Ant pouts. "You're not wrong. But it looks like someone is waiting...for someone? You?"

"Maybe? There's two chairs..."

She walks towards the wall - and behind it are three more. Two large, on either side, and one small one in the middle, narrow slits between them. She's prepared to be annoyed at whoever being another her. (If it's the botfly she's jumping off this skyboat, see if she doesn't.)

But - "Come on," she says to Ant, and - 

It's not another her.

"Earmuffs? That you again?" a familiar voice calls, before they round the second set of walls. Josephine's sitting there, in a yellow dress and jacket and sunhat. "Oh! There you are! You're not Earmuffs, but even better - now, which one are you? And your friend!"

"Uh. What do you mean?"

Ant shifts a little closer to Bina, slightly unnerved.

"Oh, don't play dumb - which you are you? There's been quite a number."

"...The thirteenth? I think?"

(And it seems Josephine has the ridiculous sentence structure of this situation down.)

"How many of us have you met?"

"Oh, all of you. That first time when you come in my office. Of course, then I've not a single idea what is going on, and you're all mostly similar at that point. It's only later that things diverge, get complicated. Once things are complicated... I've only met three."

"I'm not her."

"Her who?"

"The third one! The one you met."

"Oh, no! I meant I've met three of you. Though I do believe she was one of them. But, Bina, this whole calling yourself numbers thing - it's very confusing."

"But if you're ten after her... It's just, I didn't expect everything to hold together for so long. So many iterations. Everything must be held together like grand piano dangling from a spiders thread. Just a little more weight and the whole thing falls to pieces."

Ant shudders a little. "That's a comforting thought."

"Isn't it just. Though you're new, too - I've seen you in the office a few times, though none of the other late Binas had you with her."

Ant shrugs. "Guess this time round's different."

Bina takes a deep breath. "Josephine - I'm sorry, but - is any of this real? This, what, sky boat? And you - you don't look the same as before. And this was definitely a dream a few minutes ago."

"I don't look the same?" She glances down at herself. "Oh! Yes. I'm twenty-five, now, maybe younger."

"Hah. Two decades of running a sugar factory, chasing around after beet farmers and workers. A husband, friends, all those late nights in the lab. It takes a bit out of you."

She laughs to herself, a private joke. "That's one thing they don't tell you about death."

"It works wonders for your complexion."

"Wait, what - you're dead?" Like Ant? "Am I dead? I thought this was about time travel..."

"It's a complicated question. And you're not, the one you are right now - well, probably - though at least one of the other you's is. I'm certain of that."

"I don't think I'm a dream, either. Of course, if I were a dream who thought she was real, I'd say exactly that, wouldn't I? And you can't verify a single thing I tell you. If I was a dream it'd be exactly what you think I'd tell you. A horrible experiment all around."

"It's just, augh! What is happening!? Why are you here? How are you here? You say you're dead and not a dream, ok fine. But then how are you here? Why are we having this conversation? Where even is here!?"

"It's my house in the sky! I had such high hopes for these things. Designed this one, though I never got a chance to build it in life. Now, come on, we should all sit and talk properly, like civilized people. The brie is delicious, and you both look like you could use a drink." She comes around, takes Bina's arm, and starts leading her towards the table, and away from the unseen pattern on the concrete wall. A little slit experiment she was doing, nothing significant.

Ant eyes it, suspicious, and then follows after Bina and Josephine.

"What are you actually, really doing here Josephine?" Bina asks, letting herself be pulled.

"Oh, not much at all. Just killing time."

"-Uh. Are we being literal or metaphorical?"