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content/read/027.md

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-# Yared Zerezghi --- 2124
+# 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."
+
+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.
+
+*"Please be careful, my dear."*
+
+"Do I have something to worry about? Should I be prepared for violence or something?"
+
+It shook its head. *"I do not think so, no. Ezekiel was a member of the Council of Eight. One of the founders. He was close to much that happened in the early history of the System."*
+
+"What did he do?" Codrin shook eir head. "I mean, what is it that he's known for?"
+
+*"Forking."*
+
+Ey let out the air in their lungs in one, low *huh*. It felt as though ey had been kicked in the stomach, and ey struggled to regain eir breath as stars swum before eir eyes. "*Forking?* You've got to be kidding me, Dear."
+
+The fox laughed. *"I am not."*
+
+"I thought that that was a core aspect of the System from the beginning."
+
+*"It was an accident at first. Someone split in two --- not Michelle, before you ask --- and the System automatically corrected and deleted both forks. The population was quite low at that point, and Zeke knew the victim. As part of his grief, he began to formulate the sys-side algorithms and drafted the petition to phys-side for allowing legitimate forking of personalities."*
+
+"And Michelle helped?"
+
+*"She coordinated between Ezekiel, phys-side, and another council-member on the logistics and how it was associated with the reputation markets, yes."*
+
+After a moment of staring out into the rain-clouded prairie, Codrin said, "I'm constantly surprised at just how much of a frontier it was back then, and just how many pies your clade seems to have had its fingers in."
+
+Dear smiled tiredly.
+
+"So, why did you bring me out here?"
+
+*"It is nice to talk about serious things with the sound of rain in the background."*
+
+"Really?"
+
+*"Of course not, my dear."* It gestured back through the window, where its partner sat, reading. *"They do not enjoy hearing me talk of that time in our lives."*
+
+Codrin frowned. "I think I know the answer, but should I interview them?"
+
+*"Please do not, Codrin. I do not want to bring up painful conversations of the past, nor do I wish to you to learn all that they know from a single source."*
+
+"I understand. Ioan mentioned that May Then My Name has been cagey around her past as well-- No." Ey held up a hand to forestall a comment from Dear. "You don't need to defend her, or yourself, for that matter. I won't push you for more history. I would, however, like to hear your reasoning for these decisions."
+
+*"For withholding information?"*
+
+"For withholding it yourself. It seems as though you want us --- you as in the Ode clade, us as in the Bălan clade --- to discover things on our own. Why?"
+
+Dear stuck a paw out, palm up, beneath a downspout and the steady stream of water that flowed from it, letting the water soak into its fur. *"There are parts of our past that I am ashamed of. Many of my cocladists are, as well. You could interview any one of us about the entirety of our story, even me, and we would tell you, but we would also resent you for that."*
+
+Codrin waited Dear out.
+
+*"We would resent you, and the temptation to lie would be too great. It is better that you gather this information piecemeal to gain a more accurate picture of what it is that happened leading up to both Secession and Launch. May Then My Name is right. You should seek out the founders. You should seek out someone other than an Odist. You should seek out one who did not simply agree with us that far back."*
+
+"Alright, I can accept that."
+
+It leaned in to bump its nose against eir cheek. *"Thank you, my dear. Be kind to Ezekiel, as May Then My Name suggests. Be patient with him. Be careful for his sake. Be prepared for a difficult conversation."*
+
+"Difficult how?"
+
+*"He is not who he used to be. Time has not been kind to him, to his sanity. He is no longer the shrewd and funny politician he was back then. Since about the time of the launch proposal, he has returned to being called Ezekiel and donned the mantle of his namesake."*
+
+"What's that?"
+
+Dear shook its paw dry. *"A prophet."*
+
+Codrin was not sure what a prophet looked like, but the conversation with Dear dogged em all the way until ey was able to find Ezekiel and get him to agree to an interview.
+
+What at first looked like a bundle of rags set in the middle of a rocky, arid plain, slowly raised an arm up toward the sky. It was a shaky movement, exhausted, as though the movement caused it great pain. Surrounding the bundle was a scattering of what looked to be clay pots, each of which was lidded with a wooden stopper, and in the air was a foul scent.
+
+"Ezekiel?"
+
+A low rasp came from the pile of rags. "Codrin Bălan. I have been waiting for you."
+
+Unable to think of anything else to do, ey sat down next to the bundle of rags. Hidden within it may have been a face, but ey wasn't sure. "Waiting for me?"
