Narin's Comments

In the deep sea, without a daylight cycle Narin does not know how old she really is. Time went by arbitrarily down in the trenches and so she had no sense of time down there- She just knows that it felt like a long, long time until she finally surfaced. It could have been a couple decades, maybe even a couple centuries that she spent down there. But she doesn't know how long herself.

General timeline: 

First 3 months: Adapting to society, failed shells, learning basic language
Next 2 months: Meeting original Narin, learned most language/conversation/interactions here by imitating Narin and her family's banter and speech patterns
Next 5 months: Running away after learning of real Narin's death, then trying to adapt again to society. Imitating others as well as taking on the personality/name of the Narin she met. At this point she has basic conversation down and is able to retain a job as a barista relatively well (despite occasional missteps in conversations).
Next 2 months: Kept her costs low by sleeping out in the streets, on the beach, or in the staffrooms. Finally saves up enough from her barista job to buy an ice cream shack on the beach from someone who was selling it. Redid the paint job, kept the old name, updated some of the menu items, added more drinks and took over. Slept inside the shack during this time- No worries about body heat melting ice cream since she's cold blooded.
Next 8 months: It's been 1 year since she surfaced. First few months weren't that successful bc early spring/raining often. Ran ice cream shack and started figuring out business, more conversations, met more interesting people. Summer was a huge success because people liked her ice cream flavors, drinks, and the convenient location + people liked talking to Narin apparently. By December, she figured out ice cream and cold drinks alone wasn't going to cut it so she started selling hot chocolate during winter too.
Next 4 months: It's been 2 years since she's surfaced. It's been 1 year since she started the shack. By this time she's mostly figured out the business and has made it past winters. She finally has more money to expand her menu and stable enough of an income to rent a small studio apartment. Cheap one to save money. Starts getting into surfing at the end of this period to pass her free time and also because she sees other people surfing too.
Next 2 years: Mostly uneventful, gets used to life on the beach and gets better at surfing. Redecorated studio and met some new people. Now it's present time.

4 years in total since surfacing, so she says she's 24 to others even though she has a feeling she's way older than that.