Solo Log: Fundamentally Changed

**129 ATE - Gagneux, Danor**

Despite the week's notice for their gathering, Alain and Simone can't make it and Olivier's been out west in Nanterre for years. Four out of seven isn't bad for the end of the world, though, so the rest of them assemble at Enora's place. Her couch and some extra chairs have been shoved in front of the fireplace to ward off the apocalyptic cold. The snacks are predictably meager but a table next to the couch splits drinks between old beer and tiefling-warmed cocoa, the latter of which Cleone sips at gratefully while considering the others.

Enora and Lloyd are tactful enough not to push Cleone too hard before everyone's arrived, although even their smalltalk is tinged by exposed secrets. "Lloyd told us you really were a deva, but it's one thing to hear that and a second to see–" Enora gestures at her face, and Cleone is suddenly even more aware that before this week none of them have seen her in the six months since she stopped wearing her old makeup.

"...Well, you look different. But in a good way," Enora finishes thoughtfully.

Lloyd claps a hand on Cleone's shoulder. "She's even more beautiful than she used to be."

Cleone shoots him a dry look. "We're both dating other people."

Lloyd doesn't miss a beat. "And Carine is both secure in my love for her and in possession of eyes. She'd agree with me if she were here."

And he's probably right, Carine had been lovely when Cleone met her and Lloyd two days ago at his place. Good-natured, even joining in the bit when Cleone informed Lloyd he was a new father. (He'd been delighted, if baffled, to see Floyd now alive.)

Enora for her part is scrutinizing Cleone now. "You're dating someone? From Risur?"

Lloyd leans in closer to her on the couch, laying his head against Cleone's teasingly. "Would you believe it, Cleone found time to rescue Nathan Jierre from the fey and enter a whirlwind romance in between hunting an international conspiracy and faking her death? Our Cleone."

"Oh my god." Cleone sorely regrets telling him *anything*. "Less than half of that is true. First of all, it wasn't me who–"

She's interrupted by a knock at the door, and ten seconds later Manon is slamming the door closed and pointing an accusatory finger at Cleone.

"*You.* You owe us *so* many stories."

And really, Cleone isn't going to argue. Not when being here in Enora's living room, in her home city, surrounded by old friends who are far too willing to have her around after she cut off contact with them for over half a year…is somehow a real thing she's allowed to have. "I'll tell you all anything that Risur wouldn't kill me for saying."

Which is still, to be fair, quite a few secrets. Thank goodness for Florette, who'd helped her sort out what and wasn't common knowledge outside of the Risuri king's circle when they met up in Cherage.

Enora speaks up, wincing at her rattling door. "Hi, Manon. Cleone was just telling us what was and wasn't true about her dating…is it actually Nathan Jierre?"

"Nathan and the conspiracy are the only accurate parts of that statement," Cleone grumbles. Lloyd is still leaning against her, the jerk. "I didn't rescue him, the fey were keeping him safe to begin with, I *wish* I'd had the time for a whirlwind relationship, and - well, technically I did fake my death. That's not the only reason I had to stop contact, but…"

That statement hangs awkwardly in the air for a second before Manon strides over, grabbing a bottle of beer for herself in one sharp motion before planting herself in a chair. "That was the Obscurati on your ass, yeah? That letter Lloyd got made a lot more sense once word got out about Cherage."

Sometimes Manon's bluntness is a blessing. "Yeah, that was them. They have been…" She pulls her hands over her face in exasperation. How can she explain the entirety of what it means to have the Obscurati on her ass? The degree to which dealing with everything Ob-related has eclipsed her life?

But in the company of her old friends, she can let go. The story becomes a rant. "Holy *shit*, guys. You know, when I accepted that position in Risur I thought it'd be a lot of talk about Danoran best practices and showing off the best of what our country has to offer, right? It was like that for maybe a month. Then came the mysterious murders, and the rings, and the Obscurati everywhere. A murder victim was Obscurati. Our boss was Obscurati. *I* was Obscurati, or my past life was. *Nearly all the Jierres* were Obscurati. We just went deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole for two years straight until we ended up here."

It's not a particularly coherent narrative, but her friends are happy to pose questions. Her past life? She tells them about Alastor, and about Kasavarina, and about Nicodemus. How the fuck she got involved in Beran railroad construction chasing a conspiracy? She can tell them about their mission to Ber now, too, and the web of politics they'd gotten involved in. The Colossus? Cleone certainly knows about Borne, and unlike her last visit to Gagneux in the spring she can actually discuss some of the details.

She's saved from having to explain most of the Jierres' involvement, because Han Jierre did that already. Few people around Danor these days haven't at least heard of the Jierre Journal, as the papers have dubbed it. Enora actually annotates a copy as Cleone goes on, eventually passing it on to Lloyd and then Manon for their input.

"Are they really thinking about renaming the sovereign?" Manon mutters as she scribbles in a margin. "Heard the rumors, but I don't see what that's gonna do for anyone."

Yeah, Cleone's heard that a half dozen times by now in the past few weeks. "It'd be a rework of the powers and responsibilities given to the elected leader. More checks and balances, as well as a different name. But the politicians in Cherage haven't even agreed on the new title yet, let alone distribution of powers." Chancellor, President, Prime Minister, Representative Premiere, Chief Counsel…it's been shocking how many opinions people seem to have on the matter.

"History in the making, huh," Lloyd muses. "You'd think it would be more exciting."

"We have plenty of excitement if you look outside," Enora points out as she reheats her cocoa. "Maybe too much."

"Definitely too much," Cleone grouses. "I'm ready for the rest of my life to be boring. I haven't had a boring day since…" She has to pause to think about it. "Before the symposium. I finally got to take Nathan on a date for the first time."

