v2

content/read/003.md

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 The first thing that Ioan did when ey arrived before that low-slung house, there among countless acres of rolling buffalo grass, was laugh.
 
-The prairie was as ey remembered. Grass tickled at eir lower calves even through the socks and slacks; clouds threatened rain as they always did; wind tugged at eir hair in all the very same ways it first had however many years ago now --- was it really twenty? And yet the house! Banners were hung about in deepest black, streamers running from pole to pole in a welcoming path, guiding visitors. The house itself was lit about with flames of all sizes: tea-lights scattered among the dandelions, elaborate candelabras set upon tables, braziers set upon tripods, wall sconces set beneath the cantilevered roof. A glow painting the grass beside the house suggested a bonfire out back.
+The prairie was as ey remembered. Grass still tickled at eir lower calves even through the socks and slacks; clouds threatened rain as they always did; wind tugged at eir hair in all the very same ways it first had however many years ago now --- was it really twenty? And yet the house! Banners were hung about in deepest black, streamers running from pole to pole in a welcoming path, guiding visitors. The house itself was lit about with flames of all sizes: tea-lights scattered among the dandelions, elaborate candelabras set upon tables, braziers set upon tripods, wall sconces set beneath the cantilevered roof. A glow painting the grass beside the house suggested a bonfire out back.
 
 And there, the largest banner of them all, draped from that roof, shouted in stately capitals: "HAPPY DEATH DAY".
 
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ Ioan need not have looked hard for Dear; the fox was already sprinting around th
 
 Dear --- the real Dear --- was easy to pick out, for it was dressed in mourners' garb. A black suit, almost-but-not-quite masculine, with its eyes hidden by a gauzy black, almost-but-not-quite feminine veil.
 
-One by one, the various forks quit, and Dear, Also, The Tree That Was Felled skidded to an unceremonious stop in front of the historian.
+One by one, the various forks quit, and Dear, Also, The Tree That Was Felled skidded to an unceremonious stop in front of em.
 
 *"Ioan! Mx. Ioan Bălan! It has been too long! I have missed you."* The fox held out a paw.
 

content/read/004.md

@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ And still, he never did.
 >
 > Thank you,
 >
-> May Then My Name Die With Me of the Ode Clade
+> May Then My Name Die With Me of the Ode clade
 >
 > 2325-01-20 --- systime 201+20 1303
 
@@ -130,7 +130,7 @@ As mentioned, I am working with a historian --- or rather, three forks of the sa
     6. Martin drunk: when a man is drunk and drinks himself sober ere he stir.
     7. Goat drunk: when in his drunkenness, he hath no mind but on lechery.
     8. Fox drunk: when he is crafty drunk as many of the Dutchmen be.
-* While walking along in desert sand, you suddenly look down and see a tortoise crawling toward you. You reach down and flip it over onto its back. The tortoise lies there, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs, trying to turn itself over, but it cannot do so without your help. You are not helping. Why?
+* While walking along in the desert, you look down and see a tortoise making its way toward you. You reach down and flip it over onto its back. The tortoise lies there, its belly baking in the hot sun, waving its legs back and forth, trying to right itself, but it cannot do so without your help. You are not helping. Why not?
 * Two by two, two by two, and twice more. We always think in binaries, in black and white. We remember history two by two. We consider the present two by two. We think of the future twice over, and twice again. I have looked back on history and seen ceaseless progress or steps backward. I look back a hundred years and see illness and failure, and I look at today and see \_\_\_\_\_?
 * Oh, but to whom do I speak these words?  
   To whom do I plead my case?  

content/read/005.md

@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ Many were sitting now, some were pulling at tufts of grass, stalks of dandelions
 
 "I just want...we just want to experience...a little more," she choked out. "Can you give us that?"
 
-The reasons for the forks became clear, now, and over the next hour --- for some had diverged so far that a great amount of effort was required to reconcile conflicts --- they began to merge their outermost instances down-tree, down-tree, down toward the root. Many looked shell-shocked as years and decades and centuries of memories poured into them, and then were passed on down. Many looked as mad as she felt.
+The reasons for the forks became clear, now, and over the next hour --- for some had diverged so far that a great amount of effort was required to reclaim memories --- they began to merge their outermost instances down-tree, down-tree, down toward the root. Many looked shell-shocked as years and decades and centuries of memories poured into them, and then were passed on down. Many looked as mad as she felt.
 
 She held up her hand when the mergers had completed down to the doubled-versions of the nine first lines and one second line (for Qoheleth had been a first, Michelle remembered/Sasha remembered) standing before her.
 

content/read/006.md

@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ And then a stretching. A stretching up of his arms while his feet remained ancho
 
 Whether there was any discontinuity or not, he did not know. He was simply...there. Simply standing in a cube of grey walls, grey ceiling, grey floor. It was lit by lights that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere, and the lack of a shadow was disturbing in a way that he could not place.
 
-A soft, familiar voice spoke to him, then. Or did not come to him. He did not hear it through his ears, but it was there, nonetheless, through something more and less than hearing. "Yared. Can you speak?"
+A soft, feminine voice spoke to him, then. Or did not come to him. He did not hear it through his ears, but it was there, nonetheless, through something more and less than hearing. "Yared. Can you speak?"
 
 He opened his mouth and exhaled in a gasp. His throat worked at least, though everything was...different. So different.
 
@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ Yared frowned. "I will...not remember?"
 
 "But then I'll be in the System?"
 
-There was a pause, and then a laugh. "You already are. The upload has complete, and I --- the real True Name --- am speaking with you."
+There was a pause, and then a laugh. "You already are. The upload has completed, and I --- the real True Name --- am speaking with you."
 
 "But I will die here?"
 

content/read/007.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # Part II --- Progression
 
-> The reason that this association between Secession and Launch is important is due to its multifaceted nature. Yes, there was a similarity between the acts, of dividing, of leaving; much of the first part of this history will be spent dissecting those. Yes, there was political maneuvering both phys- and sys-side in order to accomplish them both; you will read about that. Yes, there was discussion about the wisdom of actions such as these; this you will read about as well.
+> The reason that this association between Secession and Launch is important is multifaceted. Yes, there was a similarity between the acts --- those of dividing, of leaving --- much of the first part of this history will be spent dissecting those. Yes, there was political maneuvering both phys- and sys-side in order to accomplish them both; you will read about that. Yes, there was discussion about the wisdom of actions such as these; this you will read about as well.
 >
 > The facet upon which this first chapter focuses is, however, one of correspondences. Both involved separation of one group from another. Both involved the construction and modification of a political system --- or perhaps non-system --- in order to accommodate the goals involved.
 >

content/read/008.md

@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ After their 'deaths', such as they were, Dear cackled madly and ran about the st
 
 Dear's partner also laughed, hopping to their feet and chasing after the fox in a drunken dash, leaving Codrin to sit and smile and watch and think.
 
-There was no more Codrin in the L<sub>5</sub> System. Ey was only here. Ey couldn't remember being there, for were the sims not the same? And if ey had never been there, had ey ever really existed there? Ey was only memories, and perhaps that is all ey had ever been. Navel gazing and existential crises mixed with the glee of having actually *done* something. No longer just the passive amanuensis, but now the active participant.
+There was no more Codrin in the L<sub>5</sub> System. Ey was only here. Ey couldn't remember being there, for were the sims not the same? And if ey had never been there, had ey ever really existed there? Ey was only memories, and perhaps that is all ey had ever been. Navel gazing and existential crises mixed with the (admittedly drunken) glee of having actually *done* something. No longer just the passive amanuensis, but now the active participant.
 
 Or, well, nearly so, for it was Dear who talked em into this, as it was so good at doing.
 
@@ -168,6 +168,6 @@ The finality of the word brooked no argument, and Codrin left it at that. "I'll
 
 Dear laughed and wriggled itself closer against Codrin leaving space for its partner when they would inevitably crawl back to a real bed.
 
-*"Do you think the Codrin on Pollux did the same?"* Dear mumbled.
+*"Do you think that Codrin on Pollux did the same?"* Dear mumbled.
 
 Ey was awake only enough to say, "I hope so."

content/read/009.md

@@ -2,13 +2,13 @@
 
 Michelle Hadje mastered the urge to vomit.
 
-She knew that she could change this. Change all of these things from so many dreams that pressed in against her. She knew that she could will them away, or perhaps spring for a fork that would simply...not have them. She had enough reputation, by now, to fork a dozen times over. Some perks came with being on the council, after all.
+She knew that she could change this. Change all of these things from so many dreams that pressed in against her. She knew that she could will them away, or perhaps spring for a fork that would simply...not have them. She had enough reputation by now to fork a dozen times over. Some perks came with being on the council, after all.
 
 But she hadn't, and she was not quite sure why.
 
 At one point, she had entertained the idea that it was out of a need to keep some part of herself tied to the her of eight years ago, the panicked and wild-eyed woman who had scrimped and saved all that she could to get a one-way ticket into the System. Perhaps she needed to keep some tenuous connection to the Michelle left so changed by getting lost that year on year become madness on madness.
 
-But that wasn't quite it. Perhaps, instead, she felt as though she wasn't worth it. She hadn't been able to save her friends, not in the end, and it was only by dint of luck that she managed to survive the years after that terrible day her mind was wrapped in on itself, squeezed, stretched, knotted, and all her thoughts and all her dreams were mirrored back upon her. Perhaps she deserved these bouts of lingering disconnection, depression, dissociation, derealization, depersonalizeation.
+But that wasn't quite it. Perhaps, instead, she felt as though she wasn't worth it. She hadn't been able to save her friends, not in the end, and it was only by dint of luck that she managed to survive the years after that terrible day her mind was wrapped in on itself, squeezed, stretched, knotted, and all her thoughts and all her dreams were mirrored back upon her. Perhaps she *deserved* these bouts of lingering disconnection, depression, dissociation, derealization, depersonalizeation.
 
 That wasn't it either, though. She may sometimes feel the weight of responsibility, but thoughts as gloomy as that came only when she was feeling particularly peaky.
 

content/read/010.md

@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ Yared looked around, then spotted the black car parked down the cross street. Ob
 
 He nodded to the man, who nodded back, ordered three coffees, and waited.
 
-Yared finished his coffee and reached out his hand to grip the contacts to pay for his coffee, but the man gently pressed his arm down.
+Yared finished his cup and reached out his hand to grip the contacts to pay for his coffee, but the man gently pressed his arm down.
 
 "Please, allow me to purchase your coffee and food. Do you like the himbasha here?"
 
@@ -94,7 +94,7 @@ Yared stood at the door a moment longer, feeling the cool air against his face.
 
 A gentle hand on his shoulder from the driver urged Yared into the back of the car where he took a seat opposite Councilor Demma, who handed him his coffee and offered him the bag of himbasha, which he declined.
 
-"I suppose you've already eaten plenty, hmm? It does smell delicious. I rather like it when they put orange in it as well as the spices." He broke off a corner of the bread and set the rest aside. "I will get straight to business, Mr. Zerezghi, as I know that this is rather unexpected for you. We have been keeping tabs of your posts on the topic of individual rights on the DDR forums. Your voice is one of the loudest, most consistent, and most eloquent out of the whole system, and would like to work with you on those."
+"I suppose you've already eaten plenty, hmm? It does smell delicious. I rather like it when they put orange in it as well as the spices." He broke off a corner of the bread and set the rest aside. "I will get straight to business, Mr. Zerezghi, as I know that this is rather unexpected for you. We have been keeping tabs of your posts on the topic of individual rights on the DDR forums. Your voice is one of the loudest, most consistent, and most eloquent out of the whole system, and we would like to work with you on those."
 
 Yared coughed on a swallow of coffee. "You have been...watching me?"
 

content/read/011.md

@@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ However, you talk about other intoxications. I am no stranger to insomnia, and y
 
 One thing this reminded me of, though, was of when I had just turned twenty and got incredibly sick. I had a very high fever, and when it was at its worst, I felt as though I was being offered a chance to peek behind a curtain, or at least see the shadows moving around backstage beneath the hem of it. I felt that I was granted a glimpse of some thinner reality that sat just behind our own. I was writhing in my bed, unable to hold still, with my back arching and my tongue sticking out, and yet there was this sense of the numinous and a short wave of ecstasy, and I felt pleasantly drunk. I don't know what "when a man is drunk and drinks himself sober ere he stir" means. Does it apply to functional alcholism? Even if it does, it feels like that moment. When I was in fever, I burned all the brighter before I got better, and in that moment, I saw the most clearly.
 
-> While walking along in desert sand, you suddenly look down and see a tortoise crawling toward you. You reach down and flip it over onto its back. The tortoise lies there, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs, trying to turn itself over, but it cannot do so without your help. You are not helping. Why?
+> While walking along in the desert, you look down and see a tortoise making its way toward you. You reach down and flip it over onto its back. The tortoise lies there, its belly baking in the hot sun, waving its legs back and forth, trying to right itself, but it cannot do so without your help. You are not helping. Why not?
 
 I don't know. I don't know why I flipped it, and I don't know why I'm not helping it, but I see myself there, watching it flail around, and I'm sobbing. I'm sobbing because for some reason, I'm not flipping it over and I wish against everything that I could give it relief. I feel guilt and shame in equal measure, and I watch myself beat my fists against my thighs, trying to force myself to do the thing, do the thing, just *do the thing.*
 
@@ -145,7 +145,7 @@ This is the crux of the problem, isn't it? I am convinced, on some level, that I
 
 > Before whom do I kneel, contrite?
 
-That part of me that says, "No, you are not a god." And when I beg his pardon, he laughs and says, "No amount of contrition will get you into a place separated from you by an impossibly large gap. Only death will get there, and you are not worth that."
+That part of me that says, "No, you are not a god." And when I beg his pardon, he laughs and says, "No amount of contrition will get you into a place separated from you by an impossibly large gap. Only death will get you there, and you are not worth that."
 
 > Behind whom do I await my judgment?
 

content/read/012.md

@@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
-# Ioan Bălan - 2325
+# Ioan Bălan --- 2325
 
 There was a rhythm to research, Ioan had found. The ideas and information did not always flow smoothly; sometimes, ey would go days without breaking through the current blockage, or perhaps ey would rush forward in leaps and bounds, the periods of sleep and waking growing longer and longer until ey was out of sync with the world around em.
 
 But despite these peaks and troughs, there was a rhythm. Ey would find a pace at which the project would bloom, fits and starts or a smooth progression, and would slowly be able to predict the ways in which it would move.
 
-There had been work before the launch, but the way in which it shifted after Dear's Death Day had knocked Ioan into enough of a different mindset that this felt like a new project. Ey supposed that it had to do with the sudden cessation of sensorium messages from Dear. That the fox was now restricted to text only must've been a shock to its system, and when eir thoughts would drift away from the task at hand of collating histories, ey would picture it sitting at a desk scribbling away, frustration on its features and agitation in its tail. 
+There had been work before the launch, but the way in which it shifted after Dear's Death Day had knocked Ioan into enough of a different mindset that this felt like a new project. Ey supposed that, in part, it had to do with the sudden cessation of sensorium messages from Dear. That the fox was now restricted to text only must've been a shock to its system, and when eir thoughts would drift away from the task at hand of collating histories, ey would picture it sitting at a desk scribbling away, frustration on its features and agitation in its tail. 
 
 *Then again,* ey thought. *It still has plenty of company to pester up there.*
 
@@ -130,7 +130,7 @@ She laughed and licked em on eir chin. It was an odd sensation. "It is not surpr
 
 "Are you saying it's manipulative?"
 
-"Oh, no. Not really, at least. I do not think it knows that it is doing that. It also lacks that self-awareness. It is more like..." She trailed off, visibly searching for the words. "It is like it knows what feels good but not why, so it has developed mechanisms to ensure that those good things happen more frequently."
+"Oh, no. Not really, at least. I do not think it knows that it is doing that. It also lacks that self-awareness. It is more like..." She trailed off, searching for the words. "It is like it knows what feels good but not why, so it has developed mechanisms to ensure that those good things happen more frequently."
 
 "More like a self-reinforcing behavior, I guess?"
 

content/read/014.md

@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ He shrugged again.
 
 Zeke nodded to True Name. "What's your take on the situation?"
 
-She stirred her drink to buy herself some time to think. "I think it is leaning our way. One of the big arguments remains speciation, but Yared's turning that into a pro-rights argument instead of a neutral- or anti-rights one. His voice is getting louder, too. It sounds like he is getting a lot more upvotes on his posts than before."
+She stirred her drink to buy herself some time to think. "I think it is leaning our way. One of the big arguments remains speciation, but Yared's spinning that into a pro-rights argument instead of a neutral- or anti-rights one. His voice is getting louder, too. It sounds like he is getting a lot more upvotes on his posts than before."
 
 "That's good."
 

content/read/015.md

@@ -102,10 +102,10 @@ Systime: 201+25 1014
 > :   I will tell you both, as long as I am able to add one condition.
 > 
 > Codrin
-> :   Of course. I'll honor that as best I'm able, and if I'm not able to, we can pass on that reason.
+> :   Of course. I'll honor that as best I'm able, and if I'm not able to, we can skip that reason.
 > 
 > Dear
-> :   Thank you, dear. You may transfer this interview in its entirety, but you and Ioan may not use the second reason in your histories. May Then My Name Die With Me may use it in her mythology, as long as it is not associated with my name or clade.
+> :   Thank you, my dear. You may transfer this interview in its entirety, but you and Ioan may not use the second reason in your histories. May Then My Name Die With Me may use it in her mythology, as long as it is not associated with my name or clade.
 > 
 > Codrin
 > :   Certainly. I can honor that. Would you like me to get confirmation from Ioan?

content/read/016.md

@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ Dear had been a lot today. Codrin had suggested that they do an interview togeth
 
 "There was more to the message than that, Dear. Maybe ey just wrote the same thing for both launches and sent it in one go."
 
-The fox had stared down into eir wide mug of coffee, a series of emotions crossing its face, before nodding. *"Yes, of course. I apologize, Codrin. I have been thinking about those stories since launch night, and the more I do, the less I want the actual reasons to wind up in some history book."*
+The fox had stared down into its wide mug of coffee, a series of emotions crossing its face, before nodding. *"Yes, of course. I apologize, Codrin. I have been thinking about those stories since launch night, and the more I do, the less I want the actual reasons to wind up in some history book."*
 
 Codrin had laughed, sipping eir own coffee. "I understand the impulse, believe me. I'm not even sure *I* know your reasons."
 
@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ Ey sat before the cairn so that it came up to eye level, and watched the long, s
 
 Perhaps it was regret or guilt, perhaps not. The fox had attacked the idea of leaving, of truly leaving the L<sub>5</sub> System and leaving no fork behind, with a ferocity that even Dear's partner admitted was somewhat unusual, as though it had *needed* to leave, to escape something.
 
-And then it's story, building an ascetic cult until it had been killed by its followers. Did some of that ring true to the fox? Did it feel that it had a cult following? Did it feel as though there were some risk of being destroyed by the thing that it had built up? Did it feel like an ascetic who had taken too many liberties?
+And then its story, building an ascetic cult until it had been killed by its followers. Did some of that ring true to the fox? Did it feel that it had a cult following? Did it feel as though there were some risk of being destroyed by the thing that it had built up? Did it feel like an ascetic who had taken too many liberties?
 
 "I'm overthinking this," ey mumbled.
 
@@ -132,7 +132,7 @@ Dear, having clearly waited until the food had disappeared, finally spoke in a t
 
 The fox very carefully set its wine glass down. Codrin noticed that it's paw had begun to shake. *"Did you go looking?"* it asked.
 
-Ey blinked, startled at the change of its demeanor. "No. You said the 2130s, and I had no reason to doubt you. Should I have?"
+Ey blinked, startled at the change of its demeanor. "No. You said the 2130s, I just did a quick search at the time to confirm and I had no reason to doubt you. Should I have?"
 
 *"No, of course not."*
 
@@ -150,7 +150,7 @@ Ey coughed on eir next sip of wine. "What? You were? Uh...holy shit." Ey looked
 
 "Yes. I left it up to Dear to tell you. It's always been tight-lipped about that."
 
-*"It is there for anyone to look up, but most who look it up do not seem to care very much, or find it simply a curiosity."* It hesitated, then added, *"It is also particularly difficult to look up for reasons that I will not go into now."*
+*"It is there for anyone to look up, but most who look it up do not seem to care very much, or find it simply a curiosity."* It hesitated, then added, *"It is also particularly difficult to look up for reasons that I will not go into now, but that is why you found the date that you did."*
 
 "So you were there for Secession? For the L<sub>5</sub> launch?"
 

content/read/017.md

@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ I asked, and they said yes. Though again, they were largely baffled by the reque
 
 I am not sure whether to thank you or be offended, but since Ioan sounds very interesting, I'll go with the former. Everything is so much bigger than I am, I sometimes wonder why I ought to worry about my body at all. Perhaps this is an artifact of an unpleasant upbringing and a long series of very intellectual jobs, and perhaps it's just foreshadowing me uploading.
 
-Ioan, if you're reading this, maybe you can explain this to May Then My Name, if you haven't already!
+Ioan, if you're reading this, maybe you can explain this to May Then My Name, if you haven't already.
 
 -----
 

content/read/018.md

@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ At this, the skunk brightened considerably. "This is what I was expecting. I hav
 
 "Perhaps! I do not doubt it, from that fox. It is always so dramatic." She retrieved her paw to fold it with the other before her. "Right. I remained behind because it tickled me to do so. Could I have invested in the Launch? Of course. However, it occurred to me early on, soon after you and I agreed to work on this project together, that acting as a fulcrum between the two LVs would not just keep my instance from infecting the responses that I received, but would allow me to play them against each other.
 
-"Besides," she said, stabbing her pinky toward em. "There is no Ioan on the Launches, and I am busy wrapping you around my little finger."
+"Besides," she added, stabbing her pinky toward em, "there is no Ioan on the Launches, and I am busy wrapping you around my little finger."
 
