un: cpt andor; text

[ouzel]

Others have been mentioning dates of birth and so I was wondering: what do your people do in order to celebrate the day someone is born, or named, or comes into their own?

Also, how do your people celebrate the lives that have ended?

Comments

text; un: ROOT

[symbiosys]

Birthday parties! Full of food and drinks, which vary depending on just what kind of party you're throwing and how old your guests are, of course. But the common denominator is birthday cake.

[Look at her talking as if she's ever had a typical birthday party, haha.

Welp.]

As for the ones who die-- that depends on the person's religion or lack thereof, but you either bury them or cremate them. Personally, I would've enjoyed uploading my consciousness to a computer and living again through its circuitry, but you can't always get what you want.

[Technically, that sorta kinda happened, but it's. really complicated.]

text; ongoing

[ouzel]

Another mention for cake. Is there a specific kind or is to taste?

What if there is no body?

Sounds messy, honestly, but I can see the appeal.

[symbiosys]

There isn't a specific kind, exactly, but most people seem to agree that a birthday cake should have at least two layers and plenty of frosting.

[That makes her pause. Root takes a little longer to reply this time around.]

Well, cremation is obviously discarded in those cases, but some people do a regular funeral in which they bury an empty casket after the religious ceremony takes place. Mourning the dead when there isn't a body is [another pause] complicated, to say the least.

[She knows this from personal experience: her childhood friend was kidnapped and murdered, and it took over twenty years for the authorities to find her body and give her a proper burial. They were lucky they found her body at all. (Hanna's killer was dead just two years after she disappeared; Root took care of that.)]

[ouzel]

Alright. Not something I've had many chances to make but I suppose I could practice.

[ These are all interesting details on funerals in general, and he feels like they're good for him to know, but...

He supposes he's more interested in small, personal expressions of mourning, which he'll probably just have to make up for himself. ]

Yeah, I can imagine.

public » private

[symbiosys]

We could swap recipes! Or I could share some of mine with you, assuming you are unfamiliar with layer cakes.

[She worked as a pastry chef and caterer once, she's got this. And she's had so very few opportunities to show off her cooking skills in space.

Small, personal expressions of mourning are always better, and a lot more meaningful. Like the female Artificial Super Intelligence that Root worshipped taking on her voice after she died; not that Root knows that. And speaking of death-- don't mind her, she's just going to change the security settings from PUBLIC to PRIVATE.]

I bet. Do you want to celebrate your life or someone else's? Your friend up there wasn't very careful about keeping your death private.

[A pause, as if she's stopped typing, and then:]

I'm dead, too. Maybe we should hold hands and start a support group.

private

[ouzel]

I am completely unfamiliar, and I would love the chance to learn. It's been a while since I have had the chance to cook in any capacity, before arriving here, and baking has been out of my reach for longer than that.

[ Since, you know. Wartime. Lots of wartime. Who can bake cakes when they're busy spying for the rebellion? ]

Someone else's but, to both of their defenses, neither of them are alive either. They were on the last mission with me.

Can we just bake instead?