"We have birth control!" Marie says. "We have very good birth control. The problem is that not everyone uses it who should."

"Do I want to know what's so unappealing about it?"

"It's not that it's unappealing, it's that you get teenagers or people who don't even have that excuse who think they're not going to have sex and then get carried away and have it anyway without thinking about the consequences," Marie explains. "And, you know, some people are just idiots."

"I think I prefer the model where hikers are more likely than stupid teenagers to encounter random babies."

"That's fair, but I think I prefer to keep the model where dying of exposure isn't so much a thing," Marie says.

"I mean, it's not pleasant, but new babies aren't actually that much smarter than animals I'm willing to eat for dinner. And most of them do get found first now there are storks."

"Yeah," Helen says. "It's us and one other guy that we know of for sure, but I'd be surprised if it was literally just the three of us--the two of us and also him--under the circumstances."

"The circumstances being?"

"The three of us...were in what we're fairly certain were all of our first lives, members of two groups that interacted with each other fairly often. And frequently encountered things that have strange effects. If literally none of the rest of those groups or other similar ones were similarly affected that would be surprising. And evidence that the universe enjoys laughing at our pain," Marie explains.

"...Okay. I reincarnate too. This is life three. I had no inkling of having previously existed until I started dreaming rounds one and two a couple months ago, which I might have dismissed as weird dreams if I hadn't gone to the city my past lives lived in and found their house. I don't know if... if anyone else reincarnates, and I don't think it would have bothered me in the long run if I had - or possibly did - die a few times as a baby until I got lucky and a stork found me."

"We're fully conscious of our past lives from infancy. It is so, so awkward," Helen says. "Marie and I, anyway. The only thing I know about Gregory is that he exists. Well. The only thing I know about his reincarnating tendencies, anyway." She shudders, and a dark look passes over her face. "This is life two for Marie and Gregory, but it's life three for me. The first time I died it was an accident, but Gregory decided to blame Marie. And when he finally hunted her down for revenge, she had died too. Of old age. So he decided to take his decades of grudge out on her significantly-younger widow." She puts a hand to her neck protectively.

"My first time I died of a disease, age twenty-four. Second time I fell down the stairs. I don't remember this, you understand, I only get so many dreams a night, but second life I made a really good golem that can talk and it can fill in what I don't know from reading my old notes - I've always been a really obsessive notetaker."

"That sounds convenient. If my memory suffered more between lives than just the intervening time accounted for I'd probably try to pick up a similar habit," Helen says.

"Well, I even have notes from the first time when I had no idea to expect to wake up again. First life was named Aly, second life Kib. These are all nicknames - for some reason we have all received and then shortened names with the syllable 'bel', I have no idea how that happened three times in a row. Alymbel, Akibel, Beluna."

"Those're pretty," Helen observes. "Our names have no such repetition--I was Helen first, actually, and then Beatrice, and now I'm technically Annabelle. Marie's technically Ava."

"...And," Lu says, "Kib was a man."

"...That has never happened to us. I suppose it could, five instances isn't necessarily statistically conclusive," Helen admits.

"It's less weird and awkward than it could be, honestly, when I'm having Kib dreams he's accustomed to it and the rest of the time I'm fine with being a girl. Kib felt about the same way about Aly dreams."

"Inconveniences of babyhood aside, I think I like our way of reincarnating better," Marie says.

"It does sound more convenient than having to read reams of paper and occasionally re-live having the pox or something."

Helen flinches. "I really do not want to relive someone cutting my throat open with a pair of scissors, no."

"Yeah." Lu looks preoccupied.

"...Are you okay? Sorry, I...that was unnecessarily graphic," Helen says.