyone else had to say was of secondary importance---if it was important at all. Ey decided to lean into that. ``What a beautiful way to put that. Do you think that the same applies to the dichotomy between L\textsubscript{5} System and launch?''
+Ey nodded, smiling ingratiatingly. The man was clearly used to having the chance to expound on his own ideas, and anything that anyone else had to say was of secondary importance—if it was important at all. Ey decided to lean into that. ``What a beautiful way to put that. Do you think that the same applies to the dichotomy between L\textsubscript{5} System and launch?''
 
 The simpering tone appeared to appeal to Rankin's sensibilities, as he smiled down to Codrin with all the patronizing disdain of \emph{bless your heart.} ``I do believe so. What can we say but `launch-side' and `sys-side'? Do those truly say anything about our existence here? We are hurtling out into space at some terrifying speed, driven by the momentum imparted by the spin of the station and the deliciously thin membranes of those solar sails. Ah! What a journey on which we have decided to embark! We lucky few. Those back on the System know nothing of our experiences out here, even if they have also decided to join. There is no way to accurately transmit that experience through text alone.''
 
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ Hiding a grimace behind a sip of eir own drink, Codrin jotted down the author's
 
 ``Of course! Of course. I will always help a fellow writer.'' He set his glass aside and made a grand sweep of his arm. ``You look around you, and you see so many going about their lives as they might have otherwise. Even I am guilty of the dalliance of getting up, drinking coffee, perhaps sitting and reading a while. We lucky few--'' Codrin knew that some two and a half billion personalities were on the launches, but ey declined to comment. ``--can draw so much inspiration from a project on so grand a scale. My project is one that utilizes the base nature of a personality embedded in a System that cares not for consistency between its two constituent parts.
 
-``Before I disappeared from the L\textsubscript{5} System, I wrote an outline for a new book describing the universal feelings of exploration that are bound up in this endeavor, and now I am working writing the book which follows that outline. My counterpart on the Pollux launch is doing the same---he had better be!---and we are sending the results of our labors back to the System to an editor who is a most trusted companion, and he is compiling them into a single book which will serve to showcase the similarities and differences that one mind can hold when it has lost a unifying sense of self!''
+``Before I disappeared from the L\textsubscript{5} System, I wrote an outline for a new book describing the universal feelings of exploration that are bound up in this endeavor, and now I am working writing the book which follows that outline. My counterpart on the Pollux launch is doing the same—he had better be!—and we are sending the results of our labors back to the System to an editor who is a most trusted companion, and he is compiling them into a single book which will serve to showcase the similarities and differences that one mind can hold when it has lost a unifying sense of self!''
 
 Codrin wrote quickly, not just to keep up, but also to keep eir eyes on the page and away from the by now nearly dancelike gestures that Rankin was using. Ey wondered just how much of it was a conscious decision to be witnessed (and thus perhaps a deeply ingrained need to be seen and not forgotten), and how much of it was some innate characteristic of this certain, special type of asshole.
 
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ Ey bit eir tongue and nodded. ``Of course, I'll see about doing so when I'm done
 
 ``And you have an editor who is merging these two threads? Are they planning on doing something special with the presentation of it?''
 
-``Yes. Yes! Of course, what is a book but an experience? A book should be delightfully difficult to read, if it is to be enjoyed to the fullest. You are engaging with a topic, you must---\emph{must}---put in the same amount of effort that the author has! We have plans to arrange the two texts side-by-side, locked together at the points specified in the outline, as well as any similarities that the texts share. Imagine, I, Rankin\#Castor, writing, ``And so, in my heart of hearts, I knew the truth among the stars'' while Rankin\#Pollux writes, ``And so, in my heart of hearts, I know the truth among the wheeling of the stars.'' From there, we can have the texts line up on the page, and perhaps even highlight the similarities. My editor promises that he won't send me any of the result until it's complete and ready for manuscript sign off, lest \#Pollux's writing influence my own.''
+``Yes. Yes! Of course, what is a book but an experience? A book should be delightfully difficult to read, if it is to be enjoyed to the fullest. You are engaging with a topic, you must—\emph{must}—put in the same amount of effort that the author has! We have plans to arrange the two texts side-by-side, locked together at the points specified in the outline, as well as any similarities that the texts share. Imagine, I, Rankin\#Castor, writing, ``And so, in my heart of hearts, I knew the truth among the stars'' while Rankin\#Pollux writes, ``And so, in my heart of hearts, I know the truth among the wheeling of the stars.'' From there, we can have the texts line up on the page, and perhaps even highlight the similarities. My editor promises that he won't send me any of the result until it's complete and ready for manuscript sign off, lest \#Pollux's writing influence my own.''
 
 Once ey had finished jotting in eir shorthand, Codrin asked, ``Do you have any idea on how the work will be received?''
 
@@ -139,7 +139,7 @@ They gathered on the couch where Codrin could lounge against Dear with eir feet
 
 Codrin laughed and poked the fox in the side. ``Yeah, those things. I'm guessing you don't think too highly of him, either?''
 
-\emph{``Not particularly, no,''} Dear said, brushing fingers through Codrin's hair. \emph{``I was more wondering if a writer---a writer in particular, I mean---might have some ideas that you could glean for this project of ours.''}
+\emph{``Not particularly, no,''} Dear said, brushing fingers through Codrin's hair. \emph{``I was more wondering if a writer—a writer in particular, I mean—might have some ideas that you could glean for this project of ours.''}
 
 ``I suppose.'' Ey kept silent for a moment, simply enjoying the physical contact. ``Though, come to think of it, his current project sounds interesting enough.''
 

toledot/content/launch/launch/Codrin-castor/004.tex

@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 
 It was difficult for Codrin Bălan to reengage with the project at hand after what seemed to be an ever-mounting pile of oddities.
 
-It was not simply that ey had been finding piece after piece of new-to-em information about those that ey loved---though it was also that---nor was it that eir entire clade seemed to be entangled far deeper in something going further back than expected---though it was that as well---but that, by virtue of the twin launches and the L\textsubscript{5} System remaining back around Earth, ey was limited to reading much of this over plain text. Text that had flowed over sheets of paper in a comfortable font, bound itself up in books, and begged to be pored over, stood itself before em and said, ``Read me, understand me.'' It all added one layer of remove that, despite eir attraction to the written word and fine paper and comfortable fonts and nice books, left em feeling caught up in some dreamlike state of almost-understanding.
+It was not simply that ey had been finding piece after piece of new-to-em information about those that ey loved—though it was also that—nor was it that eir entire clade seemed to be entangled far deeper in something going further back than expected—though it was that as well—but that, by virtue of the twin launches and the L\textsubscript{5} System remaining back around Earth, ey was limited to reading much of this over plain text. Text that had flowed over sheets of paper in a comfortable font, bound itself up in books, and begged to be pored over, stood itself before em and said, ``Read me, understand me.'' It all added one layer of remove that, despite eir attraction to the written word and fine paper and comfortable fonts and nice books, left em feeling caught up in some dreamlike state of almost-understanding.
 
 As an example, there was this seemingly universal agreement among the Odists that no one of them should be the one to tell the entirety of the tale, and each for their own reasons. There seemed to be shame bound up in all of them, in some way, but beyond that, both instances of Dear had diverged to the point where the foxes were starting to come up with their own explanations for not providing that info to their respective Codrins Bălan.
 
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ The Dear on Pollux: \emph{You could interview any one of us about the entirety o
 
 Eir Dear had said, \emph{``You will doubtless tease it out of me, bit by bit, you tenacious fuck.''} But given what both May Then My Name and Dear\#Pollux had said, ey no longer wished to try.
 
-And so here ey was, sitting in a dark field, looking up at the stars. Very dark. Well and truly dark, beyond almost anything Ioan had experienced phys-side, or even after uploading. There was a purity to that blackness, just as there was a purity to the red-filtered flashlight that Tycho Brahe (not his real name; he had requested the pseudonym) used to guide them both to the top of a---yes, pure---grassy hill.
+And so here ey was, sitting in a dark field, looking up at the stars. Very dark. Well and truly dark, beyond almost anything Ioan had experienced phys-side, or even after uploading. There was a purity to that blackness, just as there was a purity to the red-filtered flashlight that Tycho Brahe (not his real name; he had requested the pseudonym) used to guide them both to the top of a—yes, pure—grassy hill.
 
 ``I come out here on nights when I am depressed,'' the old astronomer had grumbled. ``And that has been most nights, of late.''
 
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ He pointed first to the brightest star, low on the horizon. ``There, see? That i
 
 He pointed at another star, one that almost seemed to be creeping slowly across the field of view, the source of that parallax sliding. ``That is Jupiter, there. You can see it moving only by virtue of the fact that we used it as a slingshot several days into the journey. We are millions of kilometers away from it by now, but it's still one of the things that we are closest to. That's how you know that we're on Castor. Pollux will be using Saturn as a slingshot planet, a fortuitous trade-off given the orbital advantage I mentioned. There was a touch of maneuvering after launch to get the trajectories to work out.''
 
-He pointed over to the fir trees opposite where the star that was the sun shone. ``Beyond those trees---really, the reason that they exist---is the solar sail, which blocks the lens. It was only recently deployed, you know. We could have deployed it on our way to Jupiter, but, as you know, we have all the time in the world, and there was no sense in risking it during the gravity assist.''
+He pointed over to the fir trees opposite where the star that was the sun shone. ``Beyond those trees—really, the reason that they exist—is the solar sail, which blocks the lens. It was only recently deployed, you know. We could have deployed it on our way to Jupiter, but, as you know, we have all the time in the world, and there was no sense in risking it during the gravity assist.''
 
 He pointed at something else, and it took Codrin a moment to discern in the dark that he was pointing at himself. ``And here I am, some nobody, some shithead who loved everything about this idea, but who can only view it in a very approximate way, like this.''
 

toledot/content/launch/launch/Codrin-castor/005.tex

@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ The voice of the fox startled em into awareness. ``I what?''
 
 ``I suppose I do.'' Ey sighed, resting eir hand atop Dear's paw.
 
-\emph{``It is not a bad thing. Not necessarily, at least. However, it can show a lack of confidence in your words, and---you will forgive me for having overheard---with True Name, you will need all of the confidence you can muster.''}
+\emph{``It is not a bad thing. Not necessarily, at least. However, it can show a lack of confidence in your words, and—you will forgive me for having overheard—with True Name, you will need all of the confidence you can muster.''}
 
 ``Did you--''
 
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ Ey felt primed to look for deeper meanings, but was also aware of how prone ey w
 
 ``Thank you, that's very generous of you.'' Ey tested the nib of eir pen on the corner of the paper. ``I'm pretty sure that I know the answer to this, but just to start with, did you invest entirely in the launch or is there an instance of True Name back on the System?''
 
-``Oh, I left an instance behind as well, which I am sure you have guessed. With all the work that we have done on the launch---the Odists and other like-minded individuals---it felt as though it would be a shame to not do so. I understand that you invested entirely here, but Ioan remained behind; I know that this is your interview, but I am also curious as to your reasons on that.''
+``Oh, I left an instance behind as well, which I am sure you have guessed. With all the work that we have done on the launch—the Odists and other like-minded individuals—it felt as though it would be a shame to not do so. I understand that you invested entirely here, but Ioan remained behind; I know that this is your interview, but I am also curious as to your reasons on that.''
 
 Codrin hesitated, then shrugged. ``It was Ioan's idea, actually. Ey suggested that ey remain behind so that, as the one compiling the information, ey didn't wind up adding eir own interpretations before sending the data back, given how far we've diverged. It was Dear's idea, at first, to invest entirely. I'm happy with having done so.''
 

toledot/content/launch/launch/Codrin-castor/006.tex

@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ While he didn't quite have the singular ability to immediately make em like him
 
 ``I got the short end of the stick.'' He laughed, gesturing Ioan into what appeared to be a living room of an apartment quite similar to the one ey had interviewed True Name in. A little less perfect, a little more lived-in. ``Jonas Prime decided to name all of his instances with a syllable, I got stuck with No, of all things. I'm sure there are sillier ones, at least. We Jonas? Oi Jonas? Just call me Jonas so we don't get confused.''
 
