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-# Codrin Bălan#Pollux --- 2325
+# Ioan Bălan --- 2325
 
-Throughout eir relationship with Dear, Codrin had had chances to meet several other furries, both those who had been in the subculture prior to uploading and those who had come to it after. They had come in various shapes and sizes, the two notable examples of which were a room-filling dragon of some sort (or so ey guessed) and a perfectly ordinary house cat. Perfectly ordinary, that is, except for her heavily inflected and curse-laden speech.
+If, Ioan thought, there was a version of Dear's sim --- that sprawling, unending shortgrass prairie --- that had existed to perfect trees instead of grass, it was this place.
 
-Despite not having the chance to meet him yet, ey had also learned much about Debarre from eir conversations with the various members of the Ode clade, as well as eir research into the Council of Eight.
+May had told em that Serene had designed this sim, just as she had Dear's prairie. In that sense, it felt much the same; if Serene had any hallmarks of design, it seemed to be a focus on wind and weather, an unerring attention to plant life, and a fondness for the fractal textures of the ground. It was easy enough to design with right angles, flat planes, level ground. As building was something more akin to daydreaming, it was natural landscapes that were the hard ones to get the tiny details correct.
 
-At one point, ey asked Dear how it was that a full quarter of the council that guided the System toward secession was made up of furries, and the fox had laughed.
+It was no surprise that this sim had been designed for another Odist. Where Dear had fallen in love with the endless prairie and Michelle the flowing fields of dandelion dotted grass, Do I Know God After The End Waking had fallen in love with trees.
 
-*"Can you not guess why a furry might be an early and ardent adopter of a system that seems purpose built to allow one to assume what form feels most natural?"*
+When ey first arrived, ey had done so outside of a smallish A-frame building, more tent than anything, for it was built of rough-hewn planks set into the classical shape with an oiled canvas draped over it to create the walls. Even the floor was made of those rough planks, though much of it appeared to have been worn smooth after countless years of foot --- or paw --- traffic.
 
-Made sense. Ey still looked forward to meeting Debarre that evening.
+Peeking inside revealed a simple cot made of more canvas stretched over a frame and a pillow of some sort of bundle, a battered roll-top desk with a low stool in front of it (Ioan found emself desperately wanting something similar upon seeing them), and a small wood-burning stove in the back where the far wall had been created using rammed earth instead of more canvas.
 
-What had started as a suggestion to get a few voices together for Codrin to interview had then turned into a suggestion for a dinner party, and from there into what promised to be a cozy, wine-fogged house party that might sprout from a group of friends who enjoyed company, but also quiet.
+Ey immediately fell in love with it, and hoped that ey'd like End Waking well enough to visit again.
 
-The guests started arriving in the late afternoon, with the first to arrive being Debarre. Dear greeted him with a grin and a hug before the slender mustelid greeted both of the fox's partners with paw-shakes and half-hugs.
+He was nowhere to be seen, though. The rundown of his appearance from May was of a skunk like herself, male, and "heavily committed to the ranger aesthetic. Cloak, hatchet, bow, the works".
 
-"Wonderful to meet you two. Dear's been gushing about you for years, and I'm only sorry that it's taken until now for us to actually meet."
+Ioan sat on the steps in front of the tent and waited, hoping perhaps that ey had simply arrived too early for the scheduled meeting. It was a pleasant wait, at least, and a welcome break from the increasing tension that ey had been feeling within as more and more information about the Odists had come to light. Eir own interviews, as well as news from the Codrins and Dears had left em anxious more often than not, and even though ey did eir best to keep that feeling away from eir interactions with May, there was still no denying that she was an Odist as well.
 
-The weasel was about Dear's height --- which was to say a few inches shorter than Codrin --- covered with a svelte coat of chestnut brown fur, minus a cream-colored front, though much of this was covered with a semiformal outfit of all black. 
+The skunk's arrival was something of a surprise, as what ey had initially taken to be one of those wandering breezes fingering ferns and branches slowly resolved into a humanoid form walking silently between the trees.
 
-As ey did whenever meeting another furry, Codrin was surprised by just how casual they could be. For some reason, eir mind seemed primed to view them all as intense as the fox, but Debarre was friendly and relaxed.
+"Mx. Bălan," the form murmured, tugging back the hood that hid most of its face to reveal the familiar white-striped black snout. "Sorry for keeping you waiting. I was exploring."
 
