"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.>

Hyacinth floats up out of her trance, and takes a deep breath. 

"She's there. She's really there. I — had a short conversation with her. She told me not to worry. Called herself my twin."

Hailey grabs Hyacinth tightly in a hug and squeezes her. "Awesome! Congrats! Go tell her hi from me."

Hyacinth exhales a little laugh, and hugs Hailey back for a moment. Then she turns her focus inward again. 

<Hailey says hi.>