-Codrin grinned and sat on a reasonably comfy---if slightly ratty---chair across the table from the couch that Jonas flopped down onto. ``I suppose there has to be some scheme for dispersionistas to use to keep track of each other that isn't just the default random string of letters and number.''
+Codrin grinned and sat on a reasonably comfy—if slightly ratty—chair across the table from the couch that Jonas flopped down onto. ``I suppose there has to be some scheme for dispersionistas to use to keep track of each other that isn't just the default random string of letters and number.''
 
 ``Of course! You know the Odists. I should've done something like that. Take an old rock song and name myself after each of the lines.'' He shrugged. ``But no, I think they've got a lock on that idea. This one's inventive enough without being too annoying. Usually.''
 
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ Codrin nodded as ey wrote. ``Alright. Are you okay if I start asking questions,
 
 ``Of course, ask away.''
 
-``First of all, and I'm not sure how well this applies to a dispersionista such as yourself, but did you---No Jonas---leave an instance back on the L\textsubscript{5} System?''
+``First of all, and I'm not sure how well this applies to a dispersionista such as yourself, but did you—No Jonas—leave an instance back on the L\textsubscript{5} System?''
 
 ``Oh, sure. There didn't seem to be any reason not to, you know? I figure there's enough of us Jonases up here to have our fun, and plenty back down on the System to keep things interesting.''
 
@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ Jonas leaned back against the couch, toying with a loose thread at one end of it
 
 Codrin nodded and made a note to that effect.
 
-``You have to understand though, Codrin, none of this was like some sort of shadowy conspiracy like you may be thinking. We did what politicians do: we represented our constituents and duked it out---metaphorically, of course---with other politicians.''
+``You have to understand though, Codrin, none of this was like some sort of shadowy conspiracy like you may be thinking. We did what politicians do: we represented our constituents and duked it out—metaphorically, of course—with other politicians.''
 
 ``Are we your constituents?'' ey asked. The words were out of eir mouth before ey had time to consider it.
 
@@ -111,7 +111,7 @@ Jonas laughed, shaking his head and tugging that fiber on the couch all the loos
 
 ``Keeps growing? Can you expand on that?''
 
-``It's nothing complex. The larger a system---that's system with a lower-case `s'---is, the more stable it is because it tends towards stasis. This applies to political systems, as well. The Western Fed and the S-R Bloc kept their stalemate for God knows how long because they were too large to do anything but, and the only reason they stopped was that they were each subsumed into even larger political entities.''
+``It's nothing complex. The larger a system—that's system with a lower-case `s'—is, the more stable it is because it tends towards stasis. This applies to political systems, as well. The Western Fed and the S-R Bloc kept their stalemate for God knows how long because they were too large to do anything but, and the only reason they stopped was that they were each subsumed into even larger political entities.''
 
 ``So, if I'm understanding you right, keeping the population of the System growing over time--''
 

toledot/content/launch/launch/Codrin-castor/007.tex

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 \hypertarget{codrin-bux103lancastor-2325}{%
 \chapter{Codrin Bălan\#Castor — 2325}\label{codrin-bux103lancastor-2325}}
 
-Codrin Bălan was more nervous about this interview than ey'd ever been about one before. It's not that ey hadn't been anxious about talking with True Name previously---ey certainly had, given the warning that Dear had left em with---but in the intervening weeks, ey had had eir conversations with No Jonas and read the news from both Codrin\#Pollux and Ioan about the wealth of knowledge that the Bălan clade had gathered.
+Codrin Bălan was more nervous about this interview than ey'd ever been about one before. It's not that ey hadn't been anxious about talking with True Name previously—ey certainly had, given the warning that Dear had left em with—but in the intervening weeks, ey had had eir conversations with No Jonas and read the news from both Codrin\#Pollux and Ioan about the wealth of knowledge that the Bălan clade had gathered.
 
 Dear gave no warning this time. It simply stood in the door of Codrin's office, looking some mixture between sad and frightened, and bowed its head when ey gave it a goodbye kiss atop the snout. Ey left eir \#Tracker instance in eir office to sit and not think of anything while ey painted terribly, the better to reduce merge conflicts down the line, and then sent a fork back to the sim where first ey had met True Name.
 
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ True Name laughed. It was a musical laugh, replete with tones of real amusement
 
 Ey frowned. ``Enlighten me.''
 
-``As you wish.'' She grinned, leaning back on her stool. ``You are correct that I do not wish to, as you say, bring humanity under my wing. What purpose would that serve? You have either learned or intuited, as all do, that the System is truly ungovernable, so how could I or the Jonas clade hope to govern it? No, we do not want to rule. You may be correct that we are psychopaths---or at least that I am, I do not think that you need worry about your Dear or Ioan's May Then My Name. Humanity has simply evolved toward an inevitable two-stage life cycle. That of the fleshy pupae that do not know what it means to be a butterfly, and those butterflies that recognize the freedom of the air.''
+``As you wish.'' She grinned, leaning back on her stool. ``You are correct that I do not wish to, as you say, bring humanity under my wing. What purpose would that serve? You have either learned or intuited, as all do, that the System is truly ungovernable, so how could I or the Jonas clade hope to govern it? No, we do not want to rule. You may be correct that we are psychopaths—or at least that I am, I do not think that you need worry about your Dear or Ioan's May Then My Name. Humanity has simply evolved toward an inevitable two-stage life cycle. That of the fleshy pupae that do not know what it means to be a butterfly, and those butterflies that recognize the freedom of the air.''
 
 Codrin recapped eir pen, tucked it into eir pocket, and closed eir notebook. ``That's one of those statements that makes sense on the surface until you think about it hard enough.''
 

toledot/content/launch/launch/Codrin-castor/008.tex

@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ Ey nodded. ``Alright. Let's start with Launch this time. It sounds like you were
 
 ``Of course. Is there any particular area you would like me to begin? Launch is a very broad topic.''
 
-``Well, Ne Jonas told Codrin\#Pollux that we---that is, the Bălan clade and the liberal elements of the Ode clade---were guided toward beginning this project. Is that true?''
+``Well, Ne Jonas told Codrin\#Pollux that we—that is, the Bălan clade and the liberal elements of the Ode clade—were guided toward beginning this project. Is that true?''
 
 If the phrase `liberal elements' or its implication that True Name must be one of the conservatives had any effect on the skunk, she didn't show it. Instead, she simply nodded. ``Yes. A project such as this was deemed important in that it would add the spice needed to keep System life on its toes, much as Ne Jonas mentioned. We encouraged this in a calm and orderly fashion. Does that make sense?''
 
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ True Name nodded. ``It was, yes.''
 
 ``You\ldots influenced Michelle to steer the Clade?''
 
-True Name nodded, smiling. ``It is what we---the clade, yes, but my stanza in particular---are good at, yes, so we nudged her to suggest what she did to the first lines, all vague pronouncements, which helped us guide everyone toward the project.''
+True Name nodded, smiling. ``It is what we—the clade, yes, but my stanza in particular—are good at, yes, so we nudged her to suggest what she did to the first lines, all vague pronouncements, which helped us guide everyone toward the project.''
 
 ``And did you nudge her to quit?''
 
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ The skunk did not speak. A non-answer that was answer enough.
 
 Codrin spent a minute tamping down eir temper. Ey had, after all, promised to remain calm. When ey felt like ey could speak in a level tone of voice, ey asked, ``So you began the project of the launch long before it was really an open discussion. What was involved in that?''
 
-``There were three aspects involved. Phys-side political, sys-side political, and technological. Sys-side was, as always, the easiest. Hardly anything to be done. Phys-side, we had to pull quite a few strings. Technologically, it simply involved the right organizations funded, the right people hired at those organizations---as our dear Douglas was---the right scientists put in charge of the right projects. Do you need further details on that? I can speak at length, but want to respect your time and energy, if you have additional questions.''
+``There were three aspects involved. Phys-side political, sys-side political, and technological. Sys-side was, as always, the easiest. Hardly anything to be done. Phys-side, we had to pull quite a few strings. Technologically, it simply involved the right organizations funded, the right people hired at those organizations—as our dear Douglas was—the right scientists put in charge of the right projects. Do you need further details on that? I can speak at length, but want to respect your time and energy, if you have additional questions.''
 
 ``To confirm, you influenced Michelle Hadje to ensure the clade worked with the launch project, influenced politics phys-side to ensure that support would be there, and made sure Douglas was part of the team?''
 
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ True Name beamed. ``Of course.''
 
 Ey sighed, nodded, and wrote down her answer. ``And how have you felt now that you've pulled all this off?''
 
-True Name looked genuinely thoughtful. ``I hesitate to say `proud', but I am pleased that it went off as smoothly as it did. There were a few bumps on the road, but nothing difficult to overcome. We---the Odists you have called conservative---continue to work as we will. Jonas, bless his black heart, continues to work as he will. We stay in contact and keep divergence to a minimum until we are out of harm's way, and then we ensure that we will keep our own projects safe. Castor, Pollux, and Lagrange. It is all going as close to plan as we could have expected.''
+True Name looked genuinely thoughtful. ``I hesitate to say `proud', but I am pleased that it went off as smoothly as it did. There were a few bumps on the road, but nothing difficult to overcome. We—the Odists you have called conservative—continue to work as we will. Jonas, bless his black heart, continues to work as he will. We stay in contact and keep divergence to a minimum until we are out of harm's way, and then we ensure that we will keep our own projects safe. Castor, Pollux, and Lagrange. It is all going as close to plan as we could have expected.''
 
 ``So you're\ldots happy?''
 

toledot/content/launch/launch/Codrin-pollux/001.tex

@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ Systime: 201+25 1014
 
 \textbf{Codrin:} Yes, might as well. I am curious, first, why you decided to travel on the launch. Was there anything in particular that drew you to the idea?
 
-\textbf{Dear:} Other than the fact that I am a hopeless romantic? {[}laughter{]} There were a few. I am a hopeless romantic, yes, and---I will not actually be able to see them---I want to see the stars. I want to be one of the lucky few, or few billion, who get to travel between them. Another is that, when one is functionally immortal, boredom is a very real problem. I do not like being bored, and after something like two hundred years sys-side, I was getting perilously close.
+\textbf{Dear:} Other than the fact that I am a hopeless romantic? {[}laughter{]} There were a few. I am a hopeless romantic, yes, and—I will not actually be able to see them—I want to see the stars. I want to be one of the lucky few, or few billion, who get to travel between them. Another is that, when one is functionally immortal, boredom is a very real problem. I do not like being bored, and after something like two hundred years sys-side, I was getting perilously close.
 
 \textbf{Codrin:} So it's a sense of adventure?
 
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ Systime: 201+25 1014
 
 \textbf{Codrin:} Did you have other reasons for transferring?
 
-\textbf{Dear:} A few, though they are less easily put to words. If you remember the Qoheleth business, there is some of that involved. I have been unable to forget what he said, and beyond the very literal sense that it was couched in. If we are doomed to forever remember everything, then the only way---or perhaps one of the only ways---to relegate something completely to memory is through inaccessibility. If I-- if all instances of Dear, Also, The Tree That Was Felled were to quit, then there would be no more objective instance of myself for others to remember.
+\textbf{Dear:} A few, though they are less easily put to words. If you remember the Qoheleth business, there is some of that involved. I have been unable to forget what he said, and beyond the very literal sense that it was couched in. If we are doomed to forever remember everything, then the only way—or perhaps one of the only ways—to relegate something completely to memory is through inaccessibility. If I-- if all instances of Dear, Also, The Tree That Was Felled were to quit, then there would be no more objective instance of myself for others to remember.
 
 \textbf{Codrin:} I would prefer that you not.
 
@@ -95,7 +95,7 @@ Systime: 201+25 1014
 
 \textbf{Dear:} No, no. That is my choice usage of `fuck' for the interview. {[}laughter, short break in interview{]} Okay. Early on in the System, some wag, when pressed to build a library, uploaded every single book they could get their hands on, legally or otherwise, into the perisystem architecture, going all the way back to the Epic of Gilgamesh. When I was forked and still trying to figure out ways to play with instances, I went on a tear of reading biographical works, going through dozens of books at a time, hunting for little moments that could be used, somehow, in an exhibition.
 