-Next to arrive was a...well, Codrin could tell that he was human and that he was male, but for some reason, he had a hard time discerning any distinct features about him. He was plain to the point where the eye seemed to simply slide off of him.
+Ioan stood and bowed politely. "No problem. Exploring, though? I would've thought that you'd know the area around your home fairly well by now."
 
-He was greeted with an enthusiastic handshake from Dear, who announced, *"This is user11824, one of the unsung heroes of the early System."*
+The skunk smiled. His features were undeniably those of an Odist --- at least those of the skunk variety --- while still being unique. They were more masculine in a way that ey could not place. More rugged. Dirtier. Certainly more exhausted. "One never truly finishes exploring a forest. I was climbing the trees."
 
-"I am in no way a hero," he drawled laconically. "I spent more time keeping you dumbasses in check than anything else."
+"That sounds enjoyable, at least."
 
-*"A truly heroic feat, that."*
+"Not at all." He laughed. "I am terrified of heights."
 
-user11824 rolled his eyes and allowed himself to be guided in to where there was wine and a few trays of snacks. He greeted Debarre warmly --- more so, Codrin noticed, than he had Dear, though ey could not guess why.
+"Then why--"
 
-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.
+"Exploring is a process that is also the goal. Why not undertake that process fully? Surely you know that of us by now."
 
-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.
+Ey grinned, nodding. "I suppose I do, at that. Either way, it's nice to meet you."
 
-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."
+"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."
 
-Ey stopped halfway through opening a bottle of wine. "Really? I wasn't expecting a dinner full of politicians."
+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.
 
-They laughed. "I don't think any of them would call themselves politicians. Dear would call itself an 'interested party' or something similarly vague. I think Debarre would call himself a guide, or maybe a dupe. user11824 would just call himself boring. Get used to that word, he uses it a lot."
+"Lemon balm, mint, and dried gooseberry. I am sorry that I cannot offer anything more exciting. Tea does not grow here."
 
-"And Yared? He seems, I don't know, nervous."
+Ioan laughed. "I've never had either lemon balm or gooseberry, so it sounds exciting to me. It certainly smells delightful."
 
-"He was just a DDR junkie. He followed politics as a hobby, but with a single-minded focus that made him attractive to both phys- and sys-side on the debate." They shrugged and pulled down wine glasses from the cabinet one by one. "I think he'd call himself a pawn. A puppet, maybe. The nervousness stems from being so thoroughly used by both sides and now coming to the house of an Odist, I think, but don't quote me on that. Take these."
+End Waking beamed at the compliment, and shortly had dug out two enamel camp mugs, blown the dust free from the less-used one, and then tipped a small amount of tea into the bottoms of each. "You will have to strain it through your teeth. I do not have a teapot either. The ingredients are all edible on their own, though, so I usually just wind up eating them."
 
-Codrin frowned, nodded, and accepted two of the glasses to carry out with the wine, while Dear's partner brought out the other four.
+The whole experience was so delightfully out of place for all of the Odists ey had met so far that Ioan was rapt.
 
-Once the drinks had been poured and passed around, Dear stood and, in the grand style that ey had come to love, declaimed, *"First, we will have a toast, and then we will drink. After that, we will eat, and then --- only then, my dear --- may you ask your questions."*
+At the end of the extended tea-making procedure, ey was left with a steaming mug of slowly darkening tea, leaves of mint and melissa floating to the top while broken chunks of gooseberry sunk to the bottom. It smelled wonderful, a type of fragrance that immediately made em feel comfortable and soothed.
 
-Ey laughed and raised eir glass. "I'm in."
+*If May's clade exists to shape the minds and emotions of people,* ey thought. *He's doing an admirable job.*
 
-*"The toast, then!"* Dear composed itself, standing up straighter and holding its glass aloft. *"To the complete stupidity of anyone unlucky enough to wind up in politics, and the utter hubris of anyone who tries."*
+"We will sit and talk for a bit, though I must warn you that I get antsy very easily and will likely request that we walk after we finish our tea."
 
-Debarre laughed and raised his glass, "I'll drink to that."
+"Alright," ey said. "I usually write notes on the interviews, but I'm sure I'll remember just fine."
 
-*"Then, by all means, let us drink,"* the fox said, and did just that.
+The skunk gave em an unreadable expression, then nodded. "Right, yes. That whole business. Where do you wish to start?"
 
