Line #2 PlayingWith/TimeAbyss


1	'''Basic Trope''': A living individual or an artificial construct older than recorded history.
2	* '''Straight''': Bob the OccultDetective meets Alice the MysteriousWaif who comments on his resemblance to the palace guard chieftain of King Alulim of Ancient Sumer. His investigation eventually uncovers hard evidence of Alice's [[BeenThereShapedHistory presence during the Crucifixion, the Sack of Troy, the Exodus, the Xia dynasty, and the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza]].
3	* '''Exaggerated''': Alice single-handedly witnessed the formation of the universe. Twice. And then some.
4	* '''Downplayed''': Alice is pretty old, and has some very good memory, but she really couldn't tell you anything a knowledgable historian couldn't.
5	* '''Justified''':
6	** Alice is {{immortal\|ity}}.
7	** Alice is {{God}}.
8	** Alice is a [[CosmicEntity Cosmic Entity]].
9	** Alice is an angel.
10	** Alice is a demon.
11	** Alice is an [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abomination]].
12	** Alice is a machine or a MechanicalLifeform that's built to survive for eons and is resistant to extreme conditions, such as heat, freezing cold or the vacuum of space.
13	** Alice lacks a physical form and is unaffected by the laws of physics.
14	** Alice's species is extremely [[LongLived long-lived]].
15	* '''Inverted''': Bob meets Claire who looks like a teenager. It turns out, she ReallyWasBornYesterday, pumped with FakeMemories, and will die of old age before midnight.
16	* '''Subverted''':
17	** Alice laughs it off, explaining that she majored in Ancient History twice, and Paleontology and Geology once each, and that Bob has an [[EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory all-too wild imagination]].
18	** Alice has been around for a hundred thousand years, but was [[HumanPopsicle frozen]] for most of them.
19	** Alternatively, Alice is a time traveler.
20	* '''Double Subverted''':
21	** Well, she ''did'' major in history twice: in 2003 and 1787. Which in no way nullifies her affairs with Khufu and Ajax. And her Paleontology and Geology majors are from the Dinosaur University of Pangaea.
22	** Alice was frozen for most of her existence... [[AndIMustScream but still conscious]].
23	** Alice is a time traveler... who's experienced thousands of years of ''subjective'' time while exploring the past and future.
24	* '''Parodied''':
25	** Alice had a bunch of wacky adventures with almost every famous historical person.
26	** Alternatively, Alice is a slacker, and spent the last million years chilling. She knows very little of history, not much more than the Average Joe would know, because even though she was there, she didn't care.
27	** "Name: Alice* Date of birth: None, predates time *predates last names"
28	** Alice wakes up one morning to cheers and crowds celebrating as Emperor Justinian retakes much of Italy. She then falls asleep, and wakes up when Constantinople is being sacked by the Ottomans. She then wakes up again when the Battle of Gallipoli is heard in the background - and she shrugs it all off.
29	** Alice's vast age is contrasted with a truly grand level of ImmortalImmaturity; mortal Bob still has to essentially babysit her.
30	* '''Zig Zagged''': Alice was a modern teenager who was transported to ancient Sumeria, given an immortality serum, and left to take TheSlowPath through history back to the present day. Then that timeline was erased somehow. Now Alice is a modern teenager again, and she really is 17 years old, but thanks to AppliedPhlebotinum she also remembers her adventures in ancient Sumeria and can draw on her experience as the plot demands.
31	* '''Averted''': All characters have reasonably human lifespans.
32	* '''Enforced''': Alice is introduced solely to [[MrExposition explain historical backgrounds]] to the target audience.
33	* '''Lampshaded''': "You just wait until she claims to be ReallySevenHundredYearsOld, man."
34	* '''Invoked''': "I will be there long after you humans are gone, to tell the future masters of Earth about your fate".
35	* '''Exploited''': ???
36	* '''Defied''': Alice [[WhoWantsToLiveForever gives up her one shot at immortality]] to spend a regular lifetime with her lover.
37	* '''Discussed''': "Have you seen her eyes?" "Yeah, it's like an abyss of time. Creepy."
38	* '''Conversed''': ???
39	* '''Deconstructed''':
40	** Bob attempts to learn even more from Alice but [[GoMadFromTheRevelation her revelations eventually make him crack]].
41	** Alice has seen countless wars, murders, enslavements, dictatorships... One too many, [[BreakTheCutie and she snaps]]. [[DrivenToSuicide Results]] [[DrivenToMadness may]] [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds vary]]...
42	** Alice gets TheFogOfAges.
43	* '''Reconstructed''':
44	** Bob's insanity is just a stepping stone in [[ViralTransformation himself becoming just like Alice]].
45	** No matter what she saw, Alice has proof (Humans Rights, better treatment for diseases, regress of famine...) that no matter what, things [[EarnYourHappyEnding CAN get better]].
46	** Alice's inability to remember everything is treated as a chance for her to make herself anew rather than being weighed down by many millennia worth of memory.
47	* '''Implied''':
48	** Alice remembers all these things, but Bob doesn't believe she was there for any of it. When Bob ends up time travelling to one of the events Alice said she witnessed, Bob thinks he sees her there but he can't be sure.
49	** When someone asks a knowledgeable third party how old Alice is, they simply say "''very'' old" and [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow strongly advise against prying further]].
50	* '''Played For Laughs''': "I had just finished puberty when the moon rose for the first time. But who cares about that? This is my cat, Muffins!"
51	* '''Played For Drama''': Alice is horribly scarred by all the things she has witnessed, and has nightmares about them every night. ''Every night.''
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53	Back to TimeAbyss.
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55	%% Optional items, added after Conversed, at your discretion:
56	%%

Context PlayingWith / TimeAbyss