It's this person over here!  No, now it's this o - over h - that one - now it - here's - this -

...he will take the nearest non-cloud person.

That one doesn't want to talk to him.  Here's the second closest?

Sure.

hi there??

Hi! Can you tell me what it's like to be a star?

I guess it's like what you're doing, only you can't go back
kinda scarier
but also more peaceful
I guess the scary part will go away when I'm more used to it

Are you hoping to stay separate or are you going to merge soon?

probably gonna wait a few more days
give everyone a chance to come say goodbye and stuff
uh sorry if we like went to high school together or something but I super don't know who you are, should I or are you just a rando

Definitely a rando, I was just trying to find somebody who was separate. I'll back off if someone you actually know comes by.

okay good, normally I can tell but you're on like a baby dose - wait are you an actual little kid

No, I'm an adult with reservations about mind-affecting drugs.

o . . . kay
uh, no tea no shade no pink lemonade but then why
are you here

I want to learn more about the world, and this is part of it.

I guess

Do you have an idea from here about how a lot of stars working together can do things like implement crystal healing? Or is that not obvious at this stage?

yeah no I'm just me right now
I guess I could ask somebody bigger
you could also ask somebody bigger
sorry
I'm normally more polite and put together and stuff, only I just died a few days ago
really throwing a wrench in my groove to be honest

Please don't worry about it. I plan to ask somebody bigger at some point but thought I'd talk to singlets for a baseline. I'm sorry for your loss.

it's fiiiiiiiiiiine
I just hate weird intermediate stages
anticipation is worse than participation and all that
I kinda want to just get a move on and join up with somebody already but I'm kind of hoping one of my exes will make a showing

Your exes in particular, really?

just one of 'em
he was a bastard but I'm kind of hoping he's the sort of bastard who'll be all like oh no you're dead and then I can be like well you should have appreciated me when I was alive, bitch
I would find that very satisfying
I know it's petty
but I am allowing myself some pettiness on account of how I just died and stuff
once in a lifetime chance
or like
zero times in a lifetime
you know what I mean

I do! Do you already feel some pull to join up with a cloud? I'm wondering what that's like.

it's not really a pull
more like
hm
if you're kinda thirsty and you have a glass of water in your hand
and if you were thirstier and not paying attention you might just take a sip automatically without really noticing
and right now it's not hard at all to not drink it
but I have been getting a little thirstier over time

Can you tell which cloud you'd go to, if you did?

oh uh
right now in this metaphor I don't have a cup because I'm just talking to you and you're not a star
it would be like
whoever I was talking to
and I guess by conventional wisdom different people would be different drinks?
and they'd seem more or less tempting depending on how like compatible we were
but I haven't noticed a difference yet
I mean obviously I can tell in all the ways you can when you're alive
but like
yeah
they don't really feel different in like a mystical sense
because I haven't been looking too closely