Answering the old age question [video]

[likeits1999]

Oh, hey, guys, I thought of something.

[ The group has had some time to catch their collective breaths, this isn't the first night. Kevin's mirror is hovering while he seems to be working on... something to do with the bolts on his skateboard. He had his skateboard stuff on him upon arrival because of course Kevin did. Anyone who actually knows anything about skating, though, would know it's unnecessary maintenance. Kevin's doing it to have something to do. ]

It's not, like, important. But I was wondering. How old is everybody?

[ He almost lets it go, but he's nervous so then he has to elaborate: ]

I mean, I know that my situation is super weird and I guess some other people's is too, but I am kind of wondering who all is like. The adultest.

I'm, uh, I was seventeen when I died but I guess I'm actually twenty-eight?

Comments

[konman]

Oh hey, someone else has weird age stuff.

I'm mentally 19, physically 18, and chronologically 4.

[likeits1999]

....How's that one work, dude? That has one whole layer more than me and I thought I was winning for age bullshit here.

[millenyal_pink]

Boy, that's a loaded question. [Elle winks.]

17, I think. I'm about to turn 18, though.

So, chronologically 17, mentally... [how does she count her time in the Dreaming? She lived multiple lifetimes, but never stayed in one for very long.It was at least a year, but could have been much longer.]

Mentally it's honestly too complicated to try to figure it out. And physically?

[The honest answer would be two, almost three. But also not. God, magic is fucking complicated.]

Let's go with almost 18, too. To make things easier.

[likeits1999]

Sounds fair to me. Happy birthday!

[ He raises a fist for Elle with a celebratory air. ]

What got your scale screwed up? You seem pretty alive to me.

[cachedout]

...To be honest with you, kid? Couldn't tell ya. You lose track of time when you're dead.

Or not paying attention.

Which I guess you also do when you're dead!

[ Cayde seems pretty pleased with this observation, considering how morbid it is. ]

Best guess? Gotta be a few hundred. This version of me you all know and love has been kickin' around for something past the three century mark. Beyond that, all bets are off. I'm old as hell and you should get off my lawn posthaste.

[the_hit_list]

Cayde-6, hnh.

[hellbentley]

[Okay, he could just keep quiet but sometimes integrating into a group in a way that seems natural, so nobody is suspicious, is harder if you just keep to yourself. He knows this from experience. He's insinuated himself into many a boardroom or den of inequity (although honestly that Venn diagram was a circle, if you got right down to it).]

[Sometimes people wonder who the quiet lurker is after noticing their lurking, and sometimes the least obvious interloper is the one that catches the eye of the whole room.]

[The only problem is ages. Ooh, ages, he doesn't usually pay much attention to those. People are children, then teens, then adults, and then that weird in between zone between adult and old, then old.]

[He knows his current form falls into the weird in between zone. It's meant to. It's a great age to insinuate himself into many places. But he hasn't actually put much thought to precisely what age it is.]

[His 30s? 40s? Maybe even early 50s? ...A very young and very handsome 60?]

[He'd actually be better at judging a child's age, after watching Warlock grow up. He'd seen a full range of development. He's never really sat himself somewhere and watched a human age their while lifespan.]

[The solution to his problem is, as alwats, people. He just has to act like a human doing a human thing. Always a sure shot to pass as a human to them all. And lots of humans get embarrassed about their age.]

Would anyone believe I was twenty-nine?

[He doesn't really look twenty-nine, especially to a mirror held close enough to his face to see the tiny lines that someone in their forties has on their face.]

[ferengineer]

Unless you're from a species ages really fast, no.

[headcheerbleeder]

Ugh, I'm in the same boat, Kevin. Seventeen going on seventeen forever.

[Caroline mostly sounds inconvenienced, like the way she'd talk about getting stuck in a long checkout line or having major homework at the last second, but there is a tint of truly deep sadness there. She's going to be a child forever. She's never going to get to know who she'd be as an adult, and sometimes she can just feel things being just out of her brain's reach, like she's trapped in her emotions or impulses despite knowing that they're too immature for her.

Young and beautiful forever sounds great in romantic ballads, and some parts of it are great. But some parts of it just, straight up, blow.]

It sucks.

[likeits1999]

Dude, right?

It's one thing to be dead. It's another thing to be dead and everyone asks you if your parents know where you are all the time.

[hallelujahjunction]

Just turned thirty-seven a few weeks ago. [Bunny's cradlerobbing him, technically.] I ain't actually a Sagittarius.

[ragefeathers]

I refuse to believe this. You look so baby.

[poor_unlucky_girl]

I'm nineteen, but I'm 'from the past' how do we count the ages here? I suppose I am younger than you but have been existing for more time?

[likeits1999]

Oh that sounds confusing. Uh.

Do you know what year you got?

[71lines]

I'm nineteen, but I've been an adult since I was twelve.

[cspd]

By that I assume you mean twelve is where your society considers adulthood to start?

