"I mean, it could be worse, I live in Voa and am therefore guaranteed two children no matter what, but still."

"We will figure out planets and then you can have all the kids you want."

"Yeah, that's my twin alright."

"For being sure or for reacting that way to your plight in particular."

"The latter. --My sister is an art green, by the way, she does sculpture."

"Huh. Well, she can learn magic too assuming being Amentan hasn't changed the two of you in relevant ways and then I can teach her awesome stuff to do with gemstones."

"Ooh."

"--Another thing that's different about us is we can deal with gross stuff with magic so we don't have any reds. Or caste at all, but."

"Well. Good for you."

"To which?"

"Look, you're apparently my sister, but I don't really know how you're different--and therefore if you're trustworthy."

"...I wouldn't do anything to hurt you."

"Yeah but--still. Anyway. Suffice to say that I am sufficiently university-radical that my reaction to 'no reds' is 'hooray for the lack of treating people like shit.'"

"It would have been difficult if you weren't."

Soft, not-really-amused laugh. "Yeah, I can bet."

"Mm?"

"Well, assuming your twin is me, uh, it is--obvious how she'd react to the situation with the reds, not having been brought up to think of them as, uh. Reds."

"Do you think of them as 'uh, reds,' because that seems like the thing likeliest to put a ceiling on our goal-sharing."

"It's--complicated. ...I think what you did with taking in those reds at the North Pole was noble?"

"Complicated like how?"

"Do you just not have a pollution instinct?"

"I have nonzero ability to find things gross but as a general principle, no, that is not a feature of my species."

"--Okay. So, uh, if this looks like a collective insanity we should really get over, it's not, saying pollution isn't real because there's no mass difference between a polluted and a nonpolluted object is kind of like saying love isn't real because the brain is just chemicals, it's a real thing people feel and it's not going to go away any more than a group of emotionless aliens who wished people would get over the collective insanity of love are gonna get their wish."

"I have been working around the thing, not over and through it," she points out.

"Well, that's good. Still."