so Harpy is the oldest at 20 - Kousuke is between 2-3 years younger at 18 - Yae is between 1-2 years younger than Kousuke at 16 - Akiha is the youngest at 12 and I don't have a pb for them
in Harpy's verse there are basically still gender roles in society but they're not actually gender-locked. USUALLY the first child will be raised as a "son" who will inherit business and such and the second child will be raised as a "daughter" who will be taught to take care of domestic matters and childrearing
but the Tachibanas didn't quite work like that because they were impoverished so both of their parents had to work (and both frequently travel for work) and the kids all had to pitch in to do everything for themselves
and since she did essentially run the household it all kinda ran on her pace and so Harpy-Kousuke-Yae are all VERY forceful personalities, because Kousuke grew up dealing with Harpy and also with each other,
originally Kousuke and Harpy were martial rivals and they would like sword train all the time and he'd be like I'LL SURPASS YOU ONE DAY!! etc etc and Yae was sort of treated as the baby sister who would sit on the sidelines and cheer Harpy on and tell Kousuke he's a loser
but Kousuke and Yae are actually closer to each other in age than Kousuke and Harpy, and Harpy already had this way of thinking that was like... a bit separate from her siblings in that they were her responsibility and she wanted to accomplish things outside the circle of her family
so Kousuke and Yae have actually also been emotionally closer since even before Harpy got adopted out and now are really just borderline married couple tagteam about everything, except when Harpy visits or someone breathes about her existence and then they're totally opposed and Yae esp will just disagree with everything out of Kousuke's mouth on principle
bc Kousuke is still really bitter and hurt about Harpy leaving and even moreso because of the way Harpy has become/lets the Fujiwaras dictate her life and behavior
while Yae still idolizes Harpy and stubbornly believes she's only doing what's best, tho in some ways it's also as much about going against what Kousuke says and thinks about it as it is about Harpy
Kousuke also had to give up swordsmanship and devote himself to looking after the house and Akiha in Harpy's absence even tho their parents could afford to start actually being at home more
and he's also bitter abt THAT because he's internally kind of beating himself up about like Sachi-nee could balance everything and excel at everything but I'm not good enough and start falling behind in both if I try cuz I'm not a fuckin superhuman like her I guess
when I think about it Kousuke+Yae+their parents are prob all fishing around for marriage negotiations for the two of them to improve the Tachibana family's connections and standing (both of which are currently still Very Poor) but Harpy's adoption and the way they fell role-wise has kind of put them both in awkward positions in that area
cuz now Kousuke is effectively the oldest and may or may not inherit but theoretically if he were to marry he should be the one to leave the household,
so other families are probably not sure which of them is actually inheriting since things ended up wonky there and also Kousuke's popularity might take a hit from the fact that he still has a lingering reputation for having BEEN very good at martial arts in the past
AKIHA was too young to really grasp/remember a lot of the period of time during which the Tachibanas were literally on the verge of starvation, as well as Harpy's adoption
Kousuke and Yae still argue in front of them without worrying about that kind of thing but everyone always makes sure Akiha's needs and problems are attended to first before anyone else's can even be looked at,
in my head I always think of Akiha as kind of eerie but when I was thinking abt Yae in the context of third wall I realized all of the Tachibanas are just pretty cool with murdering someone
- FUJIWARA CHIEKO, Harpy's adoptive mother, is the matriach of the Fujiwara clan and unusually an only child. there are branch families with her cousins and stuff tho
she's an extremely cold and business-like person who basically just considers her children tools who need to fulfill certain roles. she may be a little warmer to her oldest but I'm not even sure about that tbh
I have not decided much about them either to the point of not being sure what gender they are (Akiha is just nb) but they very very much emulate their mom as closely as they can
in the Fujiwara family, because it's very established and powerful, there are "first son" duties and "second son" duties, and Harpy was adopted to fill the second son duties void bc the actual second son (Ichirou) died
so Chiaki is to inherit the governing and networking side of things while Harpy is to keep their martial legacy going more or less, but also she's kind of only doing that as a public front while not actually being technically adopted at all,
the only other noteworthy person besides Eiji is Harpy's doctorpriest, who not only doesn't have a pb but is probably impossible to find a pb for due to being a like 30-40something year old bald woman in priest robes and glasses
she's a priest and a doctor so she's good at being Calming but she's also kind of forced into an exclusive business relationship with the Fujiwaras so she's not exactly just vibing with no issues out here either,
- Kousuke is between 2-3 years younger at 18
- Yae is between 1-2 years younger than Kousuke at 16
- Akiha is the youngest at 12 and I don't have a pb for them