Even though they'd been together for years, Jeremy felt like he was meeting her for the first time. "Wow, you used to like ponies a lot."

"Don't you mean we used to like ponies a lot? Or even, I?" she smiled.

"Yeah, I guess, but I didn't grow up liking ponies, that was you. I grew up liking dinosaurs and spaceships and cars. You know, like a normal dude."

Jennifer realized it was going to be a long haul getting used to their new situation, but she didn't realize she was going to have to sweat the small stuff.

What do you mean small stuff? Oh... well, I'm glad I'll just get my way then.

"We know that's not what was meant," she said flatly.

"I just meant about the way I think about our past," Jeremy replied.

And you meant about our pronouns. I, she held up her hands together and parted them by moving her right to the right while leaving her left directly in front of her, is only for our current state.

Jeremy was already getting irked and tired. This feels schizophrenic.

Well yeah. They said it probably would. Wasn't Jeremy expecting it. And without meaning to, she added the thought, Or didn't he plan ahead much. She and they both knew he didn't.

"Rude." Anyway, now Jeremy's even smarter than Jenny ever was.

More like Janey is, but yeah.

Jeremy felt a bit indignant about this particular correction of fact, which Janey smugly ignored. But because Jeremy was fully aware of Janey, he – well, she, really – felt even more indignant. This cycle of indignation and smugness built up briefly before Janey realized how incredibly silly it was to be having any such internal standoff. At the same time, she realized that using the name Jeremy at all was equally silly unless I am specifically thinking about my Jeremy past. Better?! There was a lot of indignation.

I have really got to pull myself together. Can we please think of ourself in the plural for a while? How about using both plural and singular for a while, but trying to use the singular more and more? How about whatever comes naturally? How about trying to acclimate to the words that make sense in the long run? Pronouns are mostly social norms anyway – looks like Jenny thought about that quite a bit at one point.

Janey was already exhausted by the constant internal debate. She needed a rest, and everyone knew it. She sat down again and rubbed her temples while trying hard not to think of anything. Thank god Jeremy practiced the techniques on the checklist – sorry, sorry, sorry, no thinking. My bad; all good.

"Are you alright?" asked the lanky monitor.

"Yeah, we... I'm fine," Janey snapped back. "Sorry, I didn't mean to sound that way, it's just a lot more frustrating that I was expecting, and my thoughts are racing, and I need some time to settle down before I really try to sort things out. And, the fundamentals just can't come first. I don't know why she thought they could, but there's so much simpler shit to wade through first. Stuff pops up immediately, and it's natural to try to address it, but who knows if it makes any sense to address it?! It's like having two or three different people in my head even when we all know it should be just one."

The lanky man just gaped at the torrent of words. By contrast, the meek lady seemed captivated: "Wow, that does sound intense."

"Yeah, it is."

I feel like we need to be sedated, but I obviously shouldn't say that out loud.

"I just need to focus on how important this is and how much I want to make it work and on how much I love Janey and Jeremy and Jenny," Janey said to reassure the monitors. Actually, the same sentiment is pretty reassuring to me too, she reflected.