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.

[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.

[konman]

When I was cloned they did stuff to my brain to make me a certain maturity level and have the knowledge to match. They even put pop culture stuff in there. They were originally going to age me all the way to adulthood, but I got busted out of my test tube early, so when I broke out, I was physically and mentally fifteen.

It only took them a week to age me to that age.

Then I've been around four years, so I'm mentally 19.

The physical age thing is because when I was sixteen, I stopped physically aging for a year due to some stuff that was done to screw up my genes. The fix that saved my life froze me at that age, but after a year of not aging, it got fixed, so I started aging again. But it meant my body had aged one year less than my mind.

[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.

[likeits1999]

Oooooh, okay. Man, you really do got me beat for weird and that is saying something.

I'm like... being ten vampire years old is pretty much being a baby as far as vampires are concerned. I know people who were like, not even supposed to go outside as a vampire without a vampire adult for longer than that.

But things are different now. Like nobody gets that much vampire training anymore I don't think.

[millenyal_pink]

Fae stuff, mostly. Fae stuff and Mage stuff.

[That's probably enough of an explanation for anyone familiar with those two groups.]

[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.]

[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.

[hallelujahjunction]

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

[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?

[71lines]

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

[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.

[diedforyoursins]

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

[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.

[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.

[ferengineer]

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

[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.

[the_hit_list]

I’m 18, no caveats or explanations needed.

[millenyal_pink]

I second Stacia's nomination. As long as I get to be the power behind the throne.

[Elle winks to show she's joking.]

[She's only kind of joking.]

[millenyal_pink]

I'll pretend to believe it, if that'll help.

[hellbentley]

That's a public service when you're my age. On behalf of all the not-really-elderly-we-swear, you have our thanks.

[hellbentley]

What about thirty then? Can we work with thirty? Thirty's a perfectly reasonable age someone can be for ten years or so.

[talk_radio]

I'm eighteen. Hundred.