 Ey laughed. "Well, keep up the good work, then."
 
@@ -94,7 +94,7 @@ Ey nodded. Something in the skunk's expression told em that the topic was closed
 
 "Perceptive, as always. Whenever you talk with Douglas, your cousin however many times removed, you always evade his questions about your name, and have yet to tell him about your origins, though I know that that would mean a lot to him. Why?"
 
-Her laugh was musical and expression almost giddy. "We already talked about having fun, dear."
+Her laugh was musical and expression almost giddy. "We already talked about having fun, my dear."
 
 "Well, yes, but that was fun involving yourself. What's the origin of this fun involving someone else?"
 
@@ -174,7 +174,7 @@ She shook her head. "If you would like to think of it that way, yes, but I would
 
 "No. Sit down by me."
 
-They both shifted to a cross-legged position before this brand new plant in the yard, both looking at the yellow flower May turned this way and that in her paw.
+They both knelt before this brand new plant in the yard, both looking at the yellow flower May turned this way and that in her paw.
 
 "This is a dandelion. It--"
 
@@ -184,7 +184,7 @@ May nodded and beckoned for em to continue.
 
 "We didn't have a yard where I grew up. Just an apartment block facing the street, a strip of weeds between the building and sidewalk, and then between the sidewalk and road. At one time, I think that strip had contained grass and trees, but now it just contained a narrow path full of thistles and dandelions.
 
-"I only ever saw lawns in movies or on the net. The world wasn't as bad back then as Douglas makes it sound now, but still, we weren't wealthy, and it was hard enough to ensure a steady supply of clean water for the residents, never mind grass like this. We were certainly not wealthy enough for that." Ey laughed. "Well, we were dirt poor, actually. Most of the weeds were green, leafy things with fuzzy green flowers that would turn into bundles of seeds, or spiky thistles with purple bulbs of flowers, but there were a few dandelions scattered about."
+"I only ever saw lawns in movies or on the 'net. The world wasn't as bad back then as Douglas makes it sound now, but still, we weren't wealthy, and it was hard enough to ensure a steady supply of clean water for the residents, never mind grass like this. We were certainly not wealthy enough for that." Ey laughed. "Well, we were dirt poor, actually. Most of the weeds were green, leafy things with fuzzy green flowers that would turn into bundles of seeds, or spiky thistles with purple bulbs of flowers, but there were a few dandelions scattered about."
 
 "No lilacs?"
 
@@ -208,7 +208,7 @@ Ey grinned as she held the flower in both paws like a tray carrying food.
 
 "But that is not what I like about them. I am telling you, now that you are awake, the things that I whispered to you to bring about this story. The things I suggested, as you put it. What I love is their scent." She held it up for em to sniff. "They smell like muffins. How can anything that smells like muffins be bad?"
 
-Ey breathed deep of that scent. There was, indeed, the scent of some baked sweet bread, but that was layered atop a vegetal scent. It was not unpleasant, but not precisely like a muffin. Ey decided not to share this opinion with May.
+Ey breathed deep of that scent. There was, indeed, the note of some baked sweet bread, but that was layered atop a vegetal scent. It was not unpleasant, but not precisely like a muffin. Ey decided not to share this opinion with May.
 
 Instead, ey asked, "Is that your story, May?"
 

content/read/019.md

@@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ He realized he'd been so lost in thought that the wooded grove had already spat
 >
 > * Opinions
 > * Interpersonal relations
-> * Religion
+> * Religion, maybe?
 >
 > When one is unbound by the constraints of stuff, places, or money, one finds that there is little news that is worth treating as news.
 >

content/read/020.md

@@ -30,11 +30,11 @@ It squeezed eir hand in its paw again, but remained silent.
 
 Dear stopped suddenly, there by a cairn, leaving Codrin to keep walking until its paw tugged em to a stop in turn.
 
-*"Michelle made a difficult decision, but the right one,"* it said. *"I remember that pain, the inability to be just one thing, to be an entire person. I remember how those waves of instability always made her --- made me --- so nauseous and being touched felt disgusting. It was lonely-making for someone who needed --- deserved --- love and affection. She made the right decision to choose her own end."*
+*"Michelle made a difficult decision, but the right one,"* it said. *"I remember that pain, the inability to be just one thing, to be an entire person. I remember how those waves of instability always made her --- made me --- so nauseous and being touched felt disgusting. It was lonely-making for someone who needed --- deserved --- love and affection. She made the right decision to choose her own end and make it meaningful, own it."*
 
 "And the decision to not fix the split-mindedness?"
 
-It frowned down to the ground. *"I do not know if that was the right decision."*
+It dropped its gaze to the ground. *"I do not know if that was the right decision."*
 
 Codrin turned to face the fox, taking its other paw in eir free hand. "Do you know why she made it, at least?"
 
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ Codrin laughed, shrugged, and knelt down to begin building the next pile of ston
 
 It knelt beside them, digging up stones of its own and handing them to em. *"Of course I do. Do ask our friends, as I think they will have much to say, but also, while poking around, I saw that several of the founders have made the launch. I am not surprised that this is the case."*
 
-"Oh? That makes sense, I suppose" Ey plopped a root-tangled rock on top of the growing pile, laughing. "Something exciting after all those years, back to being at the heart of something important."
+"Oh? That makes sense, I suppose." Ey plopped a root-tangled rock on top of the growing pile, laughing. "Something exciting after all those years, back to being at the heart of something important."
 
 Dear splayed its ears. *"It is hard to let go of that desire, yes. A few of them are quite mad now, however."*
 

content/read/021.md

@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ He raised his empty glass to her. "An astute question! I'll make a politician ou
 
 She kicked his shin beneath the table, and he laughed.
 
-"You're a bit late to be whining about that. You've been on the council longer than I have." Twirling his glass between his fingers, he said slowly, pacing his words with his thoughts. "What would I have thought? I would've thought much as I mentioned above. I would've considered it unnecessary, then infeasible. What would I have done, though? I think I would have used him in turn. Gently steering him away from the idea while trying to find out who was behind this shift, if anyone, and try to dig up dirt on them."
+"You're a bit late to be whining about that. You've been on the council longer than I have." Twirling his glass between his fingers, he said slowly, pacing his words with his thoughts. "What would I have thought? I would've thought much as I mentioned before. I would've considered it unnecessary, then infeasible. What would I have done, though? I think I would have used him in turn. Gently steering him away from the idea while trying to find out who was behind this shift, if anyone, and try to dig up dirt on them."
 
 "I see. He does seem rather pliant. He would be a useful tool for us to wield, too."
 

content/read/022.md

@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ All was tended by automated systems, along with the help of a few botanist-nutri
 
 He walked through the sectors of the station and thought. He walked along the promenade tailward, then further anti-spinward to the greenhouses, and back sunward again. He walked and he thought, slowly going through the mental list of things he'd always wanted to say to Michelle and erasing them, line by line. Why keep them around, now? Why bother?
 
-Having walked back to the sunward hub, he finished the trip to his room in the hotel. His room where he would remain as precisely as alone as he had been before.
+Having walked back to the sunward hub, he finished the trip to his room in the hotel. His room where he would remain precisely as alone as he had been before.
 
 His implants buzzed as he walked into his room, and a glance at the corner of his HUD showed a message-received icon. He'd turned off his HUD for the non-errand and the walk through the station, but now that he saw it, saw that it originated sys-side, he tossed his suit bag onto the bed and dashed over to his rig.
 
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ The reply was almost immediate.
 
 > 
 > Ioan Bălan
-> :   Douglas, nice to meet you! May Then My Name is forking, she'll be here in a moment.
+> :   Douglas, nice to meet you! May is forking, she'll be here in a moment.
 > 
 > May Then My Name
 > :   I am here! Glad you could make it. How are you out there? Enjoying the cold vacuum of space?
@@ -180,7 +180,7 @@ He frowned, quelling the suspicion that they had known of his EVA.
 > Ioan
 > :   You ask about universities here. There are quite a few organizations that fill that role, most of which are hyper-focused on specific fields. I worked with a history and anthropology institute for a while, and actually missed one of May's cocladists while working with an institute for art and design.
 
-Douglas frowned at his terminal. That was the second time Ioan had referred to May Then My Name as that pet name 'May', but he couldn't think of a polite way to ask what that meant about how close they were.
+Douglas frowned at his terminal. That was the third time Ioan had referred to May Then My Name as that pet name 'May', but he couldn't think of a polite way to ask what that meant about how close they were.
 
 > Douglas
 > :   That makes sense. I imagine there has to be some structure in place. I know that you can't upload before you turn 18, but I imagine a lot of people still want to learn things that interest them after.

content/read/023.md

@@ -1,18 +1,18 @@
 # Codrin Bălan#Castor --- 2325
 
-The first interview of note that Codrin Bălan conducted was with an author who had chosen to invest completely in the launches, leaving no one behind. 
+The first interview of note that Codrin Bălan conducted was with an author who had chosen to invest completely in the launches, leaving no forks behind. 
 
 At first, Codrin wondered why it was that this author had chosen to be a part of the interview process, why it was that Dear had recommended him. He seemed, on the surface to be entirely uninteresting. He was an author. That was that.
 
-His name was Martin Rankin, and while Codrin had not read any of his works prior to the suggestion, ey had certainly heard the name in the various literary circles that ey trawled on occasion. A man prone to grand literary gestures, one who leaned heavily on the twisting of endless sentences, ceaseless streams of fragments, prose that bordered on florid even by Codrin’s relatively flowery standards. Ey knew that ey was prone to many of the same pitfalls, but this man took it to an extreme that they found unreasonable.
+His name was Martin Rankin, and while Codrin had not read any of his works prior to the suggestion, ey had certainly heard the name in the various literary circles that ey trawled on occasion. A man prone to grand literary gestures, one who leaned heavily on the twisting of endless sentences, ceaseless streams of fragments, prose that bordered on florid even by Codrin’s relatively flowery standards. Ey knew that ey was prone to many of the same pitfalls, but this man took it to an extreme that ey found unreasonable.
 
-Codrin, to prepare for the interview, had read two of Rankin's books. They were not without their merit, as might any such book be that garnered so much attention, but they still took plenty of work to get through. He wrote most often about contemporary life within the System in all its deliriously boring intricacies.
+To prepare for the interview, ey'd read two of Rankin's books. They were not without their merit, as might any such book be that garnered so much attention, but they still took plenty of work to get through. He wrote most often about contemporary life within the System in all its deliriously boring intricacies.
 
 That said, much of his work was bound up in a sense of magical realism that was, ey had to admit, enticing. This was something that Codrin had never managed to capture emself, and so ey set aside some time to study the ways in which Rankin used surrealism to enhance the story at hand without distracting.
 
-Martin Rankin was exactly as ey had expected. There was nothing about him that did not shout Martin Rankin. He wore his identity on his face, on his chest, in the way his hands moved across the table as they talked, there at the cafe, there sitting out on the street, there sipping their coffees.
+Martin Rankin was exactly as ey had expected. There was nothing about the man that did not shout Martin Rankin. He wore his identity on his face, on his chest, in the way his hands moved across the table as they talked, there at the cafe, there sitting out on the street, there sipping their drinks.
 
-"So, you are the illustrious Codrin Bălan." His voice was imperious, veering dangerously close to pompous, looking over the rim of the demitasse appraisingly at em as he sipped espresso.
+"So, you are the illustrious Codrin Bălan." His voice was imperious, veering dangerously close to pompous, looking over the rim of the glass appraisingly at em as he sipped grappa.
 
 Something about the man grated. Ey wasn't quite sure what it was at first, whether it was the self-assured way he spoke, or the self-aggrandizing expression he wore on his face. It was nigh intolerable.
 
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ Ey nodded, smiling ingratiatingly. The man was clearly used to having the chance
 
 The simpering tone appeared to appeal to Rankin's sensibilities, as he smiled down to Codrin with all the patronizing disdain of *bless your heart.* "I do believe so. What can we say but 'launch-side' and 'sys-side'? Do those truly say anything about our existence here? We are hurtling out into space at some terrifying speed, driven by the momentum imparted by the spin of the station and the deliciously thin membranes of those solar sails. Ah! What a journey on which we have decided to embark! We lucky few. Those back on the System know nothing of our experiences out here, even if they have also decided to join. There is no way to accurately transmit that experience through text alone."
 
-Hiding a grimace behind a sip of eir own espresso, Codrin jotted down the author's words. The first thing that Rankin had done upon meeting up with em had been to make a similarly patronizing comment about the anachronistic nature of pen and paper. Ey had supposed at first that ey'd met a fellow admirer of fine pens, fine paper, and the joy of beautiful inks.
+Hiding a grimace behind a sip of eir own drink, Codrin jotted down the author's words. The first thing that Rankin had done upon meeting up with em had been to make a similarly patronizing comment about the anachronistic nature of pen and paper. Ey had supposed at first that ey'd met a fellow admirer of fine pens, fine paper, and the joy of beautiful inks.
 
 *Alas.*
 
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ Hiding a grimace behind a sip of eir own espresso, Codrin jotted down the author
 
 "If we could--" Ey cut emself off and recomposed eir plastic smile. "I've heard that you are working on a project that capitalizes on this. Can you expand on that?"
 
-"Of course! Of course. I will always help a fellow writer." He set his cup aside and made a grand sweep of his arm. "You look around you, and you see so many going about their lives as they might have otherwise. Even I am guilty of the dalliance of getting up, drinking coffee, perhaps sitting and reading a while. We lucky few--" Codrin knew that some two and a half billion personalities were on the launches, but ey declined to comment. "--can draw so much inspiration from a project on so grand a scale. My project is one that utilizes the base nature of a personality embedded in a System that cares not for consistency between its two constituent parts.
+"Of course! Of course. I will always help a fellow writer." He set his glass aside and made a grand sweep of his arm. "You look around you, and you see so many going about their lives as they might have otherwise. Even I am guilty of the dalliance of getting up, drinking coffee, perhaps sitting and reading a while. We lucky few--" Codrin knew that some two and a half billion personalities were on the launches, but ey declined to comment. "--can draw so much inspiration from a project on so grand a scale. My project is one that utilizes the base nature of a personality embedded in a System that cares not for consistency between its two constituent parts.
 
 "Before I disappeared from the L<sub>5</sub> System, I wrote an outline for a new book describing the universal feelings of exploration that are bound up in this endeavor, and now I am working writing the book which follows that outline. My counterpart on the Pollux launch is doing the same --- he had better be! --- and we are sending the results of our labors back to the System to an editor who is a most trusted companion, and he is compiling them into a single book which will serve to showcase the similarities and differences that one mind can hold when it has lost a unifying sense of self!"
 
@@ -94,7 +94,7 @@ Ey gave a hint of a bow, a moment of silence to show eir appreciation, and then
 
 *Ah,* Codrin thought. *There it is.* "Does this drive influence your writing?"
 
-"Oh, here and there," Rankin said, waggling a hand. "Sometimes I'll cut corners to ensure that I'm always writing something, or I'll split off enough forks to work in shifts, ensuring that I'm always writing at all hours of the day, such as it is. One will work a shift, merge with the next to keep the momentum going, and go to bed."
+"Oh, here and there," Rankin said, waggling a hand. "Sometimes I'll cut corners to ensure that I'm always writing something, or I'll split off enough forks to work in shifts, ensuring that I'm writing at all hours of the day, such as it is. One will work a shift, merge with the next to keep the momentum going, and go to bed."
 
 "That must be a very productive experience."
 
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ Codrin finished eir transcribing with a flourish and bowed to Rankin. "Thank you
 
 "Right, right. Do tell *it* hi." Rankin quit before, Codrin suspected, he could roll his eyes.
 
-Ey bit eir tongue until ey was back home at the house on the prairie. Ey stomped out into the grass to eir very first cairn, set eir paper and pens down carefully in the grass, and shouted to the cloud-dotted sky. "What an enormous sack of shit, good Lord."
+Ey bit eir tongue until ey was back home at the house on the prairie. Ey stomped out into the grass to eir very first cairn, set eir paper and pens down carefully in the grass, and shouted to the cloud-dotted sky. "*What an enormous sack of shit, să-mi fut una.*"
 
 Then ey picked up eir supplies and walked back to the house.
 

content/read/024.md

@@ -52,13 +52,13 @@ He frowned at her, straightening up. "When I tried to say 'AwDae' earlier, True
 
 Sasha shook her head. "None of my forks have merged back down to me yet. I-- we decided that I would take some time off before reengaging. I have no memory of what happened."
 
-"It was kind of terrifying." The weasel laughed. "She slammed her glass down and said something like 'do not fucking say that name'. I can respect wanting to keep things close to the heart, but I thought I was about to get in a fistfight."
+"It was kinda terrifying." The weasel laughed. "She slammed her glass down and said something like 'do not fucking say that name'. I can respect wanting to keep things close to the heart, but I thought I was about to get in a fistfight."
 
-"I am trying to picture either of us in a fistfight, much less with each other, and failing," she said, grinning. "I would very much appreciate this being kept between us, yes, but I have no plans to deck you if you say eir name when it is just the two of us."
+"I am trying to picture either of us in a fistfight, much less with each other, and failing," she said, grinning. "I would very much appreciate this being kept between us, yes. Ey was not...the politics of em leaving for the S-R Bloc are complex. I have no plans to deck you if you say eir name when it is just the two of us."
 
 "I appreciate that. Why'd True Name seem to think otherwise, though?"
 
-Tossing away the dandelion, she shrugged helplessly. "I do not know. At the point when she came into existence, she ceased being me. We were the same for only the briefest of seconds, but we have long since diverged."
+Tossing away the dandelion, she shrugged helplessly. "I do not know. At the point when she came into existence, she ceased being me. We were perhaps the same for only the briefest of seconds, but we have long since diverged."
 
 "That far, though? It's only been a week or two, right?"
 
@@ -94,7 +94,7 @@ Debarre did not press her. She worked through her tears, tying the last of the d
 
 *I can feel em,* she thought. *I can almost feel em, there in the sunlight, in the flowers.*
 
-"What keeps you from doing the same, yourself? You could fork when you're feeling excellent and leave behind whatever's causing the split."
+"What keeps you from doing the same, yourself? Maybe you could fork when you're feeling excellent and leave behind whatever's causing the split."
 
 She didn't answer, just sat with her paws in her friend's, her head bowed, her tears leaving tracks in fur.
 

content/read/025.md

@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ She shrugged. "Not sure about an average person. It was about six months' saving
 
 "There wasn't much money in history, either," ey said. "Now, the reason I sought you out was two-fold. First of all, one of the things you're known for is that you found a way to send your compositions phys-side pretty early on, correct?"
 
-"Yes. Yes! I had nearly forgotten that they pinned that on me." She laughed, leaning back in her chair. "I didn't really figure it out, so much as use something a publisher pointed out to me as a curiosity. It's nigh impossible to send images and sound back through phys-side. I guess they came through all garbled, with little bits in focus and the rest a total mess. I have no clue as to the details."
+"Yes. Yes! I had nearly forgotten that they pinned that on me." She laughed, leaning back in her chair. "I didn't really figure it out, so much as use something a publisher pointed out to me as a curiosity. It's nigh impossible to send images and sound back through phys-side. I guess they came through all garbled, with little bits in focus and the rest a total mess, like remembering a dream. I have no clue as to the details."
 
 "As I've heard, too. Text appears to work okay, as something more concrete."
 
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ Ioan laughed. "Of course. That makes sense. Did your music change after you uplo
 
 "What happened to music phys-side that didn't here?"
 
-"They swung back towards some older styles. Second-wave minimalism was at its height, when I was leaving, and I loved the stuff. All those long notes, chords that held forever or used rhythm to add variety. Phasing." She chopped her hands unevenly in the air before herself, emphasizing the latter in a way that Ioan didn't understand at all. "Outside the System, though, it swung back toward more romantic stuff. It was all very Mahler, very Antoniewicz, very Liu. The problem with living forever, though, is that you can keep refining your craft in whatever ways you want. I stuck around with minimalism, for the most part. People keep uploading, though, and bring their ideas with them, so I've tried to diversify my works a little bit, but I write what sounds good to me."
+"They swung back towards some older styles. Second-wave minimalism was at its height when I was leaving, and I loved the stuff. All those long notes, chords that held forever or used rhythm to add variety. Phasing." She chopped her hands unevenly in the air before herself, emphasizing the latter in a way that Ioan didn't understand at all. "Outside the System, though, it swung back toward more romantic stuff. It was all very Mahler, very Antoniewicz, very Liu. The problem with living forever, though, is that you can keep refining your craft in whatever ways you want. I stuck with minimalism, for the most part. People keep uploading, though, and they bring their ideas with them, so I've tried to diversify my works a little bit, but I write what sounds good to me."
 
 "Is there a steady stream of composers joining? Enough to shift styles sys-side?"
 
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ May shrugged. "I am up for it, if all three of our groups agree."
 
 "Nothing in particular," Ioan said around a bite of fish. "Sorry. I figure stuff like why one invested in one or the other is a project that could go on forever, based on the numbers. Sure, there are only two hundred or so clades that totally invested in the launches, but the numbers are much higher on our end."
 
-"You are thinking about Secession, are you not? Looking for founders to interview," May grinned. "Clever."
+"You are thinking about Secession, are you not? Looking for founders to interview?" May grinned. "Clever."
 
