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-# Yared Zerezghi --- 2124
+# Ioan Bălan --- 2325
 
-*Mention how the System almost feels like its own nation, mention L<sub>5</sub> but only in passing,* the note read. *Expect agreement from a new faction. Act pleasantly surprised.*
+May Then My Name Die With Me sat across from Ioan at their dining table, looking somewhat diminished.
 
-As he had found himself doing increasingly often, Yared stepped out of his apartment to walk the town and draft his new post in his head. They used to flow so easily, when each one did not feel like some school assignment.
+"Are you comfortable with this?" Ioan asked.
 
-He walked out past the coffee shop, waving to the woman behind the counter, and shaking his head to an offer of coffee. He was already wired enough.
+"This feels unusually formal."
 
-He kept on walking, instead, out and down the street past apartments, the store where he bought his food, apartments, the restaurant that he ate at once every other week, and yet more apartments. Out and out until he ran into that patch of scrub that somehow never got developed, then right and into where the scrub turned into scattered bushes, and then trees. There had been a fence, once, but all that remained were the posts.
+"Yes, well, I'd like to be able to see your expressions." Ey grinned. "Also, it's easier to write when I don't have a skunk hanging onto my arm."
 
-He'd never bothered walking up here until he'd accepted the unnerving assignment to convince everyone to secede. Explicitly, to convince the DDR and various governments to allow it, but implicitly, he felt, to convince those he talked to on the System, as well. Convince True Name and Jonas to suggest it from the other side.
+She rolled her eyes, sighing dramatically. "I suppose. Ask away then, O archivist."
 
-It had been unnerving at first, at least.
+"I'm not--"
 
-Why would he, a nobody who dumped all his free time into the 'net, into the DDR, be expected to make any change? He knew that, once a referendum was picked up by more than a couple of the various legislatures, it was hopeless to expect the DDR had any real impact. It became the joke that he was sure so many thought it was.
+"I know, I know. Not an archivist. Grant me this whimsy."
 
-He had picked up the topic of the System's individual rights as his next pet topic, for even though he had felt little interest in the System or its labyrinthine technologies at the time, when the previous bill he had hyper-fixated on had failed on the floor, and after a night of far too much tej, he needed to set his mind on *something.*
+"Alright." Ey tested the nib of eir pen on the corner of the page and then began to jot in eir comfortable shorthand. "Uncomfortable question first. When did you upload?"
 
-He didn't know why he did this, why he felt the need to dive into politics. He was a no one in Addis Ababa, a city which paled in importance in the NEAC, a governing body that paled in comparison to the others in the world.
+May frowned down to the table, drawing lazy Lissajous curves on its surface. "I would have gone for the shit-sandwich approach. Do you promise to ask lighter questions after?"
 
-He had a data analysis job he could do from home reasonably well, and he didn't slack off while at work (though he did leave DDR alerts on in his field of view). He made enough of a living to stay in his apartment in an alright part of town. He was comfortable. He had no plans to upload.
+Ioan laughed, nodded.
 
-Or hadn't previously. The more he learned, the more enticing it seemed.
+"Alright. Michelle uploaded in 2117. I know that Dear mentioned to you that she uploaded in the 2130s after Secession. This is a small lie it told to downplay our role in helping the System become what it is today. Michelle uploaded, burned through what energy she had on early projects, and then forked to let her clade take her place, opting for an early retirement, herself."
 
-It certainly seemed like an easier life than this, accepting messages from shadowy government agencies to try and influence what was supposed to be a direct means of being represented in the legislatures of the world. It was one thing to try to do so from one's own perspective, but to accept such influence, even if he was only paid in coffee and cake...
+"Do you mean her work on sensoria?"
 
-It had surprised him that he had even picked up the task at first. Secession seemed like such a strange thing to ask for. What did the NEAC --- or any government, really --- gain by having the System secede? What was the System doing that threatened them so much? There was the brain-drain that some feared, but this seemed to rely on some more basic instinct or need to have that which is different separated from that which was familiar.
+"That, and several other projects."
 
-He didn't know why he had picked up the task, but it was working, even on him. *Especially* on him. The idea of secession from a government's point of view was one that fit neatly into his worldview without him needing to change anything, and that was strange in and of itself.
+"Such as?"
 
