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

[helladoomed]

A hundred miles a day. Damn, kid, I can't run two.

[Smoker's curse. She just leans back, watching the younger girl go rummaging.]

Looking for something?

[fayzedandconfused]

Nope. Just looking.

[ Just being nosy, she means. ]

Can I see your room?

[helladoomed]

Uh. Yeah, sure. [And then, a few seconds later, calling after her.]

Just don't go in my desk drawers or anything.

[fayzedandconfused]

I won't!

[ Well, maybe. She's mostly just looking for decorating ideas, since her own room is still mostly empty. ]

[helladoomed]

[The room isn't really that decorated yet. She's still half-expecting Sarah to want to kick her out. But there's a bed and a messy dresser, a desk with her laptop and some notebooks and art supplies, a couple posters, and a bunch of random Polaroid pictures, all with Max, the most prominent one being this one. There's even one where Chloe is giving her a goofy kiss on the cheek from their reunion.]

[fayzedandconfused]

[ Brianna is thinking about looking in the desk drawers (because why would Chloe tell her not to unless there was something in there?), but then she gets distracted by all the pictures of her and Max. Well... huh. That's... huh. ]

[helladoomed]

[The drawers are mostly joints and cigarettes she keeps accidentally making. Chloe appears at the door a minute or so after Breeze starts snooping, leaning against the frame.]

Not as exciting as you hoped, I bet?

[fayzedandconfused]

[ She spins around and crosses her arms, looking almost guilty. ]

It's okay. You should paint it.

[helladoomed]

Hmm. I don't know. Maybe. It's not really my place, you know? I feel like I'm just borrowing it.

[A guilty look on Breeze, even something only approaching it, was certainly a change.]

What is it?

[fayzedandconfused]

What is what?

[helladoomed]

I know that expression, I wore it for years around my mom. You look like you got caught doing something.

I said you could come in here.

[She shrugs, stepping into the room now, trying to mentally figure out what breeze had been looking at it...then getting a bit side tracked looking at the photos. Oops.]

[fayzedandconfused]

[ She's never been a great liar, so she doesn't bother trying to come up with one. Besides, it's not weird to think it's weird to have about a million pictures of one person all over your wall! It's weird not to think that's weird! Or something! ]

Why are all your pictures of her?

[helladoomed]

[Chloe blinked at that question, then laughed and shrugged.] It's pretty normal to have a bunch of pictures of your girlfriend, kid. Plus, max is a photographer, I basically can't sit still without winding up in a selfie with her.

[She glances around, as if looking for something.]

I have pictures of some of the other people I know here, I just haven't gotten around to doing anything with them. And some pictures from my phone of my mom and junk, need to hang those up too...

[It was easier to hang up pictures from Max since they developed instantly.]

[fayzedandconfused]

Oh.

[ Abort, abort, abort! She steps back, hugging her arms tighter. ]

Yeah, totally.

[helladoomed]

[Another weird reaction.]

...You alright?

[fayzedandconfused]

[ Oh crap don't be weird, Breeze! ]

Yeah, yeah, totally. I didn't know you were, like, dating [ a girl ] anyone. You didn't say anything. So. You should stick some pictures of other people up there, though. You don't want it to be, like, a shrine.

[ Nailed it. ]

[helladoomed]

Hm. [She's not sure she entirely believes that.] Thought I mentioned it. It's not a secret or anything.

[Still, Brianna had a point, and Chloe looked at the wall for a minute before she grinned.]

It is a little creepy, huh. Pictures of other people, check. I just gotta bein' lazy about it.

[fayzedandconfused]

You didn't. Mention it.

[helladoomed]

[She just shrugs again.]

Oops? What's it matter?

[Was that why Breeze was uncomfortable?]

...Do you care, kid?

[fayzedandconfused]

No, I don't care.

[ She's clearly uncomfortable, though. ]

[helladoomed]

...Then what's the matter?

[Chloe's a tiny bit defensive.]

[fayzedandconfused]

Nothing's the matter! I was just asking.

[helladoomed]

[Chloe studies her for a moment before her expression shifts to one of maybe frustration and then she shrugs and turns to exit the room.]

Whatever.

[fayzedandconfused]

[ Breeze follows her out, not sure if she should leave or try to somehow salvage this. ]

[helladoomed]

[Chloe was just annoyed because she knew she couldn't snap at Breeze, but she wanted to. It was obvious (at least to her) that the pictures of her and Max had freaked the girl out. But why? Was it a gay thing, or just a kid thing, or what? If she snapped about the wrong thing...]

[She just sighed to herself as she stopped in the kitchen, resting a hand on the back of the chair Breeze had been sitting in and reaching up to fuss with her beanie for a moment. Okay. Don't be an ass, Chloe.]

Look, whatever. If you have a problem with it or something, I don't...really care. Just. Fuck I don't know.