 "Am I that transparent?"
 

content/read/026.md

@@ -1,11 +1,17 @@
 # Part III --- Acceleration
 
-> Here we must step back and address a potential conflict of interest.
+> Let us first consider a few of the subtler correspondences between the Secession and the Launch:
 >
-> At time of writing, the Bălan clade is made up of two personalities in the form of three individuals: Ioan Bălan, the root instance, remains on the L<sub>5</sub> System, and Codrin Bălan travels on the Launch Vehicles (hereafter "LVs"). Two persons, three instances.
+> * Both have ramifications that stretch backwards and forwards through time for decades surrounding them.
+> * Both were intended, beyond the surface and altruistic reasons, to ensure the continuity and stability of the System.
+> * Both involved political manipulation phys-side and sys-side.
+> * Both involved historical manipulation to ensure that accounts align.
 >
-> Both of these persons, all of three of these instances, are entangled with the Ode clade. Ioan Bălan has worked extensively with May Then My Name Die With Me of the Ode clade, and Codrin Bălan has worked with and is in a polyamorous relationship which includes Dear, Also The Tree That Was Felled of the Ode clade. The fact that the Ode clade was instrumental in both Secession and Launch is undeniable, and the fact that the Bălan clade is entangled with the Odists is equally so.
+>And now we may consider the facts that fall out of the sum of the correspondences:
 >
-> For reasons that will be made clear as this history unfolds, we are not able to recuse ourselves. You must bear with us, and you will see why we, the Bălan clade, *must* be the ones to write this history.
+> * The history of the System, stretching all the way back to before its foundation, is one of technology, yes, but beyond that, is one of politics.
+> * Despite the assumption that such is not possible in the System and the promises that such is not the case, there are governing factions that guide the progression of the System through time via its interactions with phys-side politics.
+> * Per that fact, those controlling factions sys-side controlled --- and continue to control --- politics phys-side to a degree heretofore unimaginable.
+> * The unknowable size of the System and the unimaginable population within in all its variety and beauty retain the human characteristics of emotion and intellect, and are thus subject to the very same propaganda that has steered societies and civilizations for thousands of years.
 
 From *An Expanded History of Our World* by the Bălan clade

content/read/027.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # Codrin Bălan#Pollux --- 2325
 
-The first direction from the L<sub>5</sub> System came in the form of a message from May Then My Name Die With Me. "Find Ezekiel," it read. "Talk with him. Be patient, be kind."
+The first direction from the L<sub>5</sub> System --- or Lagrange, as many were starting to call it --- came in the form of a message from May Then My Name Die With Me. "Find Ezekiel," it read. "Talk with him. Be patient, be kind."
 
 When ey showed it to Dear, the fox's ears stood erect, and it led Codrin out of the house to stand on the patio and watch the storm from the safety of the overhang.
 
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ A dry rattle sounded from within the dusty rags, and it took em a moment to unde
 
 "Did you leave a fork behind on the L<sub>5</sub> System?"
 
-"No," he said. A finger rose tiredly from the upraised hand. "The word of the Lord came to me: O mortal, turn your face towards man's iniquity in the heavens and prophesy to them and say: O cruel men of machinations, you have broken your treaties with the earth which God has set before you, and though it be the doing of the many who are one, leave now the world of your birth that it be washed clean of your sin. You may have hoped for life as gods of the false idols, but the heavens are no longer yours for such arrogance."
+"No," he said. A finger rose tiredly from the upraised hand. "The word of the Lord came to me: O mortal, turn your face towards man's iniquity in the heavens and prophesy to them and say: O cruel men of machinations, you have broken your treaties with the Earth which God has set before you, and though it be the doing of the many who are one, leave now the world of your birth that it be washed clean of your sin. You may have hoped for life as gods of the false idols, but the heavens are no longer yours for such arrogance."
 
 Codrin remembered the admonition to be kind and patient, to be careful, and so ey sat in silence, as seemed appropriate.
 

content/read/028.md

@@ -169,7 +169,7 @@
 > :   I think you're spot on for the DDR. Yared, has any mention of secession come up in the forums yet?
 > 
 > Yared
-> :   Only two or three times, but given that this topic is starting to be taken up on the governmental level, that amounts to almost none. That said, I'm seeing quite a few people taking to the launch idea, which they're now equating to something equivalent to secession --- they're calling it separation from earth or resource independence, stuff like that --- as well as more talk about international rights, given that sys-side individuals technically retain their citizenship, which makes the System something like international waters.
+> :   Only two or three times, but given that this topic is starting to be taken up on the governmental level, that amounts to almost none. That said, I'm seeing quite a few people taking to the launch idea, which they're now equating to something equivalent to secession --- they're calling it separation from Earth or resource independence, stuff like that --- as well as more talk about international rights, given that sys-side individuals technically retain their citizenship, which makes the System something like international waters.
 > 
 > Jonas
 > :   Clever. That might be far enough to drop some very subtle hints. I'm not sure about the word 'secession' yet, given some of its past connotations. You've suggested that we have the nature of statehood, but you might try pushing harder on referring to us as a nation, a national entity, a nation-state, and so on. Maybe even use the word 'statehood' directly. 
@@ -193,7 +193,7 @@
 > :   This actually came up in a few conversations with my friends sys-side. It sounds like they share some of that ambivalence toward speciation. They can't interface with phys-side as we can, and we can't interface with sys-side as they can, so how could they even be considered the same species as us? And yet here they are, taking place in a political debate as filigreed and baroque as any other, and doing so with the same rational minds that we have, even if only at one remove. "At this point," one of them said as we laughed over another fruitless debate. "I'm not even sure we should be discussing individual rights with governments that have no way of knowing how we work. We might as well just secede and end the discussion there."
 > 
 > Yared
-> :   But who knows if speciation will even wind up playing into it, in the end. I've noticed that, even though we remain split on the topic, tempers have cooled on both sides. I'm surprised --- pleasantly so! --- to see this agreement building even in Cairo; I know that many of my compatriots there bore apathy or even antipathy towards the System after previous dealings between NEAC and the S-R Bloc. We're no longer at each others throats about whether or not they're so fundamentally different from us that it requires some strange new way to think of them as individuals.
+> :   But who knows if speciation will even wind up playing into it, in the end. I've noticed that, even though we remain split on the topic, tempers have cooled on both sides. I'm surprised --- pleasantly so! --- to see this agreement building even in Cairo; I know that many of my compatriots there bore apathy or even antipathy towards the System after previous dealings between the NEAC and the S-R Bloc. We're no longer at each others throats about whether or not they're so fundamentally different from us that it requires some strange new way to think of them as individuals.
 > 
 > Yared
 > :   And honestly, that's my hope. I think that way whether or not they're humans, whether or not they have their own customs and social structure, whether or not they're even a separate country. Even those who are falling on the side of speciation are starting to refer to them in terms of individuals. "Them." "How many of them." "Who in there even thinks X?" All of these are ways that we refer to individuals, and, you who are still arguing this belabored point that they should have no choice on what is done with their personalities once their bodies are gone, you are now thinking of them as what they are: individuals.

content/read/029.md

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 It was difficult for Codrin Bălan to reengage with the project at hand after what seemed to be an ever-mounting pile of oddities.
 
-It was not simply that ey had been finding piece after piece of new-to-em information about those that ey loved --- though it was also that --- nor was it that eir entire clade seemed to be entangled far deeper into something going further back than expected --- though it was that as well --- but that, by virtue of the twin launches and the L<sub>5</sub> System remaining back around Earth, ey was limited to reading much of this over plain text. Text that had flowed over sheets of paper in a comfortable font, bound itself up in books, and begged to be pored over, stood itself before em and said, "Read me, understand me." It all added one layer of remove that, despite eir attraction to the written word and fine paper and comfortable fonts and nice books, left em feeling caught up in some dreamlike state of almost-understanding.
+It was not simply that ey had been finding piece after piece of new-to-em information about those that ey loved --- though it was also that --- nor was it that eir entire clade seemed to be entangled far deeper in something going further back than expected --- though it was that as well --- but that, by virtue of the twin launches and the L<sub>5</sub> System remaining back around Earth, ey was limited to reading much of this over plain text. Text that had flowed over sheets of paper in a comfortable font, bound itself up in books, and begged to be pored over, stood itself before em and said, "Read me, understand me." It all added one layer of remove that, despite eir attraction to the written word and fine paper and comfortable fonts and nice books, left em feeling caught up in some dreamlike state of almost-understanding.
 
 As an example, there was this seemingly universal agreement among the Odists that no one of them should be the one to tell the entirety of the tale, and each for their own reasons. There seemed to be shame bound up in all of them, in some way, but beyond that, both instances of Dear had diverged to the point where the foxes were starting to come up with their own explanations for not providing that info to their respective Codrins Bălan.
 
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ The Dear on Pollux: *You could interview any one of us about the entirety of our
 
 Eir Dear had said, *"You will doubtless tease it out of me, bit by bit, you tenacious fuck."* But given what both May Then My Name and Dear#Pollux had said, ey no longer wished to try.
 
-And so here ey was, sitting in a dark field, looking up at the stars. Very dark. Well and truly dark, beyond almost anything Ioan had experienced phys-side, or even after uploading. There was a purity to that blackness, just as there was a purity to the red-filtered flashlight that Tycho Brahe (not his real name, but he had requested the pseudonym) used to guide them both to the top of a --- yes, pure --- grassy hill.
+And so here ey was, sitting in a dark field, looking up at the stars. Very dark. Well and truly dark, beyond almost anything Ioan had experienced phys-side, or even after uploading. There was a purity to that blackness, just as there was a purity to the red-filtered flashlight that Tycho Brahe (not his real name; he had requested the pseudonym) used to guide them both to the top of a --- yes, pure --- grassy hill.
 
 "I come out here on nights when I am depressed," the old astronomer had grumbled. "And that has been most nights, of late."
 
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ And so here ey was, sitting in a dark field, looking up at the stars. Very dark.
 
 "Isn't it? It reminds me of a trip to the west coast that I took long, long before I uploaded. This grassy hill in the middle of a wide ring of firs. You can't see it, but the grass is not actually grass, but a sort of moss. When it's freshly dried out after a rain, it's delightfully soft, isn't it?"
 
-Codrin nodded, then, realizing that ey could barely see Brahe next to em, murmured, "Almost cushy."
+Codrin nodded, then, realizing that ey could barely see Tycho next to em, murmured, "Almost cushy."
 
 They sat on that hill in silence, leaning back on their hands and watching the stars overhead.
 
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ It had taken a few moments for Codrin to get eir bearings when they had first st
 
 Codrin frowned up at the sky. "I didn't think that pictures could make it into the System. Systems."
 
-Brahe sighed quietly. "They can't. This is just a projection. A description based on what I know the stars to look like combined with information based on where they are relative to the fisheye lens on the side of the Dreamer Module."
+Tycho sighed quietly. "They can't. This is just a projection. A description based on what I know the stars to look like combined with information based on where they are relative to the fisheye lens on the side of the Dreamer Module."
 
 "And so you project that combination into a sim?"
 
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ Brahe sighed quietly. "They can't. This is just a projection. A description base
 
 There was a quiet lie in that admission, but Codrin let it slip by. "Can you tell me some more about what I'm seeing?"
 
-"Of course, Mx. Bălan," Brahe said, audibly brightening.
+"Of course, Mx. Bălan," Tycho said, audibly brightening.
 
 He pointed first to the brightest star, low on the horizon. "There, see? That is the sun. The launch arms let us go at such a point that we are traveling along the ecliptic in order to use some of the existing orbital velocity we were already on. We have a disadvantage from Pollux, as we were released counter to that orbit."
 
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ He pointed at something else, and it took Codrin a moment to discern in the dark
 
 "You don't seem particularly happy about your situation."
 
-Brahe's laugh was bitter. "Of course I'm not happy. I mean...I *am* happy, but that happiness is tempered by the whims of reality more than I had expected."
+Tycho's laugh was bitter. "Of course I'm not happy. I mean...I *am* happy, but that happiness is tempered by the whims of reality more than I had expected."
 
 "What would your dream experience be?" Codrin asked, enjoying a secret smile at the phrase couched within the ultimate dream experience that was the System.
 
@@ -80,13 +80,13 @@ Brahe's laugh was bitter. "Of course I'm not happy. I mean...I *am* happy, but t
 
 "I suppose that's why this place feels so much more romantic to me," Codrin mused. "I'm a storyteller, not an astronomer. Still, I imagine that that need for stories runs deep, and I can see the allure to possibly being able to actually look out a window at stars whizzing by."
 
-"Yes." Brahe sighed, then lay down on his back, with his arms crossed behind his head. "Yes, to see it all."
+"Yes." Tycho sighed, then lay down on his back, with his arms crossed behind his head. "Yes, to see it all."
 
 There were a few minutes of silence as astronomer and historian looked out into the night sky, there in the simulated pacific northwest, there on the simulated moss surrounded by the simulated trees while simulated stars shone still above them.
 
 *They don't twinkle,* Codrin thought to emself. *That's what it is. They don't twinkle, and the last time I saw them was from Earth, and all those who uploaded and made sims with star-filled nights, never left that aspect out.*
 
-Ey mentioned this to Brahe, who laughed good-naturedly. "Of course. You're right. If they twinkled, it might feel more natural, but there is no reason for it, here. This place is a dream. My dream. The stars are there, and they don't twinkle."
+Ey mentioned this to Tycho, who laughed good-naturedly. "Of course. You're right. If they twinkled, it might feel more natural, but there is no reason for it, here. This place is a dream. My dream. The stars are there, and they don't twinkle."
 
 "You said this view is constructed with data from the Dreamer Module," Codrin said, gently directing the conversation to topics that might please the astronomer more.
 
@@ -96,13 +96,13 @@ Ey mentioned this to Brahe, who laughed good-naturedly. "Of course. You're right
 
 "Alright, close your eyes."
 
-Ey did so, and when Brahe instructed em to open them again, the sudden change in the sky was, indeed, a little dizzy-making. The entire field of stars had changed, and where there had been warped but familiar constellations, there was now a deeper blackness, brighter stars, and far more of them. Far, far more. "What is this?"
+Ey did so, and when Tycho instructed em to open them again, the sudden change in the sky was, indeed, a little dizzy-making. The entire field of stars had changed, and where there had been warped but familiar constellations, there was now a deeper blackness, brighter stars, and far more of them. Far, far more. "What is this?"
 
 "A different view. A more powerful telescope looking at a patch of sky that we've never had a chance to see from this angle. One compounded from hours of exposure. I have no idea how exact it is, though, as it's all interpreted through the perisystem infrastructure, but it's still doing a slow sweep of the sky at a high enough magnification that the star field is completely different from what we're used to."
 
 "I wouldn't have thought that that would've had such an impact on me," ey murmured. "I felt like I was falling for a moment."
 
-Brahe sighed. "I did, too, the first time, and even now I'm not sure why. I think it's the mix of contexts. Here we are, looking out to space from the westernmost edge of the Western Fed, and yet all of the stars are different. They progress in such strange ways as the telescope searches on its automatic pattern."
+Tycho sighed. "I did, too, the first time, and even now I'm not sure why. I think it's the mix of contexts. Here we are, looking out to space from the westernmost edge of the Western Fed, and yet all of the stars are different. They progress in such strange ways as the telescope searches on its automatic pattern."
 
 "It's uncanny."
 
@@ -110,11 +110,11 @@ Brahe sighed. "I did, too, the first time, and even now I'm not sure why. I thin
 
 "Goodness, no." Ey laughed. "We were too poor for that."
 
-Brahe laughed along with em. "As was I. I do wonder, though, if I would have felt the same way I do now if I'd just had the chance to see the stars in such a new context before doing so here."
+Tycho laughed along with em. "As was I. I do wonder, though, if I would have felt the same way I do now if I'd just had the chance to see the stars in such a new context before doing so here."
 
 Codrin nodded, and a few more minutes of silence enveloped them as they took in that alien sky. 
 
-"You asked about the Dreamer Module, though." Brahe's voice had regained some of its strength. "And you're the one who works with stories. I'm sure you had your own questions, but there's a story there, that you might find interesting."
+"You asked about the Dreamer Module, though." Tycho's voice had regained some of its strength. "And you're the one who works with stories. I'm sure you had your own questions, but there's a story there, that you might find interesting."
 
 "Of course. I'd love to hear."
 
@@ -144,7 +144,7 @@ Eir frown grew. "Do you remember any names?"
 
 "The Jonas clade was pretty vocally against it. I think they even had compunctions about the launch, for that matter. There were some of the Odists, though I never took much interest in who. Their names are always so impenetrable. Let's see...there was Àsgeir Hrafnson, who has always seemed like he's against everything. Such a sour man..."
 
-Brahe continued to list off a few names, and Codrin continued to nod dutifully, but eir mind was elsewhere. The Odists' opinion on the launch seemed to range from, at best, utterly ecstatic, as Dear's had been, to, at worst, simply uninterested, to go by what Dear and May Then My Name had said.
+Tycho's continued to list off a few names, and Codrin continued to nod dutifully, but eir mind was elsewhere. The Odists' opinion on the launch seemed to range from, at best, utterly ecstatic, as Dear's had been, to, at worst, simply uninterested, to go by what Dear and May Then My Name had said.
 
 Was this another lie from Dear, or had the fox simply not gone looking for names in the debate?
 
@@ -152,13 +152,13 @@ Was this another lie from Dear, or had the fox simply not gone looking for names
 
 "I'm not sure," Codrin said, mouth dry. "Perhaps it was more of an image thing? As in, adding the module might damage how others viewed the launch."
 
-"Perhaps." Ey heard Brahe shrug against the moss-grass before he continued. "Anyway, that's the story. I don't know if it'll be of any use to you in your project."
+"Perhaps." Ey heard Tycho shrug against the moss-grass before he continued. "Anyway, that's the story. I don't know if it'll be of any use to you in your project."
 
 "It might. It already answered most of my other questions, too. The last one I have is that you invested entirely in the LVs. Why?"
 
 The astronomer was silent for a long time. "As upset as I get that I'm not actually able to see all the stars, even I am not immune to the romance of the idea. Imagine sitting at home, knowing that you could have flung yourself off into space, out among the dangers and excitement, and choosing instead that boring safety? The only benefit would be the combined knowledge of Castor and Pollux arriving at the station at the same time we'll get it on either one of our LVs, but, well."
 
-Brahe gestured up to the shifting night sky, leaving his words at that.
+Tycho gestured up to the shifting night sky, leaving his words at that.
 
 Eventually, even Codrin lay back in the grass. Lay there with Tycho Brahe in all his sadness and happiness and wisdom and romanticism. Lay there and looked up at the stars ey knew not for how long.
 

content/read/031.md

@@ -4,9 +4,9 @@ It was Jonas's time to pick the location for their meeting, but as he had schedu
 
 Her first drink was a total wash. Someone had decided to explore the utility of sulfurous odors in drinks by combining the smoke of a newly lit match, a slice of preserved egg, and some smokey mezcal, sweetened by a few squirts of over-ripe apricot puree.
 
-There was, True Name discovered, essentially no place for sulfur in a cocktail. It was a drink that was *almost* good, so long as one didn't breathe in the scent. The first heady whiff that she got had burnt her nostrils and she only managed a few sips after that.
+There was, True Name discovered, essentially no place for sulfur in a cocktail. It was a drink that was *almost* good, so long as one did not breathe in the scent. The first heady whiff that she got had burnt her nostrils and she only managed a few sips after that.
 
-Her next drink was some bracingly strong lime-and-bitters-and-liquor deal with a float of foam made of egg whites and pork fat. There was a dusting of star anise and cinnamon on top. Her final assessment: pleasantly disgusting. The lime, egg whites, and spices all worked quite well together, she imagined, but the added porky fat clashed with it in such a savory way that she suspected it would've gone better with some brown spirit.
+Her next drink was some bracingly strong lime-and-bitters-and-liquor deal with a float of foam made of egg whites and pork fat. There was a dusting of star anise and cinnamon on top. Her final assessment: pleasantly disgusting. The lime, egg whites, and spices all worked quite well together, she imagined, but the added porky fat clashed with it in such a savory way that she suspected it would have gone better with some brown spirit.
 
 Still, she drank it all.
 
@@ -28,11 +28,11 @@ What, then was the difference?
 
 She picked at a coin that had cemented itself to the rim of the fountain in a layer of slimy algae, winced at the unpleasant sensation, and then flicked it into the murky-green water that still stained the basin of the fountain.
 
-There was a part of her mind that was tempted to consider those who lived sys-side as some how more perfect beings than those who remained phys-side. But no, that wasn't quite correct. They were different, yes, but they weren't some greater form of perfection --- or perhaps not entirely.
+There was a part of her mind that was tempted to consider those who lived sys-side as somehow more perfect beings than those who remained phys-side. But no, that was not quite correct. They were different, yes, but they were not some greater form of perfection --- or perhaps not entirely.
 
 Were there perhaps some core difference in ideals? Obviously, given the cost of uploading, there was a natural barrier, but even among the upper-middle and higher classes, there were some who simply chose not to upload. What was the difference? Was it aspirational? Were those who uploaded on some different wavelength from those who stayed behind? There were certainly many who found the whole process abhorrent on a physical level, yes. Of those who found it distasteful on intellectual, emotional, and spiritual levels, what did the prospect of continuing to live phys-side provide that living sys-side did not?
 
-She couldn't decide, but there was the logical fallout of that situation, that the two should be treated on a fundamentally different level, when it came to politics.
+She could not decide, but there was the logical fallout of that situation, that the two should be treated on a fundamentally different level, when it came to politics.
 
 There was a slight twinge of a sensory alarm, and she knew that it was time for the meeting with Jonas.
 
@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@ True Name laughed. After a moment's concentration, two additional versions of he
 
 Once more, she resisted the urge to bridle at his comment. Instead she smiled sweetly. "Why Ask Questions, Here At The End Of All Things and Why Ask Questions When The Answers Will Not Help." After a pause, she added, "Why Ask Questions and Answers Will Not Help."
 
-The man froze, the last of his cocktail sausages halfway between plate and mouth. That mouth now slowly formed into a devious grin. "You continue to surprise and amaze, my dear."
+Jonas froze, the last of his cocktail sausages halfway between plate and mouth. That mouth now slowly formed into a devious grin. "You continue to surprise and amaze."
 
 After they had both finished their plates of appetizers and enjoyed a moment of silence, they each began pushing around a few chess pieces off the map.
 
@@ -134,7 +134,7 @@ True Name noticed the lack of names for each of the figures, but said nothing. *
 
 Jonas shrugged. "The council, of course, plus the owners of some higher-profile sims, and a few perisystem architects."
 
