It gets worse
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"She has my memories," he explains, "so I think I probably always had her, but not—outside—what is she?"

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"Do you think drone-their* people can like... hold drone-their daemons inside?" the shoulder-lizard whispers. "That sounds barbaric. Also, did drone-they* just called drone-their daemon a queen?"

"Uh*," the mantis-person says after a moment, "daemons are your soul. If you are a person, you have one, you get them the moment you were born. But I just saw yours showing up. Which is confusing."

*The translation is rendering the language like that in English.

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Well that's an annoying translation. "I'm not from around here," he explains. "I'm from another universe, reality, world, whatever. We don't have daemons, or not—on the outside, like that. What do they—do?"

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"They do the parts of you that make you a person?" the mantis-person tries, "Without them your crystal-brain can still work and have all the memories, but not have the parts of you that let you... have a personality, feelings and stuff?"

"Drone-they might not have a crystal brain?" whispers the shoulder-lizard.

"Do you have a crystal-brain?" the mantis-person asks.

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"Not in the sense you mean it, no. My biology is probably very different than yours."

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"Ah, I guess that isn't very surprising. All things considered." The mantis-person peers at the butterfly. "Are you okay?"

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The butterfly flutters away from Sadde's hand to cling to the back of his head.

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"...no. Not really."

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"Why? Also, how did you get here?" the mantis person asks.

Shoulder-lizard whispers, "Drone-they won't know how to take care of drone-their daemon."

"And I should explain how daemons work to you."

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"I got here with a magic key. And yes, that would be useful."

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"Okay..." The mantis-person thinks. "They don't need to eat, but need to breathe and sleep the same as you do. They are part of you and if they die, you do too. It is uncomfortable to go too far away from your daemon unless you go far enough away that the connection sort of becomes flexible. They cannot reproduce." That last part sounds somehow like a correction to something Sadde demonstrated to be wrong about. "They can change shape when you're young, but settle around the pupation period. And their shape is related to your personality. Oh, you must never let someone else touch your daemon, or touch someone's daemon yourself. It is... violating."

Shoulder-lizard whispers. "Unless it's a queen and her reproducing drones," the mantis-person repeats.

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He nods slowly at all of this. "And... what do they do? I mean, are they just... some other person that is also you at the same time?"

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"Ah, they help by doing parallel socialization and being someone to talk to, remind you of things. If the shape is convenient they can do things that are shape appropriate."

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"I see." The butterfly peers over his head at them. "—I suppose people would usually name them."

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"Oh yes. Mine is called 'smooth-chubby'."

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The butterfly flutters back to Sadde's hand and looks up at him.

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"Crystal," he says​ after some deliberation.

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She nods her tiny bug head.

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Smooth-chubby slithers down one of the mantis-person's arms (the lower right one). "Greetings, Crystal."

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She takes flight and stops in front of smooth-chubby. "Hello."

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"Welcome to existing! Do you remember being born? What is it like?"

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"I... I was him?" she tries. "Not really, it's like I was inside him before, but there wasn't a me to be anywhere, and then there was, and I was outside, and I—remember—everything—" She turns to look at Sadde. "We need to get them back. And we need to save everyone else. We need to."

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"I know."

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"Save who?"

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He shakes his head. "Never mind. Can you tell me more about your world?"

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