Birthdays and age

[athousandmoons.livejournal.com]

After reading this post about celebrating birthdays, we were curious about something. Does anyone have system members without birthdays? And how many people have system members without a specific age? How many have members that don't age at all? (I would have asked if those were normal, but with plurals...what is normal? :D)

Some members of our group have decided on a birthday, although I'm not sure if these birthdays were actually theirs or if they just chose them. The others just don't have them. I'm not sure if this is related to their not aging, although I think they do age slowly.

Also, some of our group members don't have a specific age. They don't age-slide. It's just that one might be 20 to 25 years old without knowing exactly how old he is. He sometimes says, "I'm 23," because it's easier, but inside he doesn't know his exact age.

I've found these things strange, but I was curious about whether other people had this same experience, and what people thought of this.

~Mel

Comments

[kyouketsusha.livejournal.com]

I mentioned the birthday thing over there, but...

How many have members that don't age at all?

Mischa doesn't age, she's the age she was when she died and afaik always will be. I'm not entirely convinced Lili ages, either, but it may just be that she's so long-lived that I'd have no way of knowing. (She's so old that she doesn't know how old she is etc etc)

[athousandmoons.livejournal.com]

Oops. I just didn't want to start a long discussion that might bother the original poster in the comments over there. Sorry.

I hadn't thought of someone being so old that she wouldn't know her age. That makes more sense than someone younger not knowing.

This isn't really related to the original question, but if you don't mind answering, I was wondering what it's like to have a dead person in your group. Is it just like having someone alive or is it different?

~Mel

[littlemischa.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... I think I'm not that much different from regular people, 'cept I don't age. But since I've been 6 years old for so long now, I can do a lot of things that other people my age maybe can't do :)))

And I remember my death and it was scary :((

But I think I like never having to grow up, hehehehe :)

- Mischa with help from Kyou

[tej-agni.livejournal.com]

Does anyone have system members without birthdays?
Yes. There are many in our group that do not have a day of birth they celebrate. The reason is either they don't know what day this would be or they have no interest in celebrating it. Several have chosen a specific day themselves, either by finding an astrological sign that sounds like who they are, using the day they first posted online, or even an Earth holiday so they would easily remember it.

how many people have system members without a specific age?
There are several in our group who have chosen an age range to put themselves in because they aren't positive of their exact age. As we have stated a few times, we use an "apparent age" and an "actual age" for our group. One is an age based on how an individual appears, and the other is based on how long they feel they've been alive or have existed. Sometimes these can be two completely different ages. One may appear to be a child yet be several hundred years old. There are those who are unsure of their age, so they will put themselves in an age range, meaning they will say "I feel like a child" or "I feel like I've been here forever".

How many have members that don't age at all?
For us we would call this "not changing". Even when some of the children or others remain the same apparent age, they are still growing and learning on the inside.

[athousandmoons.livejournal.com]

I think I've heard you say something about "apparent age" and "actual age" before. That's a good way to put it. We have some whose apparent and actual ages are very different too. "Not changing" also seems right. That's a good point about how they are still growing and learning.

Thanks for answering. It seems like you always have good input on many people's questions and discussions. :)

~Mel

[athousandmoons.livejournal.com]

I almost laughed when I saw I had used the word normal, and then I changed it. :D Common and uncommon are better ways to put it.

It sometimes bothers the ones of us who don't know their exact ages. Does it bother you not to know your age? If you don't mind answering, that is.

~Mel

[chaostiny.livejournal.com]

We have many with no birthday and most don't age unless they do whatever work they need to to heal their issues (we are a trauma based system). Once they have done their work, they tend to age up or down to the body's age... don't ask me why!

[athousandmoons.livejournal.com]

That's really interesting that they don't age until they heal their issues. I wonder why that happens.

I was wondering how it worked in trauma-based systems, so thank you very much for answering. :)

~Mel

[chaostiny.livejournal.com]

That is only our system... I know many others that are different than us.
I think for us, we don't become the body's age until we heal because the trauma makes us "stuck" at the age it happened at...
But once again, that is only our system, I know many others that do not work that way.

[hydra-system.livejournal.com]

Only the body has a brithday and ages. Some members do not have any apparent age, one is an age slider, and two have ages that lie somewhere between around 20 and 30.

[theyareme.livejournal.com]

Only the body has a birthday and ages.

