Edits for v2

content/read/002.md

@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ Those speakers were signing off, going to bed one by one through RJ's gentle min
 
 RJ left the channel open just in case. The soft sounds of breathing and the occasional curse as Ross bumped his head on the pit cover were distracting while ey set about going through eir notes with the dozy theater. Best be available, though. The next night's rehearsal was the last before they went live.
 
-Ey knew the show better than most of the cast. Em and the theater. The two had to learn everyone's lines, plus a few cues besides when they'd have to take care not to pick up any of the sound effects. Gun-shots. Chairs scraping. A scuffle. The clap of heels on the matte black of the stage itself.
+Ey knew the show better than most of the cast. Em and the theater. The two had to learn everyone's lines, plus a few cues besides when they'd have to take care not to pick up any of the sound effects. Gunshots. Chairs scraping. A scuffle. The clap of heels on the matte black of the stage itself.
 
 The theater's job was to simply work with RJ and the lighting crew, responding to their knowledge of what was going on in the play, while RJ and Caitlin's job, as sound and lights respectively, was to respond to the stage manager's encyclopedic knowledge of the play, her view of the house.
 

content/read/003.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
-# RJ Brewster --- 2112
+# AwDae --- 2112
 
-AwDae sat up in bed and slid to the edge of the mattress. Stretched languidly, let fur bristle from ear to tail, the latter bottle-brushing out. Ey shook emself to settle eir fur back down and yawned widely, slender pink tongue curling just shy of sharp incisors. All formalities, to be sure, or perhaps wordless mnemonics to finish the context-shift. The final step in a ritual.
+RJ-- no, AwDae, now, sat up in bed and slid to the edge of the mattress. Stretched languidly, let fur bristle from ear to tail, the latter bottle-brushing out. Ey shook emself to settle eir fur back down and yawned widely, slender pink tongue curling just shy of sharp incisors. All formalities, to be sure, or perhaps wordless mnemonics to finish the context-shift. The final step in a ritual.
 
 All those phantom realities clicking into place.
 
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ The skunk rolled her eyes and leaned forward onto her elbows, muzzle resting on
 
 "Oh no, struck out again?"
 
-Sasha shrugged, nodded, shrugged once more, fiddled with a vcard. No eye contact.
+She shrugged, nodded, shrugged once more, fiddled with a vcard. No eye contact.
 
 AwDae reached out to take one of her paws in eir own, black fur on tan mismatched and complementary. Both had opted for mostly hand-like paws, but differences were evident on contact. Where Sasha's fur was an even, silky black marked by white stripes that were a little too sharp, a little too exact, AwDae had labored to construct a version of emself as a fennec fox to exacting detail, down to the point where eir muzzle couldn't even form the two letters that made up eir name offline.
 
@@ -90,7 +90,7 @@ AwDae's turn to shrug. "It's hard to ask for that, is all. Always has been."
 
 "You should come see us sometime. It'd be good to see you again, too."
 
-"You know I want to." Sasha grinned. It didn't last. "But yeah. You seem kind of frozen, kind of stuck --- in a few ways, even, though you're succeeding in others."
+"You know I want to." She grinned. It didn't last. "But yeah. You seem kind of frozen, kind of stuck --- in a few ways, even, though you're succeeding in others."
 
 AwDae nodded, rumination hanging in a cloud around em. So many ways the world had moved on without em. After a moment, though, ey sat up straighter. "Oh, speaking of frozen."
 
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ The fox nodded.
 
 "What? Really?" The fox shook eir head, poking a claw at the table, before rubbing the spot with a paw pad. The sim was hardly immersive enough to waste cycles on letting claw dent tabletop. "That's unfortunate. Not all that surprising, I guess, given what Cice said about them. They at least confirmed that's what happened, though?"
 
-"That's what these are," Sasha said, slipping the stack of vcards over to em. "There's contact info for the family, and a few centers around there that work on implants, some hospitals. We're thinking that those might be the types of places where he wound up. There's also a card detailing his `laston` information."
+"That's what these are," Sasha said, slipping the stack of vcards over to em. "There's contact info for the family, and a few centers around there that work on implants, some hospitals. We're thinking that those might be the types of places where he wound up. There's also a card detailing his last connected times."
 
 AwDae twisted the stack of cards around in front of em, leafing through slowly and taking in a few of the details that slid across eir fingertips. "Mind if I make a copy?"
 

content/read/004.md

@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ The opacity on the message was turned up high so that even in eir dark room with
 
 The combination of the fox's white fur, glistening and iridescent, combined with the room and landscape was all so painfully postmodern. Ey didn't think emself much of a pomophobe, but this was...intense, to say the least.
 
-*"Hi Mx Bălan,"* the fox was saying. It seemed to speak in italics, though how, Ioan could not say. A sense. A sensation. *"I have a proposition for you."*
+*"Hi Mx. Bălan,"* the fox was saying. It seemed to speak in italics, though how, Ioan could not say. A sense. A sensation. *"I have a proposition for you."*
 
 Ioan grunted. The message was simplex, thank goodness. One way. No interaction required.
 

content/read/005.md

@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ Smiling, ey peeled eir shirt off over eir head and slipped out of eir jeans. Tom
 
 For now, as it neared two, ey focused on making sure the door was locked and the lights were out before stumbling over to bed.
 
-Ey flipped the screen down on eir rig to send it to sleep and wandered over to the bed. There seemed to be no shaking Sasha and all of her talk of high school, gone this last decade now, out of eir head. Even as ey climbed into eir narrow mattress and burrowed beneath the covers against the chill of the night, ey was replaying memories from school. Scenes from the Americas. A worn out film, dim and scattershot.
+There seemed to be no shaking Sasha and all of her talk of high school --- gone this last decade now --- out of eir head. Even as ey climbed onto eir narrow mattress and burrowed beneath the covers against the chill of the night, ey was replaying memories from school. Scenes from the Americas. A worn out film, dim and scattershot.
 
 Honing and forging, honing and forging.
 

content/read/006.md

@@ -10,9 +10,9 @@ She felt out of her league. Everyone did, or said they did, here on her team, bu
 
 It's that no one seemed to take the lost all that seriously. It was like addiction, or plane crashes, or suicide. Something to look at, to study long enough to say "Ah, *this* is happening now," and then set aside. Conversation-piece science.
 
-People admitted that the phenomenon was there, but only in as much as it didn't affect that many people. A simple number to point to. See how small?
+People admitted that the phenomenon was there, but only inasmuch as it didn't affect that many people. A simple number to point to. See how small?
 
-It was as though the brains of the lost were just...elsewhere. Just dreaming. Implants showing them connected while no such connection existed.
+It was as though the minds of the lost were just...elsewhere. Just dreaming. Implants showing them connected while no such connection existed.
 
 There was no sense to it, though. No rhyme or reason to why such a thing would happen to the patient. Some of her team were pulling together all of the facts about the population that they could, from demographics to physical stature, searching for clues in the rig and the 'net itself, sim histories to go with personal ones. The neuroscientists were digging into what was going on within the brain, and what few scans they had from before someone had gotten lost. Their two pet lawyers --- just law students on internship, both also versed in stats --- were digging into the legal status of the lost as well as writing queries to procure patient medical histories.
 

content/read/007.md

@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ Besides, eir tea was here.
 Ey called up Sasha's deck.
 
   ----------------------
-   Cicero Lost Nov 2111
+   Cicero Lost Nov 2112
       Priv eyes only
    See Debarre for ACLs
   ----------------------

content/read/009.md

@@ -84,13 +84,13 @@ Ioan nodded, once more steering the conversation away from more sensitive topics
 
 Dear bristled, then mastered some complex set of emotions Ioan didn't understand. *"That is the Name that we don't share. The information that someone supposedly did share, I mean. Someone of the clade or close enough to it to know."*
 
-Ioan's brow furrowed, startled by the fox's reaction, not to mention the concept of not sharing a name that was clearly important. "I see," ey said into eir coffee, covering eir confusion. "So you'd like me to help in finding this person and act as amanuensis along the way?"
+Ioan's brow furrowed, startled by the fox's reaction, not to mention the concept of not sharing a name that was clearly important. "I see," ey said down to eir coffee, covering eir confusion. "So you'd like me to help in finding this person and act as amanuensis along the way?"
 
 Nodding, Dear held out its paw once more. *"If you would be willing, that is. We would be glad to have you aboard."*
 
 Ey was already sold, Ioan knew, but all the same, ey took a moment longer to consider the ramifications of the job. Ey couldn't come up with any reason not to.
 
-Ey nodded, reached out and shook the fox's paw.
+Ey nodded, reached out, and shook the fox's paw.
 
 Dear grinned, shook back.
 

content/read/010.md

@@ -130,4 +130,4 @@ Tall, narrow lockers. Blue. Yellow tile floors. Thin tile glued to cool concrete
 
 AwDae struggled against crashing waves of panic. Struggled to make all of this information fit in eir head. Struggled to make it all fit in with the fact that ey was currently vulpine. A fennec fox dressed in a suit, laying on the floor of the central corridor of eir old high school.
 
-"The hell?"
+"What the hell?"

content/read/012.md

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# RJ Brewster --- 2112
+# AwDae --- 2112
 
 AwDae slowly picked emself up off of the floor, staggering to eir feet.
 

content/read/013.md

@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ The file arrived promptly. Eir shoulders sagged. It began with `-----BEGIN AES B
 
 "What's an AES block?"
 
-*"An old encryption algorithm."* Dear looked a little embarrassed. *"And I mean **old**. We like old things. That's why she suggested it might be from one of us."*
+*"An old encryption algorithm."* Dear looked a little embarrassed. *"And I mean* old. *We like old things. That's why she suggested it might be from one of us."*
 
 "You don't sound convinced."
 

content/read/014.md

@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
-# RJ Brewster --- 2112
+# AwDae --- 2112
 
 The pit revealed little.
 
-There were twenty boxes set on a table in front of the snakehead. Twenty receivers for twenty wireless mics. Twenty cables neatly velcroed together into a bundle, contracting from the receivers and arcing catenary toward the dull grey plug-box. They were reduced to a four-by-five grid, arching up above the snakehead before plunging into it, XLR heads buried in XLR nests.
+There were twenty boxes set on a table in front of the snakehead. Twenty receivers for twenty wireless mics. Twenty cables neatly velcroed together into a bundle, contracting from the receivers and dangling catenary from the dull grey plug-box. They were reduced to a four-by-five grid, arching up above the snakehead before plunging into it, XLR heads buried in XLR nests.
 
