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-# Codrin Bălan#Castor --- 2325
+# Yared Zerezghi --- 2125
 
-It took Codrin nearly a week to calm down enough to send True Name another message requesting to meet. It began with an apology.
+If the new year were to be a thing for Yared to celebrate, that was lost on him. He had long since lost track of how old he was, and the passage of time had begun to smear into a haze of referenda, of voting and posting and debating. He knew the years by the seasons and the fact that all of his posts on the DDR had a date attached to them, but beyond that, the significance of December thirty-first ticking over into January first held little sway over him.
 
-"True Name, first of all, I'd like to apologize for becoming so heated during our last interaction," ey said to er recording instance. "When confronted with information at such a scale, it is easy to become overwhelmed. I have since had time to read through both my notes from our meeting and the notes from my cocladists, and I think I understand better about what it was that you were trying to tell me. With that in mind, I'd like to meet up again to discuss some of the questions I didn't get to previously, and to allow you to explain anything you would like. Please let me know when would work best. Thank you."
+If the passage of referendum 10b30188 was to be something to celebrate, that was also lost on him. The process of promoting and supporting the bill had long since taken over his life, and he had little enough energy left to acknowledge that it had even passed by a supermajority of votes.
 
-Dear was nowhere to be found, this time. The fox had spent much of the last week alternating between requesting to be left alone and crying against eir shoulder. The story of what True Name had told em in combination from the news from Pollux had struck a deep chord with it, and when it did speak on the issue, the conversations would quickly end with *"I did not know. I promise, Codrin, I did not know."*
+He should be celebrating both of these, he knew. 
 
-So ey waited, ey read, and ey calmed down, and then ey scheduled eir interview.
+He should be celebrating them because the rattle, pop, and boom of fireworks outside told him to celebrate the new year. He should be celebrating them because he was inundated not only with congratulatory messages telling him to do so for his pet issue passing, for his first major amendment passing, but for vile threats of harm, of finding him, of killing him, or for the media requests piling up in his inbox, and in the end, was that not a sign of success for a politician?
 
-The response came five minutes later, a simple ping of acknowledgement followed by a calm suggestion that immediately would be as good a time as any.
+He knew that he should be celebrating, most of all, because True Name and Jonas had each sent him dozens of messages telling him how the news had been received sys-side, describing the cheers of the Council of Eight, gushing about the unanimously positive moods of those who had been tracking the progression of the bill.
 
-This time, when Codrin stepped into True Name's apartment, ey was greeted by the skunk standing where she had the last two interviews, and this time, her expression was one of calm curiosity, rather than that initial warmth and its following coldness."
+And yet here he was, once more walking from his apartment to the patch of scrub grass and trees at the end of his block, wishing he'd left his phone at home.
 
-"Mx. Bălan, it is nice to see you again."
+The trees, at least, had nothing to say. They cared not about the new year except perhaps for the risk provided by the fireworks. They most certainly cared not for the secession of the System. All they cared about was their patch of dirt and the sun above and whether or not they got enough water. Yared wound his way around each of them in turn, sometimes sitting at the base of one or running a hand along the rough, papery bark of another, doing his best to absorb some of that apathy himself.
 
-Ey bowed. "Of course. Again, my apologies for getting so upset last time. It's a bit of a first for me, but that was a lot to handle all at once."
+No one, in the end, had been able to convince him that having his name inextricably linked to the secession amendment would be anything but trouble, moving forward. He had tried to pick up a new pet referendum to follow after the interest had swung hard in favor of secession, something about limiting the environmental impact of dune stabilization in the Sahara, but the first response to his post in the DDR forums was met with a derisive "Of course the bleeding heart who either loves the System so much he bet his life guaranteeing their independence or hated it so much as to make it irrelevant to the rest of the world would be concerned about an issue he has absolutely no stake in. Either way, upload and find out, Yared, and the rest of us can move on."
 
-"I understand," the skunk said, returning the bow before gesturing em down the hall once more. "We will have a calmer discussion this time, I believe."
+That had stung so much that he'd not looked at the DDR forums or touched the debate sims since except to ensure that the referendum had passed. He was tempted to delete his account, after that, though he knew that that would be a mistake, inviting either further scorn from his detractors or disappointment from his supporters.
 