That's how it is for me, too. I'm on my second set of personas, and both times they've been older than me but not any specific age. The first set were in their early 20's (body age was early teens) and the current set are late 40's (body age is early 30's). Actually, the current set don't want to reveal their exact ages, and I'm OK with that.

[ex-suhina987.livejournal.com]

Does anyone have system members without birthdays?

Yes, though everyone here retains the right to claim a birthday later on if they want.

And how many people have system members without a specific age?

We have some who fall in age ranges, as well as some who are "eternal." Yeah, whatever. All I know is he's creepy.

How many have members that don't age at all?

See my comment about the eternal guy. Also, some of us are not aging by choice. I think we have a choice because more than half of us are dead.

~ Keyadis

[medius-tandem.livejournal.com]

We don't really have specific ages or birthdays. We have ranges. We know the age range and generally we'll each pick an age within that range so that we have something specific to say if we're asked. Same applies to the date. More a range between this date and that date. Never really been asked for a date so this has been sufficient.

[weirdiguess.livejournal.com]

Chloe doesn't have a birthday, we don't know her age but we don't know if she ages so maybe it doesn't matter. Me and Selene, we got birthdays but we figure they're not totally accurate, just stuff we got made up. Pretty sure about what age we are though.

[weirdiguess.livejournal.com]

(Also, uh, judging by some of the other comments, should say that a couple of us here are 'immortal'. We gain years, we don't show it physically much. We still think of ourselves as aging, we're not frozen or anything, years keep piling up, you know?)

[crystalseraph.livejournal.com]

We have a mix. Tahl and I both have birthdays and are similar ages, Rachael is 23 with no defined birthday, and Shad is variable age and birthday, hovering around the 35 - 40 mark. Sun is unaging, to my knowledge.

[lion-azure.livejournal.com]

Yes to all three ;).

All of us were born at some point in time, yes, but some come from worlds so different from this one that it's impossible to put their birthday on a specific earth-date. One of us has forgotten her birthday, and another doesn't attatch any significance to it and so doesn't reveal the date to anyone.

We also have a few members whose age can only be guessed, as in "I think he's around 60" or "she's somewhere around 6000". This is also mostly due to the fact that they come from worlds where time is measured differently.

And a few don't age physically, either. They might gain years and wisdom, but their bodies always stay the same.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Well, other than myself, as the "core" or original or whatever you want to call it, there's only one of us with a birthday, and he's pretty laid back about it, he doesn't much care to celebrate it.

As for age, none of us are really age specific. We're all more or less about the same age as I am, except for Guardian who's essentially ageless, and is either a few centuries old, or about thirteen, depending on how you're looking at it.

[forever-alone.livejournal.com]

I really don't think any of us have specific birthdays; age is weird for us in general. Most of us don't have specific ages, but have an age range like you described. Sometimes I feel younger (14 to 16), sometimes I feel around the body's age (19/20 ish), but I can't pinpoint an exact age at any point in time. Mostly we all celebrate on the body's birthday because it's easier that way.

I'm pretty sure V1 doesn't age after she stopped functioning several years ago. She'll probably be 14 for a long time, maybe forever. The oldest in our system doesn't really have an age either, we just sort of feel that she's older than the rest of us.

[rabbitsystem.livejournal.com]

We have two who celebrate body-birthday, one who has a birthday but doesn't regard it as special in earth-fashion. Then there's JT, who has no birthday and is somewhere between five and eight. Ish.

[terendel.livejournal.com]

I don't have a birthday, though I'm deciding to adopt one. Still deciding on the right day. I do have an age, which is a bit older than the body age. There's only two in our system, so the other questions don't apply to us.

Richard

[20splinters.livejournal.com]

For the most part we don't have exact birthdays, but Rhiannon does and I think Joey claims the body's birthdate as hers. We do tend to claim astrological signs though, and mine at least jives with the time I came into existence.

Some of us only have approximate ages, but others have exact ages even if they age-slide. And we do have at least one "immortal."

As far as celebrating birthdays, we usually go with the body's birthdate.

Gabby

[theyareme.livejournal.com]

We do tend to claim astrological signs though

I think that's really neat!

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

Most people get older in the usual way. The lifespan on Laura is a bit longer than earth average, and it is sometimes hard to tell how old people are. There are people like John or Elaq who stay a certain age (or at least appear to) for personal reasons.

Gabe always says he is old enough and he will get older when he is darn good and ready.
Now I gotta drag this out again just to tease him :D

http://www.astraeasweb.net/images/neil900yrs2.jpg