...giggle.

"'I could have had the full set!'" she says in an awkward baritone, clearly pretending to be her brother. "'If I knew what it was like I might have just dedicated everything, why is this one-shot-only, I would definitely not have accidentally blown myself up!'"

"Wow. Can't say that's a complaint I've ever heard before. 'Wish I could go another round with the agonizing death-storm'."

Giggle. "And now I am envisioning my brother challenging every agonizing death-storm he can find to a battle of fisticuffs, thank you for this gift."

Snicker. "You're entirely welcome."

She indulges in some more giggling.

"More seriously," she continues after she's recovered, "I can see the logic? Half of the reason why I didn't try for anything was that I didn't know how I'd do at it."

"Yeah. It's hard to know until you're there. I wasn't worried about mine, but that's because when I was sixteen I thought I was invincible."

Well, now she's giggling again.

"I did not have that problem! I said I wasn't going to do it before my birthday rolled around, and then it did, and I agonized over it some more the day of because I wanted more magic, and then I didn't because I was pretty sure that if I tried it I'd just die."

"Well, for whatever the opinion of a stranger you met in a park five minutes ago is worth, I'm glad you're not dead."

"Thank you! Me too! Maybe it was a horrible, horrible mistake and I would have been amazing at it and could be extra magical and trying to fight the agonizing death-storm again with my brother. We just don't know!"

Giggle.

"I didn't have any low hanging fruit, either. I was born with Life, Sea, Sky, and Shadow, and my parents dedicated me to Land, Fire, Ice, and Light. So I could have gone for Death like my brother and been there for sixteen hours, or picked something harder that would take less time. So ah. Yeah, no, I'd probably just be dead."

"Yeah, I see the logic. I applaud your sixteen-year-old self's mature and responsible decision-making."

"Thank you. My parents were pretty relieved, too, Zeothe gave them grey hair with his adventure."

Snicker. "I'll bet he did."

"... I keep talking about my brother. I can talk about other topics too, I swear, it's just - he's very relevant to the topic of magic!"

"I promise I'm not intimidated," he jokes.

Giggle.

"I'm not worried about you being intimidated, I'm worried about me being dull!"

"I'm skeptical that this is a problem you ever encounter!"

"Flatterer."

"You caught me."

"I bet you say that to all of the girls you catch angrily ranting in the park."

"I assure you, among girls I have caught angrily ranting in the park, you are uniquely worthy of flattery."

"Thank you, that's very reassuring. Meet a lot of ranting girls here, then? Did I take up someone's time slot without realizing?"

He giggles. "You're not the first, actually!"