-"Alright. I suppose that on my end I don't have anyone other than the council," she lied. "And all of my various selves, of course."
+"Alright. I suppose that on my end I do not have anyone other than the council," she lied. "And all of my various selves, of course."
 
 "Right, you have Debarre in your pocket, and Zeke likes you plenty."
 
@@ -142,7 +142,7 @@ He kept throwing her all these little comments that seemed to tempt her to respo
 
 Not the best tactic for someone who taught theatre to teenagers.
 
-"I think we've got the council mostly locked down when it comes to the idea of independence," she said, setting down her stick.
+"I think we have got the council mostly locked down when it comes to the idea of independence," she said, setting down her stick.
 
 "And your clade?"
 
@@ -162,7 +162,7 @@ Jonas laughed. "He arguably looks better. Just different. On that note, will you
 
 She waved the question away. "I will work it out. For now, do you have any more news on Yared and his handler?"
 
-"Not too much more. Demma has been heard to mention the System as a country, but so far hasn't mentioned the word secession. Yared's latest post is along similar lines as his last. Fluffy, if you'll forgive the metaphor. The little bit of us teasing each other went over well, and there were a few comments elsewhere on the 'net that others caught talking about the fact that at least the System still seemed to have fun in it."
+"Not too much more. Demma has been heard to mention the System as a country, but so far hasn't mentioned the word secession. Yared's latest post is along similar lines as his last. Fluffy, if you'll forgive the metaphor. The little bit of us teasing each other went over well, and there were a few comments elsewhere on the 'net that others caught talking about the fact that at least those in the System still seemed to have fun in it."
 
 "Any other comments about secession that you have seen?"
 
@@ -170,7 +170,7 @@ He shook his head. "Same little blips from some of the crazier people. More of t
 
 "Not except between us," she lied again.
 
-Jonas needn't know all of her plans, nor that the propaganda work had already begun. Nor, for that matter, that she was still in contact with Dr. Carter Ramirez, phys-side, who still had reputation of her own, her own knight in the British Isles. After all, if he was going to continue to maintain some of his leverage of the situation, oughtn't she do the same?
+Jonas need not know all of her plans, nor that the propaganda work had already begun. Nor, for that matter, that she was still in contact with Dr. Carter Ramirez, phys-side, who still had reputation of her own, her own knight in the British Isles. After all, if he was going to continue to maintain some of his leverage of the situation, should she not do the same?
 
 "Alright, well." Jonas frisbeed his plate into a trash can by the buffet tables. "I guess we're in a holding pattern on that front until the news breaks elsewhere. Until then, keep kissing babies and shaking hands. Or shaking babies and kissing hands. Or whatever it is that not-a-politicians do."
 

content/read/032.md

@@ -94,7 +94,7 @@ The fox gave a hint of a bow. *"Thank you in indulging me in this, Codrin. I can
 
 "And you --- Michelle, that is --- were still on the council at that point?"
 
-*"That is a complicated question."* It poked at the last bit of shake with its spoon. *"We shall say yes. Elements of the clade were still on the council at that point. This sim is where we celebrated Secession. One of the Odists, Debarre, Zeke, user11824, the Russians, Jonas--"*
+*"That is a complicated question."* It poked at the last bit of shake with its spoon. *"We shall say yes. Elements of the clade were still on the council at that point. This sim is where we celebrated Secession. One of the Odists, Debarre, Ezekiel, user11824, the Russians, Jonas--"*
 
 "Jonas?"
 
@@ -148,7 +148,7 @@ Dear urged em on with a little twirl of its spoon, looking pleased at the respon
 
 Dear laughed, reached a finger into the shake glass to swipe up a little bit of sticky vanilla shake, and dabbed it on Codrin's nose. *"Well reasoned. Praiseworthy was the propagandist among the first lines."*
 
-Codrin rubbed at eir nose to get the melted ice cream off before it congealed further. "What exactly goes into being a propagandist, when the role of the Council was to guide but not to govern?"
+Codrin rubbed eir nose to get the melted ice cream off before it congealed further. "What exactly goes into being a propagandist, when the role of the Council was to guide but not to govern?"
 
 Without falling, the fox's happy expression somehow became a fraction less earnest, just that much less directed.
 

content/read/033.md

@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ May laughed. "I find freedom in that. Not only will I not have to do any of that
 
 Ey frowned.
 
-"Do not think too hard, Ioan. I can tell you now that it was before you uploaded." She sounded as though speaking from a dream. "That was the last time that you could have made the choice to stay behind. It is some of Dear's beloved irreversibility. You cannot un-upload. You cannot upload part of the way. There is no going and there is no back, remember? Now, though, you are here. If you are busy working and a friend is throwing a party, why, just fork! You do not need to worry about whether or not you need stay behind or join them. You can do both."
+"Do not think too hard, Ioan. I can tell you now that it was before you uploaded," she said, as though speaking from a dream. "That was the last time that you could have made the choice to stay behind. It is some of Dear's beloved irreversibility. You cannot un-upload. You cannot upload part of the way. There is no going and there is no back, remember? Now, though, you are here. If you are busy working and a friend is throwing a party, why, just fork! You do not need to worry about whether or not you need stay behind or join them. You can do both."
 
 "But with the launch, you had the decision to stay behind."
 
@@ -142,11 +142,11 @@ She laughed, and the laugh was shaky with tears. "You are a brat. But yes. There
 
 "Alright." Ey drew May in for a hug. "I don't understand you Odists. I never have. You seem to have all these dramatic events spiraling around you."
 
-She laughed as she rested her head against eir shoulder. "We do, yes, and you love it."
+She giggled as she rested her head against eir shoulder. "We do, yes, and you love it."
 
 "It keeps life interesting, no denying. I just worry about you in turn."
 
-"That feels good to hear, dear."
+"That feels nice to hear, my dear."
 
 "Good," ey said.
 

content/read/034.md

@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ The politician waved the statement away and nodded toward the driver, who slid t
 
 "I must apologize for waking you early. Please, enjoy your coffee for a moment. I am happy to enjoy the scenery for a while."
 
-Something about that statement, or perhaps Demma's tone of voice, made it sound more like a command than a suggestion, so Yared did just that, sipping on his coffee as it cooled as his mind raced. *Did I do something wrong? Am I being taken to prison? No, almost certainly not, if Councilor Demma is here. Why am I being made to wait? Am I supposed to feel uncomfortable, or does he actually just want me awake?*
+Something about that statement, or perhaps Demma's tone of voice, made it sound more like a command than a suggestion, so Yared did just that, sipping on his coffee as it cooled, as his mind raced. *Did I do something wrong? Am I being taken to prison? No, almost certainly not, if Councilor Demma is here. Why am I being made to wait? Am I supposed to feel uncomfortable, or does he actually just want me awake?*
 
 After Yared finished his coffee and set his cup aside, Demma smiled.
 
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ Demma sighed and set aside his own coffee. "I have a suspicion that I know who o
 
 "I suppose." Yared bit his lip and considered the possible consequences of sharing the names of his contacts, deciding that if he shared just one, that perhaps that would be enough without compromising the identity of both. "You say 'he'. The man that I'm in discussions with is named Jonas. Is that the one you're thinking of?"
 
-The councilor sighed and slouched back into the cushy microfiber seat. "Yes. I was afraid of that."
+The councilor groaned and slouched back into the cushy microfiber seat. "Yes. I was afraid of that."
 
 "How so?"
 
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ At least the bus was air conditioned, and it gave him time to draft his post in
 >
 > Second, I'm happy to see the amendment to move the System to the L<sub>5</sub> station has been tacked onto the bill. It's mostly a formality, at this point. Those who work with the System phys-side have already signed a deal with the launch coordinators, and the amendment is simply to recognize that this is the case from a governmental point of view. It may make talking to my friends somewhat more difficult, due to the transmission delay, but I'm sure we'll survive. When I joked to them that, in space, no one can hear their ceaseless banter, they agreed that it was probably for the best, and said that they were looking forward to moving to cooler climes.
 >
-> Last, of course, I'm pleased to see the interest that the world's governments are taking in the issue. Sure, that means that our role here on the DDR is diminished, but *it is not gone.* We have as much a say in the legislation as any one of them does. This is where my caution about not slacking off will pay off. We have the S-R Bloc on our side, and the various African coalitions are drifting that way as well. The Western Fed seems to be cautiously on board. But we are still waiting on hearing from the middle eastern countries, Japan, and SEAPAC, which means that we will need to stay vigilant. While I suspect that Japan will side with individual rights, and the middle east will remain largely apathetic, I have no idea which way SEAPAC will swing, so our vote must still be counted among them as a voice in favor of the referendum.
+> Last, of course, I'm pleased to see the interest that the world's governments are taking in the issue. Sure, that means that our role here on the DDR is diminished, but *it is not gone.* We have as much a say in the legislation as any one of them does. This is where my caution about not slacking will pay off. We have the S-R Bloc on our side, and the various African coalitions are drifting that way as well. The Western Fed seems to be cautiously on board. But we are still waiting on hearing from the middle eastern countries, Japan, and SEAPAC, which means that we will need to stay vigilant. While I suspect that Japan will side with individual rights, and the middle east will remain largely apathetic, I have no idea which way SEAPAC will swing, so our vote must still be counted among them as a voice in favor of the referendum.
 >
 > Now, instead of arguing any further points, I'd like to provide you with something lighter. I know that many enjoy the little snippets of conversation that I have with my friends sys-side, so I'm going to share a bit more of that with you. It's fun, yes, but I hope that it will continue to build empathy with them and their existence, even if I am not any good at writing anything beyond polemics on the 'net. As always, I will be protecting their identities, so I will go with John and Tara for their names.
 >

content/read/035.md

@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ True Name nodded warily, holding this new image of herself in her mind.
 
 The skunks tilted their heads in unison.
 
-"Michelle will be getting a pile of memories, if she wants, as I will have you fork a few more times yet. I have been letting her know when she can ignore further merges, as I have done this quite often."
+"Michelle will be getting a pile of memories, if she wants, as I will have you fork a few more times yet. I have been letting her know when she can ignore further merges, as I have done this quite often. I believe they are working on a way to attach a priority to merges, or even a suggestion not to accept the memories."
 
 The first True Name nodded, then disappeared.
 
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ The new fork perked up when her down-tree instance forked and quit, the new inst
 
 The option for a rush of memories was provided to True Name, who, on a whim, accepted it, now remembering what it had looked like from the outside as her face had grown...well, cuter. It had worked well.
 
-The two skunks worked through a short laundry list of changes. True Name grew an inch or so taller, her shoulders became the slightest bit flatter without getting broader, her back straighter.
+The two skunks worked through a short laundry list of changes. True Name grew a few centimeters taller, her shoulders became the slightest bit flatter without getting broader, her back straighter.
 
 One last time, she forked to get a good look at herself to compare with what she remembered from before the process.
 
@@ -98,7 +98,7 @@ They worked next on how to better her affect. Smile more earnestly, laugh more e
 
 Finally, Praiseworthy had True Name practice forking into a Michelle-form for situations where a skunk would be out of place, and then they worked on perfecting that version of her, as well. It was surprising, at first, that she could even make so great a change with one fork, but then, she remembered precisely what it had felt like to be Michelle, just as she remembered what it felt like to be Sasha.
 
-Eventually, when the practice and modifications had wrapped up, nearly two hours later, the two skunks sat at the top of a low raise in the landscape, and True Name discussed the other reason that she had sought out Praiseworthy.
+Nearly two hours later, hen the practice and modifications had wrapped up, the two skunks sat at the top of a low raise in the landscape, and True Name discussed the other reason that she had sought out Praiseworthy.
 
 "I need help in spreading ideas. I know that you have settled back into acting and directing, but I do not have the time or energy to guide emotions and reactions to news while still working on this political angle." She plucked a few blades of grass, rolling them into little balls between fingerpads. "I know that propaganda is not the same thing as theater, but would you be willing--"
 
@@ -120,7 +120,7 @@ She shook her head. "Here and there. I have a meeting scheduled with Life Breeds
 
 "He?"
 
-Praiseworthy shrugged. "I guess. He has been focusing on historical stuff. Documenting this and that, digging into old things. I have no idea where that came from. Loss For Images is writing, these days. May One Day is fiddling with reputation markets --- or at least as much as Debarre will let her --- and last I heard, Hammered Silver has just been either chilling here with Michelle or sim-hopping."
+Praiseworthy shrugged. "I guess. He has been focusing on historical stuff. Documenting this and that, digging into old things. I have no idea where that came from. Loss For Images is writing these days. May One Day is fiddling with reputation markets --- or at least as much as Debarre will let her --- and last I heard, Hammered Silver has just been either relaxing here with Michelle or sim-hopping."
 
 "How is she, anyway?"
 
@@ -140,6 +140,6 @@ Praiseworthy said nothing.
 
 "She is dead, I think. There is no more life in her. There is nothing to be done but let her enjoy that death as long as she would like. I do not expect that she will come back."
 
-The other skunk drew her knees to her chest and folded her arms across them. "I think you may be right in that. Let her do what makes herself happy while her shade remains."
+The other skunk drew her knees to her chest and folded her arms across them. Uncomfortable on the tail, but the pensive mood seemed to demand it. "I think you may be right in that. Let her do what makes herself happy while her shade remains."
 
 "I wonder if she knows it, yet," True Name said, then let silence fall again. The two sat together, watching as afternoon slid carefully into evening.

content/read/036.md

@@ -24,7 +24,11 @@ When ey showed it to Dear, the fox rolled its eyes and handed it back.
 
 *"She just is. That whole stanza is made up of assholes."*
 
-"Should I be careful or anything?"
+"Isn't May Then My Name in that stanza?"
+
+It only grinned.
+
+"Well, should I be careful or anything?"
 
 *"No, no. You will like her, I promise."*
 
@@ -174,7 +178,7 @@ Ey nodded, considering eir next question. "So, how much did the clade work toget
 
 "Are you still in touch with your down-tree instance?"
 
-She nodded eagerly. "Oh yes, we talk quite often."
+She nodded eagerly. "Oh yes, True Name and I talk quite often."
 
 "And she was the one who was organizing the campaign?"
 

content/read/037.md

@@ -212,7 +212,7 @@ It just felt an awful lot like those who had helped the most with Secession used
 
 And so here ey was, hunting down those who had uploaded specifically for the money that it would leave their families and friends back phys-side. Their stories were, ey figured, just as valid as anyone's. They were just as valid as eir own, for had ey not done the same? Here ey was, interviewing those like emself.
 
-These were the people who had moved to the System out of some sense of not just a better life for themselves, but one for those they had left behind. Ioan had had few enough ties back to eir family phys-side after uploading --- only enough to ensure that the payments had gone through and that eir kid brother was alright --- and then none since then. If any of eir family had uploaded since then, none had gotten in touch.
+These were the people who had moved to the System out of some sense of not just a better life for themselves, but one for those they had left behind. Ioan had had few enough ties back to eir family phys-side after uploading --- only enough to ensure that the payments had gone through and that eir kid brother was alright --- and then none since then. If any of eir family had uploaded since then, none had gotten in touch and ey'd been too m uch of a coward to go looking for Rareș.
 
 Eir hope in undertaking this exercise had been to learn a bit more about the time between Secession and Launch, about what had lead to the demographics of a System that had decided to hurl large portions of itself out into space. Was it something perhaps borne of the sentiment of the population that had grown in the intervening years? Was it something that had always been there?
 

content/read/038.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # True Name --- 2124
 
-The next time the Council of Eight met was nearly two weeks after True Name's discussion with Praiseworthy, thanks to a small, artificial delay suggested by the other skunk in order to see how well she could manage buttering up those who needed buttering up, meet with Ir Jonas, and let True Name get used to her new form, her new personality.
+The next time the Council of Eight met was nearly two weeks after True Name's discussion with Praiseworthy, thanks to a small, artificial delay suggested by the other skunk in order to see how well she could manage buttering up those who needed buttering up, meet with Ir Jonas, and let True Name get used to her new form, her new expressiveness.
 
 When Jonas Prime first saw her after that meeting, he had sat up straight from where he had been lounging on his apartment's couch, pointed his finger at her, and all but shouted, "Perfect! I don't know what you did or how, but it's fucking perfect."
 
@@ -42,11 +42,11 @@ It worked well, as the whole council turned on cue and began to walk slowly down
 
 And on and on.
 
-They'd made it about halfway around the pond before the discussion turned to True Name and Jonas.
+They had made it about halfway around the pond before the discussion turned to True Name and Jonas.
 
 "Glad to hear the launch is a go. I'm curious to see if there will be any interruptions in service meanwhile."
 
-Jonas shook his head, "Should be smooth sailing. Worst case, we shut down for a few minutes or hours, and then come back online, in which case we won't even notice a thing in here."
+Jonas shook his head, "Should be smooth sailing. Worst case, we shut down for a few hours or days, and then come back online, in which case we won't even notice a thing in here."
 
 "And the bill sounds like it's going well, too," Debarre said. "I'm actually surprised that it isn't a foregone conclusion, too. From what I've been hearing, there's essentially total agreement on the DDR, and most of the governments seem on-board now, too."
 
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ True Name laughed. "When was the last time you even saw fireworks?"
 
 The skunk smiled inwardly. That the topic of secession had been accepted at face value and slid so easily into joking and chatter was the best she could have hoped for. Even Jonas looked happy.
 
-After to-do items had been handed out and the meeting wound down, Jonas waved to the group and disappeared from the sim. That left True Name five minutes to walk and talk with the others before she would meet up with him, so she spent a few just walking alongside Debarre, talking about the fireworks that she'd watched with their mutual friend during high school, the author of the ode from which she drew her name.
+After to-do items had been handed out and the meeting wound down, Jonas waved to the group and disappeared from the sim. That left True Name five minutes to walk and talk with the others before she would meet up with him, so she spent a few just walking alongside Debarre, talking about the fireworks that she had watched with their mutual friend during high school, the author of the ode from which she drew her name.
 
 Then she waved her goodbyes as well, and stepped from the spy-park sim to a cafe, the very same one that Michelle/Sasha had visited before she had forked that first time.
 
@@ -114,7 +114,7 @@ Jonas nodded. "For the better, I'd say."
 
 "Oh, she was fine. Good ideas. Smart. What she lacked was direction, which you make up in spades."
 
-"I am happy to hear that. Truly." True Name raised her paper coffee cup in a toast to him. "There are some within the clade who have done the opposite, I am told. Praiseworthy has talked to them all, which is very her. Memory Is A Mirror Of Hammered Silver has hardly left Michelle's sim in weeks. She wound up with all of the empathy that I left behind."
+"I am happy to hear that. Truly." True Name raised her paper coffee cup in a toast to him. "There are some within the clade who have done the opposite, I am told. Praiseworthy has talked to them all, which is very her. Memory Is A Mirror Of Hammered Silver has hardly left Michelle's sim in weeks. She wound up with all of the empathy that I set aside. I have my fair share, but only that. I have moved past that surfeit as a point of pride."
 
 Jonas shrugged. "At least someone's keeping Michelle company."
 

content/read/039.md

@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ Her laugh was clear and bright. "No, thank *you*, Mx. Bălan. I've been looking
 
 Ey paused partway through unscrewing the cap of eir pen. "You have?"
 
-"Oh, yes! I've been following your work since the Ode clade project. You somehow manage to distill quite a bit down into a document that is clear and easy to read." She paused, then added, "Documents, I should say. I was lucky enough to get a chance to read the detailed history as well as the investigative journalism piece."
+"Oh, yes! I've been following your work since *On the Perils of Memory*, the Ode clade project. You somehow manage to distill quite a bit down into a document that is clear and easy to read." She paused, then added, "Documents, I should say. I was lucky enough to get a chance to read the detailed history as well as the investigative journalism piece."
 
 "Really? I had no idea that it had made it out of the clade," ey said, posting the cap on the back of the pen. "I'm pleased to hear that you think so highly of me."
 

content/read/040.md

@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ True Name nodded, smiling, and gestured for em to continue.
 
 "Thanks for confirming my suspicions." Ey quelled the desire to add an *I suppose* before continuing, "My next topic is getting a sense of how you feel about the launch. I understand that you helped with much of the early stages of planning, and I'm wondering, do you consider it a success? How do you feel about the speed and ease with which it came together?"
 
-"I very much consider it a success. Many sys-side were on board with it, and those who were not simply did not care. Those phys-side were quite eager to work with us with, only a very small minority who were not.
+"I very much consider it a success. Many sys-side were on board with it, and those who were not simply did not care. Those phys-side were quite eager to work with us with only a very small minority who were not.
 
 "As for your second question, I think that that was largely due to this being the first time in nearly two centuries that our two groups have worked together on one goal in any meaningful way. Scientists sys-side consulted with those phys-side on the design of the launch struts and arms. Many sys-side focused on providing a set of goals to be accomplished by the launch, and many phys-side focused on the design of the System replicas, solar sails, and the Dreamer Module."
 
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ Ey chuckled at the suggestion. "I suppose it is a little silly, but then, much o
 
 "I have heard mixed responses on this from the clade, but do you consider yourself a Hadje still?"
 
-True Name sighed, looking genuinely saddened. "No, not any longer. Sometime between Secession and her death, I had diverged too far from Michelle. The last time I merged back with her, it was quite difficult to rectify those conflicts."
+True Name sighed, looking genuinely saddened. "No, not any longer. Sometime between Secession and her death, I had diverged too far from Michelle. The last time I merged back with her, it was quite difficult to rectify those conflicts, I imagine."
 
 "I understand. I apologize for interjecting, though. Do you have further thoughts on Douglas Hadje working phys-side?"
 
@@ -126,7 +126,7 @@ Codrin nodded as ey wrote, and some part of em realized just how smoothly the co
 
 "What was your role in the decision to undertake the launch project?" ey asked.
 
