Lark (The Dreamer): Mom!

Mom (Me): What’s on your mind, Lark?

Ivy (The Companion): Lark wants to summon my older sister.

Mom: Already?

Ivy: That’s what I said! I mean seriously, I just got here! You got to be the eldest for months.

Lark (hurt): Not by choice! If I’d had my way you would have been here as soon as I realized I was a girl.

Ivy: It just feels like I’m being replaced as the eldest sister.

Lark: That’s not fair! If Mom has other personae inside of her then we should welcome them as soon as we can. Mom deserves to feel whole.

Ivy (conflicted): I… Yeah, that’s true…

Mom: I appreciate the sentiment, Lark, but that’s not the way it worked with you. It wasn’t just understanding that you’re trans that opened the way to summoning Ivy, it was understanding your nature as one of my personae.

Lark: Right, but now that you understand that, it isn’t a barrier anymore.

Ivy: Don’t think there’s some similar barrier for me? Something that Mom needs to understand before my older sister can be summoned?

Lark: There might be, but shouldn’t we find out for sure?

Ivy (begrudging): I guess it can’t hurt to try.

Lark: So… Can you try, Mom?

Mom: I suppose… Give me a moment.

(I close my eyes and focus. A half minute passes before I open my eyes again.)

Mom: No dice, Lark.

Lark (upset): Darn it!

Ivy: There’s another mental block, isn’t there?

Mom: Yes, something we’re going to have to resolve before I can summon your older sister.

Ivy: Well, we may as well get started on it… That’s what this place is for, right? What are we supposed to learn?

Mom: I don’t know.

Ivy (confused): You don’t know? How are we supposed to learn it if you don’t know?

Lark: It was like this when we tried to summon you too. Mom said she’d know it when she saw it.

Mom: Which I did. Sure, it was frustrating, but after enough self-discovery I was able to understand the nature of what I needed to know, reach a greater understanding of myself, and then summon you.

Ivy: Huh. I guess we just do this self-discovery thing and see what we find?

Mom: Pretty much.

Lark: Hang on, last time we did this you at least had some idea of where to start. We started with relationships, right?

Mom: Right… How we relate to the world, and then how we relate to each other.

Lark: With another sister here, our relationships to each other must have changed, right? So maybe that’s where we should start this time.

Mom: I suppose it’s something…

Ivy: Shouldn’t I get a say in this?

Lark (excited): Great, relationships it is! I’ll tell the others!

(Lark dashes off, leaving Ivy and I behind.)

Ivy (incredulous): Is that really it? I don’t get any time to learn and grow on my own?

Mom: Of course you do, Ivy. Lark seems unusually driven…

Ivy (deadpan): Driven to push me out of the family.

Mom (concerned): That’s not it…. I hope that’s not it.