maskormenace | 003 - [Video] Happy Birthday, Chloe Price.

[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.]

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Of course you do.

[He smiles faintly, even if she cannot see it.]

Though you like the thrill, don't you? Most are too frightened to push themselves, let alone step over the edge.

Who doesn't like a thrill? Life's boring enough as it is, man.

Oh, it's become something of a dead end for you, then?

Mm.

Not most of the time.

That's nice to hear. Spirited, I dare say.

You know, Ms. Price, plenty of individuals believe life has reached its final end ahead of time. Witnessing you face it head on is quite a beautiful sight.

Well what other choice is there? Be miserable and listless?

I wanna enjoy life.

Well, it's a good way to live, I assure you.

So long as you can confront everything and everyone that comes your way, mind. But I'm certain that's no trouble for you.

So far.

[Not true at all.]

I'm sure I'll bite off more than I can chew eventually.

Just be careful, Ms. Price.

Nobody wants to see you in an early grave.

[Like Jefferson.

But really, child. Drugs blahblah, alcohol blahblah.]

I know my limits.

[No she doesn't not remotely.]

[No she doesn't, indeed.]

Oh, that's what they all say. Then they crawl into lectures and beat themselves over their failing grades. But I'm certain you'll be fine.

Well it's a good thing my job doesnt't start until 11, isn't it.

[So smug.]

Yes, but schedules and deadlines don't seem your style, honestly speaking.

[She shrugs.]

Depends on if I like what I'm doing, I guess.

I was never late to art class.

Art? Ms. Caulfield informed me photography was popular at your school. Did you attend lessons in that particular field, then?

Yeah. I went to the same school for a while, before they kicked me out.

That's unsurprising. You speak with insight about your actions - and the consequences of them.

Eh, I was way too cool for that school anyway.

Dead cool, I'm sure.

Isn't that the word you children use these days?

[He wouldn't know!]

Nooot the word I would've picked, man.

Of course not. Times have moved on since I was at school, evidently.

[Even he's not going to say she's too hip for that!]

Probably wouldn'a used it then either.

[She can't imagine Crane was ever actually cool.]

[Dead cool. He can imagine she was dead at some point.

Funny, that.]

Probably not.

Happy birthday, child.

Edited 2016-03-26 12:59 (UTC)

003 - [Video] Happy Birthday, Chloe Price.

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