\hypertarget{qoheleth-2305}{%
\chapter*{Qoheleth — 2305}\label{qoheleth-2305}}

Transcript of Node: \href{http://35.165.134.227/node/bea0cf302fcd00863f0c67a91b1a75c0e4ba4863}{{[}bea0cf302fcd00863f0c67a91b1a75c0e4ba4863{]}} with descriptive text by \#d5b14aa.

\emph{The footage shows two persons. One of them has to be Dear, Also, The Tree That Was Felled, who is an up-tree branch of the Ode clade, eighth stanza. No one else has ears that big, nobody else can somehow speak in italics. The other took some research, but I am confident that ey is an instance of Ioan Bălan, a historian and writer. Ey is a tracker, but only just, as eir habits tend toward few to no long-running instances. This instance is either \#tracker or one tasked to this project.}

\emph{The two persons are sitting outside of a cafe, from whom I obtained this footage. They are in conversation. Going to sit down and watch this.}

\begin{quote}
\textbf{Dear, Also, The Tree That Was Felled}: Thank you for your letter, Ioan. Lots of really good stuff in there, most of which I had missed simply out of nearsightedness.

\textbf{Ioan Bălan}: You've got me hooked on this project, I have to say. It's fascinating stuff.
\end{quote}

\emph{Dear grins at this.}

\begin{quote}
\textbf{Dear} We — that is, some other Odists down-tree from\pagebreak\ me — have come up with some further hints about the message.

\textbf{Ioan}: Oh? Anything good?

\textbf{Dear}: I suppose it depends on your definition of good.

\textbf{Ioan}: {[}snark, good natured{]} Oh great. Excited already. {[}more earnest{]} The fascination continues. Well, let's have it.

\textbf{Dear}: So, one of us did an exhaustive search of some records and found an old archive server running somewhere.
\end{quote}

\emph{Oh goodie. Better start gearing up.}

\begin{quote}
\textbf{Ioan}: Wait, start at the top. What were they searching?

\textbf{Dear}: They were searching for the block of encrypted text — not what was in it; they cracked that long ago. They searched for the encrypted text itself, and they came across an archive server.

\textbf{Ioan}: Old node boxes? Wow, even I feel crusty using one of those, and I'm a historian.

\textbf{Dear}: {[}laughter{]} They found the archive server though, and there is a bunch of intriguing stuff on it. New, old, the whole thing. There is stuff from ages ago, shortly after we got here, and stuff from a few hours ago.

\textbf{Ioan}: You're kidding. Newly created stuff?

\textbf{Dear}: I know. It is ridiculous.
\end{quote}

\emph{The fox's ears flop when it gets excited and shakes its head, never noticed that. It is kind of cute.}

\begin{quote}
\textbf{Ioan}: Never met anyone who could actually get one working well enough to add new nodes. So the encrypted text was in a node on the server?

\textbf{Dear}: Yes. It is still there. {[}pause{]} Just sent the URI.

\textbf{Ioan}: I\ldots{}well, I'll have to take it at your word that it's the same as the one you found earlier, I'm not going character by character.
\end{quote}

\emph{Dear seems a little frustrated at this. About Ioan's slowness? I know I would not compare the files. It sounds exasperated.}

\begin{quote}
\textbf{Dear}: Of course, Ioan. I promise it is the same, though. Needless to say, we found a crusty old archive with the block on it, and there are other public nodes on there as well. I am guessing a bunch of private ones, too.

\textbf{Ioan}: Anything good in those?

\textbf{Dear}: Nothing\ldots{}penetrable. It is all fairly opaque. To me, at least.
\end{quote}

\emph{Ioan grins at this.}

\begin{quote}
\textbf{Ioan}: Thus us meeting?

\textbf{Dear}: {[}nodding{]} Yes. The only bit that I have any insight into is the deck listing, which I think might be another bit of old encryption--
\end{quote}

\emph{Ioan groans aloud, at which Dear grins.}

\begin{quote}
\textbf{Dear}: My sentiments exactly. It is another encryption scheme which relies on a deck of cards for a stream of random numbers. I have not dug into it in years because the decryption process is so slow, but there may be a node on that box containing the encrypted text.

\textbf{Ioan}: Want me to have a look, then? The techier stuff is going to go right over my head, you know that.

\textbf{Dear}: It is not all tech, promise. I just want you to give it a read and see what you pick up from it, you know? Put your amanuensis hat on and just spend some time experiencing.

\textbf{Ioan}: You think highly of me. No complaints, of course, but I feel I have to ask, why can't someone from your own clade fill this role?
\end{quote}

\emph{Dear is quiet. Struggling for words? Our Dear? This must have hit it hard.}

\begin{quote}
\textbf{Dear}: We\ldots{}differ. The Odists, I mean.

\textbf{Ioan}: ``Differ''? Within the clade?

\textbf{Dear}: Yes. A hallmark of Dispersionistas is that we treat each of our forks as fully-realized individuals. We may have a shared past, but from the point we fork onward, we grow ever further apart.

\textbf{Ioan}: I assume you mean more than just a matter of increasing conflicts.

\textbf{Dear}: Yes. Although we Odists limit our instances to the one hundred available names, we still consider ourselves Dispersionistas as we never merge back down-tree. But, that aside, we also want someone out-clade for this. \emph{I} want someone out-clade for this.
\end{quote}

\emph{Ioan seems taken aback.}

\begin{quote}
\textbf{Ioan}: Do the other Odists not like that I've been brought on?

\textbf{Dear}: Of the ones who know, most are fine with it.
\end{quote}

\emph{Now frustrated/confused.}

\begin{quote}
\textbf{Ioan}: ``The ones who know''?

