007✖; (video)

[circumitus]

"Judging by some of the numbers, it's been twenty-five jumps so far. Have lived on the Tranquility for over two years now."

[Rey stops and considers this. She's met a lot of people, and seen a lot of people go. In fact, she's not even sure how many of the 001's are left on the ship, and is reluctant to find out.

[Why am I here.]

"Suppose after that long, it would count as a residency here. Am also a century old now, evidently." [But hurr, what are birthdays? And does it even count when she doesn't know what month it currently is?] "Feels much longer after having so many people in my head."

[Unfortunately she isn't just talking about the empathy of other people, though.]

Comments

video;

[lacksgrace]

You really think two years is a long time to be somewhere?

video;

[circumitus]

Longest I ever stayed anywhere was four. Didn't stay in one place for very long.

video;

[lacksgrace]

Why not? Couldn't have been any worse than this place.

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[circumitus]

Wasn't my choice. Had my orders, and any memories of a home that I might've had prior to those times were not even real.

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[lacksgrace]

Orders, huh? Does that make you some kinda soldier or something?

[ Because he knows all about that. ]

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[circumitus]

Yes, I was. Once.

video;

[lacksgrace]

Sucks, right? Not being able to do anything you wanna do whenever you feel like. I get that.

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[circumitus]

Was born into it, and for a long time that was my life. Couldn't miss or long for freedom I didn't know existed at the time. Just wasn't wired that way.

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[lacksgrace]

Well, uh. [ It's weird for him to hear that out of someone else's mouth, so he's quiet for a second or two. ] Better late than never, I guess. All you need to do is loosen up now. No one's here to tell you what to do.

[leaps]

It feels longer after being here for two years.

[circumitus]

Perhaps the time we've missed has something to do with it. My assumption.

[leaps]

You're missing time?

[circumitus]

Yes. Gained time as well. Came here barely knowing my own name. Now there are too many names -- and lives -- for me to remember, but I remember them all.

[leaps]

Did you forget your name, or did you never get it to begin with?

[circumitus]

Erased, just like my previous identities before my arrival.

[She thinks about that for a bit.] No, not erased. Archived. They were given back to me some jumps ago.

[leaps]

For a reason, probably. Nothing happens without a reason here.

[circumitus]

If there is one, then it is a cruel reason.

voice »

[rancorously]

[The one time he actually decides to use voice is on this and if Nico was the type to dwell on what that might say about him, he'd wonder, but instead he just sort of barrels ahead with what he wants to say.]

You don't look like you're a century old. [Then again, he doesn't look 80 something either.] You don't even look anywhere near it.

voice »

[circumitus]

No, this body is not necessarily that old. By all counts it is only about six years, give or take. [Depending on how one wants to look at Tranquility-time.] I, however, am rather old in comparison to the human lifespan.

voice »

[rancorously]

Six years is even harder to believe than the hundred years. [He just saying.]

You just don't look it because of having a body that's only six years old. Did you just not want one that looked faintly age appropriate?

voice »

[circumitus]

It's a matter of how you choose to measure age and time. If any of my bodies aged appropriately -- or aged at all -- I would be either too young or too old to do what I was intended for. Therefore time is more relevant to me than age.

voice »

[rancorously]

Years. Months. Periods of time, that's how you measure age. It's how people and things normally age, time passes and their bodies decay and die slowly and then they actually die.

voice »

[circumitus]

Died plenty of times already, though lost track of how many. Perhaps eight, nine. Or ten? Always came back -- new body, new memories. New life. Difficult to measure age when all those lives lived get muddled together. Sort out what's real and what had been fabricated.

voice »

[rancorously]

Because your memories in between don't seem real. Or just sort of float away when you end up in another body.

voice »

[circumitus]

Don't float away. More like archived and locked away for a time.