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With various social work trundled along its merry way, Astrid is formally adopted as Astrid Irene Adams, declared to be four years old with a birthday on March 30 for paperwork purposes, and successfully passed off as human to all prying eyes.
She grows and falls over a lot and maintains her orange coiffure and reads books and is generally precocious. The veganism and the aversion to salt and lipids persist.
Her fifth basketday approaches.
bulrushes
asmyown
"Algae and bacteria mostly, I think. But there are other issues of hygiene involving a public pool that necessitates more of the chemicals. Some people think it's a good idea to pee in them."
asmyown
"This pond has a more balanced ecosystem. Things to eat the algae, and such, so it doesn't get icky. Or did you mean people peeing in the pond?"
asmyown
"Probably. Right behind 'I don't know what this is so I'm going to try eating it' is, 'No one can see me so I'm going to pee in it.' Thankfully it's so diluted and cleaned up by the aforementioned ecosystem that it's really not going to be a problem."
asmyown
"Mud, the algae and bacteria I mentioned, some other things. Probably some plants that have fallen in and started being broken down."
asmyown
"Entropy. They don't get enough of what they need to survive, something breaks a twig off from the rest of the branch, or the plant sheds things on its own. Or time, most things break if given long enough."
asmyown
"It's the - gradual decline into disorder. Or chaos. A system left alone for long enough, biological or political tends to break down into chaos."
asmyown
"That is a... Complicated answer. I think the easiest way to explain it is that - things are not perfectly efficient, so the systems they make, when given long enough, eventually break down due to lack of resources, whether it's the more basic needs of energy and matter, or the more complex resources of creativity and drive."
asmyown
"Sort of. That is entropy. Things getting tired, or running out of resources to work with."
And entropy causes all sorts of nasty things. Such as death.
And entropy causes all sorts of nasty things. Such as death.
asmyown
"Would that they could," sighs Lynn. "There's obviously ways to keep things organized and fight entropy, but it's a hard thing to beat."