And same for the humphrey sibs? Dan, Jenny (& Vanessa & Ruby)
Yes!!! (Honestly these are,,, ideal asks i love talking siblings tysm) Also, @mrs-nate-humphrey was talking about the abrams sisters just recently, so that might be. In my brain (and yes my attribution on that post is correct. I did say that)
- I honestly think Ruby and Vanessa weren’t very close growing up. They definitely have a pretty significant age gap and I just think that as Ruby was figuring out her own messy self and stuff she just,,, found v kind of annoying
- And they do get closer as they get older and when they move into together and so on but it remains very present for Vanessa that to her, Ruby doesn’t like her very much. Like, she’s wrong and all, and if she were to ever mention it Ruby would be horrified, but she never does because that’s The Way It Is and so she just never really pushes too hard about their relationship and doing stuff together, because she doesn’t want to impose
- Ruby is the person who responded to her parents’ very loud expectations by going ‘cool. No <3’ at approximately age 15, and then found out that dyeing her hair electric blue and forming a queer punk band was actually something they thought was great and was a little horrified that her attempted rebellion failed
- As an adult they kind of have a,,, politely distant relationship, in that they have no idea Ruby has problems with them and she’s just going to live her life over here and not tell them because it would be a huge fucking hassle
- And that means moving in with Ruby is one of the first times Vanessa realizes they have issues either, and it’s a very freeing experience for her. And this repeats a lot over the period after they move in together, see: Vanessa lowkey thinks her sister hates her, and said sister has grown up enough to realize she’s cool and in need of nurturing
- Vanessa is, ofc, always invited to Ruby’s band’s performances and she kind of accidentally stumbles into being their photographer and videographer very quickly by virtue of just bringing her camera everywhere and being good with it
- The night she brings Nate for their first date is one of the first times that she doesn’t tape the show, and they get mocked mercilessly and warmly by a bunch of lesbians about it and Ruby is just like ‘hm. Oh. I kind of figured she was also gay’
- And, like, eventually she’s the person Vanessa tells when she realizes she’s bi and all is well in the world and in Ruby’s gaydar once more
- And I think there is something really important and affirming for Vanessa about having her sister just Know that she’s a lesbian and always be sharing that with her, even as it takes her a really long time to understand her own bisexuality, but it’s also something that makes her really insecure and makes it harder for her because she doesn’t just Know
- And Humphreys darling beloveds!!!
- Look, Dan is the sweetest, most anxious and quiet kid in his class. (Like, see that line about Rufus walking him to school way back in… s2?) Dan also comes home with a black eye in the third grade because some kid was picking on Jenny and that’s that
- Like, yes, Dan has anger issues and yes, Dan has mom friend anxiety override, but he also has Jenny In Trouble common sense override and it is one of his most appealing traits to… everyone but her. Jenny is a little horrified from the jump
- The Humphreys are a house of artists and they all absolutely definitely engage with each other’s forms of it! Dan and Jenny both grow up singing and playing like five instruments and competent with at least two mediums of visual art each. (Jenny most likes pencils, Dan prefers oils because he is a freak and also his mother’s son. Jenny will always find the smell of turpentine comforting.)
- But also Jenny uses Dan as a dummy a lot, before she manages to save up enough to get one of her own, and so there are a great many early Jenny Humphrey Originals that are Dan sized
- And while Vanessa is canonically Dan’s go to person for a first read and edit of his work, Jenny is the one who plays thesaurus and rhyming dictionary and sounding board for early concepts
- Living apart for the first time during s4—Jenny running away during s2 not being counted due to the sheer amount of emotional turmoil—I think that both of them just feel. So weird about that, and I think for Dan he really comes to the sense that he had failed Jenny pretty horribly
- And he tells her that, during her first visit in s4, they just stay up at night talking about it all and Jenny fucking spirals after getting back to Hudson for a variety of reasons, but pretty high up among them is her own Dan In Distress common sense override
- Somehow this post has turned sideways into [attempts to rationalize s4!Jenny] and I apologize. Anyway
- Big believer in Dan staying with Jenny while they’re both adults and she’s in London. Not permanently, or even really super long term, but in the sense of him spending a summer there or doing a semester abroad and just showing up all the time or both. It’s very reparative for them
- Of all the gg siblings, they’re the ones who have the kind of inside jokes where the joke itself has become just looking at each other at the moment when they would tell it and cracking up to everyone else’s complete confusion
- They’re also the ones who have general freaky nonverbal communication and same brain moments the most, and they are not allowed to play things like charades as a team because they fucking decimate the competition
