Tradition liked talking to her friends, and did so most all the time. Mr. Tree was gruff and short tempered, but dependable and fair.

=-*-= the local Ecomorph was fun-loving and aloof, always having something interesting going on and gossip to share. The spirit god of this half of the hollow was clever and experienced, if occasionally a bit distant.

The Traditions of the other hollows always had good advice or memes for her to sup on.

Sometimes she even thought of some of the Elders as friends, although really being such an integral part of her that wasn't quite accurate, and they lasted way too short to get really attached. Still, they had some interesting and unexpected stuff to inject into her sometimes.

Still, her favorite friend was probably Pylo. She only got to meet her occasionally, and when she did visit she bounced off again before there was even time to process it, but she left dialogue trees and procedurals for Tradition to ponder which was almost like having longer conversation, and really nice letters. She didn't mind Tunie eating her flesh, as she always provided delectable city treats in return.

Tradition lived in the flow, the ebb and weave of her people. Drifting in and out of their passing little messages and meanings. Pulsing in and out, she had not known these things before the secret new ways had been injected into her.

She knew these things because Tradition had spent a while working out when she was still young and Pylo’s mum had injected her with new ways and new beings. After that Tradition had been able to look and see the secrets, to actually marvel all the strange vague ephemeral things that were not part of her or the other traditions.

Before she had not even been able to recognize Mister Tree or most of the spirit gods. There had only been the other Traditions and =-*-= and the other things like them.

But thanks to the help she kept getting with her new and strange friends and the little lessons and tidbits from their exchanges she could even kind of look inside herself and notice things!

It was really hard, and fizzy and difficult to keep everything straight but she could do it and she would never have realized it before.

The other traditions marveled at her ability to look inside and close in the ways they themselves barely could comprehend.

She was so smug and happy to be so much better than them all.

That was why Pylo was a good friend!

Really friends were the best thing ever.

And Tradition was not just saying that because she was an emergent property of an entire society which among other things required friendships to function (and it was still even after all this time so amazing to understand and know that!).

Well it was part of why she did anything at all. In much the same way that her components did things because carbon, hydrogen and a few other things all jiggled around in very complicated ways to enact everything that made them go.

Sometimes Tradition spent a good long time having a good long think about how she worked, and all the strange intangibly tiny and short lived parts of her work. And how it was like a constantly pulsing wave in and out.

Tradition had not even really understood that carbon and hydrogen and all of those other things, were actually anything like real things. They had just been a kind of thing you imagined up and never really took seriously compared to the solid real stuff like stories and memes and all that other things.

But that was how she used to be and not how she was!

Tradition was wise and special now for knowing the secret of the invisible ephemeral things that made up the things that made up the stories that made up the memes!

The very idea that there were things that made memes was a secret that many Traditions only pondered in abstract!

She sometimes could almost even imagine what it must be like for the things that were so tiny and small and ephemeral that none-the less made up who she was.

Perhaps there was even something that was Like tradition as she was like the little mysterious little people things she knew were the ghost of her body.

These thoughts circled her a lot.

It was a good thing she knew how to talk with Mister Tree and the spirit gods and the others.

She was of late feeling kind of different and strange compared to other traditions.

And she knew they were finding her strange as well. The secrets she knew changed her.

They shaped her stories and made her eat strange memes and she grew weird patterns and aggregated odd languages.

It would be so lonely if she could not look inside herself or outside herself.

If she was like the other Traditions only noodling around in the dark of the strange other world that filled the space around her.

That she could see and others barely recognized.

She hoped her other friends would show up soon.

It had been a little bit longer than usual that Pylo and Tunie had last visited and Tradition was just finishing working through the last of the more complex procedurals. She would have been done ages ago but there had been something distracting that happened to her pieces and she had felt a little bit out of sorts and woozy. But Mister Tree had not been overly concerned or annoyed so it was probably nothing to be bothered by.

Mister Tree was angry at almost everything of consequence including visits from Pylo and Tunie but Tradition knew that he had made a very strongly worded deal with Pylo’s mom.

Tradition really wished that she could hurry up and finish growing so that Pylo’s mom could be her mom too.

Or was it that Pylo would have a sister that would also be part of Tradition?

The people did not tell stories in quite the right way for Tradition to know either way.

All the impressions of it were wide and sweeping and mostly invisible to them, and as she had come to realize that meant it was mostly invisible to Tradition.

So strange to imagine that she was the thoughts of something so abstract and silly sounding as ‘matter’.

It was like a dream.

Being a dream of a dream was like such a joke!

Oh maybe that would be a good story for Pylo!

It sounded silly enough for Pylo. She should get started on that! Maybe she would have enough time to prepare it before Tunie and Pylo showed up.

Would Tradition be a sister to Pylo by the time one of the visits happened?

Would Tradition be like a friend aunt thing that took care of a Pylo sister?

Families were fuzzy strange things even though Tradition was made of many important practices related to them.

But still all this waiting!

Tradition would have to wait so long and long and long and forever more before she would either get to become Pylo’s sister and/or raise her sister.

It seemed really unfair that she was not allowed to do that yet. It would be nice to be able to talk in the fluttery super fast time that made up her body’s many disparate and ephemeral processes.

To be part of that strange dream that was matter.

The place that memes were made.

Maybe she could do it anyway?

Hnng.

Nope can’t do it.

Stupid Siren secrets would not let it happen yet.

So stupid unfair!

Well maybe Pylo would be arriving soon? It had been a while, it was just about probably the right time.

Tradition had made sure that there were many new silly jokes and fun stories for Pylo to hear from the people.

Tradition liked to make themselves pretty and fun and different for each visit.

Mister Tree grumpfed.

Uh oh.

Yeah that was? Yeah that was pretty close to how he grumpfed last time he slapped Tradition so hard she was still reeling when Pylo showed up.

Better nip that in the bud.

Silly things that apparently actually meant in matter. Apparently there were things made of iron and carbon and so many bizarre story like not stories that actually were buds.

And changing them was apparently what nipping?

Nipping in the Bud could be something besides an idea?

Or it could be a literally thing.

That was such a wishy washy hard to pin down and realize thing ‘literally’.

Part of the dream that dreamt the dream of Tradition.

But important that she NOT literally have anything like nipping in the bud, that REALLY made Mister Tree Grumpf.

Unless it was someone else’s buds being nipped.

That was totally okay in Mister Tree’s book but he was really mean and selfish like that.

Mister Tree did not have any books like Traditions. She had tried to get herself written into them and that had made him grumpf something fierce in the past.

So she was pretty sure there were no Mister Tree books for her to wiggle into.

Oh Score!

She had managed to wiggle the something with the thingies and her parts did the thing!

Now Mister Tree was Less grumpf!

It had involved something that =-*-= was a bit more aligned to understand that even Tradition with her secret knowledge could not really translate well into the action of her parts.

Thanks =-*-=!

The ecomorphs were neat, like wild, fierce and feral warrior cultures! Like some of Traditions own carriers, but much more bigly!

But not really anything at all like that either. But it was like a story of it.

Still that was a sneaky good trick and it managed to Ungrumpf Mister Tree enough Traditio would not get slapped so hard.

Probably still would get a little smack, but her people died all the time, it was an important story.

It was good for her and made her fresher and livelier when they mourned. That was a part of her secrets.

Huh so what was that oh-