+
+"Yes. A voice from within spoke to me and I knew it to be that of the Lord, and I fell down upon my face, and it entered into me and set me back on my feet, and held out a scroll. He said to me, "Mortal, eat what is offered you. Eat this scroll." So I opened my mouth, and He gave me this scroll to eat, as he said to me, "Mortal, feed your stomach and fill your belly with this scroll that I give to you." And I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey to me."
+
+A long pause followed, during which Codrin did not speak, but silently wished for the scent of honey, rather than the scent of something burning.
+
+"And so I knew that you were to come and to take my story."
+
+Ey nodded. "I've come to interview you, yes. A few members of the Ode clade suggested that I seek you out."
+
+A dry rattle sounded from within the dusty rags, and it took em a moment to understand that this was laughter. "Yes. Yes, of course they did. Speak, Codrin Bălan. Ask me your questions."
+
+"I have a few. Some about the launch, and some about Secession."
+
+"Ask me first about Launch."
+
+"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."
+
+Codrin remembered the admonition to be kind and patient, to be careful, and so ey sat in silence, as seemed appropriate.
+
+"Those who sought to build their temple continue here, yes, and continue there, but judgement will yet come to them. I have seen the fire encased in flame and the sun's eagerness to send us on our way, and that is my reason for leaving them behind, and I am to lay here for three hundred and ninety years, arm outstretched to the System, and live off the cakes of wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and emmer, until perhaps we cross the threshold of the firmament.
+
+"We diverge, Codrin Bălan. We of Castor and Pollux. The prophets diverge and so too the prophecy. How can two divergent prophecies be true? And yet they must, for the voice of the Lord has given us the scroll as sweet as honey, and our minds must be as one, though they be as split as the broken one."
+
+When the speech appeared to have concluded, Codrin bowed eir head. "That answers many of my questions, Ezekiel. You speak of the many who are one. Do you mean the idea of clades?"
+
+"Yes. Some are the many who are one. Jonah, who is many that are one. Michelle, who is few that are one."
+
+Ey once more remained quiet, mind churning over what seemed to be the root of the Ode clade. Michelle? Breaking the treaties with the earth which God set before her? Michelle, who left the world of her birth? And who was this Jonah?
+
+"There were eight of us," Ezekiel said, and something about its voice sounded clearer, more present than it had before. "A council set to guide but not govern. We were to be the interface between our world and the Earth. The three from the East, the prophet, the nameless one, the politician, the broken one and her friend."
+
+Ezekiel must be the prophet, and surely Michelle was the broken one. Ey didn't know the rest of the references, so ey filed the information away until later to look up. Ey felt the need to be completely present for the prophet.
+
+"Guide towards Secession?"
+
+"Not at first. At first, we were to be one people in two forms: those who had life entire on the earth that God set before them, and those who lived beyond death. Those who lived on Earth saw the idolatry in the System and with the help of True Name and Jonah, built up a religion of separation, that we be two people in two forms."
+
+"True Name?"
+
+The prophet turned a weary head towards Codrin. There was definitely a face there, ey saw, though it was dirty and blended seamlessly into the tattered rags that surrounded it. "One piece of the broken one."
+
+Ey closed eir eyes and rifled through the Ode that ey kept near to hand in an exocortex. There were two instances of the phrase; 'The only time I know my true name is when I dream', and 'To know one's true name is to know god'. Both of them made sense as a possibility, as the first was the first line of that stanza and would have been one of the earliest forks, but the second named god, which fit well with Ezekiel's role as prophet.
+
+After a moment's thought, ey asked eir question, choosing eir words carefully. "The True Name who dreamed, or the True Name who knew god?"
+
+Another raspy cackle came from the bundle of rags. "You need not mince your words with me, Codrin Bălan. I am the mystic, you are the poet. The Only Time I Know My True Name Is When I Dream, a broken vessel for a broken soul."
+
+Ey smiled cautiously, feeling a heat in eir cheeks. "Is True Name on the launch?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Are they on the System as well?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Should I interview them for this?"
+
+Ezekiel once more turned his gaze toward the sky, supposing that that is where the abandoned planet must lie. "No. The Lord has put cords upon you, so that you cannot turn from your path. Your twin and your root shall seek her out, but you must seek out one borne of her, and you must seek out more of the eight who were to guide but not govern, and you must seek out Jonah, and you must see to your loved ones."
