"I thought about the delusion thing," she says, because of course she did, "but it's so internally consistent that it can't be unless I've had a total psychotic break. Those are rare. And even if I have, there's nothing I can do about it from inside if it's this acute, so it sort of comes out the same either way."

A pause, then:

"Not that I'm accusing you of being a hallucination. That's rude."

It's halfway a joke.