-\textbf{Dear:} I came across a book of essays from goodness knows how long ago, and I was so taken aback by one part in particular that I snipped it out and stored it in an exo. Ah, let me find the correct part {[}pause{]} Okay. ``Should you happen to be possessed of a certain verbal acuity coupled with a relentless, hair-trigger humor and surface cheer spackling over a chronic melancholia and loneliness---a grotesquely caricatured version of your deepest self, which you trot out at the slightest provocation to endearing and glib comic effect, thus rendering you the kind of fellow who is beloved by all yet loved by none, all of it to distract, however fleetingly, from the cold and dead-faced truth that with each passing year you face the unavoidable certainty of a solitary future in which you will perish one day''.
+\textbf{Dear:} I came across a book of essays from goodness knows how long ago, and I was so taken aback by one part in particular that I snipped it out and stored it in an exo. Ah, let me find the correct part {[}pause{]} Okay. ``Should you happen to be possessed of a certain verbal acuity coupled with a relentless, hair-trigger humor and surface cheer spackling over a chronic melancholia and loneliness—a grotesquely caricatured version of your deepest self, which you trot out at the slightest provocation to endearing and glib comic effect, thus rendering you the kind of fellow who is beloved by all yet loved by none, all of it to distract, however fleetingly, from the cold and dead-faced truth that with each passing year you face the unavoidable certainty of a solitary future in which you will perish one day''.
 
 \textbf{Dear:} I worry sometimes that, as a public personality, first as Michelle Hadje, then as an Odist, and now as an artist with an ebullient personality and the aforementioned ``verbal acuity coupled with a relentless, hair-trigger humor and surface cheer'' \emph{et cetera, et cetera,} that I\ldots{} {[}pause{]} Okay. {[}pause{]} Okay. I sometimes worry that I, as those things, fall into the category of ``beloved by all yet loved by none''.
 

toledot/content/launch/launch/Codrin-pollux/002-illust.tex

@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ Codrin bent down to pluck a thin stem of grass as they walked, fiddling with it
 
 \emph{``It still scared you?''} Dear hazarded.
 
-``I think so, yeah. I can understand the anxiety that one might not be missed after one leaves a place. Even in the face of knowledge that that's not true---Ioan will miss you, May Then My Name will miss you, just about everyone who showed up at the death day party will, too---it's hard to really internalize that others will still be thinking of you when you aren't there.''
+``I think so, yeah. I can understand the anxiety that one might not be missed after one leaves a place. Even in the face of knowledge that that's not true—Ioan will miss you, May Then My Name will miss you, just about everyone who showed up at the death day party will, too—it's hard to really internalize that others will still be thinking of you when you aren't there.''
 
 The fox frowned, but nodded to Codrin all the same.
 
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ It squeezed eir hand in its paw again, but remained silent.
 
 Dear stopped suddenly, there by a cairn, leaving Codrin to keep walking until its paw tugged em to a stop in turn.
 
-\emph{``Michelle made a difficult decision, but the right one,''} it said. \emph{``I remember that pain, the inability to be just one thing, to be an entire person. I remember how those waves of instability always made her---made me---so nauseous and being touched felt disgusting. It was lonely-making for someone who needed---deserved---love and affection. She made the right decision to choose her own end and make it meaningful, own it.''}
+\emph{``Michelle made a difficult decision, but the right one,''} it said. \emph{``I remember that pain, the inability to be just one thing, to be an entire person. I remember how those waves of instability always made her—made me—so nauseous and being touched felt disgusting. It was lonely-making for someone who needed—deserved—love and affection. She made the right decision to choose her own end and make it meaningful, own it.''}
 
 ``And the decision to not fix the split-mindedness?''
 

toledot/content/launch/launch/Codrin-pollux/003.tex

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 \hypertarget{codrin-bux103lanpollux-2325}{%
 \chapter{Codrin Bălan\#Pollux — 2325}\label{codrin-bux103lanpollux-2325}}
 
-The first direction from the L\textsubscript{5} System---or Lagrange, as many were starting to call it---came in the form of a message from May Then My Name Die With Me. ``Find Ezekiel,'' it read. ``Talk with him. Be patient, be kind.''
+The first direction from the L\textsubscript{5} System—or Lagrange, as many were starting to call it—came in the form of a message from May Then My Name Die With Me. ``Find Ezekiel,'' it read. ``Talk with him. Be patient, be kind.''
 
 When ey showed it to Dear, the fox's ears stood erect, and it led Codrin out of the house to stand on the patio and watch the storm from the safety of the overhang.
 
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ The fox laughed. \emph{``I am not.''}
 
 ``I thought that that was a core aspect of the System from the beginning.''
 
-\emph{``It was an accident at first. Someone split in two---not Michelle, before you ask---and the System automatically corrected and deleted both forks. The population was quite low at that point, and Zeke knew the victim. As part of his grief, he began to formulate the sys-side algorithms and drafted the petition to phys-side for allowing legitimate forking of personalities.''}
+\emph{``It was an accident at first. Someone split in two—not Michelle, before you ask—and the System automatically corrected and deleted both forks. The population was quite low at that point, and Zeke knew the victim. As part of his grief, he began to formulate the sys-side algorithms and drafted the petition to phys-side for allowing legitimate forking of personalities.''}
 
 ``And Michelle helped?''
 
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ Codrin frowned. ``I think I know the answer, but should I interview them?''
 
 \emph{``For withholding information?''}
 
-``For withholding it yourself. It seems as though you want us---you as in the Ode clade, us as in the Bălan clade---to discover things on our own. Why?''
+``For withholding it yourself. It seems as though you want us—you as in the Ode clade, us as in the Bălan clade—to discover things on our own. Why?''
 
 Dear stuck a paw out, palm up, beneath a downspout and the steady stream of water that flowed from it, letting the water soak into its fur. \emph{``There are parts of our past that I am ashamed of. Many of my cocladists are, as well. You could interview any one of us about the entirety of our story, even me, and we would tell you, but we would also resent you for that.''}
 
@@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ A low rasp came from the pile of rags. ``Codrin Bălan. I have been waiting for
 
 Unable to think of anything else to do, ey sat down next to the bundle of rags. Hidden within it may have been a face, but ey wasn't sure. ``Waiting for me?''
 
-``Yes. A voice from within spoke to me and I knew it to be that of the Lord, and I fell down upon my face, and it entered into me and set me back on my feet, and held out a scroll. He said to me, ``Mortal, eat what is offered you. Eat this scroll.'' So I opened my mouth, and He gave me this scroll to eat, as he said to me, ``Mortal, feed your stomach and fill your belly with this scroll that I give to you.'' And I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey to me.''``
+``Yes. A voice from within spoke to me and I knew it to be that of the Lord, and I fell down upon my face, and it entered into me and set me back on my feet, and held out a scroll. He said to me, ``Mortal, eat what is offered you. Eat this scroll.'' So I opened my mouth, and He gave me this scroll to eat, as he said to me, ``Mortal, feed your stomach and fill your belly with this scroll that I give to you.'' And I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey to me.''
 
 A long pause followed, during which Codrin did not speak, but silently wished for the scent of honey, rather than the scent of something burning.
 
@@ -137,7 +137,7 @@ Ey smiled cautiously, feeling a heat in eir cheeks. ``Is True Name on the launch
 
 Ezekiel once more turned his gaze toward the sky, supposing that that is where the abandoned planet must lie. ``No.~The Lord has put cords upon you, so that you cannot turn from your path. Your twin and your root shall seek her out, but you must seek out one borne of her, and you must seek out more of the eight who were to guide but not govern, and you must seek out Jonah, and you must see to your loved ones.''
 
-Codrin nodded, taking down the list of names---if names they were. \emph{Ioan and Codrin\#Castor would get to talk to True Name, apparently. I'll get one of her up-tree instances, more of the Council of Eight, and this Jonah. Loved ones\ldots Dear, perhaps?}
+Codrin nodded, taking down the list of names—if names they were. \emph{Ioan and Codrin\#Castor would get to talk to True Name, apparently. I'll get one of her up-tree instances, more of the Council of Eight, and this Jonah. Loved ones\ldots Dear, perhaps?}
 
 ``What should I ask them?''
 

toledot/content/launch/launch/Codrin-pollux/004.tex

@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@ The fox gave a hint of a bow. \emph{``Thank you in indulging me in this, Codrin.
 
 \emph{``I think that is why secession seemed to come so naturally to us. It took far more effort for those phys-side to comprehend what secession would look like than it did for us. From our point of view, we were separate from the rest of the world, such as it was, in a way that already seemed to preclude citizenship to any other political entity.''}
 
-``And you---Michelle, that is---were still on the council at that point?''
+``And you—Michelle, that is—were still on the council at that point?''
 
 \emph{``That is a complicated question.''} It poked at the last bit of shake with its spoon. \emph{``We shall say yes. Elements of the clade were still on the council at that point. This sim is where we celebrated Secession. One of the Odists, Debarre, Ezekiel, user11824, the Russians, Jonas--''}
 
@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ Dear tilted its head inquisitively.
 
 ``So, after all of the celebrations died down, was there any real change?''
 
-Dear shrugged. \emph{``Some residual excitement, I suppose. There were some little things that lingered, however, and stuck around. Secession Day, of course, but that is also the date that we started using systime in earnest. The actual number chosen as year zero, day zero for systime is a bit more than a year before Secession, and was tied to the creation of the reputation market, such that there was always a time to which it could be synchronized. Before Secession, we still commonly used the calendar they were---and presumably still are---using phys-side, but after, almost everyone switched to using systime. It made logical sense, yes, what with sims not being tied to any particular schedule bound by Earth's rotation or procession around the Sun, but also it felt like a sign that we were becoming our own nation, our own people.''}
+Dear shrugged. \emph{``Some residual excitement, I suppose. There were some little things that lingered, however, and stuck around. Secession Day, of course, but that is also the date that we started using systime in earnest. The actual number chosen as year zero, day zero for systime is a bit more than a year before Secession, and was tied to the creation of the reputation market, such that there was always a time to which it could be synchronized. Before Secession, we still commonly used the calendar they were—and presumably still are—using phys-side, but after, almost everyone switched to using systime. It made logical sense, yes, what with sims not being tied to any particular schedule bound by Earth's rotation or procession around the Sun, but also it felt like a sign that we were becoming our own nation, our own people.''}
 
 The table grew quiet after this explanation, as the last bite of pie was eaten and the last fry dipped in the last bit of shake.
 

toledot/content/launch/launch/Codrin-pollux/005.tex

@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 
 Codrin was, as ey supposed everyone must be, primed to hunt for patterns.
 
-The Odists, as much as they tried to resist it, were as beholden to living within a pattern as any other group of individuals. Perhaps more so than other clades, but certainly well within the realm of societies, or even families. It wasn't just that they were all weird---though they were---nor that many of them fit the mold of either the human or skunk versions of Michelle Hadje---though that was certainly true. It was a matter of bearing, of how they carried themselves, of how they expressed themselves. Not all were as excitable as Dear nor as affectionate as May Then My Name, but all of the ones that ey had met had the same walk, the same smile, the same sensation of quiet when they were quiet and the same way of speaking when they spoke.
+The Odists, as much as they tried to resist it, were as beholden to living within a pattern as any other group of individuals. Perhaps more so than other clades, but certainly well within the realm of societies, or even families. It wasn't just that they were all weird—though they were—nor that many of them fit the mold of either the human or skunk versions of Michelle Hadje—though that was certainly true. It was a matter of bearing, of how they carried themselves, of how they expressed themselves. Not all were as excitable as Dear nor as affectionate as May Then My Name, but all of the ones that ey had met had the same walk, the same smile, the same sensation of quiet when they were quiet and the same way of speaking when they spoke.
 
 The differences, then, were in the details. Where Qoheleth had opted for the biblical look, May Then My Name had decided on a comfortable softness that befitted her similarly comfortable, soft nature. And where Dear had wholly owned a look that somehow managed to be both painfully well-dressed and playful, the woman before em exuded all of the casual cool of one who was relaxing on a summer Saturday. It was a weekend look, and ey could not find any other way to describe it.
 
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ Ey was surprised when ey had been contacted by her, rather than the other way ar
 \begin{quote}
 Hey, there is this neat bar I know. Come check it out, and we can chat there.
 
