Eh, don't worry about it.  And it's not like it could happen to you.  You don't have a handy mechanism for it.

Is this another thing where if I worry about it it makes it worse somehow?

Yep!  But also you don't have to because, one, I will simply refrain from telling you certain things, and two, I've got one of the best deals available, no failed vampiric murder attempts or mind control reality shows or anything, so, y'know, I'll take it, this is fine.

...are there mind control reality shows? Or vampires?

Not here!  It's great.  - Actually there was one vampire here for about ten minutes a while back, but that's another story.  Do you want the nicknames or not?

Sure, why not.

Cool!  So: me, Jordan, Jackie et cetera are Jidas - that's 'ʒidə' - on account of the Js, the Ds, and the Ineffective Altruism.  Ellie, Ian, and Ivy from the pet shelter are Soups, and there isn't actually enough of them to account for why you've met so many from a concrete statistical standpoint; it's just that one of their birthday things is being around talking animals so that's come up a lot.  The Veronans are Chevrons.  Because they're pointy!  And also their initials all contain acute angles, and somethingsomething about the romance novel genre but that's not mystically guaranteed.  Winters are, locally confusingly, Starchilds, but that can be shortened to Starches because rebracketing is fun and, y'know, everyone here is already starchildren.

Are these names known to people? If I say 'ah, another Soup' are Soups going to be like 'yep that's me'?

They're all in at least limited use but the popularity varies.

Well, I agree with you that they're more memorable than octal dates and season markers, at least.

You can at least use them with Felicity.  Who, for the record, finds that omnilol works fine, and is following along with this conversation though not currently participating because we're also talking to each other - any time you've got multiple star clouds on the line you should assume they've also got a backchannel going, if they're bigger than you which in your case of course they will be - and even though she can direct her attention as she wills, she can't say multiple things while only one of her is high any more than she can harmonize using a single mouth.

Well, and I hadn't really had anything to say.

Hi Felicity.

Hello!  We've been discussing other candidates for early resurrection; I'll go over the notes with you later.

Awesome. Has the One made any progress on making it less, uh, abhorrent?

Not on a noticeable scale.  But even Ashley should be pretty much adjusted by tomorrow so, y'know, it's nothing long-term debilitating anyways.

Oh good. I should probably check in on her. Also I promised to take Cricket to a zoo, I should do that before I get too swamped.

She'll write you tomorrow afternoon; you can let her be until then.  And be sure to show zoo pictures to Fireheart.

Okay.

Any more excavation inquisition?

Do you psychically know a good name for the cavern settlement?

I have one guess at what you might go for but no suggestions.

Fair enough. Is there anyone I should talk to while I'm up here?

You could ask the One about cat uplift lady if you want?  A bunch of other people were going to talk to you but I headed them off since it was just about resurrections and it's more efficient to compile a list of them you're welcome.  Or I could offer your present!  Super unfortunately though, if you figure out what it is you can't have it, and I don't know whether or not you'd want it.

...can you tell other people and triangulate a good guess about it that way? And, yes, thank you for the list.