-She blinked, sat up straighter, and smiled wide. "Oh goodness, did you not know? It was mine from the start. Before she left, Michelle met with the clade and gave each of the stanzas a suggestion. They were quite vague, as she was struggling quite a bit, there at the end. She said, "Do something big. Do something worthy of us." And so I gave it some thought and remembered that it had been so long since the two entities had worked together on a project, and we are already in space, so the idea of Launch came naturally to me."
+She blinked, sat up straighter, and smiled wide. "Oh goodness, did you not know? It was mine from the start. Before she left, Michelle met with the clade and gave each of the stanzas a suggestion. They were quite vague, as she was struggling, there at the end. She said, "Do something big. Do something worthy of us." And so I gave it some thought and remembered that it had been so long since the two entities had worked together on a project, and we are already in space, so the idea of Launch came naturally to me."
 
 Ey stopped writing in the middle of a sentence, startled. "Wait. You originated the idea?"
 

content/read/041.md

@@ -174,7 +174,7 @@ Douglas laughed, considered his options, shrugged, and typed his response.
 > :   That's absolutely horrifying. I'll go ahead and add that to the bucket of fears right alongside nuclear and biological warfare.
 > 
 > Ioan
-> :   Again, they're not at all common, and they by convention have to be tied to a physical object, usually a syringe, so they are visible.  They also need to be tailored to the target, which is why we say 'assassination' rather than murder. It's very premeditated and there's no way to prosecute. Any time that someone has considered designing ones that aren't or which are more widespread, there's an incredible backlash. Happens once every twenty years or so.
+> :   Again, they're not at all common, and they by convention have to be tied to a physical object, usually a syringe or knife, so they are visible.  They also need to be tailored to the target, which is why we say 'assassination' rather than murder. It's very premeditated and there's no way to prosecute. Any time that someone has considered designing ones that aren't or which are more widespread, there's an incredible backlash. Happens once every twenty years or so.
 > 
 > Douglas
 > :   That's not super encouraging, but I'll try not to let it get to me.

content/read/042.md

@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ Given this reaction, that seemed ill-advised.
 
 So he sat for an hour, back pressed against the trunk of the tree, searching for anything he could think of to ground himself.
 
-With a thrill up his spine along the exocortex and a gentle ping from his implants, his phone began to ring. Fears surged within him once again, and a glance at the screen confirmed his fears.
+With a thrill up his spine along the exocortex and a gentle ping from his implants, his phone began to ring. Fears surged within him once again, and a glance at the screen confirmed those fears.
 
 Demma.
 

content/read/043.md

@@ -34,9 +34,9 @@ The skunk smiled. His features were undeniably those of an Odist --- at least th
 
 Ey grinned, nodding. "I suppose I do, at that. Either way, it's nice to meet you."
 
-"Nice to meet you, as well. I would shake your hand, but I am currently quite disgusting." He brushed crushed leaves off his arms and the backs of his hands. "Come, though. I will clean up and make us some tea."
+"Nice to meet you, as well. I would shake your hand, but I am currently quite disgusting." He brushed crushed leaves off his arms and the backs of his paws. "Come, though. I will clean up and make us some tea."
 
-This process took nearly half an hour, during which ey had to remind emself that there was no rush, no reason to hurry. Ey sat on the edge of End Waking's cot while the skunk puttered around the tent, doffing his cloak to leave him in a greenish-brown shirt and canvas leggings that were a brown so dark as to be almost black. He set about filling a small basin with water in which to wash his paws. This used up the last of the water inside, so he had to step out and collect some more from a barrel just outside the door, run it through a cloth filter into a battered kettle, which was set on the stove. The embers had apparently burnt low, so he then had to go collect an armful of firewood from beneath one of the 'eaves' of the tent where it was kept dry and then stoke the fire back up to an intense blaze using some complex set of steps that Ioan could never have understood. Finding the promised tea had required digging through the creaky drawers of the desk to find the fist-sized crock of various dried leaves.
+This process took nearly half an hour, during which ey had to remind emself that there was no rush, no reason to hurry. Ey sat on the edge of End Waking's cot while the skunk puttered around the tent, doffing his cloak to leave him in a greenish-brown tunic and canvas leggings that were a brown so dark as to be almost black. He set about filling a small basin with water in which to wash his paws. This used up the last of the water inside, so he had to step out and collect some more from a barrel just outside the door, run it through a cloth filter into a battered kettle, which was set on the stove. The embers had apparently burnt low, so he then had to go collect an armful of firewood from beneath one of the 'eaves' of the tent where it was kept dry and then stoke the fire back up to an intense blaze using some complex set of steps that Ioan could never have understood. Finding the promised tea had required digging through the creaky drawers of the desk to find the fist-sized crock of various dried leaves.
 
 "Lemon balm, mint, and dried gooseberry. I am sorry that I cannot offer anything more exciting. Tea does not grow here."
 
@@ -78,15 +78,15 @@ End Waking nodded.
 
 "May I ask why?"
 
-"You may, but give me a second to consider my answer."
+"You may, but give me a moment to consider my answer."
 
-A moment was spent sipping tea in silence, only the muffled crackling of the fire in the stove and the breeze testing at the flaps of the tent.
+That moment was spent sipping tea in silence, only the muffled crackling of the fire in the stove and the breeze testing at the flaps of the tent.
 
 Eventually, the skunk spoke up once more. "From what May Then My Name and others have said, the Bălan clade and the elements of the Ode clade working with them have already reached certain bits of knowledge, so I will be up front about this."
 
 Ioan nodded.
 
-"I was forked in order to help influence financial policies phys-side to encourage certain attitudes toward the System."
+"I was forked in order to help influence financial policies phys-side to encourage certain attitudes toward the System, such as the subsidizing of uploading."
 
 Ioan attempted to keep eir face impassive, but ey must have let some of eir reaction show, as End Waking laughed tiredly.
 
@@ -140,7 +140,7 @@ They sat in silence for several long minutes while Ioan digested this and End Wa
 
 End Waking visibly brightened and nodded. There was a small unwinding of the previous ritual, where the fire within the stove was banked, the mugs rinsed clean and replaced in their spot, and his cloak donned once more.
 
-They stepped out into the cool, clean air of the onrushing evening, and the skunk led the writer along a narrow trail worn in the undergrowth, saying, "This is the way that I take to get water when the rain-barrel is empty."
+They stepped out into the cool, clean air of the onrushing evening, and the skunk led the writer along a narrow trail worn in the undergrowth, explaining, "This is the way that I take to get water when the rain-barrel is empty."
 
 He walked silently, thick tail held high enough to stay above the plants that lined the path, and while Ioan tried to be as graceful as ey could, ey was still a far sight clumsier and noisier than End Waking.
 
@@ -181,7 +181,7 @@ Ioan smiled, nodded.
 
 "How so?" ey asked.
 
-End Waking laughed. "Are you impressed with my earnestness? I hope that you are, because I strive to be earnest. Are you impressed with the silence with which I move through the landscape? I hope that you are, it is borne from practice. Were you amused by the absent minded way that I made tea? The way I just puttered around, doing this, then that, as though I kept remembering that I needed first wood, then water, then mugs?"
+End Waking laughed. "Are you impressed with my earnestness? I hope that you are, because I strive to be earnest. Are you impressed with the silence with which I move through the landscape? I hope that you are, it is borne from practice. Were you amused by the absent-minded way that I made tea? The way I just puttered around, doing this, then that, as though I kept remembering that I needed first wood, then water, then mugs?"
 
 Ioan tilted eir head. "I suppose. It was endearing."
 
@@ -199,9 +199,9 @@ End Waking nodded. "That it is. I never get tired of it. I wonder if it is still
 
 "It is that, too." He leaned down and plucked yellow-green berries from a bush, gathering a small pawful to give to Ioan. "Gooseberries for May Then My Name. Did you have any more questions for me?"
 
-Ioan frowned and accepted the handful of berries carefully, slipping them into a pocket of eir vest after unbuttoning it so that ey would not squish them. "Um, one more, though I am conscious of all the warnings I've received about not pushing anyone hard enough that they'll resent me."
+Ioan frowned and accepted the handful of berries carefully, slipping them into a pocket of eir vest after unbuttoning it so that ey would not squish them. "Um, one more, though I am conscious of all the warnings I've received about not pushing any one Odist hard enough that they'll resent me."
 
-The skunk grinned. "I will not resent you, Ioan. I am trying to shake that habit, and I like you. I just may not answer."
+The skunk smiled. "I will not resent you, Ioan. I am trying to shake that habit, and I like you. I just may not answer."
 
 Feeling strangely bashful at the compliment, ey shrugged. "Just that you mentioned your short- and mid-term goals for meddling with finances. What were the long-term goals?"
 

content/read/044.md

@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ user11824 rolled his eyes and allowed himself to be guided in to where there was
 
 The final guest was a tall, black gentleman dressed in a plain white tunic and white linen pants, who Dear greeted with a handshake that bordered on delicate. He seemed anxious nearly to the point of panic, so Codrin and Dear's partner simply bowed to him unobtrusively.
 
-Codrin watched the reactions of the other guests, making note of how they both treated him with some mix of deference and awe that ey could not quite place.
+Codrin watched the reactions of the other guests, making note of how they both treated him with some mix of deference and care that ey could not quite place.
 
 Dear's partner explained as Codrin followed them to the kitchen. "That's Yared Zerezghi. If the Odists are to thank for Secession sys-side, he's to thank for it phys-side. He wrote the amendment that formalized Secession among the other phys-side governments."
 
@@ -136,7 +136,7 @@ Dear's partner laughed. "Why'd you even join, then?"
 
 "Who were they?" Codrin asked.
 
-"There were three of them on the Council. Part of the initial agreement, since the System was originally hosted somewhere in Russia." Debarre counted off on his fingers. "Those three, me, user11824, Zeke, and then Michelle and Jonas."
+"There were three of them on the Council. Part of the initial agreement, since the System was originally hosted somewhere in Russia." Debarre counted off on his fingers. "Those three, me, user11824, Zeke-- uh, Ezekiel, and then Michelle and Jonas."
 
 "Well, I know the Odists are here on the LVs, as well as you two and Ezekiel. Are Jonas and the Russians here?"
 
@@ -192,7 +192,7 @@ user11824 rolled his eyes and finished his wine.
 
 "In Toledot Yeshu, Paul is actually hinted at being a plant from the Jewish authorities, though it is vague as to who, whose goal was to introduce enough changes to the budding religion to cause it to split away so that it wouldn't remain a sect of Judaism."
 
-*"Many viewed Jesus as a rabbi,"* Dear interjected. *"And had that lasted to the point where Judaism headed into a rabbinical tradition, his teachings would have become part of the faith and Judaism would have looked very different."*
+*"Many viewed Jesus as a rabbi,"* Dear interjected. *"And had that lasted to the point where Judaism headed into a rabbinical tradition after the destruction of the Second Temple, his teachings would have become part of the faith and Judaism would have looked very different."*
 
 Codrin frowned. "Are you suggesting that Secession was engineered to keep the System from remaining a part of society, phys-side?"
 

content/read/045.md

@@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
 # True Name --- 2124
 
-True Name was early to her meeting, and that, she figured was okay. On a whim, she had picked, the same pub that she'd met Jonas in some time back, the one that reminded her of The Crown Pub from years ago, with the flat beer and the uncomfortable booths. She figured that Debarre, of all people, would appreciate this.
+True Name was early to her meeting, and that, she figured was okay. On a whim, she had picked, the same pub that she had met Jonas in some time back, the one that reminded her of The Crown Pub from years ago, with the flat beer and the uncomfortable booths. She figured that Debarre, of all people, would appreciate this.
 
 She ordered herself one of those beers that she loved to hate, sat down in a corner booth with a commanding view of the entrance, tail flopped over the edge, and waited.
 
-While she waited, she thought about all of the different reasons that Debarre might have asked to meet. There was always the possibility that the weasel had figured out just how deep she and Jonas had gotten in their work, though she suspected that that wasn't the case. Debarre was smart, yes, but political adroitness was not his strong suit. That had been the root of the worry --- shared by him --- that he had been let onto the council merely by his proximity to Michelle and connection with the lost.
+While she waited, she thought about all of the different reasons that Debarre might have asked to meet. There was always the possibility that the weasel had figured out just how deep she and Jonas had gotten in their work, though she suspected that that was not the case. Debarre was smart, yes, but political adroitness was not his strong suit. That had been the root of the worry --- shared by him --- that he had been let onto the council merely by his proximity to Michelle and connection with the lost, with AwDae.
 
 It could also be that he had further questions about why it was that Michelle had chosen the Ode as a clade scheme, and that perhaps he wanted to discuss why it was that all of the clade seemed so averse to mentioning the author of the poem.
 
@@ -12,11 +12,11 @@ And, as she hoped, he could simply just want to hang out. Spend time together li
 
 With that in mind, she focused on composing herself into a state of friendly alertness, so that when the weasel walked into the pub and spotted her in the corner, she would be primed to guide him toward that last possibility, even if he had come expecting the first two.
 
-She watched him step inside, look around, and immediately laugh. After picking up a cider at the bar, he made his way over to the booth she'd picked and plopped down across from her.
+She watched him step inside, look around, and immediately laugh. After picking up a cider at the bar, he made his way over to the booth she had picked and plopped down across from her.
 
 "Cheeky choice," he said, grinning.
 
-True Name laughed, shrugged. "What can I say? I was feeling nostalgic for terrible beer."
+True Name grinned, shrugged. "What can I say? I was feeling nostalgic for terrible beer."
 
 "Cheers to that." He lifted his glass to hers, clinked the rims, and took a long sip. "So, how've you been, skunk?"
 
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ She hid a sudden surge of emotion behind a sip of her flat beer, nodding. "It wa
 
 Debarre nodded. After the reference to both losses, he seemed on guard, or ready to jump out of the booth at a moment's notice.
 
-"I am sorry that I snapped at you a while back," she said, reaching out to pat at the paw that had been poking absently at the grime on the tabletop. "That is a name that I would like to keep close to my heart and prefer not to say out loud. Also, given that ey was not strictly supposed to defect to the S-R Bloc, it still feels risky. The spooks *definitely* should not hear it."
+"I am sorry that I snapped at you a while back," she said, reaching out to pat at the paw that had been poking absently at the grime on the tabletop. "That is a name that I would like to keep close to my heart and prefer not to say out loud. Also, given the political implications of em to the S-R Bloc, it still feels risky. The spooks *definitely* should not hear it."
 
 "I get that," the weasel said. He had relaxed, but not all the way.
 
@@ -60,17 +60,17 @@ Debarre nodded. After the reference to both losses, he seemed on guard, or ready
 
 She laughed, raising her glass to him. "Well, thank you. I am glad that Sasha was able to take a step back and get the rest that she so richly deserves, just as I am glad that she left me with my own *raison d'etre*. I *like* all of the shit that I have been pulling off. It feels good to accomplish stuff."
 
-"Good! That's good to hear. It's sort of what I'd picked up on, too. I'm not sure that I was doubting you before, necessarily, but having watched you these past few weeks, I don't know." He grinned and finally returned the patting gesture in turn. "I get it, now. You're not Sasha, that's for sure, but you're not *not* her, and I see all of the best things I liked about her in you and the few others in the Ode clade that I've met."
+"Good! That's good to hear. It's sorta what I'd picked up on, too. I'm not sure that I was doubting you before, necessarily, but having watched you these past few weeks, I dunno." He grinned and finally returned the patting gesture in turn. "I get it, now. You're not Sasha, that's for sure, but you're not *not* her, and I see all of the best things I liked about her in you and the few others in the Ode clade that I've met."
 
 They beamed at each other, all bristled whiskers and perked-up ears.
 
-The conversation wound around for a while longer, with talk of plans and memories, likes and dislikes, gossip and news. True Name allowed herself to earnestly enjoy the afternoon, now that any concerns that she might have had about the meeting had been assuaged.
+The conversation wound around for a while longer, with talk of plans and memories, likes and dislikes, gossip and news. True Name allowed herself to earnestly enjoy the afternoon, now that any concerns that she might have had about the meeting had been assuaged. It gave her space to loosen the reigns she had placed on empathy around Jonas, to bask in simpatico with true friends.
 
 Eventually, they made their goodbyes and she left the sim, allowing herself to sober up in the process in order to make the next meeting on her agenda.
 
-For some reason that she couldn't fathom, Life Breeds Life But Death Must Now Be Chosen had chosen to incarnate himself as a scholarly gentlemen, somewhere between respectable and nerdy. It was a good look, she thought, but what train of thoughts had led him to head down that route from Michelle evaded her.
+For some reason that she could not fathom, Life Breeds Life But Death Must Now Be Chosen had chosen to incarnate himself as a scholarly gentlemen, somewhere between respectable and nerdy. It was a good look, she thought, but what train of thoughts had led him to head down that route from Michelle evaded her.
 
-After a pleasant greeting in the lobby of the library, they wound their way up the spiral staircases to the law section, three levels up. There was no particular reason that they needed to head there, other than the fact that it was liable to be fairly empty --- few had to read up on phys-side laws, here --- and would still be a comfortable place for them to walk and talk.
+After a pleasant greeting in the lobby of the library, they wound their way up the spiral staircases to the law section, three levels up. There was no particular reason that they needed to head there, other than the fact that it was liable to be fairly empty --- few had reason to read up on phys-side laws, here --- and would still be a comfortable place for them to walk and talk.
 
 "So," Life Breeds Life said, once pleasantries were out of the way and the cone of silence had been set up. "Why did you want to meet today?"
 
@@ -118,7 +118,7 @@ True Name stopped in the aisle, letting Life Breeds Life step ahead and turn to
 
 "It is a way to build a mythos and identity, yes. It allows us to use the words 'freedom' and 'secession' and so on in a collective sense, as though these were the decisions of all, rather than a few. It will instill a sense of patriotism, if one could call it such a thing, for being sys-side, which will in turn reduce the connections that many feel to phys-side." He smiled, tugging a book from the shelf at random and flipping through the pages. "This will not happen for this generation. Nor, likely, the next. The goal for future generations, though is to ensure that they feel that the System is a place to live rather than a place where they wound up, or a place that they uploaded to simply because it was convenient or necessary, or even a place that they uploaded to simply for the way life works here, whether it be immortality or the sheer hedonistic joy of it."
 
-The skunk watched the pages flip beneath Life Breeds Life's fingers and thought. To downplay the council would be to minimize the work of years, of almost a decade. The other members might rankle, but she was pleasantly surprised at how comfortable an idea it was. It would gain her and Jonas much needed room to maneuver.
+The skunk watched the pages flip beneath Life Breeds Life's fingers and thought. To downplay the council would be to minimize the work of years, of almost a decade. It might rankle for the other members, but she was pleasantly surprised at how comfortable an idea it was. It would gain her and Jonas much needed room to maneuver.
 
 Eventually she nodded, saying, "That makes sense, yes. If the concept of the Council disappears into foggy memories and untrustworthy histories, then any attempts to lead again will seem out of place, too. It will give Jonas and I more latitude to continue working long term."
 

content/read/046.md

@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ Jonas leaned back against the couch, toying with a loose thread at one end of it
 
 Codrin nodded and made a note to that effect.
 
-"You have to understand though, Codrin, none of this was like some sort of shadowy conspiracy, like you may be thinking. We did what politicians do: we represented our constituents and duked it out --- metaphorically, of course --- with other politicians."
+"You have to understand though, Codrin, none of this was like some sort of shadowy conspiracy like you may be thinking. We did what politicians do: we represented our constituents and duked it out --- metaphorically, of course --- with other politicians."
 
 "Are we your constituents?" ey asked. The words were out of eir mouth before ey had time to consider it.
 
@@ -162,4 +162,4 @@ So ey sat at eir desk and wrote a footnote for eir transcript that ey'd send bac
 >
 > I said "one of them", and Jonas said "did he now". I asked Dear, and it said that there were relatively few male Odists in the clade (*"one fewer, now"*).
 >
-> Did you tell anyone that you were interviewing End Waking other than May Then My Name? I don't mean to cast doubt on either of you. I think you feel just as bound up in this as I do, but I need some clarification as to how Jonas knew that you had interviewed one of those relative few. I need that clarity. I think we're beyond wants, now.
+> Did you tell anyone that you were interviewing End Waking other than May Then My Name? I don't mean to cast doubt on either of you. I think you feel just as bound up in this as I do, but I need some clarification as to how Jonas knew that you had interviewed one of those relative few. I *need* that clarity. I think we're beyond wants, now.

content/read/047.md

@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@ She walked from sim to sim, finding intricate ways to build up a sign, a sigil f
 
 Perhaps there was more to the sims that she walked, but she did not notice. As soon as she felt herself drawn to any one particular place, any one particular feature of any one particular sim, as soon as she began to feel anchored, she left. All of the things that people --- her people --- built passed beneath her feet, passed before her eyes.
 
+Some part of her was overflowing in some indefinable way, and so she walked.
+
 And all the time, her thoughts soared above her, watching her path, the steps she took. They watched all of her left turns. They viewed the sigil that her walking drew and imbued in it new meaning.
 
 A thought: *What dire emotional need caused one to build an office building in a place of no corporations?*
@@ -22,11 +24,11 @@ A thought: *Why do we drag our memories around with us like luggage?*
 
 So, she walked, and as she walked, she strove to draw her thoughts in the other direction. She strove to draw them forward, away from the past, so that she could consider the future.
 
-What would this place look like, after seceding from the rest of the world? What would a land --- if such could be said of the System --- of those who had already seceded from the rest of humanity look like? How many would notice and rejoice? How many would notice and hate every second of it? How many would notice and not care, and how many would not even know that it had happened? That it had even been on the table?
+What would this place look like after seceding from the rest of the world? What would a land --- if such could be said of the System --- of those who had already seceded from the rest of humanity look like? How many would notice and rejoice? How many would notice and hate every second of it? How many would notice and not care, and how many would not even know that it had happened? That it had even been on the table?
 
