genessia | [Video]

I've missed a couple of mine. Kinda realized a couple days after that my birthday passed.

Get the fuck out! When was your birthday?

It's not important.

The hell it's not. Birthdays are goddamn important for kids your age in my world.

We need cake. Tonight. Tell me your favorite flavor.

[This is not a question, Charlie.]

I don't like cake, and I don't want to do this.

Thank you, though.

Well, what about...

[Be her friend. Regina's words echo in his head, to Neil's detriment. It has him trailing off, rolling his lips together to stop...and makes him think of things like his seashell collection and his favorite dagger and the first time he saw a dragon shift: all gifts the Night Dragon gave him on his birthday.

Ignoring a child's birthday is unforgivable in the Five Realms--and even without Regina's advice, he gets it: birthdays can suck for an orphan. It was one of the reasons the value of children in the Five Realms resonated so deeply with him.

Be her friend first.

With a sigh, he nods with visible reluctance, but does offer up a smile.]

Okay. No cake. But happy birthday anyway--if not for your birthday, you wouldn't exist and I'd never have met you. So...happy birthday. Won't say any more about it. Cool?

Thank you. You're late a few months or so.

[ She goes quiet like she always does when she's considering what she does or doesn't want to share something. But this is Neil, and she's trying, just like he's being patient with her. ]

March. It's in March.

[March. He knows he's been given a gift in that--he sees her trying, so he takes that nugget of knowledge and tucks it away, where he puts all the important things he's learning about the people that are growing to be so important in his life. He locks that secret away for himself, and grins with the simple joy of knowing it.]

March. Cool.

[And because he's a quick study...]

Hey, help me out--there's this Japanese food...I think it's Japanese anyway...fish prepared raw, what's it called?

You're thinking of either sushi, which has the rice, or sashimi which is just slices of raw fish.

Sushi...sushi...[That one's familiar, given the way he's rolling the word over in his mouth.] Yeah, that's the other one. But sashimi, too. Sea dragons, and the fishing villages they protect? They eat stuff like that--I'd forgotten that was a thing in the world I was born in, but I just heard about it recently and now I can't get it outta my head.

You spot a sashimi place--or a sushi one--buzz me. I'm puttin' a bounty out on it, you can either tag along or name your price if you don't like fish. Fuckin' cravings, man.

I see. That's exactly what happened to me this week. Do you bother celebrating after the day?

Not really, but that's just a matter of personal preference. I'm not really bothered by missing it.

What about you? Are you going to do anything?

...Probably not. Unless a friend wants to do something for me...

[He's not expecting it, nor is he sure he even wants it at this point.]

Celebrating anything...seems to be a thing of the past.

I can understand that.

I’m Charlie.

Hmm...

[He gets the impression that she's had some rough times as well. Curious as he is, he won't press for details, despite the fact that he has no reason to hide his own past.]

I'm Qubine. A dragon from Sornieth.

Qubine. You're the first dragon I've ever met.

It's a pleasure.

Edited 2018-09-07 18:19 (UTC)

Hmm, I'm sure it won't be the last, as long as you're in this world...

[Oh look, a unicorn.]

I don't know my own birthday, but I had one that my parents picked out that was sort of like a adoption day instead and that was considered my birthday. It wasn't uncommon for me to forget about it when things got busy though.

[A curious creature indeed...]

Is that so? I suppose that's one way to go about it when you don't know the actual birthday...

It's all I had, but as I said, I forgot about it many a time. Things always happen and get in the way and cause distractions.

Yeah. I do sometimes, but only 'cause I'm not totally sure when my real birthday actually is. There's a record somewhere, but if it exists I never got a bead on it. Birthdays are a big deal though so mine became the day before the Harvest. Think in the world I was born in, that translates to sometime in late October, early November. I gotta do the math, I dunno.

Hmm...

[That was a long-winded speech, and Qubine pauses for a moment to absorb it all.]

At least you've chosen a day?

Yeah--well, kinda. The guy who sorta raised me picked it when I told him I didn't know mine.

[Neil shrugs, absently rubbing his left shoulder with his right hand.]