-The dinner was, as always, delicious: a spicy peanut and bell-pepper soup and a few dishes of beef, vegetables, and lentils. Far more food than was strictly necessary, but Codrin suspected that it was more for Yared's sake than anyone else's, as he calmed down greatly after having eaten (and having had a few glasses of wine), complimenting the food several times. He even began joining in the conversation towards the end of the meal. 
+"Well, I've got some fairly standard questions that I've been asking everyone, then we can get to the more meaty stuff. If we have time afterwards, I'd like to ask you more about this," ey said, gesturing around at the tent, out the still-open flap.
 
-Once plates had been cleared and another bottle of wine opened, user11824 nudged Codrin's arm. "How do you put up with such an insufferably boring life?"
+"I will look forward to that, then. It sounds like you have a shit sandwich for me, anyhow."
 
-Ey grinned, "Dear provides the entertainment, we just watch."
+Ioan laughed. "I'd not heard that term until May used it. I like it."
 
-The fox preened.
+End Waking grinned toothily.
 
-"Yeah, but you're a writer, Dear's a whatever-the-fuck, and they're a cook and I guess painter. Boring on, like, a subatomic level."
+After taking another sip of the tisane and chewing on the resulting leaves, ey asked, "You're obviously still here on the L<sub>5</sub> System, but did you send a fork along on the LVs?"
 
-"Boring is nice, sometimes," Dear's partner said.
+He shook his head. "I did not. I am sure you will ask more about why as the questioning goes on, but for now, I'll say that there are some intraclade politics that left a sour taste in my mouth about the whole thing."
 
-"Oh god, you're telling me," user11824 laughed. "I'd never turn it down. Excitement always means that something horrible is happening."
+"If you're ever uncomfortable with a question, feel free to tell me you'd not like to answer."
 
-"You know," Debarre said, nodding to the ill-defined man. "I think that's the first time you've ever actually explained that when I've been around. I always just thought you were bitching whenever we went somewhere or had a conversation and you called it boring."
+End Waking nodded.
 
-"If we're somewhere exciting or a conversation is actively interesting, it means that someone's fucked up."
+"Were you involved in Launch at all? Was that part of the politics?"
 
-Dear laughed. *"It is important to fuck up, my friend. Otherwise, the boredom may become terminal."*
+"Ioan, I was promised a shit-sandwich, but so far it is an open-faced one," he said, laughing to take the sting out of the words. "I did not. And, to preempt your next question, I had not yet been forked during Secession, so I did not take part in that, either. I was forked a few decades after Secession."
 
-He rolled his eyes and mumbled, "Fucking boring."
+"May I ask why?"
 
-Even Yared was grinning at the exchange. "You know, before I uploaded, I was in contact with a few members of the Council," he said. "And although the work was interesting, I always loved hearing about the ways in which dynamics differed sys-side."
+"You may, but give me a second to consider my answer."
 
-"Oh, I guarantee you, I was just as bored phys-side."
+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.
 
-"Yes, but look at you. You've made being boring into an art. You went ahead and made it interesting."
+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."
 
-"Bullshit."
+Ioan nodded.
 
-Codrin laughed. "No, I'm with Yared on this. You've got a name that sounds like a default 'net username, and you've somehow made it so that I can't seem to describe any one aspect of you. You've got a face, I can say that for sure. Your eyes are brown. Or maybe hazel? It's like if I tried to look more closely to figure out which, though, I'd absolutely die of boredom."
+"I was forked in order to help influence financial policies phys-side to encourage certain attitudes toward the System."
 
-He laughed. "Job well done, I say."
+Ioan attempted to keep eir face impassive, but ey must have let some of eir reaction show, as End Waking laughed tiredly.
 
-Dear raised its glass, *"To artists who have perfected their craft."*
+"I am sorry. I am not proud of what I did, and that is why I am here and not out in the world, bowing to the whims of my down-tree instances and their interests. My role was taken over by a member of the Jonas clade."
 
-Figuring that, since dinner had come to a close, Codrin hazarded the first question. "Yared, you said you were in contact with a few members of the council. Who were you talking with?"
+"I've heard that name several times so far. He's on my list to interview."
 
-"No one here," he grumbled. "Well, mostly. One of Dear's clade and Jonas. If either of them were invited, I never would've come."
+The skunk sighed, nodded, sipped his tea. "I suppose he is."
 
-"Me either," Debarre said.
+"Do you have any suggestions for what to ask him?"
 