+
+Codrin nodded, taking down the list of names --- if names they were. *Ioan and Codrin#Castor would get to talk to True Name, apparently. I'll get one of her up-tree instances, more of the Council of Eight, and this Jonah. Loved ones...Dear, perhaps?*
+
+"What should I ask them?"
+
+"Ask them what you asked me. Each shall give you a different answer, and when they are brought together, you may see the past and write your poem, poet." His arm began to waver, and then dropped once more to his side. "I am tired, Codrin Bălan, and I must eat and drink."
+
+Ey nodded and stood, folding eir notes and capping eir pen. *Much as Dear said,* ey thought. *Combine the sources for a more clear picture.* Ey said, "Thank you, Ezekiel. I hope that you enjoy your meal."
+
+A final rattling laugh, and the arm fumbled to the side where a flat cake had been cooking atop a pile of what looked like smoldering dung. Once more, his voice lost the edge of prophecy and became more cogent. "It's vile stuff, but I'll try."
 
-> **Yared Zerezghi:** I'm going to come clean right up front: I shouldn't be telling you this.
-> 
-> **Jonas Prime:** Okay hold up.
-> 
-> **Jonas:** Before you actually tell us, I want to know why.
-> 
-> **The Only Time I Know My True Name Is When I Dream:** As do I.
-> 
-> **True Name:** I am sure you have your reasons, but if you need us to talk you out of it, we can do that, too.
-> 
-> **Yared:** Uh. Well, I wasn't *specifically* told not to tell you, but I was left under the impression that I shouldn't be talking to you about this sort of stuff. Still, I've done my reading, and the line to the System is about as secure as it gets, and after all this time, I trust you well enough that you won't do anything crazy with the information, and that it'll probably help you in the end, as you work through all this sys-side.
-> 
-> **Jonas:** What, that you've been working with a government official who is making you steer the DDR towards considering secession?
-> 
-> **Yared:** ...
-> 
-> **Yared:** What the hell?
-> 
-> **Yared:** Yes, but how the hell did you know that?
-> 
-> **True Name:** Jonas has been waiting to drop that on you for some time now. He is currently laughing his ass off. You will have to forgive him.
-> 
-> **True Name:** I mean, I am also laughing my ass off.
-> 
-> **Yared:** I'm just more shocked than anything.
-> 
-> **Jonas:** I promise it's not out of cruelty, we just made a lucky guess, and I've been wanting it confirmed. Your tone at the start said it all.
-> 
-> **Yared:** I guess I'm relieved.
-> 
-> **Yared:** But also a little scared that everyone else has figured it out, too.
-> 
-> **Jonas:** I wouldn't count on it. Maybe some have, but few enough that they'll likely be laughed down as crackpot conspiracy theorists. Very few people pay as much attention to you as we do.
-> 
-> **True Name:** Thank you for confirming this with us, though. It will help us work together more consistently between sys- and phys-side.
-> 
-> **Yared:** That was my thought, as well.
-> 
-> **Jonas:** Was that all you were going to tell us?
-> 
-> **Yared:** Most of it. I was just going to ask your help for the next step, afterwards. I'm *definitely* not supposed to be doing that.
-> 
-> **Jonas:** Well, alright. How does this all work, anyway?
-> 
-> **Yared:** I meet up with my handler, of sorts, on a regular basis, and we talk through the current sentiments, and then someone on his team will slip me a note specifying how I should steer my next post. Sometimes I'll write two or three posts on the subject, just so they can keep an eye on the response, then I'll get the next note.
-> 
-> **Jonas:** And this handler, are his initials YD?
-> 
-> **Yared:** Okay, now you hold up.
-> 
-> **Yared:** I *need* to know how you guys figured that one out.
-> 
-> **Jonas:** Politician, remember?
-> 
-> **True Name:** We noticed the contents of your posts starting to shift, then started considering possible sources that might be guiding you. That led us to council members, and from there, we were able to sift through who is on the council and come up with a short list of names. Yosef Demma just happened to be at the top.
-> 
-> **Yared:** You still have me worried that others have this all figured out. Jonas, convince me not to worry. You're the politician, I'm the scared DDR junkie trying not to get stoned to death. Or worse, have my DDR account suspended.
-> 
-> **Jonas:** Alright, I'll try. I promise, no stoning. The number one advantage that we have is an entire team of instances working with you and on essentially no other projects. That means we have the resources to send a few of them chasing after this hunch that someone was steering you, do some textual analysis, find the patterns, then do some digging into NEAC politics, looking for people with both the resources, the motive, and the personality to pull it off. 
