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[With the recent temperature fiasco, Pilouette hadn't been paying attention and September kind of snuck up on her. Now with a particular day coming up, she's found that she's ended up with a somewhat...odd problem. Having found herself unable to figure out an answer on her own, she decides to turn to the network. ]

You all know how people can come here from different worlds and different times and stuff, right? Well, um...hypothetically. Say someone just had their birthday. Like, maybe a month before coming here. But only a few months after getting here, it's already their birthday again!

Do I...uh, they just keep being the same age and wait a whole year or should they say they're older now? Oh! But the year is different, too, isn't it? I wonder if that matters...I've been thinking about it all day, but it just seems like, so totally complicated...!

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[It's not usually the sort of dilemma that might appeal to Ataru, but it's so odd and the girl seems so bothered by it he can't quite stop himself from answering.]

If it's so close, maybe they [is that an amused glimmer in his eye no it can't be] should call it the same birthday and start again. There's no need to get any older if you don't have to.

If it's that important to you, I think it's worth celebrating. [ It wouldn't be bothering the girl so much if it wasn't her own birthday, so that's what Nanoha is going with. ]

To be honest, I've been wondering about the same thing. In the end, I think I'd wait for the actual year to pass, without worrying about what time it is here.

... That does make a little complicated to keep track of, though. I don't think anyone would blame you if you wanted to celebrate it on the date you're used to in this place's time. [What do you mean she was trying to keep it vague and general? Psshh.]

[Give her a second because what even is that mask. No. No, considering the circumstances, that's normal, right? It's just a mask. She frowns thoughtfully as she mulls over what he's said. One can almost hear the gears turning.]

S-So I- er, they should just try to ignore that they've had a birthday already? I guess that kind of makes sense. Especially since it hasn't even been half a year...That's going to feel like, totally weird, though. ...O-Or it probably would. Uh, like, hypothetically.

Well, it's not that important. Besides, I never really celebrate it anyw- I-I mean, it's not...! It was j-just like, a hypothetical situation! I was just wondering because this whole time thing is like, super weird. You know?

[ Such a bad liar. Nanoha tried not to smile too much, so as not to give away her amusement. She covered for that as best she could by looking thoughtful and tapping a finger to her lip. ] Hmm, then hypothetically... I would count the days and figure out the new date from there.

Unless I thought my horoscope reading was vital. That would complicate things.

That makes sense...I guess I...er, someone can't really say they're older if it hasn't even been a year yet.

But you think, if it was someone's birthday, w-which it's not, you think they should just...celebrate it on the normal date? Someone else was saying that maybe a person should just consider it the same birthday as the last one and start the year over. That almost feels like cheating, though. Two birthdays without getting any older...

N-New date? So the date wouldn't be the same?! S-So, wait, if it was a month after back home...when I got here it was three months before...

This keeps getting more and more complicated, even without horoscopes. If I had known it was going to be this hard to figure out, I would have tried to do it before now...!

Edited 2013-09-04 03:38 (UTC)

[ Whoops. Nanoha raised a hand in a calming gesture. ] I think I made that sound more complicated than it was. Just think for a moment... what date did you arrive on, and how many days have you been here in total?

[He can't help but be amused at her awkward deflections, and it comes through in his voice.]

Sure, if you really want to be technical.

If it's cheating that way, it would be cheating the other way too, right? You'd be celebrating turning a year older even though only a few months passed. It's just a matter of preference at this point... I don't think anyone is really worried about "someone's" exact age here.

O-Oh. Right. I got here in...in June, I think. I've been here for...[She goes quiet for a bit while she counts it out in her head.] ...just about three months. So that's around 180 days or so! And you said to count the days to find the new date...?

[She hears that tone in his voice and she's not sure she likes it. She's trying really hard to not sound like a kid. She can't help but pout a little, even if he can't see it.]

I guess that would be cheating...I, er, they would be wrong either way. I think exact age is totally important, though! When you come from a different time or year or whatever, don't you think it's the kind of thing you want to remember? Especially when we're not sure how long we'll all be here...!

[ She doesn't want to point out the error, but at the same time... ] Would you have a different calendar back where you are from? [ Three months of sixty days each would be fairly lengthy. ]

[He laughs quietly for a moment.]

