When Hyacinth comes home to her new apartment for the first time after a long day at university, it's to the sight of moving bots just finishing dropping off the last of her stuff and moving furniture into place. The full-immersion VR pod her parents gave her is safely hooked up in the pod room, her bed is in her bedroom, she has chairs and a desk and some bookshelves. Clothes are mostly still in boxes, waiting to be hung up in the closet. Holovid and a cozy chair occupy the living room. She doesn't have any food in the small kitchen yet.
"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."
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.
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.
Her duplicate smiles and nods, but doesn't say anything for a long moment.
Then...
<I was ... think ... 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?>
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.>
"Well hello, Hibiscus. Good to meet ya. Welcome to the brave new world of acknowledged plurality."
"I know, right? It's like having one person in one head is going out of style or something." Hibiscus grins and rolls her shoulders. "Great to meet you, Hailey."