-"Same." user11824 shrugged. "Though I'd be surprised if Dear had invited them."
+"No. He will control the interview from start to finish. I am told that one of your cocladists has already interviewed True Name. If she learned from anyone, it was Jonas. There is no hope of trying to own the interview, no need to try and guide the questions."
 
-*"Quite,"* the fox said curtly.
+"I'll admit that I'm starting to feel in over my head."
 
-Debarre looked sheepishly at the fox, ears splayed. "Sorry, Dear. I know you've distanced yourself from all that."
+End Waking raised his mug toward em in a toast. "We all are, Ioan. Only, you and precious few others realize that now."
 
-"They were interesting," user11824 said. "And I can't think of anything worse."
+"So, I guess for my next question, What does it mean that you influenced the finances phys-side?"
 
-Codrin redirected the conversation. "That aside, then, when did you upload, Yared? Or any of you, I guess."
+"It was largely a matter of politicking. Strings to pull, ears to whisper into, suggestions made on both the governmental and DDR level. We played them like a finely-tuned instrument, the Odists and the Jonas clade. I would have long, serious talks with politicians; longer, more fun talks with DDR junkies, bless their stupid, stupid hearts. I coordinated with others to help influence sentiment here sys-side, encouraging people to write home and suggest to their families that they consider all of this in a way that aligned with our goals."
 
-"I uploaded Secession day. Literally about an hour before Secession itself. I was the last upload before it took effect. An 'honor' they called it."
+"What were your goals?"
 
-Codrin nodded, looked to Debarre.
+The skunk finished his tea and spent a moment fishing all of the leaves and berries from the bottom of his mug to the rim so that he could eat them, as promised. It meant a moment of downtime, during which Ioan sipped eir own tea.
 
-"The same day as Dear," Debarre said.
+Sitting back and curling his tail absentmindedly into his lap to brush it free of leaves and twigs, End Waking said, "Short term, to lower the cost of uploading and make it seem ever more appealing. Middle-term, the goal was to pass the legislation that led to several governments paying families when an individual uploaded. It started as a sort of subsidy for the lost income, and I think some locales still think of it that way, but it quickly turned into an incentive. Did you have any siblings, Ioan?"
 
-"What? Was that planned?"
+Ey nodded.
 
-The weasel laughed. "Oh yes. Michelle and I pooled our money to upload as soon as we could."
+"And were you the eldest?"
 
-"You were friends before, then?"
+Ey frowned, nodded again.
 
-Dear nodded. *"We went through a lot together."*
+"We planted an idea, a subtle one, that it might be a good idea for the eldest child to upload and use the payout to fund a better life for the other children."
 
-Codrin was tempted to ask if Debarre had also known the author of the Ode, but knew that that went well beyond dinner-wrecking. Instead, ey looked to user11824.
+"I never heard anyone--"
 
-"I dunno. 2120? It was an exciting time, and I've done my best to forget about it."
+"This is what I mean by subtle. It was not something anyone really talked about. It was simply a convention that formed over time, and for everyone who followed it, the idea seemed to come to them of their own accord."
 
-"About what percentage of your time on council was exciting?" Debarre asked.
+"But it didn't. It came from you."
 
-"More than I would've liked."
+The skunk winced. "Yes, it came from me."
 
-Dear's partner laughed. "Why'd you even join, then?"
+Ioan sighed and, seeing nowhere else to put it, set eir mug on the floor by the bed.
 
-"Mom was a politician," he said, shrugging. "I learned all that bullshit from her, and the S-R Bloc gang pressed me into joining."
+"I feel compelled to repeat that I am not at all proud of what I did. This--" He gestured around. "This is my penance. I live my life in solitude in a place that does not know money, does not know the subtle machinations of politics, and should either of those enter, would not care one bit about them. People think of forests as fragile areas of land, and while this is true, they are also giant --- truly enormous --- singular entities that do not give a single, solitary fuck about you and your schemes, your thoughts, or your emotions. I have stumbled into ravines. I have had dead branches fall on me. I have gotten caught in land-slides, mud-slides, and flash-floods. I have learned the hard way which plants are safe to eat. I have bled on the land." There was a long pause before he continued, "I hesitate to say that the forest hates me, but it comes perilously close. This is my penance."
 
-"Who were they?" Codrin asked.
+They sat in silence for several long minutes while Ioan digested this and End Waking did whatever it was that the penitent architect of eir entire existence here on the System did. Repent, perhaps, but what did that mean in the face of such enormity?
 
-"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."
+"Let's walk," Ioan finally said.
 
