"Physical space, yeah, definitely. But think of it like an author—I'm not worried about physical space, I'm worried about narrative space. And there isn't a ton of that in Tyria, all of the narrative is being chewed on by dragons."

"Ah. Well, there is the space I am currently occupying."

"Yes, I noticed," she says, dryly. "But I am not out to replace you, that would not help me fulfill my matchmaking mission at all."

"...matchmaking mission."

"You reacted really cutely to the story of your alt's sorta-girlfriend, and then you were dejected that you didn't have a version of her running around in your world. So the part of my brain devoted to matchmaking characters is like, 'Aha! I can solve this problem,' except actually the problem has turned out to be kind of hard." She crosses her arms, and tries very hard not to pout. She fails at this, and is definitely pouting at least a little bit. "It's not a huge deal, or anything, if I can't make it work it's fine. I'd rather have it make sense than try to stuff it into a place it doesn't belong. But it would be cute. And usually my genres of writing are, 'miscellaneous heroics' and 'adorable fluffy romance,' and so we're missing one."

"Well, I was not exactly setting out to be cute, but I am glad it worked anyway."

Yep she's definitely pouting some more.

"This isn't a big deal and might not even happen. It's just—a thing I'm considering, because I am pathologically incapable of not considering many things at once. Though, actually, it might be smart to make it so that you're, hm, free and clear to run around with authors that are not me, once I'm done saving your world?"

"Well, you could set a different version of me up. If there are other Tyrias."

"Well, yes, but auuuuugh! Think of the shipping!"

"The... shipping?"

"Oh, uh. Another word for 'matchmaking,' basically, but more in line with my culture. Matchmaking is more serious than shipping, shipping is sort of like... 'This would be cute, but I'm not very serious about it.'"

"I see. And you think it would not be cute if a different version of me met—the person you want me to meet?"

"Oh, no, it'd be terribly cute, but I'm a spoiled brat and I want my cuteness now."

He laughs. "Would I be able to even tell them about—you, all of this?"

"... Hm." That's certainly a thing to consider, isn't it.

"I'm not sure. I wouldn't have to fear for my life or hers, but I don't think she'd take it as well as you have? Meta-her gets it and is completely fine with the whole thing, but I don't know what happens if I puncture the fourth wall for an instance of her and introduce myself. I haven't done it before and she's often hard to predict."

"You lost me at 'meta-her' and 'fourth wall.'"

"Sorry. I have trouble translating myself when I'm thinking out loud, uh. The fourth wall is a term for the divide between the proverbial audience and the people in the proverbial play. To the people in the play, there are four walls in a room. To the people in the audience, there are three, because the fourth has disappeared to let them view inside. So puncturing the fourth wall is doing for her what I've done for you; letting her know that this is a play at all. Or, well, not a play, but I was going with the metaphor.

"Meta-her is a bit trickier to explain, it's..." She trails off, and hums thoughtfully. "If I remove one of her from whatever world I've put her in, and strip away all of the fluff from whatever setting she's in, so that just the—character traits inherent to her remain, and then give that person full knowledge of what's going on, all of the history and knowledge of places and situations a version of her has been in, that would be meta-her. She is fine with being a fictional character. But she never thought she was anything else, an instance from Tyria would not have that. So I'm not sure."

"...ah. I'm afraid I'm out of my depth and cannot advise, here."

"Yeah. I'll have to think about it. But my shipping urges are definitely somewhat suppressed, now, I don't want to put you in a situation where you have to systematically lie to a loved one."

"That would be unpleasant, yes, but not something I had never given thought to; I am a member of the Order of Whispers, even if I have not done anything for them in a while."

"I suppose that's true. And I sort of did already put you in that position by saying hi, didn't I, it's not like it'd be particularly smart to walk up to everyone you know and say, 'Hi! We're fictional!'"

"I don't know that it changes much about my life, knowing that."

"Really? That's interesting. Personally I'd start picking at everyone else's storylines and trying to leverage narrative conventions for my own ends, but... I do kind of do that already, so I suppose that's not much of a surprise."

"My life was already quite... storylike," he says wryly. "Now I know it will continue to be."

Giggle.

"Yeah. Oh, speaking of, I didn't finish telling you about your averted future did I?"