-They sat down on either side of the desk once more, and Codrin noted that there was now a single notepad.
+He jumped from where he'd hunched down at the base of a tree, poking around the roots with a stick. His implants buzzed again and he pulled out his phone to check on who it was, groaning at the sight of Demma's name.
 
-"Now, what would you like to ask me? I suspect you will feel more comfortable if you led."
+"Mr. Zerezghi," the voice on the other end said, sounding cheerful. "Happy New Year. I was wondering if you would be so kind as to join us for the tail end of our celebrations?"
 
-Ey nodded. "Alright. Let's start with Launch this time. It sounds like you were involved with that as well. Can you tell me about that?"
+"Join..?"
 
-"Of course. Is there any particular area you would like me to begin? Launch is a very broad topic."
+"Of course, Yared. Are you at your park? We can meet you there and pick you up. The dress is semiformal. We can provide you with that, if you need."
 
-"Well, Ne Jonas told Codrin#Pollux that we --- that is, the Bălan clade and the liberal elements of the Ode clade --- were guided toward beginning this project. Is that true?"
+"Celebration?" he said, numb.
 
-If the phrase 'liberal elements' or its implication that True Name must be one of the conservatives had any effect on the skunk, she didn't show it. Instead, she simply nodded. "Yes. A project such as this was deemed important in that it would add the spice needed to keep System life on its toes, much as Ne Jonas mentioned. We encouraged this in a calm and orderly fashion. Does that make sense?"
+Demma laughed. "Of course, Yared. We'll meet you momentarily, and you'll see."
 
-"I suppose. When did the nudges come?"
+The car was once more ready and waiting for him at the edge of his mini-forest, still humming slightly from the radiator fan and air conditioner. The driver was once more standing outside, though this time he had a long thawb draped over one arm, gold brocade peeking out through folds in the cream-colored fabric.
 
-True name sighed and rested on her forearms on the desk. "To answer that question requires answering a different question. We began by canvasing various art institutes, actually. I do not know why we simply did not track Dear or May Then My Name or any of the Pointing At Itself stanza, as that would probably have shortened our search a good deal. All the same, we came across an exhibition at the Simien Fang School of Art and Design on history and its context in the world of the System by one Ioan Bălan. Do you remember that?"
+"This should fit over your current clothes, Mr Zerezghi. Might as well put it on out here where you can move a bit more easily."
 
-Codrin lifted eir pen and blinked up to the ceiling, dredging up the memories of eir own gallery exhibition, so many years ago.
+It had been a long time since Yared had worn a thawb, and it took a moment to navigate so much fabric, but soon, he had it up over his head and spilling down over his body, the soft linen tumbling down nearly to his ankles. It really was quite nice, too. The linen was pre-worn and soft, and the gold brocade ran in two thick stripes from shoulder to hem down his front. It felt somewhat bunched up with his shirt beneath it, but wasn't uncomfortable.
 
-Too many years, ago, ey realized. "But that was in 2298."
+The driver nodded appreciatively, saying, "It looks good on you. Your shirt underneath may ride up, but feel free to slip off to a restroom when we arrive and you'll be able to take it off and check it at the coatroom."
 
-True Name nodded. "It was, yes."
+Yared nodded, smiled as best he could, and bowed to the driver. It was the first time he'd seen the man's eyes, and he was pleased to note that they looked as though they were always a second away from crinkling in a smile.
 
-"But the launch project was proposed in 2306, wasn't it?"
+In the back of the car, Demma greeted him with a warm smile of his own, while a rather severe looking woman leaned forward to shake his hand.
 
-"It was, yes," the skunk repeated. "Publicly, at least. The project began as a collaboration between the Jonas clade and elements of the Ode clade in 2290."
+"Yared, I'd like to introduce you to Councilor Aida Tamrat," Demma said, gesturing. "Aida, this is Yared Zerezghi, the author of the secession amendment."
 
-"But you said that Michelle told you--"
+"A pleasure, of course," she said. "Thank you for all of your hard work."
 
-"To "Do something big. Do something worthy of us", yes. My up-tree instances told you a slightly different phrase to better guide your line of thought to where we are today. There is nowhere in there that mentions Launch, though, is there?"
+Overwhelmed, he simply bowed as best he could from his cushy seat in the back of the car.
 