 All of the boxes on the table were dull. Mute LEDs simple bumps on their surface. Dark. All but one: the first. The one with a piece of masking tape on its face, scrawled with a '1'. That box had a single red light on the front, indicating that it was powered on, and a single green light, indicating that the corresponding mic was transmitting.
 

content/read/015.md

@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ After that paragraph comes another block of text. Rather than being an encrypted
 
 Finally, after the key block, we get a deck listing for a standard deck of playing cards. I am assuming, here, that the cards labeled *AX* and *BX* are jokers, though I have not seen them differentiated as such in the past. I am, frankly, at a loss when it comes to this section, so all I can offer are some thoughts on subtext.
 
-"Your move, by the way" implies two things. First, it implies that there is some sort of ongoing game going on between Qoheleth and the clade. This strikes me as strange, and I cannot put my finger on why. It is not that you do not seem the type to play games, as you seem playful enough to me. Perhaps it's that the letter begins with riddles about the true identity of Qoheleth, yet any ongoing game (and such a weird way to provide it!) would perforce give away that identity immediately. Perhaps it is simply this --- all of this --- that is the game?
+"Your move, by the way" implies two things. First, it implies that there is some sort of ongoing game between Qoheleth and the clade. This strikes me as strange, and I cannot put my finger on why. It is not that you do not seem the type to play games, as you seem playful enough to me. Perhaps it's that the letter begins with riddles about the true identity of Qoheleth, yet any ongoing game (and such a weird way to provide it!) would perforce give away that identity immediately. Perhaps it is simply this --- all of this --- that is the game?
 
 The second implication is broader, and consequently more of a hunch on my part: this is a very casual thing to say to someone. For one, to have a *non sequitur* of a postscript on a letter that seems very focused on a single topic is a strange thing to do. It's the type of thing you might do when sending a friendly letter to someone rather than a riddle of a message (I will admit, I'm considering what postscript I leave at the end of this letter now). The tone also differs from the remainder of the letter. It is familiar and friendly. The only thing that is even remotely close being "Let's meet, yes?", and even that feels more formal.
 

content/read/016.md

@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@ Carter's vision began to dim. She backed out before the ominously cheery message
 
 Most of the team gathered around the fridge and microwave by the coffee station to collect their lunches. She hadn't had the time or energy this morning. Lunch out it was.
 
-At least she wouldn't be alone. There a few folks who made their way across the street from the campus building to the shops, hunting falafel or curry. She put on her best chummy face and tagged along with. The group chatted, inevitably but amiably, about work, comparing notes on the cases they were focusing on.
+At least she wouldn't be alone. There was a small coterie who made their way across the street from the campus building to the shops, hunting falafel or curry. She put on her best chummy face and tagged along with. The group chatted, inevitably but amiably, about work, comparing notes on the cases they were focusing on.
 
 The group --- three of them, with Carter --- decided on a small Vietnamese place nearby. It would be a long lunch, with the wait and all, but she was promised that the food was amazing. Besides: Friday. Even the boss can enjoy a lunch every now and then.
 

content/read/017.md

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# RJ Brewster --- 2112
+# AwDae --- 2112
 
 It took AwDae just under two hours to find the microphone.
 
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ After an hour, venturing even into the overhead areas where sound was muffled, d
 
 Ey slouched in an auditorium seat and pulled out the slip of paper with Cicero's transactions. Ey had found that if ey focused on the page just so, rows would sort themselves by columns, so ey spent a few minutes aimlessly zooming through the page of digits.
 
-Ey scanned over the titles of the initiatives voted on. Very little there to latch onto. Or, rather, way too much. AwDae couldn't hope to boil down the table into any single sentence, much less something useful. The cat had apparently voted on just about everything, without taking any breaks.
+Ey scanned over the titles of the initiatives voted on. Very little there to latch onto. Or, rather, way too much. AwDae couldn't hope to boil down the table into any single sentence, much less something useful. The cat had apparently voted on just about everything without taking any breaks.
 
 Eventually, when neat rows of letters began to blur into one another, ey levered emself up from the seat. Paper refolded, ey slipped it back into a pocket before checking on the board once more. Everything remained set as it was.
 
@@ -108,7 +108,7 @@ Ey snagged the half-used pencil and the rest of the scrap and worked it out. Eac
 
 Even so, it was clear that the section of numbers on the paper, a month's worth, perhaps, didn't add up. Once more, there was a missing interaction. Three missing interactions, rather: one vote's cost, one vote's comment, and one vote's bounty, at AwDae's best guess. Perhaps a few smaller votes to add up to those totals? It was recent, too. A few days before he had gotten lost
 
-Except that one's DDR records were public. Not which way one voted, but that one had voted. Comments were public perforce. The information had to be public for the system to work.
+Except one's DDR records were public. Not which way one voted, but that one had voted. Comments were public perforce. The information had to be public for the system to work.
 
 Unless it had been tampered with, there was a combination of 1,252,000 credits unaccounted for in terms of transactions. One million debit to the comment, a quarter of a million credit for bounty, and two thousand to the vote cost.
 

content/read/018.md

@@ -132,7 +132,7 @@ Transcript of Node: [\[bea0cf302fcd00863f0c67a91b1a75c0e4ba4863\]](http://35.165
 > 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.
 
-*Calm down fox, I'm working on it. Not so frantic.*
+*Calm down fox, I am working on it. Not so frantic.*
 
 > 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.
@@ -156,7 +156,7 @@ Transcript of Node: [\[bea0cf302fcd00863f0c67a91b1a75c0e4ba4863\]](http://35.165
 > Dear
 > :   'Expect'...fits strangely for this. The problem is that they are still *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?
 
-*It does, Dear. That's why I'm doing this.*
+*It does, Dear. That is why I am doing this.*
 
 > Ioan
 > :   I guess so. \[pause\] So some of your clade would prefer I not be a part of this?
@@ -202,7 +202,7 @@ Transcript of Node: [\[bea0cf302fcd00863f0c67a91b1a75c0e4ba4863\]](http://35.165
 > :   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'.
 >
 > Dear
-> :   I...well, it's 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.
+> :   I...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.
 >
 > Ioan
 > :   So I noticed. It makes sense, though.
@@ -216,7 +216,7 @@ Transcript of Node: [\[bea0cf302fcd00863f0c67a91b1a75c0e4ba4863\]](http://35.165
 > 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.
 
-*That was fast! I may have less time than I had thought. Dear's lovely, and it's totally right: on the other side of the clade, there are some who'd not like this kind of digging. Too entrenched. Too Conservative.*
+*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.*
 
 > Ioan
 > :   I can't tell whether or not I should be flattered.

content/read/020.md

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# RJ Brewster --- 2112
+# AwDae --- 2112
 
 Sleep did not come easily.
 

content/read/022.md

@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ Carter nodded. "And then you tried to pull em back out?"
 
 "An impasse?"
 
-"Yeah." Carter leaned back in her chair to gather her thoughts. "I've been on a few projects over the years. None were easy, but all the same, this one has a weird amount of interference. It feels like we're being made to trudge through mud. They won't give us access to the patients? Fine. That's PHI. We just need the data that they collect from them, right? So why is that always so heavily redacted. Why aren't we getting that? It's never been a problem on any other project.
+"Yeah." Carter leaned back in her chair to gather her thoughts. "I've been on a few projects over the years. None were easy, but all the same, this one has a weird amount of interference. It feels like we're being made to trudge through mud. They won't give us access to the patients? Fine. That's PII. We just need the data that they collect from them, right? So why is that always so heavily redacted. Why aren't we getting that? It's never been a problem on any other project.
 
 "All we're getting are little tidbits. A few hours of monitor scans, little clips of logs from before the event, and that's it. I don't mean to creep on you or anything, but with RJ, we've come across something we hadn't had before. We found out ey was, well, you know..."
 
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ Silence.
 
 It felt necessary. They both stared off into the pub. The room held the distinctly British dichotomy of being crowded and convivial, while also intensely conscious of personal space. The latter suffered as the night went on.
 
-"You know," Johansson began, the rich baritone bringing Carter's attention back to the conversation.
+"You know," Johansson began, bringing Carter's attention back to the conversation.
 
 "Hmm?"
 

content/read/023.md

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# RJ Brewster --- 2112
+# AwDae --- 2112
 
 AwDae stood in the sunlight, blinking.
 
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ Ey stripped down to eir underwear, hesitated, then stripped that off as well and
 
 'Comfort' was the wrong word to use in regards a sim. It was a matter of sensory inputs that the system was set up to provide. The musty smell of the auditorium seats had been one thing, but ey was starting to get the impression that, given the way this sim was constructed, there would be rather more than less input. Eir tux was decidedly uncomfortable, not made for fox-people, and so eir fur was decidedly mussed.
 
-Ey folded eir clothes and set them on the sidewalk in front of the school.The cool grass provided a welcome change from the indoor-outdoor carpet and tile inside, the roughness of the concrete out here.
+Ey folded eir clothes and set them on the sidewalk in front of the school. The cool grass provided a welcome change from the indoor-outdoor carpet and tile inside, the roughness of the concrete out here.
 
 "Alright. So. Problems." Ey plucked viciously at a few close-mown blades of grass and held them pinched between eir pawpads. "Cicero is lost. He was voting on a bunch of stuff as usual, leading the comment boards. He voted on something and it made it to the floor, but it doesn't show in the records." Ey plucked blades of grass with eir free paw, enumerating the facts. "No vote cost, no bounty, no comment."
 

content/read/025.md

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# RJ Brewster --- 2112
+# AwDae --- 2112
 
 AwDae was unsurprised to find home unlocked.
 
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ AwDae shrugged out of the rucksack and set it down in the entryway. It was preci
 
 The sensation, that uncanny mix of *home* and *wrong*, quickly grew to overwhelming. The fox sat down on the rug in front of the coffee table. Eir spot. Eir spot, where ey had sat to eat dinner countless times. Eir spot, where ey watched TV, those old sci-fi movies, with eir mom's boyfriend.
 
-It was one thing for the house to be so painfully empty and another entirely to be here as AwDae and not RJ. Perhaps ey could have held each of those concepts in eir mind independently, were ey to only experience one at a time. The two combined were too much. Ey felt eir breath as short, shallow gasps. Ey felt eir vision constricting. Ey felt eir heart race no matter how still ey sat. Ey felt all these things happening to em with an increasing sense of detachment. Ey found it hard to concentrate on what ey was even supposed to be.
+It was one thing for the house to be so painfully empty and another entirely to be here as AwDae and not RJ. Perhaps ey could have held each of those concepts in eir mind independently were ey to only experience one at a time. The two combined were too much. Ey felt eir breath as short, shallow gasps. Ey felt eir vision constricting. Ey felt eir heart race no matter how still ey sat. Ey felt all these things happening to em with an increasing sense of detachment. Ey found it hard to concentrate on what ey was even supposed to be.
 