Point is, I mean--I do forget. Partly 'cause birthdays aren't as important in my native world. I mean, they are, but not in my situation. So unless it's a culturally significant thing, it's not super weird to forget your own.

Goodness, almost every other year. Then again, I have had far more birthdays than any human can have...

Far more birthdays? I take it that you're not human then?

Humans don't usually have wings... I am a vampire, one less dangerous than most.

Hmm. It's hard to see the wings on this little screen. All right then. The only "vampires" we have in Sornieth are bats and leeches.

My, how dull. At least those bats are adorable. [ Remilia also thinks a chupacabra is adorable, so... ]

But yes, I am centuries old.

I don't actually know when I was born. My mother put me in a suitcase and left me at a church.

What...?

[There seem to be a lot of people who don't even know when their birthdays are, which surprises him. And what kind of parent would stuff their kid in a suitcase and leave them somewhere? On the other hand, he supposes it isn't much different from dragons leaving their eggs somewhere for someone else to find...]

That's...an odd thing for a mother to do...

Ahahaha. I would agree. Maybe 'mother' is a strong word. From my understanding, I shouldn't have been born and this was the best way to deal with it.

I've really no hard feelings about it. I never knew her, so I will never know if her intentions were truly malicious or not. It would have been nice to know my birthdate, though.

[Hana blinked and tilted her head a bit]

..Birthday..what's that-and both humans and dragons celebrate that..?

[never mind that she was just excited to talk to another dragon! This was wonderful!]

A birthday...is the anniversary from the day we're born. Or for us dragons, the day we hatched from our eggs. Either way, it's the day our lives began.

Oh! Oooh, I see! Okay, okay, yeah we had that belief with us too~

..There's an actual day to it? Huh..well, we usually keep track of the days we have lived, as well as how many Eternal Nights are. So I'm about..

[she counts on her fingers even, Hana please] 81,760 days old or 223 Eternal Nights old.

..Does that count? How old are you?

Whatever day we were born, we celebrate each year after. We don't count all the days or nights.

[Then every day would be everyone's birthday, and holy shit...]

My hatchday just passed, so I'm five years old now.

[Hana gasped and clapped her hands]

That's fantastic! Happy five years old, then! Oh my..I didn't realize how young you were, that's amazing!

What are you going to do as far as celebration?

[It's less nerve-wrecking to see a dragon from a small screen. Of course, curiosity is what brings her here.]

I have been here long enough that I feel like that I will forget one day.

...Why do you feel like you'll forget?

[If they know when their birthday is, and they celebrate it each year, why would they forget?]

[A flash of sadness, to see many invites go out, and almost none are accepted.]

...It just doesn't feel important to keep track anymore.

[He really shouldn't ask...but he does anyway.]

...Why is that?

[Would a dragon even really care about the issues of a human? While she feels better talking about it, she didn't think it's appropriate.]

W-Well... I'm sure it's my fault anyway. I should've expected so many people would be too busy with their day-to-day lives than worry about some girl's birthday...

[To dodge, do a barrel roll!]

I've always forgotten on purpose. I just don't see the point.

[She had her other reasons.]

To celebrate a life lived would be the point.

[Especially in his world, when a lot of dragons from his clan had died mere days after maturing...]

But can't you just do that every single day you are alive?

"Birthday" is usually the term, although views on how important they are or not are varied. I've never forgotten my own, but I've also never made a big deal of it really. I've had too much else going on, and so usually it's just another day. It's come in handy more as a reference for my keeping different times straight, than as anything else.

[Dragon! It's a Dragon! Who's willing to have a conversation maybe! AND ISN'T SHEN-LONG! Please don't mind that Trunks has an excited-little-boy-type-gleam in his eye. He's polite and friendly but this is exciting! ~~He hasn't gotten to meet a dragon that's not Shen-long yet--not even Hiya-Dragon who was Gohan's friend.~~]

Hmm, keeping track of time. Perhaps that's why birthdays seem important for many.

[But there are more people than he expected who don't know when their birthdays are. That's surprising...]

It might also be that as people keep track of time, they note important things--like birthdays. Again, I think it'd depend on what meaning it has to someone. Some people think it's important, others don't.

What's it like with dragons and...I guess hatching day?

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