She takes a bite of her own, and nods. "It really is."

Another bite, and then a hum. "Sorry about pushing, earlier."

She shrugs. "Don't worry about it. I know I'm not a very forthcoming person."

"That's extremely valid. You've only known me for two days. I just care about people a lot very quickly."

She takes another bite and smiles. "This really is quite good. I've never had onion jam before, but I'm quite enjoying it with the yams."

"It takes long enough to make that I don't usually bother but it's so delicious, isn't it?"

She grins and nods, mouth full of tasty lunch.

Lily smiles back.

After swallowing her next bite and having a sip of water, Sable asks, "Hey Lily, have you ever known anyone who was... actually multiple people?" A somewhat shy, slightly mysterious smile crosses her face.

"Hmm! I can't say that I have," she says, surprised and intrigued. "Is that what was going on this morning?"

"Good catch," she replies with a grin. "One of us was active — fronting, we call it — at the start, then we switched to me, then another did most of the sketching, and then I switched in again because she can't talk aloud. That bed in the barn is playing host to five girls crammed into one cramped brain."

"Sounds crowded," she remarks, blinking. "But I guess it seems like it's working out all right for you."

"We make it work well enough. Would you like everyone's names?"

"I would, yes. Who was I speaking to earlier?"

"First thing this morning, from meeting at the pump before breakfast until my 'usual bizarre mindset' joke was Maya. She's the serene one, the most patient of us. Then me, until we went off to go sketching. I'm the 'host', the default one in front, and the 'original' occupant. Once we started sketching, Neopolitan took over. She goes by Neo for short, and she's the playful and silent one. She really appreciated the praise for the designs. As for the two you haven't met yet, there's Hailey, who is snarky and a bit cynical, but has a soft side. She has a thing about being touched. We'll make sure to let you know if she's fronting, just to avoid misunderstandings. Finally, there's Ruby, who's cheerful and sweet and a bit shy."

Lily nods slowly. "All right. I apologize in advance if I mistake one of you for another."

"Thanks, Lily. Oh, hm. Actually, that reminds me of an idea we had. We were planning to make bracelets in our individual color schemes that we'd swap out to indicate who's fronting. We were just planning the project before we landed here, though, and none of our braiding cord came with us."

"Well, I don't know offhand where you'd find coloured cord, but I wish you the best of luck with it. I wonder if Hazel...? They have to get all those brightly-coloured clothes from somewhere. Probably just the city."

"Huh! Good idea. Maybe we'll ask them next time we're over there. If there's enough time, maybe we could even visit them briefly before grabbing tonight's fish from Palla."

She has another couple bites of the delicious meal, smiling warmly.

"Could be," Lily says agreeably. "If not, you might have time tomorrow morning, I usually go easy on potato day because they're just as happy to stay in the ground."

"Sounds good!" She finishes off the last of her lunch, and gets up to clear the dishes — and Lily's as well if she's done. "This really was delicious."

"I'm glad. Oh—" she moves her hand out of the way so Sable can get her plate, laughing a little. "Sure, thanks. Okay, let's go pick some figs."

Neo switches in, and she grins, winks, and skips outside toward the fig trees.

"Hmm!" says Lily, but she doesn't venture a guess out loud about who that might be, instead just bringing a pair of big baskets out to the fig trees and showing Neo how to tell which ones are ripe and then pick them. "I've got a ladder to reach the tall branches; do you want to be high or low?"

She points upward with a smile.

"Sounds good to me," she says. "Back in a jiffy."

The ladder isn't far; she sets it up by the first tree, gives it a little shake to be sure it's firmly seated, then gestures invitingly to it.

She grins and climbs up it deftly, carefully selecting the fully ripe figs and plucking them daintily from the tree. Into the basket they go!