 *Is my pulse elevated offline, wherever that is?*
 
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ AwDae noted with increasing dissociation that eir breath was coming in great, ch
 
 Words unbidden were calming. The heaving gasps for air began to slow, and ey wiped eir tears away in a smooth, slicking motion that flattened eir tall ears against eir head.
 
-Struggling to bring those two parts of emself into alignment once more, AwDae levered emself up heavily. Ey leaned on one paw while the other straightened the fur of eir face, brushing the last aftershocks of that non-sadness away in a careful, calculated gesture. Intentional. A setting-aside of emotion.
+Struggling to bring those two parts of emself into alignment once more, AwDae levered emself up heavily. Ey leaned on one paw while the other straightened the fur of eir face, brushing the last aftershocks of that not-quite-sadness away in a careful, calculated gesture. Intentional. A setting-aside of emotion.
 
 Perhaps eir initial reaction had been wrong on the emotional side, but correct on the intellectual. Ey would have to at least figure out why. There would be no sharing it, no telling others, no end game other than the knowledge of a task complete.
 

content/read/027.md

@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ Ey nodded.
 
 "And others don't?"
 
-Dear shrugged. *"I am perhaps in a minority, on this subject. I think that there is a story, and there are a few others who see it my way. Most of my branch does. But much of the clade is concerned only about the Name."*
+Dear shrugged. *"I am perhaps in a minority, on this subject. I think that there is a story, and there are a few others who see it my way. Most of my stanza does. But much of the clade is concerned only about the Name."*
 
 Stepping over to the next picture, Ioan formulated their response, but was preempted by the fox.
 
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ Stepping over to the next picture, Ioan formulated their response, but was preem
 
 "Are they the story?" Ioan frowned, backtracked. "You think there's a reason you're being led down the path. The puzzles are part of the story, but they are, as you put it, the answer to the question that necessitated their creation."
 
-Ears perked, grin returned. *"Yes. Puzzles are puzzles and sometimes worth solving in their own right. I want to know **why**, though. Why say the Name, yes, but why build up tension like this?"*
+Ears perked, grin returned. *"Yes. Puzzles are puzzles and sometimes worth solving in their own right. I want to know* why, *though. Why say the Name, yes, but why build up tension like this?"*
 
 The painting: a landscape, perhaps the prairie just outside. A cloud-dotted sky, nigh photorealistic. And in the middle, a black square.
 
@@ -84,4 +84,4 @@ That grin widened, and was joined by a swish of a tail. *"Precisely that. There
 
 Ioan nodded.
 
-Dear's grin had faded to some expression more thoughtful. Thankfully, not as glum. When it spoke, its voice came from some place remote. From some emotion happening elsewhere, to someone else. *"Artists, yes, but increasingly few storytellers."*
+Dear's grin had faded to some expression more thoughtful. Thankfully, not as glum. When it spoke, its voice came from some place remote, from some emotion happening elsewhere, to someone else. *"Artists, yes, but increasingly few storytellers."*

content/read/028.md

@@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
-# RJ Brewster --- 2112
+# AwDae --- 2112
 
 *"You seem kind of frozen, kind of stuck, in a few ways."*
 
 Sasha's words, that night in The Crown Pub, pressed in against AwDae. Pushed thoughts out of the way. Blanketed eir mind.
 
-Ey lingered around the house for a few hours, laying on the floor, poking around in various rooms. All as empty and static as school had been. Eventually, ey paced back outside and across the road to the countless acres of federation-managed open space that abutted the foothills. Ey paced along a few of the trails and deer tracks, mind spinning helplessly through numb hopelessness.
+Ey lingered around the house for a few hours, laying on the floor, poking around in various rooms. All as empty and static as school had been. Eventually, ey paced back outside and across the road to the countless acres of federation-managed open space that abutted the foothills. Ey walked a few of the trails and deer tracks, mind spinning helplessly through numb hopelessness.
 
 There was no birdsong, and while ey occasionally heard the buzz and chirp of insects, ey never saw any.
 
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ Having gone to bed so early, AwDae awoke before sunrise. Eir alarm clock, still
 
 Despite the dark, ey decided on another attempt at exploration. Fog be damned.
 
-Ey slipped out of the house and paced around the neighborhood. Curling streets. Cul-de-sacs. Rows of townhouses. Familiar, all. Ey even made it back down to the school on the hill, searching for unexpected lights left on in the middle of night.
+Ey slipped out of the house and wandered around the neighborhood. Curling streets. Cul-de-sacs. Rows of townhouses. Familiar, all. Ey even made it back down to the school on the hill, searching for unexpected lights left on in the middle of night.
 
 The results were negative, unless one counted streetlights in this empty world. All the houses' and the school's windows were dark.
 
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ It didn't make any sense. The whole world was rendered in such loving detail. Wh
 
 "All I want is something real," AwDae growled. Fists parked on the counter in front of the sink, ey pressed firmly against the Formica. Tears stung eir eyes and, sagging, ey slowly sunk down to the cool hardwood floor. "That's all I want."
 
-The sulk lasted a good half hour, with the fox crying off and on. It brought less catharsis than ey hoped. By the time ey levered emself back up onto eir feet, eir backside was numb and tail struck by pins and needles.
+The sulk lasted a good half hour, with the fox crying off and on. It brought less catharsis than ey hoped. By the time ey levered emself back up onto eir feet, eir backside was numb and tail struck by pins and needles, somehow more real than it had ever felt before.
 
 No coffee. No water. No catharsis.
 
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ Johansson was almost certainly stressing out, doubtless stressing the rest of th
 
 Caitlin and Sarai would be missing em on a more personal level. AwDae was friendly with the entire company, of course, but it was those two ey had gotten closest to. Sharing that back-channel communication, that private space of the theater sim. Sharing conversation that went beyond the Troupe, beyond theater. If anyone had able to reach eir friends outside of STT, it would be them.
 
-And of eir friends, Sasha was always at the front of the fox's mind. She was the one person, excepting eir parents, who had been in eir life the longest. She was the one who understood em best, even surpassing eir parents. Sasha had to be worried, even with em having been gone for so short a time. She had to be looking for em. The skunk was even listed as eir emergency contact. 
+And of eir friends, Sasha was always at the front of the fox's mind. She was the one person, excepting eir parents, who had been in eir life the longest. She was the one who understood em best, even surpassing eir family. Sasha had to be worried, even with em having been gone for so short a time. She had to be looking for em. The skunk was even listed as eir emergency contact. 
 
 *Or perhaps,* ey thought wryly. *I simply want that to be the case.*
 
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ Eir frown deepened. The story was there, familiar, but the text read more like a
 
 Setting that book aside, ey pulled another down. The effect repeated itself. Stronger, this time. Ey had a hard time getting the words to settle on the pages, even starting from the beginning. Brow furrowed, ey tried with a few more books.
 
-One ey hadn't read yet --- tsundoku, perhaps. Books one always means to read but never gets around to --- was an unintelligible jumble of letters. No, not just letters, but marks that hinted at the idea of what it meant to be a letter. Mere shapes.
+One ey hadn't read yet --- tsundoku, perhaps, books one always means to read but never gets around to --- was an unintelligible jumble of letters. No, not just letters, but marks that hinted at the idea of what it meant to be a letter. Mere shapes.
 
 "Well, huh."
 

content/read/029.md

@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ Here, at least, ey'd been lucky enough to be invited by eir...client? Patron? Ha
 
 So that's how ey found emself rubbing eir eyes in front of a simple, if painfully modern, desk in a studio apartment attached to eir...employer's? Friend's? Eir friend's equally modern house.
 
-The studio apartment really was a studio, too: someone --- perhaps the other Odist Dear had mentioned --- had used it for painting. Rightfully so: the exterior wall was floor to ceiling glass looking out over that sere prairie. The landscape, Dear's partner had explained, was the work of Dear's sib, Serene; Sustained and Sustaining, 'born' when their down-tree instance, Dear The Wheat And Rye Under The Stars had forked to explore her twinned interests of forming oneself and of forming one's surroundings in ever greater detail.
+The studio apartment really was a studio, too: someone --- perhaps the other Odist Dear had mentioned --- had used it for painting. Rightfully so: the exterior wall was floor to ceiling glass looking out over that sere prairie. The landscape, Dear's partner had explained, was the work of Dear's cocladist, Serene; Sustained and Sustaining, 'born' when their down-tree instance, Dear The Wheat And Rye Under The Stars had forked to explore her twinned interests of forming oneself and of forming one's surroundings in ever greater detail.
 
 Ioan's head spun whenever ey thought about the clade, but the longer ey spent around Dear, the more ey found emself liking it. Ey was curious to get to meet another Odist.
 

content/read/030.md

@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ She had considered mailing the director of the troupe, Bernhard Johansson, but h
 
 She had settled instead on a Caitlin Wells, listed as working lights for the stage. Given all that RJ had told her about working as a tech, she would likely be both the closest to em and one of the least busy outside of work. If there were such a thing, that is. Sasha had been an actor, not a tech, and had no clue how busy those nights and days between performances were for the tech side.
 
-Sasha was just thankful that email addresses had been listed for the cast members. Not the crew, but given the pattern of *firstname.lastname@sttroupe.co.gb.wf*, she was hoping Caitlin's would follow suit.
+She was just thankful that email addresses had been listed for the cast members. Not the crew, but given the pattern of *firstname.lastname@sttroupe.co.gb.wf*, she was hoping Caitlin's would follow suit.
 
 > Caitlin Wells,
 >
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ The relief was palpable, if incomplete. It would certainly be strange to actuall
 
 Caitlin was already there.
 
-Sasha wasn't sure whether to be surprised or not that the woman had a custom avatar. She was evidently a fan of the past, with hair swept neatly to the side to reveal an undercut. She wore a long, sleeveless tunic emblazoned with the word *heh.*, running to mid thigh covering only leggings. Something from earlier in the century.
+Sasha wasn't sure whether to be surprised or not that the woman had a custom avatar. She was evidently a fan of the past, with hair swept neatly to the side to reveal an undercut. She wore a long, sleeveless tunic emblazoned with the word *heh.*, running to mid thigh covering only leggings. Something from late the previous century.
 
 Sasha felt strangely plain in her simple skunk av. Baggy shirt and fisherman's pants, fashionable enough by today's standards, did not stand up against London chic.
 

content/read/031.md

@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ The historian nodded, chastened.
 
