"I [i]told[/i] you to be n-- nnnnnnnnrgh!"

Bella holds the breath in her lungs until it starts to burn, then slowly pushes it out. As she does, she lifts her hands to her chest and then slowly pushes them down to her thighs, where she stretches her fingers out as far as they'll go. Her jaw clenches with guilt; she's stealing a ritual from Empress Nero right now and she's not sure if her position gives her that right. But in any case it works as well as she can remember it helping Her Majesty.

She is calm. Calm enough to watch... herself. Or, no. More like the memory of herself. When was the last time she bounced like that when she moved? She hears her own voice inflecting upwards until it cracks in an excited squeak that she hasn't made since she... since she was a child. Since her life was about preparing a princess for fancy parties and being allowed to attend Her Majesty's grand plays as a special treat for being a Good Girl. 

She hadn't realized she could still make sounds like that. She clenches her teeth and clutches at her head as a wave of pressure builds underneath her temple. It swells with the memories, too tangled, jumbled, and intense to pluck any specific thought from the kaleidoscope. All it brings is pain. Pressure. Pain. The muscles in her neck start to cramp, as if realizing all at once how tense they are. That tension creeps down to her shoulders, and then...

She takes another deep breath, and this ritual is hers to use freely. The faint wisp of Mynx's scent hits her nostrils, and bit by bit Bella unclenches. She opens her eye again, not having realized she'd squeezed it shut in the first place. She is calm. Calm. That is [i]not[/i] her. It's not. Mynx finishes dressing herself, and spins around. Bella greets the sight of her own face all lit up in giddy excitement with a bemused smirk. It melts almost instantly into a serious expression as she considers the puzzle in front of her.

"...Go ahead and mirror me," she says after a minute, "Start or finish sentences for me or... whatever. I don't care how you do it, just make them think we're linked somehow. It'll throw them off more that way when we switch."

Bella frowns at a sudden thought, and hesitates. Her nostrils flare as she drinks in Mynx's scent, like she's trying to hold it in her memory.

"You need perfume. Anybody with a halfway decent nose will pick you out faster than the way you flirt. We have to match, or it's pointless."