"Huh. ... Has one wanted to be re-merged and then Greater You didn't want them? That sounds... Sad."

"It happens occasionally, mostly with Evas who encountered something addictive or brainwashy or otherwise horrible. We do the best we can for those selves of us, since we know that we could just as easily be them. Usually they understand. The ones that don't... Well, most of them really don't count as us anymore."

Solemn nod.

"Do you often encounter things of that kind...?"

"We live interesting lives. There's another archivist-me whose job is to keep the Restricted Section of my memories - all the petty little addictions that I've built up over thousands of years of accumulated parallel lives, which independently were perfectly alright but together would be completely incapacitating."

Inavet considers this, then nods.

"That sounds annoying, but a good way to deal with an annoying problem."

"Those of me who are still functional but not mergeable often spend some time in that role, since we can trust them to look after us just as we would ourselves - just not to be us."

Another nod! This sounds like a good use of resources to her.

"How do you - fork and re-merge, exactly?"

"Forking is easy - I would do it right now, but it would likely just confuse things. The OTC is very good at duplicating things. Merging is a little more involved, which is why we do it less often - it takes more finesse to only discard the duplicated memories so that the resulting self has a coherent mental history and self-concept."

Nod. "How much would it cost for a non OTC employee to have - maybe not the exact thing you have set up, but something similar?"

"Um... That is a really good question, and my immediate answer is 'lots', but it probably depends on how many forks and merges you would be planning on."

"I'm not sure. But with a multiverse instead of just the one universe..." She shrugs. "It seems wise to - the term I want to use is scale accordingly? And if I get killed I'd like to not permanently die. Some part of me, anyway."

"We have a really quite good solution to the death thing! It turns out that it's a lot easier to make a lump of magical rock practically invulnerable than a person. When Evas go missing, we're generally able to retrieve their memory crystals and reinstantiate them. That's, um, how we got our rather extensive library of 'interesting ways to die.'"

"Aren't I glad I took your word for it and didn't pick a death memory," says Inavet dryly. "Can I set up a, a 'in case I die' situation with a memory crystal and a me that's in stasis and will be woken up and handed the memory crystal upon my death?"

"That would definitely be cheaper, though you'd naturally lose a little in security."

Nod.

"I should probably figure out what budget I'm working with before going with the cheap option," says Inavet wryly.

"Probably!" Eva smiles.

"So, first of all, my name's Inavet, I don't actually look like this at all." She drops the illusion, holding it up was annoying.

She is noticeably prettier without the illusion.

"And what I can do besides that is - sort of complicated. Illusions, things that do illusions, communication networks based on crystals, plants that do - uh, strange things, long story short 'whatever I want when I can directly control them, simplistic tasks that require no movement when I mass produce them,' some things with memory and sound and then a whole list of stuff I'm not as good at but could work at for a while to get something. Somewhat hilariously, the most easily-sold thing is - I have an extra set of magical senses? And you mentioned that might be something people are interested in."

Eva nods approvingly. "I kind of expected that that wasn't your real face. You're a lot prettier this way." She smiles. "But the magic and the technical expertise are even prettier! And - did you really say something about new senses?"

"Thank you," she says, ducking her head a little. "And - yes, I did. Why, is that definitely a likely candidate for making money?"

"Unique experiences are valuable to the OTC, and especially to me. In my off-time, I volunteer for the Society of Sensation."

"On principle I'm pretty okay with everyone being able to experience my senses if I get to pick what they do and do not experience from me. I'd hand it over to you right now for free if there's a way to keep it from undercutting my major source of income."

She looks apologetic.

"Would you mind describing these new senses you have to me?"

"I have - something that lets me perceive all light within a certain radius of me, sort of like seeing it, but not quite. Then something similar for sound and temperature and air currents. I have a sense of my own body, how it functions and how it works and what it's doing, and something similar and more exact for nearby flora. Then I have a vague sense of - this one's hard to explain, it's kind of like how large systems work together? How my environment functions around me? I can perceive a lot of weird things here, for instance."

"... I see! Would you be willing to give me, oh, ten seconds of your current experience in exchange for, hmm... A thousand buddhitanka? That's being quite generous in my opinion."

"... I'm actually not out to wring you out of your money," says Inavet, "is there a way to hand it over to you, specifically, without you being able to go immediately sell it? Then I'd be happy to just give you ten seconds for free."

She'd also like to see what it's worth from separate sources, before selling it.