Does anyone have a problem with ages in long term DDs?

[Rose]

Weird warning: this post may confuse the daylight out of some people.

Hi all,

I have had parallel imaginary lives all my life. I lived on my first planet from I can't remember when till I was about 9, my second planet til I was about 12, and my current one since I was 12, I am now 23. My imaginary worlds have always been very complex and involved. I am always another person in my DDs, and after 'being'  this alter ego for a little while, it gets a little boring so I move on to another person, sometimes a neighbor or family member, or a friend of theirs (this is where it gets complex!).

The length of time I've 'lived as' alter egos has ranged from a few days to a year and a half, so if I create one who is 18, by the time I give them up or move onto another one they are still usually the same age give or take a year. Sometimes, if my alter ego is a neighbor or friend, the old alter ego stays that age indefinitely (e.g. if they have a baby the baby never grows up).  

At the moment, seeing I've been playing as the same alter ego since I was about 13, they have aged 10 years since I started living their life. When I created them they were 40 ish, meaning that in 2003 they would've been born in the 60s. I liked this because I could research what it was like to grow up in the 60s and 70s and as I have Aspergers Syndrome, one of my 'special interests' is the 20th century and I like to know what happened in what year, what songs came out, fashions, etc. As I continue to play as them, my closest friend in my DD has grown up (she was my age in 2003) and got a boyfriend, but I find it hard to imagine alter ego 'me' as a 51 year old so every few years I have to make it that I was born later and later. This is very frustrating because I only have a few options:

-let them age normally like their 'friends' have, so they can still have grew up in the 60s-70s, but they'll be too old and keep getting older, which is annoying because my writing and art is based on them and also they'll die if I keep them for too long (I didn't think I'd have them for 10 years...so it's possible they'll be there when I'm 10 years older still. I hope not but I never know)

- keep retrograding their age so they're perpetually 41. This will be annoying though because their friends will age but they won't, and what happens if I still have them when I'm 41

-make my planet perpetually the early 2000s, but this is crazy because every year I live as them another year ads to their life but no one gets any older

-move to a new alter ego. I really don't want to do this, and have tried in the past to be my current alter ego's siblings, parents, cousin, local politician (yeah I know, a bit strange)  boss, friends and tax collector but it never sticks.

I'm aware that this post will sound confusing and extremely weird to some if not all people on here, but does anyone else have the same problem? 

 

[Cordellia Amethyste Rose]

I let my characters age in real time.  I've had the same daydream world since I was 9, and now I'm 33.  My characters have grown along with me.  My world has expanded to include more and more characters as my characters have grown up, gotten married, etc.  Some are older than me, and some are my age or younger.  I've killed a few off, mostly because I wasn't using them much anymore.  I killed one off because she was getting old, and it was just her time.  She wasn't a main character, though.  My main character's parents are in their 60s, and she's really close with them.  I don't know how I'll handle it when they grow old and will have to die.  I think it'll be rough, and I'm sure I'll mourn for them right along with her.  I'll probably let them die, though.  I can't have them be younger again as it would screw things up, and they couldn't be her parents anymore, and she really needs them to be.  I'll still go back and relive their younger days, though, and she'll remember them fondly, like she does with her other deceased relatives and friends.  Also, my character is psychic, so dead friends and relatives are able to visit her and talk with the family through her ability to channel, so they're dead but not gone.  Good luck.  

[taffle]

My characters live in a world where people don't age easily. Some people can even be immortal! In my world, there are plenty of characters who are over 100 years of age but they still look young and full of energy. In fact, the older they are, the more experienced and wiser they get. My main character is around 200 years old but looks like an 18 years old.