[ Because he feels like while this would be an easy assumption among a normal group, there is very little about this group that could be called normal. ]

[hasapoint]

[Need's Mindvoice is in a whisper, so she doesn't have to work hard at keeping it from 'sounding' like metal rasping off stone.]

I can't imagine being able to keep track of my age. But I'm pretty old. You might need to look elsewhere for the most 'adult', though. I'll advise, but trying to corral and instruct a flock of youngsters sounds very tiring.

[likeits1999]

I am kind of hard to corral, I think.

[ Kevin nods. ]

How old is pretty old? Unless you don't wanna say. That's cool, no pressure.

[diedforyoursins]

Time is relative. Is it really the best way to determine who's the most "adult"?

[likeits1999]

I mean, maybe not. But it matters to lots of people and I guess a ton of us got weird answers so now it's just kinda a relief that I'm not alone?

[credit_not_blame]

I volunteer to be an adulty-adult! I turned eighteen in the last reality I got hauled to! The exact details are a bit fuzzy since I arrived in their early-April from my late-June, but meh.

[And on that note:]

I wonder what calendar they use here. We might have to keep track of the days ourselves if we want to for-sure know how long we've been here.

[tr1xx]

Y'know, I think we musta passed my birthday on the rig, too, but I didnae even think about it, I was even more off calendar than you were. Hell, by time alone I gotta be almost 18 now, too, but...

[ She gestures vaguely. Time is sure bullshit when you're universe jumping! ]

Think ye right that we're gonna have to keep track ourselves, this time. Even if they use somethin' similar, it's not like we got it on hand to tick off.

[darvit]

Physically, I’m 84, but legally I’m 87.

[ Clearly, this is in no way equivalent to human aging, because she barely looks like she’s in her early 20s. ]

It’s complicated.

[likeits1999]

I mean, I guess that makes sense. You said you're an elf, right?

[ Kevin has seen enough Lord of the Rings to think this is pretty rad. ]

[the_hit_list]

I’m 18, no caveats or explanations needed.

[likeits1999]

It is so weird that I think so far you're outnumbered on this.

[talk_radio]

I'm eighteen. Hundred.

[blacksmithed]

Scrap, you're young. MTO?

[ferengineer]

I'm 22. There's a little bit of time travel in there, ended up on Earth in 1947, but that was only a couple of days.

[likeits1999]

Huh! What was that like?

I'm sorry in reverse-advance that they probably didn't like aliens.

[blacksmithed]

Uh... eight million, eight hundred thousand stellar cycles, give or take a few?

I'm not super well versed in human timescales aside from what I saw on the Lost Light soooo... Five and half million Eart orbits, I think?

[the_hit_list]

You’re over five million years old?

[ That seems an almost horrible amount of time to live. ]

[ragefeathers]

About twenty-two, maybe twenty-three? Time was wonky on the rig.

[likeits1999]

I get the feeling that a lot of shit was majorly wonky on the rig.

[heterochrocatic]

Twenty-one.

[likeits1999]

Congrats, that's drinking age where I'm from. I never got there myself.

[slowmotionbuscrash]

Permanently indeterminate, but my birth certificate says I’m 21.

[ His birth certificate says he’s 17; he could pass for 19, but 21 is a stretch. ]

[millenyal_pink]

I can pretend to believe that too, if you want.

[Yeah, she's calling him out on this. Especially since there doesn't seem to be much reason to lie.]

[rambles_on]

[Dean is deliberately ignoring all mentions of physical age versus chronological age, and those who's ages are beyond his comprehension. Out of sight out of mind, right?]

Twenty-five.

[likeits1999]

It sounds like team normal ages has two members so far.

It's a good thing the teams aren't for anything, it would be super unfair.

[cspd]

I'm nineteen. But I think it may also be worth considering what our cultures are defining as adulthood, too? [ Since Tenten's answer has already made it clear that they're not all on the same page there. ] For perspective, you can legally enlist in the military at fifteen in Crossbell.

[likeits1999]

Oh dude, that's a good thought.

For the record, seventeen is not an age where you're allowed to do pretty much anything except drive.

It's also a really not normal vampire age anymore.

[kingofneworleans]

[Remy holds a hand out and seesaws it back and forth a few times.]

Early t'irties, which is all anybody needs t' know, really.

[likeits1999]

Three! Three for normal team!

[circusbat]

26. No weird age stuff here.

[likeits1999]

Four!

[ There's a counting vampire joke to be made here, but Kevin's not noticing. ]

[unsealthecatbox]

Eighteen -- with nothing weird to inform. Just eighteen years.

[Plain and simple, thankfully]

[likeits1999]

Okay I'm glad normal ages team is coming in clutch. I was starting to feel like maybe the whole reason we're all here is that we do time stupid and the universe just wanted to sit us down for a talk about it.

[liesdontfindyou]

I think I'm still 29? I was when I died, then I'm not sure if I even had a physical body or not for the last six months before getting here... or maybe 30, technically speaking?