 *"Do not worry about it, Ioan. It really is fine."* Dear patted eir shoulder. *"The name, though. The name is the important thing right now."*
 
-"And the name is?" Ioan's mind raced. Could Dear even say the name? Was it the poet, miraculously talking through years to the system? That would be exciting.
+"And the name is?" Ioan's mind raced. Could Dear even say the name? Was it the poet, miraculously talking through years to the System? That would be exciting.
 
 *"Life Breeds Life, But Death Must Now Be Chosen, of the Ode clade."*
 
@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ Dear nodded. *"Hardly anyone uses it anymore, but signifier used to be what we c
 
 "Makes sense, yeah. So they're..."
 
-*"They are an Odist, yes. Way, way down-tree. One of the first instances."* Dear's smile faltered, *"We were not very good at record keeping back then. We are not really now, to be honest, but the system is better. We...we did not know that he was still alive."*
+*"He is an Odist, yes. Way, way down-tree. One of the first instances."* Dear's smile faltered, *"We were not very good at record keeping back then. We are not really now, to be honest, but the System is better. We...we did not know that he was still alive."*
 
 "Didn't know? I thought you all talked to each other. You must, in order to keep the names straight. Wait, 'he'?"
 
@@ -108,13 +108,13 @@ The fox's ears perked, *"To the last, yes. Why?"*
 
 "How will, er..."
 
-*"Life Breeds Life, But Death Must Now Be Chosen. Just Life is fine, too."*
+*"Life Breeds Life, But Death Must Now Be Chosen. Just Life is fine, too, though if he has chosen Qoheleth, we must call him Qoheleth."*
 
-"How will Life react to the search? To me?"
+"How will Qoheleth react to the search? To me?"
 
 Dear shrugged and turned its back on Ioan.
 
-The historian stood, quiet and still, and watched as the fox took a few steps deeper into the prairie, crossed its arms and stood straight, staring up into the bruised sky. *"To the second bit, I do not know that it matters. They --- Life, or Qoheleth, or whatever --- are one of us. And even those of us who did not want any outsiders brought on board are only frowning, looking down their noses at the thought, not gathering up arms."*
+The historian stood, quiet and still, and watched as the fox took a few steps deeper into the prairie, crossed its arms and stood straight, staring up into the bruised sky. *"To the second bit, I do not know that it matters. He is one of us. And even those of us who did not want any outsiders brought on board are only frowning, looking down their noses at the thought, not gathering up arms."*
 
 "And to the first bit?" Ioan pressed. "What do you think he will think of the search?"
 

content/read/032.md

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# RJ Brewster -- 2112
+# AwDae --- 2112
 
 No menu.
 

content/read/035.md

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# RJ Brewster --- 2112
+# AwDae --- 2112
 
 If AwDae had been expecting to find some fresh clue, some exciting conclusion to eir adventure at the clinic, ey was disappointed. The office was an office, nothing more. Cold. Hollow. Impersonal, despite countless touches cleverly engineered to add personality.
 
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ Nightmares.
 
 Dreams.
 
-Ey needed something to anchor emself to. Ey needed something to hold onto that wasn't dependent on clues and tidbits of information that were...were what? Stored in eir implants? In some core in eir exocortex, dumped when ey was pulled back?
+Ey needed something to anchor emself to. Ey needed something to hold onto that was not dependent on clues and tidbits of information that were...were what? Stored in eir implants? In some core in eir exocortex, dumped when ey was pulled back?
 
 Ey needed to make sense of something in this pale semblance of a world. Make understanding. Make knowing. Make lucidity.
 

content/read/036.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # Ioan Bălan --- 2305
 
-Eating was not a necessity in the system. While it was easy to go for months or years without eating, it was something that remained a habit for many who chose to upload. Remnants of biology. Ioan suspected that there was no small amount of hedonism involved in killing one's body to decamp to a world beyond scarcity. Eating became a purely sensory affair, one focused on taste and scent and company.
+Eating was not a necessity in the System. While it was easy to go for months or years without eating, it was something that remained a habit for many who chose to upload. Remnants of biology. Ioan suspected that there was no small amount of hedonism involved in killing one's body to decamp to a world beyond scarcity. Eating became a purely sensory affair, one focused on taste and scent and company.
 
 All the same, dinner was a muted affair. Dear's partner cooked that evening. Ioan sat with the two around the table and tried not to feel like a third wheel.
 
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ Dear's partner gave its shin a playful kick. The fox grinned.
 
 "I 'went off script', you mean?"
 
-*"Mmhm."*
+*"Yes."*
 
 "Sorry about that, I--"
 
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ Dear's partner gave its shin a playful kick. The fox grinned.
 
 "It likes to proclaim," teased Dear's partner.
 
-*"It is not **not** true."* Dear smirked. *"But anyway, I am sorry I got all quiet, I did not mean to put a damper on things."*
+*"It is not* not *true."* Dear smirked. *"But anyway, I am sorry I got all quiet, I did not mean to put a damper on things."*
 
 "You didn't, I--"
 
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ Ioan grinned, letting the banter play out before continuing. "All I meant to say
 
 Ioan looked down into eir wine, taken aback.
 
-*"Doubly unfair of me, and for that I apologize."* Dear raised its glass in a salute. *"So you asked a really good question because it made me question my own role in this hunt. It made me think of what others would think. Me bringing along an amanuensis and historian. It made me think of why I am doing so. Something I had not considered as well as I thought.*
+*"Doubly unfair of me, and for that I apologize."* Dear raised its glass in a salute. *"So you asked a very good question because it made me question my own role in this hunt. It made me think of what others would think. Me bringing along an amanuensis and historian. It made me think of why I am doing so. Something I had not considered as well as I thought.*
 
 *"And I think the reason for me doing so goes further than even I had planned. I think I have you along as a means of keeping me grounded. A means of keeping the clade from just doing what the clade has always done yet again, of--"*
 
@@ -64,13 +64,13 @@ Sensorium message. That was it.
 
 The message lasted less than a minute before the fox leapt off the couch and dashed off to another room, forking almost as an afterthought along the way.
 
-The fork turned quickly and padded back to the couch. It didn't seem to be able to sit, and instead kept pacing in front of the couch, in front of Ioan and its partner.
+The fork turned quickly and padded back to the couch. It didn't seem to be able to sit, and instead kept pacing in front of Ioan and its partner.
 
 After a few tense laps of wine, it said, *"Qoheleth just sent me a message."*
 
 "What?" Ioan rushed to place eir glass on the table with Dear's. "You mean Life?"
 
-*"He asked me to call him Qoheleth, but yes. He sent me a message. Can I pass it on?"*
+*"He asked me to call him Qoheleth, but yes. He sent me a message. May I pass it on?"*
 
 Dear didn't wait.
 
@@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ The contrast made Ioan's teeth ache.
 
 "Hi Dear, this is Qoheleth. Not Life Breeds Life, But Death Must Now Be Chosen, but Qoheleth. I am glad to see that you have kept at it and gotten so close. I am not sending this to deter you, but to cheer you on. I am going to send you a bit more information --- just you, mind! --- but I want you to get the rest of the clade in on this. I want to see if you can get them working with the same delightful fervor you and Ioan have.
 
-"So anyway, here's the bone I am gonna toss. You should be looking at Node: [32c5a64b66d0338be4373d796cf1eae5343f1077]. That will get you right to my door. May need Gist Node: [0fedcbbb5e9839936ce799ece39fcd49] to help, too. You already have the key, I think. I expect most, if not all of you, though, you understand? You are lovely, Dear, and I cannot wait to see you and your friend, but I would like to host as much of the clade as I can.
+"So anyway, here's the bone I am gonna toss. You should be looking at the node ending in 343f1077. That will get you right to my door. May need the gist node ending in e39fcd49 to help, too. You already have the key, I think. I expect most, if not all of you, though, you understand? You are lovely, Dear, and I cannot wait to see you and your friend, but I would like to host as much of the clade as I can.
 
 "I am quite excited for this, and I am totally looking forward to see you all, yes?"
 
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ Ioan nodded again, "That's fair."
 
 There was an uneasy silence for a few minutes. The two sat on the couch, sipping their wine and mulling over the message.
 
-For eir part, Ioan was considering the strange dichotomy of the familiarity with which Qoheleth had addressed Dear --- "see you soon, fox" --- as well as *why* the fact that this seemed incongruous to em. It was difficult to think of Qoheleth as a member of the same clade as Dear after so long of striving to believe the opposite. Hard to think of him as someone with whom Dear shared a root identity after so long of thinking of this person as someone entirely different.
+For eir part, Ioan was considering the strange sense of the familiarity with which Qoheleth had addressed Dear --- "see you soon, fox" --- as well as *why* the fact that this seemed incongruous to em. It was difficult to think of Qoheleth as a member of the same clade as Dear after so long of striving to believe the opposite. Hard to think of him as someone with whom Dear shared a root identity after so long of thinking of this person as someone entirely different.
 
 Silences have their own rhythms, Ioan knew, so ey waited until there came a point at which ey could ask, "About all this, do you know much more about the whole Name business?"
 

content/read/037.md

@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ She began typing.
 >
 > The last thing I got from RJ was this:
 >
-> > AwDae here. Looks like there's a lot going on in DDR activity (where'd you get this, Debarre?). Cicero was into a lot, and I'm not trying to go all conspiracy nut on you all, but do you think that maybe he got in too deep or something? Not saying someone tried to do it too him or anything, just that maybe the more one uses the net, the more likely it is to happen to them? I mean seriously, look at all of his votes, and his stash of credits! I'll keep poking at this after rehearsal.
+> > AwDae here. Looks like there's a lot going on in DDR activity (where'd you get this, Debarre?). Cicero (Collin) was into a lot, and I'm not trying to go all conspiracy nut on you all, but do you think that maybe he got in too deep or something? Not saying someone tried to do it too him or anything, just that maybe the more one uses the net, the more likely it is to happen to them? I mean seriously, look at all of his votes, and his stash of credits! I'll keep poking at this after rehearsal.
 >
 > Do you have any idea what that might be about? I know I said Cicero was super into politics, but do you think RJ was onto something here?
 >
@@ -40,17 +40,17 @@ She frowned.
 
 "Right, sorry. I'm sorry for meeting you like this."
 
-The skunk shook her head. "It's okay, I guess. Can you tell me why?"
+Sasha shook her head. "It's okay, I guess. Can you tell me why?"
 
 "Will you accept "because of a dream" as an answer?"
 
-Sasha frowned.
+Her frown deepened.
 
