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"Penny! It's good to see you again! I wanted to talk to you about something."
"Oh! Nothing bad, I hope?"
"Nope. Just something I figured you might want to know."
Penny listened intently as Ruby jumped right into an explanation about median systems. She was really trying to understand but... well, she wasn't sure why Ruby was talking about this as if it was unusual. Different versions or aspects of herself that could argue and disagree... wasn't that how it was for everyone?
She could remember a time before, when there was just one of her. It had been lonely, which she hadn't liked very much. But that had been long ago, and you weren't supposed to be alone forever, right?
Ruby was looking at her now, clearly waiting for some kind of response and she didn't know what to say. Something about this was a big deal to Ruby, and she should respond appropriately, but she still didn't know why Ruby had told her any of this. She wasn't getting anywhere like this.
"Is that... unusual?"
Ruby's eyes widened and for a moment she worried she had said something very very wrong. But then Ruby smiled brightly and spoke with a barely contained excitement.
"You too?"
This was not getting any less confusing, but at least Ruby wasn't upset by her response. "I think so? Ruby... I'm sorry but I still don't understand. You are saying all of this as if this is not standard."
Ruby was bouncing up and down slightly now. "Well, yeah, I also thought it was standard but then I talked about it and everyone was just confused!"
Oh... it was starting to make sense now, why Ruby had treated this as a big deal.
"We... thought it might be considered impolite to talk about your aspects. Or that you were only supposed to talk about this with friends? We have never had friends before so it only seemed logical."
Ruby seemed sad for a moment but then she hugged Penny as tightly as she could. "You have us now."
She returned the hug, careful not to crush Ruby too much, and then remembered something important.
"Ruby, is it also unusual if there is more than one group here?"
Floating array was a lot to manage for one person, but it wasn't managed by one person. It was managed by a group of ten, and they were more separate than penny and her... aspects? They even each had different names. Yet in a fight they took over and and worked together better than any other group of people Penny knew. She explained all of this to Ruby, who had pulled away from their hug to listen as intently as Penny had done earlier.
"Unusual? Sure. But it sounds familiar. I think there was something about... subsystems?" She frowned, and then shook her head. "I can't remember what we read about this, but we do know you're not alone in this." A moment of silence passed and she realized what she had said. "I mean obviously you're not alone we just meant-"
Ruby went quiet when Penny laughed softly. "Of course, we know what you mean."
It felt good, finally talking to someone about this. But she did have a new question.
"If this is unusual... what is it like for most people?"
Ruby shrugged. "I don't know, apparently there's just one person and one aspect."
She thought that sounded too quiet and lonely, and felt the others agreeing.
"Thank you Ruby, for talking to me-... for talking to us about this."
"Heh, we're just glad to know someone who understands."
Ruby smiled then, and Penny found that every aspect of her agreed on one thing: they never wanted to leave Beacon.