-"I suppose, not," ey said.
+From there, he said little, having little enough chance to say so. Demma and Tamrat continued their conversation from before, which seemed, on the surface, to be about the party they'd just come from --- who was with whom, who wore what, what drinks had been most common --- yet seemed to carry serious undertones of deep study, as though all of this information taken as a whole showed some gestalt of the political momenta this way and that. The driver, of course, remained silent, so all Yared could do was sit, smile, and nod when addressed.
 
-"But perhaps we ought to talk about Michelle, as well. I also said in that interview that I no longer considered myself Michelle Hadje, having diverged too far from her to be the same person. That is why we had no real compunctions about influencing her as well. That began many years back, of course, but when your root instance makes a suggestion to you, especially on the day she dies, you are quite likely to follow it, are you not? That provides quite a useful tool when interfacing with all elements of the clade, so we decided to take advantage of that early on."
+The short ride down familiar streets took them back to Government House, but this time, rather than simply sitting outside of the building, the car was waved through a gate and directed down a ramp to a parking garage underneath. From there, they were subjected to a security scan --- pat-down and implant scan both --- and whisked up a flight of stairs, through long halls, and eventually deposited in a chamber crowded with more nicely dressed persons drinking champagne from thin flutes.
 
-"You...influenced Michelle to steer the Clade?"
+*Very* nicely dressed, he quickly realized, and he wondered if not dressing him up more had been an attempt to make him wear his status as a lesser-than plainly.
 
-True Name nodded, smiling. "It is what we --- the clade, yes, but my stanza in particular --- are good at, yes, so we nudged her to suggest what she did to the first lines, all vague pronouncements, which helped us guide everyone toward the project."
+Later that night, nearing two in the morning, he realized that he could remember little of the party. He was handed a champagne flute and passed around the room as though an interesting object. Councilors and dignitaries of various levels shook his hand, smiled to him with unsmiling eyes, and once again congratulated him on a job well done.
 
-"And did you nudge her to quit?"
+"These are the interested parties I've mentioned," Demma said at one point. "They're all pleased to meet you in person."
 
-The skunk did not speak. A non-answer that was answer enough.
+If that was the case, then that pleasure had been slight indeed.
 
-Codrin spent a minute tamping down eir temper. Ey had, after all, promised to remain calm. When ey felt like ey could speak in a level tone of voice, ey asked, "So you began the project of the launch long before it was really an open discussion. What was involved in that?"
+Perhaps the party slipped so easily from his mind due to the sheer mundanity of it, but more likely, it was the following conversation that overshadowed it in importance.
 
-"There were three aspects involved. Phys-side political, sys-side political, and technological. Sys-side was, as always, the easiest. Hardly anything to be done. Phys-side, we had to pull quite a few strings. Technologically, it simply involved the right organizations funded, the right people hired at those organizations --- as our dear Douglas was --- the right scientists put in charge of the right projects. Do you need further details on that? I can speak at length, but want to respect your time and energy, if you have additional questions."
+In the car, as he was being returned to his house, Demma broke the tired silence with, "Yared, thank you again for your assistance in this project. I have a few requests to make of you before we part ways."
 
-"To confirm, you influenced Michelle Hadje to ensure the clade worked with the launch project, influenced politics phys-side to ensure that support would be there, and made sure Douglas was part of the team?"
+Yared nodded hesitantly. "Of course, councilor."
 
-"We made sure that the team was the team it needed to be, Codrin. Douglas was a bonus. He was impressionable at a young age, so we steered him toward being an Ansible tech, ensured he made it to the station, and were happy to see how good a fit he was for the role of launch director." True Name smiled. "I have talked with him a few times, though he did not know who I was when I did so. He is very nice, and very happy in his position. He is proud of how far he has gotten, and I am proud of him. Do not confuse influence with numbing mind control. It is important that the people we work with do things of their own, happy volition, even if they were originally our ideas."
+"First of all, I hope you understand that your continued discretion is of the utmost importance. It is key to our trust and to your own safety and security." There was a meaningful pause before Demma smiled. "From potential bad actors, of course."
 
