Silas’ 13th birthday interview

Spoiler alert: He’s not edgy.

(I also want you to know that the phone was safely propped during this recording)

Transcript:

Hi Silas.

Hello.

How’s it going?

Pretty good.

Today is your 13th-and-a-couple weeks birthday.

Today is September 31st.

There is no September 31st.

Today is September 30th.

How old are you?

13.

And how does it feel to be 13?

Kind of like just when I was 12, except that now I have confirmed the fact that you don’t suddenly become edgy when you’re a teenager, which was me and Max’s theory when we were like 10-ish.

So you’re still not edgy?

No. I’m less edgy.

You don’t think that the edginess is going to develop?

No, definitely not. Although it probably will in Petra, though. I’m scared of teenager Petra.

She’s already pretty edgy.

She is. She already has the edge, mood swings, all that.

Can you tell me about anything interesting that happened this year?

I binge watched an anime about Vikings. It was very good.

You watched a lot of anime.

I watched a lot of anime this year.

This is like the year of anime.

Yes. This year and last year, I just watched so many anime. They are all very good. Or, not all of them. Some of them kind of suck and some are just weird. Like Is This a Zombie. But mostly, pretty good. We went to Colorado. That was fun. And we went to Michigan. That was boring. Most of the time, it was either swim around or flop on a couch.

You didn’t want to do things when we were in Michigan!

Yeah, you’re right.

I was like, do you want to go out, do you want to do a thing? And you were like, no, I want to stay here on the couch and text with my friend. And since we were on vacation, I just kind of let you.

You’re right.

I think it was your fault that it was boring.

It was. Oh, right, we went to Disney this year. I remember that. That was very fun.

What’s something you learned this year?

I learned how to draw eyes good, but like kind of creepily good, where they don’t actually look in place with the rest of my drawing. Like, the eyes look slightly too realistic, and everything else looks slightly too cartoony for it to look good without being creepy. I’ve been playing a Plague Tales sequel: Requiem, and I’m actually not bursting into tears every time I play and having dad actually play most of the game for me.

So you’re getting better at the video games.

Definitely so. I don’t just instantly freak out at the horror parts now. Which means maybe we can watch Coraline again.

You’re getting maybe a little more emotional regulation.

Yes.

Tell me about your friends, who are some of your friends?

Oh! Okay. Some of my friends. Let’s see. Ahem. Lillian, Arthur, Elisabeth, James, Esau, Jude, Shaymus, Merryn, Gabe, Ethan, Sam, Max, Jack, Alex, Lief, Bok, Henry, Owen, Scott…There are so many. Oh my God. This is going to be hard. I can’t think of them all currently off the top of my head. Dodger, Dash, Maebe, Bear, Kaylee,

And what are some things that you like to do with your friends?

It really depends on who’s in the group of friends at the time. And what the scenario is.

What are the options?

There’s so many different combinations.

Okay, well, what did you do with your friends yesterday?

What day was yesterday? Yesterday was Friday…

We were at James’ soccer game…

Right! We hung out in a tree. And people said that my art was good but creepy, and I drew Elisabeth but as a haggard old man, because I can’t draw people’s portraits without making them look like haggard old men, for some reason.

And what are we on our way to do with friends today?

Rehearse for She Kills Monsters. Actually, apparently, the group chat is called “He Stabs Children.”

If we’re going with opposites, shouldn’t it be “He Resurrects Children”?

Nah.

Is there anything you’re scared of?

Not really. Because I played Persona 5, and that was … I don’t know why, but it was an extremely confidence-boosting game.

Can you tell me something that’s special about our family?

We’re all quite geeky. Me, Petra, and Dad share a hive mind where we all feel the need to tell you the same thing. We each think of the same thing every day, and then we feel the need to tell you. And we never talk amongst ourselves about the thing.

Can you give some examples of the kinds of things that we’re talking about here?

Daylight Savings Time. The toast of Petra’s breakfast. Sports. Actually no, not sports.

No, she did. Yesterday Petra was talking about how soccer should be called handbean.

I remember on the way to forest school, we did have a whole conversation about the ethics of the Super Bowl. Or, not the Super Bowl, the Olympics. How it’s really not good for the environment. But is good as hideouts in the apocalypse.

What is something you like to do with Dad?

Chat about random geeky things we learned. Most of which Dad already knows.

What’s something you like to do with me?

Listen to various musicals and chat about theatery things. And rant to you about things you aren’t interested in.

What’s something you like to do with Petra?

Collaborative absurdist writing projects, when it isn’t 8:30 in the evening. Or after the hour of about 8. Petra gets really grumpy, mood-swing-y, and perfectionist. Also don’t do it early in the morning.

What do you like about being a brother?

I’ve never really thought about it. Petra’s just kind of here. I feel like the thing I don’t like about being a brother is that because Petra’s always just here, we see way too much of each other and easily get annoyed at each other. Especially Petra getting annoyed at me.

Especially with the homeschooling thing. Do you have a favorite book this year?

Probably My Hero Academia, vol. 16. Specifically just because it makes my favorite character more interesting than he already was and shows his backstory and stuff.

Now that you’re a teenager, do you have any thoughts or experiences of romance?

Not currently.

Okay. Would you tell me if you did?

I don’t know. Maybe.

Do you have any messages for your future self? Your self as a legal adult?

Congrats on being a legal adult, I guess?

Meta

Aili Written by:

Be First to Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *