thunderfists | ◎ Bout 2: The age question [action/voice]

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[Akihiko's been adjusting well enough to Luceti following the crash back to reality that Luceti was a different world that was not the TV world he was supposed to have appeared in. He's back to a "civilized" level of hygiene and no longer running around in survival pants and a cape -- no, now he's back to sweatpants and T-shirts for his jogs and training. He can be found jogging on the village roads and into the forest, which he's now fairly familiar with after spending so much time out there.

Later in the day, after he's finished with his training for the day, he opens up his journal. Ever since that "experiment," he's been wondering something. But before he asks, he should probably introduce himself...]

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Hey. I'm Akihiko Sanada. I arrived here in the recent ... cycle. I guess that's what you call it. I've heard that I might have met some people here before, so I thought I'd warn you that I don't remember ever being in Luceti.

Anyway, I've got a question. How do you decide when to celebrate or acknowledge your birthdays here? There can be a lot of different kinds of calendars, even in the same world, so... I'm curious how other people handle it.

Also, if anyone knows how I can get my hands on a speed bag, I'd appreciate hearing about it.

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[Okay, there's only one question he can ask after that.]

How old were you expecting me to be?

Nineteen at very most.

[Sounds like he's missing something here, like a theory or a common enough occurrence that would lead to that deduction.] Is there some sort of age range that people appear in that I'm not aware of?

A little, but it's more like Minato arrived here at around seventeen, right? So I figured his upperclassmen would be a year or two older.

So you figured that there would be a range based on when Minato arrived. [It was too bad he still didn't know enough people to draw conclusions of his own.] Do people from the same place usually show up from the same ... time range? [Probably the best way to put it.]

Usually within a few months at most.

Huh. [Interesting. What did that mean for their situation, then?] So we're breaking the norm, somehow. [Not sure how to feel about that one.] I guess it works out; I can probably tell him things he probably hasn't heard before.

[But wasn't he- She bites her lip and exhales] Yeah, he'd probably appreciate that.

[He nods slowly.]

So how long have you known Minato? [If he's been here for three years now, it's possible there's people here who have known Minato longer than anyone from SEES.]

Too long, altogether.

[That's her first, and immediate answer. And then she groans, sighs, and thinks back. Now it's been...] A little over two and a half years, I guess?

[The way she answers, plus the way she had helped Minato out in such an extensive way with teleporting out into the forest, just makes it clearer that they're good friends. ...Or at least friends who have known each other a long time.]

So he would still have been school-aged. Did you meet through the school here? [At that age, school was the best way to meet others. So, even though he didn't know much about the school system in the village, it seemed like a reasonable guess.]

I'm not going to explain how we met, it's complicated and stupid. We just met a long time ago and we've known each other since.

◎ Bout 2: The age question [action/voice]

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