[Rose]

Michelle -

Seeing the me in my world was born in the late 60s/early 70s, I can go 'back in time' to their childhood/teens/young adult life easily enough, but it's like reliving a memory rather than actually going back to then. However, I can change perspective and be (some of) their relatives, and I can be both parents who both have different storylines/upbringings. When I'm my character's mum, I can stay as her back in the 60s/50s but it feels a little bit strange if I stay back then for too long. I too research the slang and pop culture of each decade though, it's very interesting. I myself am Australian, but my character is British with Australian (and a few American, a Russian and 'natives' from imaginary planet) friends. I love researching different countries in the 20th century and I make sure that each character speaks in their local slang from whatever culture and era they're from. My character is a bit of a 'has been' so they use a lot of 80s/90s slang (and dress like they're from the early 90s). All the Australians are 'bogans' so talk like that, and I've invented a language for the 'natives,' although they're basically parodies of Australians (also invented a local football league they can follow). Your world sounds so interesting, spanning many decades like that. I love the '30s, but the way I implement them in is that my city went through an earthquake and had to be rebuilt in the 30s so most of the architecture is from that period.

Cordellia - I've also killed off characters, or made them move to other sides of the world, or made them fight with me so I don't want to talk to them again. My (real) brother used to be in with my world when he was a kid, and when I was 8 he killed off one of his characters Jack in a car crash and we had a funeral for him I remember. My character isn't psychic, but in my world there is a sort of time machine created by the natives and it allows someone to go back to a previous form for up to 24 hours (any longer and it'd mess with time a bit and you can't go forward). This time machine also allows for travel to and from other planets...so if my imaginary parents who live in supposedly 'real' Earth as opposed to the parody planet want to visit from Britain they can, and likewise with my Aussie friends. To stop this from happening all the time I've made it that it's very very expensive and cause we're all poor, we can't do it a lot! I try not to think about this time machine too much because it's rather silly and makes no real sense...

Taffle - There are some characters I have who act/look etc like they're from decades past but everyone just has normal ages. That's interesting though!

[Rose]

It is sad :(

[KEONTE]

My characters age. And they die. I jump back to whatever age I feel like. I do the whole from birth to death cycle. I get really sad when my characters dies.

[Wish Upon A Wish]

Yes, I understand completely. Time is a really stupid thing with DDs. I just wrote a paragraph explaining my story about it but realised it probably made no glubbing sense what so ever.

I guess I just kind of daydream what I daydream and try not to make age an important issue. If my character had to state age or birthdate or whatever, well, birthdate would just be my own, but the age, I'd just sort of have a blank space in my thoughts (kind of like when one is reading and comes across (◕‿◕✿) also I hope that shows up properly) 

I have that same blank space often when talking about surnames or, with some characters, first names.

[Rose]

Seems like you guys don't have an issue with ageing. The thing is, I don't want the 'me' character to die cause I'll have no one that I can 'be.' They have changed, and I have retrogressed things and erased things about their past I didn't like anymore etc, but they can't stay the same age forever and I just find it distressing.

[ashlee]

my whole world thing is al messed up
My original characters from when i was really young lived in normal time. one of my characters has a kid and she grew up and i became really intrested in this character and created a good back story for her. but the problem was everything was modern like present time...but she should be in the future. i eventually started daydreaming alot about her friend and her story and the whole thing just became present tense. I pretty much had to abandon my old daydream for my new one to make sense. I kept some of my old characters and made them older, but they are just minor characters.

i hope that made sense :P

[SwanInTheWater]

That's amazing that your characters have grown with you for so long. How does it feel like to you? I'm only 21 and have had my current main characters for a decade or so, and it feels so good because my characters and I get to have all these memories of growing up together. Just wanted to know if it was as nice for you as it has been for me so far. 

Cordellia Amethyste Rose said:

I let my characters age in real time.  I've had the same daydream world since I was 9, and now I'm 33.  My characters have grown along with me.  My world has expanded to include more and more characters as my characters have grown up, gotten married, etc.  Some are older than me, and some are my age or younger.  I've killed a few off, mostly because I wasn't using them much anymore.  I killed one off because she was getting old, and it was just her time.  She wasn't a main character, though.  My main character's parents are in their 60s, and she's really close with them.  I don't know how I'll handle it when they grow old and will have to die.  I think it'll be rough, and I'm sure I'll mourn for them right along with her.  I'll probably let them die, though.  I can't have them be younger again as it would screw things up, and they couldn't be her parents anymore, and she really needs them to be.  I'll still go back and relive their younger days, though, and she'll remember them fondly, like she does with her other deceased relatives and friends.  Also, my character is psychic, so dead friends and relatives are able to visit her and talk with the family through her ability to channel, so they're dead but not gone.  Good luck.  

