secret orange stuff

The key thing about this is that, for metaphysical and social purposes, you count as the same person as everyone else who shares that hive identity. You are understood to be mostly-interchangeable with the others. You understand yourself to be mostly-interchangeable with the others. The you-of-today and the you-of-tomorrow share exactly as much continuity as the you-who-lives-in-your-house and the you-who-lives-next-door.

(I am presently unclear on just how magical this magic is. It's possible to envision this as purely a social construct, with no actual power beyond the fact that everyone's agreed to accept it as true. It's also possible to envision it as, e.g., exerting force to make members of a hive-identity more similar to one other in appearance and temperament. There may or may not be spiritual shenanigans regarding things like afterlives, depending on setting details.)

The members of a hive identity aren't actually identical to one another. One iteration of you might be a bit taller, a bit wittier, a bit better at archery, whatever. But this has precisely the same salience as "a given person has good days and bad days." The hive identity shares all its obligations and social roles, so, e.g., it's totally normal for you to swap jobs or families with another iteration if there's friction of some kind or if you want an experiential change.

Unsurprisingly, different communities and cultural subsectors feel differently about hive identities. There are places where basically everyone joins, places where basically no one joins, and everything in between.

Crucially: there are multiple separate hive identities. Even if you want to melt yourself down, you will spend much of your life engaging with people who definitely aren't you in any sense. All of them are for people who basically don't want to be distinctive in any way, though, so there's a limit to how much diversity there can be here.

I envision there as being three major hive identities. (Maybe there are also some much-smaller niche ones for niche identities that are still generic enough to serve as "default person templates." Haven't really gotten there.)

Hive Identity A is the one modeled on (a somewhat stereotypical, somewhat idealized version of) the classic character that is the 4Chan Anon. He is male. He is soft; he is sentimental; he is markedly unambitious; he mostly wants to enjoy himself and have a good time. He's kind of unreliable and kind of selfish, but also genuinely nice, and inclined to appreciate good things that have been given to him. He's genuinely funny and good at seeing the humor in things. He does much of the world's lowest-skilled work. He traditionally dresses in green.

Hive Identity B is modeled on the Generic Anime Schoolgirl - the one who really just wants to be a normal member-of-society in good standing, in a specifically-girly idiom. She is female. She is sweet and a bit silly; she likes cute things; she is "basic," in the modern American sense. She likes gossip and material comfort and being fussed over. She is the audience for every song addressed to "girl" or "baby." She is good at nurturing and emotional labor. She does much of the world's conventionally female-coded work. She traditionally dresses in white and pink.

Hive Identity C is modeled on the stereotype of the Quiet Competent Person. S/he is not strongly gendered, which is to say, generally happy to be gendered however others see fit (which usually means "gendered by the body of the specific iteration at hand"). S/he is reserved, literal-minded, extremely practical, and devoted to the cultivation of crafts and skills and physical fitness. S/he is inclined to work for others (people and institutions) in concrete, understated ways. S/he often serves as a skilled laborer or rank-and-file soldier. S/he traditionally dresses in grey.

Members of a given hive mind often have friendly or sexual interactions with other iterations of themselves. This is understood to be basically an indulgent pastime, a form of play, without much in the way of meaning or consequence.