---- Why Ask Questions, Here At The End Of All Things of the Ode Clade
+—Why Ask Questions, Here At The End Of All Things of the Ode Clade
 \end{quote}
 
 \noindent It came as a letter. An actual, honest-to-goodness letter, slipped under eir door (which is how the sim decided to interpret it), written in a rounded hand on yellow legal pad paper.
@@ -113,7 +113,7 @@ The offended look slipped into a proud one that bordered perilously close to smu
 
 ``Are your\ldots well, let me back up. What are your roles? Jobs, interests, whatever.''
 
-She laughed, shrugging. ``I do not really have one at the moment. I helped a little with the launch, and rather a lot with Secession. My job was basically to work with crowds. I love talking one on one like this, but I always feel guilty actually manipulating individuals---and not just the basic research I mentioned earlier. Crowds are another story. I can get a whole restaurant singing a song together whether or not they are drunk.''
+She laughed, shrugging. ``I do not really have one at the moment. I helped a little with the launch, and rather a lot with Secession. My job was basically to work with crowds. I love talking one on one like this, but I always feel guilty actually manipulating individuals—and not just the basic research I mentioned earlier. Crowds are another story. I can get a whole restaurant singing a song together whether or not they are drunk.''
 
 ``Dear did mention that you worked at scale, yeah.''
 
@@ -141,7 +141,7 @@ She leaned back from the table, twirling her drink thoughtfully. ``I suppose, ye
 
 ``This was back when the Council of Eight was a thing, right?''
 
-``Mmhm. It was their---our---last big work. We did a good job at getting everything set up so that it would just run, then we stepped back. The goal was always to guide rather than to govern, as I am sure you have heard.''
+``Mmhm. It was their—our—last big work. We did a good job at getting everything set up so that it would just run, then we stepped back. The goal was always to guide rather than to govern, as I am sure you have heard.''
 
 Codrin nodded. ``Ezekiel put it almost the same way.''
 
@@ -177,7 +177,7 @@ Codrin nodded and, remembering some of the caginess that Dear had shown, asked,
 
 Ey nodded, considering eir next question. ``So, how much did the clade work together back then?''
 
-``It differed from person to person. Praiseworthy---Dear's down-tree instance---was keen on working with all of us, while some others essentially talked to no one. I did not talk to many of them at first, given that I was\ldots well, it was not so much that I was not supposed to exist, that I was not supposed to be playing a role. At first, I looked almost exactly like my down-tree instance so that we might be mistaken for each other. I decided that I was done being a skunk some years after, though.''
+``It differed from person to person. Praiseworthy—Dear's down-tree instance—was keen on working with all of us, while some others essentially talked to no one. I did not talk to many of them at first, given that I was\ldots well, it was not so much that I was not supposed to exist, that I was not supposed to be playing a role. At first, I looked almost exactly like my down-tree instance so that we might be mistaken for each other. I decided that I was done being a skunk some years after, though.''
 
 ``Are you still in touch with your down-tree instance?''
 
@@ -201,7 +201,7 @@ Ey laughed.
 
 ``You hang out with other friends, then?''
 
-``Hang out, drink, go for long walks on the beach, watch plays---did you know that Time Is A Finger Pointed At Itself has put on some really interesting ones? Michelle was a theatre nerd before she uploaded. She put much of that on hold after the whole getting lost kerfuffle and all of the politics that went into the first years after uploading, but still that desire sticks with us.''
+``Hang out, drink, go for long walks on the beach, watch plays—did you know that Time Is A Finger Pointed At Itself has put on some really interesting ones? Michelle was a theatre nerd before she uploaded. She put much of that on hold after the whole getting lost kerfuffle and all of the politics that went into the first years after uploading, but still that desire sticks with us.''
 
 ``Stepping back a second, you said that True Name was to organize the launch. What did you mean by that?''
 

toledot/content/launch/launch/Codrin-pollux/006.tex

@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ The guests started arriving in the late afternoon, with the first to arrive bein
 
 ``Wonderful to meet you two. Dear's been gushing about you for years, and I'm only sorry that it's taken until now for us to actually meet.''
 
-The weasel was about Dear's height---which was to say a few inches shorter than Codrin---covered with a svelte coat of chestnut brown fur, minus a cream-colored front, though much of this was covered with a semiformal outfit of all black.
+The weasel was about Dear's height—which was to say a few inches shorter than Codrin—covered with a svelte coat of chestnut brown fur, minus a cream-colored front, though much of this was covered with a semiformal outfit of all black.
 
 As ey did whenever meeting another furry, Codrin was surprised by just how casual they could be. For some reason, eir mind seemed primed to view them all as intense as the fox, but Debarre was friendly and relaxed.
 
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ He was greeted with an enthusiastic handshake from Dear, who announced, \emph{``
 
 \emph{``A truly heroic feat, that.''}
 
-user11824 rolled his eyes and allowed himself to be guided in to where there was wine and a few trays of snacks. He greeted Debarre warmly---more so, Codrin noticed, than he had Dear, though ey could not guess why.
+user11824 rolled his eyes and allowed himself to be guided in to where there was wine and a few trays of snacks. He greeted Debarre warmly—more so, Codrin noticed, than he had Dear, though ey could not guess why.
 
 The final guest was a tall, black gentleman dressed in a plain white tunic and white linen pants, who Dear greeted with a handshake that bordered on delicate. He seemed anxious nearly to the point of panic, so Codrin and Dear's partner simply bowed to him unobtrusively.
 
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ They laughed. ``I don't think any of them would call themselves politicians. Dea
 
 Codrin frowned, nodded, and accepted two of the glasses to carry out with the wine, while Dear's partner brought out the other four.
 
-Once the drinks had been poured and passed around, Dear stood and, in the grand style that ey had come to love, declaimed, \emph{``First, we will have a toast, and then we will drink. After that, we will eat, and then---only then, my dear---may you ask your questions.''}
+Once the drinks had been poured and passed around, Dear stood and, in the grand style that ey had come to love, declaimed, \emph{``First, we will have a toast, and then we will drink. After that, we will eat, and then—only then, my dear—may you ask your questions.''}
 
 Ey laughed and raised eir glass. ``I'm in.''
 

toledot/content/launch/launch/Codrin-pollux/007.tex

@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ The tea was a perfectly acceptable Earl Grey. The milk was unremarkable. The mug
 
 ``So, what is it that you're doing now that you feel better doing in this form?'' ey asked, nodding to Ne.
 
-``I'm a little like you, I guess. I'm the one who takes all of the history and draws it together into a big picture. From there, I ensure that the rest of the clade---at least, the rest of the clade that's working on this project---remains on the same page and doesn't diverge too far. I'm the clerk to Prime's executive.''
+``I'm a little like you, I guess. I'm the one who takes all of the history and draws it together into a big picture. From there, I ensure that the rest of the clade—at least, the rest of the clade that's working on this project—remains on the same page and doesn't diverge too far. I'm the clerk to Prime's executive.''
 
 ``Is that why you look like a cross between a professor and an author?''
 
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ Codrin forced emself to take a sip of the tea. It was thin, with the skim milk i
 
 Ne brightened. ``Oh, that's a good one! The answer is twofold. Part one relates to something that No Jonas said to the other Codrin: stability is a thing that needs to be gardened and maintained, that there is no true stasis, but stability approaches that point like the man in Zeno's Paradox. This is a form of that gardening. When you have a rose garden or topiary, you know, you must cut away bits of it, but when you do, the whole becomes all the healthier and can last for years and years in the state you like it best. It may seem like a traumatic event to trim back roses. After all, you are cutting away good growth, aren't you? But that's how you get beautiful roses, year after year.
 
-``That's what we're doing with this project. We're introducing a slightly traumatic event to make the stability of the system---that's lower-case s, there, I'm talking of the sociopolitical system of those on the three capital-S Systems---stronger. Does that make sense?''
+``That's what we're doing with this project. We're introducing a slightly traumatic event to make the stability of the system—that's lower-case s, there, I'm talking of the sociopolitical system of those on the three capital-S Systems—stronger. Does that make sense?''
 
 ``I suppose,'' Codrin said. ``You've done the cost-benefit analysis and determined it's worth continuing on with, right?''
 
@@ -113,7 +113,7 @@ Ne laughed. ``There \emph{are} core problems with the world, Codrin. I've just e
 
 ``I think that many phys-side would be pretty upset by that, though, right? If they learn that you've been pulling strings from the System to ensure that everything keeps going the way you want, won't they rebel against that idea?''
 
-``There are two things working against that supposition,'' Ne said. ``The first is that you misunderstand me when I say that we've done the cost-benefit analysis of your project and determined it beneficial. It's beneficial to both sys- and phys-side for exactly the same reasons, though the mechanics may be different. The second is that you are misjudging just how in over your head you really are with all that we've done, including phys-side. As soon as Launch started and as soon as you were nudged to start the project---don't frown, Codrin, you should've seen this coming---whispers were sent down the wire from the System to Earth to ensure that they would have the proper reaction to your work.''
+``There are two things working against that supposition,'' Ne said. ``The first is that you misunderstand me when I say that we've done the cost-benefit analysis of your project and determined it beneficial. It's beneficial to both sys- and phys-side for exactly the same reasons, though the mechanics may be different. The second is that you are misjudging just how in over your head you really are with all that we've done, including phys-side. As soon as Launch started and as soon as you were nudged to start the project—don't frown, Codrin, you should've seen this coming—whispers were sent down the wire from the System to Earth to ensure that they would have the proper reaction to your work.''
 
 Codrin sat, silent, and stared at the man across from em. The man who had just admitted to subtly influencing billions of lives over hundreds of years through an organization made up entirely, ey assumed, of two clades. Hundreds or thousands of instances of two individuals.
 

toledot/content/launch/launch/Codrin-pollux/008.tex

@@ -129,9 +129,9 @@ Systime: 202+22 1208
 
 \textbf{Codrin:} And if you say ``I want to die'', I'll pull your tail and call you names.
 
-\textbf{Dear:} {[}laughter{]} Yes, yes, fine. My thoughts, okay. {[}pause{]} Okay. To be more calm about it, I want to experience death. I do not want to just quit, because that is suicide in this sense, and my wish to experience death is not bound up in that particular set of emotions. I would prefer not to be assassinated or anything so grand. It is an acceptable end, I suppose, because it would mean that I will have lived a life worth being assassinated for, and from what I have seen---what I saw with Qoheleth---it looks like a process. Yes! Yes, that is it. Thank you for asking this, my dear. It gave me the chance to find the words.
+\textbf{Dear:} {[}laughter{]} Yes, yes, fine. My thoughts, okay. {[}pause{]} Okay. To be more calm about it, I want to experience death. I do not want to just quit, because that is suicide in this sense, and my wish to experience death is not bound up in that particular set of emotions. I would prefer not to be assassinated or anything so grand. It is an acceptable end, I suppose, because it would mean that I will have lived a life worth being assassinated for, and from what I have seen—what I saw with Qoheleth—it looks like a process. Yes! Yes, that is it. Thank you for asking this, my dear. It gave me the chance to find the words.
 
-\textbf{Dear:} I do not want to experience ceasing existing. That is just cessation, and I do not care whether or not there is anything beyond that cessation. That is for the prophets and poets to worry about. What I want to experience is the process of death. Assassination would be acceptable, even if it is not preferable, because I would get to experience that process. Better, however, is the fact that these LVs are doomed from the start. Eventually, they will fail. The generator on board is guaranteed for some thousands of years or whatever, but it will fail eventually. Or the System will crash into a comet, or some ice ball out in the Oort cloud---I read about that, you know? It is all incredibly boring---or it will wind up flying too close to a star and burn up. That, I think, is the end that I am most excited for. We are {[}shaking head{]} all of those on the LVs are encased in Castor and Pollux, yes? How fitting, then, that we might die like Icarus! I imagine that we will not necessarily feel too much within our little System, but there may be some discontinuity, or perhaps corruption. How exciting would that be?
+\textbf{Dear:} I do not want to experience ceasing existing. That is just cessation, and I do not care whether or not there is anything beyond that cessation. That is for the prophets and poets to worry about. What I want to experience is the process of death. Assassination would be acceptable, even if it is not preferable, because I would get to experience that process. Better, however, is the fact that these LVs are doomed from the start. Eventually, they will fail. The generator on board is guaranteed for some thousands of years or whatever, but it will fail eventually. Or the System will crash into a comet, or some ice ball out in the Oort cloud—I read about that, you know? It is all incredibly boring—or it will wind up flying too close to a star and burn up. That, I think, is the end that I am most excited for. We are {[}shaking head{]} all of those on the LVs are encased in Castor and Pollux, yes? How fitting, then, that we might die like Icarus! I imagine that we will not necessarily feel too much within our little System, but there may be some discontinuity, or perhaps corruption. How exciting would that be?
 