"Oh, so that's *new*." Enora tilts her head, intrigue clear despite her usual reserved manner. "You still haven't explained how that happened."

"Well, that's…" Cleone sighs, wondering where to even start on that subject. "It's a long story."

"We've waited this long to hear from you." Manon retrieves another beer bottle to make a point. "And this is good news, unlike most everything else. Out with it, Cleone."

"Or else Lloyd will tell us his version of the story." Enora's eyes sparkle with amusement.

"Well, if you *insist*…"

Cleone sighs again, but this time with a swelling fondness that nearly brings tears to her eyes. It's really, really good to be home again.

"Anything but that," she laughs. "Okay, well, I should start with the fact that those rumors about Nathan getting kidnapped by Risur were…only half true, let's say."

And from there it's on to Axis Island and Duchess Ethelyn and Asrabey Varal and the fey, the last a topic that trips up all her friends when she tries to explain anything. Not that Cleone blames them in the slightest.

"So time just…happens when they say so?" Lloyd, the clockmaker, is naturally the most perplexed by the concept. Cleone nods to confirm, and his brow furrows. "But he was there for ten years in the time it took for a year to pass in the real world…but his body aged at the same rate it would in the real world…but if they're linked at all, time should pass *slower* in the fey world than it does in ours. So how does any of that even *work*?"

Cleone stares at him in sympathetic horror. *"I have no idea."*

Manon offers Lloyd some of her beer in condolence. Cleone rubs at her temples and continues her story; Lloyd leans against her again, comforting this time, as she recalls her friendship with Nathan in the wake of her own exile. Asking him out during a stopover in the middle of a mission, and then being unable to follow up when she returned to the end of the world.

"We'll finally have time to ourselves once I'm back in Risur," she finishes wistfully. "We'll still be busy, there's a lot to be done before we can fix the planes. But I'm going to spend some time helping with his research, and I'll be almost as glad to see him as I am to see you guys now after all this time."

"Yeah, well, don't you dare be a stranger again." Manon pulls her over for a firm hug. "I'll personally go and kick the Ob's asses if they keep making trouble for you."

Enora, who's been silent throughout the whole tale, chooses now to speak up. "Cleone. If you don't mind my asking…"

Whatever Enora wants to ask, she means business. Cleone straightens her posture, although she doesn't make an effort to let go of Manon. "Yes?"

"How easy will this be to fix? This whole planes situation." Enora gestures a hand to the window, where the churning of the Gyre is visible in the evening sky. "You've been vague about the details, and I'm sure that's intentional. But can you tell us what we might expect?"

Cleone drums her fingers on the seat of the couch. It's a fair question, and an important one. She wishes she had a better answer for her friends. "Yeah. I can't say too much, because *that* is the kind of thing Risur would kill me for. We don't even have everything figured out yet. But I can say that it'll take months more for sure, and…even when we're done, the world is going to be different than it used to be."

"Different how?" That's Lloyd.

"Well, the sun will come back, for sure. And there won't be any more hiveminds." Her friends are visibly relieved at that. "Aside from that…that's the part we haven't figured out yet." She laughs, but this time it's more stressed than anything. "I don't know, guys. We can't just return Lanjyr to how it used to be, even if we wanted to. So then the question is, what's going to change? If we have to change the world a second time, how are we going to change it? That's a question you don't want to rush the answer to if you can afford it, but we do need to give it some serious thought."

A hush falls over the group, as everyone else contemplates the question that's been on her mind since the apocalypse first came. Cleone's conversation with Han Jierre after Axis Island echoes in her brain. *"Such a vague answer, you have no vision… As the planet hurtles towards the Gyre, when do you think people are going to start freezing to death?"*

But they can't afford another Ratios, she thinks. There will be no more chances for millennia after closing the seal, or at all if things go badly. They have to get this *right*.

Enora is first to break the silence. "I know there must be rules you can't tell us. But if I could change one thing about the world, without limits…I'd make it so that everyone has the resources they need to survive comfortably. Access to food, water, shelter, all of that."

"I'd change it so that nobody can keep up conspiracies," Manon decides. "Not just the likes of the Obscurati, but the people who get rich and powerful off of corrupt dealings. Plenty of those outside the government, too."

"Making access to information easy would do a lot, too. Both in terms of formal schooling and increasing transparency in organizations." Lloyd sweeps his arms out wide, indicating the three women. "What would we have done without school, you know?"

Everyone looks at Cleone next, and she opens her mouth to protest that she can't say anything because she already knows the limitations of the planes they have to work with. But…maybe she can, actually.

She closes her eyes and, for the first time in who knows how long, tries to throw out Cleone the constable. Here with her oldest friends she's just a fellow graduate of Gagneux's technical university, talking about her hopes and dreams while they go through their drinks. What does *she* want?

"I'd make it so that no matter how bad things get, there's always something you can hold onto." Cleone the constable isn't allowed to answer, but her experiences are permitted as evidence: Kasavarina's grief. Han's emptiness. Nicodemus' tyranny. The people she couldn't save, and those who never got a chance to save themselves. The conversation she had with Nathan, after Axis Island. "A path towards a solution, and a reason to keep going. Both are important."

Enora nods. Manon hugs her again, and Cleone hugs back. Lloyd sips his beer in contemplation.

"Weeeeell," he drawls, "If we put all of those things together…do you think we'd be missing anything?"

"What about things you can do?" Manon jumps to the challenge. "Teleporting isn't so bad. What if we could breathe underwater, or what if everyone could make fire?"

The conversation continues. Enora meets Cleone's eyes before pointedly throwing out a few more suggestions and passes her some freshly warmed cocoa without a word.

Cleone drinks half the cup in one go and settles back to listen to her friends.