"What would a more morbid explanation be, then?"

"Testing ground for a low-powered version of a hideous death curse?"

"There'd be no reason to do it to exactly five people at exactly 9:12 once a month! And if it's reliably a different day each month then it's not something obvious like the phase of the moon because you'd end up pretty close come February - that or the scenario is underspecified, which is what happens when you make it up without an answer in mind, I guess -"

"Wow are you ever overthinking this."

"Overthinking things is fun!"

"Maybe I should invent a less underspecified version of the scenario."

"Be my guest."

"Well, we'll see."

"Maybe I should be encouraging this, silly mysteries sound relatively untroublesome," Emily murmurs to Lucky.

"Silly mysteries are very untroublesome!"

"Unless our siblings take that as a challenge, I suppose."

"That's not the kind of thing Merry would find intrinsically challenging."

"Good, because I'm having a hard time thinking of ways to make it troublesome besides poisoning five people a month at 9:12 in the morning!"

"Mom would be mad if he poisoned people without a very good reason!"

"Edie could probably find people worth poisoning."

"Five students a month worth poisoning by our mother's standards? I doubt it," says Lucky.

"Well, not all at this school."

"Let's not get into a detailed discussion of the logistics of poisoning five people a month," says Merry.

"Emily likes to pretend she's less twisty than me but really she's mostly just less proactive about executing it."

"I see."

"Sorry Lucky, you will have to find someone else to share Actual Boring Twin status with."

"I have no particular need to be surrounded by people as boring as myself."

"That's probably a good thing."

"I'd have a hard time with it if I did, considering all the trouble magnets in the family."

"Sounds like it."