-The System probably should secede. At that point, uploading became a simple matter of emigration, one to a country that was guaranteed to grant you residency. Not only that, but, though the cost might be high and the move permanent, it offered a ready-made haven for refugees, whether from the increasingly hot climate or the countless little spats along disputed borders. Uploading was an option for those who had nowhere else to go, and one that offered them more freedom than any other country on earth.
+"You will doubtless learn, Ioan, but not from me. It is not my story to tell."
 
-And this new idea that had started showing up, first in his conversations with True Name and Jonas, and then on the DDR in general, of tacking the System onto one of the launches for the L<sub>5</sub> station construction. The timing --- True Name and Jonas, then the DDR --- made him wonder if the Council of Eight had its fingers in other pies, too.
+Ey lifted eir pen from the page. "Can you tell me why? I can leave it out of the notes if you'd like."
 
-He wasn't sure how to feel about this. What an opportunity that had presented itself! All those arguments about the resources the System used would be all but put to rest. The station would house it, the station's solar power source would power it, and the Station Hotel's revenue would fund it. It would be another part of the tourists' experience. There were already plans for a new transmission system that would be easy enough to build for uploads to make it from Earth to the System without having to fly to the station first.
+"You may include this. I have distanced myself from much of that time out of shame. You know as well as I do that I cannot forget it, but I can at least think about it as little as possible." She smiled, abashed, then the smile grew sly. "I will not tell you who to ask about it, either. I have confidence that you will find out on your own, and I am curious to see how quickly."
 
-It was all starting to feel like such a good idea, and some part of him felt embarrassed that Councilor Demma's bald-faced political machinations were working just as well on him as they promised to on the masses that filled the DDR forums.
+Ey laughed. "Alright, if you won't talk about that, that's okay. It's enough that you mention it; I'll keep my eye out."
 
-He realized he'd been so lost in thought that the wooded grove had already spat him out the other side, back into heat and back into traffic.
+She reached out and took eir off-hand in her own, brushing thumbpad over eir knuckles. "Thank you, dear. Do you have a more pleasant question for me to answer?"
 
-"Well, shit," he mumbled, and began the long trek back to his apartment, polishing the draft of his post in his head.
+"Of course. Why did you stay behind."
 
