“Hey, Tahnahos, can you give me a claw with something please?”
Tahnahos grunted as he looked up from his games console. To his surprise, the being asking for assistance was Tahvra. Despite being a Vohra, a normally very social being, Tahvra had always considered himself incredibly independent and rarely asked for help.
“Sure, what do you need?” Tahnahos asked as he put his console down to one side and lifted himself out of his comfy chair.
“Well, there’s two things I need. The first is that I can’t get the magic food machine to produce popcorn. Keeps on giving me fizzy soda and yellow kernels.”
Tahnahos rolled his eyes. “Oh I get that. You need to type in Popped Corn, not popcorn.”
Tahvra beamed, glad that the solution to his first issue is so simple. “Ah great! Been struggling with that for a bit. Second thing is, do you know what the current in-universe date is? I realised I kinda have no idea what so ever.”
“Hm…” Tahnahos trailed off and checked his wristband. It took him a moment to connect to an in-universe network to confirm his calculations. “According to this, it’s late on the 3rd of Feb, 2021.”
Immediately, Tahvra’s expression fell. “Oh no. I missed it.”
“Missed what?” Tahnahos suddenly had a great interest in why Tahvra needed to know the date.
“Wait… did you say… Twenty… Twenty one… PDW, I assume?”
“Yeah.”
Tahnahos watched as Tahvra twiddled his little fingers together, trying to make sense of this newfound information. After Tahvra failed to say or do anything, Tahnahos decided to repeat his previous question.
“What did you miss?”
“My coming of age day. By a year, a month and two days.”
“Your… birthday? Or hatch day, I assume, since you guys hatch from eggs.”
“No…” Tahvra sighed, leaning on the edge of the sofa Tahnahos had been lying on. “My coming of age day is the day on which I become a full adult. If I hadn’t been neutered, I would be a three meter tall carnivorous monster with mental health problems. But since I chose to get ungendered, it’s a day of celebration and partying, alongside all my fellow same-age Vohra. And I missed it.”
“So kinda like a birthday?” Tahnahos asked. “How old are you?”
“I was gonna say forty. But I guess, since I missed an entire year somehow, I’m forty one?”
“You’re… older than Teekay?”
“How old is Teekay?”
“Like, mid thirties?” Tahnahos shrugged. “Not actually sure. The only thing I know for certain when it comes to birthdays is that me and Phovos are the same age.”
Tahvra blinked. “But you’re like… a thousand years old!”
Tahnahos nodded. “1028 actually. Me and Phovos share the same birthday. And the same prophecy that a powerful being born on our day of birth would ruin my father. Turns out, they meant me, not the accidentally immortal Ksithan. Also turns out that the being who killed him was actually Kohra.” Tahnahos trailed off, then grinned. “Either way though, I’m not seeing a problem here. We can just celebrate your coming of age day now.”
“We can?”
“There’s no reason at all why we can’t! Heck, we could make it two days, since you missed two birthdays or whatever they’re called.”
Tahvra clapped his hands together with joy, smiling a little too much. “What a great idea! I’m gonna go tell the others! Thanks mate!”