To be honest, I missed my last birthday. I guess it didn't really come to mind at the time... and really, I guess it stopped being so important to me at a certain point. I'm not sure I'll remember my next.

If you feel like you need to keep track of it, then no one would argue with that. But it goes the other way, too.

...Though I wonder what it'll mean if they send us back to the same time and place back home and we've been here enough to noticeably age. [Oop, maybe he's going a little too far into thinking about spacetime shenanigans. He's a fan of sci-fi, but temporal mechanics and their consequences aren't exactly his specialty.] Err, never mind...

Huh? N-No, it's the same as the calendar here.

[Pilouette clearly hasn't realized that she's gotten her wires crossed either. But the question does make her think about it a little.]

I mean, 180 days is...w-wait, because three months...See, because thirty days...

[The gears in her head are grinding pretty hard. After a few moments her eyes go wide and she lets out a small "Oh!" as she realizes her mistake.]

I-I was thinking of hours and minutes...!! Uh, s-sorry! Ninety...I-I've been here for ninety days...

You forgot it? Is it just because you've had so many or what? Kind of like when you eat the same thing a lot, it stops being special, right? [It's clearly not a perfect analogy. At all.] ...I've never forgotten it, but my birthday has never been that important either.

[When he mentions the aging, Pilouette goes quiet for a moment. He may have said "never mind" but she can't really ignore that. It takes her a second to process the idea but when it finally hits her...]

Waugh! I...I never even thought about that! Wh-What if I end up being here so long that I get like, a ton older?! And then they send me back and...I can't go back to school if I'm suddenly way older-looking! Aaagh, and what if Daddy doesn't recognize me?!

[ This was going to take some careful handling. Nanoha took a deep breath and tried on her best reassuring smile. ] Ninety days, then. Three months. That means that you would have another nine months until you would reach your new birthday. Counting from June, that would mean... next March. [ If she's around that long, that is. ]

Th-that's not really... [Did he sound that old?! He knows his voice is a little deeper than people expect sometimes but he's not even in his 20s yet!] I just had a lot going on, is all...

[Oh no. Now he really regrets saying anything.] W-well, if they have the sorts of things to send us back home, m-maybe they can... de-age us or something? [He's not sure he believes that, but it's an idea?]

Oh! Oh, I get it! So I'm just pushing it back like, according to the time I got here!

...But my birthday has been on the same day for like, sixteen years. Is it really okay to change it, just like that? What if I forget...? Are there rules for this kind of thing?

[She's probably overthinking this way too much.]

M-Maybe...But what if they can't?! I mean, they even practically froze or boiled some of us while trying to do...whatever it was they were doing!

[She's not really even sure she understood all of what was said about it.]

B-But maybe I'd be able to make myself look younger anyway...I mean, people do that with make up all the time, right?! But what if I get taller...? It's like every time I have one question about this place I end up with like, a ton more of them...

[She's really not very good at this, is she? Not that he can particularly blame her, under the circumstances.]

True. You could try to count it back out to when your birthday would be, but that might cause all sorts of confusion when you get back home. [He pauses, and maybe he's teasing her just a little bit-] General "you", that is.

I don't think there are rules, no, so you can go with whatever is the most comfortable for you. I'm sure any friends you have here would respect those wishes, and so should those who might know you from home. [ Since that idea's not entirely out of the realm of possibility. ]

W-Well, yeah. O-Of course my friends would respect that...

[Though, that would require her having friends here.]

I'm gonna have to really think about it, though. If I decide to make my birthday on a particular day...Like, what if it starts to feel weird? It would be like, totally weird to change it back...

It seems like you have a lot of time to change your mind. [ Then she realizes something. ] Are you celebrating an important birthday the next time it comes around? [ It's best not to judge people on how young they might look, though Nanoha defaults to "everyone is a kid unless they look like an adult"; a lesson she never really learned with Vita. ]

[She doesn't quite pick up on that teasing because she's just thinking about this so hard. Probably harder than is necessary.]

I didn't think about that...It really could case trouble back home, especially since they say they put us back from the moment they took us. Then it would be a month after again! Or...or wait, would it be considered a couple months after? ...D-Depending on how long they were here.

...Geez, all this going back and forth in time stuff sounds like, really complicated. Like, annoyingly complicated. But I guess if time science or whatever was easy to figure out it wouldn't be worth thinking about.

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