-> I won't lie, I'm pleased to see this discussion take a turn to the positive. There are some great minds thinking and talking here. Here on the DDR forums, out on the 'net, and now out in the subcommittees that will feed into the legislatures of the world.
->
-> What heartens me more than that, however, is to see some names that I had previously seen arguing *against* independent rights now campaigning *for* them (or, at the very least, neutral in tone). This is how the DDR is meant to work: it's a forum for us, the rank and file of the nations of the world, to be able to participate in the legislative process that will bind us in more ways than of old. No more relying solely on representatives. No more collecting signatures for yet another petition that will fall on deaf ears. No more letter writing campaigns that doubtless fed countless shredders and trash folders.
->
-> To those arguing for independent rights, keep working hard, as there is still much to be done, but to those who are arguing against this referendum, I would like to address a few of those points that seem to keep cropping up:
->
-> *The System has no meaningful way for us to control its goings on, and thus could be a good place for disaffected citizens to coordinate with phys-side agents on acts of terrorism.*
->
-> This is one of those arguments that is difficult to refute because, on the surface, it is indeed a potential reason that one might upload.
->
-> That said, enough thought about how international terrorism works is enough to put this to bed as yet more FUD. First of all, it is the responsibility of each country to monitor their own citizens to within the limits of their national policies (and, let us not kid ourselves, well beyond). If a disaffected citizen is willing to engage in a terrorist act on their home soil, then it is the responsibility for the government to deal with that individual.
->
-> I will grant that this leaves the upload to contend with. There is no easy way to detect whether or not the System has punished them, and there's certainly no way for them to be extradited, should they be discovered.
->
-> Do not doubt your respective governments' abilities to track these actions, however. It is something of an open secret that they are always a decade ahead of us mere mortals when it comes to encryption, and thus cracking of those encryption methods used ten years prior. They'll be able to track communications from the System easily enough, just as they track any other form of text-based communication.
->
-> (And to my NEAC government handler who reads all of my posts, finger hovering above the big, red 'arrest' button: hello! I hope that you are well.)
->
-> *Without clear news sources coming out of the System, there is no way for us to tell that the Council of Eight is effective at governing those sys-side.*
->
-> Disregarding the Council of Eight's mandate to "guide but not govern", I'm curious, now! What would a "clear news source" would look like?
->
-> When one thinks about news sources here, one thinks of a stream of information about concrete events: what hurricane hit which part of North America; what stock jumped to what price; what the cricket scores are. These are all *things.* They all have to do with *stuff* or *places* or *money.*
->
-> Think of one thing that has made news recently that does not have to do with any of those things. I will preempt many of your examples:
->
-> * Legislation --- that is, new laws to govern stuff, places, or money.
-> * Scientific advances --- that is, new ways to work with stuff, places, or money (and before you suggest theoretical sciences, consider that those are future ways to work with stuff. Psychological breakthroughs? Better ways to keep us happy so that we can produce and consume more stuff).
-> * International relations --- that is, which group people in which places have which stuff that which other group of people want.
-> * Technological breakthroughs --- stuff.
-> * Exploration --- places.
-> * Travel, entertainment, comedy --- commodified experiences.
->
-> Here are some things that you might find in this theoretical news source that also appears in ours:
->
-> * Opinions
-> * Interpersonal relations
-> * Religion
->
-> 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.
->
-> Doubtless they have news out there. I don't mean to imply otherwise. Of what worth would it be to us to know of a cult surrounding, say, some upload who has found a neat thing to do with forking? Of what use is the knowledge of what is the new, hottest sim? Which of us really, truly cares about their petty squabbles?
->
-> I would say that I do, but lets be honest, I can't even begin to understand those, but I can certainly respect their rights to have them.
->
-> Now, tell me what effective governance looks like in such a system. Resources are controlled through the reputation market. As far as I can tell, there is no murder, there are no wars, fights can be over in a blink if one of the parties just leaves, and the worst offense someone can commit is stalking, and even then, one can be bounced from a sim.
->
-> We come yet again to the idea of speciation. We are fundamentally different. Or, to use a metaphor from the first point, this is an entire *society*, human or otherwise, that is fundamentally different, as one might see with the vast gulf between customs in different areas of the world.
->
-> *The L<sub>5</sub> station has no obligation to host the System.*
->
-> Correct, and yet they volunteered. This is a non-argument for a non-problem.
->
-> They are an international cooperative effort with business interests involved. The System is neither of those, true, but it is also not *not* those, either. A nation to cooperate? It is not a nation, but I believe I've argued the point that, given fundamental differences, it might as well be. A business? It is not a business, but it does have employees and businesses associated with it, and it produces some delightful results in terms of the new ideas that constantly flow through the communications channels.
