"Thanks!  And - what else?  Anyone you're going to insist I do need to tell?  Like... the Headmaster or whatever you call him here?"

"We don't see why? They wouldn't need to know and they wouldn't believe you, either."

Her Project is succeeding!

"Thank you!  Now... I guess I need to learn more about the classes I'm suddenly in and the friends I suddenly have?  Unless... you probably have a lot of questions about the world I'm from?"

"Well, what's there to learn about a world we'll never see? Or who knows. But yes, we'd want to teach you about your friends and classes!"

"But - it might be fun to hear about, isn't it?  That's not different from stories, right?  Just like history - you'll never visit the past, but -"

"...the past will visit you! We're. Busy with other things. Thanks for the offer!"

She finds her answer spilling out of her mouth before she says it aloud.

"That's - really sounding like one of those weird utopias!  No one else would say it in Ev - oh, that's what we sometimes call the Earth I'm from.

"Then... what are you interested in?  Skiing and dance and things like that?"

"No it's an old slogan people say a lot? What do you mean, our history teacher couldn't shut up about that slogan."

"We like being strong, keeping people safe and stopping bad guys! So right now we're doing all kinds of training with using batons and guns and wrestling people, doing a lot of bodybuilding, how to stop people sneaking past you and how to safeguard people's rights. We don't want bullies or bad people hurting any of our precious family! Like you!" They both smile at Jenwy.

"I mean, not you specifically - I looked you up on Other Me's phone - but you said it like a proverb so I was asking about people in general here...

"... speaking of which, I should really see if it lets me reset Other Me's passcode when I don't know her original passcode but I have her face..."

(Does it?)

Jenwy has no way to reset the passcode on the phone, although just using her face looks like it lets her access nearly all of its features.

Ah well.  She reminds herself to appreciate the magic face-telling camera.  Maybe Other Kat or someone would know Other Her's passcode?  Or her friends -

"Anything specific you know about Other Me's friends?  And - what sort of bad guys do we get here?"

"Well all of us grew up in the same family of course, so I know them quite well! I'll show you some photos." They have yearbook photos with themselves, Jenwy and about a dozen other people from across the years. It's a lot of names and faces to remember!

"When it comes to bad guys: there really aren't a lot of them, but sometimes people like to take things or go crazy and start hurting people. But there are a lot of good guys like us around so they don't know if there'll be someone right there to stop them, which scares them off!"

Yeah.  It's a lot of names and faces.

She tries to make some of them into a mnemonic, but even that runs out after just a handful.

"Do... you... really not have any sort of nametags in this whole world?  Is there some version of the yearbook I could put on my phone, and then..."  She sighs again.  "I'd still need to flip through them face by face."

"Well no, people have different faces right? And if you spend long enough with them eventually you associate those with their names just naturally."

"You... do?"

"I don't know about anyone who doesn't! There are people who are bad with names or never take the time to learn them, of course, but they can still see who's who."

"Well, I know Mom and Dad and Kat's faces, of course - and \my best friends, even if they're in costume - but..."  She sweeps her hand across the open pages of photos.  "This many?"

"It might take years, but you had years. And a lot of them went to other schools, or have jobs now. Don't worry, you only need to remember a few of them!"

Right.  Just like in an ancient village... which had somehow not thought of any signet-badges.

She flips a few pages to the most recent set of photos (which does include a few of the people she met today?  She thinks?)  "All right.  These people are still here, right?  And... I don't suppose I can tell a story about being knocked on my head and forgetting their faces?  Or do you think they're all already thinking that after today?"

"Just don't say anything... schizotypal is the word. People mostly stick to themselves, so I think you'd most want to talk less to them if your plan was to blend in. Eve the closest of friends can go long periods silently walking past each other, just thinking about their own things. Say less to blend in!"

"Oh good, that'll be easier.  What's - skitzotippial?"

"Focusing on things not relevant for what's happening right now or being careful about the things they're saying being true. It's used for people that act really weird or different, and who you think don't make any sense. But they still make sense to themselves."

"Oh - so - I shouldn't - well, all the fiction I'd be referencing is in another world anyway so it wouldn't make any sense anyway."

"Yes? Surely you'd have noticed everyone else being significantly less carefree and giddy than you are?"