\textbf{Dear}: You have, of course, noticed that you have not interacted with any of my cocladists. I have told some about hiring you, but not all.

\textbf{Ioan}: Alright, I suppose. If you're independent, then I guess it makes sense that I be your amanuensis rather than the clade's.

\textbf{Dear}: Yes. Perhaps more evidence that we are split on how to tackle this in the first place. Different camps, different strategies, infighting. Ioan, you have to understand that, when a clade gets old, it starts to get a little batty.
\end{quote}

\emph{Calm down fox, I am working on it. Not so frantic.}

\begin{quote}
\textbf{Dear}: Some clades try to get around this by keeping a certain core group of instances — talking mostly Dispersionistas, mind — in a setting that keeps them as sane as possible. Something that feels very `normal'. Or maybe some are researching forking from earlier points, from down-tree, rather than from where they are now.
\end{quote}

\emph{It furrows its brow.}

\begin{quote}
\textbf{Dear}: We do not. First of all, we started way too early on for that to be a thing. We trusted that change itself would keep us sane, that as instances diverged, especially with mutation algos in place, they would change enough to keep us from falling apart.

\textbf{Ioan}: And that didn't work?
\end{quote}

\emph{Long pause.}

\begin{quote}
\textbf{Dear}: It kind of worked, I will put it that way. I feel fairly well rounded, as much as that means, and I am sure those across the clade from me do too, but it is complicated. You might not recognize my cocladists as Odists without knowing beforehand. It is like having a very close sib that was raised by a different family in a different sim.

\textbf{Ioan}: More different than you'd expect, then?

\textbf{Dear}: `Expect'\ldots{}fits strangely for this. The problem is that they are still \emph{us}, and we are still them. Clades are families of separate individuals in a lot of ways, but you must realize that, in the end, they are still one individual. We are more different than one individual should be. Does that make sense?
\end{quote}

\emph{It does, Dear. That is why I am doing this.}

\begin{quote}
\textbf{Ioan}: I guess so. {[}pause{]} So some of your clade would prefer I not be a part of this?

\textbf{Dear}: More than that. They feel that investigating the matter of the Name being written is too risky, too close to investigating the Name itself.

\textbf{Ioan}: I don't know how I would respond to that.

\textbf{Dear}: That is my field, Ioan. Do not worry about it.
\end{quote}

\emph{Ioan holds up eir hands, looks apologetic. The fox has tilted its ears back.}

\begin{quote}
\textbf{Ioan}: Sorry, Dear. I hope I'm not overstepping at all.

\textbf{Dear}: {[}calmer{]} Do not worry about it. It is okay, I promise. It is just that we are really good at arguing, so I have been dealing with that quite a bit the last few days. That is why I hired you; I am relegated to an administration role so I am a bit on edge. Let's get back to the archive server, yes?

\textbf{Ioan}: Sure thing. Where did you say your cocladists had found it?

\textbf{Dear}: Just in a search. I do not quite know the details about how. Assuming just a text search of the perisystem. Not too sure on the terminology; I bought into being an artist pretty hard. All that knowledge is in exos.

\textbf{Ioan}: {[}laughter{]} No worries there, Dear. I'm trying to keep up with you is all. I was just wondering if they found anything else.

\textbf{Dear}: You mean like the other nodes on the server?

\textbf{Ioan}: I'll poke around at those, look for ties and such. I was more wondering if they'd found anything in their search that didn't meet the relevancy threshold for them. Stuff like back-links to the server, or anyone talking about this Qoheleth. Hebel. Whichever.
\end{quote}

\emph{Silly name. Oh well. Dear looks taken aback.}

\begin{quote}
\textbf{Dear}: I had not really thought to ask. I do not suppose they did, though. Do you think it is worth having them search around more? Lowering the, uh, relevancy threshold? {[}laughter{]}

\textbf{Ioan}: Yeah, I think so. Though now that I've got it too, I can do some of that digging myself. I want to see who likes the Tanakh so much as to name themselves that. And why `kemmer'.

\textbf{Dear}: I\ldots{}well, it is complicated and out of scope, but it relating to fluidity of gender is relevant to the clade as a whole. Very big for us, if only at a remove. I have opted out.

\textbf{Ioan}: So I noticed. It makes sense, though.

\textbf{Dear}: I am glad someone is thinking about this stuff. You are sounding more like a--

\textbf{Ioan}: Private investigator?

\textbf{Dear}: {[}laughter{]} I was going to say historian, sounding more like an historian every time we talk. But you never know, maybe you would make a good PI.
\end{quote}

\emph{That was fast! I may have less time than I had thought. Dear is lovely, and it is totally right: on the other side of the clade, there are some who would not like this kind of digging. Too entrenched. Too Conservative.}

\begin{quote}
\textbf{Ioan}: I can't tell whether or not I should be flattered.

\textbf{Dear}: It is a good thing. Just keep digging, and we will too. I will be about. Got a few more things to wrap up to finish the current gallery exhibition, but after that, I am just going to work on this — with you if you do not mind — and try and figure out what is even happening in the clade. Do keep in touch, yes? Ping me whenever.

\textbf{Ioan}: Will do. {[}pause{]} Wait, you're an instance artist, right?

\textbf{Dear}: Yes. Why do you ask?

\textbf{Ioan}: Why don't you fork to work on both at the same time?
\end{quote}

\emph{Dear shrugs, grins, quits. Very lovely fox. Really quite lovely.}

\emph{No time to dawdle watching Ioan try and figure out up-tree instances, though. Must be getting ready. Quit this instance, flush the server of extraneous crap to guide Ioan a little more effectively — yeesh, how old is some of this stuff? Need to re-encrypt a bunch of it anyway — and maybe get ready for some visitors.}