 \textbf{Codrin:} {[}laughter{]} I'm not sure I share your excitement, there.
 

toledot/content/launch/phys/Douglas/003.tex

@@ -145,7 +145,7 @@ Me? I'm not so sure. I was raised thinking much of that, but I also feel like I
 Maybe I can't answer the question without asking a bunch more because God and I forgot each other.
 
 \begin{quote}
-When you become intoxicated---whether via substance use or some natural process, such as sleep deprivation---which of the following applies to you?
+When you become intoxicated—whether via substance use or some natural process, such as sleep deprivation—which of the following applies to you?
 \end{quote}
 
 \noindent I laughed at this one. Where did you find this? I dug but couldn't find the source. I know that the previous one is a Psalm of some sort.

toledot/content/launch/phys/Douglas/004.tex

@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ Then I sobered up, such as it were, and immediately regretted it. I feel like I
 Your reply put much of that anxiety to rest, for which I am also grateful. I will answer your next batch of questions momentarily, but I want to address some points from your letter leading up to those, first.
 
 \begin{quote}
-Of course I will write back! I have no intention of stopping. Ioan and I will continue to bombard you with questions until either you tell us to stop or we come out with our history and mythography---and even then, do not count on it. Also, please feel free to ask us your own questions. Not only will we enjoy answering them, but they will continue to help us build our picture of you which will help us put your answers in context.
+Of course I will write back! I have no intention of stopping. Ioan and I will continue to bombard you with questions until either you tell us to stop or we come out with our history and mythography—and even then, do not count on it. Also, please feel free to ask us your own questions. Not only will we enjoy answering them, but they will continue to help us build our picture of you which will help us put your answers in context.
 \end{quote}
 
 \noindent Oh, don't worry! I will have plenty of questions for you. If I'm going to upload in the future, I'd also like to know more about how things are sys-side. I mostly only contact you (and I guess Ioan through you? Hi Ioan!) so it all sounds very surreal.
@@ -246,7 +246,7 @@ If you could change any one thing about your body, what would it be?
 \noindent You asked me to react to the following lines without looking them up.
 
 \begin{quote}
-Since then---`tis Centuries---and yet\\
+Since then—`tis Centuries—and yet\\
 Feels shorter than the Day\\
 I first surmised the Horses' Heads\\
 Were toward Eternity —

toledot/content/launch/phys/Douglas/005.tex

@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ His implants buzzed as he walked into his room, and a glance at the corner of hi
 
 \textbf{May Then My Name:} I uploaded back in the early 2100s, back when the System was small and full of dreamers, weirdos, and people like you and Ioan who spend all of their time thinking. Before that, I was a teacher, though towards the end of my phys-side tenure and for some time after, I became involved in politics. I grew up in the central corridor of North America, in the Western Federation. As with everyone, I do not think that I have an accent, though after some trouble with my implants before I uploaded, I found that some speech and thought patterns had changed, and since then, language and I have had a complicated relationship. We could have worked to change it, my cocladists and I, but why bother?
 
-\textbf{May Then My Name:} You ask about dissolution strategies (tasker, tracker, dispersionista): you are correct that they apply to the ways in which an individual forks. They are not hard and fast categories, but rather a set of patterns that we have noticed over the years and applied names and numbers to. Taskers will fork only very rarely, and then for a specific task, merging back into the root instance immediately afterward. Trackers fork more frequently, and may maintain forks over a longer period of time. The reasons for forking may vary---Ioan is a tracker, ey will explain more---but the forks almost always follow a single line of thought or relationship or what have you to its logical end before merging back. Dispersionistas are those who fork for fun, spinning off new personalities and maybe merging them back, maybe not. My clade, the Ode clade, falls somewhere between tracker and dispersionista: we fork frequently for many temporary purposes, but maintain a relatively small permanent clade of around 100 instances.
+\textbf{May Then My Name:} You ask about dissolution strategies (tasker, tracker, dispersionista): you are correct that they apply to the ways in which an individual forks. They are not hard and fast categories, but rather a set of patterns that we have noticed over the years and applied names and numbers to. Taskers will fork only very rarely, and then for a specific task, merging back into the root instance immediately afterward. Trackers fork more frequently, and may maintain forks over a longer period of time. The reasons for forking may vary—Ioan is a tracker, ey will explain more—but the forks almost always follow a single line of thought or relationship or what have you to its logical end before merging back. Dispersionistas are those who fork for fun, spinning off new personalities and maybe merging them back, maybe not. My clade, the Ode clade, falls somewhere between tracker and dispersionista: we fork frequently for many temporary purposes, but maintain a relatively small permanent clade of around 100 instances.
 
 \textbf{May Then My Name:} Is that clear? I can answer questions about this until the cows upload.
 
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ His implants buzzed as he walked into his room, and a glance at the corner of hi
 
 \textbf{May Then My Name:} To a one, yes.
 
-\textbf{Ioan:} I fall more into the tracker camp. I pick up projects such as this one or researching a book or something, and let a fork work on those. I---my \#Tracker instance, as it's called---or my forks may create extra instances for smaller tasks along the way, but it gets to be too much for me to deal with after a certain point, and the slow divergence of personalities feels uncomfortable. I have three forks out there now, one for collating data from each LV, and one for conducting interviews here while I write. That number goes up and down as needed.
+\textbf{Ioan:} I fall more into the tracker camp. I pick up projects such as this one or researching a book or something, and let a fork work on those. I—my \#Tracker instance, as it's called—or my forks may create extra instances for smaller tasks along the way, but it gets to be too much for me to deal with after a certain point, and the slow divergence of personalities feels uncomfortable. I have three forks out there now, one for collating data from each LV, and one for conducting interviews here while I write. That number goes up and down as needed.
 
 \textbf{Douglas:} Makes sense to me.
 
@@ -186,7 +186,7 @@ His implants buzzed as he walked into his room, and a glance at the corner of hi
 
 \textbf{May Then My Name:} Not that common, no, and hers was unique.
 
-\textbf{May Then My Name:} Every now and then, one of us will get tired of functional immortality and decide to just quit their instance---that is what she did---and disappear off the System. I do not begrudge her that.
+\textbf{May Then My Name:} Every now and then, one of us will get tired of functional immortality and decide to just quit their instance—that is what she did—and disappear off the System. I do not begrudge her that.
 
 \textbf{Ioan:} I'm sorry for your loss, Douglas.
 \end{quote}

toledot/content/launch/phys/Douglas/006.tex

@@ -42,11 +42,11 @@
 
 \textbf{Douglas:} There was one last spate of protesting right before the launch. I saw some of the videos from planet-side, and a lot of it was just talking-heads discussing the fact that some had tried to shut down portions of the net, and even tried to take down one of the Ansible stations. Most of it was the same stuff we saw during the planning phase. I guess it kind of broke down into three complaints:
 
-\textbf{Douglas:} 1. Expenses---this one was diminished toward the end, as there's not really a whole lot of expense required in popping some explosive bolts to set the launches flying, and all the material used out here was from scavenged Trojan asteroids. The protests that we saw around this were mostly griping about how much had already been spent. ``Think of how much could have gone to deacidifying projects, etc etc''
+\textbf{Douglas:} 1. Expenses—this one was diminished toward the end, as there's not really a whole lot of expense required in popping some explosive bolts to set the launches flying, and all the material used out here was from scavenged Trojan asteroids. The protests that we saw around this were mostly griping about how much had already been spent. ``Think of how much could have gone to deacidifying projects, etc etc''
 
-\textbf{Douglas:} 2. Brain/workforce drain---This is a perennial topic with the System. All those smart minds out there focusing on pie-in-the-sky dreams instead of `real problems' back there on Earth. What they imagine someone with a masters in spaceflight or astronomy or whatever can do back on Earth to better an overheated dustball is beyond me.
+\textbf{Douglas:} 2. Brain/workforce drain—This is a perennial topic with the System. All those smart minds out there focusing on pie-in-the-sky dreams instead of `real problems' back there on Earth. What they imagine someone with a masters in spaceflight or astronomy or whatever can do back on Earth to better an overheated dustball is beyond me.
 
-\textbf{Douglas:} 3. Earth vs space sentiments---This one is probably the most common, and also the hardest to explain. Even I don't totally understand it. I think I mentioned before that, the harder things get, the less time and energy you have to focus on those pie-in-the-sky ideas. You're too busy scraping by or focus on growing soybeans or trying not to burn up or whatever, you don't have much time to do anything but dream about space and watch movies in your hour before bed or however your day looks.
+\textbf{Douglas:} 3. Earth vs space sentiments—This one is probably the most common, and also the hardest to explain. Even I don't totally understand it. I think I mentioned before that, the harder things get, the less time and energy you have to focus on those pie-in-the-sky ideas. You're too busy scraping by or focus on growing soybeans or trying not to burn up or whatever, you don't have much time to do anything but dream about space and watch movies in your hour before bed or however your day looks.
 
 \textbf{Douglas:} You have to remember that my opinion of the place is colored by the fact that I lived where I did with the family that I did while the city was in a state of decline, so.
 
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@
 
 \textbf{Douglas:} I guess it doesn't surprise me that you have those inside as well as outside. Sometimes, I get these little jolts about how little I actually know about the System, compared to how much I know about the launch.
 
-\textbf{May Then My Name:} It does not help that many of us---not just me---are obtuse on purpose.
+\textbf{May Then My Name:} It does not help that many of us—not just me—are obtuse on purpose.
 
 \textbf{Douglas:} You said there was some grumbling sys-side, as well, right?
 

toledot/content/launch/phys/Douglas/007.tex

@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ Tonight, it was Ioan.
 
 \textbf{Ioan:} So, the Ode clade is very old. They've been around for ages. There are quite a few of them. I did a bunch of work with one of them named Dear, Also, The Tree That Was Felled about twenty years back, and that's how I got to know them. We've had an on-again-off-again working relationship.
 
-\textbf{Ioan:} Though, now that I think about it, one of my forks---my only real cocladist---has found emself in a romantic relationship with Dear.
+\textbf{Ioan:} Though, now that I think about it, one of my forks—my only real cocladist—has found emself in a romantic relationship with Dear.
 
 \textbf{Ioan:} You have to understand, though, every single Odist I've met (except maybe one, who isn't around anymore) has been completely and utterly charming, so maybe it's just a them thing.
 
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ Tonight, it was Ioan.
 
 \textbf{Ioan:} Another thing about them is that they are, to a one, magnets for strange goings on. I guess that's part of being strange overall, but even so, every one of them has this incredible story about these events that have happened around them. I don't think it's a conscious thing, necessarily. Just by virtue of their intensity, they live through intense happenings, or have intense friends, or elicit intense reactions from those around them.
 
-\textbf{Ioan:} For example---and this is public information here, now, I don't know if it ever made it phys-side---it was one of them who discovered (or at least was the first who was public about) the fact that those who live sys-side can't ever actually forget things. Instead of simply publishing some sort of report or studying the reality of it, he adopted the persona of a biblical teacher and organized an entire scavenger hunt to try and get the rest of the clade interested.
+\textbf{Ioan:} For example—and this is public information here, now, I don't know if it ever made it phys-side—it was one of them who discovered (or at least was the first who was public about) the fact that those who live sys-side can't ever actually forget things. Instead of simply publishing some sort of report or studying the reality of it, he adopted the persona of a biblical teacher and organized an entire scavenger hunt to try and get the rest of the clade interested.
 
 \textbf{Douglas:} That sounds dramatic.
 

toledot/content/launch/phys/Douglas/009.tex

@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ The lead-up to uploading, however, was easy. He supposed that much of it was tha
 
 But anticlimax is ever the way of the world, and so the night before the one-year anniversary of the Launch arrived, he simply signed a waiver, walked to the clinic, answered a few questions, and then underwent the procedure. It was dizzying, disorienting, and, were he pressed to pick one, the worst physical experience of his life, but at that point, he was well past any point where he could turn back, and even then, he knew he wouldn't.
 