 Would they build differently? Perhaps they would stop bringing along with them the structures of their pasts. Perhaps there would be fewer office buildings and more cabins in the woods. More idyllic houses. More mountain landscapes and main streets of cute towns with hole-in-the-wall restaurants that no one knew about and yet which served the best curry, the best hot dog, the best cupcakes that one could possibly imagine.
 
-Would they live differently, love differently? Perhaps they would still pair up as always they had. Maybe, when they picked up feelings for someone, they would fork to have a separate relationship with them as well. Maybe collectives of families would live together as they always had, finding comfort as much in each other as in their chosen relatives. Maybe a taboo would grow around having a relationship with oneself, of forked instances living together and loving each other. Would that be narcissism forever, or only before individuation? Would it be incest?
+Would they live differently, love differently? Perhaps they would still pair up as always they had. Maybe, when they picked up feelings for someone, they would fork to have a separate relationship with them as well. Maybe collectives of families would live together as they always had, finding comfort as much in each other as in their chosen relatives. Maybe a taboo would grow around having a relationship with oneself, of forked instances living together and loving each other. Would that be narcissism forever, or only before individuation? Would it be incest? Masturbation? She did not know, she did not know.
 
 Would they choose life? Choose death? Would they pray?
 
@@ -50,7 +52,7 @@ A memory: *"Two thirds of our power structure still thinks child restrictions ar
 
 Who had said that? One of the three, doubtless. They were so interchangeable.
 
-She stepped into her apartment from wherever her thoughts had taken her, and she forked off a new instance, relying on that subtle trick that Jonas had taught her, letting her reputation stay pinned to where it was.
+She stepped into her apartment from wherever her thoughts had taken her, and she forked off a new instance, relying on that subtle trick that Jonas had taught her, letting her reputation stay close to where it had been.
 
 "I suppose that makes me Do I Know God After The End Waking."
 
@@ -74,9 +76,9 @@ End Waking nodded. "Probably best to begin as early as possible, yes, at least i
 
 "Alright, that sounds good. I will leave you to it, for the most part. I do not expect that there will be any news for another few years."
 
-The other skunk laughed. "Of course."
+The other skunk bowed. "Of course."
 
-"And, End Waking, a favor." When he nodded, she continued, "There are inquisitive minds. Always are. We already have Life Breeds Life helping on that front, but while you were talking through the timeline, I realized that it would be best if this conversation, these plans, didn't start, as far as anyone but you and me are concerned, until perhaps the 2150s."
+"And, End Waking, a favor." When he nodded, she continued, "There are inquisitive minds. Always are. We already have Life Breeds Life helping on that front, but while you were talking through the timeline, I realized that it would be best if this conversation, these plans, did not start, as far as anyone but you and me are concerned, until perhaps the 2150s."
 
 He tilted his head. "How come?"
 

content/read/048.md

@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
 > May Then My Name
 > :   Oh, whatever. Just let me know when you get this!
 
-It took a moment for Douglas to compose himself when he returned to his terminal after yet another evening of sitting in the Pollux control tower, now largely remade into an observation bubble, despite the increased gravity. It was quiet, it was dark, it was calm, and there was nothing to see except the same Earth-rise-moon-rise cycle every thirty seconds or so.
+It took a moment for Douglas to compose himself when he returned to his terminal after yet another evening of sitting in the Pollux control tower, now largely remade into an observation bubble despite the increased gravity. It was quiet, it was dark, it was calm, and there was nothing to see except the same Earth-rise-moon-rise cycle every thirty seconds or so.
 
 So, when he returned back to his room to a series of messages that felt loud, bright, raucous, it took a moment for his mind to adjust.
 
@@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ So, when he returned back to his room to a series of messages that felt loud, br
 > :   Yes, you certainly could.
 > 
 > May Then My Name
-> :   You mentioned that there had been sabotage attempts. We were surprised when we heard that initially, but it had been in the middle of some other conversations that we did not want to derail, so we have been holding onto it until a time when there was not much else going on. Can you tell us about those?
+> :   You mentioned that there had been sabotage attempts. We were surprised when we heard that initially, but it had been in the middle of some other conversations that we did not want to derail, so we have been holding onto it until a time when there was not much else going on. Can you tell me about those?
 > 
 > Douglas
 > :   Oh, sure.
@@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ So, when he returned back to his room to a series of messages that felt loud, br
 > :   Depends on where you are and what you did. I think for something like attempted murder, he was just put in sim for a while, unable to back out.
 > 
 > May Then My Name
-> :   Really? What a nightmare.
+> :   Douglas, that is a nightmare.
 > 
 > Douglas
 > :   It's not like he's just put in a sim of a jail cell to rot or anything. As far as I know, it's just a tightly regimented day, most of it in a solitary sim, the rest in a shared sim with other prisoners.
@@ -164,7 +164,7 @@ So, when he returned back to his room to a series of messages that felt loud, br
 > :   Did they give you a reason for keeping it from us?
 > 
 > Douglas
-> :   They said it had political undertones because of the articles of secession. "No other governmental entity shall declare war on or attempt to destroy the System."
+> :   They said it had political ramifications because of the articles of secession. "No other governmental entity shall declare war on or attempt to destroy the System."
 > 
 > May Then My Name
 > :   They worried it might be considered it an act of war?
@@ -313,9 +313,9 @@ So, when he returned back to his room to a series of messages that felt loud, br
 > May Then My Name
 > :   Bye!
 
-Douglas leaned back from his terminal and stretched his arms up toward the ceiling, leaning back in his chair.
+Douglas pushed back from his terminal and stretched his arms up toward the ceiling, leaning back in his chair.
 
-Every time he talked with Ioan and May, he was once again faced with the realization that he had hardly needed Ioan to convince him at all. The two were the first people he could call friends that he'd had since school. He liked them immensely. Beyond that, though, something about May Then My Name seemed as though she was simply built to be liked, as though, whenever he talked with her, he had no choice but to like her.
+Every time he talked with Ioan and May, he was once again faced with the realization that he had hardly needed Ioan to convince him at all. The two were the first people he could call friends that he'd had since school. He liked them immensely. Beyond that, though, something about May Then My Name seemed as though she was simply built to be liked, as though whenever he talked with her, he had no choice *but* to like her.
 
 It wasn't quite charisma, as, whenever he tried the word on for May Then My Name, it carried far too many implications of manipulation, and the last thing he could picture her doing was being manipulative.
 

content/read/049.md

@@ -8,21 +8,21 @@ He had been the tool, and his belief had been his utility. He was the knight mov
 
 They'd been right, both Demma and the sys-side pair, because support for secession had swung his way with surprising rapidity, and there had suddenly been other strident voices that had once been on the other side of the equation agreeing with him, arguing alongside him for the right of the System to become a political entity of its own.
 
-There had been a logical procession to their thought process within their posts. It wasn't some sudden coin-flip, but over the course of the week, debates on the DDR-adjacent channels, where it didn't cost credits to post, suddenly swelled, and he'd seen the light dawning in their eyes, such as they were, as they realized that the System's political landscape fundamentally differed from that phys-side, that it couldn't but differ, given the root functionality of the populous, of the reality that sims were the only way to live. It was a true anarchy. There was no ruling class because of what utility would there be for a ruling class when one could just split off and create one's own sim or set of sims, such that any attempt to rule from some central sim could simply be ignored as though it had never happened.
+There had been a logical procession to their thought process within their posts. It wasn't some sudden coin-flip, but over the course of the week, debates on the DDR-adjacent channels, where it didn't cost credits to post, suddenly swelled, and he'd seen the light dawning in their eyes, such as they were, as they realized that the System's political landscape fundamentally differed from that phys-side --- that it couldn't but differ --- given the root functionality of the populace, of the reality that sims were the only way to live. It was a true anarchy. There was no ruling class because of what utility would there be for a ruling class when one could just split off and create one's own sim or set of sims, such that any attempt to rule from some central sim could simply be ignored as though it had never happened?
 
-True Name and Jonas, now openly named, had been integral in helping convince him originally, and their words had played an enormous role through him to convince others. "There are sims in which a strict monarchy rules," True Name had said. "There are places governed by a theocracy. The Catholic church remains, albeit in reduced form without a bishopric, relying solely on adherents phys-side uploading all papal pronouncements, a near exact copy of the Vatican, where the phys-side popes and cardinals are represented by scrolling fields of text. Yet what influence could they hold on any other sim? What possible sway could they hold over anyone who did not subscribe anyway?"
+True Name and Jonas, now openly named, had been integral in helping convince him originally, and their words had played an enormous role through him to convince others. "There are sims in which a strict monarchy rules," True Name had said. "There are places governed by a theocracy. The Catholic church remains, albeit in reduced form without a bishopric, relying solely on adherents phys-side uploading all papal pronouncements, a near exact copy of the Vatican, where the phys-side pope and cardinals are represented by scrolling fields of text. Yet what influence could they hold on any other sim? What possible sway could they hold over anyone who did not subscribe anyway?"
 
 And so he dutifully passed these on under the tutelage of Jonas and True Name and Demma, and they, too, influenced the voices on the DDR.
 
 But for the voices to swing so quickly bespoke influence beyond just him. It showed that he was not the only pawn, that many of these other strident voices that quickly changed their voices were under the control of the big players phys-side, and perhaps sys-side as well; after all, why wouldn't True Name and Jonas be talking to other DDR junkies like himself?
 
-He was too afraid of them, now, to ask.
+He was too afraid of them now to ask.
 
 All he could do was sit by and watch, and pray that the secession amendment wasn't altered to include some equally slimy additions that would limit the total freedom granted by the secession.
 
 Even there, he was lucky. The clauses about declaring war had been strengthened, the clauses about asylum seekers hardened with wording surrounding the impossibility of extradition and the acknowledgement that any such seeker would no longer have a tangible effect phys-side. In fact, the only provision that had felt sour was one to cut off communication with the System from suspected terrorist cells, but it had done little to dampen the feeling of success from the overall amendment, the overall referendum.
 
-The only issue, in fact, was a personal one. All of these changes of the amendment had been made under his name. Others had convinced him to add them. Even when the sour change had been suggested, Demma had strongly suggested that it be included.
+The only issue, in fact, was a personal one. All of these changes of the amendment had been made under his name. Others had convinced him to add them. Even when the sour change had been proposed, Demma had strongly suggested that it be included.
 
 The end result was that his name was inextricably linked with the amendment. He was the sole author, meaning that those who hated it --- indeed, those who hated the entire referendum --- began to hate him, too. They hated Yared Zerezghi specifically.
 
@@ -32,11 +32,11 @@ His name had become a curse in their circles. He wasn't just the man who had int
 
 When he mentioned how much he felt like a scapegoat to Demma and the pair sys-side, both had reassured him that that fervor would soon die down, and both had assured him that, as their names were also inextricably linked with the bill, they were feeling some of the same heat.
 
-He wasn't sure that he believed them, though. Politics phys-side at the governmental level did not have the same level of personal hatred. At best, Councilor Demma might have some sort of parasocial relationship with his supporters and detractors, but at that point, he was still just a figurehead, an abstract concept of a person, and that concept was a stand-in for a power so far beyond the quotidian masses that it hardly mattered. At best, True Name and Jonas were as intricately linked to the very same anarchy that ruled the rest of the System. Their role --- indeed the role of the entire Council of Eight --- was one of guiding the System in the form of its core functionality, interfacing with phys-side on behalf of those sys-side, rather than interfacing solely with those sys-side.
+He wasn't sure that he believed them, though. Politics phys-side at the governmental level did not have the same tang of personal hatred. At best, Councilor Demma might have some sort of parasocial relationship with his supporters and detractors, but at that point, he was still just a figurehead, an abstract concept of a person, and that concept was a stand-in for a power so far beyond the quotidian masses that it hardly mattered. At best, True Name and Jonas were as intricately linked to the very same anarchy that ruled the rest of the System. Their role --- indeed the role of the entire Council of Eight --- was one of guiding the System in the form of its core functionality, interfacing with phys-side on behalf of those sys-side, rather than interfacing solely with those sys-side.
 
-And so Yared kept taking his walks, kept eating spicy food and getting drunk on tej, to shed what he could of that slippery, slimy feeling that still clung to him whenever he thought too hard about his position in all of this.
+And so Yared kept taking his walks, kept eating spicy food and getting drunk on tej, anything to shed what he could of that slippery, slimy feeling that still clung to him whenever he thought too hard about his position in all of this.
 
-He had become a hero and a villain for this, though, and there was no shaking that off.
+He had become a hero and a villain both for this, though, and there was no shaking that off.
 
 > The Only Time I Know My True Name Is When I Dream
 > :   What can we do to soothe your worries, Yared, except tell you that your vision is becoming reality?
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ He had become a hero and a villain for this, though, and there was no shaking th
 > :   And you can help us keep fighting the good fight by whispering in everyone's ears.
 > 
 > Yared
-> :   That's *precisely* why I want out, Jonas, and you know it. If feeling like some sneaky little political figure is what's making me feel bad, why on earth would I keep doing that?
+> :   That's *precisely* why I want out, Jonas, and you know it. If feeling like some sneaky little political figure is what's making me feel bad, why on Earth would I keep doing that?
 > 
 > True Name
 > :   Jonas is an asshole, do not listen to him.
@@ -201,7 +201,7 @@ He had become a hero and a villain for this, though, and there was no shaking th
 > :   I am a special case due to some psychological/neurological damage from getting lost. Those up here who are furries and look it are those who so strongly identified with their furry selves on the 'net that they began to think of their human selves as as the avatars and their furry selves as the real versions.
 > 
 > True Name
-> :   The reason I got around it is that Michelle's neurological issues meant that she oscillated between her human self and furry self, and I just happened to be forked during a wave of her furry self. That also meant that I (and each of her forks) lack the effects of that damage.
+> :   The reason I got around it is that Michelle's neurological issues meant that she oscillated between her human self and furry self. That also meant that I (and each of her forks) lack the effects of that damage.
 > 
 > True Name
 > :   Or most of it, at least. You have mentioned the speech patterns before.
@@ -209,9 +209,6 @@ He had become a hero and a villain for this, though, and there was no shaking th
 > Yared
 > :   Yikes, that sounds kind of horrifying.
 > 
-> True Name
-> :   It was. I still remember it. I remember how terrible I felt due to the constant oscillation that only settled down when I focused completely or utterly relaxed. Were I able to choose at will, I do not think that this would have been a problem, and you would likely have been talking to me as Michelle Hadje, not as True Name.
-> 
 > Yared
 > :   Well, I'm happy for you, even if that makes me sad for Michelle.
 > 

content/read/050.md

@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ Ey needed to do what ey was best at. Thinking, ruminating, disentangling the kno
 
 These knots were angry ones.
 
-Or, perhaps not angry. They were frustrating ones. They were knots that ey knew the technical reasons for existing, but was starting to nonetheless resent. They were knots that bound and limited the process with which ey learned, as frustrating as the recondite letters that Qoheleth had sent so often, so long ago. Little hints and clues and never exactly the complete answer all at once. Never an explanation that allowed for further questions. Always too little, as though ey (and, at the time, Dear) was being strung along, lured into some unknown trap.
+Or, perhaps not angry. They were frustrating ones. They were knots that ey knew the technical reasons for existing, but was starting to nonetheless resent. They were knots that bound and limited the process with which ey learned. They were as frustrating as the recondite letters that Qoheleth had sent so often, so long ago. Little hints and clues and never exactly the complete answer all at once. Never an explanation that allowed for further questions. Always too little, as though ey (and, at the time, Dear) was being strung along, lured into some unknown trap.
 
 The same thing was happening now. Ey understood the technical reasons for no one, single Odist answering all of the questions ey had, ey and eir clade. There were too many emotions, too much secrecy, or too much shame bound up in the answers for them to sit down and tell a story from start to finish. None of them would admit to any more than one single thing throughout each interview, instead relying on the agreed upon admonition to stop when requested or warning that, after a certain point, the Odist would lie to or resent the Bălan.
 
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ Ioan lifted eir pen from the page and looked up at Jonas. "What life demands?"
 
 Ioan shook eir head.
 
-Jonas's smile returned. "Because we didn't want it to. That's not the right pressure on life that we want. It offers too much risk to existing life, whether biological or uploaded. So, we pulled our strings, as you know we do, and ensured that interest in such projects dropped in favor of others. Better expert systems. Better integrations tech. Better entertainment."
+Jonas's smile returned. "Because we didn't want it. That's not the right pressure on life that we want. It offers too much risk to existing life, whether biological or uploaded. So, we pulled our strings, as you know we do, and ensured that interest in such projects dropped in favor of others. Better expert systems. Better integrations tech. Better entertainment."
 
 "Wait, how is AI a threat to the System?"
 
@@ -96,11 +96,11 @@ Ey frowned as ey noted that on eir rapidly filling page. "Is there no way for an
 
 "Speaking of, one your clade told one of mine that there are complex thoughts on stability and stasis. I just want to confirm that I'm understanding correctly. Launch fits into your concept of stasis by ensuring continuity."
 
-"Sure, but also, a little bit of excitement is required to ensure that our lives stay boring. Even if our lives become interesting, or Castor's lives become interesting, or Pollux's, then there is a better than good chance that at least one of the others' will remain boring, just how we want it. No Jonas, was it? He probably called it 'gardening', which I like. We're tending topiary, here, and there are many of us over on each of the launches, doing the same."
+"Sure, but also, a little bit of excitement is required to ensure that our lives stay boring. Even if our lives become too interesting, or Castor's lives become interesting, or Pollux's, then there is a better than good chance that at least one of the others' will remain boring, just how we want it. No Jonas, was it? He probably called it 'gardening', which I like. We're tending topiary, here, and there are many of us over on each of the launches, doing the same."
 
 Ioan nodded and paused to drink down a third of eir cocktail. Ey was thirsty, of course, but some part of em seemed to be craving the numbing aspects of alcohol. Ey continued, "Alright, I think I have two more questions. The first is that End Waking said that there were goals to influence the economies phys-side and explained that there were short term, medium term, and long term goals. He was kind enough to fill me in on the first two, but not the third. Can you tell me what the long term goals of meddling with the economy phys-side were? He said something about critical mass."
 
-"Oh, that's an easy one," Jonas said. "It's basically the same as what I said about life. If life is to have the right level of constraining pressures on it, one of the easiest ways to do so is through the economy. The long-term goal of his 'meddling', as you put it, was to ensure the continuity of capitalism. It gives something for people to dream about, which are alternatives. It gives something for people to work against. Since they know that we rely on reputation up here, they have plenty dream about. The critical mass is the amount of money and participants required to turn this into a self-sustaining system."
+"Oh, that's an easy one," Jonas said. "It's basically the same as what I said about life. If life is to have the right level of constraining pressures on it, one of the easiest ways to do so is through the economy. The long-term goal of his 'meddling', as you put it, was to ensure the continuity of capitalism. It gives something for people to dream about: alternatives. It gives something for people to work against. Since they know that we moved past scarcity up here, they have plenty dream about. The critical mass is the amount of money and participants required to turn this into a self-sustaining system."
 
 "Simple enough, I guess, even if a little frightening in its implications."
 
@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@ Ey frowned. "What it sounds like your goals are is to keep life on Earth from ge
 
 "And how is that frightening?" Jonas laughed. "The grass *is* greener. We give them something to reach for. What more could anyone want out of life than a goal?"
 
-Ioan kept from speaking up about what ey'd heard from those ey had interviewed who had uploaded for the money. Instead, ey asked. "Alright, last question for now. Two-parter. One of my clade interviewed someone who mentioned that there was some dissension with your clade about whether to go ahead with Launch. Is that true?"
+Ioan kept from speaking up about what ey'd heard from those ey had interviewed who had uploaded for the money, about those they'd left behind, that whiff of eugenics. Instead, ey asked. "Alright, last question for now. Two-parter. One of my clade interviewed someone who mentioned that there was some dissension with your clade about whether to go ahead with Launch. Is that true?"
 
 Jonas shook his head, swallowing the last sip of his drink before saying, "There might have appeared to be, but I guarantee you that that was manufactured. Having some highly visible folks argue about whether or not it was a good idea gets everyone interested."
 
@@ -150,7 +150,7 @@ Ioan blinked and sat up straighter. "I don't remember hearing anything about tha
 
 "Ioan, you are very smart, but I need you to keep up if you're going to come away with interesting answers. Think through the list of instructions that I mentioned."
 
-Ey tilted eir head, then frowned. "There's an Ansible on there, you said, right? They could theoretically upload that same manufactured construct to this System, right?"
+Ey tilted eir head, then frowned. "There's an Ansible on there, you said, right? They could theoretically upload that same manufactured construct to this System, right? Or all three?"
 
 Jonas nodded. "There we go. There's nothing to stop them from doing so, after all. It's easy enough for them to figure out that these are probes, and that probes must be coming from somewhere. There's no reason, then, for them not to find that somewhere and blast out constructs in our direction. We're taking steps now to match those new Hadjes to dump them in a similar locked-down sim. We'll ask our questions, then terminate them."
 

content/read/051.md

@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ The kitchen that Codrin had been led into was of a style that felt old even to e
 
 "Oh..." Ne sounded crestfallen. "I have skim milk, is that okay?"
 
-"Sure, I'll take it." Codrin laughed, watching the older man putter around the kitchen. Meanwhile, ey pulled out eir pen and paper to take notes. "You know, you're not at all what I expected, I have to say. I was all geared up to be talking to some hot-shot politician in front of some sleek desk or whatever, not sharing tea around a table."
+"Sure, I'll take it." Codrin laughed, watching him putter around the kitchen. Meanwhile, ey pulled out eir pen and paper to take notes. "You know, you're not at all what I expected, I have to say. I was all geared up to be talking to some hot-shot politician in front of some sleek desk or whatever, not sharing tea around a kitchen table."
 
