003 - [Video] Happy Birthday, Chloe Price.

[helladoomed]

[It's a little after noon when Chloe turns her communicator on. She's sitting on an old white plastic deck chair, and from the look of the buildings behind her, probably on a roof somewhere in Nonah. She's in a worn old white tanktop with a skull on the front, her jeans-covered legs propped up on something, her coat hanging off the back of her chair. She's spent the morning avoiding people, not answering her texts, just...brooding. There's a cigarette between her lips, and she takes a drag off it before she catches it with her other hand, her attention mostly on the phone.]

You ever think about time 'n shit? Like, how it hella doesn't make any sense here? Like, okay, back home, before I wound up here, it was 2013 right? In October.

[She leans back in her chair, resting the phone on her leg, tilted up so all the screen really catches is her face and neck and the clouds.]

Suddenly I'm here, it's three years and a couple months later. Just, wham, welcome to the future except it's a weird fucked up cold war version of the future. And I get like, it's way worse for other people, right? Pulled from other centuries or other fuckin' planets with their own weird-ass calendars but.

Three years.

[She's not even really sure what she's going on about, honestly. She'd been puzzling this over in her head all morning and hadn't gotten anywhere, so maybe she thought rambling out loud would help. It wasn't really working.]

So here we are, right? March 11th, 2016. Shit had gone different, I'd be twenty-two today.

[She hesitates, her gaze distant, up on the clouds as she took another puff off her cigarette.]

Instead, I guess I'm twenty. Sort of. Minus a couple months. Still my birthday though. [And then she smirks, pointing the two fingers holding her cigarette at the sky.] Fuck you, universe. Chloe Price made it to twenty after all.

[She scooped up the phone again, and for a second is framed in the picture again, the camera half-covered by her thumb as she reaches for the disconnect. Her voice is quieter again.]

Didn't see that comin'.

[Click.]

Comments

[fayzedandconfused]

Yeah, and by the time I'm your age, you'll be old.

[ Assuming they're still aging. They're aging, right?? Being 13 forever would suck. ]

Happy birthday, Chlo.

[helladoomed]

Huh. Old Chloe. Weird. Eh, I'll still be cool.

[She snickers.]

Thanks kid. When's yours?

[fayzedandconfused]

December 28th.

[helladoomed]

Oh man. You're gonna be thirteen forever at that rate.

[fayzedandconfused]

Gee, thanks. It's okay, though. I've only been thirteen for a few months.

[helladoomed]

Hopefully you have a better go at that age than I did.

[fayzedandconfused]

[ Let's be real, it can't be any worse than the past year. ]

Why, what happened to you?

[helladoomed]

When I was thirteen?

[Something she tried not to dwell on.]

My dad died. My best friend moved away and stopped talking to me. Oh and my cat died too.

[fayzedandconfused]

... Wow. Shit.

[helladoomed]

Yeah.

Not my best year.

[fayzedandconfused]

Yeah... sorry. I get it.

[ It's an awkward moment for her, though. If she goes into more detail, it's like she's trying to one-up Chloe's shitty luck, or something. But she really does understand what it's like to lose your parents and your friends all at once. ]

[helladoomed]

Anyway. Shitty thing to talk about on my birthday, right?

[fayzedandconfused]

Yeah. So what are you gonna do to celebrate?

[helladoomed]

Dunno.

See if Max wants to do anything. If not I'll figure something out.

[fayzedandconfused]

You gotta go to a restaurant and tell them it's your birthday. Free cake!

[ Priorities, she has them. ]

[helladoomed]

I like the way you think, kid.

Go to a bunch of restaurants, order a glass of water and my free cake.

[fayzedandconfused]

[ Brianna nods excitedly. This is a very, very good plan. In fact, she might have to try and test it out herself. Who cares if it's not actually her birthday? ]

You could get enough slices and then put 'em together to make one giant cake with all the different flavors.

[helladoomed]

I think the restaurants would probably catch on eventually.

It'd probably be easier to just buy a cake.

[fayzedandconfused]

Oh. Yeah...

[ Easier, but a lot less fun. ]

Hours and hours later, text.

[helladoomed]

Hey kid, Alison made me this big cake.

thought of you

Come have some tomorrow alright

text;

[fayzedandconfused]

really???

text;

[helladoomed]

no i'm lying to be mean

yes really

text;

[fayzedandconfused]

okay! thanks!

text;

[helladoomed]

Cool.

just warn me before you come make sure I'm home

action;

[fayzedandconfused]

[ The next afternoon, after a quick text to make sure Chloe's home, Breeze shows up and knocks at the door. As if she would forget to show up for free cake. ]