"I mean..." 

Hyacinth sighs. "I was just kind of thinking that..."

She looks down at her feet. "I was always an altoholic in Realms of Dragons. They'd let you have like five characters and I used all my slots. I've been a troll — species — and a zombie and an elf and so on and so on pretty much all at the same time. It feels a little uncomfortable to only have one body in CORA."

"Oh. Right, that 'us'. That... makes me wonder, honestly. That's the kind of slip we make when trying to singlet-mask, and coupled with you missing getting to change it up... it sounds a little bit like something might be going on there."

"Yeah, I'm wondering too. It's just..." 

She sighs and shakes her head. "None of the bodies I had before were me. They were — faces I put on, bit parts. There was always a sense of artifice. This body's not like that. It feels natural. Right. So I'm confused."

Hyacinth folds her hands in her lap. "How did you find out there was... another person in your head? Or maybe I should be asking... where did you come from? I hope that's not too invasive."

She hums thoughtfully. "So we described the whole 'fictive' thing, what with all of us moving into Sable's head as a result of stories she was writing, but we didn't explain what the experience of it was like. It varies a whole lot for every system, but for us, it feels like having a thought or reaction in your head that feels like it belongs to someone else, or alternatively like the person happening right then isn't the same person that was happening five minutes ago."

"I... huh. I've... experienced that. Before. Sometimes when I'm — bright and smiling and – willing to play around, willing to tease — it feels a lot like I'm a whole different person. It's like.... there's two states I can move between, sort of mechanics-focused and shy and — the kind of person who can dart out and ask things. And... Sometimes I can even ask that part of me questions, say, "I want some courage" or "what should I say here" and it feels like it's able to answer that in the way I can't."

She ducks her head. "I... thought that was just normal."

Hailey cocks an eyebrow at Hyacinth. "Normal for Planet of the Plural People, maybe," she teases.

"I feel like... if there's another person in here, she's me too. We're — two faces of the same person? I'm not sure that's actually true. But —"

She rubs the back of her head. "People talk about being a different person at work from at home. I... have always been a different person around my family. Online I was safer, I could have relationships that weren't based on... my family facilitating. And it's there I learned how to be an extrovert. But my family... they don't even really try to understand me. So it's safer to be small. If I look like the kind of person who can't be asked anything of they let me be."

She nods and squeezes Sin's hand. "Yeah. Families can be like that, sometimes. As for what you're describing there, that sounds like what's called 'median plurality', which is where the system members see themselves as all different facets of one person, different perspectives."

"Do you have any way for me to be certain one way or the other?"

"What worked for us was trying to talk to each other, so you could try that," she replies with a shrug. "Try to direct a thought at them like if you were asking for advice on how to say something, but instead ask 'hey tell me about yourself?' instead."

"Okay, I'll try that..." 

<Hey, other me, could you tell me about yourself...?>

A distant sense of calm drifts back towards her, not words as such, but clearly a response to her question. 

"Ohmygod I felt her. There — there's someone else in my head —" 

Hyacinth hyperventilates for a moment before she manages to catch her breathing. 

Someone else in her head feels very, very smug.

But a moment later that breaks, replaced by apparently-genuine concern.

Hyacinth reaches for her meditation, and pushes the world away for a moment. 

Her body fades away a little as her senses turn inward.

In the center of her mind, another girl who wears her face is sitting cross-legged in the void and giving her a very smug look.

<... can you talk...?>

Her duplicate smiles and nods, but doesn't say anything for a long moment. 

Then...

<I was ... think ... never notice.> 

Hyacinth focuses harder.

<Could you repeat that?>

<I was beginning to think you'd never notice.>

The other her's mindvoice is faint, but she can pick it out now. It's clear enough to be heard. 

<Who are you?>

<Do you mind if I stop and relay to Hailey.>