Meroc: Morinti! Zet, Morinti only just found out about Fift and Shria! I’ve been following them longer than you—I saw them talk to Thavé live!

Zetich: Well, sure, but Morinti is interested now, and after all, Morinti’s third cousin is in . . .

Meroc: Trickster’s feet, give it a rest with Perjes already! Perjes is in that clip-op for all of six heartbeats, gaping like a slackwit from the other side of a clearing. The way Morinti goes on and on about it, you’d think . . . anyway, fine, I’m watching.

Meroc: Did you just see that . . . ? Oh fuck.

Zetich: Isn’t it just . . .

Meroc: Aw, those poor kids!

Zetich: I knew you’d get it. Everyone here says Shria got what ve deserved for rioting, but—

Meroc: That’s totally unfair. Ve didn’t mean to riot! Voids. Was vir cohort dissolved?

Zetich: No! They were evicted, fired from their jobs, derated—

Meroc: But not dissolved?

Zetich: No! Because Shria’s Mother, Sangh Tenrik Fnax of name registry Turquoise Fenugreek 5, challenged the neighborhood family reactancy coordinator to a duel!

Meroc: A duel? On the mats? But surely that alone wouldn’t—

Zetich: A duel to body loss.

Meroc: To body loss? Sweet sluiceblocking Trickster! I can’t even . . . And the challenge was accepted?

Zetich: The reactancy coordinator is apparently very vain.

Meroc: And the match was permitted?

Zetich: I guess some mats coordinator is a terrible romantic . . .

Meroc: You call that romantic? Being pummeled until . . .

Zetich: But ve’s doing it to save vir child and vir cohort!

Meroc: Fuck.

Zetich: I know!

Meroc: But Zetich, it won’t even work. Even if ve wins, it won’t stop them from forcing dissolution. At best, it will only delay . . .

Zetich: I know. It’s hardly sensible. But you have to admit, it’s pretty sluiceblocking vailish of vem. It’s so brave that it’s shored up vir ratings some. Enough to postpone the end for a moment . . .

Meroc: Wow. Voids. Those poor kids.

Zetich: Now aren’t you glad I showed you and not Morinti? I just keep thinking about the two of them. Sixteen years old and dealing with this squandering sluice-blockage. I haven’t been following them as long as you have, but . . . especially after that clip-opera . . . when I see them together . . . you know, I had a Vail friend when I was in First Childhood, until it got too hard to talk to each other. You know that age . . . and I just feel, when I look at them, maybe if I’d fought a little harder, if I hadn’t just bowed to consensus and immediately . . .

Meroc: Zetich, we should do something.

Zetich: Do something? Like what?

Meroc: Just do something. Talk to more people. We can’t let this . . . we can’t let this just happen.

Zetich: Oh Meroc. I know how you feel, but . . . who’s going to listen to us? And, I mean, not that I’m worried about ratings, but . . .