seventh bubble; text.

[timelymaid]

whens your birthday?
im curious
and how do you normally celebrate it at your home?

where im originally from we dont use years or months or any of these things as a time term
a sweep isnt even equivalent to a year
and you have one wriggling day a sweep
although theres not much you do on them compared to human parties which i think are more fun
i cant even begin to figure out how you would equate a wriggling day to a yearly thing anyway
so i just did what jake suggested and picked something else for fun

speaking of!
ive got a list now and since i need to get it to several people this seems appropriate
sans terezi nepeta equius gamzee the birthday calendar is as follows:
february 14 eridan ampora february 22 sollux captor march 25 aradia megido
april 13 john egbert and jane crocker august 31 kanaya maryam
september 21 or 22 karkat vantas because whichever is the equinox!
and then december 1 is jake english and jade harley
december 3 is strider day
and december 4 is lalonde day

so that crosses off everyone i know from home but i do not have the days of everyone i know here
thus this very important question!
if you dont have one we can pick one because this is exciting!

[ as always, if you respond in something else, Aradia will match you. ]

Comments

[enjoymyatelier]

I see... well, if a color were completely removed from the hemospectrum, then I suppose it would make sense for a sign that doesn't quite fit anywhere else to be inserted there. That certainly is interesting, though, particularly given that the Zodiac has long been considered to have an influence on humans' lives based on the sign that we were born under, as I'm sure you've already learned. That was part of why I asked if they had any particular significance in your universe--that, and those of us who are born with the potential to use magic create ancestral crests that give us access to all of the magical knowledge of our forebears.

That's simply how it is in the Mage Association, I'm afraid. Of course, it's only a minor nuisance since I can't actually imagine anyone stupid enough to actually curse a gift managing to get the better of me.

[timelymaid]

it is rare to know the signs of your ancestor
so it has significance in that manner
so you create your ancestral crest?
was the sign passed down to you or did you design it yourself?
and it the knowledge in memories or simple knowledge? :o
that sounds simply fascinating really!!

well i assure you i wouldnt curse anything i sent to you
not the least because i have no idea how i would accomplish that here
nor why i would want to

[enjoymyatelier]

Ah, I see. Why is that so rare, though? Are people not good at keeping records on that sort of thing?

Counting myself, the crest has been in my family for nine generations, so there's a great deal of knowledge contained in it. It really only contains knowledge, as well, so it's a bit jarring once you first inherit it, but you eventually stop thinking about it. I probably don't find it as exciting as I would have if they weren't so ubiquitous among mages, but I can't deny their importance.

Well, I would certainly thank you for that. To be honest, if I'm still here on my birthday this year, I suspect it will be far more pleasant than most of the ones I've had.

[timelymaid]

that has to do with troll reproduction
once the genetic material is collected by the imperial drones
its all sort of just mixed together for the mother grub
who lays the eggs we then hatch out of in a normal life cycle
so
figuring out who you were descended from is sort of really hard?

i take it the crest did not follow you to this place? :o
but what did it look like if you dont mind my asking?

i think thats true of most holidays for me as well
this world is typically peaceful
minor blips aside

[enjoymyatelier]

Oh. I see. That would certainly explain it.

[...he's not even going to ask how any of that works...]

Technically I still have it, given that it's engraved into my body. However, it would only be visible to other people with magical aptitude, and even then it would only be visible while I was casting spells--so there's no real way that it could be visible here unless another one of those "blackouts" happened. Mine is fairly abstract and takes up a good portion of my back, which is basically the norm for crests.

That is true, yes. It would probably be rather pleasant to go on holiday here if there were any way to come here willingly.

[timelymaid]

[ It's best not to ask, Kayneth. You don't want to know. ]

did you have to get it engraved
or did it just appear there when you inherited it??

it would wouldnt it
i rather like it here!

[enjoymyatelier]

Well, I should say that it's more like getting an organ transplant than having it just appear or something along those lines, but given that it's a crest... 'engraving' is a far more artistic way of referring to it. It's actually a fairly long process that involves the transferal of magic circuits, which are, of course, the things that allow us to use magic. They have an extremely high chance of rejection even among close relatives, so it takes a fairly long time to prepare someone to inherit a crest.

I have my issues with it, but it's entertaining enough.

[timelymaid]

a chance of rejection?
how does that work?
i mean what happens if it is rejected

[enjoymyatelier]

It's something like getting an organ transplant, really, albeit more complicated. If the body sees the crest as an invasive foreign object, it will attack it as though it were a virus of some sort, which both renders it useless and causes a great deal of pain to the bearer.

[timelymaid]

well
im glad that didnt happen to you then!
it sounds terribly unpleasant

[enjoymyatelier]

It really isn't something I would have had to worry about--this sort of thing generally happens to newer families for a wide variety of reasons. Established families generally have ways of ensuring it doesn't happen.

[timelymaid]

ways of ensuring it?
like magic or

[enjoymyatelier]

Occasionally, yes; there are certain medicines that can help with it, though more than anything, it has to do with the purity of the bloodline in question.

[timelymaid]

so you have a hemospectrum as well?
sort of

[enjoymyatelier]

Something like it, yes. It's something that can be built up over generations, though, since our ancestry is more easily traced.

[timelymaid]

so youre near the top of the hemospectrum?

comment 413 yeahhhh

[enjoymyatelier]

You could say that, yes. I'm not sure what the equivalent would be, honestly--my family has been practicing for over 500 years, but other families have been practicing for over 1000. Of course, that doesn't prevent my family from being almost as powerful and influential as they come.

CONGRATULATIONS

[timelymaid]

hm
i think that actually helps me understand it a bit
i think it must be interesting to be able to trace your ancestry to that degree

[enjoymyatelier]

It most certainly is. I'm glad that I can take pride in being descended from people who are actually worth remembering.

[timelymaid]

haha sometimes you remind me of eridan
just in things you say

[enjoymyatelier]

Well, we are of roughly the same social status, I would imagine, though I would hope that I am far more adept than he is.

[timelymaid]

you seem more well versed in social ways if thats what you mean!

[enjoymyatelier]

That's precisely what I mean. I have no idea why he's so abysmal at them.

[timelymaid]

um
hes always been like that pretty much
kill all the land dwellers etc
feferi whos above him on the hemospectrum is nice so im not really sure what happened there
its just eridan i think

[enjoymyatelier]

...I was talking about his social skills, not his genocidal tendencies, though those are admittedly even more worrying. I'm glad that at least it isn't your entire aristocracy that's lacking even the social awareness of a teaspoon, at least.