-"Well, I know the Odists are here on the LVs, as well as you two and Ezekiel. Are Jonas and the Russians here?"
+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.
 
-user11824 frowned. "That's an interesting question."
+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."
 
-"That's a bad thing, isn't it?"
+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.
 
-*"Jonas is on the LVs, yes. The S-R Bloc trio are no longer on the System."* Dear swirled its wine in its glass. *"Ask a different question, my dear."*
+"Why do you like this place?" ey asked. "If it's close to hating you, I mean."
 
-Codrin nodded. "Alright. Were any of the rest of you involved in Launch as well as Secession?"
+"Do you remember the stanza of your cocladist's parter?"
 
-Debarre snorted and shook his head. "No, thank God. I had my fill, and I was glad when the Council dissolved."
+Ioan dredged up the Ode that was the basis for all of their names and recited slowly:
 
-"What happened to dissolve it?"
+> That which lives is forever praiseworthy,  
+> for they, knowing not, provide life in death.  
+> Dear the wheat and rye under the stars:  
+> serene; sustained and sustaining.  
+> Dear, also, the tree that was felled  
+> which offers heat and warmth in fire.  
+> What praise we give we give by consuming,  
+> what gifts we give we give in death,  
+> what lives we lead we lead in memory,  
+> and the end of memory lies beneath the roots.
 
-He looked to Dear, who shrugged. "After a while, it was just Odists and Jonases," he said down to his wine glass. "Any possible guidance the Council could have provided would have come from them even if we had said it. It had been so thoroughly undermined that we all basically gave up and let the thing end rather than artificially prolonging a puppet government."
+End Waking nodded. He murmured, "I sometimes...no, I often think that I belong to the wrong stanza. This is where I belong. I like her plenty and do not begrudge her the name that she owns, but I wish, sometimes, that I was named And The End Of Memory Lies Beneath The Roots."
 
-*"We were terrible people, yes."* Dear's shoulders slumped. *"I am quite glad that I had not yet been forked for that. If I had had any direct participation in all that happened, I doubt that I would be sitting here with you all."*
+Ioan looked around at the trees, the ferns, the carpets of periwinkle and spots of mint and horsepepper and balm, the epiphytes climbing trunks, the moss on stumps.
 
-Yared spoke up next. "I didn't have anything to do with the launch effort. I dropped politics like a bad habit as soon as I saw the direction in which the Council was heading. That said, I couldn't help but learn all I could about it, read every memo I could, learn about some of the physics of it. I was just done with being an active participant."
+"I do not think that the author of the Ode meant literally," the skunk said, laughing. "But you share my views on it. While it is not strictly possible on the System, I do hope that one day, the end of memory, that memory of all that I did, lies dead beneath the roots."
 
-"Why is that?" Codrin asked.
+A few minutes of silent walking followed as Ioan was guided through a section of, yes, thick roots that threatened to entangle eir feet.
 
-Yared turned his wine glass between his fingertips for a moment, simply thinking. "How much do you know about Christianity?" he asked.
+Once they were past that, he continued. "It is important to me that there be something other than politics in the world. I spent so much of my existence shaping the world around me to some grand scheme. Now that I am completely and utterly beholden to the world in turn, it feels relaxing, freeing."
 
-Ey must have looked quite confused at the question, as Dear giggled.
+"May said something like that," Ioan said, panting. "That there was freedom in staying behind in a world where not staying behind is the default."
 
-"I promise I'm going somewhere with this," Yared said, grinning nervously.
+"May Then My Name is the only one of my entire stanza that I like, and certainly the only one that I trust."
 
-*"You can actually blame me for this, my dear. I helped him come up with the correlation he is about to use."*
+Ioan smiled, nodded.
 
-Codrin said, "I mean, I know the basic precepts. Some of the history, that sort of thing."
+"So many of the Odists are built to manipulate in such complex ways. It is all part of theatre. I am sure that you two have talked about that already. Even May Then My Name is manipulative in her unfailingly kind way." The skunk stopped and stepped aside to let Ioan come stand beside him before a creek at the bottom of a ravine. "It is a very difficult habit to break. Serene is manipulative: this place is built to be loved in spite of its antipathy towards intrusions. Dear is manipulative: its life is one lived bending the experiences of others to its whims in ways far beyond any those of any prior artist as it plays its games. I am a repentant manipulator."
 
-"And Judaism?"
+"How so?" ey asked.
 