 "I suppose not." Carter hugged her arms around her middle, a gesture that looked distinctly out of place from the gray avatar. "You mention, uh...AwDae investigating DDR activity, as well as Collin's own involvement but--well, should we wait for others to show up?"
 
 "I don't know if any of them are coming." She felt the tightness of panic in her chest intensify. "I don't know where Debarre is. Probably work, it's midday for us. And I imagine Caitlin's show is on."
 
-The figure before her frowned. "Right."
+The figure before her sighed. "Right."
 
 Sasha pulled up her deck. "I can take notes, perhaps," she allowed. "I don't suppose you'll want ACLs with a throwaway."
 
@@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ Carter nodded, didn't respond.
 
 "I'm sorry," the figure said dully. "I really can't help in the context of work."
 
-"I know. I read up a bit on WFHIPA."
+"I know. I read up a bit on WFPHIPA."
 
 "Yeah."
 

content/read/038.md

@@ -1,16 +1,16 @@
-# RJ Brewster --- 2112
+# AwDae --- 2112
 
 The relief of finding emself sitting in eir own bed, ey supposed, should have been immediate and intense.
 
 Instead, seeing eir room around em once more rather than the clinic, all AwDae could do was close eir eyes and shift down in bed until ey was able to draw the covers up over emself, a mirroring of this morning. The weight of the blanket atop em, the feeling of being surrounded, covered, supported by the mattress seemed to be more important than...than what, relief? Joy?
 
-Ey didn't feel despair, didn't feel hopelessness.
+Ey did not feel despair, did no feel hopelessness.
 
-AwDae wasn't sure what this emotion was. It was a non-emotion. It was a sense of swelling, of being too full. Of having words and images and colors flooding through em and yet wholly out of reach.
+AwDae was not sure what this emotion was. It was a non-emotion. It was a sense of swelling, of being too full. Of having words and images and colors flooding through em and yet wholly out of reach.
 
 When ey had awoken this morning, ey had supposed that ey would head down from home to the clinic and magically find some sort of success. Or, if not success, at least another clue. Another step along the way. A fraction of success. Some piece-of-eight that, when added up, would save em.
 
-This wasn't a puzzle, though, was it? This wasn't a set of steps that could be followed to some logical conclusion. There was no end to the road, because there was no road.
+This was not a puzzle, though, was it? This was not a set of steps that could be followed to some logical conclusion. There was no end to the road, because there was no road.
 
 Dreams, after all, have no plot.
 
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ Ey drew the covers up over eir head. Perhaps ey wished to blot out the dream wit
 
 Ey slept, then. Not the restless, confused sleep of the night before, but a dreamless sleep of an hour. An hour? A day? What mattered time? It was the sleep of a mind demanding that very blessed nothingness. Was that something ey could request, as ey had requested to dream eir way back home?
 
-It wasn't a long nap, of course. Or perhaps it was. Perhaps ey could will it to be as long as ey wanted. Perhaps ey were bound to a rhythm, but the scale did not matter. Perhaps ey could bend time.
+It was not a long nap, of course. Or perhaps it was. Perhaps ey could will it to be as long as ey wanted. Perhaps ey were bound to a rhythm, but the scale did not matter. Perhaps ey could bend time.
 
 Either way, when ey awoke, the corners of eir eyes gunked up with dried tears, the funk of the morning had largely passed. The numbness still lingered around the edges, vignetting curiosity, but it was not so all-consuming as it had been.
 
@@ -90,9 +90,9 @@ And then AwDae fell to eir knees and let the cat step up onto eir thighs, and ey
 
 Cried because this was not London. Cried because this was not eir cat. Cried because ey could dream anything ey wanted and it would never be anything beyond a dream.
 
-This was a memory. This was something dredged up from eir own mind. Prisca, eir very own Prisca, was purring against eir face because that's what Prisca must do. She was squirming out of eir grasp because ey knew that, had ey held her like that in the waking world --- and ey had --- that that is what cats do.
+This was a memory. This was something dredged up from eir own mind. Prisca, eir very own Prisca, was purring against eir face because that is what Prisca must do. She was squirming out of eir grasp because ey knew that, had ey held her like that in the waking world --- and ey had --- that that is what cats do.
 
-It was eir dream. Eir own, eirs alone. All the lost must perforce be dreaming their own dreams. Ey dreamed of homes and clues and boundaries, of cats that squirmed, of emself as a fox --- and that one ey would keep --- and could not begin to guess at others' dreams.
+It was eir dream. Eir own, eirs alone. All the lost must perforce be dreaming their own dreams. Ey dreamed of homes and clues and boundaries, of cats that squirmed, of emself as a fox --- and that one ey would keep --- and could not begin to guess at other's dreams.
 
 Could ey will Prisca to stop? To hold still and be eir pillow to cry into? Ey did not know. Eir mind resisted the question. Resisted, because ey did not want that to be the case. Did not want to will eir precious cat to be anything other than she was. To ask that question was to admit the idea that ey could dream anything other than that which ey must.
 

content/read/039.md

@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ A soft ping. A notification. A small bell still loud enough to jolt her out of h
 Carter found it hard to sit still in the small room. It was all she could do to keep from pacing agitatedly, and she focused instead on keeping her steps more within the realm of slow and contemplative. *Is this out of the ordinary? Is me walking back and forth out of the norm enough to report to some higher authority?*
 *Is Avery on my side?*
 
-"Dr Ramirez, sorry for bothering you."
+"Dr. Ramirez, sorry for bothering you."
 
 "No problem, Avery. What's up?"
 

content/read/040.md

@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ Ioan Bălan
 :    Other than "start at the beginning, and when you get to the end, stop?"
 
 Dear
-:   [laughter] Yes. I could do that, I suppose, but it wouldn't make for a very good story.
+:   [laughter] Yes. I could do that, I suppose, but it would not make for a very good story.
 
 Ioan
 :   Right. I suppose start at the beginning, specifically with your decision to upload.
@@ -36,13 +36,13 @@ Ioan
 :   Yes. Lots of turmoil around then. Early 2100s, right?
 
 Dear
-:   [nods] Yes. Though it's strange, now that I think about it. The turmoil at the time felt very small and personal. While there was all this grand-scale stuff going on around us, we were dealing with friends and acquaintances disappearing. There were so few cases at first that it was just this thing the news would publish as a sort of curiosity. "Look! Isn't this strange? The scientists are working so hard!" [laughter] It wasn't until after that the turmoil you're talking about began.
+:   [nodding] Yes. Though it's strange, now that I think about it. The turmoil at the time felt very small and personal. While there was all this grand-scale stuff going on around us, we were dealing with friends and acquaintances disappearing. There were so few cases at first that it was just this thing the news would publish as a sort of curiosity. "Look! Isn't this strange? The scientists are working so hard!" [laughter] It wasn't until after that the turmoil you're talking about began.
 
 Ioan
 :   Okay. Did you upload during?
 
 Dear
-:   Oh goodness, no. Uploading had been something scientists and such had been poking at, but that no one had yet to accomplish. Or, well, perhaps someone had accomplished. Some had claimed to, at least. The consensus at the time is that, while it was likely possible, there would be little chance of having systems large enough to house more than two or three individuals. It was not a...ah, not a linear increase in complexity, I think. Add another mind, and the complexity more than doubles. [pause] It was the lost who started it, in a way. The things we learned from them when they came back--
+:   Oh goodness, no. Uploading had been something scientists and such had been poking at, but that no one had yet to accomplish. Or, well, perhaps someone had accomplished. Some had claimed to, at least. The consensus at the time is that, while it was likely possible, there would be little chance of having systems large enough to house more than two or three individuals. It was not an...ah, not a linear increase in complexity, I think. Add another mind, and the complexity more than doubles. [pause] It was the lost who started it, in a way. The things we learned from them when they came back--
 
 Ioan
 :   How many-- sorry for the interruption. How many came back? Of those you knew?
@@ -60,19 +60,19 @@ Ioan
 :   Okay. Back to the uploading side, then. The lost taught you...
 
 Dear
-:   [visibly relaxing] Right, yes. When they came back, many of them --- many of us, for I was briefly among their number --- talked about what we had learned while...uh, in there. The things that we talked about and described are what sent the wonks down new avenues of research, and that eventually led to the first uploading tech. From there, there was the usual "too expensive" hand-wringing, but it all marches on, you know? [laughs] It got cheaper, the tech got better, the L5 station and Ansible were set up. Population was getting out of hand again, and some wag decided to pitch uploading as a solution.
+:   [visibly relaxing] Right, yes. When they came back, many of them --- many of us, for I was briefly among their number --- talked about what we had learned while...ah, in there. The things that we talked about and described are what sent the wonks down new avenues of research, and that eventually led to the first uploading tech. From there, there was the usual "too expensive" hand-wringing, but it all marches on, you know? [laughs] It got cheaper, the tech got better, the L5 station and Ansible were set up. Population was getting out of hand again, they said, and some wag decided to pitch uploading as a solution.
 
 Ioan
 :   I remember that, yeah. The posters were all over the place.
 
 Dear
-:   Yes. Notably, as the cost came down, it was pitched as something for the poorer classes to take advantage of.
+:   Yes. Notably, as the cost came down, it was pitched as something for the poorer classes to take advantage of. It bore more than a little whiff of eugenics.
 
 Ioan
 :   And were you...I mean--
 
 Dear
-:   [laughs] Poor? Not particularly, actually. It appealed to me for...different reasons. I'd prefer not to get into those at the moment.
+:   [laughter] Poor? Not particularly, actually. It appealed to me for...different reasons. I would prefer not to get into those at the moment.
 
 Ioan
 :   Alright.
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ Ioan
 :   You mention that it cost to fork, yes.
 
 Dear
-:   Yes. The reputation markets were already set up by then, but since this was before the system's proper expansion and some tech that came later --- I couldn't begin to understand it --- it was gently discouraged by the market.
+:   Yes. The reputation markets were already set up by then, but since this was before the System's proper expansion and some tech that came later --- I could not begin to understand it --- it was gently discouraged by the market.
 
 Ioan
 :   It hadn't reached this...post-scarcity, you mean?
@@ -126,7 +126,7 @@ Ioan
 :   It's hard to picture you as a tasker.
 
 Dear
-:   [laughter] Right, yes. As everything started to get cheaper, though, those distinctions began to emerge. By then, Michelle had a few long-lived instances, tagged as you are, Mx #c1494bf.
+:   [laughter] Right, yes. As everything started to get cheaper, though, those distinctions began to emerge. By then, Michelle had a few long-lived instances, tagged as you are, Mx. #c1494bf.
 
