"...well, I guess we can figure out how to handle his custodial situation after he's out of merging danger." Sigh.

"Quite."  She sighs as well.  ". . . Your murder mysteries must be so different, what with living people not knowing they could interview at least some of the victims.  And having demonic forensics."

"I think most mystery stories have demon forensics hard to access for whatever reason, but yes."

"Most competent murders here are on sleeping victims.  Sometimes it's in the dark or the killer is masked or it's a slow poisoning or the victim is legal to kill - plausibly not anymore, actually; laws about those sorts of things have been trending justice-ward since I was last alive."

"When were you last alive?"

"The youngest of me was about a dozen years ago, but that one wasn't really paying attention to politics.  Most of me died twenty to fifty years ago."

"It's sort of weird that I don't know all your names."

"Is it?  Why so?"

"I dunno, just, you had all these names, and then you turned into star soup, and now you are Felicity and I am delighted to have you and also don't know a lot about the components in your fruit salad. Apologies for mixed metaphors."

"Forgiven.  Alf Allie Anabel Ari Ariel Artie Casey Daisy Edie Elizabeth Ellie Elsie Emmy James Jane Jasmine Jason Jax Jesse Jesse Jo Josie Juniper Markus Mary Owen Victoria Vielé."

"Such initial clustering, wow, is that a birthdays thing?"

"Mmhm.  Can you tell which-all are which, yet?"

"Uh, well, you're namesakes with Ellie the once, so probably that one was one of those? And - your J names aren't the solquinox one, those have Ds in them?"

"No, they all are; the D can go in the last or middle name and on occasion is omitted entirety, and sticking it in the middle name was rather popular when most of me were born.  I'm ten summer solqs, ten Ellies, and eight October 01s, which I don't think you've met any of except that apparently according to Nudge and the One I somehow still count as one."

"Count as one for what... purpose?"

"Mystically, I suppose?  Apparently the October seasonchanges are just already inherently like what would happen if you put a September oh one and an October fourct as an instantiated star cloud.  It seems strange to me as well; I haven't heard of any other birthday like that although perhaps I wouldn't have."

"Huh. Did you - collect yourselves - in birthday clusters like this on purpose?"

"Yes, some of me knew about it and convinced the ones who didn't that it would be a good way to be, together.  . . . I've been wondering how much of all this I saw, when bits of me were psychic."

"You can't remember being - a Nudge or whatever we wanna call 'em?"

"No, nothing between dying and merging up with other birthdays.  One of them I'm missing less than a week from but for a few it was several years."

"Did you know that was going to happen? Or, uh, would you have presumably known..."

"I presumably knew at the point of doing it, but I didn't before dying.  It was pretty disorienting."

"Did you tell the rest of you anything psychic first?"

"Yes, but not much of anything specific, just that it was going to be great.  Nudge filled me in on a few things closer to when you arrived."

"How long were you merged up?"