Updates per edits

marsh/content/014.tex

@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 We lingered in silence for the remainder of the evening, the four of us piled into a bed now built for four. Two of my cocladists and their partner, and now me. Who knew what I was? There was the friendship that we had built over the last few days. There was the camaraderie that we had built through work. There was the acquaintanceship that had been there from years prior.
 
-And now there was more. I didn't have words for it, and Dry Grass was asleep for most of our time together. It wasn't the time for conversations, it was time for just resting, something I realized I dearly needed as well. We all did, as we napped off and on for some time until the clock hit one in the morning, at which point I stepped back home to spend the rest of my night with Hanne.
+And now there was more. I didn't have words for it, and Dry Grass was asleep for much of our time together. It wasn't the time for conversations, it was time for just resting, something I realized I dearly needed as well. We all did, as we napped off and on for some time until the clock hit one in the morning, at which point I stepped back home to spend the rest of my night with Hanne.
 
-She was already in bed, curled around body pillow, though not yet asleep.
+She was already in bed, curled around a body pillow, though not yet asleep.
 
 \emph{``Reed?''} she asked through a sensorium message as I crept into the room, a cone of silence set up over me to keep from disturbing her. \emph{``You back for the night?''}
 
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ I nodded, shedding my trousers as I made my way over to join her in the bed, onc
 
 ``That was earlier. I wore myself out at our little funeral.''
 
-Hanne sighed into the long silence that followed, eventually replying, ``I went to see Jess's\ldots uh, core, I guess, with a few others. I came home and just kind of lay down and have been here ever since.''
+Hanne sighed into the long silence that followed, eventually replying, ``I went to see Shu's\ldots uh, core, I guess, with a few others. I came home and just kind of lay down and have been here ever since.''
 
 I tightened my arm around her. ``I'm sorry, Hanne. It's super overwhelming there. Did you get any rest, at least?''
 
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ She shrugged noncommittally. ``Glad you got some. Where'd you crash?'' She wince
 
 ``Oh?'' I could hear the faint smirk in her voice. ``Did you wind up getting all smoochy with her?''
 
-I laughed, pressing my face against the back of her neck. ``No.~A bit cuddly, maybe, but that's it.''
+I laughed, pressing my face against the back of her neck. ``No.~A bit cuddly, maybe, but that's it. We may go on a date at some point.''
 
 She laughed as well. ``Well, good. I'm happy for you.''
 
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ I kissed on her nape. ``Yeah, we'll see. It's a weird way to come about a relati
 
 ``Mmhm. It's really weird talking about this now, though. All this stressful stuff going on, and we're talking about relationships.''
 
-``We talked about that a bit, actually,'' I said. ``Tule suggested that it was a bit of focusing on the good things, but Dry Grass said it might be more like a `protective measure'. Something about''building more relationships to pin ourselves down after so many were broken''.''
+``We talked about that a bit, actually,'' I said. ``Tule suggested that it was a bit of focusing on the good things, but Dry Grass said it might be more like a `protective measure'. Something about trauma bonding.''Building more relationships to pin ourselves down after so many were broken''.''
 
 ``That's a kind of cynical way of looking at it.''
 
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ I shrugged. ``We were all hurting, just in different ways.''
 
 ``Yeah, I guess we are. I'm still somewhere between numb and grief, I guess.''
 
-``I'm\ldots I don't know,'' I said. ``Grieving? Confused? Hurt?''
+``I'm sorry, Hanne,'' I said. ``I'm\ldots I don't know. Grieving? Confused? Hurt?''
 
 ``Hurt how?''
 
@@ -68,6 +68,10 @@ We lay in silence for a while, and I found myself lingering on the thoughts of h
 
 ``Mm?'' She sounded on the verge of sleep.
 
+``I love you.''
+
+``I love you too. What brought that on?''
+
 ``Remember what we were talking about before\ldots before the attack?''
 
 ``You were talking about 2399,'' she said, then laughed sleepily. ``I asked you to sell me on the year. You made a pretty convincing argument that it was a good year.''
@@ -78,7 +82,7 @@ We lay in silence for a while, and I found myself lingering on the thoughts of h
 
 I snorted. ``Yeah, I guess so. I'm feeling pretty maudlin now, though. I still feel hurt, I still feel like I'm grieving, but I'm feeling maudlin, too. Extremely sentimental. Effusively sad.''
 
-``Effusively!'' She sighed, squirming around to give me a kiss. ``Reed, my darling, my love, please never change.''
+``Effusively!'' She sighed, squirming around to give me a kiss. ``Reed, my darling, my love, my very own, please never change.''
 
 ``Wasn't planning on it,'' I said, grinning. ``But yeah. The grief is really starting to kick in. I got so \emph{angry} at Lily today. She was being such a bitch about Dry Grass, I mean, so of course I did, but\ldots well, I hit her. Slapped her across the face.''
 
@@ -104,7 +108,7 @@ She furrowed her brow. ``I thought that's what you'd done, actually.''
 
 ``How, though? It's not like hormones do anything here.''
 
-I shrugged. ``I met up with a bunch of other folks doing the same thing --- actually surprised I didn't run into Hold My Name in the process --- and we all talked about the various ways we could go through the process. Some hunted down doctors who had uploaded and were willing to do things like help act out the process. I mostly just forked once a month from that cis body into what I am bit by bit. I let my voice change, bound my chest, added surgery scars, each bit step by step.''
+I shrugged. ``I met up with a bunch of other folks doing the same thing — actually surprised I didn't run into Hold My Name in the process — and we all talked about the various ways we could go through the process. Some hunted down doctors who had uploaded and were willing to do things like help act out the process. I mostly just forked once a month from that cis body into what I am bit by bit. I let my voice change, bound my chest, added surgery scars, each bit step by step.''
 
 ``That's wild,'' she said. ``What's this got to do with Marsh, though? Feeling maudlin over gender?''