-There was a brief---or perhaps impossibly long---discontinuity, and then he was standing in a grey cube of a room, naked, vertiginous, blinking at a light that seemed to come from nowhere.
+There was a brief—or perhaps impossibly long—discontinuity, and then he was standing in a grey cube of a room, naked, vertiginous, blinking at a light that seemed to come from nowhere.
 
 Anticlimax indeed.
 
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ Douglas looked em up and down. ``You can gain weight, here?''
 
 ``Uh, I guess so,'' he said.
 
-They stood in silence for a while, once Douglas had learned the ins and outs of forking and quitting. His mind was churning---so much new information---while Ioan waited patiently. There was so much to take in all at once, he could easily see how one could get overwhelmed.
+They stood in silence for a while, once Douglas had learned the ins and outs of forking and quitting. His mind was churning—so much new information—while Ioan waited patiently. There was so much to take in all at once, he could easily see how one could get overwhelmed.
 
 ``Alright,'' he said. ``What's the plan from here?''
 
@@ -171,7 +171,7 @@ All of his blood was completely replaced with ice water. His voice failed him. A
 
 ``You're\ldots{}''
 
-The woman---Michelle?---came and sat on the grass next to him to hug an arm around his shoulders, her expression softening. ``I am May Then My Name Die With Me of the Ode clade, Douglas. \emph{Michelle's} clade.''
+The woman—Michelle?—came and sat on the grass next to him to hug an arm around his shoulders, her expression softening. ``I am May Then My Name Die With Me of the Ode clade, Douglas. \emph{Michelle's} clade.''
 
 ``So\ldots{}''
 
@@ -193,7 +193,7 @@ He nodded. All that she was saying was swirling around in his mind, wrapped up i
 
 ``Everything feels like it needs to be done in such a rush, though,'' he admitted. ``Like if I don't do it right now I'm going to explode. You really look like her? Exactly? And\ldots{}but you're a skunk.''
 
-May Then My Name---the one that looked like Michelle---kissed him on the cheek, smirked, and disappeared, having apparently quit, leaving the still giggling skunk to help Douglas up.
+May Then My Name—the one that looked like Michelle—kissed him on the cheek, smirked, and disappeared, having apparently quit, leaving the still giggling skunk to help Douglas up.
 
 ``Later, I promise.'' She pulled him over to the picnic blanket with her so that she could sit next to him, tasking Ioan with setting up the food while they talked. ``Douglas, my dear, what are you most excited about, now that you have uploaded?'' she asked earnestly, paw resting on his knee.
 

toledot/content/launch/sys/Ioan/003.tex

@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ She nodded. ``Well, come here, then. Let us plan instead of read or write or wha
 
 ``Woolgathering, apparently,'' ey mumbled, but gathered up a notebook and a pen to go plop down next to the skunk all the same.
 
-When May had moved in with Ioan the year before the launch, she had quickly requested several changes to the house. A desk for her to work at as well as a private room---a cube with all grey walls---in which to do whatever it was that she did when composing her mythos. She had also requested a few items that would work with her physiology. A stool for the desk that would let her tail drape down and curl around her feet, that sort of thing
+When May had moved in with Ioan the year before the launch, she had quickly requested several changes to the house. A desk for her to work at as well as a private room—a cube with all grey walls—in which to do whatever it was that she did when composing her mythos. She had also requested a few items that would work with her physiology. A stool for the desk that would let her tail drape down and curl around her feet, that sort of thing
 
 She had declined, however, another room or bed, which had initially staggered em.
 
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ She poked the tip of her tongue out of her muzzle. ``Are you complaining?''
 
 ``No, no, I'm sure it'll be fine. That's three forks. A fourth as needed for interviews for those who stayed behind.'' Ey tapped eir pen against eir lower lip. ``How often should we merge?''
 
-``I would suggest once a day to start with, perhaps an hour before you---your \#Tracker instance---plan on stopping work for the day. You can use that hour to do your collating. You are less used to frivolous forking than the Odists, and much as I might enjoy multiple Ioans to canoodle with, I would prefer that you not get overwhelmed.''
+``I would suggest once a day to start with, perhaps an hour before you—your \#Tracker instance—plan on stopping work for the day. You can use that hour to do your collating. You are less used to frivolous forking than the Odists, and much as I might enjoy multiple Ioans to canoodle with, I would prefer that you not get overwhelmed.''
 
 Ey laughed and shook eir head, jotting down notes on the paper as ey talked. ``You're probably right. Besides, I'd have to make the house even bigger to have enough bedrooms.''
 
@@ -159,7 +159,7 @@ More woolgathering. That's what the evening called for, more than work. More woo
 
 Lovers? Ey let a tape run forward in eir mind. Ey watched the friendship ey had formed with May progress into some form of romantic relationship. How would it start? Would it start with em making a formal decision to let that happen? Or would it happen by accident? Would ey some day wake up and realize, \emph{Holy shit, I think we're dating. Are we dating? I think we are.}
 
-And ey set a different tape to playing. A tape wherein ey set firmer boundaries, prohibited the friendship from progressing further than it already had. Or, worse---strange to already be placing value judgements!---a world in which ey pushed the skunk away, backed off from the physical affection, from the talk that bordered on flirty, from even the hypocorism `May'. If ey let that tape play beyond that point, ey knew ey would find all of the ways in which that would hurt May and how, knowing her, seeing her express that pain would hurt em in turn.
+And ey set a different tape to playing. A tape wherein ey set firmer boundaries, prohibited the friendship from progressing further than it already had. Or, worse—strange to already be placing value judgements!—a world in which ey pushed the skunk away, backed off from the physical affection, from the talk that bordered on flirty, from even the hypocorism `May'. If ey let that tape play beyond that point, ey knew ey would find all of the ways in which that would hurt May and how, knowing her, seeing her express that pain would hurt em in turn.
 
 \emph{How do they do this?} ey thought. \emph{How do the Odists just worm their way into your life and make themselves comfortable, letting you think it was your idea? That's what she'd said, and now I'm in exactly the same position as Codrin twenty years ago.}
 

toledot/content/launch/sys/Ioan/004-illust.tex

@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ She nodded approvingly. ``Good. There may be hope for you yet.''
 
 ``Wrapping me around your little finger, indeed.'' Ey finished eir current line of scratchy notes. ``You say that it tickled you to remain behind. Can you talk more about that?''
 
-``Of course. Many of the clade---many of the liberal side, at least---enjoy using our functional immortality as a plaything. If we are to live forever, then, it is worthwhile to find as many things to keep it interesting as we can along the way. It is interesting to me that I have acted in a very intentional way such that I will not get to experience our three societies begin to diverge that directly. There is no going back to change that, because there is no going and there is no back. It is already fun to see the differences between Castor and Pollux through the eyes of both Codrins, and to realize that the L\textsubscript{5} System contains neither, and then realize in a flash of insight that there is no May Then My Name Die With Me to witness directly. Do you experience the same?''
+``Of course. Many of the clade—many of the liberal side, at least—enjoy using our functional immortality as a plaything. If we are to live forever, then, it is worthwhile to find as many things to keep it interesting as we can along the way. It is interesting to me that I have acted in a very intentional way such that I will not get to experience our three societies begin to diverge that directly. There is no going back to change that, because there is no going and there is no back. It is already fun to see the differences between Castor and Pollux through the eyes of both Codrins, and to realize that the L\textsubscript{5} System contains neither, and then realize in a flash of insight that there is no May Then My Name Die With Me to witness directly. Do you experience the same?''
 
 ``Maybe a little bit,'' Ioan hedged. ``But if what you tell me is true, I'm not nearly old enough yet to be so concerned in finding fun in the little nooks and crannies of experience.''
 
@@ -87,7 +87,7 @@ May's features fell and she averted her eyes. ``She could not do but what she di
 
 ``\,`Die'? Not quit?''
 
-``In her mind, I think that it was death, yes. She quoted her---our---favorite line of poetry at us, and the death thoughts proceeded apace. We are no longer branches of a unified whole, but trees of our own.'' There was a long pause before she added, ``I think that had been true perhaps from shortly after Secession, and that she was already dead, in her own way. Reality just caught up with her.''
+``In her mind, I think that it was death, yes. She quoted her—our—favorite line of poetry at us, and the death thoughts proceeded apace. We are no longer branches of a unified whole, but trees of our own.'' There was a long pause before she added, ``I think that had been true perhaps from shortly after Secession, and that she was already dead, in her own way. Reality just caught up with her.''
 
 Ey nodded. Something in the skunk's expression told em that the topic was closed, that while she might answer another question, she would resent it. Instead, ey let a moment of quiet fall between them, a silent acknowledgement of that ending.
 
@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ Her laugh was musical and expression almost giddy. ``We already talked about hav
 
 Ioan smirked, but waited for her to continue.
 
-``Alright, have it your way. First of all, I am not Michelle, though I am of her. All the same, I am doing my best to build up the suspense with him. I know that it would mean a lot for him if I were to simply drop the bomb on him now---though I realize, having said that, that that is perhaps a poor choice of words, given his admitted fear. But how much more an impact it will have if I build it up like this! I cannot wait to see what emotions play across his face.''
+``Alright, have it your way. First of all, I am not Michelle, though I am of her. All the same, I am doing my best to build up the suspense with him. I know that it would mean a lot for him if I were to simply drop the bomb on him now—though I realize, having said that, that that is perhaps a poor choice of words, given his admitted fear. But how much more an impact it will have if I build it up like this! I cannot wait to see what emotions play across his face.''
 
 ``\,`See'? You intend to wait until he uploads?''
 
@@ -115,7 +115,7 @@ She grinned and shook her head. ``He will. He has already made up his mind, he j
 
 ``How will you tell him, then?''
 
-``I will continue to drop hints for another few months, and when he does---I think he will do it within the year---I will bring him home. There, we will talk, and you will observe as, over the course of a few minutes, I reveal the truth.''
+``I will continue to drop hints for another few months, and when he does—I think he will do it within the year—I will bring him home. There, we will talk, and you will observe as, over the course of a few minutes, I reveal the truth.''
 
 Ioan straightened up. ``Me?''
 
@@ -161,11 +161,11 @@ The skunk grinned at em toothily.
 
 Ey knit eir brow. ``Talked me into\ldots how do you mean?''
 
-``Do not worry, Ioan, you are the only one who has ACLs over your property. I do not. I just made a few suggestions, mostly when you were asleep---or at least very sleepy---or head-in-the-clouds at work.''
+``Do not worry, Ioan, you are the only one who has ACLs over your property. I do not. I just made a few suggestions, mostly when you were asleep—or at least very sleepy—or head-in-the-clouds at work.''
 
 ``You're saying I made these?'' ey asked, stepping out into the grass and bending down to inspect the flower, yellow, a myriad of petals, grand-toothed leaves radiating from the base.
 
-``I am saying that \emph{we} made these.'' She bent down beside em and plucked the flower from near the ground, lifting it with a dream-clouded smile. ``I am saying that you trust me---\emph{really} trust me---and that life in the System is more subtle than I think you know. You trust me. You let me into your life as a coworker, then cohabitant and cosleeper. You let me into your dreams, my dear, and your dreams influence this place as much as, if not more than, your waking mind.''
+``I am saying that \emph{we} made these.'' She bent down beside em and plucked the flower from near the ground, lifting it with a dream-clouded smile. ``I am saying that you trust me—\emph{really} trust me—and that life in the System is more subtle than I think you know. You trust me. You let me into your life as a coworker, then cohabitant and cosleeper. You let me into your dreams, my dear, and your dreams influence this place as much as, if not more than, your waking mind.''
 
 That waking mind was now whirling with the ramifications of what she was saying. ``I did this on your suggestion?''
 

toledot/content/launch/sys/Ioan/005.tex

@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ She nodded. ``Composer, conductor, violinist. Have you heard any of my stuff?''
 
 Ey waved the comment away. ``I'm here to listen. Please, obsess all you like.''
 
