"That's a shame. You never feel the urge to talk about work with people? I would struggle with a prohibition like that."

"A lot of times I don't know the details either and I'm reporting about encoded results. I do get to talk about eclipses, that's what I most feel the need to unload about because they're awful."

"They do sound awful. I wonder why there are different earths with different magic systems."

"I have no idea! It's really weird!"

"Agreed. You'd think that more things would change- for all we know, there's an identical copy of me somewhere on Eclipse, and one of you on Chant, if the butterfly effect didn't screw us over. I'm excited to see all the multiversal studies departments that crop up over the next ten years, though."

"Do you want to try looking for one? Where would we find you?"

-hopefully not covering up any murders.

"I'm not sure how different my life would be. Probably somewhere on the West Coast. It doesn't seem like a priority. I'm not sure a me would be that useful to this project. What would a you be doing?"

"Plausibly some sort of chanting but I'm really not sure, I've known I was a psion since I was fairly young."

"No lifelong friends from childhood you would have turned into long-term co-chanters?"

"Nope. If I didn't have an eidetic memory I don't think I'd remember anyone I went to school with."

"Fair enough. I'll think about whether I want to look up a local me later. It doesn't matter as much if there's a you on Chant, since we don't have a way to get there besides me trying something stupid."

"Yeah, it would be interesting but mostly if I could meet her."

"Maybe someday soon."

Cannolis! And then maybe some co-chanting, which is really more of the point than the socializing- that's just so Dottie doesn't go insane and so they can build enough rapport for the co-chanting to work.

"What are you thinking of trying today? Anything you've been window shopping for, metaphorically?"

"Thinking about getting a new computer. I'll be able to expense it if I wait, though. Considering metamorphosing into the stage of adulthood where I have art on my walls in actual frames."

"Not quite something we can use...unless you can muster up a good chunk of envy about people with art on their walls. Any mages do anything absurdly cool in front of you?"

"There's a documentary miniseries about the bottom of the ocean with a mage who can hang out there in street clothes! But I don't know that I'd have time to get that far down on a chant."

"No, maybe not. Computer and being an art person were off the top of your head- do you think you convert those into something usable?"

"Is there a reason you specified mages? I was thinking of working on the hypercog thing some more."

"We can do that. I was looking for ideas for me to try- I could piggyback off your envy if we used the charm, and hanging out at the bottom of the ocean doesn't really sound like my thing."

He's trying not to think about it, actually.

"Oh, I see. I mean, there's lots of stuff but I haven't got a great sense of what you're after."

"Actually, can psions do anything about panic attacks? I could get myself worked up about that."

"Yeah, psychiatric ones can!"

"Cool. Why don't we try Envy on a couple of things today to test out the skills we want, see how we like them. That way we can work on getting a version we like when we use Triumph."

"Why is that the protocol?"