video | c.fraser

[nineteenfortyfive]

[Is this not about a medical thing, this time? Seems so. Claire's a bit more relaxed than she usually is when using the network, and it might have something to do with that glass of wine in front of her.]

It's my fifty-first birthday this weekend. Do I win the award for most elderly amongst us refugees?

It's hard to believe I was in my late twenties when I first came to Olympia. Stasis is... strange, to say the least, but I'm sure any of us here for an amount of time realize that.

[Now, let's see who's going to be a smartass and make a grandma comment. She's waiting. It's there, in her smile. Do it.]

Comments

un: onceandfuturescot

[givingback]

[ She's got to change her username but whatever. ]

Don't you mean closer to a hundred? Technically, I mean.

[nineteenfortyfive]

[Even if there wasn't a video here, she could probably sense Claire's frown.]

Ha-ha. Hilarious, darling.

video; un: theon

[reek]

[ ALL YOUR CHILDREN ARE COMING FOR YOU TODAY, CLAIRE. The most amazing part of this is that Theon has deemed himself looking well enough to use video again. ]

You're beginning to look it.

[ Its clearly a jape, but but now he's wondering just how many of his own birthdays he's actually missed thanks to Ramsay manipulating his concept of time. How old is he really? ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

[If anyone didn't know any better, they might think nothing terrible had happened to him at all. He looks quite well on camera. Claire's pleased, despite the rolling of her eyes.]

You've certainly been no help.

video; un @XIII

[pullsheavendown]

[brb doing some quick math]

You've been here for over twenty years?

[She's so OLD.]

[nineteenfortyfive]

No! No, no, no. I returned to stasis... a while back, before I ever met you. I was in there for three days, but I came back a few decades older.

[Good lord, Roxas.]

video; un: R u get this one too

[winecasks]

I hardly believe that. You look younger than myself, mademoiselle. Is it true that one grows wiser with age? I expect never to know, as I do not expect to even reach 35.

[ He smiles despite his grim words. ]

All the same, I should be kind. Jehan would want for me to send you best wishes. He has returned to stasis.

[ HE’S NOT HAPPY ABOUT THAT. ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

I'd like to think so. I find the ones that don't wise up tend to not make it to an advanced age. I'm hoping that's not what you're implying for yourself.

[And, abruptly, the smile fades. Oh.]

I thought he'd been quiet. I'm very sorry to hear that.

voice | un: carter

[revlon]

I can't believe I had to learn about your birthday on the network rather than in person.

[nineteenfortyfive]

[Peggy is one of the few people capable of making Claire look sheepish.]

To be fair, I wasn't going to mention it at all.

[She didn't last year. What's different now? Oh, probably the wine and some reminiscing about getting old. Actually old.]

It was impulsive.

not here

[ettersberg]

[ no. she's not the most elderly. nightingale isn't even sure he is, and he's at about 117 now. of course, he doesn't particularly feel like explaining it or how he can look in his early forties despite that, so this comment does not exist. ]

also not here

[nineteenfortyfive]

[117 would make Claire feel better, but alas, she shall never know...]

[reinerouge]

That makes me feel... very old.

[ get it -- because she's immortal. ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

... oh?

text | un: J.SHEPPARD

[impavid]

I still need to find out your secret. You're not bathing in virgin blood or something, are you?

[nineteenfortyfive]

[Claire grins.]

Well, have you noticed a decline in virgins here?

text

[baldesion]

Congratulations on fifty-five summers.

[It's not that she won't engage unless it's a medical thing! She is, somewhere in there, genuinely congratulatory over Claire's nameday. No video reply would ever convey this.]

[nineteenfortyfive]

Thank you, Krile. Here's to a few more, at least.

[Kidding, kidding. She's sure she has plenty left.]

un: SORA!

[happylocksmith]

[The face on the other end of the camera might look a little similar to someone Claire knows already, but it's very smiley and expressive.]

No way! Happy Birthday ma'am! You sure don't look that o-

[Wait no Sora, 'that old' would be rude.]

I mean- uh- Happy Birthday!

[nineteenfortyfive]

[Huh. Definitely a resemblance, and Roxas comes to mind, but this kid is a bit more... cheery.]

Nice save.

un: ana

[nanamari]

Congratulations. Fifty-one is a good age. If you have any fucks left, treasure them. It's all downhill from here.

