[Voice/Action]

[thenightmarebegins]

I feel there's something of significance that I'm forgetting...

[With that said, Vincent takes off to sit under a tree by the larger lake and quietly Brood think. He feels in a more pensive state than usual, if that's even possible.]

Comments

[esper-flight.livejournal.com]

...Vincent?

[Terra pauses by him, looking concerned. She can tell the difference between this and his usual pensive state.]

[chaotic-dirge.livejournal.com]

[He's lost in thought for a moment, but eventually snaps out of it enough to glance up at Terra.]

Terra...

[esper-flight.livejournal.com]

Is something wrong? You seem pensive....

[chaotic-dirge.livejournal.com]

I was just... thinking. It must be something about this time of year...

[esper-flight.livejournal.com]

This time of year? What do you mean?

[chaotic-dirge.livejournal.com]

I'm not certain I can entirely explain. I always end up with... a lot on my mind. Memories, mostly...

[esper-flight.livejournal.com]

I see....

...would it help to talk about them? I mean--not that you have to--

[chaotic-dirge.livejournal.com]

[Vincent shrugs, and takes a moment to consider that. The nagging feeling of something he's not thinking of finally comes to the surface.]

I believe... I may have determined a reason.

[esper-flight.livejournal.com]

What reason would that be?

[chaotic-dirge.livejournal.com]

I was born on this day.

[Which makes him... twenty-seven years old. Again. He's never been one to pay attention to the passage of time, he has no real reason to bother.]

[esper-flight.livejournal.com]

Oh!

[Terra straightens, looking at him again.]

Then we aren't too far apart.

[chaotic-dirge.livejournal.com]

We aren't?

[He glances at her. He's half tempted to say more, but holds back at first. He somehow doubts she would understand the idea of being frozen forever in time... but then, he has no way of knowing if that applies to her as well. Give him a moment and he might say something more though.]

[esper-flight.livejournal.com]

Mine's later this week...at least, the official one.

[She shrugs, giving him that moment to see if he thinks of his birthday as a good or bad thing. It's hard to tell, at the moment.]

[chaotic-dirge.livejournal.com]

The official one?

[Gives her a curious look about that statement.]

[esper-flight.livejournal.com]

I don't know if it's the real one. Probably not....

[She tugs at her ponytail, straightening it.]

Are you planning anything for today?

[He doesn't seem like the party kind of guy, but still...that doesn't me he might not have something special in mind.]

[chaotic-dirge.livejournal.com]

I understand. [A quick searching glance, then looks away.] Time has little meaning to me... so I rarely see the need to plan anything.

[At least, now that he's actually remembered it's his birthday.]

[esper-flight.livejournal.com]

Well, still....

[Her brow furrows.]

Time has little meaning to you? I don't understand.

[chaotic-dirge.livejournal.com]

[It hasn't ever come up before, so her confusion is sensible. Not that it's anything Vincent shares all the time, but it isn't anything he needs to keep a secret, either.]

I mean... that I've stopped aging.

[esper-flight.livejournal.com]

[Stunned silence, for a moment.]

...how is that possible?

[chaotic-dirge.livejournal.com]

...a long story.

[Vincent pauses a moment.]

That... ability... came to me when I gained those transformations.

[esper-flight.livejournal.com]

[Terra mulls that over, remembering some of those forms quite vividly.]

How old are you, then?

[She looks at him as though trying to guess, but can't pinpoint him as being older than Edgar or Sabin.]

[chaotic-dirge.livejournal.com]

Physically, I stopped aging at twenty-seven. Chronologically... at least sixty. [Although he wasn't technically aware during much of that time, but that in itself is ANOTHER long story.]

[esper-flight.livejournal.com]

Sixty years....

[That makes him almost as old as Strago, though he certainly doesn't look it.]

...what is that like? Not aging, I mean.

[chaotic-dirge.livejournal.com]

[Vincent has a favorite analogy for this.]

It's often as if... the rest of the world were a river, flowing along with time, while I'm a stone, forever set in place.

[esper-flight.livejournal.com]

[Terra frowns.]

That sounds lonely....

[chaotic-dirge.livejournal.com]

I suppose that it is. But it's possible to adjust, eventually, and become accustomed to it...

[He's more or less accepted it by now, although typical Vincent must brood a little anyway.]

[esper-flight.livejournal.com]

Still...I wonder if there's any way for that to change.

[chaotic-dirge.livejournal.com]

I doubt that... but I've adapted.

[esper-flight.livejournal.com]

...how? How do you get used to something like that?

[chaotic-dirge.livejournal.com]

Only with time. Although I was asleep for some of those decades... I still grew used to the idea that I will endure this life eternally.

[...and this existence is far better than the nightmares he spent those decades in. That time had honestly felt more like an eternity than being out in the world of the living.]

[esper-flight.livejournal.com]

This is going to sound weird, but...I hope you're wrong. You shouldn't have to think about how you're going to outlive everyone.

[She stares downward, saddened. Her understanding of love may be incomplete, but the thought of everyone she cared about aging while she was doomed to spend life without them was too much to bear.]

[chaotic-dirge.livejournal.com]

[...and people wonder why he's such an angstbucket...]

Even so... I'm used to it.

[esper-flight.livejournal.com]

I guess so, but....

[She sighs, wishing there was a way she could help.]

[chaotic-dirge.livejournal.com]

That effect is irreversible, as far as I'm aware. The same for the monsters within me.

[esper-flight.livejournal.com]

...I'm sorry.

[chaotic-dirge.livejournal.com]

It's all right. What's done is in the past.

[esper-flight.livejournal.com]

What will you do now?

[chaotic-dirge.livejournal.com]

Carry on as I have been. I have no choice.

[esper-flight.livejournal.com]

I wish I could help....

[chaotic-dirge.livejournal.com]

It's all right. You have no obligation to do so.

[esper-flight.livejournal.com]

[She blinks at that.]

Obligation or not doesn't make a difference to me. Should it?

[chaotic-dirge.livejournal.com]

Well... no, I suppose it shouldn't.