 Ioan
 :   [laughter] Thank you. This was before the Ode?
@@ -162,13 +162,13 @@ Ioan
 :   Thus the limited dispersionista style.
 
 Dear
-:   [nodding] Right. Each stanza became a small family of taskers, in a way. We, the Odists, create our own forks as needed, but don't let them live long. Or aren't supposed to, at least.
+:   [nodding] Right. Each stanza became a small family of taskers, in a way. We, the Odists, create our own forks as needed, but do not let them live long. Or are not supposed to, at least.
 
 Ioan
 :   "Aren't supposed to"?
 
 Dear
-:   Oh, I'm sure a few of us have created long-running forks while everyone else has turned their head.
+:   Oh, I am sure a few of us have created long-running forks while everyone else has turned their head.
 
 Ioan
 :   Have you?
@@ -180,7 +180,7 @@ Ioan
 :   Is the Ode available somewhere for me to read?
 
 Dear
-:   Of course. I'll give you a copy. That's hardly secret.
+:   Of course. I will give you a copy. That is hardly secret.
 
 Ioan
 :   And the clade, how long has it been since you have all been together.
@@ -198,7 +198,7 @@ Ioan
 :   Are you in touch with any of your cocladists?
 
 Dear
-:   I'm assuming you mean "in normal times"? Right. One or two. Serene and I get along quite well, and I talk with Praiseworthy --- Those That Lived Are Forever Praiseworthy, the first line of my stanza --- with some frequency. Michelle and I have talked a few times. She comes to my exhibitions.
+:   I am assuming you mean "in normal times"? Right. One or two. Serene and I get along quite well, and I talk with Praiseworthy --- That Which Lives Is Forever Praiseworthy, the first line of my stanza --- with some frequency. Michelle and I have talked a few times. She comes to my exhibitions.
 
 Ioan
 :   Ever talked to, um...

content/read/041.md

@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ Carter merely stared at him.
 
 She blinked, nodded dumbly. Another rock for her mind to bump over in that swift-flowing stream: *Prakash? Sino-Russian Bloc?*
 
-"If you run, you'll only look guilty. Culpable. You need to stay away from UCL, but--" He pointed down the street. "If you were to head to the medical center, then it's only an ethics violation, not running from the police, okay? Brewster is there."
+"If you run, you'll only look guilty. You need to stay away from UCL, but--" He pointed down the street. "If you were to head to the medical center, then it's only an ethics violation, not running from the police, okay? Brewster is there."
 
 "What--" Her voice cracked, and she had to swallow a few times to get it to work properly. "What happened?"
 
@@ -130,7 +130,7 @@ She jumped when Sasha stepped from the tport pad less than thirty seconds later.
 
 Carter held up her hands defensively, then jumped again as a...weasel? Another furry of some sort, long and brown and dressed all in black, dashed quickly from the pad.
 
-"This is Debarre." Sasha spoke quickly. "Debarre, Dr Ramirez. She's at the hospital with RJ."
+"This is Debarre." Sasha spoke quickly. "Debarre, Dr. Ramirez. She's at the hospital with RJ."
 
 Debarre looked frantic, pacing erratically. "What the fuck is happening?"
 

content/read/042.md

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# RJ Brewster --- 2112
+# AwDae --- 2112
 
 "If I dream, am I no longer myself?"
 
@@ -30,11 +30,11 @@ Ey padded to the kitchen and opened the cupboard in which the tea must be stored
 
 A memory: RJ and Avon. Avon, who had let RJ crash on his couch when ey had first reached London. RJ and Avon at a small cafe. Avon promising an authentic cream tea and then immediately launching into a tirade against authenticity. RJ laughing. Avon watching, hawk-eyed, to see whether RJ would spread eir clotted cream on the scone first, or instead reach for the jam. Avon nodding approvingly at the choice.
 
-The water quickly came to a boil. After pouring it into the mug, AwDae hiked emmself up onto the counter by the edge of the sink and let eir tail dangle into it. It would get wet, but that's just what happens with sinks.
+The water quickly came to a boil. After pouring it into the mug, AwDae hiked emself up onto the counter by the edge of the sink and let eir tail dangle into it. It would get wet, but that is just what happens with sinks.
 
 *"You seem kind of frozen, kind of stuck, in a few ways."*
 
-"I am stuck, yes," ey informed Priscilla. "I'm stuck with will and with memory and with time. As much time as I need."
+"I am stuck, yes," ey informed Priscilla. "I am stuck with will and with memory and with time. As much time as I need."
 
 The cat purred. AwDae laughed and lifted eir mug. Too hot to drink, but comforting to hold. Ey felt the comfort in memory.
 

content/read/043.md

@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ She had already begun to put her phone back in her pocket before the faint ping
 
 *Shit.* 
 
-Carter quickened her pace, doing her best to maintain the appearance that she belonged here. She, Dr Carter Ramirez, researcher on the lost, was meant to be here. Meant to be in the hospital, in the wing where the lost were kept. She belonged here, it was okay.
+Carter quickened her pace, doing her best to maintain the appearance that she belonged here. She, Dr. Carter Ramirez, researcher on the lost, was meant to be here. Meant to be in the hospital, in the wing where the lost were kept. She belonged here, it was okay.
 
 And the ruse, if ruse it were, worked well enough to get her up to the second floor and onto the hall where RJ was being kept. A slow hall. A quiet hall, where none of the patients could talk or move. An empty hall. A nurse's station with a lone nurse sitting behind a monitor.
 
@@ -28,13 +28,13 @@ The only occupied chairs along the entire hall were occupied with suits. Suits s
 
 *Well, shit.*
 
-There would be no backing up without increased culpability. She had been preempted. And why not? Dr Carter Ramirez, researcher in the lost, was meant to be here, right?
+There would be no backing up without increased culpability. She had been preempted. And why not? Dr. Carter Ramirez, researcher in the lost, was meant to be here, right?
 
 All she could do, all she could think to do, was nod to them politely and head to the nurse's station. "Good, uh...good afternoon."
 
 They looked up from the paperwork and frowned. "Afternoon. May I help you?"
 
-"Yes, sorry. Dr Carter Ramirez, UCL. I'm here to view a patient, RJ Brewster? Should be in 2309."
+"Yes, sorry. Dr. Carter Ramirez, UCL. I'm here to view a patient, RJ Brewster? Should be in 2309."
 
 The nurse's frown deepened. "You're expected. The gentlemen down the hall are here to speak with you. That's 2309 they're sitting in front of. Go ahead."
 
@@ -48,11 +48,11 @@ The director barrelled out of the room and nearly collided with the suits. His t
 
 Nonplussed, the suits turned toward Johansson. "Sir, we are not--"
 
-"Won't take a moment, please. Just need a bit of privacy. Dr Ramirez, head on in.I'm sure we can all talk in a moment."
+"Won't take a moment, please. Just need a bit of privacy. Dr. Ramirez, head on in.I'm sure we can all talk in a moment."
 
 Unsure if it was confusion or Johansson's convincing act that drew her forward, she simply nodded and continued into the room. Caitlin, she assumed, sat on a chair next to the bed. And in the bed itself must have been RJ. Short, slight, dusty blonde hair swept back out of eir face by a simple hairband, eyes taped shut, nasal intubation tube taped to eir cheek. Still. Completely still.
 
-"Dr Ramirez?" Caitlin said.
+"Dr. Ramirez?" Caitlin said.
 
 "Yes, uh...Caitlin, is it? And this is RJ?"
 
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ The sudden intensity seemed to startle Caitlin. She sat up straighter in her cha
 
 "You mean...intentionally? Not an accident?" The tech frowned. "Why are you here, then?"
 
-Carter ground her palms against her eyes and shook her head. "I don't know. Running from those guys, I guess. Trying to reduce my guilt." She considered expanding on what Prakash had said, on Prakash himself, then decided against it. If he was indeed helping her, that would be throwing him under the bus. "I figured if I came here, it would only be an ethics violation or something. Pretty vain hope."
+Carter ground her palms against her eyes and shook her head. "I don't know. Running from those guys, I guess. Trying to not look guilty, or at least look less guilty." She considered expanding on what Prakash had said, on Prakash himself, then decided against it. If he was indeed helping her, that would be throwing him under the bus. Guilty of what, though, she didn't know. "I figured if I came here, it would only be an ethics violation or something. Pretty vain hope."
 
 "Maybe." Caitlin sounded unconvinced. "I guess it's nice to meet you. I heard about you from the boss and Sasha."
 

content/read/045.md

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 
 No images. No images. Not real ones. Nothing real in this empty space. Ey could see, but why? Why see eir flat? Why see Prisca? Why see anything?
 
-So ey didn't. Ey dreamt emself blind. More than blind. Eir dreaming mind ensured that there was no such thing as sight. That it had never existed. Did not exist for emself. Had never existed for anyone.
+So ey did not. Ey dreamt emself blind. More than blind. Eir dreaming mind ensured that there was no such thing as sight. That it had never existed. Did not exist for emself. Had never existed for anyone.
 
 Ey was like the theater. Ey was vast, incomprehensible spaces. Ey was the lack of the concept of space. Ey was words. Ey was information. Ey was sound, and the only sound was eir voice.
 
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ Who knew how long? Who knows? What means knowing in dreams?
 
 When ey woke --- when ey dreamed emself awake --- AwDae answered eir own question: "To know one's true name is to know god. To know god is to answer unasked questions."
 
-And as ey thought upon eir true name, eir mind wandered across what remained in eir exo. Wandered across the deck on Cicero. Wandered across those cards and did not ask.
+And as ey thought upon eir true name, eir mind wandered across what remained in eir exo. Wandered across the deck on Cicero. Wandered across those cards for centuries at a time, millennia, and did not ask.
 
 And there it was.
 
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ The vote was not there, and yet the answer was. There was the shadow of intentio
 
 What mattered the vote? What mattered the comments? What mattered the content, the cost? What mattered the golden fleece, or any MacGuffin? It could have been a flashlight with an amber filter in a suitcase just as easily as it could have been a declaration of war against the Sino-Russian Bloc. Chekhov's vote.
 
-It didn't matter. All that mattered is that those who had seen it --- had seen the vote, who had interacted with it, who had interacted with it at however many levels of remove --- were *personae non gratae* from that point on. Easier for them to not be. Easier to admit the mystery of the lost into the collective consciousness than to let such come to light. What cared the world of billions for the hundreds of lost? What cared the powers that be for the resistance of however many dozens that were now lost?
+It did not matter. All that mattered is that those who had seen it --- had seen the vote, who had interacted with it, who had interacted with it at however many levels of remove --- were *personae non gratae* from that point on. Easier for them to not be. Easier to admit the mystery of the lost into the collective consciousness than to let such come to light. What cared the world of billions for the hundreds of lost? What cared the powers that be for the resistance of however many dozens that were now lost?
 
