Bit of a teaser for our latest book. Twins, Yonatin and Ikri, are talking about using the command language of Fenekere to do tricks on the Network, and they are both trans and the subject of picking a new name for Yonatin has been coming up a lot lately. Fenekere root words are also the names of Crew positions for each Exodus ship. Yonatin and Ikri are new members of the Resistance aboard the Terra Supreme, the predecessor ship to the Sunspot. So, they're also daydreaming about the day they might get to make and take over a new ship:
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“Nevermind. Back to your dream,” Ikri dismissed it all. “How did you do that? Can you tell me? I want to try it, too.”
“Oh! I’ll give you the commands! But, if you want to research it yourself and see what you can come up with, I found that the central key words were Jenefere and `e, of all things,” Yonatin explained. “I mean, Jenefere is ‘the Dreamer’, so that makes sense. But, you need to use ‘fefu `e’ to make the commands affect your dream consciousness. Or something like that. I wonder if you might be able to find some other ways of constructing the commands, though. But I’ll give you all the ones I made. Just a second.”
While they were putting together a file to send to their sister, she said, “Ooh, Jenefere. I like that. Maybe an Inmararräo version of it, like Yenifre. Ooh. Ooh! I almost like that more than Ikri. Hmm.”
Yonatin paused in their work and furrowed their brow, lowering their lure, “But you’re such an Ikri right now.”
“Oh, I know. I’m not sure I’m really going to change my name again,” Ikri said.
“Well, and I was thinking of taking something like Yenifre,” Yonatin added in a bit of a mumble.
Ikri sat up straighter and said, “Oh, you should!”
“No, but you are more like Yenifre than I am,” Yonatin protested. “I mean, I love dreaming and all that, but your waking thoughts are like dreams all the time! Or, at least, they were when you showed them to me.”
“I don’t really experience them that way,” Ikri said.
“Well, when I saw them, that’s what they seemed like to me,” Yonatin said.
“Huh.” Ikri seemed to think about that for a bit. But then she said, “No, look. I’m going to keep Ikri for now. Yenifre really does suit you, seriously. You should take that. It should be you!” Then she got a really impish look on her face, squinting her eyes almost viciously and barely suppressing a smile, before she said, “Besides, when we do make a new Exodus Ship, you’ll be so busy being the new `e then that I can take the real name, Jenefere, for myself! Which I do think is even prettier.”
Yonatin pointed and said, “rude.”
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We'll probably start posting chapters of this book to our website a week from now:
Systems' Out! A story about plurality, consciousness, the fight to overcome physical dysphoria, and self advocacy in a world without assigne
We'll share links to the updates here on my blog, though.
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