text | @kestrel

[realists]

[ simple text, straightforward and easy: ]

What are the birthday traditions on your home planets?

[ jyn hasn't celebrated a birthday in something like... fifteen years so to say she's out of practice would be a gross understatement. she tells herself this is cultural anthropology, her mother would be proud. TIME TO LEARN, time to attempt to live like a normal human being... ]

Comments

text; un: kirk

[winscenario]

Where I come from, people usually throw a birthday party. There's food, cake, drinks sometimes. It really depends on how old you are or what you're into. For instance, some people just get together with friends and go out for drinks. And there's the gift-giving, of course.

Is it your birthday?

[realists]

It is not my birthday.

That's Earth, right? Are the traditions the same on many of the planets you've visited?

[ new study: is cake universal. ]

[winscenario]

So when is it your birthday?

[ Yes he's nosy. And rain is wet. ]

It depends. Some species celebrate birthdays, yes, with parties or gifts. Others make note of it but don't celebrate. There is also a number of planets where birthdays aren't even a concept they understand, and so they don't really celebrate them either.

Besides, it all depends on the person, right? You can have people who don't like celebrating their own birthday, even if it's a common practice among their species and culture.

[realists]

[ ignores the question. ]

We went to a planet when I was small where they didn't have numbers, so they didn't have birthdays and they didn't age, they simply had a beginning, a middle, and an end.

[ LET'S! TALK! PLANETS! ]

[winscenario]

Weird, isn't it? Well, for us. Not that I've ever celebrated my birthday, but it's odd to think of any species that doesn't mark time in the same way.

Also I know you're dodging my question. But if you don't wanna share, that's alright. You could've just said so.

[realists]

I was born on the fifth day of the twelfth standard month on a planet that had twice as many days as a standard year and one season. It was nearly twenty two years after the Great ReSynchronization.

Now you know my birthday.

[ TIME IS MEANINGLESS WHEN CALENDARS DON'T MATCH ]

We met a couple weeks after my birthday.

[winscenario]

Yes, I do. That's quite a bit of math, I'll give you that. [ It pays off being a genius sometimes. ] The calendar here is pretty much the same as the one I was used to, back home. How difficult was it for you to adjust to it?

Thank you for telling me, by the way. My birthday is on the 4th day of the year.

[realists]

I don't think about it. Days are roughly the same length on most of the planets I spent a decent amount of time on so the arbitrary structure of months here wasn't very important.

[ time... is a construct. ]

I don't plan ahead so I don't need a calendar.

[winscenario]

I don't know. It could be. Sometimes I like to celebrate little things. But I get what you mean.

[ Time becomes something of a blur in deep space, too. Doesn't really matter which time of the year it is, or which day of the week, when they go months without setting foot on solid ground, or feeling actual sunlight on their faces. ]

[realists]

I've never had anything to celebrate.

[winscenario]

What about now?

[realists]

We'll see.