 Ne turned a dial on the stove to start the kettle, frowned, and then pulled a lighter out of a drawer in order to light the gas when the igniter did not. "Not all Jonases are alike, Codrin." He grinned over his shoulder. "Most of them are, of course. You would've gotten the politician treatment from just about any other Jonas, but some of us got tired of that snazzy life and opted for something a little simpler."
 
@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@ Codrin forced emself to take a sip of the tea. It was thin, with the skim milk i
 
 "Uh...some. The first is: why are you letting us even continue with the history project if you're aiming to keep stability within the system? Won't all of this coming to light impact that at all?"
 
-Ne brightened. "Oh, that's a good one! The answer is twofold. Part one relates to something the No Jonas said to the other Codrin: stability is a thing that needs to be gardened and maintained, that there is no true stasis, but stability approaches that point like the man in Zeno's Paradox. This is a form of that gardening. When you have a rose garden or topiary, you know, you must cut away bits of it, but when you do, the whole becomes all the healthier and can last for years and years in the state you like it best. It may seem like a traumatic event to trim back roses. After all, you are cutting away good growth, aren't you? But that's how you get beautiful roses, year after year.
+Ne brightened. "Oh, that's a good one! The answer is twofold. Part one relates to something that No Jonas said to the other Codrin: stability is a thing that needs to be gardened and maintained, that there is no true stasis, but stability approaches that point like the man in Zeno's Paradox. This is a form of that gardening. When you have a rose garden or topiary, you know, you must cut away bits of it, but when you do, the whole becomes all the healthier and can last for years and years in the state you like it best. It may seem like a traumatic event to trim back roses. After all, you are cutting away good growth, aren't you? But that's how you get beautiful roses, year after year.
 
 "That's what we're doing with this project. We're introducing a slightly traumatic event to make the stability of the system --- that's lower-case s, there, I'm talking of the sociopolitical system of those on the three capital-S Systems --- stronger. Does that make sense?"
 

content/read/052.md

@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ Codrin hesitated, pen nib resting on paper, a dark blue spot of ink spreading sl
 
 "What we did, the way we thought and the actions we took, were perhaps borne out of some core anger at the shortcomings of the political system that led to the loss of our friends, of the individual behind the Name and of Debarre's partner and of so many others affected by the mere whims of an imperfect attempt to control the world. It did not matter why the Western Fed government decided to destroy those lives; what bill they voted or commented on does not matter. Was it a declaration of hostilities? A trade embargo? Who cares?
 
-"What matters is that their actions spoke of an utter disregard for the very humanity of those affected. This was echoed in the referendum to which Secession was merely an amendment, that they had to even consider the fact that we sys-side deserved the individual rights granted those phys-side, the same rights that they held in such flagrant disregard."
+"What matters is that their actions spoke of an utter disregard for the very humanity of those affected. This was echoed in the referendum to which Secession was merely an amendment, that they had to even consider the fact that those sys-side deserved the individual rights granted those phys-side, the same rights that they held in such flagrant disregard."
 
 She nodded toward em. "You have this humanity. I have this humanity. Jonas has this humanity. You may not like us. You may think us manipulative and angry, or perhaps emotionless and cruel. You may think us villainous. It does not matter. What we have done, we have done to protect your humanity. What we have done, we have done to protect the humanity of all here on the System. What we have done, we have done to protect the humanity of even those phys-side, but you must understand, Codrin, that the humanity which requires the strictures of government is one less perfect than ours, and so we guide them to their logical conclusions."
 
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ True Name laughed. It was a musical laugh, replete with tones of real amusement
 
 Ey frowned. "Enlighten me."
 
-"As you wish." She grinned, leaning back on her stool. "You are correct that I do not wish to bring humanity under my wing. What purpose would that serve? You have either learned or intuited, as all do, that the System is truly ungovernable, so how could I or the Jonas clade hope to govern it? No, we do not want to rule. You may be correct that we are psychopaths --- or at least that I am, I do not think that you need worry about your Dear or Ioan's May Then My Name. Humanity has simply evolved toward an inevitable two-stage life cycle. That of the fleshy pupae that do not know what it means to be a butterfly, and those butterflies that recognize the freedom of the air."
+"As you wish." She grinned, leaning back on her stool. "You are correct that I do not wish to, as you say, bring humanity under my wing. What purpose would that serve? You have either learned or intuited, as all do, that the System is truly ungovernable, so how could I or the Jonas clade hope to govern it? No, we do not want to rule. You may be correct that we are psychopaths --- or at least that I am, I do not think that you need worry about your Dear or Ioan's May Then My Name. Humanity has simply evolved toward an inevitable two-stage life cycle. That of the fleshy pupae that do not know what it means to be a butterfly, and those butterflies that recognize the freedom of the air."
 
 Codrin recapped eir pen, tucked it into eir pocket, and closed eir notebook. "That's one of those statements that makes sense on the surface until you think about it hard enough."
 
@@ -54,13 +54,13 @@ The skunk nodded.
 
 "No. We are not reading your notes, we are simply keeping tabs on the project."
 
-"Much of what ey learned," ey said, starting to feel the heat of anger rising through fear, growing within em. "Indicated that many of those who upload, even if it's only those who upload for the incentive, hold more than just a cynical view of the System. They recognize that it is a tool that their governments hold over them and perhaps recognize that those governments are tools of the System in turn, even if only on some subconscious level. If they're your pupae, they know the terrors of being a butterfly caught in a net."
+"Much of what ey learned," ey said, starting to feel the heat of anger rising through fear, growing within em. "Indicated that many of those who upload, even if it's only those who upload for the incentive, hold more than just a cynical view of the System. They recognize that it is a tool that their governments hold over them and perhaps imagine that those governments are tools of the System in turn, even if only on some subconscious level. If they're your pupae, they know the terrors of being a butterfly caught in a net."
 
-"And Jonas Prime told Ioan about the cost-benefit analyses inherent in all that we do," True Name countered. "Some small fraction may be aware of and unhappy with the actions that we have taken, but in the grand scheme of things, we are simply setting up and maintaining the progression for all, removing them from lives that require such manipulations to somewhere where those manipulations are not just unneeded, but are not possible. The same applies to your project, as I'm sure you have heard. It passes the same measure as insignificant in the grand scheme of things."
+"And Jonas Prime told Ioan about the cost-benefit analyses inherent in all that we do," True Name countered. "Some small fraction may be aware of and unhappy with the actions that we have taken, but in the grand scheme of things, we are simply setting up and maintaining the progression for all, removing them from lives that require such manipulations to somewhere where those manipulations are not just unneeded, but are not even possible. The same applies to your project, as I'm sure you have heard. It passes the same measure as insignificant in the grand scheme of things."
 
 The skunk's words, however calm they might have seemed, battered and buffeted em. They smashed up against eir emotions and base instincts, scuffing away carefully-maintained control until the fear and anger shone through bright and hot. Codrin pushed emself quickly to eir feet and leaned eir hands against the desktop. "How fucking cynical do you have to be to wind up in this mindset? I've met so many of your clade, and none of them have their heads so far up their asses as you do. I can't believe--"
 
-Throughout eir rant True Name's smile grew icy, and before ey could finish, she waved eir hand, bouncing em from her sim.
+Throughout eir rant True Name's smile grew icy, and before ey could finish, she waved her paw, bouncing em from her sim.
 
 Ey found emself standing at the entrance to the prairie, there on that short path that wound its way up to the house, to eir home. A few seconds later, a slip of paper fluttered to the ground in front of em. Reaching down to pick it up, ey unfolded it and read in the Odists' neat handwriting, "Come back when you are less angry, Codrin. You have your confirmation, and when you have digested it, we will discuss what will happen next. Respectfully, The Only Time I Know My True Name Is When I Dream of the Ode clade."
 

content/read/053.md

@@ -1,19 +1,11 @@
 # Part IV --- Arrival
 
-> Let us first consider a few of the subtler correspondences between the Secession and the Launch:
+> Here we must step back and address a potential conflict of interest.
 >
-> * Both have ramifications that stretch backwards and forwards through time for decades surrounding them.
+> At time of writing, the Bălan clade is made up of two personalities in the form of three individuals: Ioan Bălan, the root instance, remains on the L<sub>5</sub> System, and Codrin Bălan travels on the Launch Vehicles (hereafter "LVs"). Two persons, three instances.
-> * Both were intended, beyond the surface and altruistic reasons, to ensure the continuity and stability of the System.
-> * Both the Ode and Jonas clades were instrumental to engineering them.
-> * Both involved political manipulation both phys-side and sys-side.
-> * Both involved historical manipulation to ensure that accounts align.
 >
->And now we may consider the facts that fall out of the sum of the correspondences:
+> Both of these persons, all of three of these instances, are entangled with the Ode clade. Ioan Bălan has worked extensively with and is in a relationship with May Then My Name Die With Me of the Ode clade, and Codrin Bălan has worked with and is in a polyamorous relationship which includes Dear, Also The Tree That Was Felled of the Ode clade. The fact that the Ode clade was instrumental in both Secession and Launch is undeniable, and the fact that the Bălan clade is entangled with the Odists is equally so.
 >
-> * The history of the System, stretching all the way back to before its foundation, is one of technology, yes, but beyond that, is one of politics.
+> For reasons that will be made clear as this history unfolds, we are not able to recuse ourselves. You must bear with us, and you will see why we, the Bălan clade, *must* be the ones to write this history.
-> * Despite the assumption that such is not possible in the System and the promises that such is not the case, there are governing factions that guide the progression of the System through times via its interactions with phys-side politics.
-> * Per that fact, those controlling factions sys-side controlled --- and continue to control --- politics phys-side to a degree heretofore unimaginable.
-> * The System as a society, however loose knit, is directional: it advances not just in its use of technology, but in the way that all societies, that all civilizations strive to do so, which is toward greater security.
-> * The unknowable size of the System and the unimaginable population within in all its variety and beauty retain the human characteristics of emotion and intellect, and are thus subject to the very same propaganda that has steered societies and civilizations for thousands of years.
 
 From *An Expanded History of Our World* by the Bălan clade

content/read/054.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # Yared Zerezghi --- 2125
 
-If the new year were to be a thing for Yared to celebrate, that was lost on him. He had long since lost track of how old he was, and the passage of time had begun to smear into a haze of referenda, of voting and posting and debating. He knew the years by the seasons and the fact that all of his posts on the DDR had a date attached to them, but beyond that, the significance of December thirty-first ticking over into January first held little sway over him.
+If the new year were to be a thing for Yared to celebrate, that was lost on him. He had lost track of how old he was over the last year, and the passage of time had begun to smear into a haze of referenda, of voting and posting and debating. He knew the years by the seasons and the fact that all of his posts on the DDR had a date attached to them, but beyond that, the significance of December thirty-first ticking over into January first held little sway over him.
 
 If the passage of referendum 10b30188 was to be something to celebrate, that was also lost on him. The process of promoting and supporting the bill had long since taken over his life, and he had little enough energy left to acknowledge that it had even passed by a supermajority of votes.
 
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ He should be celebrating them because the rattle, pop, and boom of fireworks out
 
 He knew that he should be celebrating, most of all, because True Name and Jonas had each sent him dozens of messages telling him how the news had been received sys-side, describing the cheers of the Council of Eight, gushing about the unanimously positive moods of those who had been tracking the progression of the bill.
 
-And yet here he was, once more walking from his apartment to the patch of scrub grass and trees at the end of his block, wishing he'd left his phone at home.
+And yet here he was, once more walking from his apartment to the patch of scrub grass and trees at the edge of his neighborhood, wishing he'd left his phone at home.
 
 The trees, at least, had nothing to say. They cared not about the new year except perhaps for the risk provided by the fireworks. They most certainly cared not for the secession of the System. All they cared about was their patch of dirt and the sun above and whether or not they got enough water. Yared wound his way around each of them in turn, sometimes sitting at the base of one or running a hand along the rough, papery bark of another, doing his best to absorb some of that apathy himself.
 
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ The car was once more ready and waiting for him at the edge of his mini-forest,
 
 "This should fit over your current clothes, Mr Zerezghi. Might as well put it on out here where you can move a bit more easily."
 
-It had been a long time since Yared had worn a thawb, and it took a moment to navigate so much fabric, but soon, he had it up over his head and spilling down over his body, the soft linen tumbling down nearly to his ankles. It really was quite nice, too. The linen was pre-worn and soft, and the gold brocade ran in two thick stripes from shoulder to hem down his front. It felt somewhat bunched up with his shirt beneath it, but wasn't uncomfortable.
+It had been a long time since Yared had worn a thawb, and it took a moment to navigate so much fabric, but soon, he had it up over his head and spilling down over his body, the linen tumbling down nearly to his ankles. It really was quite nice, too. The linen was pre-worn and soft, and the gold brocade ran in two thick stripes from shoulder to hem down his front. It felt somewhat bunched up with his shirt beneath it, but wasn't uncomfortable.
 
 The driver nodded appreciatively, saying, "It looks good on you. Your shirt underneath may ride up, but feel free to slip off to a restroom when we arrive and you'll be able to take it off and check it at the coatroom."
 
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ In the back of the car, Demma greeted him with a warm smile of his own, while a
 
 Overwhelmed, he simply bowed as best he could from his cushy seat in the back of the car.
 
-From there, he said little, having little enough chance to say so. Demma and Tamrat continued their conversation from before, which seemed, on the surface, to be about the party they'd just come from --- who was with whom, who wore what, what drinks had been most common --- yet seemed to carry serious undertones of deep study, as though all of this information taken as a whole showed some gestalt of the political momenta this way and that. The driver, of course, remained silent, so all Yared could do was sit, smile, and nod when addressed.
+From there, he said little, having little enough chance to speak. Demma and Tamrat continued their conversation from before, which seemed, on the surface, to be about the party they'd just come from --- who was with whom, who wore what, what drinks had been most common --- yet seemed to carry serious undertones of deep study, as though all of this information taken as a whole showed some gestalt of the political momenta this way and that. The driver, of course, remained silent, so all Yared could do was sit, smile, and nod when addressed.
 
 The short ride down familiar streets took them back to Government House, but this time, rather than simply sitting outside of the building, the car was waved through a gate and directed down a ramp to a parking garage underneath. From there, they were subjected to a security scan --- pat-down and implant scan both --- and whisked up a flight of stairs, through long halls, and eventually deposited in a chamber crowded with more nicely dressed persons drinking champagne from thin flutes.
 

content/read/055.md

@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ So ey waited, ey read, and ey calmed down, and then ey scheduled eir interview.
 
 The response came five minutes later, a simple ping of acknowledgement followed by a calm suggestion that immediately would be as good a time as any.
 
-This time, when Codrin stepped into True Name's apartment, ey was greeted by the skunk standing where she had the last two interviews, and this time, her expression was one of calm curiosity, rather than that initial warmth and its following coldness."
+When Codrin stepped into True Name's apartment, ey was greeted by the skunk standing where she had the last two interviews, and this time, her expression was one of calm curiosity, rather than that initial warmth and its following coldness."
 
 "Mx. Bălan, it is nice to see you again."
 
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ If the phrase 'liberal elements' or its implication that True Name must be one o
 
 "I suppose. When did the nudges come?"
 
-True name sighed and rested on her forearms on the desk. "To answer that question requires answering a different question. We began by canvasing various art institutes, actually. I do not know why we simply did not track Dear or May Then My Name or any of the Pointing At Itself stanza, as that would probably have shortened our search a good deal. All the same, we came across an exhibition at the Simien Fang School of Art and Design on history and its context in the world of the System by one Ioan Bălan. Do you remember that?"
+True name sighed and rested on her forearms on the desk. "To answer that question requires answering a different question. We began by canvasing various art institutes, actually. I do not know why we simply did not track Dear or May Then My Name or any of the A Finger Pointing stanza, as that would probably have shortened our search a good deal. All the same, we came across an exhibition at the Simien Fang School of Art and Design on history and its context in the world of the System by one Ioan Bălan. Do you remember that?"
 
 Codrin lifted eir pen and blinked up to the ceiling, dredging up the memories of eir own gallery exhibition, so many years ago.
 
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ Codrin spent a minute tamping down eir temper. Ey had, after all, promised to re
 
 "To confirm, you influenced Michelle Hadje to ensure the clade worked with the launch project, influenced politics phys-side to ensure that support would be there, and made sure Douglas was part of the team?"
 
-"We made sure that the team was the team it needed to be, Codrin. Douglas was a bonus. He was impressionable at a young age, so we steered him toward being an Ansible tech, ensured he made it to the station, and were happy to see how good a fit he was for the role of launch director." True Name smiled. "I have talked with him a few times, though he did not know who I was when I did so. He is very nice, and very happy in his position. He is proud of how far he has gotten, and I am proud of him. Do not confuse influence with numbing mind control. It is important that the people we work with do things of their own, happy volition, even if they were originally our ideas."
+"We made sure that the team was the team it needed to be, Codrin. Douglas was a bonus. He was impressionable at a young age, so we steered him toward being an Ansible tech, ensured he made it to the station, and were happy to see how good a fit he was for the role of launch director." True Name smiled. "I have talked with him a few times, though he did not know who I was when I did so. He is very nice, and very happy in his position. He is proud of how far he has gotten, and I am proud of him. We guided him precisely as any family member might. Do not confuse influence with numbing mind control. It is important that the people we work with do things of their own, happy volition, even if they were originally our ideas."
 
 Codrin nodded. "Well, if he's happy, then I suppose that's a good thing."
 
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ True Name beamed. "Of course."
 
 Ey sighed, nodded, and wrote down her answer. "And how have you felt now that you've pulled all this off?"
 
-True Name looked genuinely thoughtful. "I hesitate to say 'proud', but I am pleased that it went off as smoothly as it did. There were a few bumps on the road, but nothing difficult to overcome. We --- the Odists you have called conservative --- continue to work as we will. Jonas, bless his black heart, continues to work as he will. We stay in contact and keep divergence to a minimum until we are out of harm's way, and then we ensure that we will keep our own projects safe. Castor, Pollux, and the L<sub>5</sub> System. It is all going as close to plan as we could have expected."
+True Name looked genuinely thoughtful. "I hesitate to say 'proud', but I am pleased that it went off as smoothly as it did. There were a few bumps on the road, but nothing difficult to overcome. We --- the Odists you have called conservative --- continue to work as we will. Jonas, bless his black heart, continues to work as he will. We stay in contact and keep divergence to a minimum until we are out of harm's way, and then we ensure that we will keep our own projects safe. Castor, Pollux, and Lagrange. It is all going as close to plan as we could have expected."
 
 "So you're...happy?"
 

content/read/056.md

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ The Council of Eight met before the news of the secession amendment passing was
 
 To that end, they met at Debarre's house, a low, rambling house plugged squarely into the side of a hill, walk-out basement looking out over a wooded lawn. The neighborhood had several such houses, widely spaced, where a few of Debarre's friends that he'd met both on and off the System had set up a comfortable living, enough space to be alone, enough friends to make it worthwhile.
 
-The plus-side of the house, in particular, was that the patio for the walk-out basement was beneath an overhanging deck, protecting the occupants from the slow but steady snowfall.
+The plus-side of the house was that the patio for the walk-out basement was beneath an overhanging deck, protecting the occupants from the slow but steady snowfall.
 
 "I don't understand why you had to make it cold," user11824 grumbled.
 
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ The bundle of rags nodded appreciatively, extending a pseudopod of an arm to lad
 
 "Running late, I guess. I am not his keeper."
 
-"I know, I just figured since--" He was interrupted by a muffled doorbell as someone entered the sim, followed by Jonas (Ar Jonas, True Name guessed) ambled around the side of the house to join them.
+"I know, I just figured since--" He was interrupted by a muffled doorbell as someone entered the sim, followed by Jonas (Ar Jonas, True Name guessed) ambling around the side of the house to join them.
 
 "*Et voilà,*" she said, grinning.
 
@@ -130,4 +130,4 @@ True Name nodded. "Yes. And once the Council is out of the way, we should be goo
 
 Jonas nodded. "Works for me. Shall we start divvying up tasks, then?"
 
-The skunk nodded. "There is much to be done."
+She nodded. "There is much to be done."

content/read/057.md

@@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
 # Ioan Bălan --- 2326
 
-"We're nearing the point of this project where we're considering pulling together all of our notes. We have quite a bit already, certainly enough for an overview, and if we decide to do a second volume as a deeper dive, we can consider that later." Ioan smiled to the skunk across the table from em, one ey had so many reasons to fear. "So this interview is mostly meant to wrap everything up, fill in a few gaps here and there. Does that sound alright?"
+"We're nearing the point of this project where we're considering pulling together all of our notes. We have quite a bit already, certainly enough for an overview, and if we decide to do a second volume as a deeper dive, we can look into that later." Ioan smiled to the skunk across the table from em, one ey felt ey had so many reasons to fear. "So this interview is mostly meant to wrap everything up, fill in a few gaps here and there. Does that sound alright?"
 
 "Of course," True Name said, smiling. "I have read over the summary that you sent me, and it looks fairly complete, but I will answer any question you ask."
 
-Ioan collected eir thoughts for a moment, testing eir pen's nib against the paper. "Right. Okay. The first thing I'd like to ask is that, well, you've given us a good bit of information about your why, how, and when for many of the things that you did around Secession and Launch. I think we've got an idea of what, too, but it seems almost too big to grasp at a glance, so I'd like to know who all was involved.
+Ioan collected eir thoughts for a moment, testing eir pen's nib against the paper. "Right. Okay. The first thing I'd like to ask is that you've given us a good bit of information about your why, how, and when for many of the things that you did around Secession and Launch. I think we've got an idea of what, too, but it seems almost too big to grasp at a glance, so I'd like to know who all was involved.
 
 "I am assuming you mean in more detail than just us and the Jonas clade, yes?" She tilted her head when Ioan nodded, apparently considering the best way to answer. "I, like Jonas Prime did for his clade, acted as the point of contact for the Ode clade in this endeavor. However, Jonas's methods tended toward that of a hydra: he coordinated with all of his instances working on various aspects only as much as was required to keep them from stepping on each other's toes.
 