[nineteenfortyfive]

And if I'm already out?

[It's very possible. Those ran dry somewhere in the 1950s, she reckons.]

un: 24

[gravemistake]

Yeah I'd say you only have a few good years left. My friends got out of stasis old as shit and now all they want to do is play bingo and watch soaps

[nineteenfortyfive]

Damn. [These people are out for blood.] I have missed my soaps.

text | un: 76

[personalwar]

[ No award for Claire, as it turns out. 76 isn't even the oldest, simply due to the fact that Ana is here. There might be a few others older than them, even. ]

You aged twenty-some years while in stasis?

[ That's unprecedented, as far as he's aware. ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

Some months ago, yes. Perhaps if I'm not the oldest, I might be the one that's aged the most in my time here.

video; un: clarke

[romancekiller]

Wow— that is a lot of time to have pass while in stasis though it's always been a weird thing in my experience too. [she knows that feeling since she has been through it because it is surreal given how it happens over the course of three days. that aside though hearing that claire's birthday is coming up reminds her that hers is just around the corner too in a couple of days.

she almost would have forgotten about if this hadn't caused her to start thinking about it but she keeps that to herself though returning her focus to claire] Anyways happy birthday Claire.

[nineteenfortyfive]

It's rather unpredictable, but that's the nature of the beast, as they say. I just hope I don't get another twenty year nap any time soon.

Thank you, Clarke.

video; un: noneofurbusiness

[smithandwesson]

That much closer to retirement then I suppose.

[Is there even such thing as retirement in El Nysa?]

So you the confirmed oldie? How do you know that for certain?

[Cause that old dude certainly looked more up there in years than you. What was his name? Davis?]

[nineteenfortyfive]

I doubt that part. I'm kept busy, here.

I'm not sure how else to confirm it other than not necessarily seeing a lot of older people among us. Natives don't count, of course. And I haven't gotten too many volunteers to convince me otherwise.

voice | un: colt.saa

[shashka]

Ten years older than me.

[ ha... ha... ]

One of the Natha's... mistakes?

[nineteenfortyfive]

I suppose, but looking back, I can't imagine not being this age. It doesn't feel wrong.

un: flashgordon

[deadthenred]

Yeah. Stasis is… strange.

[ He's lost so much time, in his own world, and he could never talk about it there. But here, these temporal mix-ups seem a lot more common. ]

You don't look bad.

[nineteenfortyfive]

[There's a pause here, and Claire's eyes narrow a tad. He's... familiar, maybe, but then again she could just be losing her memory. It happens, now and then. She seems to brush it off, smiling.]

Why, thank you. I get that a lot.

[It's a one comfort.]

video | un: janeway

[directives]

I suppose that depends on the definition of elderly. I admit my perceptions of age likely aren't what most are.

[ living to be over a hundred was nothing in her time. humans were living past the century mark since before she was born. ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

[She makes a small noise of surprise.]

I admit I often forget that some people must come from places where fifty is a drop in the pond, or there are... immortals, or... things that seem impossible, in my world.

Video: UN: WrightLawyer4U

[objectionattorney]

Wait... you were twenty four when you got here? And now you're fifty-one?

Because of the stasis chambers?

[Also please don't call yourself old. You were still older than him, but it simply made him realize his own age and how his own recent birthday dragged him even further away from his physical heyday.]

[nineteenfortyfive]

More like twenty-nine or thereabouts. It's a little hard to recall, now, but that's about it. A three day nap here ended up being decades.

un: rosequeen

[thekittenqueen]

Were you brought to Olympia before us? Over 20 years ago?

[nineteenfortyfive]

No. I came with the first group of us, a bit over a year ago. It's the brief return to stasis I had that aged me.

un: linneus

[inaurare]

Forgive me, I don't entirely understand, but I know a celebration is a celebration.

[how can one have been here a year and aged twenty? As his masters son taught him once; that's impossible - time is constant.]

I hope you are having a wonderful day, Miss Claire. Congratulations.

[nineteenfortyfive]

I am, darling, thank you. But what is it you don't understand? I'd be happy to explain what I can.

video | un: onionship

[wheresmyfingerbones]

I have never noticed.

( Oh Davos, you. )

[nineteenfortyfive]

[Ooh. Yikes.]

Oh. Hello.