Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen

[culbutiri]

Characters: Nesir Aeser, you
Setting: Floor sixty two (beach), floor seventy two (door maze)
Format: Either
Summary: It's Nesir's birthday, she decides she should actually get round to reading her regain, and then sets herself a challenge
Warnings: Maybe talk of assassins/murder/last event. Nesir is generally not a nice person though she is not actively murderous at the moment...

[Beach] Nesir was quite surprised when she saw the date, though she knew it was coming up. In a few days she would have been in this place for an entire year and today she as sixteen. Nesir's birthday had never been celebrated and she wasn't about to start doing so in this fake place but she noted that she was a year older and that in her world she would have been considered an adult today. Ready to be apprenticed or to go out and find work, if she hadn't been a temple acolyte, if she hadn't been a dark trained assassin who had been training and working since she could walk.

The last few days she had spent training, working out her anger and frustration of being stuck in a room with Sephiroth for a week, of the hallucinations and the hunger. It helped that they ahad decent food, even if it was all pumpkin flavoured, which reminded her of her first month here, a year ago. She failed to see why in a world where everything was an illusion they had to eat pumpkin, surely there were other foods they could pretend to give them.

As it was the 'reward' she had been given had been thrown into her trunk and ignored for the last few days. Because as curious as she was, she at least knew when she was too angry to deal with more things. But today was as good as any day.

She liked the beach floor, because as little as she had actually spent time on the seafront as a child the sound of the sea reminded her of home, so she sat on the sand, cloak drawn around her and took out the folder. As expected it didn't have that many answers, the first few entries were almost medical, her and her sisters birth was recorded; they had been early it seemed and no one had expected there to be two of them.

Anyone on the beach floor would see Nesir lost in her reading, a half angry, half confused, sad look on her face.

[Maze] It was always good to be challenged, and Nesir needed something to focus on. For once she didn't feel like killing things, though she would, if need be. Her daggers were ready. She hadn't tackled this maze before but she set off, determined to solve it.

A decision she was beginning to regret a few hours later when she opened yet another door, to more doors, helplessly lost.

Comments

[altitonant_emperor]

[ He thinks cults like that are bullshit, so the sentiment isn't shared. He flicks some locks of hair out of his face. ]

So we arrived during the same month? Hn. [ Hidetoshi blinks and looks out at the not-real sea washing against the beach, then back at Nesir. ]

[culbutiri]

It do be seeming like it. [She shrugged] I do be being sixteen today. [If she had still been at home she would have probably been preparing to take the tests that would make her a full warrior of her temple, maybe. It felt strange to think on since so much had happened here]

[altitonant_emperor]

Really? [ He stuffs the cult flyer he'd shown Nesir back into the stack of flyers pinned under his arm. As a reflex; ] ... Happy birthday. Anybody given you presents yet?

[ That comment makes him think of what he'd planning to do with this year, had the end of the world not occurred. He would be finishing his last year of high school, hopefully by then having earned a decent amount of money from finding a job to pay his father's bail. Applying to a prestigious college, to earn his teaching degree.

... Thinking about what actually happened instead was odd. ]

[culbutiri]

[She blinked] I do be thanking you [She shook her head] I do no really be celebrating it, it do no really be being important. [The only people who had ever given her gifts on her birthday were Ral and Lotte, and she had their hearts in a jar on her nightstand.] But I would have been being considered an adult today in my world.

[altitonant_emperor]

'welcome.

Alright. [ He blinked. Some people didn't make a big deal out of their birthdays, himself included. He could see why she wouldn't care for it. But no presents? Well, materials were terribly scarce on the ground. ]

At sixteen? In my world, you would merely be eligible to earn your driver's license. [ He remarked, before offering a thin smile to her. ] Still, entry into adulthood in any culture is a noteworthy event.

[culbutiri]

What do a drivers license be being? [She raised an eyebrow and then nodded] How old do you have to be being in your world?

[altitonant_emperor]

It's a official document that give you the legal right to operate a vehicle on a public roadway. [ He explains patiently. As for the age at which people were considered adults; ] Eighteen in much of the world, usually. Twenty, in my country.

