"I've liked all of mine!"

"What's your version of the pharaoh like?"

"He's not king yet because he and his husband are concentrating on their children but his grandfather will retire in his favor soon and he's suited to it. He knows everyone and likes them all and is practically everyone's friend, gives out well-chosen presents and keeps up with their lives and so on and keeps everyone's goodwill when he has to mediate a difference. Likes to have a lot of conversations all the time - we can do that, we're telepathic intraspecies, he's probably pretty understimulated here."

They all seem immensely cheered by this, and nod along. 

"The pharaoh's absurdly good at presents."

"He's great company, too, makes you feel really special."

"We compared notes once and realized we all thought we were his favorite."

"That doesn't surprise me. Did you tell him you'd noticed?"

"Laila did."

"When he's being sort of silly Laila tells him. Or tells Hemaka to tell him, if even she's not sure how to do it."

She's the only one I recognize.

"He thinks he recognizes you," she tells Laila.

"Gosh." She looks startled. "I didn't realize he had a wife?"

"He doesn't, just the husband -" Larya?

Uh huh.

"Erdellë Larya is an assistant of his. But since he's stepped back from work while the kids are small she's doing his job for him in the interim."

She looks fascinated. "But he's a prince, right? And she's - is she still not anybody in particular?"

"He's a prince and she doesn't have a title but that doesn't stop her from doing responsible constituent management for his office!"

"That's so neat! You should tell the pharaoh."

"I can if you don't want to just tell him yourself! Or let Maitimo do it."

"If I do it it'd be like bragging."

"Fair enough."

"Do you recognize anyone else?" Abada asks.

"No, at least not yet. I'm not sure what determines who has alts where. Someone else might conceivably recognize others of you - apparently the fellow with blue hair has a Rabiah and an Ismat back in his world, and we don't."

"What.... are alts."

"I'm shortening 'alternate universe version'."

"No, I got that, I'm just confused about how they happen, or what sorts of things are always the same and which are sometimes different..."

"Oh. I don't know how they happen either, though I think all the Maitimos have matching families apart from mine being the only one with children so I suppose in their case you could push the question back a little. I haven't checked if my alts and I have similar families but we have similar habits of thought and personalities and, hm, prioritization modulo our cultural backgrounds and species. Though I'm not sure how long it would have taken us to figure it out if it were just me and the one who's part of a spaceship."

"She seems very strange."

"Does she have someone looking out for her? It's not - safe - to have no idea how anything works in the world."