As we were walking towards the door, all I could think of was how sorry I felt for Pototangaros. Having to relive such a painful memory much have been absolutely awful. I could imagine all too well exactly what it was like. It was always terrible and it didn’t get much easier with time especially when it was so personal.

Despite that, there was one thing that I really needed to do before we headed off to Gaias. I needed to sit down with Sylak and Jester and have an actual formal talk about everything that had and was happening with this new mind dynamic.

“Jester!” I shouted at the window of vision.

She stopped in her tracks and motioned to the group to do the same. “Yes?”

“Tell the group I said to just wait here. I need you to come inside of here. The three of us need to have a talk.”

She chuckled. “I was waiting. I’m surprised you took this long.” She then turned to the rest of the group. “I have an appointment to meet with some kittens. Avien says for y’all to just chill here until we’re done.” Without waiting for a response, she closed her eyes and the window disappeared. A few moments later, a pink door appeared behind where the window had been. “Hello, kittens!”

I hissed. “We are all exactly the same age. Why are you acting like you’re so much higher up than us.”

She rolled her eyes and walked over to me. She got so close our noses were practically touching. “What are you going to do about it, my little green kitten?”

I sighed, closing my eyes and calming myself down. When I opened them, Jester was still right in front of my face. “I’m going to thank you...”

She cocked her head sideways. “For calling you kitten?”

I shook my head. “No, you idiot. I’m going to thank you for being the one to save my friends when I wasn’t able to. If you hadn’t been there, they probably would have died.”

She laughed. “You thank people for the silliest things, dear. I was just doing my job. Killing the people that deserve it and of course, having fun.”

I hadn’t really expected much else from her, so I just shrugged and made my way back down to my seat. “Join us, Jester. We all need to talk.” I looked to my left and saw Sylak sitting asleep, snoring. “Sweet Sengario...”

Jester walked up from behind. “Don’t worry, I’ve got it.” She placed her hand next to his cheek before sending a bolt of pink lightning in to him.

Sylak immediately jolted awake. “What the fuck?! Are you crazy?!”

Jester laughed loudly. “Hello pot. Mr. Kettled called to say that you’re black.”

He shot her a death glare before she materialized a pink chair for her to sit in, facing the both of us. “Alright, what is it that you would like to talk about?”

“So, I think the first thing for us to discuss is how exactly this is going to work. After all, there are now three of us living inside of this head now. How is that going to work?”

Jester just shrugged. “I imagine it will probably work about the same as it did before, but with an extra voice to accompany any of us when we’re in control of the body. I don’t really see why anything would change that much.”

I thought about it for a moment. She did have a point. It wasn’t really that big of a change. It was just another voice and after living with one for so long, it may actually be nice to have another, hopefully.

“Alright, I suppose the next thing we should talk about is your release.” Jester winked at me and I just glared at her. “I mean your release from my mind, you pervert. There are three of us now. How exactly does that work with letting one of you out?”

“I highly doubt that has changed any existing things,” Sylak said. “I imagine that activating your cursed eye will still release me from inside of your mind. I suppose, if we want to allow Jester access to the body, all we have to do is just agree to let them out. That’s how it somewhat happened the first time, so I don’t see why it would be any different when we want to let them out.”

I nodded. “Alright, that could certainly work. I suppose we’ll find out whether or not that’s the case the next time we want to let them out.”

It felt a bit weird to be having such a casual conversation over such a crazy topic. We were quite literally talking about the swapping of personalities and changing the control of a body. On top of that, Sylak and I were just talking like good friends. Yes, after what happened in the tunnel, it made sense, but it was still a bit crazy to think of after all this time.

“I think the next thing to discuss would be what kind of terms and conditions you’re going to operate under,” I said, looking at Jester.

She sat there for a bit, thinking to herself before she gave us her answer. “I mean, it’s not really anything too drastic. I want most of the same things Sylak wants. I just want to be let out occasionally to have some time to stretch my legs and get some actual exposure in the real world. I don’t want to just stay cooped up inside of here all the time.”

I nodded. “Is there anything else important?”

“Yes! There is! A few things. I would like to absolutely be allowed some... private time with the body when you all aren’t snooping around watching. What for is none of your concern. I would also like to not have you complain every single time I kill someone.”