-Codrin nodded. "Well, if he's happy, then I suppose that's a good thing."
+"Yes, of course," he said, starting to rub his palms against his knees before he remembered that he was still wearing the long garment he had been loaned.
 
-True Name beamed. "Of course."
+"Thank you. Secondly, please do not contact me or any of the interested parties you met at tonight's soiree. This, I think, shall be easy, as many of them are quite difficult to reach, and the contact information we provided you with to stay in touch is now no longer active."
 
-"And Michelle quitting? Ioan told me that May Then My Name put it, "She could not do but what she did"."
+He nodded again, silent.
 
-"If that is how she felt, then I suppose there is little that I can do to change it, given that she is gone. I apologize that May Then My Name feels upset about it, but again, there is little that I can do to change that."
+"Third, keep in mind that, as you are now a person of interest to the government, all of your actions will be monitored simply as a matter of course. Please also note that your interactions on the direct democracy representative forums will be monitored closest of all, and should they deviate from NEAC majority party or coalition stance, you may be subject to reprisal."
 
-Ey sighed, nodded, and wrote down her answer. "And how have you felt now that you've pulled all this off?"
+Yared's breathing grew shallow. This was unheard of. As far as he could remember, a government had never required a single individual to toe the party line. But then, perhaps it was unheard of due to the implicit threat of violence that Demma had dropped early on, unheard of because it had never reached the light of day. He nodded slowly.
 
-True Name looked genuinely thoughtful. "I hesitate to say 'proud', but I am pleased that it went off as smoothly as it did. There were a few bumps on the road, but nothing difficult to overcome. We --- the Odists you have called conservative --- continue to work as we will. Jonas, bless his black heart, continues to work as he will. We stay in contact and keep divergence to a minimum until we are out of harm's way, and then we ensure that we will keep our own projects safe. Castor, Pollux, and the L<sub>5</sub> System. It is all going as close to plan as we could have expected."
+"Excellent. Those are the three requests. In order to formalize this agreement, I'd like you to place your thumb here--" the councilor had pulled out his phone where a rectangle outlined where his thumbprint should wind up. "--and state aloud that you agree."
 
-"So you're...happy?"
+He hesitated long enough that Demma began to frown, but before any further encouragement was given, he did as he was told, pressing his thumb to the reader and saying, "I agree."
 
-"Pleased," she repeated, laughing. "I will have time to be happy when I am dead. Until then I will continue to be pleased and continue to work."
+"Thank you, Mr Zerezghi." He sighed and slumped back into his seat. "My apologies for the rather formal interaction, but it was necessary to get this out of the way."
 
-Codrin re-capped eir pen and folded eir hands on top of eir notebook. Ey had dozens of other questions ey could ask, but ey felt full. Full to overflowing.
+Yared did not relax into his seat. He was as keyed up as he'd been before the night had begun, but now for entirely different reasons.
 
-"Does that mean we are done with the interview, Mx Bălan?" True Name asked, smiling.
+After a long silence, he spoke up. "Congratulations, councilor."
 
-"I'm out of energy, as you put it." Ey sighed. "Unless you have anything else to share, maybe we can put off any further questions until next time. I'm sorry it was so short."
+"Mm?" Demma sat up, then, comprehending, waved a hand dismissively. "Thank you. The bill passed as expected, and now we won't have to worry about it."
 
-True name stood, brushing her paws down over her blouse to straighten some imagined crease. "Then I must thank you. It has been surprisingly fulfilling to be able to talk through all of this. It is, as your partner states, irreversibility. We cannot un-launch, we cannot un-diverge from Pollux or the System. You can surely appreciate that."
+Yared frowned. "Do you think there will be any further legislation around the System?"
 
-"I'll have to tell it that when I get back. It'll be excited to hear its idea out in the wild."
+"The System?" The councilor gave a short, sharp bark of a laugh. "It's out of our way, as I say. Rubbish idea from the start, of course, but meddlesome minds will always meddle, so it's all we can do to keep them as far away from us as possible."
 
-The skunk walked with em to the door and grinned. "It will be fucking pissed, Codrin Bălan, and we both know that."
+"I...don't understand. What do you mean?"
 
