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\chapter{Michelle Hadje/Sasha — 2151}\label{michelle-hadjesasha-2151}}

In the endless, rolling field of dandelions, five people gathered.

Two of them were shaped like a woman. Short. Dark, curly hair. Round of cheek and soft of eye.

Two of them were shaped like skunks. Thick, soft fur. Tails as long as their bodies, as wide as their torsos.

The two types were alike in so many ways. The softness evident between the two disparate species was the same softness. The roundness to the cheeks, despite the fur, was the same roundness. The eyes bore the same expressive empathy.

And before them sat one who was not like any of the others, and yet was exactly like all of them. When she focused, she was able to look like skunk or like human, and her eyes were able to share in some of that softness, but when she lost focus, waves of both crashed against her in a violent tempest, splashing fur up over cheeks, or skin down over paws.

``I am sorry,'' she said through a dry throat, then laughed. ``I am having a bad day.''

Among the four in front of her, there were two expressions. The two sitting at the ends of the row looked as though they were struggling to keep from crying, and two in the middle frowned, as though tamping down some emotion that wavered between fear and disappointment.

``Anyway,'' Michelle/Sasha said. ``I guess I just wanted to get a few of us together to confirm some thoughts that I have been having of late.''

``Is this about the Council?'' the woman sitting on the inside, To Pray For The End Of Endings, asked.

``Well, yes and no. My thoughts on the council were the root of it. It is just\ldots did I fuck up?''

At this, the skunk sitting on the end, May Then My Name Die With Me, burst into tears.

``Fuck up how?'' To Pray asked.

Michelle/Sasha sighed, shrugged, and hugged her knees to her chest, resting her chin/snout on them. ``I did not think things through very well when I created the clade. I thought that it might give me a vacation. A chance to figure out what was wrong, maybe fork my way out of this\ldots well, this.'' She gestured at herself, smiling tiredly. ``But now I feel like I have fucked up. Half of the clade dissolved the Council and the other half has rejected the first and spun off to do its own thing. If I had taken a week off and figured out that I could fork myself into one shape or the other and just done that, perhaps there would still be a Council.''

The skunk beside To Pray, If I Am To Bathe In Dreams, shrugged. ``You may have fucked up, yes, but there is no going back. What was the phrase? There is no going and there is no back? The Council is dissolved and nothing really changed. Jonas is doing Jonas things. Odists are doing Odist things, whatever those are. This is where you are. I mean this as an earnest question, but would you be able to choose between Michelle and Sasha?''

``No, I do not think I could,'' she sighed. She just wished she could be Sasha for a little bit, just so that she could get the comfort of being petted by Memory Is A Mirror Of Hammered Silver/she just wished she could be Michelle for a little bit so that May Then My Name Die With Me could brush her hair. ``And I think that is part of the problem, anyway. I think that if I were to fork, I would be whatever I was when I did so, and I think that goes beyond just species.''

To Pray grinned, ``I suppose so. You could have wound up like True Name or Life Breeds Life and taken over the world.''

May Then My Name smiled shakily. ``Taking over the world is not so bad.''

``It definitely fucking is, May,'' In Dreams said. ``But I stand by what I said. You did what you did and that is an immutable fact. You cannot un-fork, Michelle. You cannot become what you were then, Sasha, you can only become what you will be.''

``I do not think that you fucked up, dear.'' Hammered silver plucked a dandelion and spun it between her fingers. ``You may \emph{be} fucked up, if you somehow contained what it takes to be all the clade as one within you, but even that is not your fault.''

``The fuck-up, then would be the fact that I did not acknowledge that.''

In Dreams pulled up a whole handful of grass and flowers and threw it at her, grinning. ``Do not mope. It does not become you.''

Sasha/Michelle laughed, shrugged, and tried to tuck one of the flowers behind her ear, but as soon as a shift of form rolled across her face, it fell to the ground.

She wished that she could be just one thing for a little while, but seeing the outcome of a scattered mind creating copy after copy of herself, she knew that there was no solution that did not run the risk of becoming what she did not want to be.

She wished that she could be just one thing so that she could be touched. The shifting form made any touch unnerving, made her feel disgusting. She wished that for herself, and for May Then My Name, who looked as though she was using every ounce of willpower she had to keep from going in for a hug.

\emph{Being like her would not be so bad,} Michelle/Sasha thought. \emph{But even then, that is not all of me.}

They sat in silence for a while, then, this five-pack of her, and, regardless of what they thought about, she thought about empathy and mirrors of hammered silver and the end of memories, there, beneath the roots.

\emph{I think I died, back then,} Sasha thought/``I think I died back then,'' Michelle said.

To Pray frowned. ``What do you mean?''

``I think I just gave everything I had to them. To you. ``Two weeks,'' I remember thinking. ``The first lines can take my place for two weeks, and then I will be back on the council, and they can do their own thing.'' But I think that I died. There was no returning to the council, because there was no more Sasha or Michelle.''

``And what is the fallout of being a dead woman walking?''

``I do not know. I think that it means that I have stopped. I do not know if there is a path forward for me that involves me being anything other than what I am now. I died because with that act I cannot move on from where I am.''

Hammered Silver averted her eyes. ``I am not comfortable with that language.''

Michelle/Sasha shrugged helplessly. ``I am sorry. Like I said, I am having a bad day.''

``Sasha,'' May Then My Name said. ``Why did you call us here? I do not think it is because you feel like you fucked up or like you died. Why are we here?''

``I guess I just wanted to see proof that at least some of the clade are good people. I know Hammered Silver is. She comes by at least once a day. I know you two are--'' She nodded at To Pray and In Dreams. ``--because you have kept me up to date on the others. And I do not think May could swat a fly without feeling bad about it.''

The skunk stuck her tongue out, but did not disagree.

``Reassurance,'' Hammered Silver muttered. ``Validation, maybe? Proof that you are not just the things that you hate about yourself?''

Sasha/Michelle nodded.

``Where do you think they came from, then? Where did we come from?''

Michelle/Sasha laughed. ``I have no idea. Maybe you are the part of me that always wanted to be a mother. Maybe True Name is that bit of myself that always fears that asking for what I want is manipulation, or the mirror image of that. I really do not know.''

``It is okay to have fears,'' Hammered Silver said gently. ``Like, it is legal. You will not get arrested for being afraid.''

They all grinned.

``But,'' she continued. ``Do not always dwell in them. Resent True Name and Life Breeds Life for a little while, then go back to remembering that you always wanted to be a mom and that you still love acting even after you became a director and that you really, really fucking love dandelions.''

``Seriously,'' In Dreams said. ``To an almost unhealthy level. This is an intervention, Michelle. You need to chill with the dandelions.''

As the cloud of rumination began to lift, and as she laughed, she began to settle down into Michelle. Just Michelle. Just herself. ``They cannot be that bad. They just got stuck in my head, and now I cannot get them out.''

``Snorting pollen off the back of your hand in the back parking lot,'' To Pray said, picking up on the mood. ``I am honestly ashamed of you.''

``My name is May Then My Name Die With me,'' the skunk said, clambering to her feet. ``And I am a dandelion-aholic.''

``Hi, May Then My Name,'' the others sing-songed.

And then she was Michelle. At least for a little while, she was just Michelle, and May Then My Name could brush her hair and they could talk about something else, and she could allow the thought that perhaps even the dead can be happy.