[SwanInTheWater]

Hi Rose. I think your daydreaming sounds like a load of fun. I was able to follow what you wrote. I want to give suggestions, but I can't really think of any. I think what I would do is just not have anyone age. Or if you don't mind, maybe everyone could live on a planet (real or imagined) where aging happens very slowly. Or maybe make it so that something happened to cause aging on your planet to slow down, or even stop. 

Right now I am wishing one of my characters were much younger than she is now, but it doesn't feel right for me to go and change the history I created. So I am debating with that a bit. So I can sort of see where you are coming from. 

[Rose]

Hi SwanInTheWater,

I've had a lot of fun, and been my current alter ego since 2003, although back then I was a lot different, had different parents, a different upbringing, and was in a different band. I 'retrograded' my past because some of it didn't suit me any more, and joined a new band in 2004, and I've been with them since. This means my band is nearly 10 years old haha. Like I said before we have the time machine, so if I want to be 12 or 20 year old 'me' I can but it's only allowed to last for a max of 24 hours. We've grown up together, and other characters have came and left, so we always have a lot to talk about and sometimes old friends show up. I find it hard to reconnect with my old bands though, it just feels wrong and like it should be kept in the past, especially because my first band I joined was originally the band fronted by my old alter ego, and I can't go back to old alter egos easily. 

I know what you mean, it's my alter ego's age which annoys me, not so much my band mates. One of them kind of suits the 'old man' look anyway.

Most of my characters left or changed and my alter ego changed every couple of years or so, so after a few years in my current band I thought 'gee, this is going to be weird if I'm still with this band the next 3 years or so...' 

Tell me about your world!

[SwanInTheWater]

Ah, my world. I have two. I guess the more interesting one is the one I have been building for years. It's another world with a lot of fantasy and some magic. Most of it is a nice village like place. There are no chain stores like Barnes and Noble or Starbucks. Every store is a small business, independently owned.  The deeper in the village you go, the more the stores look like quaint little houses. There is a lot of nature, and the nature is very respected.

One part of the world is more urban and it's nicknamed Dreamer' s Paradise. There is a lot of street art, and instead of advertisements on the sides of buses and billboards, there is artwork. There are theaters that only feature classics, and theaters that only feature independent films. There are some bookstores that only sell used books and a bookstore that sells books that have been banned in other worlds. (We don't ban books in this world) It is called the Speakeasy.

There is a school for creative arts and everyone works together in the school, so the students doing photography work with the students who model, and students who play instruments work with students who sing, etc. Every season they put on a show for the whole town.  There are nice places like skating rinks and such in Dreamer' s Paradise. 

In this world, we don't do money, we barter. 

That's the gist of it. 

Rose said:

Hi SwanInTheWater,

I've had a lot of fun, and been my current alter ego since 2003, although back then I was a lot different, had different parents, a different upbringing, and was in a different band. I 'retrograded' my past because some of it didn't suit me any more, and joined a new band in 2004, and I've been with them since. This means my band is nearly 10 years old haha. Like I said before we have the time machine, so if I want to be 12 or 20 year old 'me' I can but it's only allowed to last for a max of 24 hours. We've grown up together, and other characters have came and left, so we always have a lot to talk about and sometimes old friends show up. I find it hard to reconnect with my old bands though, it just feels wrong and like it should be kept in the past, especially because my first band I joined was originally the band fronted by my old alter ego, and I can't go back to old alter egos easily. 

I know what you mean, it's my alter ego's age which annoys me, not so much my band mates. One of them kind of suits the 'old man' look anyway.

Most of my characters left or changed and my alter ego changed every couple of years or so, so after a few years in my current band I thought 'gee, this is going to be weird if I'm still with this band the next 3 years or so...' 

Tell me about your world!