-"Uh, probably much less. I know that Jesus was a Jew."
+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?"
 
-"Okay, that's enough to at least make this point. You know that Jesus had his apostles and that one of them, at least later on, was Paul, who converted on the road to Damascus and became a fervent believer. He started churches up all over the region."
+Ioan tilted eir head. "I suppose. It was endearing."
 
-Ey nodded. "I know of Paul, yeah."
+"A clever ruse left over from long habit. It is a way to be likeable."
 
-"Good. Well, the story goes that there was an argument about whether or not gentiles were allowed in the early Christian church, as Paul argued, or whether they needed to convert to Judaism first."
+"Doesn't everyone want to be likeable, though?"
 
-"And we know that Paul won that debate."
+"Yes. It is a matter of intent, I suppose." He gave a lopsided grin and bumped his shoulder against Ioan's. "But I am being a mopey little shit. Thank you for humoring me."
 
-Yared nodded. "Yes. As soon as it was decided that anyone could become a Christian without becoming a Jew, Christianity effectively became its own religion, not beholden to the laws of Judaism."
+Ioan laughed. "Of course. It was still a nice conversation, even if it was a stressful topic. And it's a beautiful place to talk, and a beautiful walk."
 
-"I can kind of see where this is going," Codrin said slowly. "Secession is rather like the point at which the System effectively became its own country."
+End Waking nodded. "That it is. I never get tired of it. I wonder if it is still penance if one enjoys it."
 
-"Bear with me. What your partner showed me was an alternate telling of this story. Sometime back in medieval Europe, a Jewish community started circulating an old story called 'Toledot Yeshu', which means something like the ancestry or generations of Jesus. Much of it is a retelling of the gospels with Jesus as a trickster magician. But Paul in this story becomes something more interesting, apologies to present company."
+"I suppose it can be. It still sounds difficult."
 
-user11824 rolled his eyes and finished his wine.
+"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?"
 
-"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."
+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."
 
-*"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."*
+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."
 
-Codrin frowned. "Are you suggesting that Secession was engineered to keep the System from remaining a part of society, phys-side?"
+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?"
 
-There was a tense moment of silence before Yared nodded. "I was the tool of Paul. I was the tool of *two* Pauls, one in the form of a representative of the phys-side government who used me to steer public opinion toward permitting Secession, and one in the form of True Name and Jonas who wanted the System to be independent for their own reasons. It was not enough to ensure the System's continued existence for them and it was not enough for the System's participation to be limited from the phys-side point of view. It needed to become its own entity."
+"Critical mass."
 
-All eyes were on Yared now, who sighed. "It needed to become its own entity by any means necessary, as soon as possible, and with as much plausible deniability as could be managed."
+"Critical mass? What do you mean?"
 
-*"Both sides wanted to preserve a way of life, and so differences were magnified to the point where Secession was inevitable,"* Dear said quietly. *"And so here we are, a completely separate entity, and we all thought it was our own idea. It is not some supercessionist nonsense, no matter what True Name and Jonas might have you believe. We all just wanted to live our best lives, and we all were made to believe that this was best solution for that."*
-
-Codrin finished eir wine and set the glass aside. "So you stayed away from the politics of Launch because you didn't want to become another tool of Paul."
-
-Yared nodded.
-
-Debarre said, "We all were, towards the end. Anyone who was a true believer in Secession was a tool for True Name and Jonas, in a way, or at least a potential tool."
-
-"This was not what I was expecting out of the evening," Codrin admitted. "I was going to just ask you all why you decided to join the launch and everything."
-
-user11824 laughed. "New place to be bored, is all."
-
-"Congrats on finding the interesting stuff," Dear's partner said.
-
-There were a few minutes of silence as everyone worked, in their own ways, to digest the information that had been shared.
-
-Finally, Debarre spoke up. "I'm happy that I'm still in touch with Dear and a few other Odists all the same. Michelle is gone, but a lot of the good that was in her is still around. Man, I had no idea how thoroughly she was split, though, that those who are nice can be so nice, and those who aren't can somehow completely lack all that made her good."
-
-Dear raised its glass to Debarre for a third toast of the evening. *"To her, to you, and to two hundred and thirty years of friendship."*
-
-"To lost friends," Debarre added.
-
-They all watched as Dear and Debarre drank to each other and those who were gone.
+There was a long silence before, rather than answering, End Waking took Ioan by the elbow and guided em back to the trail. "Let us get you back so that the berries are still fresh for May Then My Name."