I certainly will.

Snuggle.

Dawn-shining thinks back to all the things they wanted to say to his fork. They've hit most of them, but - the imaginary strangers thing is just so absurdly perfect and convenient - he wonders if it's worth trying the identity song on Sun-dark, to make sure his soul gets the picture.

You know, they might discover things we haven't thought of, too.

I'm sure they will. I hope they're kind enough to share.

"Raika-seren, my husband thinks I should torture you a little more before we send you off, in case my alt doesn't think of the specific method."

"I mean, far be it from me to turn down torture, but couldn't you just tell me about it?"

"Sure I can. I can even show you. The trouble is - well, here."

He sends the memory.

"I have a perfect memory for everything related to Maitimo and I still can't remember it right because it fucks me up that much. And it's what prompted my soul to figure out how to do the imaginary strangers thing, and the imaginary strangers thing is amazingly convenient."

"Wow," says Sun-dark. "Uh. Wow."

He's actually not entirely sure this is something he wants to try.

"Well, now you know about it."

It's immediately obvious why Dawn-shining wants to do this to him. If his soul doesn't have the imaginary strangers thing, the other Maitimo will just go have his soul touched by actual strangers if he wants to produce that effect, and doing it with a soul power is obviously preferable on a multitude of levels, it's more convenient and does not require involving strangers in one's sex life - but wow, the way that memory felt -

- on the other hand, if there are kinds of torture he's too afraid to try, perhaps he should reconsider his decision -

- but no, there's a difference between what he's willing to sign himself up for and what he wants, and he does not want to get that fucked up right now. So he doesn't have to.

On yet another hand, there's something he wants to do before they send him off...

He looks at Dawn-shining.

Huh. That's definitely a look.

"Sure," says Dawn-shining, and kisses him.

Awwww.

Kissing himself is new and different and interesting! And very enjoyable! He's not sure exactly how far they're going to take it, but it's nice. They're not reading each other's minds but they almost don't have to, they can just guess, there's no deficiency in communication.

He sits back and enjoys watching them.

They have a delightful time together.

There is an unspoken question of who is going to take the role normally reserved for Maitimo. It stays unspoken, because the answer is perfectly obvious to both of them: if it turns out to be something they like enough to end up missing it the rest of the time, Dawn-shining is better placed to handle that. Sun-dark is going to be dealing with quite enough already in the genre of Things He Might Like His Sex Life To Include Which For The Forseeable Future It Won't, and there's no call to risk adding another one, however trivial.

He does turn out to like it, but not that much. It's new and different and interesting and fun, but in a way that's not substantially different from the rest of the being-with-one's-alt experience. He will be just fine if it never happens again, or only happens again the next time he needs a fork for something.

Afterward, they curl up together and snuggle, and Sun-dark finds himself running his fingers over the scars on Dawn-shining's back. They're really something, those scars. Exquisitely beautiful, and - evocative of a deep commitment. He kind of envies them. He suspects that if the other Maitimo ever does that to him, he is going to feel intensely validated and triumphant.

This worked well, even if it didn't work exactly as planned.

It did! Dawn-shining is proud of himself for handling his alt this well and proud of his alt for managing to be so extremely Taliar at them. Both in the sense where he messed with their plans and expectations, and in the sense where he ultimately cooperated anyway.

How do you want to be delivered?

I dunno, he says. You're the expert in the preferences of the recipient.

He's going to be difficult either way, I'm worried - maybe best if I bring you -

Sure.

If Maitimo's worried then Sun-dark is definitely worried but, well, he is deliberately doing a very worrying thing. Some worry is to be expected.

For hard-to-articulate reasons, he wants to hand his soul to the other Maitimo himself. He has no other delivery preferences he can think of.

Okay. We'll ask Nezhefena when she's ready, then.

All right.

And in the meantime... hmm. He probably shouldn't go anywhere near his mother—did she set you on fire, or just threaten to—

She murdered the other me but Taliar stepped in before she set me on fire. We were going to try to get to know each other but events got ahead of us.