->
-> Friends, I struggle to see the merit of many of these arguments, and of the ones that do hold water, there are sensible compromises available. These people are *people,* and it has long been established that people deserve rights. They are a *culture,* and it has long been established that cultures deserve protection.
->
-> Vote for the granting of rights. Vote yes on *referendum 10b30188*
->
-> Yared Zerezghi (NEAC)
+At this, the skunk brightened considerably. "This is what I was expecting. I have a response prepared and everything."
+
+"Dear always mentioned that it scripted its conversations, as well. Is that an Odist thing?"
+
+"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."
+
+Ey laughed. "Well, keep up the good work, then."
+
+"I could just as easily turn this question around on you, Mx. Ioan Bălan. Why did you not invest yourself in the Launch? We do not yet know Codrin's reasons, but why remain, yourself?"
+
+"I'm not sure, honestly. I think what you say about not influencing the responses that we get fits me, too. I don't want Ioan's thoughts, I want those of the LVs unfiltered through my transmissions."
+
+"But Codrin--"
+
+"Has diverged significantly in the last two decades. I have no concerns about contamination. Ey is not me any longer."
+
+She nodded approvingly. "Good. There may be hope for you yet."
+
+"Wrapping me around your little finger, indeed." Ey finished eir current line of scratchy notes. "You say that it tickled you to remain behind. Can you talk more about that?"
+
+"Of course. Many of the clade --- many of the liberal side, at least --- enjoy using our functional immortality as a plaything. If we are to live forever, then, it is worthwhile to find as many things to keep it interesting as we can along the way. It is interesting to me that I have acted in a very intentional way such that I will not get to experience our three societies begin to diverge that directly. There is no going back to change that, because there is no going and there is no back. It is already fun to see the differences between Castor and Pollux through the eyes of both Codrins, and to realize that the L<sub>5</sub> System contains neither, and then realize in a flash of insight that there is no May Then My Name Die With Me to witness directly. Do you experience the same?"
+
+"Maybe a little bit," Ioan hedged. "But if what you tell me is true, I'm not nearly old enough yet to be so concerned in finding fun in the little nooks and crannies of experience."
+
+"You are no fun," she whined. "But I see your point. You also do not have the decades of split mind from before the beginning of the clade. You do not have the strange avenues of thought that preceded our creation. The Ioan of the 2230s or whenever it was that you uploaded had a baseline sanity that Michelle lacked."
+
+"You don't seem insane."
+
+She forked a version of herself atop the table lacking all human attributes that hissed at Ioan with foaming mouth. Ey startled back, and she laughed as the creature quit. "Do I not?"
+
+Ey shook eir head. "Weird, perhaps, but your thoughts and actions are consistent with each other. You're an internally consistent individual."
+
+"Yes, well, Michelle was not. She was a being of irreconcilable contradictions, and we are lucky that she did not pass that on to us when we came into existence."
+
+"If she hadn't quit as she did, do you think that she would've remained on the System, invested entirely in the launches, or split between the two?"
+
+May's features fell and she averted her eyes. "She could not do but what she did. You were not there at the end."
+
+"Feel free to not answer, but can you tell me about that?"
+
+"I will only say that she was ready, that, whether or not she had been planning that day from the very beginning, that was precisely the time that she was meant to die."
+
+"'Die'? Not quit?"
+
+"In her mind, I think that it was death, yes. She quoted her --- our --- favorite line of poetry at us, and the death thoughts proceeded apace. We are no longer branches of a unified whole, but trees of our own." There was a long pause before she added, "I think that had been true perhaps from shortly after Secession, and that she was already dead, in her own way. Reality just caught up with her."
+
+Ey nodded. Something in the skunk's expression told em that the topic was closed, that while she might answer another question, she would resent it. Instead, ey let a moment of quiet fall between them, a silent acknowledgement of that ending.
+
+"You have another question. I can see it on your face."
+
+"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."
+
+"Well, yes, but that was fun involving yourself. What's the origin of this fun involving someone else?"
+
+"I have fun with you, you know that."
+
+Ioan smirked, but waited for her to continue.
+
+"Alright, have it your way. First of all, I am not Michelle, though I am of her. All the same, I am doing my best to build up the suspense with him. I know that it would mean a lot for him if I were to simply drop the bomb on him now --- though I realize, having said that, that that is perhaps a poor choice of words, given his admitted fear. But how much more an impact it will have if I build it up like this! I cannot wait to see what emotions play across his face."
+
+"'See'? You intend to wait until he uploads?"
+
+"And why should I not? I know that he will."
+
+"He always talks about it as a potential thing, though."
+
+She grinned and shook her head. "He will. He has already made up his mind, he just does not realize it yet."
+
+"How will you tell him, then?"
+
+"I will continue to drop hints for another few months, and when he does --- I think he will do it within the year --- I will bring him home. There, we will talk, and you will observe as, over the course of a few minutes, I reveal the truth."
