[ 11 ] [ Audio ]

[forthebothofus]

So.

Does age still matter if you're technically dead? I know I'm alive now and all but... just wondering what happens with the count.

[Guess who's birthday it is.]

Twenty-seven. I never got that far. Is it cheating to count it now?

Comments

[helluvachin]

[He will just ignore that first part.]

It's your birthday? Why didn't you tell me?

[Time to find a present!]

[forthebothofus]

[Denial never helped anything, Zack. Of course it won't stop her from denying her birthday.]

I never said it was. [Pause.] And you never asked.

[helluvachin]

[It's not denial. It's just ignoring pessimism.]

Wait, then I missed your birthday?

[Pause.]

Okay, then when is it?

[forthebothofus]

Nope. You didn't miss it.

[Hey Riah. She's smiling. Not that he can see it, but he'll prob be able to tell from her tone.]

Does it matter when it is..?

[helluvachin]

Good.

[Hearing the smile in her tone is enough to make him do the same.]

Yeah it matters. It's your birthday.

[Which is important, at least to him.]

[forthebothofus]

That's... not something that's ever really mattered before, Zack.

[It's the day she has an extra drink at the bar or does something small for herself but never mentions or explains. This time it's been brought up just for the question that goes with it.]

[helluvachin]

It matters to me.

[abstinentzombie]

I don't see why the fuck not. But I always thought birthdays were pointless anyway.

[Coming from the woman whose birthday was never celebrated.]

[forthebothofus]

I see it as a year survived. I don't celebrate it. Hell, I don't usually acknowledge it, but I'll still keep count.

[Only now she's technically dead.]

[abstinentzombie]

That's a good way of looking at it.

[forthebothofus]

Yeah, but I died, so that logic doesn't really work anymore.

[abstinentzombie]

Eh. You're technically alive now, too. Maybe you just won't age anymore, lucky you.

[forthebothofus]

Guess I just carry on like before then. It'd be weird to not age though.

[audio]

[ignitethestars]

[This is relative to his interests.]

You overcame death? How? You must tell me!

[audio]

[forthebothofus]

Hey, I don't have to do anything.

[Abeni's never liked the word 'must', no matter what the situation is.]

Not like I know how I did it anyway. People come back in this place. I just happened to die before I got here instead of after.

[audio]

[ignitethestars]

[He would like to enforce his point, but he manages to calm himself and back down some.]

... Then it is the place, not you which can transcend death?

[He will have to look into that.]

[audio]

[forthebothofus]

If it's me, I dunno how. There's no way I survived what happened. One second I'm bleeding out with a dozen knife wounds in my front, the next I'm here, shirt bloodied and ripped up like it'd just happened but no wound.

[And this is why she's thinking this is some kind of afterlife. Maybe all of them are dead; she's just the one to remember it.]

What's got you so interested?

[audio]

[ignitethestars]

If there is a way to stop death, then it is something I need to know. That's all.

[Because then he can stop people from dying.]

[audio]

[forthebothofus]

I'd say to ask the staff, but they're pretty shit for giving answers to anything. All I can tell you is that it happened, and it's happened to people that've died in this Keep.

They vanish for a while, come back with their heads all messed up, but they're back.

[thii2ii22tupiid]

Start over counting at when you were brought back.

[forthebothofus]

[She actually chuckles a bit at that.]

Happy first birthday to me then.

[thii2ii22tupiid]

Happy birthday *Fuck that was WEIRD to say!* then.

[forthebothofus]

[Don't worry. It's just as weird for her to hear.]

Thanks uh... Sollux, right?

[thii2ii22tupiid]

Yeah. And you're... *double checking sig* ...Abeni?

*He probably said that wrong.*

[forthebothofus]

A-beh-nee.

[Weird name is weird. You can blame Shane for that. Abeni's used to people not being able to say it first go.]

Don't stress. It's... not exactly common.