-> 
-> **Jonas:** Remember, most of this team were phys-side politicians, too, so we have that head-start. The worst you have to worry about is the WF or S-R Bloc doing the same with their own people after they find out. We haven't seen evidence of that yet.
-> 
-> **Yared:** Multiple phys-side politicians?
-> 
-> **True Name:** Multiple Jonases.
-> 
-> **Yared:** Oh! There are multiple forks working on this?
-> 
-> **Jonas:** Of course.
->
-> **Jonas:** That's what I mean when I said few people pay as much attention to you as we do.
-> 
-> **Jonas:** Does that soothe your fears?
-> 
-> **Yared:** I think so, yeah. Do you agree with Jonas on this, True Name?
-> 
-> **True Name:** Having spent a considerable time with him and some of his forks, I trust him on this, yes.
-> 
-> **True Name:** Now, can you tell us as much as you are comfortable about councilor Demma, your relationship with him, and what you suspect are his goals?
-> 
-> **Yared:** Well, we meet for coffee regularly, like I said, and usually drink it in his car while his driver takes us around town. He seems like a nice, older gentleman, and pretty trustworthy. I suspect that's a bad sign in a politician.
-> 
-> **Jonas:** No comment.
-> 
-> **Yared:** Well, either way, he's nice enough to me, and I guess that's probably how he got me working for him. I think his motives basically boil down to the fact that the System has diverged considerably from the culture of any of the political entities left phys-side, both by virtue of who winds up there, and the obvious reasons of not sharing any of our concerns around trade goods.
-> 
-> **True Name:** He is not wrong, but I do not think that is motive enough.
-> 
-> **Yared:** I don't either. I suspect that he's not keen on something about the System where it is, whether that's its location in the S-R Bloc or that it remains a multinational entity where uploads retain their citizenship back phys-side. Maybe he just wants to make it a separate nation in order to allow it to be a place to send refugees, asylum seekers, and so on. Or maybe he wants to restrict emigration.
-> 
-> **True Name:** Those are all good potential reasons, yes. Do you have any hints as to which may be the most likely?
-> 
-> **Yared:** Not particularly. He's mentioned them all in passing.
-> 
-> **True Name:** Alright. Keep us up to date, then.
-> 
-> **Jonas:** What was your most recent message from Demma and his people?
-> 
-> **Yared:** That's what I wanted to talk to you about, actually.
-> 
-> **Jonas:** The thing that you're not supposed to do. Right.
-> 
-> **Yared:** Right. The message was: "Gently broach the subject of secession. Keep it only to one sentence, and only as an offhand remark. Make it sound like it was sys-side's idea."
-> 
-> **Jonas:** Wow, that's not exactly subtle.
-> 
-> **True Name:** Seems like a shitty thing to do.
-> 
-> **True Name:** But that is coming from someone sys-side, so perhaps he sees it differently. My assessment is that he might not actually be wrong on this. If he pins it on us but does it gently enough, it can be seen as a situation where both parties are happy to agree on something. It will have to be done carefully, however. If it is suggested too strongly or too early, we risk the possibility of backlash for seeming too eager for secession, as though we are rebelling. If it is not suggested strongly enough, some might see it as secession being forced on us. Jonas? Thoughts?
-> 
-> **Jonas:** 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.
-> 
-> **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. 
-> 
-> **True Name:** Do you have anything written yet?
-> 
-> **Yared:** Sure, one moment.
-> 
-> **Yared:** We continue to circle around this discussion of individual rights as though we are debating the individuality of those sys-side. It's important to understand, though, that this is a distraction from the actual point. Many have mentioned that those who have uploaded, whether or not they are individuals, are no longer analogous to humans (there's that speciation argument again!) and one wag even put it, "Who cares if they're individuals? They can't even vote!"
-> 
-> **Yared:** This is quite true, my dear wag. They can't vote. They have no say in our political affairs out here, just as we have no say in theirs. How could we? I mean, sure, I bet some of them read DDR posts and wonder *what the hell is going on out there?* But consider what their politics must look like to us. What would *we* vote on? Whether or not they must post signage that their sims allow non-euclidean space? Is it okay for you to try and impersonate someone when you can become like them to exacting detail (except for, surprise, their individual personality)?
