1. Are Dylan's brothers treating her like a boy naturally because they are used to it?
To some extent, before the big reveal, they all thought of her as a boy and treated her like one, even though they knew the truth. They didn’t once feel the need to go easy on her when they were having fights, and they teased her about girls crushing on her. That’s why they were always so uncomfortable when her time of the month would come around. I know it’s hard to imagine it for someone who’s never experienced something similar, but try to put yourself in their shoes to understand; when your youngest sibling was born, your parents never made any distinction between you and him, and you believe he’s just like you. Your parents tell you he’s special, but that it’s a family secret that you should never even talk about. With time and experience, you understand what this difference is, but you also start to comprehend just how important it is for that difference to remain a secret, for the safety of your sibling who you love very much. So you keep up the façade until you start believing it yourself, and you’re only aware of the truth when something reminds you of it.
2. Can you describe Dylan's appearance as a girl and boy?
First of all, Dylan is 5’5, which is an average size, but she only considers herself to be short because her brothers are so much taller. She has brown hair and hazel eyes. (Side note; this distinction with her blond –except Danny– blue eyed brothers does NOT make her biologically unrelated to them. She is not kidnapped or adopted, and is in fact her parent’s daughter. This distinction is just a way to emphasize her uniqueness.) She is also built like a female gymnast, meaning she is thin but does have some muscles. As a boy, she has all of her bodily hair, especially on her face, meaning that her eyebrows are full and faintly joined at the middle, (NOT a unibrow though!) and she has slight peach fuzz in place of a mustache and on her cheeks. This is just to help hide the fact that she’s a girl. As for her hair, it’s too short to tell what shape they have because it’s less than two inches long. It seems to be straight and lush, because it barely reaches half her forehead and never curls. She wraps bandages around her chest to make it look like her torso is flat but buff at the top. At the touch, it also feels like she has muscles there. Because of everything mentioned above, she can basically wear whatever boy clothes she wants, except for tight shirts. She has a preference to baggy T-shirts, hoodies and jeans, and usually wears converse shoes or combat boots in the winter. As a girl, the only change is that her body hair is all removed, as are the bandages she uses to hide her boobs, and her clothing choices are different. She also wears makeup at some point, at the insistence of Sadie and Marianna.
3. Do Dylan's parents think about her future? What if she falls in love and wants to mate on day? Did they think what would happen if they died?
I realize I’ve painted a negative picture of her parents, and my answer here is only going to make it worse, but I want everyone to know that they never thought their way of bringing her up would be hurtful; the very opposite, they were doing everything they can to keep her safe. Unfortunately for Dylan, they were so terrified of what would happen to her if she were to get caught that they became paranoid, and that led them to being controlling and way too overprotective. When they thought of her future, they did consider what would happen if they died, and they had an agreement with all of her brothers to continue protecting Dylan themselves. In case her brothers were also incapable of doing so, they had another plan which involved revealing the secret to Steven’s family, but even that was a last resort that they only considered a backup plan. As for falling in love, they knew it would happen someday, but they had enough influence over her decision that they knew they would have a say in it; if they thought the person she wanted to be with would do anything for her, or, by a stroke of luck, was her true mate, they would have welcomed him into the family, and the two of them would have lived as a public gay couple. But if Dylan’s parents didn’t trust the guy, they would have found a way to convince Dylan that it wasn’t a good match. I know they sound almost cruel, and I sincerely hope people will understand that their motives were only to ensure a good future for Dylan and not judge them. They really are good parents, and the proof to that is how radically they changed once they saw how much they were harming Dylan more than they were doing her any good.