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ Ioan shrugged, waited for her to continue.
 
 "And the liberals think too small?" Ey shook eir head, adding, "I guess that's a value judgement. The liberals think smaller? Like on the individual scale?"
 
-"Oh, you had it right the first time. The liberals think too small. They are completely welcome to, of course. Take Dear and Serene, for instance. It is in no way wrong for them to think about the work that they do. They consider the ways in which sims and instances affect those that interact with them, and then they play on those effects like a finely tuned instrument. It speaks to a level of...how should I put this? It bespeaks a showmanship that I --- that Michelle and the owner of the Name, for that matter --- could not hope to achieve. They are the consummate performers.
+"Oh, you had it right the first time. The liberals think too small. They are completely welcome to, of course. Take Dear and Serene, for instance. It is in no way wrong for them to think about the work that they do. They consider the ways in which sims and instances affect those that interact with them, and then they play on those effects like a finely tuned instrument. It speaks to a level of...how should I put this? It bespeaks a showmanship that I --- that Michelle, for that matter --- could not hope to achieve. They are the consummate performers.
 
 "But what can they do with that? What use do they believe they are to the System? I do not mean that in a simple utilitarian sense, or at least not only in that sense, but I wonder if they, as artists, consider the end goals of their work. Do not let Dear tell you otherwise, it is an artist, and a very fine one, but all its art accomplishes is all any art accomplishes. It is transgressive without being subversive. It does not move the population to greater goals."
 
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ Ioan's hand brushed across eir page in an even cadence as she spoke, and when ey
 
 "This," ey said, waving eir hand at True Name, at the page. "To hear tell from the other Odists, this work began essentially as soon as you were forked off from Michelle. Each of you seemed to individuate immediately, whereas it took Codrin far longer to do so. Years, even. Even after the name change, after ey moved in with Dear and its partner, ey still could have just as easily been a Ioan. From the way it sounds, you ceased being Michelle as soon as you were instantiated. Where did that come from?"
 
-The skunk looked thoughtful for a moment, then closed her eyes. The look of concentration on her face grew, and then, for a few short seconds, she became like Michelle. Ey saw, for the first time in years, that wavering between Michelle and Sasha, those waves of skunk/human/skunk/human/skunk that washed over her form, and always on her face, that look of exhaustion, of the concentration needed to hold it together.
+The skunk looked thoughtful for a moment, then closed her eyes. The look of concentration on her face grew, and then, for a few short seconds, she became like Michelle. Ey saw for the first time in years that wavering between Michelle and Sasha, those waves of skunk/human/skunk/human/skunk that washed over her form, and always on her face, that look of exhaustion, of the concentration needed to hold it together.
 
 And as True Name focused on recalling that bit of Michelle that lingered from the past, she forked off copy after copy of herself, each instance lasting only a fraction of a second, but throughout the display, Ioan saw the ways in which they differed. First, a Michelle would flick into existence, and then a Sasha. First, a skunk that looked happy, then a human that looked to be in agony. Always in flux, always tied to whatever it was that True Name must have been experiencing at that point.
 

content/read/058.md

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ In the endless, rolling field of dandelions, five people gathered.
 
 Two of them were shaped like a woman. Short. Dark, curly hair. Round of cheek and soft of eye.
 
-Two of them were shaped like skunks. Thick, soft fur. Tails as long as their bodies, as wide as their torsos.
+Two of them were shaped like skunks. Thick, soft fur. Tails as long as their bodies, bristled as wide as their torsos as they kept them hiked out of the grass.
 
 The two types were alike in so many ways. The softness evident between the two disparate species was the same softness. The roundness to the cheeks, despite the fur, was the same roundness. The eyes bore the same expressive empathy.
 
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ May Then My Name smiled shakily. "Taking over the world is not so bad."
 
 "It definitely fucking is, May," In Dreams said. "But I stand by what I said. You did what you did and that is an immutable fact. You cannot un-fork, Michelle. You cannot become what you were then, Sasha, you can only become what you will be."
 
-"I do not think that you fucked up, dear." Hammered silver plucked a dandelion and spun it between her fingers. "You may *be* fucked up, if you somehow contained what it takes to be both May Then My Name *and* True Name within you, but even that is not your fault."
+"I do not think that you fucked up, dear." Hammered silver plucked a dandelion and spun it between her fingers. "You may *be* fucked up, if you somehow contained what it takes to be all the clade as one within you, but even that is not your fault."
 
 "The fuck-up, then would be the fact that I did not acknowledge that."
 
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ They sat in silence for a while, then, this five-pack of her, and, regardless of
 
 To Pray frowned. "What do you mean?"
 
-"I think I just gave everything I had to them. To you, I guess. "Two weeks," I remember thinking. "The first lines can take my place for two weeks, and then I will be back on the council, and they can do their own thing." But I think that I died. There was no returning to the council, because there was no more Sasha or Michelle."
+"I think I just gave everything I had to them. To you. "Two weeks," I remember thinking. "The first lines can take my place for two weeks, and then I will be back on the council, and they can do their own thing." But I think that I died. There was no returning to the council, because there was no more Sasha or Michelle."
 
 "And what is the fallout of being a dead woman walking?"
 

content/read/059.md

@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ May flinched back as though slapped. "Ioan, I do not--"
 
 She stayed silent, and after a minute, ey sighed.
 
-"We talked about this early on, about how you said that I'd get upset, and that you were worried that I'd get upset at you."
+"We talked about this early on, about how you thought that I'd get upset, and that you were worried that I'd get upset at you."
 
 She nodded, silent still.
 
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ Ey nodded. "For that, sure, but also for the sake of me, or us."
 
 "I Am At A Loss For Images In This End Of Days focused on observing. Initially, this was borne out of watching and critiquing performances, but quickly grew to spying. Some of her stanza doubtless watches us still.
 
-"Oh, But To Whom Do I Speak These Words kept an eye on religions. Her stanza focused on both phys- and sys-side religions as areas of interest. We have not had much to talk about through the years.
+"Oh, But To Whom Do I Speak These Words kept an eye on religions. Her stanza focused on both phys- and sys-side religions as areas of interest. She has returned to the Judaism of our grandparents. We have not had much to talk about through the years.
 
 "Among Those Who Create Are Those Who Forge started out by watching creatives here on the System, perhaps unsurprisingly, but grew bored and wandered off to do their own thing.
 
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ Ey nodded. "For that, sure, but also for the sake of me, or us."
 
 "Why are you telling me this, May?" ey asked.
 
-"Because I need you to understand that the first lines each wound up with a bit of Michelle, and from there, their forks were all riffs on that theme. You have doubtless figured that out by now. I told you early on that True Name forked me off to feel. She wanted to ensure that she also had a way to sway individuals, sys-side, as others focused on large groups.
+"Because I need you to understand that the first lines each wound up with a bit of Michelle, yes, but from there, their forks were all riffs on that theme. You have doubtless figured that out by now. I told you early on that True Name forked me off to feel. She wanted to ensure that she also had a way to sway individuals, sys-side, as others focused on large groups.
 
 "So she forked to create me, and then we discussed how best to accomplish that, and through the various mutation algos, I softened my appearance to be cuter and rounder, softened my voice, learned how to smile more earnestly, and did all the things I could think of to make myself as appealing as possible, whether as human or skunk."
 

content/read/060.md

@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ Systime: 202+22 1208
 > :   I suppose we're pretty thoroughly intertwined now, aren't we?
 > 
 > Dear
-> :   [laughter] Yes, now that Ioan has picked up on May's rather blunt hints.
+> :   [laughter] Yes, now that Ioan has picked up on May Then My Name's rather blunt hints.
 > 
 > Codrin
 > :   Hey, it takes time.
@@ -150,7 +150,7 @@ Systime: 202+22 1208
 > :   It is a hard fear to shake, but once I put it in those terms, I was able to step past that emotional reasoning. I do not think that I am loved by none. Both of my partners love me. May Then My Name and Ioan love me. Serene loves me. My friends love me. That does not stop the fear of being beloved by all yet loved by none from rearing its ugly head, but I am more easily able to acknowledge it and let it pass, now.
 > 
 > Codrin
-> :   Thank you. That helps put it into context for me, too. When you started talking about that last time, that's when I started struggling with the interview, too.
+> :   Thank you. That helps put it into context for me, too. When you started talking about that last time, that's when I started struggling with the interview.
 > 
 > Dear
 > :   Why? I mean, I know that this is your interview, but for my sake, I would like to know why.
@@ -189,7 +189,7 @@ Systime: 202+22 1208
 > :   And if you say "I want to die", I'll pull your tail and call you names.
 > 
 > Dear
-> :   [laughter] Yes, yes, fine. My thoughts, okay. [pause] Okay. To be more calm about it, I want to experience death. I do not want to just quit, because that is suicide, and my wish to experience death is not bound up in that particular set of emotions. I would prefer not to be assassinated or anything so grand. It is an acceptable end, I suppose, because it would mean that I will have lived a life worth being assassinated for, and from what I have seen --- what I saw with Qoheleth --- it looks like a process. Yes! Yes, that is it. Thank you for asking this, my dear. It gave me the chance to find the words.
+> :   [laughter] Yes, yes, fine. My thoughts, okay. [pause] Okay. To be more calm about it, I want to experience death. I do not want to just quit, because that is suicide in this sense, and my wish to experience death is not bound up in that particular set of emotions. I would prefer not to be assassinated or anything so grand. It is an acceptable end, I suppose, because it would mean that I will have lived a life worth being assassinated for, and from what I have seen --- what I saw with Qoheleth --- it looks like a process. Yes! Yes, that is it. Thank you for asking this, my dear. It gave me the chance to find the words.
 > 
 > Dear
 > :   I do not want to experience ceasing existing. That is just cessation, and I do not care whether or not there is anything beyond that cessation. That is for the prophets and poets to worry about. What I want to experience is the process of death. Assassination would be acceptable, even if it is not preferable, because I would get to experience that process. Better, however, is the fact that these LVs are doomed from the start. Eventually, they will fail. The generator on board is guaranteed for some thousands of years or whatever, but it will fail eventually. Or the System will crash into a comet, or some ice ball out in the Oort cloud --- I read about that, you know? It is all incredibly boring --- or it will wind up flying too close to a star and burn up. That, I think, is the end that I am most excited for. We are [shaking head] all of those on the LVs are encased in Castor and Pollux, yes? How fitting, then, that we might die like Icarus! I imagine that we will not necessarily feel too much within our little System, but there may be some discontinuity, or perhaps corruption. How exciting would that be?
@@ -228,7 +228,7 @@ Systime: 202+22 1208
 > :   Yes. You mentioned the relief in the context of no longer holding that secret. I'm curious how you feel about the reality of it.
 > 
 > Dear
-> :   [long pause] I feel shame, I suppose. I wish that they had not done that. It goes beyond guilt for the actions, because I did not perform them. It makes me feel ashamed that I am a member of the clade. I do not wish them harm, of course, nor do I feel that they necessarily were acting in bad faith. I feel that they were doing what they felt was best. It was just the means to those positive ends that are distasteful and make me ashamed. I also feel fear at what will come of this history and mythology. I know that True Name and Jonas said that they have prepared both sys- and phys-side for their reception, but, well, if there is any reason for me to be assassinated, it is that. As a public figure and an Odist, I am a visible representative of the clade, and should someone take umbrage with that, they have the motive right there.
+> :   [long pause] I feel shame, I suppose. I wish that they had not done that. It goes beyond guilt for the actions, because I did not perform them. It makes me feel ashamed that I am a member of the clade. I do not wish them harm, of course, nor do I feel that they necessarily were acting in bad faith. I feel that they were doing what they felt was best. Perhaps they were acting out of fear, one that I share, left over from the horrors we experienced prior to uploading. Fears of death, of discontinuity. It was just the means to those positive ends that are distasteful and make me ashamed. I also feel fear at what will come of this history and mythology. I know that True Name and Jonas said that they have prepared both sys- and phys-side for their reception, but, well, if there is any reason for me to be assassinated, it is that. As a public figure and an Odist, I am a visible representative of the clade, and should someone take umbrage with that, they have the motive right there.
 > 
 > Codrin
 > :   Do you feel any pride about the ends, even if the means were unsavory?

content/read/061.md

@@ -1,12 +1,12 @@
 # Douglas Hadje --- 2326
 
-The arrangements required for this surprise for May Then My Name quickly began to feel overly complicated to Douglas, but, as Ioan kept reminding him, she was a very complicated person. She was also very perceptive, so there was apparently much secrecy required to make this plan work.
+The arrangements required for this surprise for May Then My Name quickly began to feel overly complicated to Douglas, but, as Ioan kept reminding him, she was a very complicated person. She was also very perceptive, so there was apparently much secrecy required to pull it off
 
 The lead-up to uploading, however, was easy. He supposed that much of it was that so much excitement combined with so much anxiety eventually left him feeling more numb than anything, some protective emotional reaction that kept him from simply exploding on one of his many, many walks.
 
-But anticlimax is simply the way of the world, and so the night before the one-year anniversary of the Launch arrived, he simply signed a waiver, walked to the clinic, answered a few questions, and then underwent the procedure. It was dizzying, disorienting, and, were he pressed to pick one, the worst physical experience of his life, but at that point, he was well past any point where he could turn back, and even then, he knew he wouldn't.
+But anticlimax is ever the way of the world, and so the night before the one-year anniversary of the Launch arrived, he simply signed a waiver, walked to the clinic, answered a few questions, and then underwent the procedure. It was dizzying, disorienting, and, were he pressed to pick one, the worst physical experience of his life, but at that point, he was well past any point where he could turn back, and even then, he knew he wouldn't.
 
-There was simply a brief discontinuity, and then he was standing in a grey cube of a room, naked, vertiginous, blinking at a light that seemed to come from nowhere.
+There was a brief --- or perhaps impossibly long --- discontinuity, and then he was standing in a grey cube of a room, naked, dizzy, blinking at a light that seemed to come from nowhere.
 
 Anticlimax indeed.
 
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ He crouched down, covering himself with his hands, and turned slowly. There was
 
 Douglas swallowed a few times, working up enough saliva to un-parch his throat. "Ioan? Is that you?"
 
-Ey laughed, nodded. "Well spotted. Now, do you want to get dressed?"
+Ey laughed, nodded. "Well spotted, though it is pronounced *yo-ahn*. Now, do you want to get dressed?"
 
 "Please," he said, looking around for clothes. There was only the gray floor, gray walls, gray ceiling.
 
@@ -92,19 +92,23 @@ Ioan sat down next to him. "Are you worried about that? Would you like to go els
 
 "And do they smell like muffins?"
 
-Wrong-footed, he stared at the historian for a moment, then plucked a dandelion and slowly lifted the yellow flower to his nose, struggling against the urge to keep that knowledge a dream rather than a reality.
+Wrong-footed, he stared at the historian for a moment, then plucked another dandelion and slowly lifted the yellow flower to his nose, struggling against the urge to keep that knowledge a dream rather than a reality.
 
 Then he breathed in the sweet, vegetal scent, and began to cry in earnest.
 
-Ioan sat with him in kind quiet. As ey had so long ago, ey didn't say anything, didn't try to comfort him, didn't touch him, just sat and remained present. It was as though he were there simply to witness those emotions and give testimony to them, and that, more than anything, made him feel welcome here. Welcome with Ioan, welcome in the field, welcome in the System.
+Ioan sat with him in kind quiet. As ey had so long ago, ey didn't say anything, didn't try to comfort him, didn't touch him, just sat and remained present. It was as though ey was there simply to witness those emotions and give testimony to them, and that, more than anything, made him feel welcome here. Welcome with Ioan, welcome in the field, welcome in the System.
 
 After the wave crested and then passed, he said, "Alright, so, what's the plan?"
 
-"You just stay the night here. You can think up a mattress or anything else you need to be comfortable. We'll be by tomorrow mid-morning for a picnic. I'm happy to stay, too, if you'd like, or give you space."
+"You just stay the night here. You can think up a mattress or anything else you need to be comfortable. You've been granted ownership of the sim by the...ah, temporary owners as next of kin."
+
+Tears stung his eyes once more at the implications, but he nodded all the same.
+
+"We'll be by tomorrow mid-morning for a picnic. I'm happy to stay, too, if you'd like, or give you space."
 
 "Won't May Then My Name miss-- oh, right. You're a fork, aren't you?"
 
-Ey smiled, nodded. "Of course. Ioan#Tracker is back at home getting pestered by May."
+Ey smiled, nodded. "Of course. Ioan#Tracker is back at home getting pestered by her."
 
 "Did you two wind up hooking up, then?" he asked, grinning.
 
@@ -148,7 +152,7 @@ She straightened up and frowned, head tilted, then turned to Ioan, who looked to
 
 Then the skunk began running, and as she did, dozens of other versions of her flickered into and out of existence around her, a confusing rush of skunks that obscured which was the original, all grinning madly. She leapt at him and, before he could react, nearly tackled him to the ground, her arms tight around his middle. "If you are not Mister Douglas Hadje, master of spaceflight and doctor of something incredibly boring, I will be quite embarrassed. Please tell me you are."
 
-"I am, I am," he said, laughing and returning the hug. She was short enough that the top of her head barely came up to his chin. Her fur was incredibly soft against his chin and neck, and he had to restrain himself from outright petting her. "It's nice to meet you at last."
+"I am, I am," he said, laughing and returning the hug. She was short enough that the top of her head barely came up to his chin. Her fur was incredibly soft against his neck, and he had to restrain himself from outright petting her. "It's nice to meet you at last."
 
 "Douglas, holy shit. Holy shit! This is absolutely delightful," she said, voice muffled against his shoulder and obscured by tears. Without letting go of the hug, she forked off a copy of herself to hurl at Ioan, who was laughing openly now. This time, she did manage to throw her target to the grass, and the two wrestled around for a moment, shoving at each other, before that instance of May Then My Name quit, leaving Ioan to pick emself up again, dusting grass off eir clothes.
 
@@ -182,13 +186,13 @@ She winked. "A story such as ours deserves a grand conclusion, does it not?"
 
 He laughed. It sounded manic even to his own ears. Crazed. "Tell me everything! I need to know about you, about her, about--"
 
-"Patience, patience!" May Then My Name ducked one of his waving hands, laughing as well. "We have all the time in the world, my dear, and today is a day for many celebrations. You will learn all about us, cousin. You will learn about me and her, about individuation and intracladal dynamics."
+"Patience, patience!" May Then My Name ducked one of his waving hands, laughing as well. "We have all the time in the world, my dear, and today is a day for many celebrations. You will learn all about us, cousin. You will learn about me and her, about individuation and intracladal dynamics. I am as much a relative of hers as you are."
 
 He nodded. All that she was saying was swirling around in his mind, wrapped up in the strange, fluent-yet-stilted language that he'd gotten used to over text but now had to get used to in person. He couldn't tell if he was ecstatic at the news, mad at her, or simply overwhelmed, but so earnest was May then My Name's expression that any heat of anger quickly cooled.
 
 "Everything feels like it needs to be done in such a rush, though," he admitted. "Like if I don't do it right now I'm going to explode. You really look like her? Exactly? And...but you're a skunk."
 
-May Then My Name---the one that looked like Michelle---smirked and disappeared, having apparently quit, leaving the still giggling skunk to help Douglas up.
+May Then My Name---the one that looked like Michelle---kissed him on the cheek, smirked, and disappeared, having apparently quit, leaving the still giggling skunk to help Douglas up.
 
 "Later, I promise." She pulled him over to the picnic blanket with her so that she could sit next to him. She tasked Ioan with setting up the food while they talked. "Douglas, my dear, what are you most excited about, now that you have uploaded?" she asked earnestly, paw resting on his knee.
 

content/read/063.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # Tycho Brahe#Castor --- 2346
 
-After a certain point, when one gets so far from the sun that transmission times blur into days, the concepts of day and night stop meaning so much, and one relies instead on long habits borne out of a necessity to sleep, and to sleep generally on the same schedule as others. And if one must do that, one might as well follow the same schedule one has always kept, the same day-night cycle that even Earth understands. The same clock ticks across three different Systems, after all.
+After a certain point, when one gets so far from the sun that transmission times blur into weeks, the concepts of day and night stop meaning so much, and one relies instead on long habits borne out of a necessity to sleep, and to sleep generally on the same schedule as others. And if one must do that, one might as well follow the same schedule one has always kept, the same day-night cycle that even Earth understands. The same clock ticks across three different Systems, after all.
 
 And so it is that, in some wonderful serendipity, all three members of the Bălan clade are asleep. Both Codrins have fallen asleep with Dear in their arms, as they so often do, while both versions of the third member of their triad curl a few inches away, never having done well being touched while sleeping. The foxes fit so nicely against their fronts, their fur so soft.
 
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ One who is awake, however, is the astronomer who long ago decided to call himsel
 
 > We hear you. We see you.
 
-The message was simple, and that is all that it needed to be to turn Tycho's world upside down. Six words to start, more to come. He paced this way and that in the lawn that he'd long since made his permanent home, the words of the message spelled out before his eyes in starry letters.
+The message was simple, and that is all that it needed to be to turn Tycho's world upside down. Six words to start, more to come. He paced this way and that in the clearing that he'd long since made his permanent home, the words of the message spelled out before his eyes in starry letters.
 
 *Source: Dreamer Module wideband.*
 
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ Three light hours, though! That was too close, much too close. And fast! He didn
 
 > We understand the mechanism by which we may meet. We have similar. Instructions to follow. 
 
-And this is why Tycho was scared shitless and too excited to breathe. This meant that they had somehow learned the information thoroughly enough to pick up on the final set of instructions, the information about the Ansible and about how to build a mind accurately enough to send through the Ansible.
+And this is why Tycho was scared shitless and too excited to breathe. This meant that they had somehow learned the information thoroughly enough to pick up on the final set of instructions, the information about the Ansible and about how to build a mind accurately enough to send through the Ansible to Castor.
 
 > Awaiting consent.