"That's. Is there a religious reason for it or something? Is there any reason at all why people wouldn't explore it, if it's a known phenomenon with a name?"

"They just think they already know the answer."

"How did they get to that answer in the first place, though? Did lots of people fake being hearers or something?"

"I don't think so."

"This sounds extremely..." She gropes for words. "Suboptimal."

"Yeah." Pause. "What you probably don't know is that we start being hearers when we're little and it's a lot of voices and I don't think most hearers cope with that as well as me."

"Why don't they?"

"They're never quiet. Ever."

"So how do you?"

"I just do."

"...how many people have that, do you know?"

"It's not very common and it's only vampires but I don't remember exactly how many."

"Only vampires? That's... interesting. I wonder why. You have this since always, you said?"

"I said since we're little. About four."

"Oh. Hmm. When you said others don't cope do you mean they can't really take care of themselves or differentiate the voices or...?"

"Both, I think."

"Hmm. Okay I think I have a new project, then."

"Oh?"

"Telling people this thing is not an illness."

"I don't think you'll get far."

"Why not?"

"Nobody will want to listen to you."

"Why not? I mean, other than 'they think they know the answer already.'"

"That's enough. That and they don't have any reason to be interested in what you have to say."

"Right, fair enough, but I wouldn't want to just walk up to them and tell them that. Could write a paper about it, or a book, and try to be larger-scale about it."