+
+Ioan straightened up. "Me?"
+
+"Of course. Can you think of a better myth? Can you think of a better story in history than of the man who brought the launches to fruition learning that he is talking to an instance of the very woman who helped bring Secession to fruition, the one who he has desired above all things to meet, who he thinks dead?"
+
+"A little grandiose, don't you think?"
+
+She stuck her tongue out at em, a strangely cute gesture on her features. "Is that not a requirement of myths? A myth that is not grandiose is just a story."
+
+"You Odists do seem prone to grand gestures."
+
+May preened.
+
+Ioan set down eir pen and folded eir hands on the table. "Tell me a story, then."
+
+"One for the history? One for you?"
+
+Ey shrugged.
+
+She thought for a moment, once more drawing designs on the table with a claw.
+
+"Alright," she said, standing up. "Come with me, my dear."
+
+Ioan stood to follow her as she padded from the common room to the balcony, then down the steps from there to the yard, a rectangle of grass hemmed in by a moat of mulch, a fence of lilac bushes making up the border. They were technically the end of eir sim, though between the leaves and trunks of the bushes, one would occasionally catch a glimpse of another yard, another house, a street beyond.
+
+"Look," she said.
+
+Ey looked at the yard, at the lilacs, even the patio and the sky.
+
+"What do you see?"
+
+"My yard. What am I supposed to see?"
+
+"Look at the grass. What do you see?"
+
+Ey focused on the green carpet of grass, then frowned as ey began to notice the two or three yellow flowers spotting the yard just barely visible. They sat only a few millimeters below the tops of the trimmed grass. "What are those?"
+
+The skunk grinned at em toothily.
+
+"May, what did you do?"
+
+"I talked you into a small addition. That is what I did."
+
+Ey knit eir brow. "Talked me into...how do you mean?"
+
+"Do not worry, Ioan, you are the only one who has ACLs over your property. I do not. I just made a few suggestions, mostly when you were asleep --- or at least very sleepy --- or head-in-the-clouds at work."
+
+"You're saying I made these?" ey asked, stepping out into the grass and bending down to inspect the flower, yellow, a myriad of petals, grand-toothed leaves radiating from the base.
+
+"I am saying that *we* made these." She bent down beside em and plucked the flower from near the ground, lifting it with a dream-clouded smile. "I am saying that you trust me --- *really* trust me --- and that life in the System is more subtle than I think you know. You trust me. You let me into your life as a coworker, then cohabitant and cosleeper. You let me into your dreams, my dear, and your dreams influence this place as much as, if not more than, your waking mind."
+
+That waking mind was now whirling with the ramifications of what she was saying. "I did this on your suggestion?"
+
+She shook her head. "If you would like to think of it that way, yes, but I would prefer to say that we did this."
+
+"Is this your story?"
+
+"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.
+
+"This is a dandelion. It--"
+
+A memory clicked into place for Ioan and ey laughed. "Oh! Of course! I've been here too long, haven't I? Here in the System, here in the house with its perfect yard. Almost ninety years now, I think. They were all over back phys-side, though."
+
+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."
+
+"No lilacs?"
+
+"More stuff from media. I remember wishing I could grow some indoors because I thought they were small enough to be houseplants until I was corrected. I have no idea if these are accurate, but I remember loving the smell."
+
+"They are spot on, Ioan."
+
+Ey smiled.
+
+"So you uploaded and made your sim like this?"
+
+"Yeah. Sort of. It was inspired by some sim I frequented on the 'net, something a friend built. I found something close to it on the market, and when I had reputation enough, I dug the sim and grabbed that template, then spent a year rebuilding it as best I could remember. No dandelions."
+
+She laughed, bumping her shoulder against eirs. "Of course. They are a weed, yes. Or often thought of as one. The leaves make a good salad, though, and I was told that you could dry, roast, and grind the roots to make a coffee substitute."
+
+Ioan made a face. "I'd rather coffee."
+
+"I have no idea if the substitute was any good, but I like coffee, too." She held the flower up to her snout and smelled long at it. "Me, though, I like the flowers. They are too complicated for their own good in this stage, are they not? Sure, they close up and then become the puffballs that spread them further and further, but here, they are almost platters of yellow."
+
+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.
+
+Instead, ey asked, "Is that your story, May?"
+
+"Of course not. You told the story yourself. Young Ioan with eir indoor lilacs." She laughed, peeking up at em slyly. "Or perhaps we told the story. You asked, so I suggested, as you say, and you told the story."
+
+Ioan frowned, then rolled eir eyes. "That's not what I asked, and you know it."
+
+"Tough shit. It is our story now," she said. "Now, give me your hand."
+
+Ey held eir hand out for her, then let her turn it over in her paws. Before ey could object, she flipped the flower over, pressed it firmly to eir skin, and rubbed it in a vigorous circle.
+
+"There." She held eir hand up so that ey could see, looking proud.
+
+On the back of eir hand, the skin shone a golden yellow in the circle where she had rubbed the flower.
+
+Ey shoved her over onto the grass, laughing. "You nut."
+
+She lay there among the grass, giggling helplessly. Among the grass where a brand new dandelion poked through the green in front of her snout. One that had not been there before.