 Ey rambled beyond the deck, beyond eir flat, beyond Prisca. Ey wandered across the interior of eir skull until ey stepped up onto the stoop of eir exo.
 
@@ -48,9 +48,9 @@ Ey very carefully did not ask.
 
 And there it was: the answer.
 
-There, standing tall, as proud as any other memory, was a routine. And when AwDae gazed into its porcelain face, ey understood. And when that porcelain face gazed back, it smiled beatifically.
+There, standing tall, as proud as any other memory, was a subroutine. And when AwDae gazed into its porcelain face, ey understood. And when that porcelain face gazed back, it smiled beatifically.
 
-There it was: the very routine, the very bug exploited, the very program triggered at the order of some higher power. The very entity which had painted the inside of eir exo with silver and glass that left em trapped within. There was the virus in all its glory. Its subtle curves meant to fit the space of an exo's logic perfectly. Its ability to recognize actions. Its ability to cut off the outside world. Its ability to ride shotgun along regular software updates. *Security*, it promised. *Added security along the barrier between waking and dreaming.*
+There it was: the very subroutine, the very bug exploited, the very program triggered at the order of some higher power. The very entity which had painted the inside of eir exo with silver and glass that left em trapped within. There was the virus in all its glory. Its subtle curves meant to fit the space of an exo's logic perfectly. Its ability to recognize actions. Its ability to cut off the outside world. Its ability to ride shotgun along regular software updates. *Security*, it promised. *Added security along the barrier between waking and dreaming.*
 
 It smiled, and AwDae laughed.
 

content/read/048.md

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# RJ Brewster --- 2112
+# AwDae --- 2112
 
 "Time is a finger pointed at itself," AwDae informed Priscilla. This Priscilla. Not the real one, no. The one ey created. The one ey dreamed. "That it might give the world orders. The world is an audience before a stage where it watches the slow hours progress."
 
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ So ey created.
 
 The far wall of eir London flat was gone now, opening out onto the open space behind eir childhood home. The comfort of one home leading directly out onto the comfort of the next. The smooth hardwood floor, worn almost to softness by decades of use, transitioned smoothly to shortgrass prairie. Ey could sit at eir desk chair --- remolded to accommodate a fox's tail --- and watch the turbines turn laconically in the breeze.
 
-When ey slept, and ey did, ey would bring about sunset. Had the day been clear, clouds would move in. Not many, but enough to pick up a riot of colors as the light dipped from white down through yellow, orange, red, salmon, purple... And then the sun would be down and ey would sit on the threshold of the two worlds, of the two times and two universes, and enjoy the scents and sounds that night brought em. Dream senses. Heightened senses as a fox might have.
+When ey slept, and ey did, ey would bring about sunset. Had the day been clear, clouds would move in. Not many, but enough to pick up a riot of colors as the light dipped from white down through yellow, orange, salmon, red, purple... And then the sun would be down and ey would sit on the threshold of the two worlds, of the two times and two universes, and enjoy the scents and sounds that night brought em. Dream senses. Heightened senses as a fox might have.
 
 And then ey would bring back into being the wall between the worlds and sleep. Ey would find eir room the perfect temperature. It would be cold enough that ey would need blankets, but not so cold as to be uncomfortable. And Prisca would come curl up next to em. And ey would pet her while she dozed. And ey would sleep without dreaming.
 

content/read/049.md

@@ -2,11 +2,11 @@
 
 Aha! Dear sent a sensorium message. A view of a crowd and it announcing that they would be leaving in five minutes. Surprising turnout, even. I had expected most of the clade, but here, it looks like I will be expecting the entire clade plus a few here and there --- I can see Ioan next to Dear, there --- in just a few minutes.
 
-A bit strange to not see Michelle herself there. Not only that, but to have not heard from her, either. On consideration, I am not too surprised that she will not be showing up --- not happy, granted, but not surprised --- but I am a bit miffed that I have yet to hear from her.
+A bit strange to not see Michelle herself there. Not only that, but to have not heard from her, either. On consideration, I am not too surprised that she will not be showing up --- not happy, granted, but not surprised --- but I am a bit miffed that I have yet to hear from her. Perhaps she struggles still.
 
-Will make a note to contact her down the line. While I suspect she may be one of the more normal of those of us left, that is not to say that she is safe from this building problem, nor that she is necessarily sane simply by virtue of being the root branch. We know madness, do we not?
+Will make a note to contact her down the line. While I suspect she may be perhaps the most broken of all of us, that is not to say that she is safe from this building problem as well, nor that she is necessarily safe simply by virtue of being the root branch. We know madness, do we not?
 
-I am going to shut down all the exits from this room so that there will be less incentive to wander away. Not that I have a whole lot left, mind. I hadd probably better increase the size, too, in order to fit everyone comfortably. How much room does each Odist need? How much space does one two-hundred twenty year old mind, copied 100 times over, occupy?
+I am going to shut down all the exits from this room so that there will be less incentive to wander away. Not that I have a whole lot left, mind. I had probably better increase the size, too, in order to fit everyone comfortably. How much room does each Odist need? How much space does one two-hundred twenty year old mind, copied 100 times over, occupy?
 
 Prefer too large over too small, perhaps. There is a joke to be made about ego here, and yet this meeting is too important for me to make it.
 

content/read/050.md

@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ His very form shouted his identity. The shift in form, the shift in gender, the
 
 The murmuring doubled, trebled, subsided.
 
-Qoheleth smiled, fatherly, and called out to the group, "Welcome, cocladists. Good to see most of you again, and I am sure it  will be pleasant to meet the rest of you later."
+Qoheleth smiled, fatherly, and called out to the group, "Welcome, Odists. Good to see most of you again, and I am sure it  will be pleasant to meet the rest of you later."
 
 Silence. Confused. A silence part curious, part angry.
 
@@ -46,13 +46,13 @@ Grumbles from the clade.
 
 "There is a problem cropping up in the older uploads and their clades. A bug, of sorts. It is a small one now, but it will get plenty worse over time.
 
-"Actually, it may not be a problem with the uploads at all, but a problem with the *system*. We are stuck. We are frozen in a few ways, but not the right ones, if there is such a thing. We are eternal, and that which is eternal should be unchanging. Anything that changes should end. You know this. The creator of the Ode knew this. The problem is forgetting and aging. We cannot forget. We never age. We are stuck. We never grow."
+"Actually, it may not be a problem with the uploads at all, but a problem with the *System*. We are stuck. We are frozen in a few ways, but not the right ones, if there is such a thing. We are eternal, and that which is eternal should be unchanging. Anything that changes should end. You know this. The creator of the Ode knew this. The problem is forgetting and aging. We cannot forget. We never age. We are stuck. We never grow."
 
 Dear was nodding.
 
 "Perhaps some of you sense the wrongness in this, but I am worried that it is too few of you. I called you here to teach you why this is a problem." Qoheleth ignored the indignant sounds from the audience and kept going. He seemed to be in a rhythm. Following a script, of sorts. Further stagecraft. "It feels good to be forever young, to be forever ourselves, does it not? We last and last and last, and there is no sign of us stopping. But even if the physical and biological aspects of aging have been obviated by the system, by being digital, the need to age and change is still there. It is a need backed by sanity and diversity rather and biology.
 
-"Sanity drives the need because we cannot forget. *For memory ends at the teeth of death*, yes? I see you there. And you, *The end of memory lies beneath the roots*, yes? Perhaps some of you have figured out ways to intentionally forget, but forgetting needs to be an organic process. It needs to be something that happens *to* us, not just something that we choose to do. All we can do is ignore, now, but even so, that drives us further from sanity. It is at most a limitation of the system applied to our sensoria, our minds."
+"Sanity drives the need because we cannot forget. *For memory ends at the teeth of death*, yes? I see you there. And you, *The end of memory lies beneath the roots*, yes? Perhaps some of you have figured out ways to intentionally forget, but forgetting needs to be an organic process. It needs to be something that happens *to* us, not just something that we choose to do. All we can do is ignore, now, but even so, that drives us further from sanity. It is at most a limitation of the System applied to our sensoria, our minds."
 
 Gaining confidence, Qoheleth was speaking louder, more fluently. "Diversity, because we need to change more than just our shapes and those memories originating after the fork.
 

content/read/051.md

@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ Well, I turned out pretty messed up, but only because I suffered the same fate t
 
 Oh, and I have such grand plans!
 
-Grand plans of organizing a petition among all the founders and old clades, with the Ode clade leading and me leading them in turn. A petition to the system engineers to hire some damn developers again and stop treating this like abandonware. Abandonware that gives them, what, a dumping ground for the poor and a small brain trust? Get some devs in there and give us the ability forget and the ability to die. Hell, maybe even the ability to reproduce, to breed. The word is even in my name --- my old name --- for chrissake.
+Grand plans of organizing a petition among all the founders and old clades, with the Ode clade leading and me leading them in turn. A petition to the System engineers to hire some damn developers again and stop treating this like abandonware. Abandonware that gives them, what, a dumping ground for the poor and a small brain trust? Get some devs in there and give us the ability forget and the ability to die. Hell, maybe even the ability to reproduce, to breed. The word is even in my name --- my old name --- for chrissake.
 
 As I continue through my spiel, I can tell I am hooking the liberals. The later stanzas, most of all. Dear's sold completely, I can see it on its face. Can see it on Dear's other fox sib, on Praiseworthy. Dear's whole stanza.
 

content/read/052.md

@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ And yet, the instructor could control the student, right? It took several attemp
 
 She was dizzy and the words kept blurring in and out of focus, but she was eventually able to select 'Mirror all", and with a teeth-rattling *pop*, the world came into focus.
 
-Not the room, the whole world. RJ/Carter sat on a low bench at the edge of a small pond. The bench sat at the edge of a trail in the midst of a narrow ridge of dry, knee-high grass. Cottonwoods dotted the rim of the pond, which was peanut shaped with a short bridge crossing the narrowest section. Behind em/her: a shortgrass prairie, stretching to a valley. Wind turbines.
+Not the room, the whole world. RJ/Carter sat on a low bench at the edge of a small pond. The bench sat at the edge of a trail in the midst of a narrow ridge of dry, knee-high grass. Cottonwoods dotted the rim of the pond, peanut shaped with a short bridge crossing the narrowest section. Behind em/her: a shortgrass prairie, stretching to a valley. Wind turbines.
 