-> 
-> **Yared:** I think we're still split pretty evenly on speciation. Even I am. One day, I'll think, "Sure, they may be fundamentally different from us, but they still *think* like us. They still reason like humans. Except for the biological differences, they still are." Other days, though, I'll wake up and think, "We have no common frame of reference with these people. They're just too different."
-> 
-> **Yared:** 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.
-> 
-> **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.
-> 
-> **Yared:** That, my friends, feels like progress to me. We are starting to come to an understanding of what the System is, whether it's a home for the disaffected and dying, an international forum where individuals can truly live together, or a country in its own right, is home to thousands of individuals, each with their individual lives, individual reasons, individual feelings. They're people. The System is their home. We cannot take that from them without violating their individual rights.
-> 
-> **Jonas:** Well written as always, Yared. 
-> 
-> **True Name:** Agreed. You have a way of agreeing with people just enough to make them feel like you might actually be on their side, and that perhaps they ought to work toward the same goal.
-> 
-> **Yared:** Thank you both. What do you think about the secession angle?
-> 
-> **True Name:** It is a little blunt. It feels forced, the way it is just stuck in there. Perhaps you might soften it from "We might as well just secede", to something more like "We would have better luck running our own government", something like that. I agree with Jonas that there is fear bound up in the word 'secede', and the phrase "better luck" implies a humorous remark.
-> 
-> **Jonas:** Yeah. You want us to be soft, kind, approachable, that sort of thing, especially if you're going to use your current tactic of "agree with them enough to get them to fight for you". We want to seem like good people who deserve our individual rights, that to not grant them would be, at best, a real shame, and at worst, an affront to their own ideas of freedom.
-> 
-> **True Name:** This is especially true, given that very few phys-side are acting as our voices. They are arguing on second- and third-hand accounts, such as your own. To them, uploads are this mysterious entity that they might struggle to actually comprehend. You will have to, perhaps ironically, humanize us for them. We have to seem like we can still joke around, still hurt, and still feel the full range of human emotion.
-> 
-> **Jonas:** You've seen True Name and I joking around, after all.
-> 
-> **Yared:** Yeah. So what do you think about: "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'd have better luck running our own government. We can herd our cats, they can herd theirs."
-> 
-> **True Name:** I like that. I am enough like a cat to be difficult to herd.
-> 
-> **Jonas:** Confirmed. Getting her to do anything she doesn't want to do is fucking impossible.
-> 
-> **True Name:** I prefer to think of myself as 'staunchly independent', thank you very much.
-> 
-> **Yared:** Haha
-> 
-> **Yared:** Actually, how about I include some banter into the post?
-> 
-> **Yared:** "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'd have better luck running our own government."
-> 
-> **Yared:** To which the other replied, "We can herd our cats, they can herd theirs," thus spawning a good five minutes of cat-herding jokes, wherein we unilaterally decided that cats were, to put it politely, staunchly independent. I think that applies to them as much as it does to us.
-> 
-> **Jonas:** I like it! It'll need a bit of cleaning up to make it flow a little better in context, but I trust that that's something you can do on your own.
-> 
-> **Yared:** Of course.
-> 
-> **True Name:** I am sorry to make such a cat out of you in this situation, Yared. You are being herded by two different camps, us and your councilor friend. Our goals align for now, for which I am grateful, but I understand that having both parties tell you not to tell the other about them is uncomfortable.
-> 
-> **True Name:** On that note, it is probably best not to tell Demma about this conversation.
-> 
-> **Jonas:** Seconded.
-> 
-> **Yared:** Thirded. I don't know that he'd have my head on a platter if he knew that this conversation had taken place, but I don't know that he wouldn't, either.
-> 
-> **Jonas:** We don't want that, we like you too much.
-> 
-> **True Name:** I was going to say that you are too useful to us, but I will grudgingly agree that we do rather like you.
-> 
-> **Yared:** I'm pleased to hear that!
-> 
-> **Yared:** I'll get this polished and posted. What's next on your side?
-> 
-> **True Name:** Jonas will likely be snooping around for news and schmoozing where appropriate. I will be focusing on how to present this in the most empathetic, understandable way possible to the Council and other interested parties. I need to sell it to the System.
-> 
-> **Yared:** Does that mean you're for secession, then?
-> 
-> **Jonas:** If the L<sub>5</sub> launch goes through, yes. If not, then it becomes more complicated, and we likely *would* have to move to international waters.