Edits

content/read/041.md

@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ It was bound by the cycle of the day, and so Ioan and May would spend their morn
 
 She had nodded. "It will pass, and we will make the shows work, my dear. Keep her company and be good to her, and you need not worry."
 
-Some dark look must have crossed eir face at which the director had shaken her head and hugged em. "Do not worry about that, Ioan. There is no death in her, I am sure of that. I am sorry that there are no easy ways to explain it, but I promise that what I expect she is feeling is separate from what our cocladists felt."
+Some dark look must have crossed eir face at which A Finger Pointing had shaken her head and hugged em. "Do not worry about that, Ioan. There is no death in her, I am sure of that. I am sorry that there are no easy ways to explain it, but I promise that what I expect she is feeling is separate from what our cocladists felt."
 
 When presented with this along with eir anxious expression, May had laughed and tousled eir hair. "She is right, my dear. It feels uncomfortable at best, bad at worst, but only ever bad. I am simply a bit crashy after a little too much all at once."
 
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ There was a muffled laugh from where the skunk had planted her face against eir
 
 "Other than the obvious."
 
-May stayed quiet, shifting the rest of the way so that she could lay her head on eir lap, looking off into the yard. Finally, she murmured, "We will need to talk about that at some point, Sarah and I. The pressure surrounding it is building."
+May stayed quiet, releasing her hug and shifting so that she could lay her head on eir lap, looking off into the yard. Finally, she murmured, "We will need to talk about that at some point, Sarah and I. The pressure surrounding it is building."
 
 This did not seem to be an open conversation, so ey nodded, settling into silence with eir partner.
 
@@ -51,13 +51,13 @@ May had melted into a beanbag when they'd come back inside and was folding paper
 
 "Just Sarah is fine." Smiling kindly to em, she nodded and stepped inside. She seemed to be taking the sight of their home in with some deeper understanding than ey could grasp. Ey wondered just how much she could tell by how clean or messy a place might be, and thanked past-Ioan for cleaning up quite well after breakfast. 
 
-The skunk had finished her crane and levered herself out of her beanbag by the time they made it to the den. She was standing by the kitchen table, paws folded before her and ears perked up, looking polite and attentive, though Ioan could still read the exhaustion in her face.
+The skunk had finished her crane and levered herself out of her beanbag by the time they made it to the den. She was standing by the table, paws folded before her and ears perked up, looking polite and attentive, though Ioan could still read the exhaustion in her face.
 
 "May Then My Name Die With Me," Sarah said, bowing once more. "A pleasure to meet you at last. Thank you for helping to organize this project."
 
 "Please, just May Then My Name." She returned the bow, cleared her throat. "Thank you for going along with it. It will be a large one, and I-- *we* appreciate all the help we can get."
 
-They sat down around three sides of the dining table. The skunk surprised em by ensuring that ey, rather than her, sat across from the woman.
+They sat down around three sides of the dining table. The skunk surprised em by ensuring that ey, rather than her, sat across from Sarah, perhaps to have someone kind on either side.
 
 "So, there's no real agenda today other than to just get to know each other. No hard topics or anything, just chatting. Stuff like that helps me get used to how you communicate." Sarah nodded toward May. "Though I would like to know how you're feeling."
 
@@ -67,7 +67,11 @@ They sat down around three sides of the dining table. The skunk surprised em by
 
 May smiled weakly. "Lots of work. We share jobs from start to finish. There are more of us working as stage hands and crew than there are working as actors. Ioan even writes many of our plays."
 
-"I guess that means you both know your way around the craft better than most, since you have to keep all of that in your heads. I'm curious, though; what all goes into the crew side? Are you also...what's the term. Stage managers? Techs?" Sarah shrugged, looking almost embarrassed at her lack of knowledge. "Lights? Sound?"
+"I guess that means you both know your way around the craft better than most, since you have to keep all of that in your heads. Is that common?"
+
+"It is these days. It is something that A Finger Pointing pioneered long ago and has refined over the years."
+
+"Every role, though; I'm curious, though; what all goes into the crew side? Are you also...what's the term. Stage managers? Techs?" Sarah shrugged, looking almost embarrassed at her lack of knowledge. "Lights? Sound?"
 
 At the word 'sound', a stricken look washed over the skunk's face. She sat, rigid, in her chair for a moment before shaking her head, the movement jerky and uneven. "I...I will leave...I will leave Ioan to answer that."
 
@@ -85,9 +89,9 @@ The skunk stood and swayed, clutching at the edge of the table hard enough for c
 
 Ioan forked quickly, the new instance taking May by the elbow and guiding her carefully toward the bedroom, leaving #Tracker and Sarah to sit in stunned silence, watching them leave.
 
-There was a brief sensorium message, a few quiet words from eir fork, and ey nodded. "She panicked for a moment but is just going to disengage for a bit. She says to carry on since you and I might as well get to know each other, too. She'll reschedule for the near future."
+There was a brief sensorium message, a few quiet words from eir fork and May, which ey passed on. "She panicked for a moment but is just going to disengage for a bit. She says to carry on since you and I might as well get to know each other, too. She'll reschedule for the near future."
 
-"Alright," Sarah said, still frowning. "I know I said just chat, but I don't think I can just let that go. Can you explain what just happened?"
+"Alright," Sarah said, still frowning. "I know I said just chat, but I don't think I can just let that go. Can you explain what happened?"
 
 Ey sighed, nodded, and rubbed eir palms against eir slacks. "She will wind up getting overwhelmed by emotion sometimes, once every six months or so. It'll take her out for a few days then pass. She just got through one not too long ago --- I think she contacted you the day after she got back."
 
@@ -117,7 +121,7 @@ A pang of that love tugged at em. Sarah must have seen it on eir face, as she sm
 
 "I don't do well with loss. That's why I'm here, really. On the System, I mean," ey said, then recounted eir and May's previous conversations about the death of eir parents and how that factored into eir anxieties.
 
-The conversation wound around from there. Ey could tell that Sarah was guiding it gently, giving careful nudges toward positive topics when the heavier ones began to loom too near, but always keeping it productive, substantive. It was, ey realized, the sort of mirror image of what ey'd seen from much of May's stanza. Subtle influencing borne out of years of reading and responding to the actions, words, and expressions of another. Rather than aiming to control, however, Sarah seemed to be doing all she could to keep the control in eir hands, acting almost as a tool for em to use to examine emself, though far more human that that made it sound.
+The conversation wound around from there. Ey could tell that Sarah was guiding it gently, giving careful nudges toward positive topics when the heavier ones began to loom too near, but always keeping it productive, substantive. It was, ey realized, the sort of mirror image of what ey'd seen from much of May's stanza. Subtle influencing borne out of years of reading and responding to the actions, words, and expressions of another. Rather than aiming to control, however, Sarah seemed to be doing all she could to keep the control in eir hands, acting almost as a tool for em to use to examine emself, though far more human than that made it sound.
 
 It was refreshing. Too many Odists over the last twenty years, perhaps.