 RJ/Carter was murmuring, was speaking aloud. "May one day death itself not die? Should we rejoice in the end of endings? What is the correct thing to hope for? I do not know, I do not know."
 
@@ -76,11 +76,11 @@ Ey felt a veil being lifted, being torn, being tugged at/she pressed against tha
 
 Paws tore at grass, though no longer with panic but with anger/frustration. This was unconscionable/taking too long.
 
-Ey didn't have time for this/she didn't have time for this.
+Ey did not have time for this/she didn't have time for this.
 
 The veil tore.
 
-"RJ, I'm going to stop mirroring. Please don't. Please leave me RJ we don't have much time and please leave me alone RJ, Caitlin and Johansson are here."
+"RJ, I'm going to stop mirroring. Please do not. Please leave me RJ we don't have much time and please leave me alone RJ, Caitlin and Johansson are here."
 
 And with a final rending, the veil disappeared completely and Carter swiped from mirroring to coexisting, and in that grey, default shape sat on the ground by the weeping fox. "RJ...AwDae. I shouldn't be here. At the UMC, I mean. We don't have too much time. The police are outside and arguing with Johansson. Can you feel for the exit?"
 
@@ -114,7 +114,7 @@ Carter hesitated, then leaned in closer to hug an arm around the slender fox's s
 
 "I don't know."
 
-AwDae sagged against her. "I know I should come with. But in case I don't, here is what happened."
+AwDae sagged against her. "I know I should come with. But in case I do not, here is what happened."
 
 Carter tamped down her impatience and let the fox speak. Let em speak about the experience of getting lost. Let em speak about dreaming and the mirroring of exo- and endocortices. Let em speak about Cicero and the vote in the DDR, the trap that had been triggered by some outside authority. Let em confirm all her suspicions and then some.
 
@@ -132,7 +132,7 @@ The fox sat bolt upright. "Sasha? You were talking with her?"
 
 "She contacted me, yes. I wasn't supposed to, but I talked with her and Johansson both."
 
-Ey subsided. "I'm glad to hear she's alright, then."
+Ey subsided. "I am glad to hear she is alright, then."
 
 Carter frowned. "She isn't, though. She got lost about an hour ago. Or something, I can't tell time in this place. I delved in to pass on information before the police caught up with me, and Debarre and I watched her get lost. That's what led me to try the mirror rig. You should--"
 
@@ -150,9 +150,9 @@ Caitlin was holding RJ's hand, and Johansson was shouting for a doctor.
 
 RJ's eyes were open. Confused and anxious, but cogent and bright.
 
-Before she could rejoice, before anyone could stop her, even herself, she delved back in. Delved back in to the sim, then swiped 'net access on. She signed on, dropped intoto her home sim, and swiped up an audio broadcast to Sasha, Debarre, Avery, Prakash, Johansson, her MP...everyone she could think of, and began talking. Those that were not listening live would receive a recording.
+Before she could rejoice, before anyone could stop her, even herself, she delved back in. Delved back in to the sim, then swiped 'net access on. She signed on, dropped into her home sim, and swiped up an audio broadcast to Sasha, Debarre, Avery, Prakash, Johansson, her MP...everyone she could think of, and began talking. Those that were not listening live would receive a recording.
 
-"My name is Dr Carter Ramirez, researcher at University College London studying the lost. We have succeeded in waking up one patient, RJ Brewster, and have discovered the mechanism by which individuals get lost. The police and Western Fed agents are here to prevent me from saying this, I think, so if I disconnect, that is why. Do not use the DDR. This is the source of the mechanism as described by Mx Brewster."
+"My name is Dr Carter Ramirez, researcher at University College London studying the lost. We have succeeded in waking up one patient, RJ Brewster, and have discovered the mechanism by which individuals get lost. The police and Western Fed agents are here to prevent me from saying this, I think, so if I disconnect, that is why. Do not use the DDR. This is the source of the mechanism as described by Mx. Brewster."
 
 She kept speaking until she had exhausted the knowledge of what she had learned over the last week. The pressure from on high. Sanders' carefully-constructed ruse. The data shifting. The rising panic. The only thing she left out was Prakash's involvement, the Sino-Russian Bloc's interest in the case.
 

content/read/053.md

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 After the assassination, with no one to lead and no reason to remain, the rest of the Odists and their friends left. Dear's pacing wound down. It eventually stopped, shoulders sagging.
 
-*"Come on, we should go back."* Then it turned and addressed some others near by, mostly from the same stanza, by the historian's guess. *"Any of you are welcome, too."*
+*"Come, we should return."* Then it turned and addressed some others near by, mostly from the same stanza, by the historian's guess. *"Any of you are welcome, too."*
 
 It was Ioan, Dear, Serene, and Praiseworthy --- the first line of the stanza and down-tree instance from Dear --- who wound up back at the house. They entered the sim twenty meters from the front door, where Ioan had originally arrived so long ago. Those few days ago. They trudged slowly up to the house.
 
@@ -22,11 +22,11 @@ Ioan waited for one of those ebbs in the rhythm of the silence before clearing e
 
 Serene simply shook her head.
 
-Praiseworthy shrugged, looking what Ioan thought might be glum, though her gestures and expressions took additional work to decode. Ioan had learned to understand Dear's expressions and movements, but she was another animal, of some form different from Dear and Serene. Black fur, white stripes retreating up along her snout and over her head. Thick tail that looked delightfully soft. Many of the clade matched her more closely than they did Dear. "I'm not surprised, really. Not happy, but not surprised."
+Praiseworthy shrugged, looking what Ioan thought might be glum, though her gestures and expressions took additional work to decode. Ioan had learned to understand Dear's expressions and movements, but she was another animal, of some form different from Dear and Serene. Black fur, white stripes retreating up along her snout and over her head. Thick tail that looked delightfully soft. Many of the clade matched her more closely than they did Dear. "I am not surprised, really. Not happy, but not surprised."
 
 Ioan turned to Dear. "You alright?"
 
-It was a moment in responding before it nodded. *"I am with Praiseworthy. I am not surprised, but not happy. Kind of pissed, actually,"* it said, smiling sardonically. *"That was short-sighted of them, though, because I have a hunch that Qoheleth was right."*
+It was a moment in responding before it nodded. *"I am with Praiseworthy. I am not surprised, but not happy. Rather pissed, actually,"* it said, smiling sardonically. *"That was short-sighted of them, though, because I have a hunch that Qoheleth was right."*
 
 ""Right"?"
 
@@ -64,11 +64,11 @@ Serene and Praiseworthy both reached up to rub at the backs of their necks.
 
 "You mean they kept the name to refer to something similar?"
 
-Dear shrugged. *"I suppose. All that we experienced in that dream also wound up cached in those implants, and it was that cache that helped the engineers on the early system to construct the shared dream that is the system today."*
+Dear shrugged. *"I suppose. All that we experienced in that dream also wound up cached in those implants, and it was that cache that helped the engineers on the early system to construct the shared dream that is the System today."*
 
 Ioan ground eir palms against eir slacks. This information, this dump of the past, was doing nothing to quell the anxiety of the previous hour. "Right, okay. How are they only an incomplete fix to forgetting?"
 
-*"You are still stuck with the knowledge that they exist and their inventory, yes? That's why I cannot forget **that** the Name exists. I cannot forget my origins or that there is an exo containing them. One which I cannot forget. Not unless I go through the whole shitty process again --- sorry, Serene, it was not pleasant. I could forget that bit of knowledge, but then what? I will have the knowledge that I have an exo that I cannot access pointing to something of dire importance. Can you imagine that feeling of lingering dread being a constant factor in life?"*
+*"You are still stuck with the knowledge that they exist and their inventory, yes? That is why I cannot forget* that *the Name exists. I cannot forget my origins or that there is an exo containing them. One which I cannot forget. Not unless I go through the whole shitty process again --- sorry, Serene, it was not pleasant, my dear. I could forget that bit of knowledge, but then what? I will have the knowledge that I have an exo that I cannot access pointing to something of dire importance. Can you imagine that feeling of lingering dread being a constant factor in life?"*
 
 Ioan shifted, leaning forward to rest eir elbows on eir knees, eir chin in eir hand. Ey sipped eir coffee as ey thought.
 

content/read/054.md

@@ -128,7 +128,7 @@ She clawed at the ground in something between frustration and terror that a frie
 
 "A mirror rig." The joyous tone of the words clashed against the tears still flowing freely. "We figured it out. Carter figured it out, I mean. She and AwDae busted everything open. Figured out how to rescue the lost, figured out how everyone *gets* lost in the first place."
 
-She stopped digging at the earth. "AwDae's back?"
+She stopped digging at the earth. "AwDae is back?"
 
 "Yes! And the clinic where Cicero is is trying to get him out as well!"
 

content/read/055.md

@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ The fox's ears bobbed as it nodded. *"So it is no surprise that you might feel a
 
 "Precisely. It was strange," ey mused. "When #Tracker-- when Ioan asked that I merge, I felt a bit of jealousy, and I wasn't quite sure why. Despite all of the other projects that I've approached with a fork leading to no such feelings, something about this one made it feel like a stranger was asking me to give up something intimate."
 
-Dear laughed. *"The very thing that keeps me from being anything other than a dispersionista. Jealousy is a sign of needs not met, and one of my needs --- one of the clade's needs --- is that of ownership over memory. I would be furious if Praiseworthy asked me to merge with her."*
+Dear laughed. *"The very thing that keeps me from being anything other than a dispersionista. Jealousy is a sign of needs not met, and one of my needs --- one of the clade's needs --- is that of ownership over memory. I would be quite furious if Praiseworthy asked me to merge with her."*
 
 Ey grinned and nodded.
 

content/read/056.md

@@ -32,4 +32,4 @@ The rest of the evening was quiet, subdued. Sasha and AwDae sat with Debarre, ea
 
 And when he had cried himself out and was willing to admit something other than mourning into the night, then they rejoiced together.
 
-And if Sasha and AwDae were in some way distant, in some way not wholly there, Debarre either ignored it for forgave them their madness.
+And if Sasha and AwDae were in some way distant, in some way not wholly there, Debarre either ignored it or forgave them their madness.

content/read/058.md

@@ -138,7 +138,7 @@ Should we forget the wheat, the rye, the tree?
 Perhaps this, too, is meaningless.
 {{< /verse >}}
 
-May this be the end of death. Failing that, may the memory of me die and be food for the growth for those who come after.
+May this be the end of death. Failing that, may the memory of me die and be food for the growth of those who come after.
 
 Yours always,