I scowled. “I can’t promise anything.”

“That’s fair. I will kill people though and you’re either going to have to get used to it or simply get over it. I’m not going to not do it. It’s fun. I won’t just kill random people though. I’ll only kill the bad people.”

“And you get to decide who is and is not bad.”

She smiled. “Don’t worry, a lot of my moral compass comes from you.”

“Yes, but part of it comes from him too,” I said, pointing to Sylak.

She shrugged. “I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Their influence on my personality is definitely less prevalent than yours, so you should agree with most of my decisions.”

“Is that all?”

She thought for a moment before nodding. “That’s all I can think of now, but I’ll update you as things progress.”

I sighed. I didn’t really like that answer all that well, but I couldn’t fight it either. With all the logistics out of the way, it was time for me to finally ask the question that had been on my mind since Jester had first appeared. “Who are you?”

She let out a soft laugh. “Considering you know my name, I can assume that you’re asking me a very different question.”

I frowned, narrowing my eyes. “I’m serious.”

She attempted to frown, but seemed to be unable to. “That, my green kitten, is a very complex question. A complex question with an even more complex answer.”

I continued to glare at her. “Congratulations, but this conversation is occurring somewhere where time doesn’t really work the same, so I suggest you start explaining. I’m not playing games with you.”

She sighed and got herself in to a more comfortable position, or so I guessed. She stared at me with her legs on the top of the chair and her head upside-down, hair tumbling to the ground. “Alright, fine. I know how you are.”

I smirked and crossed my arms, looking her right in the eye as she began to explain. “Well really, it all began when you were first born. You were bestowed a cursed eye. On top of that, the good nature of your very being rejected the malicious influence of the cursed eye and forced it down subconsciously. This created the weird purple cloud demon that eventually became them,” she said, pointing to Sylak.

“Them?”

She rolled her eyes. “Yes them. They’re just your suppressed malice. Why would they have a gender?”

I shrugged. It made sense, but wasn’t something I had ever given much thought to. “Anyway, their formation was a very obvious thing, but there was another side effect of this suppression, me. Deep inside of your mind, the unusually strong cursed eye tried to create your ‘proper’ personality.”

“My ‘proper personality’? That’s what you are?”

She chuckled. “It was the only way I could think to put it. Basically, as you and Sylak have had experiences and memories and anything, it poured that in to me and tried to fuse your personalities. That explains why my gender is the way it is. It was trying to compensate for the disparity between the two of you.”

I nodded. “So that’s how you were already able to use magic as well as either of us. You already had both of our pooled knowledges to help you out.”

She nodded. “Precisely. However, now that you’ve accepted Sylak, instead of me taking control, I simply exist as a new personality inside of your head. You seem to have confused your own eye. It must not know what to do anymore. The structure of your mindscape is just so screwed up at this point. It’s basically its own plane of existence at this point, like another dimension.”

“So then why haven’t I disappeared?” Sylak asked.

We both looked at them and then at each other. “I have no idea. By all accounts, her arrival should have removed you from my mind, but maybe it has something to do with what caused these,” I said pointing to my purple streak of hair.

They looked at me a bit confused. “Why would yours and my streak have anything to do with this?”

“Well think about it. These first appeared after we worked together to defeat Jaynice. I didn’t accept you as part of me and was still extremely resentful towards you, but I did understand why we needed each other in that moment. With that little bit of hair came part of my personality too. You’re no longer a mindless ball of madness like well... Madness was.”

They sat there thinking for a moment before shrugging. “I suppose that does make a good bit of sense. Neither of us are no longer totally separate, so eradicating me wouldn’t totally work.”

I shook my head before sitting there holding it. All of these ideas were finally catching up with me and it was all so confusing and crazy to comprehend. Why had this become my new version of normal?

“Anyway, where will I be staying?” Jester asked as she sat up and looked around. “You’re still the controlling personality, so I’ll be spending most of my time in here. I’ll need somewhere to stay as you do actually get tired in here.”

Sylak sat up and began walking in to the distance. “Come on, I can show you where there’s some convenient space available.”

I watched as they walked off in to the distance before disappearing completely, leaving me alone. I turned back and formed my door. I turned the handle and walked inside, exiting the mindscape.