Maitimo is spending the evening down at his parents' house.

Not being a jerk is great. Maitimo's back the next day delighted over his little sister, wearily exasperated with his father who has apparently asked everyone in Tirion with an infant daughter to run a battery of attention tests so it can be determined whether there are gender differences.

"Yeah, he mentioned he was going to do that. Although he didn't mention the planned scope."

"Everyone will do it," Maitimo says wearily, "and would probably be sad if only some were selected to participate, so it makes sense. But still. We don't have as many babies as you but that's still quite a lot of them."

"The tests didn't sound that laborious. Show the kids some pictures and some magic, see how long they stare."

"And get a thousand letters from parents excited to convey these results to their crown prince and very unclear about their exact procedures. Or else he can have everyone bring the babies to him, but that's thousands of babies."

"Oh. Yeah, that could be annoying to pick through."

"It would annoy my father, so he'll make someone else do it." He shakes his head ruefully. "Not that I blame him for wanting to spare as much of his time and attention for immortality as he possibly can."

"I do appreciate that!"

"We've never had a problem where solving it fast made such a difference."

"What, never?"

"In the Outer Lands, maybe. Not in my father's lifetime, certainly not in mine."

"That... sounds weird."

"I'm finding this weird. Though oddly bracing."

"Happy to help by being conspicuously expiration-dated."

"No longer! But everyone in your world still is, so it doesn't feel even a breath less urgent."

"Yeah. I suppose in a way it's good that Aly had my tendency not to make particularly close friends or I'd be really anxious about them - she hung out with people but mostly kind of at arm's length - and I thiiiink her teacher had already died when Aly was still alive although I haven't gotten an actual funeral..."

"I wouldn't have expected you to have a tendency not to make particularly close friends."

"I mostly haven't," Kib shrugs. "Most people are just sort of okay."

"My father thinks that way too. I find all people delightful but I can't say I don't understand what you mean."

"I don't actively dislike hanging out with people who are just sort of okay but it is not an attitude that has left me with a circle of very close friends."

"I wonder if there are more people here with temperaments you'd find conducive to close friendship."

"It's either that or being the interesting new thing in town has selected for me meeting people who like interesting things."

"Or having an important project to work on. I've found that lots of people are more interesting when being competent."