Crystal;

[youwonscience]

FORM: Sending crystal
SENDER: Cosima
RECIPIENT: Anyone in Riftwatch near their crystal, though rifters especially wanted
NOTES: n/a

Hey, fellow rifters, just curious. If someone here asks how old you are, how do you count? Like, is it how old you were from when you arrived, plus a year each time you hit the anniversary of your arrival? Do you pick the nearest Thedas equivalent and count that as your birthday? I mean, there's a metaphysical argument to be made for only counting your time in Thedas, but there's no situation where someone asks me how old I am and "about five" is an answer that's useful to them, you know?

I know this isn't really important, just have cake if you want some cake, whatever. But I'm curious about how other people do it.

Comments

crystal;

[notathreat]

I just ballpark it. Base it on my age back home plus how long I've been gone.

I'm 22 now, give or take.

That's... the short answer. I could be anywhere from 19 to 45, depending on how weird you wanna get.

I try not to think about that too much.

[youwonscience]

They do say age is just a number. But, uh, that's a pretty big range. You want to talk about it?

[notathreat]

Uh. Technically, I have one set of memories from birth to age 22, and another set that... didn't happen. But I remember them anyway.

I also remember dying in an explosion. But I'm obviously alive, so.

After a while I kind of decided, fuck it, enough weird things have happened, you know?

[justashotaway]

I picked a birthday and started counting from there.

But I am not a rifter.

[youwonscience]

That's fair. Lots of non-rift reasons not to know your birthday. I guess it's just ... in one way I know when it is, and it's a date that doesn't exist in this universe, so it makes counting weird.

But I think it's good to celebrate, if you want to. It's the gesture, not the date, you know?

[justashotaway]

That is confusing. But at least you know when it was. The date you use will be more accurate than mine.

[ It's as toneless as most things she says, neither bitter nor especially encouraging. ]

I didn't celebrate my birthday before Riftwatch. But marking the day is good.

[ipseite]

( thoughtfully, ) I haven't celebrated or marked any of my birthdays, since I arrived in Thedas — I found the issue somewhat clouded by gaining the remaining memories of that life left behind, and perceiving myself as ... older than I appear. If I were asked, I think I might— I might average the difference between us. It is less, now, than it once was.

[youwonscience]

There's that too. I guess my physical form, uh, updated, for lack of a better word between the first time I came and now, because I'm not sick anymore. But I only have about a year's worth of new memories compared to last time, so if I hadn't been cured, I don't think I'd have had any way to tell the difference.

Averaging sounds as good as anything, though. Have you not wanted to celebrate, or did it just never feel important?

[ipseite]

One following the other, I might say. I have never wished to celebrate, as it has never seemed to me necessary to do.

It is strange, though, to—

To have memories that sit alongside one another. As I get older, and the memories that would have been my future and are not live next to the memories of the life that I am living, presently.

[armd]

Shit. (From somebody who obviously didn't give it this much thought,) I guess all those times I've ever been to the tavern I was breaking the law.

(She is but eight months old.)

[icasm]

You mean to tell me I've gone drinking with a small child?

[armd]

You bought a drink for one. You're going to jail.

[youwonscience]

Look, we can't help it if no one thinks to card us.

[armd]

And I've been told I look old for my age, so.

There are twelve months here, just with different names. I transcribed my birthday over.

[icasm]

I would lie. I do lie.

[youwonscience]

Well, I guess that streamlines the process. Why?

[icasm]

Too old to have ever been feasibly human.

Most presume somewhere in the late 30s, early 40s, and I've begun to roll with it.

[cozen]

[ At a delay, once the fellow rifters have had time to answer and he's at less risk of seeming to elbow in where he isn't needed: ]

I think it really speaks to your comportment, as a group, that you are not all milking this more. You could have your birthday as it translates into our months, and also have your birthday three-hundred and sixty-whatever days after the last one you can recall, and also have a rift day.

That would be three cakes.

[youwonscience]

Oh my god, I was totally an idiot to miss the obvious answer. Leaving cake on the table, for shame.

Rift days sound fun, though. Lots of green streamers and alcohol, yeah?

[cozen]

Ouais. Just so. And at dinner we could try to make a food from your world, or play a game you remember well enough that we do not have here.

[rowancrowned]

Does it matter, if one does not appear to be aging?

( he certainly hasn't gotten any grey(er) hairs. )

Perhaps we ought to count from the first day of the rift first appearing.

[youwonscience]

Speak for yourself, I notice new grays every time I wash my hair.

Why do you think, though? Are rifters all parts of one organism?

[rowancrowned]

Perhaps stress?

Conceivably, we were all ( pause. ) spawned from one event. We simply stumble into the world at different times, in different locations.

[hornswoggle]

Perhaps you might see if the Morale Officer can arrange the appropriate celebrations, once you've come to a consensus.

[youwonscience]

Not a bad idea. I mean, we can't all be a duke's grandson, but maybe an extra ration of wine or sweets or something.