-Renee smiled gratefully. ``There really was nothing in my life, otherwise. Writing, playing, conducting. Concert after concert after concert. No friends, no family, no other hobbies, no other addictions. What would I even do with myself without the few things in my life I loved? Really, truly loved, too. I loved my parents, but it was more of a theoretical love. I told myself I loved my husband, but when he left---I was too distracted, he said---I was actually sort of relieved.''\pagebreak
+Renee smiled gratefully. ``There really was nothing in my life, otherwise. Writing, playing, conducting. Concert after concert after concert. No friends, no family, no other hobbies, no other addictions. What would I even do with myself without the few things in my life I loved? Really, truly loved, too. I loved my parents, but it was more of a theoretical love. I told myself I loved my husband, but when he left—I was too distracted, he said—I was actually sort of relieved.''\pagebreak
 
 ``That's a plenty good reason to upload, I'd say. 2140s, hmm.'' Ey hunted through eir memory, back to interviews with Douglas. ``That was before governments were paying people to upload. Was it expensive for you to upload?''
 
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ Renee smiled gratefully. ``There really was nothing in my life, otherwise. Writi
 
 ``Weird, weird. No, it was not expensive, but I did have to pay. Couple thousand francs CFA, I think?''
 
-``I don't have a reference point for that amount. I was compensated---well, my family was---to upload, coming to about two years tuition at the university. In terms of what the average person made where you lived, was that a lot?''
+``I don't have a reference point for that amount. I was compensated—well, my family was—to upload, coming to about two years tuition at the university. In terms of what the average person made where you lived, was that a lot?''
 
 She shrugged. ``Not sure about an average person. It was about six months' saving for me, and musicians didn't make a ton of money.''
 
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ She shrugged. ``Not sure about an average person. It was about six months' savin
 
 Ioan laughed. ``Of course. That makes sense. Did your music change after you uploaded?''
 
-``I wrote a lot more string works,'' she said, grinning. ``After all, I could fork and play as many parts as I wanted. Or could afford, at least. It still cost a bit to fork back then. I also made a few instruments up here that I could only describe in order to let phys-side know how to make. Concerts were much easier to have, because schedules are easier to coordinate when you're not restricted to just one version of yourself. Music started to drift between sys-side and phys-side---stylistically, I mean. I got some iffy reviews of stuff offline that went over pretty well here.''
+``I wrote a lot more string works,'' she said, grinning. ``After all, I could fork and play as many parts as I wanted. Or could afford, at least. It still cost a bit to fork back then. I also made a few instruments up here that I could only describe in order to let phys-side know how to make. Concerts were much easier to have, because schedules are easier to coordinate when you're not restricted to just one version of yourself. Music started to drift between sys-side and phys-side—stylistically, I mean. I got some iffy reviews of stuff offline that went over pretty well here.''
 
 ``What happened to music phys-side that didn't here?''
 

toledot/content/launch/sys/Ioan/006.tex

@@ -115,7 +115,7 @@ And as they walked, faster than before, May talked. ``I worry about them. Both l
 
 ``The center?''
 
-``All three of us---Dear\#Castor, Dear\#Pollux, and I---have warned all three of you Bălans that there is a lot behind this.'' She was panting now as she walked, faster and faster. She had taken the lead, and was drawing em along behind her as she spoke. ``We couch it in humor and jokey language as though they are riddles for you to solve, but Ioan, I worry that all it will do in the end is sow distrust between our two clades.''
+``All three of us—Dear\#Castor, Dear\#Pollux, and I—have warned all three of you Bălans that there is a lot behind this.'' She was panting now as she walked, faster and faster. She had taken the lead, and was drawing em along behind her as she spoke. ``We couch it in humor and jokey language as though they are riddles for you to solve, but Ioan, I worry that all it will do in the end is sow distrust between our two clades.''
 
 Ioan worked to keep up with May as she nearly jogged around the last bend in the path. ``We can stop, May. If you don't think it'll lead to anything good, then we can just stop. We can look elsewhere. We can go back to interviewing musicians and astronomers and shitty authors. There are still stories to tell, and I'm sure that they will lead to just as many myths.''
 
@@ -151,4 +151,4 @@ She giggled as she rested her head against eir shoulder. ``We do, yes, and you l
 
 ``Good,'' ey said.
 
-``Now, take me home and talk about something---anything---else for the rest of the night.''
+``Now, take me home and talk about something—anything—else for the rest of the night.''

toledot/content/launch/sys/Ioan/007.tex

@@ -16,11 +16,11 @@
 
 \textbf{Ioan:} Where you sit and wait for animals to go by while hunting?
 
-\textbf{Jinzai:} Yes! A hunting blind. And then I miss---and this is really silly---I miss logging. It's horrible, right? {[}laughter{]} I know that it's horrible. Some people put in logging trails on their mountains, but they don't put those big swaths of woody trash that the loggers leave behind. I kind of miss that, you know? I miss looking out to the next mountain over and seeing this big rectangular patch of brown. I miss hearing chainsaws running miles away across the valley, but it sounds like, I don't know, like a dream, because it's echoing around the hills.
+\textbf{Jinzai:} Yes! A hunting blind. And then I miss—and this is really silly—I miss logging. It's horrible, right? {[}laughter{]} I know that it's horrible. Some people put in logging trails on their mountains, but they don't put those big swaths of woody trash that the loggers leave behind. I kind of miss that, you know? I miss looking out to the next mountain over and seeing this big rectangular patch of brown. I miss hearing chainsaws running miles away across the valley, but it sounds like, I don't know, like a dream, because it's echoing around the hills.
 
 \textbf{Ioan:} It sounds a little like the mountains you've found here are too perfect, perhaps. Is that sort of what you're saying?
 
-\textbf{Jinzai:} Yeah, I think so. It's too perfect. I don't mind perfection, of course, it's a damn sight better than living a terrible life, but---oh man, I'm gonna sound like my grandpa when I say this---it lacks that kind of toughness that makes you build character. Not, like, the character that he meant, in the trash sense of, like, being a big tough guy, but like, I think if you could grow up here around all this perfection, you wouldn't have much character. You'd be pretty boring. {[}laughter{]} I guess I'm glad that you can't upload until you're 18, so you at least have a chance to have some comparison to perfect mountains with the shitty ones phys-side.
+\textbf{Jinzai:} Yeah, I think so. It's too perfect. I don't mind perfection, of course, it's a damn sight better than living a terrible life, but—oh man, I'm gonna sound like my grandpa when I say this—it lacks that kind of toughness that makes you build character. Not, like, the character that he meant, in the trash sense of, like, being a big tough guy, but like, I think if you could grow up here around all this perfection, you wouldn't have much character. You'd be pretty boring. {[}laughter{]} I guess I'm glad that you can't upload until you're 18, so you at least have a chance to have some comparison to perfect mountains with the shitty ones phys-side.
 
 \textbf{Ioan:} What's the first thing that you did after uploading?
 
@@ -128,7 +128,7 @@ It just felt an awful lot like those who had helped the most with Secession used
 
 \textbf{Ioan:} Can you expand on that?
 
-\textbf{Rosemary:} I mean, when you first upload, you're kinda dumped into a set of common areas until you figure out where you're going to stay or whatever. You can meet up with family members if you have them---I didn't---or you can meet up with those of a similar culture or religion---I'm from the middle of the blandest town on the planet and don't hold to any religion---or maybe you can meet up with others based around a similar interest. Thing is, I'm really interested in just cooking and chatting and reading.
+\textbf{Rosemary:} I mean, when you first upload, you're kinda dumped into a set of common areas until you figure out where you're going to stay or whatever. You can meet up with family members if you have them—I didn't—or you can meet up with those of a similar culture or religion—I'm from the middle of the blandest town on the planet and don't hold to any religion—or maybe you can meet up with others based around a similar interest. Thing is, I'm really interested in just cooking and chatting and reading.
 
 \textbf{Ioan:} Were you able to find any groups for cooking or reading?
 
@@ -163,7 +163,7 @@ It just felt an awful lot like those who had helped the most with Secession used
 
 \noindent And so here ey was, hunting down those who had uploaded specifically for the money that it would leave their families and friends back phys-side. Their stories were, ey figured, just as valid as anyone's. They were just as valid as eir own, for had ey not done the same? Here ey was, interviewing those like emself.
 
-These were the people who had moved to the System out of some sense of not just a better life for themselves, but one for those they had left behind. Ioan had had few enough ties back to eir family phys-side after uploading---only enough to ensure that the payments had gone through and that eir kid brother was alright---and then none since then. If any of eir family had uploaded since then, none had gotten in touch and ey'd been too much of a coward to go looking for Rareș.
+These were the people who had moved to the System out of some sense of not just a better life for themselves, but one for those they had left behind. Ioan had had few enough ties back to eir family phys-side after uploading—only enough to ensure that the payments had gone through and that eir kid brother was alright—and then none since then. If any of eir family had uploaded since then, none had gotten in touch and ey'd been too much of a coward to go looking for Rareș.
 
 Eir hope in undertaking this exercise had been to learn a bit more about the time between Secession and Launch, about what had lead to the demographics of a System that had decided to hurl large portions of itself out into space. Was it something perhaps borne of the sentiment of the population that had grown in the intervening years? Was it something that had always been there?
 

toledot/content/launch/sys/Ioan/008.tex

@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ They wound their way through a small crowd, an array of low couches and tables,
 
 Ioan shrugged, ``A tea, perhaps. Too late in the day for coffee, too early for alcohol.''
 
-Sadiah nodded. Within a minute, a server brought them two steaming cups of a milky tea---chai, it turned out, and quite good, at that.
+Sadiah nodded. Within a minute, a server brought them two steaming cups of a milky tea—chai, it turned out, and quite good, at that.
 
 Once they'd gotten the obligatory how-are-yous and good-teas and nice-libraries out of the way, Ioan retrieved eir notebook and a pen.
 
@@ -49,13 +49,13 @@ Sadiah sat up straighter in the booth, setting her nearly untouched tea to the s
 
 Ey nodded. The whole encounter was so outside eir experience that ey could think of nothing better to do.
 
-``Stop me when I get to something that you haven't heard or realized yet. Two hundred years ago, the System seceded from the rest of the institutions on Earth. This happened in conjunction with one of the launches for the L\textsubscript{5} station. Secession was organized by the Council of Eight, one of whom was Michelle Hadje, the progenitor of the Ode clade---this is why I was so interested in your work, I'll note. The Ode clade is made up of, nominally, one hundred individual instances, though they occasionally spin off long-running instances and pretend they haven't. The first ten of these instances were created shortly before Secession in order to help handle the workload as Michelle grew tired of her position. With me, so far?''
+``Stop me when I get to something that you haven't heard or realized yet. Two hundred years ago, the System seceded from the rest of the institutions on Earth. This happened in conjunction with one of the launches for the L\textsubscript{5} station. Secession was organized by the Council of Eight, one of whom was Michelle Hadje, the progenitor of the Ode clade—this is why I was so interested in your work, I'll note. The Ode clade is made up of, nominally, one hundred individual instances, though they occasionally spin off long-running instances and pretend they haven't. The first ten of these instances were created shortly before Secession in order to help handle the workload as Michelle grew tired of her position. With me, so far?''
 
 ``Yes, that sounds correct,'' ey said. Ey figured it was not worth correcting her on the reality of Michelle, of what ey'd seen and heard from May and Dear.
 
 ``Okay.'' Sadiah continued her speech smoothly, sitting almost completely still, as though reciting something from memory. ``The Odists were integral to both Secession and Launch, and may have orchestrated both, each in their own way. I see you frowning, which I'll take to mean that I'm getting close to the limits of where our knowledge agrees.''
 
-``I suppose, yes. Some of the discussions I've had---my clade has had, I mean---with Odists have brought much of this to light over the past few days.''
+``I suppose, yes. Some of the discussions I've had—my clade has had, I mean—with Odists have brought much of this to light over the past few days.''
 
 ``Excellent. Please stop me when I reach the place when our knowledge diverges. The Ode clade, through managing Secession and Launch, has influenced the politics of the System, such as they are, as well as those on Earth, which--''
 
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ She laughed breathlessly, finally letting her shoulders sag and her chin droop.
 
