I don't know. He said I have weird ankles. I have normal ankles!

Weird ankles?

[ ...glances down at her ankles i guess??? what makes an ankle weird?? ]

Okay, well, they're not weird.

I know that already!

I'm just verifying as a neutral third party!

Well thank you...

You're welcome...

[ ... ]

When you're not play-fighting. [ chalking up any of his complaints to just 'play-fighting' is kind of rude but okay. ] Do you get along with your brothers?

I mean, we do a lot of stuff together, and it's usually fun, so yeah? But they're also kind of toxic. Like, any time they see me succeeding at doing something on my own without them, they get all vindictive about it and try to sabotage me.

Oh. Well that sucks... Like—what sort of success? They just get jealous, or what?

Yeah. Like, the first job I got, they all came and made a huge scene during my shift in front of the manager and all the customers. And this one time when I went on a beach trip with some friends, they followed me there so they could lie in wait and then carry me off and tie me up whenever it looked like I was starting to have fun.

That's like... actually bad...

[ she was hoping for something funnier. damn. ]

So, what, you just can't tell them when you have anything to be excited about?

[ these things are all 100% played for comedy and they're very goofy they're just NOT FUNNY FROM HIS PERSPECTIVE!!! ]

Basically, yeah. But then they get mad that I didn't tell them things when they eventually find out.

[ the cartoon funny doesn't translate!!! :meowno: ]

Well that's their own fault for acting that way!

Exactly!!

[ huff. ]

So. Anyway. It's complicated, I guess is the answer.

I always... hear people say stuff like that. That having siblings is complicated. Like siblings love and hate each other at the same time.

But it was never like that for me. [ even her complaints about being the youngest sibling were... mostly just her joking. ]

[ it was never like that for the magnus brothers either!!!!! cries i did the worst brother 180 here ]

Ah... Well, I think ours is kind of an extreme case, since we're all identical and there's so many of us.

[ even if they weren't out of a gag anime, it's an inherently messy situation when you and your best friends are all competing for attention from the moment you're born and all seen as interchangeable by people on the outside. ]

...Yours was a pretty good guy, right? I think that makes a difference, too.

[ help me not the polar opposite brothers ]

Right. I feel like the comparisons are bad enough when you're just normal siblings, but all being identical must make it way worse.

[ people not being able to tell them apart, or identifying them only by their differences. she feels like either of those would be annoying. ]

... He was, yeah.

Do you feel like talking about him? I'd kind of like to hear what it was like to have that kind of brother.

[ she slightly better at talking about things these days so. she nods... ]

Like having a best friend, I guess? Our parents weren't around a lot, so he'd babysit me, but it was like—even when he didn't have to, we wanted to hang out. It was fun.

Sounds like you were both pretty lucky to have each other, then. What kind of stuff did you do together?

We'd go to the beach, mostly? Or the theater when there was anything good playing. There wasn't a lot to do in town, but we'd wander. Or we used to do game night and play board games or cards.

Haha, my brothers and I play mahjong together sometimes and everyone gets super serious and competitive about it.

You know, we could probably get a couple of board games with our points, if you felt like doing that here. Could be kind of a fun team thing.

[ she visibly perks up. ]

I already made us spend points on something I wanted. We don't have to.