August 7th, loud robot child voice broadcasting via istone

[tomodachi]

Hey, hey! Today is my "birthday"... I think? Or at least I'm pretty sure I remember that Tim guy saying it should be today.

[there's a long pause, and then...]

What is it that you're supposed to do on birthdays, again?

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[tomodachi]

Uhh...

[Crow has to think about it for a long moment, and when he does speak, he sounds unsure.]

I woke up a long time ago. Like, more years I think than the number that can be found on like three or four pairs of hands? But I also have a picture that shows I was awake once even before that number, too, but I don't remember when that was.

[He looks and acts like 15-16 but surprise, Crow's actually like, nearly forty or even fifty years old, depending on when the apocalypse occurred in Fragile canon.]

[postictal]

[Three or fair pairs of hands. So he's...older than he looks, if forty is his ballpark.]

What age do you feel?

[tomodachi]

You can feel an age??

[how]

[postictal]

You can feel young or old, yeah.

[He would...hedge toward young, based on the way Crow acts, but that's just a guess.]

[tomodachi]

Well... I'm not like those old guys I see around here sometimes, that's for sure.

[postictal]

I guess that makes you young.

[In spirit, just...not in terms of literal age. That's fine.]

People've called you a kid before. Does that feel right?

[tomodachi]

I'm not just some dumb kid, but... I don't think it's that wrong either? Better than being called "old man", anyway.

[postictal]

Kids aren't necessarily dumb.

[He lives with two kids who are very definitely not anything of the sort. In fact, they're often too smart for their own good.]

[tomodachi]

I know that, but there are other people who act like I am sometimes.

[postictal]

Why do you think that is?

[It's not a rhetorical question, for what it's worth. He's genuinely curious. Or about as curious as an emotionally-deadened asshole like him can be.]

[tomodachi]

Heck if I know. It ain't my fault if I don't know something, they're just jerks.

[postictal]

How long have you been around again?

[He's not sure Crow can use simple ignorance as an excuse when he's apparently pushing forty, but what does Tim know.]

[tomodachi]

I don't know, like... I only woke up after all the humans went away, but I had to have been around before they all disappeared. And then it was... a year? A year ago when I first met Seto, and then Ren and everyone here, I think.

[It's kind of easy to be ignorant when you have only a few books and no one to talk to except for one kid about several hours before you died and wound up here.]

[postictal]

[Just like that, Tim has gotten far more context for how their world operates than he ever has from questioning Ren.]

Were you just...alone before then?

[tomodachi]

Nah--I mean, there was some dogs, but they didn't like me very much, always barked and tried to bite me. A lot of crows too, they were more fun to see around.

[Enough that he named himself "Crow" as a matter of fact. But as far as actual people to talk to? Yeah, he was alone.]

[postictal]

So no other people. Just you.

[All the humans...went away. That's vague.]

Do you remember what happened to the other humans? When they...uh, went away?

[tomodachi]

No. I don't even remember what it was like when they were around, I just... know that I was around them at one point?

[Via photographic evidence, anyway.]

[postictal]

You don't have any memories of that.

[It's soft, speculative. More like he's wording it aloud to himself, working things out in real time.]

[tomodachi]

Yeah. Those memories are totally gone.

[postictal]

Do you know why?

[Missing memories - that he understands. A little too well, in fact.]

[tomodachi]

... No. I don't.

[postictal]

[Silence.]

["That must be hard." Except he knows how hard it must be; it's been Tim's entire life."I'm sorry." Except an apology doesn't come close to it. This is supposed to be a birthday, and here he is - fucking it up. Well and truly.]

Kind of thing's never easy.

[tomodachi]

Yeah... but you know what? It's nothing worth getting bent out of shape about. I'm sure I'll find out what happened someday, I just have to work harder to find those memories.

[postictal]

[Simple as that, huh? He'd envy that, if he had the energy to waste on something as nonessential as envy.]

That's the hope.

...sorry your birthday is happening in the middle of all this.

[tomodachi]

[There's a pause, before he waves it off.]

Eh, don't gotta say sorry for that--I mean, who could have seen any of this coming?