[culbutiri]

[What? She blinked in confusion, did he mean like a carriage? You needed an official document in his world? And to be sixteen. She raised an eyebrow] Twenty do be being old, I can no be imagining being that old. [And unless things drastically improved here she wasn't going to ever be.] Though to be telling the truth in the temple, though we do no be considered children... we do no really be considered adults until we do be being a full warrior or priest, no matter how old we do be being.

[altitonant_emperor]

[ No, Nesir. He did not mean like a carriage. Hidetoshi is a tad dismissive in his reply; ] Your world seems to be at a medieval stage in its level of development, it stands to reason your life expectancies would also lessen as a result. The country I'm from—Japan, has some of the highest life expectancies in the world. That's probably why we legally become adults later.

[ The teenager furrows his eyebrows. So they had to be proficient at their role before being considered adults. ] I see. That makes sense.

[culbutiri]

Medieval? [She frowned at the dismissive tone but his words made sense, of course people would be adults later if they lived longer] How long do people be living in your world?

[altitonant_emperor]

Low levels of technological and medicinal development, old-fashioned, primitive. [ Perhaps noting the frown on her face, those words he rattles off in clarification aren't delivered so insensitively.

He rubs his chin. ] Around, hmm... Eighty and longer, in my country. Your sixties's the rough worldwide average, if I'm remembering correctly.

[culbutiri]

We do no be being primitive. [She glares at him but her world definitely doesn't have the same technology as here, so she gives him that and nods] Sixty do be being old for a normal person. Priests and Priestesses can be living until they are two hundred though... well... no many do be living that long but that do be being the oldest any one has even been living to.

[altitonant_emperor]

You sound like you're living in the dark ages. [ He pointed out politely. Hidetoshi wasn't looking to criticize the culture of a completely different universe. ] Hn. Religious figures have lengthened lifespans then? How?

[ Also: ] I believe there are normal people who have lived into their hundreds at the best, in my world.

[ ..... Unless they were secretly Persona-users or something. ]

[culbutiri]

[She raised an eyebrow not understanding the term, but the light were definitely in control.] They do be having magic, and the power they do be having lengthens their lives.

[altitonant_emperor]

Oh, magic was at work there. That explains it. [ He nods curtly. ]

[culbutiri]

[She nodded] They can be making their warriors live for a long time as well, I do be thinking the oldest Warrior did be living until she did be one hundred and twenty. But that do be being an extreme case.

[altitonant_emperor]

[ He purses his lips in thought. ] I see.

[culbutiri]

Do there be being magic in your world? [She asked, he had an orange collar so she assumed if there was that he didn't have any.]

[altitonant_emperor]

There is, it's related to the soul and perception of self. [ Along with other factors. He brushes his fingers against his collar. ] But it's not something the vast majority of people are aware of existing.

[culbutiri]

[Soul magic... she frowned, she had no experience of that outside of this tower] How do they be keeping it secret?

[altitonant_emperor]

There's plenty of reasons. For one thing, it's not a common phenomena, from what I understand. [ He said stiffly. Apparently this is a topic he'd thought a great deal upon. Ahh, future selves. ]

Even if they have potential, they still might never actually awaken it at all, or whose who manage to realize their power can often go under the radar. Or mistake it for something else altogether. Plus, I've learned there are a few organizations who keep everything under wraps.

... Anyway. It's not something the public would view as credible. Believing in magic? In this day and age? Please.

[culbutiri]

[She frowned but nodded, it seemed rather stupid to keep such power secret, even if only a few people had it] It do no be being stupid to be believing in something that do be existing.

[altitonant_emperor]

[ Yes well, he hadn't believed in it either until Rise-san had shown him evidence. Most people didn't know it actually existed. ] Widespread superstition like that is in the past. People prefer more rational, normal things, like science or biology, to explain odd happenings.

[culbutiri]

Well since magic do be being real in your world then it do be being the non believers who do be being stupid.

[altitonant_emperor]

[ An imaginary tick mark appears on his forehead. Don't call him stupid. ] I don't think 'non-believers' is quite the right term for them.