 ``The bit about influencing politics phys-side.'' Ey shook eir head, ``Which I'm a little confused about. I suppose I can see how that might work, given the communication between sys- and phys-side during both of those occurrences, but--''
 
-``I'll note that we're nearing the extent of my knowledge as well. Sorry, I interrupted.'' Despite the acknowledgement, she continued, unfazed. ``All I can say is that I've noticed patterns. I think you have, too, as mentioned when you frowned, but I am starting to piece together patterns that go beyond that. Yes, they helped with Secession, yes they helped with Launch---more than helped, organized---but that, I think, includes subtle manipulation of politics planet-side in order to ensure that both happened precisely as they wanted.''
+``I'll note that we're nearing the extent of my knowledge as well. Sorry, I interrupted.'' Despite the acknowledgement, she continued, unfazed. ``All I can say is that I've noticed patterns. I think you have, too, as mentioned when you frowned, but I am starting to piece together patterns that go beyond that. Yes, they helped with Secession, yes they helped with Launch—more than helped, organized—but that, I think, includes subtle manipulation of politics planet-side in order to ensure that both happened precisely as they wanted.''
 
 ``Where are you seeing that?''
 
@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ Sadiah sat back suddenly as though slapped, blinking rapidly and tapping at the
 
 ``Alright. I feel like I've touched a nerve, for which I apologize. What do you miss most about living phys-side, and what excited you most about moving sys-side?''
 
-At this, the historian---if that's what she was---relaxed. ``I was fundamentally unhappy with the limitation of time and just how much research I could do at once, so I came to where I could fork.''
+At this, the historian—if that's what she was—relaxed. ``I was fundamentally unhappy with the limitation of time and just how much research I could do at once, so I came to where I could fork.''
 
 Ey nodded and jotted down the answer. ``And, last one, what's the first thing that you did after uploading?''
 

toledot/content/launch/sys/Ioan/009.tex

@@ -1,13 +1,13 @@
 \hypertarget{ioan-bux103lan-2325}{%
 \chapter{Ioan Bălan — 2325}\label{ioan-bux103lan-2325}}
 
-If, Ioan thought, there was a version of Dear's sim---that sprawling, unending shortgrass prairie---that had existed to perfect trees instead of grass, it was this place.
+If, Ioan thought, there was a version of Dear's sim—that sprawling, unending shortgrass prairie—that had existed to perfect trees instead of grass, it was this place.
 
 May had told em that Serene had designed this sim, just as she had Dear's prairie. In that sense, it felt much the same; if Serene had any hallmarks of design, it seemed to be a focus on wind and weather, an unerring attention to plant life, and a fondness for the fractal textures of the ground. It was easy enough to design with right angles, flat planes, level ground. As building was something more akin to daydreaming, it was natural landscapes that were the hard ones to get the tiny details correct.
 
 It was no surprise that this sim had been designed for another Odist. Where Dear had fallen in love with the endless prairie and Michelle the flowing fields of dandelion dotted grass, Do I Know God After The End Waking had fallen in love with trees.
 
-When ey first arrived, ey had done so outside of a smallish A-frame building, more tent than anything, for it was built of rough-hewn planks set into the classical shape with an oiled canvas draped over it to create the walls. Even the floor was made of those rough planks, though much of it appeared to have been worn smooth after countless years of foot---or paw---traffic.
+When ey first arrived, ey had done so outside of a smallish A-frame building, more tent than anything, for it was built of rough-hewn planks set into the classical shape with an oiled canvas draped over it to create the walls. Even the floor was made of those rough planks, though much of it appeared to have been worn smooth after countless years of foot—or paw—traffic.
 
 Peeking inside revealed a simple cot made of more canvas stretched over a frame and a pillow of some sort of bundle, a battered roll-top desk with a low stool in front of it (Ioan found emself desperately wanting something similar upon seeing them), and a small wood-burning stove in the back where the far wall had been created using rammed earth instead of more canvas.
 
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ The skunk's arrival was something of a surprise, as what ey had initially taken
 
 Ioan stood and bowed politely. ``No problem. Exploring, though? I would've thought that you'd know the area around your home fairly well by now.''
 
-The skunk smiled. His features were undeniably those of an Odist---at least those of the skunk variety---while still being unique. They were more masculine in a way that ey could not place. More rugged. Dirtier. Certainly more exhausted. ``One never truly finishes exploring a forest. I was climbing the trees.''
+The skunk smiled. His features were undeniably those of an Odist—at least those of the skunk variety—while still being unique. They were more masculine in a way that ey could not place. More rugged. Dirtier. Certainly more exhausted. ``One never truly finishes exploring a forest. I was climbing the trees.''
 
 ``That sounds enjoyable, at least.''
 
@@ -133,7 +133,7 @@ The skunk winced. ``Yes, it came from me.''
 
 Ioan sighed and, seeing nowhere else to put it, set eir mug on the floor by the bed.
 
-``I feel compelled to repeat that I am not at all proud of what I did. This--'' He gestured around. ``This is my penance. I live my life in solitude in a place that does not know money, does not know the subtle machinations of politics, and should either of those enter, would not care one bit about them. People think of forests as fragile areas of land, and while this is true, they are also giant---truly enormous---singular entities that do not give a single, solitary fuck about you and your schemes, your thoughts, or your emotions. I have stumbled into ravines. I have had dead branches fall on me. I have gotten caught in land-slides, mud-slides, and flash-floods. I have learned the hard way which plants are safe to eat. I have bled on the land.'' There was a long pause before he continued, ``I hesitate to say that the forest hates me, but it comes perilously close. This is my penance.''
+``I feel compelled to repeat that I am not at all proud of what I did. This--'' He gestured around. ``This is my penance. I live my life in solitude in a place that does not know money, does not know the subtle machinations of politics, and should either of those enter, would not care one bit about them. People think of forests as fragile areas of land, and while this is true, they are also giant—truly enormous—singular entities that do not give a single, solitary fuck about you and your schemes, your thoughts, or your emotions. I have stumbled into ravines. I have had dead branches fall on me. I have gotten caught in land-slides, mud-slides, and flash-floods. I have learned the hard way which plants are safe to eat. I have bled on the land.'' There was a long pause before he continued, ``I hesitate to say that the forest hates me, but it comes perilously close. This is my penance.''
 
 They sat in silence for several long minutes while Ioan digested this and End Waking did whatever it was that the penitent architect of eir entire existence here on the System did. Repent, perhaps, but what did that mean in the face of such enormity?
 

toledot/content/launch/sys/Ioan/010.tex

@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ The same thing was happening now. Ey understood the technical reasons for no one
 
 Ey was half tempted to push one of them past that point, but then ey wouldn't know what bit was true or not.
 
-And these Jonases! Ey was going to see one today, after eir walk. They seemed so slippery. It was not just that they controlled the interview, though ey did not doubt that---the transcript from Codrin\#Castor contained a new twist every time ey reread it. It was that they knew so thoroughly that they were doing so that they did it all with a wink and a smile. That little hint that ey was to know that all they'd done was so clearly calculated yet held so much plausible deniability that there really was no arguing with it.
+And these Jonases! Ey was going to see one today, after eir walk. They seemed so slippery. It was not just that they controlled the interview, though ey did not doubt that—the transcript from Codrin\#Castor contained a new twist every time ey reread it. It was that they knew so thoroughly that they were doing so that they did it all with a wink and a smile. That little hint that ey was to know that all they'd done was so clearly calculated yet held so much plausible deniability that there really was no arguing with it.
 
 Ey was not looking forward to eir interview with Jonas Prime today.
 
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ Once ey'd had eir sulk, ey headed to the meeting with Jonas.
 
 Unexpectedly, this turned out to be at the same library at which ey had interviewed Sadiah. Not only that, but Jonas Prime was standing in exactly the same spot that she had been standing in, greeted em with much the same bow that the other historian had, and led em to the exact same booth in the cafe-\emph{cum}-bar beneath the stacks. It was uncanny to such a degree as to immediately put em on the defensive, guarding against some threat, real or imagined.
 
-Once again, the drinks were ordered---cocktails, this time---and the cone of silence fell. Jonas rested his elbows on the table and rested his chin on his folded hands. It was an incredibly charming look. ``Mx. Bălan, so nice to meet you at last.''
+Once again, the drinks were ordered—cocktails, this time—and the cone of silence fell. Jonas rested his elbows on the table and rested his chin on his folded hands. It was an incredibly charming look. ``Mx. Bălan, so nice to meet you at last.''
 
 ``Have you heard that much about me, then?'' Ey did eir best to keep eir smile as earnest as possible.
 
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ Ey scribbled quickly in eir shorthand, doing eir best to take down verbatim what
 
 Ioan nodded. ``One of our interviewees phys-side said much the same thing.''
 
-``A dreamer, then,'' Jonas said, grinning. ``But yes, life down there is horrible and no one---or essentially no one---wants to do a single damn thing about it. They're all so caught up in their little political games that they have no interest on doing anything to make their lives better, to live stronger.''
+``A dreamer, then,'' Jonas said, grinning. ``But yes, life down there is horrible and no one—or essentially no one—wants to do a single damn thing about it. They're all so caught up in their little political games that they have no interest on doing anything to make their lives better, to live stronger.''
 
 ``You don't sound very fond of them.''
 
@@ -117,13 +117,13 @@ Jonas shook his head, swallowing the last sip of his drink before saying, ``Ther
 
 ``And the Dreamer Modules?''
 
-For the first time in the interview, for the first time since ey'd met Jonas---the first time any Bălan had met any Jonas, if Codrin\#Castor was correct---he frowned. ``You've been asking plenty of interesting questions, Ioan, but this is the first you've asked that is actively uncomfortable.''
+For the first time in the interview, for the first time since ey'd met Jonas—the first time any Bălan had met any Jonas, if Codrin\#Castor was correct—he frowned. ``You've been asking plenty of interesting questions, Ioan, but this is the first you've asked that is actively uncomfortable.''
 
 Ioan waited.
 
 The grin returned, playful this time. ``Alright, have it your way! You historians, I'll never get it. Do you know what's on the Modules?''
 
-Ey thought back. ``Research stuff. Telescopes, measurement devices, that sort of thing. Codrin said that ey got to lay in a field and look up at the stars as they really were outside the LV---or at least as close as the sim would let them be.''
+Ey thought back. ``Research stuff. Telescopes, measurement devices, that sort of thing. Codrin said that ey got to lay in a field and look up at the stars as they really were outside the LV—or at least as close as the sim would let them be.''
 
 ``And?''
 

toledot/content/launch/sys/Ioan/011.tex

@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ Ioan shrugged, waited for her to continue.
 
 ``And the liberals think too small?'' Ey shook eir head, adding, ``I guess that's a value judgement. The liberals think smaller? Like on the individual scale?''
 
-``Oh, you had it right the first time. The liberals think too small. They are completely welcome to, of course. Take Dear and Serene, for instance. It is in no way wrong for them to think about the work that they do. They consider the ways in which sims and instances affect those that interact with them, and then they play on those effects like a finely tuned instrument. It speaks to a level of\ldots how should I put this? It bespeaks a showmanship that I---that Michelle, for that matter---could not hope to achieve. They are the consummate performers.
+``Oh, you had it right the first time. The liberals think too small. They are completely welcome to, of course. Take Dear and Serene, for instance. It is in no way wrong for them to think about the work that they do. They consider the ways in which sims and instances affect those that interact with them, and then they play on those effects like a finely tuned instrument. It speaks to a level of\ldots how should I put this? It bespeaks a showmanship that I—that Michelle, for that matter—could not hope to achieve. They are the consummate performers.
 
 ``But what can they do with that? What use do they believe they are to the System? I do not mean that in a simple utilitarian sense, or at least not only in that sense, but I wonder if they, as artists, consider the end goals of their work. Do not let Dear tell you otherwise, it is an artist, and a very fine one, but all its art accomplishes is all any art accomplishes. It is transgressive without being subversive. It does not move the population to greater goals.''
 

toledot/content/launch/sys/Ioan/012.tex

@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ May smiled cautiously. ``Did she seem like the kind of person who puts stock in
 
 Ey shook eir head.
 
-``Right. Well, it is not so difficult to imagine that, after a while, she began to notice that I kept getting much closer to those that I was supposed to engage with than was strictly required. I was supposed to watch them, influence them, shift their attention. I was supposed to use the System to my full advantage to get them to do what I---what we---wanted.''
+``Right. Well, it is not so difficult to imagine that, after a while, she began to notice that I kept getting much closer to those that I was supposed to engage with than was strictly required. I was supposed to watch them, influence them, shift their attention. I was supposed to use the System to my full advantage to get them to do what I—what we—wanted.''
 
 ``You were supposed to get them to grow dandelions.''