-When ey returned home and set down eir notes on eir desk, ey quit to merge with the Codrin that had remained behind, who, bearing the sudden weight of exhaustion, walked into the house proper, into the bedroom, and slipped, fully-clothed, beneath the sheets. The interview had not lasted more than half an hour, and yet ey felt drained.
+Demma grinned. "There's no need for you to, but I'll do my best to explain if it will keep you placated. The System is a nuisance and a political thorn in everyone's side. It needed removal --- as any thorn does --- before the infection spread. Anyone who held onto their citizenship while making a one-way journey to a nowhere we aren't even sure is real could still have had influence back in their so-called home countries. Look at Jonas, if you need a prime example. Now they can't. That's that. It's a dumping ground for dreamers, and the less of those we have here, the easier our jobs get."
 
-Ey must have dozed off at some point, as ey was woken by Dear crawling into the bed behind em, one of the fox's skinny arms slinking around eir chest, and then a cold nose pressed against the back of eir neck.
+"But I thought," Yared said, voice raw. "I thought you wanted to help them secede."
 
-"Afternoon," ey mumbled.
+Demma only shrugged. "I did. Just maybe not for the same reasons as you."
 
-*"Evening, actually. I wanted to let you sleep, but dinner will be up shortly."*
+"I'm sorry, councilor. I had been under the impression--"
 
-Codrin nodded. "Thanks. Stressful day."
+"You, too, are a dreamer, Yared. One who is easy enough to control, but a dreamer nonetheless." Demma said, his smile kind and completely, totally discomfiting for it. "If you wish to continue dreaming, then, well, I suppose I have already made my point about the System, yes?"
 
-*"It is difficult, is it not?"* Dear murmured against eir neck. *"I apologize that this was the way that you had to learn the truth. I apologize that I was not able to tell you what I did know, and I apologize that I did not know the rest. I apologize for many things, my dear. I cannot apologize for what the other elements of the clade did, but I am sorry all the same."*
+The rest of the car ride proceeded in silence. The only other words that were spoken to him were by the driver as he helped Yared out of the loaned thawb.
 
-"You don't have to apologize for her. For them. What did you call them before?"
+"Mr Zerezghi, it was a pleasure sharing coffee with you," he said, and then they were gone, black car disappearing into gold-lit night.
 
-*"Batty,"* the fox giggled. *"They are all batty."*
-
-"Very, very batty," Codrin mumbled, and there was a pleasant silence between the two.
-
-A loud clatter and a shouted curse from the kitchen was followed quickly by Dear forking off an instance to go help its partner, leaving the original fox and Codrin to sit up in bed.
-
-"You know," ey said. "True Name said that you'd get fucking pissed if I told you this, but I'm going to anyway, because I can't leave well enough alone. She said that the divergence between the two LVs and the System was irreversible."
-
-*"Oh, did she?"* Dear said, laughing. *"What a fraud."*
-
-"That's not fucking pissed. I was promised fucking pissed."
-
-Dear nipped at eir shoulder and grinned toothily at em. *"I am no good at 'fucking pissed', but that will have to do."*
-
-"Ow!" Ey pushed at the fox and grinned. "It'll have to do. I'm sorry I came home and crashed. Thanks for coming to wake me, Dear."
-
-*"It is my pleasure, of course."* It blinked as, apparently, its forked instance quit and merged. *"Dinner is ready, by the way."*
-
-"Alright. I'll probably feel better after food, too."
-
-*"Do you really feel bad, Codrin?"*
-
-"Kind of," ey said. "It was just...a lot. I feel jerked around. It's depressing."
-
-Dear nodded and crawled out of the bed, reaching out a paw to help em up. *"It is not a great feeling, no. The results are not so bad, though, are they? We are on a hunk of metal and carbon and silicon and whatever the fuck the LVs are made of hurtling through space at some unimaginable speed. There are two of us, of our little families, living two completely separate lives, and both of us are in love. And Ioan and May Then My name are back at the station being adorable nerds together or whatever it is they do, and perhaps even they are in love."*
-
-Codrin lauged.
-
-*"The means were unsavory, to put it lightly--"*
-
-"Extremely lightly."
-
-*"Well, yes. The means were unsavory to an extreme, but the ends are not so bad, are they, my dear?"*
-
-"No." Codrin finally allowed emself to be pulled to eir feet, smoothing out eir rumpled clothing. "No, I suppose not."